Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

Awhile back I asked for which five non-animated, pre-2000, non-Star Wars movies you'd like to see in a theater again. Well, I'm going to ask again, but with a few changes.


PNQ: If you could see any ten theatrical movies in a theater again, which ones?


You can ask for Star Wars or animated now.

[Nate the Great]

In a Reddit post someone brought up the fact that in A Muppet Family Christmas the Swedish Chef wanted to eat the turkey and Big Bird even though they were sentient. This made me ponder...


PNQ1: In the world of the Muppets, is "Muppet" considered a separate type of species from the ordinary ones? That is, are human-type Muppets considered a different species from ordinary humans?
PNQ2: In most fictional worlds talking animals are considered to have the same rights as people. Is this the case in the world of the Muppets, or does the same hierarchy exist as in the real world (i.e. humans can eat animals whether or not they can talk)?

[Nate the Great]

Today's SF Debris updated review is "Coming of Age" and the following occurs to me...


PNQ: We know that the conspiracy was eventually revealed to be the bluegills, but what if it was Section 31 being sloppy and Starfleet's response was equally sloppy because they didn't have experience in such things?


Think about it for a second. The Sherman's Planet plot was only foiled because the tribbles were there, sheer luck. The Chang plot was only foiled because of Valeris' sloppiness, sheer luck. The E-D's mission was supposed to represent a new era of peace and exploration following the Kllingon treaty, but they still weren't really ready, as Q neatly showed.



Frankly the bluegill stuff should've been returned to after Gene died.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a review of "Civil Defense" and see the scene where Dukat wants to establish a Cardassian presence on the station...


PNQ: Why didn't the Cardassians insist on having an ambassador on the station?


Of course there wouldn't be one at the start. After all they were giving up Bajor as being not worth the fight since there wasn't enough resources left. No wormhole, no center of commerce, just a small Starfleet contingent and a few runabouts helping Bajor rebuild.


But then the wormhole is discovered. DS9 is now much more important. So why no ambassador? They were going to introduce a Romulan recurring character and they would've had much less to do.

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Awhile back I asked for which five non-animated, pre-2000, non-Star Wars movies you'd like to see in a theater again. Well, I'm going to ask again, but with a few changes.


PNQ: If you could see any ten theatrical movies in a theater again, which ones?


You can ask for Star Wars or animated now.

I don't know, but I saw Close Encounters since then and it was worth it. The detail on the mothership on a big screen . . . mmm.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Today's SF Debris updated review is "Coming of Age" and the following occurs to me...


PNQ: We know that the conspiracy was eventually revealed to be the bluegills, but what if it was Section 31 being sloppy and Starfleet's response was equally sloppy because they didn't have experience in such things?


Think about it for a second. The Sherman's Planet plot was only foiled because the tribbles were there, sheer luck. The Chang plot was only foiled because of Valeris' sloppiness, sheer luck. The E-D's mission was supposed to represent a new era of peace and exploration following the Kllingon treaty, but they still weren't really ready, as Q neatly showed.



Frankly the bluegill stuff should've been returned to after Gene died.

Starfleet is never competent nor is it incompetent. It is precisely as sloppy as it needs to be.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a YouTube video involving physics and once again g is approximated as 10 m/s^2...


PNQ: Suppose the science community upon discovering g=9.8 m/s^2 wanted to recalibrate either m or s to make g=10 m/s^2, do you think it would've made more sense to alter m or s? That is, shorten the length of a meter or make a second a bit longer?



We're going to ignore the original origin of a meter as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from a pole to the equator. This presupposes that the circumference of the earth can be measured that precisely to begin with, which is absurd.



As for a second being 1/86,400 of a day, we have to specify which "day" we mean because there are several (sidereal and solar just to name two). Plus the Earth's rotation is slowing down making any such measurement arbitrary anyway.

[Nate the Great]

Worf and O'Brien make a wager with their favorite beverages as the stakes.


PNQ: If you were in a similar situation, what beverage would be your desired wager?


Since I don't drink alcohol my options for "rare and expensive" beverages are rather limited. Probably something like Jones Soda, or maybe a high-class root beer.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: If they had kept the design of the Monster Maroons but colored them like the TOS uniforms, would you have preferred that?


Sample image

[Nate the Great]

So there have been rumors of a LEGO E-D being released this year...


PNQ: Opinions?


I agree with one YouTuber who said that Star Wars' use of greeble makes it fit the LEGO aesthetic better and the E-D would look hideous as LEGO. At least the 1701 has lots of circles that would fit the available LEGO parts as opposed to the E-D's ellipses upon ellipses.

[Nate the Great]

So Huckleberry Finn is the Great American Novel, and I was wondering what the Great Canadian Novel is.



PNQ: Opinions?


Personally I can't help but feel that it's Anne of Green Gables, but there are other opinions out there. One that keeps coming up is The Handmaid's Tale, but I don't think that it's a valid candidate. Just being a bestseller by an author of Nationality X doesn't make a book a "Great Nation X Novel."



Plus I must admit that I think that it takes time to reach the status of the "Great Nation X Novel." For example, we might peg Heidi for Switzerland or Hans Brinker for Holland, but they weren't such at the time. Even Huck Finn and Twain in general took time to reach legendary status.



PNQ: Do you have an opinion on a better "Great American Novel" than Huck Finn?


I can't help but wonder if The Wizard of Oz better fits this role.

[Nate the Great]

So I've watched a lot of Princess Bride reviews lately...


PNQ: So the kiss at the end is said to be even more passionate and pure than the five finalists before it. What do you consider to be the five most passionate and pure kisses in movie or TV history?


I can't help but think of the one at the end of Aladdin, for example.



The Disney Renaissance in general has a lot of good kisses, but I wouldn't want to swamp the list with them.



Lizzy and Darcy at the end of Pride and Prejudice 2005? I'm not sure.


Jo and Professor Bhaer at the end of Little Women 1994, certainly.

[Nate the Great]

Inspired by an SF Debris review...


PNQ: Suppose the Federation of the 25th century decided to make a monument akin to Mount Rushmore, representing six important people from throughout Federation history. Who do you think fits?


I'm going to add restrictions that no more than two of them can be humans and no more than two of them can be Starfleet officers.


Kirk and Sarek are obvious additions, of course. But who else?


You could certainly argue for Worf.



T'Pau? Spock? Data? Doc? Nog?

[NAHTMMM]

Spock, Surak, Zefram Cochrane, Soval's grandmother who did a lot of important stuff we don't know about, Daystrom, and the Tellarite Something-Or-Other who was like a combination of Newton, Salk, and Da Vinci in her impact on science and culture.

[Nate the Great]

Cochrane already has his statues, and he's important to Earth history, not so much Federation history in general.

[Nate the Great]

I suddenly remember T'Pau.

[Nate the Great]

Today I saw a Facebook meme about someone wanting to go back in time to collect all of the G1 Transformers toys...


PNQ: Suppose you could return to your childhood with appropriate money to buy up collectibles from a beloved fandom, which one?


I'm going to specify that the purpose is nostalgia, not reselling "mint" collectibles in the present day. You have to keep this stuff.


Me? A few things come to mind...


1. Star Trek Micro Machines
2. Quite a few Yu-gi-oh cards

3. There are a few Klutz Press books that are hard to find nowadays

[Nate the Great]

On Facebook some people were talking about how Worf's character arc would've been different if K'ehlyr had lived...


PNQ: Opinions?


The implications are staggering. Upon reflection it would've been nice for Worf to kill Duras during a "Redemption" three parter, skipping Toral entirely. Split TNG into the "Duras era" and the "Duras sisters/Sela era".



Plus I have to admit it, the relationships with Troi and Jadzia never made sense to me. Troi was too fragile and Jadzia was too self-centered. If K'ehlyr was a recurring character there would be no Troi romance and Alexander might've actually served a function. Clashing parental strategies and so forth.


She wouldn't have worked as a regular on DS9, but a nice recurring character instead. Maybe she's taken hostage by the Martok changeling. She has another child with Worf, and this time it's a daughter that actually wants to follow the Klingon lifestyle. Tons of potential there!


Another thing to consider is how Alexander would interact with Jake and Nog. There are tons of possible stories there!

[Nate the Great]

On Reddit someone wondered if Jellico was Section 31...


PNQ: Which of the crazy-admiral-of-the-weeks do you think were Section 31?


Here's a basic list and my initial impressions:


* Cartwright. Quite likely, with probable collusion with the Tal Shiar.
* Dougherty. Probably not.
* Haftel. I don't think so, Section 31 knows that Picard would fight any attempt at a race of Soong androids. And to be frank, I would expect Section 31 to recover all of the dead androids Kirk killed in TOS, Data wouldn't be that special.
* Kennelly. Possibly.
* Leyton. No. Taking over Earth and fighting all of the other major Federation powers wouldn't make Earth safe.

* Pressman. Very possible.
* Satie. No.
* Jameson. No.
* Nechayev. No.

[Nate the Great]

Inspired by a Facebook post...


PNQ: What was the real problem with Pulaski?


The post pointed out something that never occurred to me: the Spock/McCoy dynamic would never work because Data can't defend himself like Spock could, or like Tuvok and T'Pol could later. Data has no emotions, he wasn't equipped to banter, throw shade, or make sarcastic quips. Pulaski was hitting someone who couldn't hit back, that was the difference. It turned her into a bully.



The poster also pointed out that even in "The Child" if you looked at Pulaski's scenes where Data and Picard weren't present, she was a good doctor. I say, it doesn't matter because what we remember is her attacking Data. Dismissing Data's opinion of how his own name should be pronounced was enough to sink the character by itself.

[Nate the Great]

In my SF Debris watching I notice that once again Chuck is making man-whore jokes about Riker...


PNQ: Is this justified?


I know a lot of people joke about Riker being Kirk 2.0, but this doesn't really apply. It could be argued that Kirk slept around with women who weren't emotionally mature enough or otherwise weren't a good idea, but in how many cases does this apply to Will? Especially in the free love future imagined by Gene.


Looking through the list of his romantic relationships, my only problems are Ro (while under amnesia) and Soren. Then again, I agree with Phil Farrand that he wouldn't find Soren attractive to begin with.