The lead-in novel to the first season of “Picard”, “The Last Best Hope”, is excellent.

The “New Frontier” series is an interesting experiment in storytelling with a (mostly) original cast.

There’s a tonne of icky ambiguity to this one…which is honestly what I like about it, though I totally get why it’s not to everyone’s liking.

“Documentarian with an agenda” is a real type of documentarian - maybe the majority.

His biggest sin was probably making a doc that was secretly about himself…

After being underwhelmed last week, I enjoyed this one a lot.

I appreciated Beto cutting straight to the unspoken conflict at the heart of this franchise - Star Trek is kind of colonialist/imperialist.

When they got to the conclusion, my initial reaction is that “the people are the difference” was sort of trite…but what else is there, really? These are people who are willing to put their morality first, even as they walk an uneasy line.

It’s worth noting that the last time I heard Ben Stiller talking Trek - five years ago on the official podcast - he made it pretty clear that he was a TOS fan, and hadn’t really seen anything else.

Nothing wrong with that at all, but relevant IMO.

Also, he definitely doesn’t actually have a pitch.

…they asked him “Do you have any Star Trek pitches?” He promptly replied, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

I definitely noticed, but I wouldn’t say it bothered me. Dammit Jim, he’s an actor, not an astronomer!

And he’s speaking off the cuff at a convention, about a plot that would have been written nearly a decade ago. There’s any number of wires that could’ve been crossed in the retelling.

…Huh. Was this thing previously announced? I feel like this is the first I’m hearing of it.

I have no idea what the state of the VR games industry is these days - from this non-participant, it feels like it might have peaked a couple of years ago, but maybe I’m just ignorant.

The “Community” episode was over a decade ago…

Assuming you’re referring to the “Uhura” speech, I think what saved it for me was that it had a dual purpose: yes, it was definitely about Star Trek and its place in the world…but it was also about the Amelia Moon novels that inspired La’An as a child.

Giving it a character-focused angle goes a long way in my books.

I think the script deserves some scrutiny, too.

I’m not one to complain about “quippiness” or whatever - humour in the face of danger is fine! - but there were a couple of moments on the Farragut* in particular that bumped me, with the characters seemingly shifting from somber to lighthearted from moment to moment.

Anyways, I don’t want to turn this into a second episode discussion thread, but it’s pertinent to the interview.

Yeah, I’m glad that the episode has been quite well-liked overall, but it didn’t land right with me. I’m going to give it another look at some point - often, my opinion shifts once I have an understanding of what the episode is and is not.

It’s interesting that she highlighted the tonal challenges in the interview.

I’m fine with the idea of it, and it’s a potential precursor to the wall-mounted intercoms of TOS, but it’s definitely one of the things that made me confused about how seriously to take the story.

As foreshadowed last season.

Ruby: Is that like a matter transporter, like in Star Trek?

The Doctor: We’ve got to visit them one day!

“Federation Standard” is definitely just English - the people of New Eden spoke it, despite being moved to that planet during WWIII, well before the Federation was formed.

holy hell are spoilers so difficult to use on Lemmy

You’re not wrong, but fortunately these threads are fair game for spoilers - no syntax needed.

I thought this one was a tonal mess - so much so that I was convinced the whole thing was going to turn out to be a training simulation or something.

This show is usually so good at setting a clear mood, but this one was so all over the place, I didn’t know how seriously to take the situations the crew(s) found themselves in.

Before all the BS with CBS News happened, I really thought that Skydance was the best of the potential buyers that were floating around at the time.

He’s got a steep hill to climb, but this might be a positive sign.

He’s with the Prophets now

you extremist

It’s lashes all the way down.