In other words, is that dog technically an augment dog? How is Tendi not dismissed from Starfleet and sent to a penal colony?

I have an odd question that will probably never be answered now unless they decide to bring this species to other Trek shows: why are members of Merp’s species called “Big Merp”, “Sleepy Merp”, or just “Merp”?

Obviously out of universe, they’re likely just a parody of the Smurfs.

My personal favorite theory that would be that Merpkind (or whatever they are called) doesn’t actually have a native concept of individual names. However, they’ve got to put something on the Federation paperwork, so they typically just do whatever and stick with it.

Alternatively, fitting more with the Smurf thing, Merp communities identify each other via adjectives or roles much like the Smurfs.

What’s your ten cents?

EDIT: Thinking on it, it could be a combination. No one has a set name - some might call their spouse “Mate Merp”, while that spouse might be referred to by a boss as “Strong Employee Merp.” When doing Federation paperwork, Merps typically choose which descriptor they’re more fond of. For instance, Sleepy Merp may have been referred to as that by a parent.

What’s your eulogy for Lower Decks?

Here’s mine: I wasn’t sure about Lower Decks for a well - I’d never been into the adult animation genre, and when I first heard of it, I had initially seen it as the wrong direction for Star Trek.

Finally, in late 2023, I watched it for the first time and was surprised to enjoy it.

Then came the crazy month of March 2024. I got rejected from all my dream schools, putting me in a sullen mood. I returned to the show and suddenly started resonating with Boimler as someone who had ambitions - some naive, some not - that weren’t always fulfilled, while I found the Cerritos to be kind of an analogue to the state school I would end up at.

Then, at the end of that month, a close family member shared their advanced pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and they passed a month after. That was when my attachment to Lower Decks solidified - I turned to it as a comfort show and really started to appreciate it. I think I’ve rewatched it twice since then - one randomly in the summer, and one to refresh my memory for the final season that began while I was doing the (mediocre) paint job for a 3D-printed combadge for a costume: !

Overall, it’s probably my second favorite show in the franchise at this point, only behind DS9. I’m sure I’ll rewatch it plenty times more, though maybe a bit more sparingly - just one more this year to cope with the emptiness of no more new episodes. 🤭

Lower Decks! Lower Decks!

I knew it was Data the moment I noticed the head looked nothing like Data

In all seriousness, though, I swear I'm going to break into Rick Berman's house and send him to Gre'thor for what he did to Jadzia (and honestly, most of the female cast members at he time).

I have a weird question. Some numbers of pips can have the black pip. However, the 4 captain pips have never been depicted with this.

In some ways, this makes sense; a "lower" captain wouldn't make sense, and we've seen that the highest first officers hold commander pips. It's most likely that have 4 pips with one black is totally invalid.

However, I wonder if there's ever a circumstance where the black pip would be there. For instance, let's say someone gets field promoted to acting captain, but Starfleet either takes their time making it official or it's going to take a while (a few weeks) for the ship to get back to starbase to pick up a new captain (meaning the acting captain will be a bit long-term)? Could it be used then?

I imagine most of this is speculation, but I'm wondering if there's any example in canon of a long-term acting captain that could disprove the use of this pip configuration.

I made Cathode - don’t vote for it (or at least, don’t give it a high rank, since Debian uses ranked choice). It kind of sucks, honestly; I was just having fun.

I have a feeling Juliette Taka’s going to keep being the de facto face of Debian for a long time - I ranked hers first in the voting.

I guess for the thrill, same reason that I’m attempting LFS?

I’m wondering as a relative fediverse noob - are there any known issues when federating with lemmy.world?

I ask because I run a They Might Be Giants community there that I created with an alt account and moderate with my account on this instance, in part because as giant as they may be, I feel like a They Might Giants community doesn’t fit this instance (if I am wrong, might consider migrating it).

I made a post ~14 hours ago and it still hasn’t shown up on other instances. I’m guessing it’s either lemmy.world is a ginormous instance or it’s still on 19.3. I just find it weird because I’ve made posts without problems before.

Anyhow, glory to the admins of this instance; they honor their houses.

When the LD SB80 episode mentioned Matt and Kimolu were infected on an away mission, it reignited some thoughts/questions about how the lives of Cetacean officers in an era of Trek where whales are beginning to become more common as crew members.

Here's the discussion that I think can be had within current canon: I can't help but notice what seems to be a difference in the quality of life between Gillian on Voyager-A and Matt and Kimolu on the Cerritos.

Sure, Matt and Kimolu don't have as flashy or futuristic-looking of an aquarium, but in addition to having each other, the pool-like design of their accommodations allows them easy interaction (a.k.a parties) with the crew. I feel like there's much more opportunity for them to have a fulfilling social life on the Cerritos.

In comparison, Gillian feels very enclosed and isolated from the rest of Voyager; there's always glass between here and the crew (as humpbacks sometimes need to surface, I image there's probably an area with some air in the aquarium), and people are shown having to wear full suits to be in the same space as her. In addition, there's no other whale with her. In fact, we don't really see a staff of officers in Cetacean ops - just Rok. It seems like a very lonely existence.

Of course, a lot of these seeming inequalities can be attributed to circumstance rather than neglect on Starfleet's part. For one, Gillian, canonically a humpback, is more than triple the size of Matt or Kimolu, belugas, so it's much harder to design any space at all for her on a starship, let alone one that gives her the freedom to safely interact with crew.

As for being the only humpback on Voyager, this is probably because there just aren't that many - her species was only repopulated less than a century ago during the whale probe incident.

Now, here's some more difficult-to-answer questions:

• How often do whales go on away missions?
• What precautions do they have to take on away missions?
• Do these missions come up organically, or is there some sort of quota?
• How does their shore leave work?
• What is the Academy like for whales? Is there an aquatic division? Do they sometimes have co-ed events with land-based cadets?
• Honestly, what is the life of a civilian Federation whale like? Do they have mobility accommodations should they e.g want to go see Vulcan or something? Do they live like 21st century whales, or are there LCARS panels in the ocean?

These questions definitely can't be answered with current lore, but I guess we can imagine and/or extrapolate from how Starfleet has accommodated other non-humanoid officers.

I was rewatching DS9: "Bar Association" and totally thought this is what should have been done instead, so here it is.

In Trek fandom, we often think about the badmirals. However, we never consider radmirals. With that in mind, who do you think is the best admiral? This includes commodores, vice admirals, rear admirals, etcetera.

I’m not counting main characters who got promoted after their main series e.g Picard, Kirk, Janeway, La Forge, etcetera.

Seriously, though. I think I've seen this guy in the grocery store down here in AZ.

!Matt and Kimolu scream in terror. As a result, a Klingon tells the anaphasic presence to experience bij.

Let's bring glory to our friends in Cetacean ops!

Okay, I admit Vendome came after, but still, it's not like ops/security/engineering people have never become captain. Plus, come on. Vendome's face was just begging to be memed.

The main example I can think of from canonically before this moment is Uhura, though everyone was wearing red uniforms at the time.

After rewatching DS9: “Defiant”, I had a thought; to prevent transporter clones from impersonating each other, could Starfleet require, as a part of duty, that transporter clones receive slight genomic resequencing that changes no major traits but allows DNA scanners to distinguish them?

I can think of a few issues. One, would it break genetic experimentation laws even though there would be negligible changes to each transporter clone? Two, is this too sever a violation of personal liberties for the Federation to be allowed? Three, is the technology there to do this effectively in a starship’s sickbay?

Personally, to keep my documents like Inkscape files or LibreOffice documents separate from my code, I add a directory under my home directory called Development. There, I can do git clones to my heart's content

What do you all do?

TLDR; Is PRO TNG or PIC era? Do Trek eras as we know them even matter anymore?

Edit: Fixed TOK to be TWOK era. My 2 brain cells had failed me there.

Before I give my problem, here's what I find the conventional Star Trek eras to be (including some common sub-eras that some might consider distinct):

• ENT era: 2150s-2160s
• TOS era: 2250s-early 2290s
  • TWOK era: 2270s-early 2290s
• Lost era: 2290s-roughly 2330s
• TNG era: 2340s-early 2380s (I count Enterprise C as roughly the start of the TNG era. At the very least, the shuttle for the Hansen's ill-fated trip in the 2350s has the trappings of the TNG era).
  • DS9/VOY/TNG film era: 2370s, maybe early 2380s
• PIC era: mid 2380s-early 25th century (I think the Utopia Planetia in 2385 is my cutoff)
• DIS era: 32nd century

I think most newer series have obvious placements, e.g:

• DIS starts in the TOS era, then starts its own era.
• SNW is in the TOS era (I'd argue it's straight up canon, based on LD).
• LD is TNG era, based on LCARS designs and the story conventions it parodies/pastiches.

However, the main thing that is ruffling my feathers is that PRO's placement in my framework is very confusing. It exists on an awkward border between TNG and PIC.

On one hand, some of its storytelling conventions fit better with PIC, not to mention the fact that the Utopia Planetia attack occurs at the end of PRO.

On the other hand, PRO continues some TNG era characters that aren't yet elderly versions of themselves.

This goes back to the initial question: Do we place the vast majority of PRO in the TNG era (and have like the last five minutes of season 2 [hopefully not the show] in PIC era), or do we extend the Picard era backwards to 2383 to include PRO in its entirety?

The 2383 solution might work, as that leaves 2382 in the TNG era for the 5th season of Lower Decks.

I have a random guess about the problem with the alternate, bearded Boimler: he’s actually William Boimler, who killed (or imprisoned) Bradward and took his place on that Cerritos for mysterious Section 31 reasons.

That Boimler even says, “nobody deserves to be replaced by their own double.”