Star Trek

See, it would take far too long to find the original post, but I actually pointed this one out myself sometime back. Don't think we discussed it much. Yeah, the actual culprit for the bomb was never really discussed, though it became moot at that point.

What's really funny about everything with Gowron is how full circle his story ultimately is. Worf puts him on the throne inadvertently, then is the one who dethrones him.

Now, my memory of the incident may be spotty, but did the Enterprise crew not find evidence that the assassination attempt was carried out with the use of Romulan tech? Now, Gowron hates him some Romulans, but Duras, after he died his sisters made a bid for power by allying themselves with the Romulans. So I'm pretty sure that Gowron is innocent of that, if nothing else.

It was Romulan tech, but available/readily identifiable enough that the Enterprise crew was able to positively peg it immediately, suggesting it was either older tech or something that was known/available; and could conceivably wind up in the hands of anyone with sufficient means, not just a Romulan agent. Also remember that at the time that Worf had been discommendated because he faced down the High Council and made an open accusation against the House of Duras as Romulan collaborators: anyone on the High Council at the time would have known that anything Romulan related within the Empire would point towards the House of Duras by default. Gowron (apparently) not knowing the specifics of Worf's discommendation suggests he was not present, but he was in position to make a run at chancellor soon after, at a minimum suggesting he had the connections to gain that information; and he would certainly be willing to use such tactics like framing Duras for an attack, as he proved late in DS 9.

TL;DR, it would not have been difficult for Gowron to arrange an attack that heavily implicated Duras; and he was certainly capable of such tactics, based on what he did to Martok towards the end of the Dominion War.

Edited by ViperMagnum357 on Oct 19th 2018 at 8:02:02 AM

I was watching some first season Next Generation, and I got to that episode with the parasite people, or at least the one that foreshadows their coming. That blue guy who hung around Wesely and got into Starfleet Academy, what was the point of that metal thing he had hovering in front of his mouth? And that guy who investigated Picard and later turns out to have the queen parasite living inside him, had he been compromised by this point, or did that come later? As for the parasite guys, I know they wanted to make them the big bads of Next Gen, but later decided they weren't working and created the Borg instead. Would you have liked to see more of them? Are you glad they're gone? As an avid Stargate fan I have to say, I think these guys inspired the Goa'uld, because they have a very similar MO, though the Goa'uld tend to be more overt in their actions, the parasite controlling a host organism bit is still there, and they have done the undercover bit on numerous occasions.

The Benzite? It was just simply known as 'Respiration device', its something that was dropped in their next appearance in DS 9.

The Bluegill were an interesting enemy but they would have needed a lot of work to make work, like would need as much development and build up as the Changlings in DS 9. Their appearance as basically tools to another race in novels and STO is probably the best they could have done in series proper.

We saw two Benzites in TNG. It was a different character played by the same actor and unfortunately explained as basically "All Benzites look alike to non-Benzites". In one of those two appearances, either Mordock or Mendon is asked about the respirator and he explains that it provides gases that he needs to breathe that aren't in the standard M-class atmosphere.

We saw a Benzite woman on DS 9 who did not have a respirator, but she only had like two lines before she got blown up. But it was several years later and we can assume that medical technology had developed to supplement the appropriate gases without having a big metal thing mounted on your chest.

Edited by TParadox on Oct 23rd 2018 at 10:37:10 AM

There's a new animated Star Trek comedy series in the works.

Edited by WillKeaton on Oct 25th 2018 at 3:35:15 AM

I don't approve of adaptations or tie-ins which try to make the Gorn look cooler or more lizard-like.

...As opposed to the rubber lizard suit from the 60's, or the (horrible) cgi recreation in Enterprise?

Rubber suit or nothing

Seconded

Rubber suit is how they should always look, no matter how good the budget is.

I've heard people claim that the Prometheus (that ship from the Voyager episode "Ship in a Bottle") was the most advanced ship in Starfleet. I've also heard the same thing said about the Enterprise E. I suspect that one was created before the other, then supplanted when that ship launched, but I'm not sure on the chronology.

The Prometheus was an experimental design. The Sovereign Class (not sure why I keep thinking the E was Ambassador class) was vetted for regular duty under NCC registries. The Enterprise might be the Sovereign Class ship with the most advanced equipment, and the Sovereign Class may be the most advanced class in regular duty, but the Prometheus could still be the most advanced experimental ship.

By random rolls (season and episode number chosen at random), I'm watching Destiny, the episode of DS 9 with the Cardassian scientists trying to get a subspace radio signal through the wormhole, and man, we really did not see enough Cardassian civilians.

Edited by TParadox on Oct 29th 2018 at 9:02:41 AM

Prefer the Star Trek Online version of the gorn which merges the Rubber suit design with a more modern detailed design and are able to mix and match◊.

And the Sovereign is more a front line production ship, which had a lot of trouble getting to work, while the Prometheus is a prototype akin to the Defiant.

None of them appear to be top of the line at the end of Voy with them talking about the latest EMH being a Mk 4 during the final season while the Prometheus had a Mk 2 and the Enterprise had a Mk 1.

Edited by Memers on Oct 29th 2018 at 7:55:18 AM

I've been reading some TOS comics. A couple are pretty good, but there are so many and I don't want to read them all.

Interesting examination

I finished The Animated Series, and I thought a lot of it was very good and felt like Star Trek.

Edited by Mullon on Nov 9th 2018 at 11:08:05 AM

Riker turned down a lot of promotions where Starfleet offered him his own ship. Did you ever think that maybe Riker was sitting around waiting for Picard to retire so that he'd be captain of the Enterprise?

I may me misremembering, but in "Samaratan Snare" was Picard not super opposed to Doctor Pulaski performing heart surgery on him? Like, to the point where he'd have preferred basically anyone else do it? Like, it would seem like they had some history together, but earlier that same season, Troi basically said that Picard hadn't made much of an effort to get to know Pulaski very well, and that they had never met prior to her coming aboard the Enterprise.

It wasn't so much about Pulaski doing it as that he wanted not to have the surgery done on the ship so as to avoid word getting around that their captain has an artificial heart that needs periodic replacement.

Which of course was a plan ruined by the surgery going badly enough that the Enterprise was diverted to take an emergency call to have Pulaski save his life.

That said, Picard was somewhat cold toward Pulaski. I don't know if Stewart took it upon himself to try to play some resentment of losing Beverly toward her, but you can read it in looking back. The best example is that in The Child, he's annoyed that she didn't report to him immediately upon arrival, asks the computer where she is, and jumps to some severely unfavorable conclusions when he's informed she went to the ship's bar first, even though she turns out to be consulting a patient.

In the Picard autobiography, Goodman has Picard admit that he spent that year sulking about Beverly leaving and unconsciously sabotaging his professional relationship with Pulaski as a result.

Edited by TParadox on Nov 13th 2018 at 7:15:12 AM

Riker was gun shy about being captain. He got to comfortable being the Number Two to Picard.

Also, Enterprise was where the action was. If he had taken the command offered in "The Icarus Factor", it would have been far, far from were Enterprise was stationed.

Riker wouldn't have been able to live with himself if the Borg has destroyed Enterprise and killed Picard - while he was parsecs away trying to make first contact.

Riker did show he was worthy of the big chair - only for the Borg to smash up most of the fleet.

His loyalty to Picard kept him on Enterprise.

As the Admiral pointed out - Riker staying as first officer to a man like Picard makes him look bad.

If Picard retired, Riker could have been sent to a desk or to the Academy as an instructor. Or to Deep Space Nine.

In Real Life militaries, "Up or Out" is the rule, someone like Riker would have been forced out of the service due to staying in the same position for too long.

Riker did say at several points he hoped to take the Enterprise from Picard eventually. Various alternate timelines even show him as Captain following Picard's promotion or death, and he even bemoaned losing the Enterprise in Generations for that reason.

In reality, the same issue could be said of pretty much the entire main cast of every show except Voyager, the only time Limited Advancement Opportunities were justified. There is something romanticized about a crew becoming a family, which is a side-effect of The Main Characters Do Everything and the natural difference between a series cast member and a guest star. The Grand Finale of TNG even ends on the note that the senior staff are a Family of Choice and can't afford to part ways.

The Original Series cast remained largely intact In-Universe for the better part of 25 years. Sulu taking command of the Excelsior was a dramatic change, partially spurred on by the fact it was the last TOS movie and they wouldn't have to write in a whole other ship into the next plot. Sulu's loyalty to Kirk is in fact implied in the background material as why he didn't get the Excelsior back in the Star Trek II-IV period.

Discovery has an opportunity to avoid that problem because they have made it more of a Lower-Deck Episode focusing on minor crewmen banding together as misfits instead of keeping all the focus on the department heads.

Edited by KJMackley on Nov 14th 2018 at 1:32:00 AM

DS 9 really didn’t shy away from promotions aside from the fact that they originally wanted Sisko to make Admiral or Commodore instead of adding Ross in as a character. The scope of the series was great enough and ranks were low enough that it left room for promotions though.

While it would have made a bit more sense for Sisko to have a rank more befitting his role as of the end of the series as basically the second-in-command of the entire war effort, I thought Admiral Ross made for a good presence in the show. It was nice seeing an actual Reasonable Authority Figure among the Starfleet brass for a change, although he was still far from perfect, as his willingness to be complicit in Section 31's crimes shows.

Edited by HighCrate on Nov 15th 2018 at 7:53:59 AM

Deep Space Nine started everyone off with low ranks because Starfleet expected the station to be a boring assignment in the middle of nowhere. When the wormhole was discovered, they should've gone through the staff and assigned promotions or higher-ranked replacements as appropriate.

Everyone (except Kira) got promoted after a few years of proving they could handle it, but when the war started, they should've been promoted again. Sisko should've been made an admiral, Dax captain of the Defiant, Worf commodore commanding Starfleet operations on the station (or the other way around).

My father hasn't seen much of Deep Space Nine and when I told him Worf's official duty when he transferred was "coordinating Starfleet movement in the sector" and he was made full commander when he took the post, my father said that's a rear admiral's job.

Edited by TParadox on Nov 15th 2018 at 12:22:56 PM