Star Trek

I'm halfway through the third season of TNG again, and I'm starting to think it was a shame they never found a good way to use Wesley. Sure he was crap in the first two seasons, but in the third season he was starting to fit in as the third science guy along with Data and Geordi.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

Don't worry, I'm sure this series will end with Wesley saving the day.

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

His better episodes focused on what was probably what he needed the most, which was character growth from a child to an adult. Episodes like "Coming of Age," "The Dauphin" and "Samaritan Snare" actually explored the fact that he was young and still figuring himself out, which was further developed in "The First Duty" and "Journey's End." As a regular science crewman he didn't do much except technobabble, although more tolerable than singlehanded save the day antics.

I do recall Gates McFadden said at a convention that she felt Wesley was prophetic, as the 90's was when teenagers became more tech-savvy than a lot of adults.

A lot of the problem with Wesley was that the 60's and 70's sci-fi was when the Baby Boomers were now watching TV so a Kid-Appeal Character was common in movies, TV shows etc.

As SFDebris put it - no one wanted to be "the kid". Everyone wanted to be a member of the crew. Shilling the character and a lot of Informed Ability sank what potential Wesley had.

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

Wesley can't solve everything and save everyone in the current series if Wil Wheaton won't return to play him... or can he?

Is Wesley still magic?

Whatever happened to that?

Oh really when?

So the Holograms on Rios' ship are apparently blatant references to other characters:

• The Doctor is...well the the Doctor.

• The Engineer is so obviously Scotty that I finally started noticing.

• The Hospitality program is Quark.

• No clue who the Helmsman is supposed to be

• And there's still one I'm missing.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 13th 2020 at 11:03:22 AM

One Strip! One Strip!

I dont really get the Hospitality Hologram (Mister Hospitality) and Quark, beyond the broad notes of Hospitality. Like, he's very polite and friendly and doesn't really share any of Quark's traits.

Ian I can roll with, he sounds scottish and the ship's engineer.

Do people still call him "the doctor"? These days I try to refer to him as the EMH to avoid confusion.

He's never been called EMH except in reference to the program. He never takes a personalized name in the official timeline (Joe is the closest we get in the Grand Finale alternate timeline) and so characters only ever call him Doctor. I think that was the one big mistake of Voyager's Grand Finale, just not giving us some closure on things like that. Personal canon was either picking up Dr. Zimmerman or maybe Dr. Lewis so it isn't too on-the-nose. Of course, hologram rights would be closely tied in to the synthetic rights Picard is exploring.

I was thinking a good name for him would be something with the initials EMH.

Elias Mitchell Henrikson?

At first I had thought you meant the other Doctor, because of the accent.

Didn't Agnes say that synths came in pairs? So if Rios' captain killed another synth identical to Soji, wouldn't that mean there's a fourth version of that "model" as well?

I think there's a lot of synths that look like Soji.

Well, like Daj and Soji that is.

So Maddox went to this place, made an entire android race, based off of Data, and sent them out into the world. Right now, we know of Daj, Soji and that one that Rios met (who's name I forgot).

Have I got this, or am I missing anything?

One Strip! One Strip!

I think her name was Flower. And yes, that seems to be the idea. Although I'm curious as to why the synthetics they sent out into the galaxy don't know they are synthetic.

Edited by WillKeaton on Mar 14th 2020 at 6:45:35 AM

No, the man's name was Beautiful Flower, the woman who looked like Soji was named Janna. I'm willing to bet that Maddox created two genders on the planet (in order to pair them off). That was probably his first time sending them out into the world, which didn't work, but then he tried again three years ago with Dahj and Soji, this time making sure that nobody, not even they, knew they were synths.

According to the episode description for tonight's episode, it is "Part 1 of 2." I'm assuming this means this week's and next week's episodes are a two-part season finale?

Yes. This one is a cliffhanger that gets resolved next week.

...

Synths that can do mind melds. The skys the limit now.

OH SHIT! THE ROMULANS WERE RIGHT! FLEEE YOU BASTARDS!!! FLEEEE!!!

Edit:

There's always a fear monger, even among a race that barely understands fear.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 19th 2020 at 7:56:45 AM

One Strip! One Strip!

The Soongh family has some really weird genes given that three generations of Soongh men look exactly like Brent Spiner. Not that I'm complaining, since Spiner is always a joy to watch. That being said, I don't trust Altan. I think that the body he's having Agnes build is going to be trouble.

The eldest Soongh was involved in eugenics research, wasn't he?

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

Yes, although there was no indication he did anything to his own descendants AFAIK. Although I could see that becoming an explanation, it feels like something that doesn't need one. Just leave it as an out-of-universe Casting Gag. We don't need another ham-fisted explanation like Enterprise gave the appearance of TOS Klingons.

I missed the part where that's my problem.

Yeah, the whole "all Soongs look like Brent Spiner" thing has always been the case, so it doesn't really need to be explained.

I kind of feel like Soong having a son is a big retcon.

The synth that let Romulan guy out of his cell, what was her plan exactly? She said she had an immediate need for him, what was it?

Also, that poor fox. Graphic scene of decomposition.