Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

[pengbuzz]

I would call it a combination of greed, ambition, political agenda, and plain stupidity. They just want franchises to exploit without doing the work to both honor the past and guarantee them a future. Using them as stepping stones in Hollywood. They're like locusts: Consume, then move on.

In other words, it's short-term snake-oil salesmanship.

Essentially, they want something already built for them to use, rather than develop anything from scratch. They want to take away for themselves rather than actually create; and that is essence of this new generation. And the consumption angle is very accurate: they eat, but produce only waste.

(I call this world we live in now The Evil Earth, after a nightmare I had where on the horizon in the night sky, I saw an upside-down blood-red Earth just looming. I sometimes wonder if we all without warning got dropped on that and the real one sped off somewhere, never to be seen again. )

 

[Gregatron]

One question I have: in WOK: why didn't Khan figure out a way to get an emergency message to Kirk when that happened? I'm sure in his vast intellect he could have rigged up some type of comm to do so. I know the problems with such a thing (technical as well as "the Federation would not take kindly to him"), but it sounds like Khan's pride wouldn't allow him to ask for help.

Seems pretty obvious to me that Kirk provided basic supplies to help start the colony (as can be seen by way of the TMP-style cargo pods that became Khan's makeshift home after the ecological disaster), but nothing which could be used to build a ship or contact a ship and lure it to the planet.

There have been two published versions of Khan's years in exile: the novel, TO REIGN IN HELL: THE EXILE OF KHAN NOONIEN SINGH, and the comic series KHAN: RULING IN HELL, with the latter acknowledging the former as an inspiration. Both have their pros and...ahem...cons.

I'd still love to read Nick Meyer's CETI ALPHA V scripts (...who better to tell this story than the writer/director of TWOK?), but I'm glad it hasn't been produced by the Kurtzman regime. The mind boggles at the thought of how that would turn out.

 

[NakedMoleRat]

That's really the problem. The idiots making Star Trek today, they're like people who found the show without understanding the context of the show at all. They can replicate the look but not get remotely close to the feel. It's like they're aliens who have no clue about humanity, just aping the series for a buck.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Sort of like when you find the ‘clone’ Cinnabon recipe on line. You make it, it sort of tastes like a Cinnabon, but not really.

 

[kalkamel]

Episode 7 is easily the worst episode in the series this far.

 

[asalaw]

Episode 7 is easily the worst episode in the series this far.

Haven’t watched it and I don’t know if I will. But OTOH, there is that curiosity that makes me want to rubberneck at the fatal car accident in the opposite lane kinda thing. But this morning before work I was so pumped after the finale of The Offer I didn’t want to spoil it with a disappointing Strange New Hair crapisode.

EDIT— Well, my better half has made her pronouncement, and decreed that we shall indeed watch the crapisode tonight, but in her words, “We’re gonna MST3K the s*** out of it.”

EDIT— In fact, I’ll get the ball rolling before we even watch it…

”Captain’s Log, Stardate 12345.6. The ship’s replicators have stopped dispensing hair gel. The crew is on edge. Meanwhile, Hemmer has changed his name to Hummer to better reflect his occupation…”

 

[Gregatron]

Haven’t watched it and I don’t know if I will. But OTOH, there is that curiosity that makes me want to rubberneck at the fatal car accident in the opposite lane kinda thing. But this morning before work I was so pumped after the finale of The Offer I didn’t want to spoil it with a disappointing Strange New Hair crapisode.

EDIT— Well, my better half has made her pronouncement, and decreed that we shall indeed watch the crapisode tonight, but in her words, “We’re gonna MST3K the s*** out of it.”

EDIT— In fact, I’ll get the ball rolling before we even watch it…

”Captain’s Log, Stardate 12345.6. The ship’s replicators have stopped dispensing hair gel. The crew is on edge. Meanwhile, Hemmer has changed his name to Hummer to better reflect his occupation…”

Yeah, she's a keeper.

 

[asalaw]

Yeah, she's a keeper.

I know! Unfortunately, she bailed for bingo. I don’t blame her, the pot tonight is like $4k, and she wins surprisingly often. So I braved episode 7 without adult supervision, and I’m deeply scarred now. That show has warped my fragile little mind. I may develop STSNWPTSD.

I don’t know if it was Jesse James Keitel’s horrible performance as the villain, or Anson Mount’s deeply embarrassing pirate shtick at the end (I buried my face in my hands and moaned “oh, no, no, no”), or the inexplicably stupid crew of the Serene Squalid (I half expected Bugs Bunny to peek out from behind a corner and snicker, “What a maroon!”), or the imbecilic performance of Michael Hough as Taserface—er, Remy—or the predictably fetid writing (what do they do when they close the stage doors and the script starts smelling up the place, and there’s nowhere to run, because they HAVE TO shoot it?)…

Well, whatever it was, it was even worse than the body swap episode. And I thought that one couldn’t be topped as the bottom. But oh, it was.

And yet again, they dipped into the worst possible well for material—Star Trek V?????????????

Are you motherf***ing kidding me????????

I’m going to go wash my eyeballs out with abrasive cleanser. But what will cleanse my soul? A Brillo pad? An angle grinder? Peyote?

And don’t get me started on the EYEBROWS. Ortegas’s eyebrows. Chapel’s eyebrows. THEY’RE CALLED TWEEZERS, PARAMOUNT MAKEUP DEPARTMENT. GIVE UP A COUPLE LENS FLARES THIS WEEK AND INVEST IN A PAIR. I thought those things were going to wriggle off of their foreheads and spin cocoons.

 

[Gregatron]

I don’t know if it was Jesse James Keitel’s horrible performance as the villain

This criticism is unacceptable. You're obviously a non-binary-phobe.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

This criticism is unacceptable. You're obviously a non-binary-phobe.

Did somebody say something about a Binar?

 

[Cephus]

This criticism is unacceptable. You're obviously a non-binary-phobe.

No, she just sucked.

 

[Gregatron]

No, she just sucked.

Error! Error! Legitimate criticism detected! Pull out the identity marker shields! Get the shill media writing articles about toxic fans!

 

[asalaw]

This criticism is unacceptable. You're obviously a non-binary-phobe.

Ah! How could I fail to notice that she was also playing a female? Such layered nuance! When has there ever been seen such Thespianity! Not since Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubfire—not since Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie—not since Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot!—not since Mickey Rooney in Huckleberry Finn—not since William Shatner in Turnabout Intruder—has there ever been seen such subtle… what’s the word… subtlety!!!

OMG!! I am humbled and chastened by your finger-shakery! I am off to stream White Chicks as penance.

 

[asalaw]

Meanwhile, I asked my young co-worker to come and see me, today. She asked if she was in trouble, and then was legitimately shocked--and lit up like a Christmas tree--when she opened her early birthday gift (TOS on Blu, the TOS movies on Blu, and a well-loved, secondhand copy of THE MAKING OF STAR TREK). I don't think any of my ribs were crushed when she bear-hugged me.

Awwww… that was kind.

 

[Gregatron]

Awwww… that was kind.

Kindness makes the world go ‘round, unlike the hypocrisy and virtue-signaling garbage which has overrun the media. Real kindness needs no rewards or media coverage. Just do nice things for people, with no expectation of reward or publicity. It’s so easy.

 

[kalkamel]

Haha, earlier on in the episode I wondered to myself, she was supposed to be a professional humanitarian and a doctor, so why is she dressed like a Cenobite?

 

[asalaw]

Kindness makes the world go ‘round, unlike the hypocrisy and virtue-signaling garbage which has overrun the media. Real kindness needs no rewards or media coverage. Just do nice things for people, with no expectation of reward or publicity. It’s so easy.

Virtue signaling is a disease peculiar to the woke, and a sign of their naîvete. The mob will go after anyone they decide is a convenient target, including people who habitually virtue-signal. There is no protection, no immunity, no safe harbor that will protect anyone from the hungry mob. Anyone who believes they are safe from being cancelled just because they trumpet the right platitudes, use the right pronouns, attend the right protests waving the right signs, is just whistling past the graveyard. The mob eats its own with predictable regularity.

 

[asalaw]

Haha, earlier on in the episode I wondered to myself, she was supposed to be a professional and a doctor, so why is she dressed like a Cenobite?

We’ll tear your cosplaying soul apart!!!!

 

[Gregatron]

Virtue signaling is a disease peculiar to the woke, and a sign of their naîvete. The mob will go after anyone they decide is a convenient target, including people who habitually virtue-signal. There is no protection, no immunity, no safe harbor that will protect anyone from the hungry mob. Anyone who believes they are safe from being cancelled just because they trumpet the right platitudes, use the right pronouns, attend the right protests waving the right signs, is just whistling past the graveyard. The mob eats its own with predictable regularity.

Yep. In my own day-to-day interactions with people, I’ve noticed that, more often than not, people who are loud about their social values tend to suffer from low self-esteem/depression/anxiety/other mental illness. Almost as if having a cause to rally behind gives them some kind of mental handhold to keep from collapsing into themselves.

I’m sure books will be written about all of this when it’s said and done. The past few years have been a godsend for research psychologists and sociologists. And, yes, even the downfall of our beloved franchises is a factor in that, since media reflects culture. There’s a lot to be learned from all of this. Hopefully so that it’ll never happen again.

In a perverse sort of way, it almost feels like the most important lessons that STAR TREK and the other once-great franchises are teaching us are the ones we’re getting right now. The lessons that these franchises have died for.

 

[asalaw]

I’m sure books will be written about all of this when it’s said and done. The past few years have been a godsend for research psychologists and sociologists. And, yes, even the downfall of our beloved franchises is a factor in that, since media reflects culture. There’s a lot to be learned from all of this. Hopefully so that it’ll never happen again.

Unfortunately that’s overly optimistic. The kind of people responsible for our cultural decline have always existed and always will. They will always have useful idiots propping them up and carrying their banners.

Useful idiots throughout history always seem to think that the world began the day they were born, and woke kids today are no different. They have no knowledge of history at all, and Churchill paraphrased Santayana who paraphrased Burke who said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” And which Ron Moore recycled into, “All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.”

Having said all that depressing s***, I see hope for the near future. The vandals have woefully overplayed their hand, the resulting state of the country and the culture have become intolerable to a solid majority, and there is drastic change in the wind.

 

[Picard102]

Another good episode. Acting on point, story solid, dialogue great.
They are steadily advancing Star Trek with each episode.