Star Trek

Yeah . . . that's always going to start these days. Just treat it like a straight character's sexuality: A given unless stated otherwise. Because there will always be people whining about privelige.

I read the third Department of Temporal Investigations tie-in novella (didn't find out it was the third until I read it), and it's very concerned with the stagnancy of the late 24th century. Getting a look at the 32nd gets the characters to think about how maybe the Federation's gotten too careful and complacent.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

So I finished up Season 1 of Deep Space Nine and... it was OK. Not great, but not bad, or and certainly not Fricking God Awful Why Am I Watching This MOTHER OF HEAVEN WHY?! like Season 1 of TNG. The main problem was, much like the first couple seasons of TNG, is that it wasn't sure what it wanted to be. By the end of the season, it had slowly started shifting towards character development and introspection and ongoing plotlines, but it still went through a number of episodes that would have worked perfectly well on TNG and maybe even TOS before getting there.

On top of that, Bashier, while still being likeable and endearing, (not a popular opinion, I know,) is somewhat underdeveloped compared to, say, nearly everyone else on the show, though he's nothing next to Dax. Dax is a total deadweight, and she isn't helped by an actress who, while not bad persay, is still plain mediocre. (Though she slowly gets better as the season goes on, I'll give her that. The actor I mean, not the character, who's still as interesting as wet cardboard.) The worst thing about her is that Dax has a lot of potential as a character, but the writers don't know what to do with it, so she just ends up... there.

To be honest, that's how most of the season feels. The only truly great episode in that entire lot was Duet, and everything else was just the show going through growing pains and trying to find its' feet. There is just so much untapped potential here, but the show still needs to figure out how to draw that potential out. All of that said, I liked Sisko, Kira, Quark, Odo, etc. Most of the characters were great. And of course, Duet was fantastic. I just wish that some of the characters had more development than they did. Here's hoping some of that untapped potential starts getting tapped in Season 2, because if it does, then this could be a truly fantastic show.

Anyhoo, with S1 of DS 9 out of the way, it's time to finish up TNG with S7, but part of me honestly wants to skip it and just keep watching DS 9. Should I just sit down and watch all of S7 anyway, or is it fine if I skip most of the episodes and only watch the important ones? (And if so, what would those important episodes be?) Don't get me wrong; I like TNG, but I kind of just want to move on to DS 9 wholesale already. But I'm willing to go through the entire season if I have to.

edited 14th Aug '16 2:56:59 PM by kkhohoho

Dax gets much better as DS 9 goes on. Jadzia is probably my favorite Trek character, and she starts to really form her personality as the show goes on.

The last season winds up being about the same as the first though, when it comes to Dax. It's a big bummer.

And I'm not as experienced with TNG, so I'm not sure.

I just saw Beyond today and it's certainly the best AOS movie so far, but I didn't love it as much as I was set up to.

One of the highlights was that it managed to make me happy to be reminded that Enterprise exists and occurred before the divergence.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Considering Enterprise's... reputation, should you be happy?

I felt like they incorporated the part of the continuity that Enterprise and just after inhabited in a way that made it feel like a cohesive whole. The NX class. The Xindi War. The Romulan War. It's just part of their history, informing who they are and how they got to now.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Campy Netflix summaries update - First Contact: "The Enterprise crew springs into action when the Borg attack Earth. It's a tie-traveling game of cosmic tag."

Fresh-eyed movie blog

So after deciding to watch all of Season 7 of TNG, I sat down, watched the first half of the season, and eventually got to Homeward.

...

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—

Where do I even begin? When it comes to discussing the Prime Directive, this episode did even more of a bang-up (AKA, bad,) job of it than Who Watchers the Watchers. Basically, the Federation refuses to save an entire culture from certain death purely because doing so would be against the Prime Directive and would result in the contamination of their culture. Even though if they hadn't saved them, there wouldn't even be a culture to contaminate. The episode tries to make a point about how you shouldn't interfere in a culture without considering the consequences, and it initially tries to cast the one guy who actually wants to protect that sort of culture as a well-meaning but interfering antagonist, even though that when a culture's entire safety and livelihood is on the line, this entire line of thinking should become moot.

All of this effectively paints the entire Enterprise crew as uncaring, unfeeling assholes who give more of a damn about the Prime Directive than saving people's lives, while the guy who we're supposed to initially be against ends up being the defacto hero of the piece that we actually root for, if only because he actually puts saving these people over following some outdated bit of Federation dogma. Picard arguably gets hit with this the worst, because by this point in the show, he's become one of the most kind, patient, and understanding members of the cast. He can still become serious and gruff when necessary, but this episode takes that to a whole new level. All of this is almost enough to make me feel like it's Season 1 all over again, which is the worst thing you can say about a TNG episode that's not actually from Season 1.

The only good thing about this is that the episode does come around in the end, with Worf acknowledging that his brother was right in saving these people, and Picard going back to his usual patient and understanding self when talking to the Chronicler. Except that just further damns the episode, because rather than decide to accept his newly expanded existence and try to integrate into this brave new world he's discovered, he instead just can't cope and takes his own life, as if to prove that those inferior, primitive cultures just can't grasp or accommodate themselves into our more advanced, superior, and high and mighty society after all. So while the ending helped to soften the blow that this otherwise abhorrent episode delivered, it's still not enough to redeem it. Honestly, I just want to get back to DS 9 already and see how it tramples the Prime Directive into the ground, because I honestly think it's an unnecessary POS rule that should be used more as a guideline than absolute fact, if at all. Or in other words, BURN IT! BURN THE WITCH! BUUUURN IIIIIT!

edited 19th Aug '16 2:31:58 PM by kkhohoho

Yeah, the prime directive is frustrating. Kirk helps a little person practically overthrow his own society of psychic assholes? A okay. Skip forward a few years, and saving an entire culture is a bad thing to do.

The prime directive is either upheld to ridiculous extents or completely ignored, and it's really annoying. Either uphold it or don't.

It CAN make sense, but not the way they do it. It's really in place to avoid colonialism, captains getting God complexes, and primitive cultures being upended from premature first contact. It makes sense to put it in place for non-dire circumstances. Just not stuff like Homeward. In Homeward they should have come down, been honest, and offered help for those who could handle it.

The PD in the original series was a good thing... a general live-and-let-live policy. Come TNG, it requires downright sociopathic behavior at times.

SPOCK: Captain, it appears that some sort of natural disaster is wrecking havoc on a planet that contains a culture approximately in the middle of its' development period. If we do nothing, they will surely die.

KIRK: We have no choice. Scotty, beam as many as you can up to the ship. It may be... disorienting, for them and us both, but we'll all just have to deal with this situation the best we can.

---

DATA: Sir, it appears that some sort of natural disaster is wrecking havoc on a planet that contains a culture approximately in the middle of its' development period. If we do nothing, they will surely die.

PICARD: We have no choice. Ensign Ro, set engines to Warp 9 and take us out of here.

RO: Sir, with all due respect, you can't be serious.

PICARD: We must uphold the Prime Directive! Now get us out of here or I'll feed you to the wolves.

RO: But, sir, we don't have any wolves—

PICARD: Then I'll feed you to Worf. Crusher, inject him with another sample of that mutated T-Cell will you? That ought to do the trick.

RO: ...If I wasn't about to be eaten alive, I'd ask for a transfer, you sick fucks.

---

Hey, if the show's going to write Picard horribly out of character, then I might as well do the same. Turnabout's fair play and all that.

edited 24th Aug '16 7:21:47 PM by kkhohoho

To be fair they were different times. Until Viet Nam, anti-colonialism wasn't very popular in the public eye. Cue the 80s and 90s and the Down With the Establishment shit has had decades to fester.

TOS has Vietnam allegories though.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Only one, A Private Little War and where the heroes had to admit there was no answer.

Most of the PD eps in TNG, VOY and the genocide ep of Enterprise have the disease of "we know what's right and the villains are EEVIIILLL". As Sf Debris says: "If a toddler is trapped in a burning car, you can't stand on the sidelines as say how moral you are".

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

Most examples of the Prime Directive in TOS was when the Enterprise was already dragged into a bad situation and the option was either "Prime Directive says not to interfere" and "Some of the crew, if not the entire ship, will die."

By the Next Generation era it unfortunately became more of a hindrance to basic humanitarian aid rather than providing guidelines limiting cultural interference. "Who Watches the Watchers?" is a good episode on the kind of problems that could occur from minor exposure (the people had long stopped following a "human"-sacrifice pagan religion, and were tempted to go back after mistaking Picard as an angry deity), while also showing that carefully controlled interactions with lesser cultures is not the end of the world.

"Dear Doctor" I felt was an interesting episode that didn't really take it to the right extremes. Archer ended up upholding the PD even though it hadn't been developed yet. The more interesting development would be to happily give advanced medicine to those people and watch as conflict arises. "Cogenitor" was a better episode for willing to go to those extremes.

"My science says something that's complete bullshit, but I can also fix the bullshit."

"My personal philosophy says something that's also bullshit, therefore I order you to not fix the bullshit."

"But Captain..."

"Leave the bullshit alone. That's an order. And I'm sure one day it will be a law."

"...Aye sir."

Fresh-eyed movie blog

Headcanon: Archer developed the Prime Directive completely to dick over primitive cultures.

My headcannon: Archer made such a mess he was Kicked Upstairs and the PD was made to keep other captains from screwing up.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

The way I see it, the Prime Directive is pretty much an in-universe enforcement of the Rule of Drama, enabling (or rather, forcing) long-winded ethical discussions in place of more interesting action and mystery scenes. Essentially, it works like this:

What is advertised: The Enterprise arrives at an alien planet that's visibly troubled by strange disasters.

What you expect: The crew beams down and starts uncovering the mystery at hand, offering help when needed.

What you get: The crew spends half an hour arguing over whether they even should help because of the Prime Directive, and if they actually do, someone presses a couple of buttons, techs the tech, and all is well. It's like watching the Poochie episode and waiting for the fireworks factory.

Still, this is mainly the TNG model... because TOS generally worked the other way around:

What is advertised: The Enterprise arrives at an alien planet, the society of which functions in a strange yet familiar way.

What you expect: The crew beams down and interacts with the people there, exploring their culture, values, and as a Vulcan would say, their share of infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

What you get: The planet society invariably has a big problem, the landing party is arrested, and then proceeds to escape, tearing apart the local social underpinnings while smugly commenting on their perceived flaws. The Prime Directive is still used, but in the opposite way, so as to cock-block ole J.T. for whatever time it takes to pad the plot.

In general, what annoys me is the hypocrisy of using the Prime Directive as an excuse for not helping those in need, while summarily ignoring it whenever a Starfleet Captain decides to redecorate the galaxy according to personal taste. For all the people of rubber-forehead color in the Federation, they actually don't seem all that open to multiculturalism - just try looking for any conversation involving aliens when their cultural ways weren't invoked as something to be criticized.

---

On a related note, both DS9 and VOY dealt with Federation ideals affecting the crew rather than the throwaway planet of the week. But where DS9 was lauded for allowing some measure of pragmatism in dire times, VOY tried playing the same tune as TNG, all while red shirts kept dying over it. I'd wager VOY wouldn't have earned half as much ire if the Prime Directive wasn't used to prop the all but idiot premise the show hinged on, essentially turning an out-of-universe necessity into an in-universe moral imperative... y'know, when Janeway wasn't off her meds so as to ignore it when drama would've favored that.

All in all, I've developed a surprising and enduring love for Andromeda for ditching the concept entirely. If anything, I find perverse pleasure seeing Gene's name in the title, knowing just how much the series butchers all his sacred cows.

edited 27th Aug '16 9:35:28 AM by indiana404

I don't know, the Betazed and Vulcan cultures don't seem to get criticized too badly. I don't think those cultures have actually been incorporated into the wider culture of the Federation, but they're not really attacked in themselves. And Rizan culture is upheld as a good one too. You get your fringe elements like Tam Elbron and that silly movement from Worf and Jadzia's vacation on Riza, but it's the fringes that get attacked, not the wider cultures.

I think it's a case of an "open" society not getting along with anything less open than itself. If you'll notice, cultures in the show aren't generally attacked and criticized over allowing something. It's usually some element of conservatism that gets attacked. Like Half a Life's suicide clause, or the "outdated morality" of that love situation in The Great Okana. When they run up against a society more open than their own, they're cool with it. Like with that all-blonde free love society from Justice(?). Up until them discovering death was the only penalty, they looked pretty highly on those people. Hell, sometimes they even look down on themselves when they're not as open as other races. Like Beverly's reaction when Odon takes on a female host and tries to continue the relationship.

Which makes me confused about the Trill, come to think of it. Are Trill allowed to pursue the same unjoined person over successive hosts' lifetimes? I know from one episode of DS 9 that Jadzia was not allowed to rekindle flames with a joined Trill Dax knew in a previous life, but twice (Beverly and Odon, Dax and Worf) unjoined people seemed fair game for more than one host. I could write off Beverly as Early-Installment Weirdness, but not Dax and Worf.

I think it's specifically a rule for dating other trill. Their reasoning is that you have to enjoy new things in your other lives, and just constantly hooking up again life after life won't let you experience something new.

Even if Ezri got together with Worf, it wouldn't have the potential to last forever like with Dax and Kahn.

"Reassociation" concerns any joined Trill resuming an intimate relationship with any romantic relation from a previous host; Ezri Dax and Worf would have violated it had they gotten involved, but it never went there. Non-romantic relations were fine, as with Sisko being a good friend to Dax across 3 lifetimes. That is also within character for Dax, as she refused to rekindle a relationship with Kahn on those grounds, so not pursuing Worf made sense.

Ah, okay. So in TNG the Trill situation was either early installment weirdness or a Trill who didn't care if they'd get exiled.