Persistent, Niggling Questions [Archive] - Page 5

Nate the Great

01-17-2022, 04:21 AM

Inspired by Facebook...

PNQ: What Star Trek characters do you think would be worthy of holding Mjolnir?

Needlemouse uses the nine virtues of Odinism as a guideline (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ngmZQc5D1Y&t=1112s): Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity (not just to a romantic partner, but to an ideal or mission), Discipline, Hospitality, Self-Reliance, Industriousness, and Perseverence.

In a general sense I think most Starfleet officers would qualify, but if you increase the level of virtue required you get some interesting thought experiments.

Obvious people who wouldn't qualify:

Any Ferengi. Duh.
A lot of Vulcans, they'd have trouble with Fidelity and Hospitality. And Courage in its truest sense.
Most Romulans and Cardassians. They put too much faith in the state, I think Truth and Honor would be big problems.

Nate the Great

01-17-2022, 10:53 PM

I'm pondering the use of "fidelity" as a quality of a hero or noble warrior.

It derives from the Latin "fidelis", which indicates faithfulness or loyalty. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidelity)

The Wikipedia page also introduces an approach that I hadn't considered, epitomized by the music industries use of "fidelity": "how close does the recording match the original?" That is, "how much do my actions match the intents of the institutions that I believe in?"

It's here that I think we run into a big problem with the concept of Batman handing Mjolnir. His actions may be in the name of the rule of law, but in his heart he acts in the name of what he thinks should be legal or not.

This is something mirrored by Thor at the start of his movie: might makes right, and he has might, so he must be right. A fallacy. This is one of the reasons Captain America can wield the hammer and Iron Man never had a chance.

So Starfleet officers would have to believe in the "gospel" of Starfleet to be worthy of the hammer.

DrWho42

01-27-2022, 09:42 PM

Why won't IKEA ship me the blahaj shark? :confused:

Nate the Great

02-10-2022, 05:36 PM

So I'm watching a review of "The Pegasus" again and the following occurs to me...

PNQ: Even if the Federation doesn't believe in cloaking devices, what about all the other galactic powers?

I mean, surely the Ferengi could've bought or stole cloaking tech by now. The Obsidian Order could've stolen cloaking tech by now (they had an embassy on Romulus, after all). The Breen, the Orion Syndicate, the list goes on and on.

Gene's admonition that Starfleet doesn't sneak around is idealistic but not realistic.

I wish that they had introduced more restrictions on cloaking devices than just "no shields or weapons". The most obvious one that I can think of is "no cloaks while at warp."

Second is "cloaks are so energy-intensive that you can only use it for X minutes." Or to follow up on STVI, say that ships under cloak must be specifically modified to contain all impulse and thruster exhaust until the ship drops cloak. After X minutes the tanks are full and you need to decloak to vent before you can cloak again.

Third is some sort of technobabble to say that cloaking devices put out some form of radiation that Klingons and Romulans can handle just fine, but is cumulatively toxic for all other races. Perhaps when the Romulans gave the tech to the Klingons in the first place they also shared the needed genetic modifications. This would be a good place to explain the Romulan forehead ridges.

Nate the Great

02-13-2022, 08:01 PM

Nate the Great

03-11-2022, 03:28 AM

A comment on a YouTube video of Janeway's cameo in Nemesis...

"I don't want her as guest character-I WANTED A VOYAGER MOVIE."

PNQ: What could've been the plot of a Voyager movie?

Or a DS9 movie, while we're talking about it. Obviously an ENT movie would be our heroes preventing the Klingons or Romulans from interfering with the creation of the Federation, but what about the other two?

I mean, you couldn't have saved arriving home for a Voyager movie, it would've short-changed the TV viewers. And a key problem with Voyager is that there really isn't a reason for the crew to remain together after they get back.

An interesting TV movie would be Voyager returning to the Delta Quadrant ten years later with some sort of Federation-built equivalent to the Borg transwarp conduits and revisit some old friends like Neelix, but you couldn't put that in theaters.

Obviously a DS9 movie would be Sisko returning in time for Bajor to join the Federation. The enemy wouldn't be the Cardassians, it would be the Maquis (I refuse to believe that the Maquis could ever be completely eradicated, they have enough sense to remain decentralized enough to allow for a comeback). But again, TV movie, not theaters.

NAHTMMM

03-15-2022, 02:58 PM

PNQ: What TV show have you seen all (or at least the vast majority of), but now regret wasting your time with?

Every so often I regret watching Love Hina. There are only like three jokes in that show that are repeated over and over.

I know that a lot of early dubbed anime have that problem, but still…

I don’t know how many of you have heard of Kimagure Orange Road. It also had a rather limited premise, but at least it had heart and made you feel for the characters.
Aside from sitting through Disney Afternoon day after day despite not being too fond of several of its cartoons? Nothing really. Slayers was mostly a disappointment, but even it had three or four good episodes in that first season and, like, I get the references in fanworks better now.

Nate the Great

03-17-2022, 01:00 PM

A Reddit post brings up an interesting question: Is it really okay to superglue your LEGO sets together, especially if they're fragile?

I'm conflicted. LEGO is a construction toy, not a model set. The idea of paying that much money only to build a very specific thing and then putting it on a shelf seems...unnatural to me. That's what plastic models are for.

Then again, maybe I'm just an old fogey. I remember when LEGO was the following and nothing else: Castle, Town, Pirate, Space, DUPLO, Technic. That was it. No licensed nonsense, no set-specific pieces. You build, you take it apart, you build again.

Then again, the Reddit post was about LEGO flowers, which are more fragile than the usual creation. As long as you're not filling whole shelves, is it okay to superglue once in awhile?

Nate the Great

03-17-2022, 11:02 PM

We're now two years away from the Bell Riots, and it's sad how close we are to Sanctuary Districts actually happening.

PNQ: What near-future event in Trek are you most scared of and most looking forward to?

Not counting World War III and the first warp flight, of course. I want to stay away from that stuff.

The cure for cancer will be found in this century according to "Fury."
According to "Where No Man..." the genetic potential for ESP will first be quantified.

The ozone layer is said to fail in this century, luckily this seems to have been averted.

"The Slaver Weapons" indicate that the Kzinti wars will also occur in this century, but one has to wonder how a planet that has just invented warp drive can effectively wage an interplanetary war.

Nate the Great

04-07-2022, 02:27 PM

It's been a long-standing question, and today I saw that another YouTube video had been made on the subject:

PNQ: Why didn't Voyager set course for the Gamma Quadrant end of the Bajoran Wormhole? Wouldn't it be a shorter trip?

Well, I have another question...

PNQ: How did they know that they were in the Delta Quadrant in the first place?

Okay, let's handwave that one away, even if it implies that the locations and movements of all major stars in the galaxy have been charted (a dubious claim if you ask me). Voyager disappeared Stardate 48317. While the DS9 crew had heard rumblings of the Dominion, First Contact wasn't really had until "The Jem'Hadar", Stardate 48212. It had only been a month or so! The full picture of the Dominion couldn't have been known, especially the extents of "Dominion Space".

On the other hand, Janeway seemed to know that Borg space was on their present course at one point or another. Did she pick the lesser of two evils? Did she think that it would be easier for Voyager to slip past the Borg unnoticed than to go through the Dominion?

Nate the Great

04-22-2022, 02:17 AM

Courtesy of Facebook...

PNQ: Which actor did the best portrayal of Sherlock Holmes?

I'm not the best judge, as I've never seen a traditional Holmes portrayal. I did enjoy the Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century cartoon and Great Mouse Detective.

I did watch the pilot of the Benedict Cumberbatch version. It was okay, but I wasn't hooked enough to watch any more.

So what do you guys think? I daresay John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone did okay, they're good actors. Did Ian McKellan do a good job in Mr. Holmes?

NAHTMMM

05-02-2022, 03:39 AM

The cure for cancer will be found in this century according to "Fury."
Could happen at the rate we're going.

"The Slaver Weapons" indicate that the Kzinti wars will also occur in this century, but one has to wonder how a planet that has just invented warp drive can effectively wage an interplanetary war.
I bet the Ferengi could collapse your economy at a distance and win the war that way.

Did Ian McKellan do a good job in Mr. Holmes?
He did a very good job.

Nate the Great

06-05-2022, 01:45 AM

I want to keep the Trek retrospectives on the 30th anniversary cycle, but I want to do another show during the summer.

PNQ: Opinions?

I know that I'll have to do Babylon 5 eventually, but I'm not ready for a project of that depth yet. Maybe next year I'll do the pilot movie for the 30th anniversary.

I also plan to eventually do all of Stargate, but that's a big project. Like, REALLY big.

So by process of elimination I'm down to Andromeda, Farscape, and Battlestar Galactica. Of the three I'm most familiar with Andromeda, I watched the first few seasons. I've seen bits and pieces of Farscape, but none of Battlestar Galactica. Which is weird, as my mother enjoyed them a lot (she was the one that introduced me to Trek in the first place).

NAHTMMM

06-05-2022, 10:32 PM

I haven't watched any of those shows beyond a few minutes here and there, so I don't have any opinions.

(I've been very slowly covering nu Doctor Who on my blog, but with so little time and with other creative projects sucking up what little time I have, and having misplaced the current DVD, I'm treading water in S2.)

Zeke

06-06-2022, 12:31 AM

I vote BSG. Your threads come from a perspective of knowing a lot about the show in question -- it would be interesting to see how the exact opposite scenario turns out.

PNQ: Which actor did the best portrayal of Sherlock Holmes?

Oo, how'd I miss this one? I never shut up on this subject. The answer is Jeremy Brett in the Granada TV series. He was <i>born</i> to play Holmes, and he put himself into the role so completely it basically killed him. Amazingly, the whole series is on YouTube, so check it out! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZYsVU2yt4A&list=PLon7SYjpj3O9m9B9CfmzngynafOUDgy9B)

(I do like Cumberbatch, and Downey Jr. for that matter, but they're not really playing the Conan Doyle character.)

Nate the Great

06-06-2022, 02:15 PM

On notalwaysright.com someone mentioned that Bones had almost as many relationships as Kirk...

PNQ: Am I forgetting a lot of his girlfriends?

I can remember Nancy Crater, the one played by Julie Newmar, he tried hitting on Shaw, the one from the amusement park planet, the one from the asteroid ship, that's about it.

Nate the Great

06-17-2022, 03:04 PM

PNQ: Do you think that the Progenitors are the same as the Preservers?

Quick recap. The Progenitors are the aliens from "The Chase", the first sentient race to evolve in the galaxy (or at least the Alpha Quadrant). The Preservers are the aliens from "The Paradise Syndrome", the ones that transplant populations of primitive cultures to other planets to give them a chance to evolve.

A few sources consider them to be the same thing, but I have doubts. The Progenitors were active billions of years ago, and the Preservers were active thousands of years ago.

A few expanded universe sources make them the same thing. My biggest problem is that the Progenitor message clearly indicated that they thought that their race was dying out, hence the need to plant DNA in primordial worlds.

A few people also connect them to the changelings, basically based on the same actress playing the Progenitor hologram and the Female Changeling. What idiots. Trek recycles actors all the time, it doesn't mean anything. Do we have to assume that Pulaski is a descendant of Miranda Jones solely because they share an actress?

Nate the Great

06-29-2022, 03:12 AM

I gave the Jeremy Brett series two episodes to suck me in, and it didn't. Good acting all round, of course, but the problem is that I just don't find Sherlock Holmes particularly interesting. He's stiff, he's smug, he's cold, he's arrogant. And you just can't alter that personality all that much without ceasing to be an authentic Sherlock Holmes.

Nate the Great

07-11-2022, 01:17 PM

So I'm running through a playlist of TNG clips, and I get to the one where Picard owns the Sheliak (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILbLGNDqUxA&list=PLSovVLEiM2jcBmQTuZ7U9uKU7COnj14cr&index=6). I had to wonder...

PNQ: We know the ship is self-cleaning, but how does it actually work?

It's one thing to say that overnight a swarm of robots pop out of a console and clean everything, but there is no "overnight" on a starship. Someone is always on the Bridge, in Engineering, in Ten Forward, etc. Robots would become safety hazards.

Do the transporters routinely sweep these areas and beam away everything that isn't supposed to be there? That seems like a very resource-intensive process, both in terms of energy and computing power.

Nate the Great

07-18-2022, 03:25 AM

A Not Always Right story (https://notalwaysright.com/so-pho-so-crazy/71527/) leads to comments regarding ways to call someone stupid or crazy...

PNQ: What's your favorite version of "a few X short of a Y"?

I'll always remember Stargate's "three fries short of a Happy Meal. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLnDcE9cxL0)"

Nate the Great

08-10-2022, 03:57 PM

Musical Hell reviews the Rex Harrison Doctor Dolittle movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rooWwCVLYzs)

I agree that objectively this is a horrible movie. Pacing problems, structural problems, not very PC, Rex Harrison's limited singing range, all that. However, I'm still fond of this film.

PNQ: What's a movie that you like that is objectively awful?

Of A-movies please. Plenty of brainless horror and action flicks exist, that's the whole point. They're meant to be mental junk food and nothing else. Movies like Doctor Doolittle are trying to be deeper than that.

YouTube playlist of covers of songs from the movie.
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7UuNnvYPeGR2oAm2hel3_LAW1ksWclsY)

Nate the Great

08-23-2022, 11:16 PM

Steve Shives tackles the biggest plot hole in Trek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKgOvmQd6c)

It's a long video, and he covers the relevant portion at the end. You can skip the video anyway, I'll tell you:

How come Kirk and crew wanted to take McCoy (with Spock's katra) to the Genesis Planet? They didn't know that Spock had been rejuvenated. They didn't even know if the body was intact. In fact, given the available information at the time, the logical course of action would be to take McCoy to Vulcan to have the katra extracted and placed in one of the receptacles in Mount Seleya.

Steve theorizes that Kirk is interpreting the words of Spock's katra in McCoy to mean that the Genesis planet is no place to leave the body, it should be buried on Vulcan. I'm dubious at this, why would the Vulcans be more sentimental about bodies than Klingons, who accept that the body is just a shell for the soul which has left to go to Sto'vo'kor or Gre'thor?

Then again, I would expect Starfleet officers to have some sort of request on record regarding cremation, burial location, etc. And Spock would've had a request for disposal on Vulcan on record.

Then again, Spock should've had katra-specific requests on file. Vulcans on their planet, or colonies, or Vulcan-only ships can leave this stuff unsaid because they know what to do, but chances are Spock was always going to die among non-Vulcans.

As for the "biggest plot hole in Star Trek", this one ain't even in the top ten. I'd put "women can't be captains" or "transporters keep working through shields" or "shutting down a frozen holodeck vaporizes everyone inside" way above the Genesis planet conundrum.

Zeke

08-24-2022, 12:01 AM

Wait, what's that last one about shutting down a frozen holodeck?

Nate the Great

08-24-2022, 02:16 AM

In "The Big Goodbye" it's clearly stated that a forced shutdown of the holodeck vaporizes everything inside. I covered this in the retrospective.

WESLEY: I don't know if I should. If this isn't done correctly, the programme could abort and everyone inside could vanish.

Of course this didn't carry on into later appearances of the holodeck, but it DID happen and it's a pretty big plothole. It only exists as a handwave to extend the length of the episode.

Nate the Great

08-31-2022, 12:52 AM

PNQ: What's a BIG fanproject that you'd love to do but know you never will?

I've had bits and pieces of ideas for an Ocarina of Time novelization in my head for years, but I'll never get them put down. There are so many characters that deserve backstories and plot points that I think I could explain, but the project is just too massive.

Nate the Great

09-07-2022, 02:01 AM

PNQ: Where did Yeoman go after TOS?

The Yeoman is a sort of personal assistant/office manager for the captain, so where'd they go? In the TNG era (especially DS9) we've seen assistants to flag officers, but captains would have just as much need for them.

For that matter, all of the department heads among the senior staff should have yeomen in addition to the round-the-clock assistants.

In the novel "The Lost Years" Kevin Riley serves as aide to newly-minted Admiral Kirk, but he was a Lieutenant Commander at the time. Is that a difference between line and flag officers-the former get enlisted assistants and the latter get commissioned assistants?

Nate the Great

09-26-2022, 02:06 AM

There are many SF shows coming up that I want to do retrospectives on. The big question when scheduling is how many I can do in a single season. Each entry is half an hour or an hour when I'm operating off a transcript on a familiar show, but as soon as we move past Trek and Stargate I know I'm going to have to actually watch the episodes, that's a lot more time.

In addition to Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, and Battlestar Galactica, I've also realized that I want to do Andromeda, Seaquest, Farscape, and Quantum Leap.

PNQ: Opinions on proposed schedule before?

22/23-TNG S6, DS9 S1, B5 Pilot Movie
23/24-TNG S7, DS9 S2, TAS S1, DSV S1, B5 Pilot

24/25-DS9 S3, VOY S1, TAS S2, DSV S2, B5 S1
Start Sliders in Fall 2026, Stargate SG-1 in Fall 2027, Quantum Leap and Farscape in Fall 2029, Andromeda in Fall 2030, Enterprise in Fall 2031, Battlestar Galactica in Fall 2033, etc.

(All of these are 30th anniversary except for Quantum Leap which is the 40th anniversary and TAS which is the 50th)

Will we even be here in ten years? Moving BSG up to 2023 for the 20th anniversary instead of the 30th anniversary seems weird.

Four shows at once seems like a lot, even if I can work off scripts for two of them.

Perhaps I should limit the "school year" retrospectives to the space shows and use the summers for the Earth-based shows (ditching the whole anniversary concept in the process and working at my own pace). In that case SG-1 would be next summer, Quantum Leap the summer after, etc.

I'd also like to know what shows you just plain aren't interested in. Why should I go through all this work if nobody's going to read it? Do you only care about Trek and B5? I don't know.

NAHTMMM

10-04-2022, 04:13 PM

Star Trek is honestly the only show I really care about, but I still have a mild interest in Farscape and KJ likes Quantum Leap.

Nate the Great

10-08-2022, 03:00 AM

So I'm in the middle of a SF Debris binge, and the following occurs to me during "Firstborn"...

PNQ: What else could they have done with Alexander?

Far too often Alexander's role is disappointing Worf and refusing to do Klingon stuff. It got old fast. He needed more episodes like "Fistful of Datas".

One thing that comes to mind immediately is how he felt about the Worf/Troi relationship (which I never liked). Or how about him being a role model/mentor for Molly? Did the Roshenkos teach him any Earth sports that he could play with Worf? Baseball doesn't seem like a good fit, but how about rugby or motorcycle racing?

Or what about preparing for Starfleet? Alexander could show that while he doesn't respect Worf's culture, he respects his profession and accomplishments. This would also be a good use for Wesley, turning him into a teacher.

Nate the Great

10-14-2022, 05:02 PM

In watching Obscurus Lupa's review of "Threshold" it occurs to me...

PNQ: Is it really the worst episode of Voyager?

Don't get me wrong, it's bad. Really bad. But the badness is in the premise and complete disregard for logic, not the direction or performances. I'd watch "Threshold" over "Equinox" or "Scorpion" any day.

Nate the Great

10-30-2022, 01:32 AM

The TV Tropes page for "Balance of Terror" says that Kirk's wedding speech is reused for all future weddings in Trek...

PNQ: Is it used anywhere else other than in "Data's Day"?

Was it snuck into Discovery or something?

Zeke

10-30-2022, 01:45 AM

The MemAlpha page for weddings (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Wedding) has some similar-but-not-identical ones. The only one in nuTrek, not yet mentioned there, is the SNW Season 1 finale -- which was literally an alternate version of "Balance of Terror", a well-intended homage with divisive results (for instance, I loved it, Wowbagger hated it).

[ED: A very similar speech was used in the S3 finale of The Orville, too.]

Nate the Great

12-10-2022, 09:55 PM

Now that the original film snippet of "When Love is Gone" from the Muppet Christmas Carol has been found and restored to the master print... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4bbfpODHrU)

PNQ: "When Love is Gone"-essential or sappy tripe worth discarding?

I think it's essential for Scrooge's character arc, how about you?

Nate the Great

01-28-2023, 10:01 PM

Nate the Great

02-03-2023, 03:12 AM

Could someone verify the following TOS example for a TVTropes draft?

"A Running Gag (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RunningGag) Star Trek (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StarTrek), where Bones sneaks Kirk onto the Enterprise by injecting him with an vaccine for a disease, to give him the symptoms. Kirk suffers a reaction to the vaccine, resulting in Bones chasing him around, injecting him with unknown drugs as Kirk tries to save the ship."

Bones would never make anyone sick. The only time I recall Kirk being in command while injured is "Journey to Babel", and Bones was busy with Spock and Sarek at the time, not tending to Kirk.

I'm on thin ice with a few tropers at the moment, and I don't want to make a unilateral edit right now.

NAHTMMM

02-03-2023, 08:10 PM

That's a reference to the 2009 movie. I would consider it less a running gag than an ongoing comic relief thing that happened once and was done.

NAHTMMM

02-03-2023, 08:17 PM

So I'm watching an SF Debris review and I'm reminded of the fact that they were going to kill Kim and not Kes during "Scorpion."

PNQ: What future plot possibilities do you see if Kes had stayed?

I mean, she would've had to have a kid this time around, but she wasn't with Neelix anymore and Tom was with Torres by now. So who? The odds of finding another lost Ocampan colony out here a la "Homestead" seem remote. My mind wanders to Chakotay, that would be an interesting development. I wonder if someone has written that fanfic yet. There's drama to be milked from Janeway losing a man that she cared for to her "daughter."

How would her relationship with Seven go? It stands to reason that she'd be empathetic to Seven's journey to discover her humanity.

Another possibility is how her new dynamic with Neelix would lead to her trying to smooth out some of Neelix's rough edges. You know, at the start she could see no wrong in him, she was so starstruck that she was blind to his faults. But now that she's matured and they're no longer together, she's able to see all of what he is. And relationship or not, there are few people who could make Neelix change as fast as she could.
Interesting ideas, that would be one way to change Neelix's character if the showrunners understood how much people hated him.

I think Chakotay is out of the question. The power and maturity differences are too much. I also can't see him attracted to her that much honestly. Kim would be a match on both counts, but probably a blander relationship to write for.

They could find another Ocampan colony, but the father coming along would mean more money and scenes for yet another character, and a one-and-done romance would be pretty blatantly just to give her a child because they thought she needed one.

Nate the Great

02-03-2023, 08:20 PM

Oh. The link in the example goes straight to the page for the film. This is what we call Failed a Spot Check (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FailedASpotCheck).

I'm still not comfortable calling it just "Star Trek". It has to be Trek '09 or Trek 11 or Abrams Trek or whatever. When's the last time we even used "Star Trek" for the series and not TOS?

Nate the Great

02-11-2023, 04:08 PM

So I'm reading the TV Tropes page Voodoo Shark, and the following issue is brought up that I'm ashamed to admit that I never thought of before...

PNQ: If non-Command officers have to take the Bridge Officer's Test to be eligible to take command, why was Troi in command in "Disaster", anyway?

Especially when "Disaster" was the impetus for the Bridge Officer's Test in the first place.

Like many have said, Troi wasn't ready to take command in "Disaster". Personally I would've put O'Brien in charge, but technically Ro was Command track and a commissioned officer.

A related question is how Pulaski was a full commander. Troi says that you don't have to be a Commander to be chief medical officer, and it doesn't seem like Pulaski had passed the Bridge Officer's Test. She never even seemed to be on the Bridge unless specifically required (unlike Crusher who seemed to like hanging around on the Bridge when things were slow in Sickbay).

Nate the Great

07-01-2023, 11:27 PM

PNG: If you could go back and redo Star Trek V (without Shatner in the director's chair), what kind of plot would you like to see between 4 and 6?

I would've liked a Romulan-centric story, they didn't make enough appearances in the movies. Have a different sort of threat than the Klingons. A conspiracy that forces the Federation into a no-win scenario that Kirk and company find a third option for.

Nate the Great

07-02-2023, 02:32 AM

So apparently the creators have rewritten Trek canon to put the Eugenics Wars into the future and possibly merging it with World War III instead of being in the past...

PNQ: What's the point?

Does anyone REALLY think that Trek takes place in our universe?

Besides, we're on like the third Trek canon at this point (TOS/TAS only, the movie/TNG/DS9/VOY era, and the current century stuff). Even throwing the Kelvinverse out the window, everything else would never fit into one consistent universe.

The Eugenics Wars novels actually make a good point. What with all the time travellers leaving behind advanced tech for the secret governments to find and develop, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that important stuff could happen that won't be fully explained for decades afterwards.

Think about it, the Voyager crew left behind stuff in Los Angeles, the Enterprise crew left behind stuff in San Francisco including a phaser and the formula for transparent aluminum, Gary Seven is running around, etc.

Nate the Great

12-15-2023, 01:52 AM

So I'm rereading the DS9 Retrospective entries and the following occurs to me....

PNQ: Suppose the TNG creative staff never had a movie on the horizon and they wanted to transfer one of the TNG main characters to DS9 instead of O'Brien, which one would be a good idea?

Clearly not Riker. He wouldn't want to be planetside.

Making Riker captain of the Enterprise and moving Picard to DS9 would've been interesting. Not as commander of the station, of course, but as the captain of a dedicated ship that patrols the DMZ, helps with reconstruction efforts on Bajor, etc. A recurring character instead of a regular one. Picard would have a different negotiating style with the Bajorans. Plus having Picard backing one Bajoran faction and Sisko another, with neither side being 'the bad guy", would open up dramatic possibilities.

Troi wouldn't have worked. Garak and Quark would've steamrolled her in no time flat. Plus she couldn't resigned, married Riker, and stayed on the Enterprise as a civilian counsellor.

Worf couldn't have handled DS9 in the chaotic early days.

Geordi was too dedicated to the Enterprise. Scotty's words would've been fresh in his head, he wouldn't leave.

Data would've had an interesting character arc. For five years on the Enterprise he was exposed to the best of humanity, but what if you surround him with Bajorans as role models? Definite dramatic possibilities. His dynamic with Quark and Garak would've been interesting as well.

Beverly...I don't know what to say. She has the chops for the job and would certainly be better than early seasons Bashir. Having her command the Defiant sometimes as well would be awesome.

Nate the Great

12-30-2023, 12:36 AM

Inspired by "I Knew You Were Tribbles When You Dropped In... (http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyMJAL4KPII&list=RD4cCTgRax94o&index=9)"

PNQ: What would you use as the appropriate verb for Tribble movement?

They don't exactly "walk." One of the comments guessed "scuffle", but I'm not sure about that one.

The closest real-world animal motion that I could come up with is snails. Each muscle contracting and extending and acting as a "foot" and "leg" in turn.

The real name for snail movement is "crawling" or "gliding" or "sliding" or "creeping."
(http://https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-called-when-a-snail-moves)

I don't have much problem with "creeping".

When it comes to worms, "crawling" is up there with "squirming" and "wriggling", none of which seem to fit tribbles.

Nate the Great

01-17-2024, 06:44 PM

In STVI the Federation President talks about evacuating Kronos within 50 years....

PNQ: Was Kronos really evacuated to another planet and the Klingons decided to name their new homeworld Kronos, or did the scientists figure out how to save the ozone layer so an evacuation wasn't needed?

Unlike the stupid situation with Vulcan, I can buy that the Klingons would name their new homeworld after the old one. However, the amount of construction that would be required for the new capital (the First City, FYI) to reach its TNG size in only fifty years is absurd, and there are landmarks linked to Kahless in the TNG era that still exist.

Then again, perhaps the planet was evacuated, the atmosphere was "rebooted" by Federation technology toxic to humanoids, and then the Klingons returned when it was safe.

Then again, I'm not sure of the technological level of the age of Kahless. The book implies something akin to the nomadic tribes of Russia in the 19th century with reasonable forging technology. Not much technology is mentioned.

Nate the Great

01-18-2024, 03:03 PM

Inspired by a "First Time Watching" video of Mary Poppins... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z40ng9ES6gY)

During "A Spoonful of Sugar" Mary Poppins talks to a bird singing outside the window...

PNQ: She can talk to animals, does that make her a Disney Princess?

I'll put aside all of the animals in the "Jolly Holiday" segment, they don't count. But she can talk to Andrew the dog.

Nate the Great

01-25-2024, 02:53 PM

It was inevitable that this question would come up eventually...

PNQ: Which Lantern Corps. would you be in?

I took several online quizzes on this subject. They were split 50/50 between Green and Blue, but personally I think Green would fit me better.

Nate the Great

01-25-2024, 04:24 PM

PNQ: What transformative works can really be done with "Steamboat Willie" without infringing on other Disney copyrights?

I've seen a few of the attempts from the last few weeks, and I have yet to see anything that wouldn't already be legal as a parody or transformative work. A few covers of the background music (of which most was "Turkey in the Straw", which was already public domain), but mostly fandubs that include profanity, toilet humor, and other adult content.

It makes you wonder how long it'll be before someone tries to create a new animation using these character models. Especially since Disney would never let them make any money on this stuff past YouTube ad revenue.

Nate the Great

01-26-2024, 06:36 PM

A Facebook meme (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3682212818724010&set=gm.24859721870339290&idorvanity=275841852487300)

Person A connects Sean Astin with Stranger Things
Person B (presumably older) remembers him from Lord of the Rings
Person C (presumably older) remembers him from The Goonies

PNQ: What is Astin's iconic role for you?

I've never seen The Goonies and didn't know that it was a pop culture icon until the current millennium. I remember him from The Brat Patrol (http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDE42dthhoU)!

Nate the Great

01-27-2024, 08:45 PM

So I'm reading a book about the making of TNG and the following occurs to me...

PNQ: In Generations, how would it help Picard if Guinan came along?

A mean, Guinan is not a fighter, and while I have no doubt that she's competent in common civilian Federation tech, the Klingon controls of the probe launcher would be beyond her. So what else is there? Could she stall Soren through talking so he forgot about Picard or the missile?

For that matter, did Soren avoid Guinan because he saw her as a threat, or is it just because he wanted to avoid distractions?

Nate the Great

02-02-2024, 05:41 PM

Inspired by this music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qngo9z2jXvE&list=PL3A40A96F46174EA9&index=63)...

PNQ: Let's say that Deanna was never a romantic option for Will, which "girl of the week" could you see him marrying in the right circumstances?

Let's go with the Memory Alpha list (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/William_T._Riker#Romance) for a larger list that we can trim to get a proper candidate roster...

Beata
I won't count Minuet, that's a special case
Brenna Odell

I won't count Yuta either, murderers don't belong on this list
Lal
Lanel doesn't count, that was coercion
Carmen Davila
Etana Jol doesn't count either
Ro Laren
I'm taking Soren out of contention as well, that's a kettle of fish that I don't care to open
Kamala wasn't really interested in him
He wasn't interested in Amanda Rogers like that, in addition the age difference was too great
Rebecca Smith was a plot device, not a real relationship

So serious candidates are Beata, Brenna, Lal, Carmen, and Laren. Opinions?

Nate the Great

02-13-2024, 12:58 AM

So I'm watching a video where they try to pin a real-world value onto gold-pressed latinum (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSnwRshpDc), and a comment makes me think...

in the context of tng voyager etc the replicated food is stated to not taste as good because it's altered to be healthy which loses taste

PNQ: Did they ever say that?

I'm having trouble accepting this notion. In today's world we know that the technology to make healthy food taste good doesn't work because most of what makes food taste good is either sugar or fat, neither of which are healthy.

Nate the Great

02-25-2024, 08:08 PM

So I'm binging through Trek filk songs and I see a shot of Picard reading a book on Risa...

PNQ: Why would Picard go to Risa in the first place?

I understand that he can't be tagging along on archeological expeditions every time he takes shore leave, but Picard doesn't seem like a lie-on-the-beach-and-get-a-tan type of person.

NAHTMMM

03-08-2024, 12:21 AM

I think that would be from "Captain's Holiday" when the crew made him go on vacation.

Nate the Great

03-08-2024, 01:03 AM

Yeah, but he didn't have to go to Risa. The crew wanted him to go on vacation, but they didn't care where he went.

Nate the Great

04-17-2024, 01:24 PM

This one is straight from Facebook...

PNQ: Are Zorro movies Westerns?

It's an interesting question. What makes a Western a Western? Do they have to be set in the United States? Is there a distinct "era of the cowboy" (quick Googling places the cowboy era at about 1870-1880, and the Zorro stories about 1810-1820)? Or is it a cultural division (Zorro may take place in California, but it was still Spanish and not American)?

I'm not sure.

Nate the Great

04-29-2024, 03:22 PM

So a random clickbait article questions whether Voyager had the best pilot of the Star Trek series...

PNQ: Which pilot is the best?

I'm going to specify pilot, not just "first episode." TOS and TAS had no pilot, that is a specific start-of-the-adventure-set-up-the-status-quo episode.

A key problem for me is whether we treat a pilot as a standalone TV movie or judge it by how much of the stuff established actually continues in the following episode.

Nate the Great

05-09-2024, 04:35 PM

PNQ: If Paramount wanted to do a Kelvin-style reboot of TNG, what kind of plot could they use?

As I think about this question, one problem that comes to mind immediately is that the TNG crew need a lot more setup than the TOS crew. Let's face it, the TOS crew fit quite neatly into archetypes and the TNG crew doesn't. You can watch Wrath of Khan without seeing any other Trek because it doesn't take a long time to explain who these people are. You can't really do that with the TNG crew. Generations needed ample setup from the show to work (and you'll note that Kirk and company really didn't), First Contact needed ample setup from not only TNG but TOS as well, Insurrection was just a supersized episode of the show so it required knowledge of the show, and Nemesis...well, Nemesis tried too hard to get rid of the nuance from the show to be more independent and failed miserably.

Nate the Great

05-11-2024, 11:15 PM

PNQ: We can all admit that "Deep Space Nine" is insultingly Earth-centric, and calling the show "Starbase Whatever" would be boring, so what would you name the station and show?

You certainly couldn't call it Terok Nor, that would be offputting to the casual viewer.

I'd be all for calling the show "Star Trek: Bajor", but you'd still have to call the station something else. It occurs to me that if Kai Opaka died in the pilot you could rename the station after her. Starbase Opaka, so to speak.

Nate the Great

05-11-2024, 11:22 PM

Furthermore the name of the station would've made for an interesting six-parter. The Bajoran factions can't agree on a name and are offended every time the Starfleet crew calls the place Terok Nor. Kai Opaka would make more appearances, "dying" at the end and uniting the factions to agree on Starbase Opaka.

Have I mentioned lately how they tried to cram too much stuff into "Emissary"? Like way way WAY too much? Giving the various plots more room to breathe would've been a big improvement.

Nate the Great

05-14-2024, 03:07 AM

Who does "Captain Kirk" look like in this fanart? (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=7282609138504509&set=a.675175255914630) Cause that's definitely not Captain Kirk.

Of course you could argue the same for Superman and Wonder Woman as well. Only Spock looks like he should.

Nate the Great

05-17-2024, 01:33 PM

Steve Shives made a video pondering which Trek character suffered the most. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2naNxaRkLHg)

PNQ: Opinions?

Traditionally we're supposed to say O'Brien, but he also makes a case for Kirk, Picard, Pike, Rok-Tank, Harry, and Worf.

It really depends on how you define "suffer". Are we considering physical or mental anguish? Are we considering the in-the-moment pain only or considering all of the fallout and recovery as well? Are we treating each instance as of equal suffering, or are we grading considering intensity or duration?

Upon thinking of it, I would put Picard's assimilation at the top. Physical and mental anguish during the assimilation itself, plus the torture of watching the battle of Wolf 359, plus the recovery. As he said in "Family", he fought back with everything he had and it wasn't enough.

If we're considering the character with the most continual back-of-the-mind simmering torture, you could certainly argue Worf.

Most intense, prolonged physical suffering? Probably Harry during his Species 8472 infection.

Nate the Great

05-17-2024, 08:08 PM

We all know that the studio didn't like Number One from "The Cage", but there's still debate on whether it was Barret's performance or the fact that she was Gene's mistress that was the problem.

Today I found an article that says that one problem people had with her was that she was "pushy."

PNQ: Opinions?

This one surprised me. I understand other complaints like "annoying" or "too masculine" or "bad actress", but not "pushy".

I had a screed about how Barret's roles were written vs. her acting talent, but it wasn't really relevant and it was drifting into bashing territory.

Nate the Great

05-23-2024, 02:21 AM

So I'm on a Star Trek clip binge on YouTube and I get to Doc's ECH fantasy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQo0fBzMO8Y)...

PNQ: Would a Vulcan Nerve Pinch really work on a drone?

The basic principle of the VNP is that humanoids have a neural cluster at the base of their necks that can be physically influenced. However, a Borg drone would not rely so much on said neural cluster, most signals would go through their implants.

Maybe I'd buy that a Vulcan can use their touch telepathy through a VNP (Spock was able to communicate with a few aliens at short range without physical contact) to knock out a drone because they can "change the frequency" to make contact, but not a hologram.

Nate the Great

05-23-2024, 02:54 AM

Miles and Keiko get married. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVG0xNk33wQ)

In the comments a lot of people expressed dislike for Keiko...

PNQ: What was wrong with Keiko?

To me Keiko's only mistake was pushing the kelp and seaberries. You just can't expect a man of Mile's age to completely change their diet on a dime.

Maybe these viewers are so fixated on the fairytale version of marriage that they hate anything less.

Or is it something as simple as "why am I watching domestic squabbles when this show is supposed to be an escape from my own domestic squabbles"?

NAHTMMM

05-23-2024, 03:53 PM

Steve Shives made a video pondering which Trek character suffered the most. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2naNxaRkLHg)

PNQ: Opinions?

O'Brien, Worf, Picard would all be viable choices, I agree.

There's also Lazarus from "The Alternative Factor".

Nate the Great

05-25-2024, 12:52 AM

I've ranted about Admiral Morrow saying that the Enterprise is 20 years old when it's really 40 before, but...

PNQ: What do you think should be the design life span of a starship? Of course you'd want them to last awhile, but how long? What's an appropriate balance between having current tech and sticking with a reliable design that's easy to repair?

This also ties into the next question...

PNQ2: We see Excelsior classes all over the place in the 24th century, are they all a hundred years old undergoing regular refits to replace the aging parts? Or is there a shipyard out there that's been cranking them out using an efficient design?

PNQ3: I know that the Enterprise-B variant didn't exist until after TNG, but why did they never appear in DS9 or VOY?

PNQ4: Why did we never see any Ambassador-classes in the DS9 fleets? Was the design of the Enterprise-C so faulty that no amount of redesign would result in a battle-worthy ship?

NAHTMMM

06-03-2024, 01:23 PM

B and C are special guest stars, you don't want to diminish the impact of rewatching the story by having seen ships just like them all over the franchise.

How long a ship's useful lifespan is is going to depend on how fast technology outpaces it and how necessary that new technology is to keep up with demands. You can keep e.g. Warp 7 tech around as long as nobody else can go faster (oversimplifying obviously). But if you come out with a Warp 9 engine and then the Romulans have a Warp 9.5 engine a week later, back to the drawing board. Ideally a ship just won't break down period, but then you get into the efficiency of devoting X more resources into an expected Y increase in lifespan.

Personally I like reliability in cars. I'd rather have a time-tested design with the latest improvements over "the totally redesigned 2024 Whatever" that might take a few years to work all the bugs out of.

Nate the Great

06-03-2024, 07:00 PM

I think you're oversimplifying. The Excelsior wasn't the big dog for very long, but it persisted for decades as a reliable workhorse. And let's be real here, most missions don't need a big dog, they need a reliable workhorse.

I fail to see why the Ambassador couldn't also be a workhorse. We saw other Constitution classes in TOS, they didn't make the Enterprise less special. We saw other Galaxy classes, they didn't make the E-D less special.

Furthermore, you can't throw out entire fleets and replace them with ships with more firepower or warp capability. Technology advances too fast to be able to do that.

Nate the Great

06-06-2024, 08:21 PM

I like watching videos where people watch a classic movie for the first time and react on camera. Anyway, on one such video for The Princess Bride, a commenter said that it should never be remade unless it was done as a spoof by the cast of another franchise, like the Muppets.

PNQ: Do you think a Muppet Princess Bride would work?

Miss Piggy would certainly put her own spin on the role of Buttercup. Gonzo would be Inigo, of course, with Rizzo pretending to be a giant. Statler and Waldorf would be Miracle Max and his brother, etc.

The framing device with Kermit and Robin would have to be tweaked a bit to fit the uncle/nephew relationship, but it could be done.

Nate the Great

06-17-2024, 03:13 AM

So I saw another article bashing George Lazenby as James Bond...

PNQ: Was he really that bad?

It's been awhile since I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but I remember it being okay. Not one of the best, but certainly not one of the worst either (Moore certainly put out clunkers worse than OHMSS).

In fact, I think most of the trouble comes back to a perennial problem: the creators wanted to cover their butts by telling Lazenby to perform like Connery performing Bond, not how HE would perform bond. And Lazenby was never going to be a good Sean Connery.

(And yes, Lazenby saying "This never happened to the other fellow" was profoundly stupid, but that's the writer's mistake, not his)

Nate the Great

06-17-2024, 01:43 PM

Someone on Facebook thinks that "Gul" is Dukat's actual first name...

PNQ: How come the writers never gave Dukat a first name in the show?

The closest we ever got was when he identified himself to the computer in "A Time to Stand" as "Dukat, S.G." Who knows if "S.G." are initials for his name or some kind of military rank or award?

I use "Skrain" as his first name since that's the one given in "A Stitch in Time" (FYI, his father, the one that Garak killed, is Procal).

You'd think that it would've come up during a conversation between Dukat and Damar (whose first name is Corat, FYI).

It's really quite annoying when lazy writers only give side characters one name.

Nate the Great

06-27-2024, 09:04 PM

So I just read an article saying that it was Mulgrew who torpedoed the Janeway/Chakotay romance...

PNQ: Would this have really worked?

Upon reflecting on it for a bit, I don't think it had any chance of working. Chakotay did a good job of playing a role that would attract her, but it wasn't feasible in the long term. For Janeway to be able to truly connect with him she would have to willingly remove her armor, and I don't think she's capable of that while commanding a ship.

Nate the Great

07-09-2024, 11:19 PM

So Kirk said that there were only twelve ships like the Enterprise in the fleet. Most people (including me) think that this means only twelve Constitution-class, but today on Facebook someone suggested an alternative interpretation. What if the Enterprise and the others of the twelve have special equipment that generic Constitution-classes don't?

Of course if you're going to stretch that much the skies the limit...
* There are only twelve joint Starfleet/UESPA ships.
* Only the twelve are the third-model Constitution-class (first model being what April used, second being that Discovery/SNW nonsense).
* There are twelve that are called Enterprise of different classes.
* The twelve are the ships that Kirk has served on.
* Only twelve have Scotty modifications.

Etc. Etc.

Nate the Great

07-19-2024, 05:29 PM

A size comparison of movie monsters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwulVT3fKO4)

Which led me to wonder...

PNQ: What is a uniform definition of "monster"?

1. Are all magical creatures "monsters"?
2. Are all aliens "monsters"?
3. Re: Joker and Voldemort: does a human have to have magical powers to be a "monster"? While I have no problem calling the Joker a monster in a figurative sense, he certainly isn't one in a literal sense (unless he's juiced up on Titan or Venom, of course).
4. Can Transformers really be called "monsters?"

Personally I think at bare minimum a monster has to be organic and of this Earth. I also think that anything with continual access to magic should be pushed into the "demon" category rather than monsters (with vampires possibly getting a grandfather clause). Just being created by magic (like a lot of Power Rangers baddies) is okay for "monster."

Nate the Great

08-06-2024, 04:43 PM

So we know that Klingons have red blood except in STVI when it was that ugly Pepto-Bismol stuff...

PNQ: If they had known back in the TOS days that eventually they'd need Klingon blood to be a color other than red, what color do you think it should have been?

Personally I think black would've been a great option.

To me yellow is more of an insect/shellfish color. Perhaps one of the Xindi races.

Blue of course is for Andorians. Orange for Tellarites.

Nate the Great

08-20-2024, 02:26 PM

So my mind was wandering and the following occurred to me...

PNQ: We know that the four big romances of Kirk's life are Carol Marcus, Miramanee, Edith Keeler, and Antonia, but who's fifth?

If we go by dialogue alone I think it was supposed to be Janice Lester, but I just don't buy it. Rayna Kapec is another obvious candidate, but I just don't see Kirk falling in love that deeply that fast. If push came to shove I'd almost pick Areel Shaw if only because she seemed strong enough to fight for a more equal balance of power in the relationship. As Meridian Chase says in Batman Forever, "You like strong women. I've done my homework."

Nate the Great

08-23-2024, 10:22 PM

So I'm watching TWOK again on YouTube...

PNQ: What differences can you see between Alley's and Curtis' portrayals of Saavik?

For instance, in the novels Saavik is half-Romulan, having a harsh childhood before being rescued by Spock and sponsored for Starfleet. This is plausible for Alley's Saavik, not so much for Curtis who seems to be 100% Vulcan.

Then there's the novelizations which state that Saavik had started a sexual relationship with David Marcus during the preparations for the Genesis expedition. Again, this would fit Alley's Saavik but not Curtis'.

Then there's Saavik's marriage with Spock and her other miscellaneous 24th century exploits in the novels. This time the Curtis Saavik is a better fit.

Personally I wish Saavik's Romulan heritage was made more explicit, since Saavik in TWOK is simply too emotional to be a Vulcan that Spock would respect. But what about you guys?

Nate the Great

09-03-2024, 02:21 AM

According to Facebook today is Keanu Reeves' 60th birthday...

PNQ: Favorite Reeve's role?

I never watched Bill and Ted, or the Matrix movies, or John Wick, so I'm sort of limited to two: Much Ado About Nothing and Babes in Toyland. I suppose he did a better job in Much Ado, for Babes he was still too young.

NAHTMMM

09-05-2024, 03:06 PM

Nate the Great

09-07-2024, 10:17 PM

Today on Reddit I found an interesting fan theory to explain how the NX-01 could be called Enterprise without messing up prior continuity...

In the timeline before the Borg or E-E went back in time, the NX-01 was not the Enterprise because there'd be no reason to use the name, it wasn't that special. So Dulmer and Lucsly were right in saying six Enterprises.

But then the crew of the E-E introduced Cochrane and Lily to the idea of a "starship Enterprise". So in the Post-First Contact timeline they decided to use the name for the NX-01.

Have I mentioned lately how the Mirror Universe exists because Beverly's attempts to wipe Cochrane and Lily's memories of the Borg and TNG crew failed and he flipped a coin?

Nate the Great

09-08-2024, 11:37 PM

PNQ: If you could wish for a Trek show to magically appear with age and time appropriate cast and crew, what would it be?

Let me give an example to clarify. Back in the '90s they were thinking of doing an Excelsior show with Takei, etc. So we'd be using Takei as he was in the early '90s, the established creative staff as they were in the early '90s, etc.

Or would you want to see the intended Phase II show, without Spock and with Decker and Ilia filling the proto-Riker and proto-Troi roles in the early '80s?

Do you think a TOS Season Four could've maintained the appropriate quality (if the budget went up from Season Two)?

Do you think Enterprise would've improved if they had a Season Five?

How about a post-Voyager show where they go back to the Delta Quadrant using some form of slipstream drive? Keep some of the Voyager cast but introduce new people, visit with Voyager guest stars, etc.? Neelix would just be a guest star, probably Chakotay would be replaced with a new guy who keeps Janeway on a leash, etc.

Nate the Great

09-09-2024, 02:42 PM

Inspired by Facebook...

PNQ: If the captain and first officer died at the same time and you had to promote the next most senior officer to be captain, which one would do the best job in the long term?

The Facebook post automatically jumped to Tuvok as the obvious choice, but I'd like to discuss the others: Scotty, Data (or would it be Crusher?), Dax, and Trip.

Personally I would go Beverly. Scotty has proven himself in a pinch but would never be happy in the big chair long term. Data as he was in TNG just wasn't ready yet (and they really should've expanded his role in Redemption Part Two-why was that just a two-parter again?). Jadzia proved herself in the Dominion War on a temporary basis, but would she be able to handle it long term? And Trip...was he ever in command? I don't remember (then again, I don't think I watched any of Season Four except for that stupid finale).

Nate the Great

09-09-2024, 04:41 PM

So Paramount is putting the pilots of the shows up for free on their YouTube channel, no doubt to drum up interest for Paramount Plus...

PNQ: Is "The Cage" the best choice to entice people who have never seen TOS to their service?

Not that it's a bad episode, but let's face it, this episode couldn't sell Star Trek to the networks, only the potential of a show. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" did a much better job, and if we're allowed to go beyond the pilots into any early episode, "Balance of Terror" is exciting and still shows the heart of the Trek ideal.

I won't even get into the differences between TOS Pike and SNW Pike, mainly because I don't know what they are. I know that I'll have to watch SNW one of these days, but I won't have the chance for a long time.

Nate the Great

09-09-2024, 09:23 PM

James Earl Jones died today, so it's time to ask the usual favorite role question. And just for variety's sake, Darth Vader is off the table.

Probably Mufasa for me. But if we want to get more obscure there's always The Sandlot and Field of Dreams. I haven't seen either since my childhood but you can't say he didn't give memorable performances.

Nate the Great

09-10-2024, 03:14 PM

PNQ: How often has there been a justifiable reason for the holodeck safeties to be turned off?

From an in-universe standpoint, of course. All I can think of is Data's Borg program in Descent. It's a foolhardy and dubious reason, but there was a reason.

Nate the Great

09-11-2024, 08:52 AM

An article asking whether or not Seven saved the show. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/did-seven-of-nine-really-save-star-trek-voyager/ar-AA1q4OIK?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=6f5d0aa58d294856978f6b10b561e191&ei=9)

My biggest problem is the rather harsh Kes bashing...

PNQ: Was Kes really "a terrible character, saddled with an actress who didn't have the charisma needed to curry an audience and a fairly one-note character who was more trouble than she was worth"?

This surprised me. I liked Kes. The writing around Neelix and the love triangle with Tom was subpar, but that doesn't reflect on Lien's performance.

Nate the Great

09-16-2024, 07:14 PM

Inspired by a YouTube video...

PNQ: Why was the Enterprise-A decommissioned after only seven years?

That's right, STIV was 2286, and STVII was 2293.

The simplest explanation of course is that the E-A was merely one of the older Constitution-II ships that was renamed to give to Kirk. The book Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise says that this happened to the Ti-Ho. Roddenberry suggested that it was the Yorktown which we saw damaged during the whale probe crisis. If this is true it could mean that the E-A had simply gotten too old to be considered for active duty anymore. Presumably all of the gremlins in the Excelsior had been rooted out by Sulu and Starfleet felt the design was ready for the flagship spotlight.

The Shatnerverse novels are a completely different timeline, of course, but there the E-A is decommissioned by one of Kirk's old rivals out of spite and scheduled to be destroyed in a weapons test. The E-A is later destroyed defending a planet.

The comics reveal that the E-A ended up in the fleet museum and Scotty visited it.

But what do you think?

Nate the Great

09-21-2024, 02:31 PM

Courtesy of a Facebook post...

Someone had a theory that Nick Locarno was Tom Paris, he just went to the Academy under a pseudonym so he doesn't get preferential treatment for being Admiral Paris' son...

PNQ: Opinions?

Personally I hate it. Even in Tom's introduction we are given sufficient details to know that they're different. Furthermore I just can't reconcile the idea that Nick did what he did in an effort to impress his father, it was simple arrogance and wanting to go out in a blaze of glory. Tom would never deliberately pilot in a dangerous manner if it could put other people at risk.

Nate the Great

09-21-2024, 02:47 PM

Thinking about Tom Paris another question occurs to me...

PNQ: Why is there a Federation Naval Patrol in the first place?

Wouldn't that be under the purview of the individual planetary governments?

Nate the Great

10-28-2024, 11:43 AM

PNQ: Why did the Bajorans choose to apply the name "Prophets" to the wormhole aliens?

After all, generally speaking prophets speak for gods, they aren't actually gods themselves. Sisko better fits the definition of "prophet", doesn't he?

Nate the Great

11-02-2024, 01:46 PM

I just saw another image of the NX-01 with the added stardrive section...

PNQ: How does that make sense?

The ship was designed based on the center of gravity being in a certain place, the warp and shield bubbles being of a certain shape and size, etc. Adding a stardrive would muck up all of these factors and yield a less efficient ship, wouldn't it?

Nate the Great

11-18-2024, 01:35 PM

So I'm watching the SF Debris review of "Indiscretion" again, and Chuck notes that Bajor is stronger and united since the end of the Occupation...

PNQ: When did that happen?

It's hammered into our heads over and over throughout the series that it's a provisional government. Something that's supposed to be temporary as the people pull themselves together and sort out what they want the real government to be.

Sure, Bajor's economy has been strengthened by the wormhole, but that doesn't equate to the people as a whole. We saw what amounted to a civil war at the start of Season Two, that doesn't seem "united" to me.

Somehow we're supposed to believe that Shakaar taking over fixed everything, but it really didn't. And all of a sudden Bashir is about to join the Federation, when did they get ready for that?

Frankly there should've been an official announcement that there's a new constitution and that the government is no longer "provisional", then an announcement that Bajor will enter a one year transitional period to join the Federation, then Sisko and the Prophets telling them that it's not time yet. Then a new civil war between those who believe Sisko and those who think he's a false Emissary. Then when the war is over the Prophets say that Bajor can join the Federation.

Nate the Great

11-29-2024, 01:03 AM

It's days like today that I'm reassured that I'm not the most obsessed Trekkie in existence. On Reddit someone asked how Harry Kim can have his own quarters when it was clearly stated in "Lower Decks" that ensigns have to share quarters.

PNQ: Opinions?

This particular nit never occurred to me. And now that it has I'm willing to explain it with "ensigns who are senior officers are exceptions to the rule."

Then again, having Harry and Tom be roommates would've introduced some interesting subplots.

For that matter, having a bunch of the quarters being damaged by the Caretaker wave and forcing everyone except Janeway to have roommates also would've introduced interesting subplots for the first few years.

Nate the Great

12-01-2024, 05:50 PM

Nate the Great

12-01-2024, 08:17 PM

So I see that another YouTube video has been made with the premise of "which is the best Star Trek captain", and once again I ask myself...

PNQ: How do you define the best Starfleet captain?

I'm sure at least some of you have heard the fandom expression "you bring Picard to win a negotiation, Kirk to win a battle, and Sisko to win a war." But note that these require different skillsets, ones that can't be overlapped altogether. There will always be deficiencies.

There are situations where I'd want Janeway to be in command, others for Spock or Kira or Maxwell or freaking Matt Decker! But which would be above competent for any possible mission?

Feet to the fire, I'd choose Kirk if I had the guarantee that Spock would be right there beside him. As a team they're more versatile than any of the other captain/first officer teams in my opinion.

NAHTMMM

12-09-2024, 04:10 PM

So I'm watching a Trek clip where a character's luggage consists of a single hexagonal box the size of a duffel bag (I think we saw it on screen in that binary number episode). The only actual luggage we see is one uniform and a PADD...

PNQ: What is realistic luggage for a junior officer on a starship?

It occurs to me that the uniform is unnecessary, the replicator can make a new one and your precise measurements would be part of your computer profile that follows you as you transfer ship to ship (replicator presets, preferred decorations, etc.). And let's assume that you only need one PADD that is only used as a netbook equivalent: most of it is just an Internet access device, very little onboard storage required.

So what else? Presumably any religious or cultural decorations would be shipped via cargo pod and beamed into your quarters. Maybe I could understand taking one physical book with you in your luggage, but no more. A small selection of nonreplicable snacks? I don't know.

How much gold pressed latinum would a junior officer be expected to carry with them? For that matter...

PNQ: If uniforms don't have pockets, how do Starfleet officers carry their latinum?

I mean, do Ferengi only insist on hard currency for transactions with other Ferengi? How often did we see Starfleet officers on DS9 handle latinum, other than Dax during Dabo games, of course.

I think some decorations would be more than decorations. Something your parents gave you before you shipped out. A delicate statuette that you don't trust anyone but yourself to carry. It's interesting to consider how people might treat unique items in a world where anyone can just replicate an exact Mona Lisa.

The uniforms could also be designed to be "broken in" like a baseball glove. I think they're supposed to keep you warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot, while looking like fabric you'd wear today, so we're clearly into technology indistinguishable from magic. We can't say how such technology would be implemented. Maybe the fabric adapts to your specific body temperature over time, to optimize comfort. Might simply need to be worn for a while to get microscopic burrs to either close on each other or get abraded off. I don't know.

NAHTMMM

12-09-2024, 04:15 PM

As for captains, allowing for the era in which they were written, I take Kirk as the best. As one of the fivers says, it's a law of the universe that it's impossible for him to lose. ;)

But eras really play a factor, both in our world and in the Trek universe. What was expected of a captain, what training and technology were available, what TV viewers expected of a great leader. Picard may be a better captain than Kirk in the same way that a decent major league batter today is better than Babe Ruth, but is that really the answer we're looking for? A general today has access to far more training, theory, and technology than Alexander the Great ever did, but only one of the two will be remembered by history. And as you say, it's also about personal preferences.

Nate the Great

12-19-2024, 02:54 AM

Lately I've been watching reviews of The Muppet Christmas Carol, and I keep finding people who think that it's the best version of the story in general...

PNQ: Seriously?

I'm sorry, but as much as I love MCC, it leaves too much out to be called definitive, particularly from Scrooge's past. Furthermore his characterization was completely mishandled. In MCC he was always a little jerk, to the point where you wonder how Belle fell in love with him in the first place. In the original story he was a good man who loved his sister, but after she dies in childbirth and he loses the woman he loves and even his only friend, he falls into the black hole of cynicism and distrust. He doesn't collect money to be rich, he collects money to never be poor again.

Nate the Great

12-23-2024, 01:31 AM

Nate the Great

12-27-2024, 03:54 PM

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

01-04-2025, 05:14 PM

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

01-10-2025, 08:19 PM

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

01-22-2025, 02:22 PM

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.

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

01-27-2025, 04:58 PM

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

02-10-2025, 02:38 AM

Worf and O'Brien make a wager with their favorite beverages as the stakes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Za-CpEincM&list=PL66277669B03474B1&index=37)

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

02-13-2025, 03:27 PM

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 (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122142994568388052&set=a.122095206836388052)

Nate the Great

02-17-2025, 07:14 PM

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

02-25-2025, 09:33 PM

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

02-28-2025, 03:58 AM

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

03-10-2025, 08:30 PM

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

03-17-2025, 08:21 PM

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

03-17-2025, 08:29 PM

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

Nate the Great

03-20-2025, 01:00 AM

I suddenly remember T'Pau.

Nate the Great

03-27-2025, 09:43 PM

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

03-28-2025, 03:39 AM

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

03-29-2025, 07:48 PM

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

05-14-2025, 10:15 AM

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

05-14-2025, 02:11 PM

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.

Nate the Great

05-19-2025, 10:57 PM

Today I got my first "you've been selected to be included in our Who's Who book!" spam/phishing email.

PNQ: Seriously, how are these companies still making money and why aren't the laws stricter about penalizing them?

Nate the Great

05-21-2025, 07:28 PM

Someone on Facebook complained that we saw the Delaney Sisters onscreen, saying that they were more interesting when we just heard about them secondhand...

PNQ: Opinions?

I think the Facebook poster is a little uptight. The Delaney Sisters weren't built up to the point where any performance would be a letdown, like Norm's wife Vera (odd that this is the same day as the George Wendt post, huh?) or Maris on Frasier. They were only mentioned previously in the episode "Time and Again" when Tom was trying to set up a double date. Their only subsequent mention was in "Muse".

Where they seriously dropped the ball is not showing the Delaney Sisters MORE. Harry giving up on Libby deserved more mentions, and eventually deciding to start dating again would've made a nice subplot. Then again, this subplot would've needed more Paris appearances, and between Kes and Torres he was kept pretty busy.

Nate the Great

05-24-2025, 10:08 AM

On Reddit I saw a meme image of Siskos statue on Bajor with DS9 in one hand and the Defiant in the other…

PNQ: Why the Defiant? Wouldn’t an Orb case be more appropriate?

Nate the Great

05-24-2025, 05:16 PM

This comes from an Adam Savage YouTube video where he addresses the question...

PNQ: Are the titles "scientist" and "engineer" dependent on having a degree, or can they be self-applied?

Personally I feel that occupation titles like this don't depend on having a specific degree, they depend on something more fundamental: are you being paid to do the work of a scientist, engineer, etc.?

Nate the Great

05-27-2025, 08:39 PM

Since there seems to be a rash of Facebook images of random fictional characters as Hogwarts students...

PNQ: What Trek main characters would you put in each House?

As a primer for those less familiar with Harry Potter (like me)...

Gryffindor: Known for bravery, courage, nerve, and chivalry.

Hufflepuff: Valued for hard work, loyalty, patience, and fairness.

Ravenclaw: Known for intelligence, learning, wisdom, and wit.

Slytherin: Associated with ambition, cunning, resourcefulness, and leadership.

I'll start with TOS...

Grypphindor: Kirk, McCoy, Sulu
Hufflepuff: Scotty, Chekov
Ravenclaw: Spock, Uhura
Slytherin:

Opinions? It's interesting that if I have to put SOMEONE in Slytherin, it would be Sisko and Janeway.

Zeke

05-30-2025, 02:18 AM

On Reddit I saw a meme image of Siskos statue on Bajor with DS9 in one hand and the Defiant in the other…

PNQ: Why the Defiant? Wouldn’t an Orb case be more appropriate?

The real question is, why put DS9 in his hand when it should clearly be on his head?

Nate the Great

06-11-2025, 03:38 PM

Inspired by a Facebook post...

PNQ: What character from the episode "Lower Decks" would've worked best as a main character in Voyager, like some of the rumors said?

Exclude Taurik/Vorik, of course.

I liked Ogawa, but Kes and Doc had the medical aspect locked down. Sure, Ogawa would've been useful as a recurring character but would the actress have agreed to continue for seven more years as only a recurring character?

Lavelle and Paris would've been redundant. Then again, it would've been a useful growing experience for Tom to see the younger, more immature version of himself.

Ben and Neelix wouldn't have meshed well, plus I'm sure Voyager is too small to need a waiter. Then again, it would've been interesting to see the perspective of a non-Starfleet Federation citizen. Would the Maquis have tried to sway him, would the memory of Sito have colored his opinion?

Sito would've been very useful. How betrayed would she feel learning that Seska was really a Cardassian?

Nate the Great

06-24-2025, 11:30 PM

Inspired by a Reddit post...

PNQ: If you were being shot by many phasers set on stun simultaneously, how many would it take to be lethal?

The Undiscovered Country says that a phaser on stun at close range can kill, but I'm talking normal phaser range, say a dozen feet.

It stands to reason that phaser power dissipates with distance, but how fast?

My gut says about a dozen stun beams is fatal.

Nate the Great

07-10-2025, 02:47 PM

PNQ: Suppose you had the job of naming TNG but you couldn't call it "The Next Generation", what would you do?

I assume that "The Next Generation" was derived from "Phase II", but that name made sense when it was a continuation of TOS, not so much for a new cast.

I admit that I don't have a good alternative. The best I can come up with is "Star Trek Odyssey" if they stuck to the original premise that the E-D was going to be outside the Federation for twenty years.

Nate the Great

07-13-2025, 09:21 PM

Inspired by a Reddit post...

PNQ: Suppose you could try to date any Trek character, which would you choose? Presume that both of you are 25 and single and you're in the year that they'd be 25 in the chronology.

Note that I say date, as in courting as a possible prelude to marriage. I don't mean a one night stand. A romp in the hay with Jadzia might be fun, but would you really want to date her?

Nate the Great

07-20-2025, 07:42 PM

Inspired by a YouTube video...

PNQ: Can you tell the difference between pop made from cane sugar and pop made from corn syrup?

I can. Totally. But the guy in this YouTube video couldn't.

Nate the Great

07-24-2025, 04:24 PM

Inspired by the Steve Shives review of "Starship Mine"...

PNQ: So the "baryon sweep" is a ridiculous idea because all atomic nuclei are made of baryons, but what would be a more plausible excuse to evacuate the ship?

I'm not sure I can come up with one.

Nate the Great

07-25-2025, 05:21 PM

PNQ: What "era" of Star Trek history would you want to live in?

I'll let you pick one era assuming you're a Starfleet officer and one era assuming you're a civilian. I'll also say that you don't have to worry about the big threats like Borg or Dominion. If you choose to live on the border or in Starfleet you still have to worry about Romulans, Cardassians, etc. depending on the era.

Would you want to be a colonist knowing that there are doomsday machines and Crystalline Entities and dikironium clouds flying around?

Nate the Great

08-03-2025, 12:27 PM

Inspired by a review of STTMP...

PNQ: Kirk was only a captain for five years. Is that really enough for promotion to admiral? Pike was captain for eleven years and only got promoted to Fleet Captain! For that matter, how did Kirk skip the rank of Commodore?

A lot of this would've been solved by having a second five-year mission offscreen between TOS and STTMP and having Commodore Kirk in STTMP.

Nate the Great

09-13-2025, 08:22 PM

Inspired by a YouTube video...

PNQ: Which movie car do you think had the best reveal: Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang or the DeLorean time machine?

Nate the Great

09-21-2025, 11:41 AM

Inspired by Reddit...

PNQ: What if one of the '37s had joined the crew as a recurring character?

I'd never thought of this one before.

Nate the Great

09-27-2025, 07:50 PM

PNQ: Suppose you lived in the 24th century, what job would you want? For more interesting answers I'm excluding Starfleet and shipboard civilian specialists as options.

Would you want to live like Jacob Sisko, running your own small business (or I suppose I should say "operation" since money wouldn't be involved) on Earth?

Would you want to be a colonist? If so, would you live like ordinary Federation civilians or would you live in a simpler manner like the Bringloidi?

Would you live on the frontier where money still exists?

NAHTMMM

10-03-2025, 06:36 PM

I'd want to live on an established planet doing some sort of science. Maybe a little more "out there" planet where we're studying the local technobabble would be fine, but still somewhere safer from random threats than the average outpost.

Nate the Great

10-05-2025, 11:55 AM

I found an interesting question on Reddit that I've never thought of before...

PNQ: What TNG episodes are the "most TNG"? Not necessarily the best in terms of general quality or entertainment value, but the best at expressing what TNG is as opposed to the other series?

For example, only Picard could do "The Drumhead" or "Darmok." Only Worf could do "Sins of the Father." Only Troi could do "Face of the Enemy". And so forth. Other Trek characters could do the basic plot, but the outcome would have to be completely changed.

Nate the Great

10-18-2025, 04:13 PM

René Auberjonois has died.

PNQ: Favorite non-Odo Auberjonois role? (You can say Colonel West if you want to)

I had forgotten about his role in Batman Forever, he did a good job.

I had to be reminded about his role in Inspector Gadget as well, I had forgotten that he was in that movie.

And of course his voice work in Little Mermaid must be mentioned as well. Especially since several YouTubers haven't forgotten, and made comments to the video where he helps Sisko cooks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31Mb_dGhQM).

Nate the Great

11-18-2025, 12:59 AM

I like to watch "first time watching" reaction videos. A woman was watching The Princess Bride, and she recognized Wallace Shawn from his role on Young Sheldon. That offended me.

PNQ: What role do you know Wallace Shawn for (besides Princess Bride and Grand Nagus Zek, of course)?

Looking through his IMDB I'd probably have to say Incredibles.

And The Amazing Thing I Learned Today is that he played Professor Silverfish in a made-for-TV version of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weMvMaOXOMM) (I didn't even know there WAS a made-for-TV version of BAPPIJTD!)

Nate the Great

11-21-2025, 05:38 PM

So with the hype around the release of Wicked: For Good, I have to wonder...

PNQ: Does it annoy you that the first movie was just called Wicked, implying that it was the whole story? Would Wicked: The Beginning or Wicked: Volume One have turned you away?

I'm reminded of when the Final Fantasy VII remake was just called Final Fantasy VII Remake without any additional subtitle.

I didn't watch the first Wicked just like I won't watch the second. I read the book a long time ago and have no interest in reading or watching any more. I want my villains to be VILLAINS, no redemption arc or justification of their actions needed.

Nate the Great

12-04-2025, 11:35 PM

Postmodern Jukebox does a Andrews Sisters-style cover of "All I Want For Christmas is You"... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bl9Kx3uCrg&list=RD2Bl9Kx3uCrg&start_radio=1)

PNQ: Why is this song so polarizing?

To me it's...fine. Serviceable. A little overproduced but hardly garbage. But a big fraction of the populace seem to despise it and I don't understand why.

Nate the Great

12-05-2025, 05:13 PM

I'm sure you guys have seen the promo poster for the new Starfleet Academy series by now...

(Insert homo sapiens only club joke here)

PNQ: Given six main characters, what would be a ratio of aliens that you would find appropriate?

Because one alien and five humans sounds like a terrible idea. Surely they could've tossed a Trill or Bajoran in there with minimal additional cost.

Nate the Great

12-06-2025, 08:54 PM

A Facebook meme pointed out that in "All Good Things" warp factors bigger than ten were mentioned. A writer said that speeds were getting so big that they had to modify the scale to avoid 9.999 problems...

New Warp 10-old Warp 9.9
New Warp 11-old Warp 9.99
New Warp 12-old Warp 9.999
etc.

PNQ: Do you like this idea?

I'm reminded of the old novel Federation where the Enterprise of thousands of years in the future uses "sidewarp" factors, implying a totally new form of propulsion (no doubt tapping into something even better than subspace) that can take you to other galaxies in a reasonable amount of time.

Nate the Great

12-09-2025, 06:06 PM

So one of the many Trek YouTube reviewers that I follow just posted a review of one of the DS9 Mirror Universe episodes. You all know how much I hate ANY Mirror Universe episode other than "Mirror, Mirror"...

PNQ: What's a recurring Trek episode premise that you just can't stand?

Holodeck malfunctions? Obscure family member cameos? One episode romances? Meddling with prewarp societies? Characters turning into Captain Ahab chasing their personal white whale? Crazy admirals of the week?

Nate the Great

01-02-2026, 11:31 PM

On Facebook someone asked for people's choice as their own personal doctor from a selection of Trek and related shows. (https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=854870900635750&set=a.149320467857467) I don't care about that question, and I'm not inviting Pulaski bashing. I just want to point out the inclusion of Doctor Westphalen from Seaquest DSV...

PNQ: What's the pseudo-Trek series from the past that you think is the most overlooked today?

Because Seaquest DSV has to be up there. Babylon 5 still gets love, Andromeda still gets love, Stargate still gets love, but not Seaquest. Why?

PNQ: What could be argued to be the earliest pseudo-Trek series?

I hope you understand what I mean by "pseudo-Trek", because I'm not sure I can define it without a separate screed. I don't think Planet of the Apes or Battlestar Galactica or Lost in Space count.

I'm also going to exclude all of Roddenberry's failed pilots and Andromeda because they seem too easy.

NAHTMMM

01-05-2026, 04:16 PM

I really didn't know the premise beyond "drama in a submarine? And then they wind up in space maybe?" so I looked seaQuest up on Wikipedia.

I just assumed it aired before the '90s. I never saw anything about it on TV.

Undersea maybe doesn't have the same broad appeal of X-Files finding weird stuff among us on land or Trek and Trek-likes going to distant planets.

Nate the Great

01-14-2026, 04:39 PM

TNG character tier list (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=864779099896514&set=a.113606971680401)

PNQ: Whose that basketball player in S tier and why is it a joke that he's there?

Nate the Great

01-19-2026, 12:31 AM

I've often encountered variants of the thought experiment "which superhero would you be if you could?" But today I thought of one further...

PNQ: What superhero would you be if you also got their additional baggage?
1. You have to have their day job, socioeconomic status, etc.
2. You have to have the same supporting cast and enemies.

That is, if you want to have Spider-Man's powers you also have to deal with being perpetually broke, sick Aunt May, knowing that Venom etc. are out there and want you dead, etc.

I'll let you pick an era of comics as well, but remember that you also have to live in that world. Maybe villains aren't so bloodthirsty in the Golden Age, but you also have to deal with Nazis looking for mystical artifacts, the Spear of Destiny, etc. Plus you have to deal with the normal technology of the age, you can't prompt Reed Richards to create cell phone infrastructure or anything.

I'm not sure I'd want to be ANY hero with these additional constraints.

Nate the Great

01-28-2026, 08:32 PM

From Facebook...

PNQ: If you had to choose, would you want Superman or Captain America to be president?

Let's ignore the "Superman wasn't born here so he's ineligible" question.

Frankly I think it comes down to the simple fact that Captain America would uphold the law and Superman wouldn't. He'd be all cowboy diplomacy sticking his nose where it isn't wanted, making people want to kill him.

Nate the Great

01-29-2026, 02:54 AM

Inspired by a Reddit thread...

PNQ: How old were you when you got used to being called Mr. or Mrs. LastName instead of wanting to say "Mr. or Mrs. LastName is my mom/dad."?

I'm reminded of when Dave Barry said that whenever someone calls him "sir" he whirls around thinking that they're talking to someone behind him that is actually dignified enough to be called "sir", like the Pope or Walter Cronkite.

I'm still not used to being called "Mr. LastName." I doubt I ever will be. I've accepted that I can't stop it, but it's still disturbing.

NAHTMMM

01-29-2026, 04:29 PM

I'd take Captain America. Superman would be caught between presidential duties and his superpowers, like you say.

I really don't know how old I was when that happened. Probably late twenties or thirties. I don't get called Mr. __ much.

Nate the Great

01-31-2026, 05:47 PM

Nate the Great

02-04-2026, 07:03 PM

On another SF Debris binge...

In "Riddles" Neelix asks Tuvok the date riddle even though the pun doesn't work in either Vulcan or Talaxian (and odds are neither planet has a fruit similar to the date anyway....).

PNQ: While I'll buy that Tuvok (and most Vulcans in Starfleet for that matter) has learned English in order to communicate with other Starfleet officers, what about Neelix? Does he depend on the Universal Translator? How many Delta Quadrant languages has he learned?

Not to be a jerk, but I can't see any Delta Quadrant race besides the Borg inventing the Universal Translator (well, maybe Arturis's race only known as Species 116).

PNQ2: Come to think of it, how did Neelix and Kes communicate? Do the Ocampa learn the Kazon language just in case and she used that to talk with Neelix?

NAHTMMM

02-06-2026, 07:44 PM

A Reddit meme claims that Kirk only loved two women, and they both died in front of him, obviously referencing Edith Keeler and Miramanee...

PNQ: How accurate do you think this is? How many women do you think he really loved?

The first name that occurred to me was Carol Marcus. Arguing that Kirk didn't really love her is highly troublesome.

I don't count Elaan of Troyius. Unique circumstances.
There was also Methuselah's android and the woman he was about to propose to in the Nexus. And Lori Ciana, who tried to beam up in TMP. You can declare Novels Don't Count all you like, but TPTB evidently saw her and the other officer as real enough that they had to get rid of them somehow.

That's maybe six we've seen. I agree Carol Marcus was pretty serious. Add Edith, Miramanee, and Lori. Put me down for four at minimum.

PNQ2: Come to think of it, how did Neelix and Kes communicate? Do the Ocampa learn the Kazon language just in case and she used that to talk with Neelix?
That would certainly lend some pathos or depth to the nature of their relationship, that (at least at first) they can only communicate in the language of her captors.

Nate the Great

02-06-2026, 08:35 PM

I would never say the novels don't count (except for obvious parallel universes like Rihannsu (https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Rihannsu) and the Shatnerverse, of course. And anything from NuTrek, of course. I count the Strange New Worlds fanfic compilations above anything from NuTrek!).

Rayna Kapec is a unique situation. Even if she was able to fall in love with Kirk in less than a day I doubt it went the other direction. Frankly I'll buy him loving Ruth or Janice Lester or Areel Shaw above Rayna!

Nate the Great

02-16-2026, 02:57 PM

Ignore the Facebook game, focus on the pairs of Trek characters... (https://scontent.fhio3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/630272974_1263976245856223_257182944178389690_n.jp g?stp=dst-jpg_s565x565_tt6&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=QJ1lUR9h0-4Q7kNvwEVPKSA&_nc_oc=Admuje_CNWkMthAFIxknI8r6v2J5zu3WtBLpttbLI8y Zlqcx0hZ-UwW2nFsbV-AqM3k&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio3-1.fna&_nc_gid=p6OVw7pmQ6_jzg5m1Aa2jQ&oh=00_AfvOD8OMySGjw69awcvF3GZKKd39udCpstMslov4pJdi nw&oe=699914FB)

PNQ: Who do you think would have the most interesting conversation?

The inspiring pair was Kamala and Leah Brahms. I'd love to be a fly on THAT wall (or a spider under the table if you're Bajoran)!

Pulaski and Barclay...oh, boy. Would Pulaski be as compassionate as Crusher?

Morn and Phlox...One wonders how Phlox would react to finding the latinum in Morn's stomach!

Nate the Great

03-09-2026, 09:05 PM

Inspired by a Reddit post...

PNQ: Suppose on Voyager they worked up to Seven assuming a Starfleet rank (see Tuvok's remedial Starfleet coursework for the Maquis), what would it be?

She may have the knowledge of Starfleet captains but that doesn't mean that she could be one. I'm thinking Lieutenant Commander at the highest.

PNQ2: Should the "Neelix takes security training" plot have led to an official Starfleet commission at some point?

I mean, he would never be an officer full-time, but would it be nice to see him wear a regular security uniform on certain away missions, right?

PNQ3: If we're saying "Ensign=Bachelor's Degree", what would you think of as the equivalent for a Master's or Doctorate?

Lieutenant j.g. and Lieutenant or Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander? I thought instantly of Mortimer Harren and he was just a crewman!

Nate the Great

03-23-2026, 12:26 AM

Inspired by an Ashens marathon...

PNQ: What 2015 tech from Back to the Future II would you most like?

In the name of variety you can't choose Mr. Fusion or flying cars.

Even when I was a kid I wanted that rehydrator. That pizza looked delicious!

Nate the Great

04-17-2026, 01:57 PM

So the Spaceballs sequel won't be The Search For More Money...

PNQ: What are they thinking? This thing wouldn't exist if the studio wasn't searching for more money!

Nate the Great

05-11-2026, 11:35 PM

I'm in the middle of a marathon of previously unknown Trek reviews, and I notice that stupid green wraparound that I hate so much...

PNQ: What's a meaningless thing in Trek that annoys you like this?

Nate the Great

05-25-2026, 12:32 AM

So I saw a Reddit meme that implied that Bashir dated a patient three times. I only remember two, Melora and Sarina.

PNQ: Who's the third?

I don't think Ezri or Leeta counts. There's a difference between being a general doctor and being in charge of specialized treatment.

Nate the Great

05-25-2026, 07:18 PM

PNQ: Is anyone else getting really annoyed that YouTubers have to change the names of old videos in order to get more views?

I know I am.

Nate the Great

05-25-2026, 09:32 PM

Watching SFDebris' review of "Homefront" again...

PNQ: Why do the characters think that the blood tests would be so easy to evade?

I mean, blood without continual access to fresh oxygen would be quite different chemically from fresh blood. Blood stored within a changeling would be "dead" and easy to detect by the specially-designed hypospray that's used to take the sample, right?

For that matter, if you don't mind a bulkier option another way to detect changelings is to stick a hand into a special device. You get injected with an anesthetic, a skin sample is taken including blood, and then it's immediately healed with a special dermal regenerator.

Actually, now that I think about it why wasn't the polaron radiation thing revisited in later episodes? Surely refining it into a low-level phaser beam would let you test people with it without killing solids with radiation poisoning, right?