


"Life forms. You precious little lifeforms. You tiny little lifeforms. Where are you?"
Lt. Cmdr Data, Star Trek: Generations

I hope we can yeat Saru in somewhere else - at least the occasional appearance on STA. Let's hope that Robert Picardo claiming "he'll be deeper" means he'll be 99% comic relief like when he said he'd be "more than comic relief" in Prodigy, meaning the show will be a banger rather than a melodramatic despair-fest with the occasional redeeming quality.
Either that or throw him through a portal to another era and call it temporal causality, although I guess the only currently running show they could throw him in is SNW, which wouldn't make sense for obvious reasons. Now if Prodigy got its (unfortunately improbable) season 3 and he somehow managed to appear and they made a good plot out of it, I might not mind.

I have to agree that First Contact uniform is top-tier.
Also, guy misdated the Romulan supernova.

And Prodigy (though after Lower Decks):


No. That was in TMP. To be fair, that’s two TOS movies where mysterious probe threatens the Federation.

Although Eureka has got to have one of the worst depictions I've ever seen.

Maybe from 2371-2378, while Tom Paris was busy being his Delta Quadrant counterpart.
Like, I don't hate Tom Paris (at least late VOY, anyway), but you can't deny that in combination with his early personality, that face just looks inherently punchable for some reason.


The planet had previously industrialized and since de-industrialized by choice.

Unfortunately, he died after being shot midair by Libyans while falling off a cliff into molten drip.

You mean Kruge?


Reminds me of this classic:


I do have to agree. The setting may be the best part of later seasons of DISCO, even if they (in my personal opinion) frequently squandered it.
Like, I felt like they didn’t need to make up the DMA - they had practically seasons worth of material written for them just from the inherent realities of the setting.

I take this with a grain of salt, in part because of this past headline: Robert Picardo Says The Doctor Isn’t Just Comic Relief In ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2
Which isn’t to say I hated him in Prodigy. Rather, I wonder if by “deeper”, it means he’ll be absolutely ridiculous, just rambling about opera and holonovels all the time, and the writing won’t be all dark and brooding on this show.

Why did they revive Nova squadron in the 2380s?


In Prodigy, Nova Squadron has been revived by the mid-2380s.
This feels like a very terrible idea for a multitude of reasons. Besides the initial incident, I would think Starfleet would hesitate against elite cadet groups even further after both the attempted Red Squad coup and the USS Valiant incident.
Also, I have two takeaways from the LD Nova Fleet incident. One, Locarno feeling the need to “revive” Nova Squadron suggests that it didn’t still exist in 2381, meaning the revival must have been relatively close to 2384. Second, I feel like the coming back of a former “elite” cadet to bite them would further make Starfleet wary of establishing an elite cadet group again.
Overall, it just seems every time the Academy does this, they just produce a group of arrogant cadets very susceptible to manipulation and/or recklessness. Even 2384 squadron seems this way - we see their elitist attitude towards the former Protostar crew matching that of Red Squad and such.
So why did they do it a

I tried to hint at it at the beginning, but I admit mapping Ferengi politics onto human politics is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. I was honestly just trying to use commonly-understood terms, which may be a weak fit.
In terms of social-economic orthogonality, I think that can work for a more general analysis, but doesn't seem the case in Ferengi society - for instance, social left and economic left reform in the late Zek (Ishka behind scenes)/early Rom seemed like a packaged deal. Also, the social restrictions on women extend to their economic right to make profit - many of the issues in Ferengi society are a blur of economic and social issues that are intimately connected.
Also, unrelated to my above thoughts, rewatching "Family Business", I disagree with your assessment of Rom. For one, I think both Quark and Rom were equally bothered, just had different ways of expressing it; Quark let his discomfort out through visible anger, while Rom tried to hide it for a while, letting it seep through into his expression. Also, Rom, while seeming like a product of his society, seemed much more open to listening to Ishka, suggesting that while he had socially and economically conservative values, he didn't hold them as strongly as screaming Quark.
Overall, I agree with your sentiment that political categorization is complex, and I feel no one model perfectly characterizes all ideologies, that there are merely abstractions that might work well in a specific context. Heck, there's a sci-fi story idea I'm "working" on (by which I mean I haven't touched it in ages) where I created a 3D political spectrum for my main factions; I forget what my third axis was, though. In the end, as much as some humans like to nerd out about it, an ideology can't be perfectly reduced to a point on a graph or a line.
Still, there is some undeniable urge to do a deeper dive on Star Trek political mapping, down to sub-charts for characters in the individual societies where we have enough information, although you'd have to figure out how to handle different eras.

It took a good minute for me to decode that acronym.

I guess I usually don't acronym that film and just refer to it as VI or by its full name

Glorious use of sarcasm.
In terms of writing, they really captured him well on Prodigy, though he was almost entirely a comic relief character.
Looks-wise, he definitely triggered the uncanny valley and was one of the worse aesthetic adaptations of a legacy character in that show. In general, there are some unintentionally terrifying officers on that show.
I do have to say that was one thing Lower Decks did well - when they brought on a legacy character, they were aesthetically recognizable, but never a caricature.

This is probably the strongest counter so far, unless they've somehow found or are working on a way to do it without severely borking the marine biosphere.

It doesn’t seem unprecedented for crazy Vulcans to be in the Maquis. For instance, we had the Vulcan gun runner Sakonna in DS9.

Excuse me. I brought up the episode in Daystrom while going on a tangent about the various TNG era alternate futures, focused on the uniforms but also blabbering about how Klingon relations seem to break down quite quickly in any timeline without the Dominion War (further supported by the fact that VOY:”Endgame” has a timeline with the war where relations seem still amicable).

Yeh. This wasn't meant to be a Wesley hate post by any means.
This was meant to be a based observation that while Wesley had less barriers to an officer position than Nog, both still earned their position.

Fiddle with OpenRGB and see if it works. If it doesn't, check if there's any open issues for your model of card - you might be able to aid testing, and if you're likely, someone might have already made a branch that hasn't been merged yet. That was the case with my keyboard.
Googling it, some might also have support for using hooking to the motherboard RGB header instead of internal controls.

Interesting Observation of Ferengi Gender Roles in Nagus Rom Era


Edit: When I say "Center Right" I also mean relative to Ferengi society.
A small addition to my post, Gender and Sexual Orientation in FERENGI society from a few months back.
I caught this frame in the background of LD S4 E6 Parth's Ferengi Heart Place, depicting an unclothed Ferengi woman.
This provides an interesting insight into the Ferengi social/political landscape of the Nagus Rom era. It suggests a center right that is fine with women traveling in public to some extent (maybe with limits, like it can only be with husband or father or out of necessity), but not them being clothed. This doesn't seem to be that common, as most Ferengi women we see in this episode (including on the television in Boimler's apartment) are clothed, but it seems to be a position that exists.
Honestly, I'd be interested in a novel (perhaps written from the perspective of an autobiography) or something about how Nagus Rom and Leeta survived leading Ferengin

I think this format has a lot of potential.


cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/21461844
From LD S4 E4 "Something Borrowed, Something Green".
In response to a meme I saw comparing Nog and Wesley.
I've uploaded the source SVG: https://gitlab.com/dexcube/random-assets/-/raw/main/wesley_meme.svg

I think this format has a lot of potential.


From LD S4 E4 "Something Borrowed, Something Green".
In response to a meme I saw comparing Nog and Wesley.
I've uploaded the source SVG: https://gitlab.com/dexcube/random-assets/-/raw/main/wesley_meme.svg

FYI: Audio Crackling Bug with Pipewire 1.4.1 + FluidSynth in Debian Testing/Unstable and Work-Around
In case anyone is using Debian Testing/Unstable and experiencing audio issues, I thought I'd share this.
Until the bugs get fixed, there are two workarounds:
- Uninstall FluidSynth
- Add
systemctl --user restart pipewire
to your session startup; this eliminates the problem.
As I want FluidSynth, I went with the latter.

Will SNW (or any future Trek) Retcon Mojave, California?


In the pilot, they depict Mojave, California as being very terraformed from a desert to a lush parkland.
However, I find this a bit antiquated... this seems to be very much rooted in an atomic age scientific idealism that thought of how we could make the world work for us and bring it to more western standards of natural beauty.
I think this is in conflict with the TNG solar punk aesthetic and the general respect for nature implied by the Prime Directive - notice how there's no desert bushes in sight as if they wiped them out. This seems to be insane damage to the ecosystem.
I wonder if they'll ever revisit Mojavo on-screen, and whether they'll retcon this so that Mojave is a gorgeous desert town where they solved the problems of drought and extreme heat plaguing the southwestern US while working in tandem with and even boosting the local wildlife, rather than just razing everything and plastering grass and non-native trees over it.
I'd bet we probably only have 3 seasons for it to

They Might Be Giants - Why Did You Grow a Beard - Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Fan Music Video
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/21256834
I just threw this together. I felt it was a very relevant song, though I also could have put Riker clips to it and had it work just as well.

They Might Be Giants - Why Did You Grow a Beard - Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Fan Music Video
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
I just threw this together. I felt it was a very relevant song, though I also could have put Riker clips to it and had it work just as well.

Honestly, I haven’t watched Severance, but I couldn’t not do this.


I have a feeling “Severance” has a different connotation with Klingons.

Honestly, I haven’t watched Severance, but I couldn’t not do this.


I have a feeling “Severance” has a different connotation with Klingons.

My Attempt at Jellico circa 2381


I was especially trying to imitate Prodigy's styling of him.
I don't know that it looks like Jellico, but it does look like an experienced officer circa 2381.
The stardates are just there to fill in the document - I got them from event years on Memory Beta and then just put a random date into the stardate calculator.

Has Anyone Else Noticed Jellico's Face Constantly Changes in Prodigy?


I was looking at references of both TNG and Prodigy Jellico to try to make an LD-style Jellico, when I found how they styled his face varied a lot between episodes - I count about 4 significant variants.
For reference, here is TNG Jellico:

This was his first Prodigy appearance in S1 E15 Masquerade:

Definitely a bit yikes, but I also slightly dig the "old man who will bite your hand off if you get within one mile of him" look.
They totally changed his face for his second appearance 4 episodes later, in S1 E19 Supernova Pt 1:

I like this look - it feels very Clone Wars. However, I can see why they might have gotten

Gul Donal Wants a Statue


cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19850319
If life's going to be this crappy, at least cast Jeffrey Combs as Elon Musk, Mr. Universe.

Gul Donal Wants a Statue


If life's going to be this crappy, at least cast Jeffrey Combs as Elon Musk, Mr. Universe.

Don't Worry, guys! I've Gone Trek in a They Might Be Giants board as well!


cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19819038
I'm ParticleMan. This is the #concert-chat channel on the tmbw (This Might Be a Wiki, the main fan wiki for They Might Be Giants) Discord.

Don't Worry, guys! I've Gone Trek in a They Might Be Giants board as well!


I'm ParticleMan. This is the #concert-chat channel on the tmbw (This Might Be a Wiki, the main fan wiki for They Might Be Giants) Discord.

Las Vegas, Nevada in the 24th Century?
What is Las Vegas, Nevada like in the 24th century?
It seems to be implied that Vegas still exists (not just some legendary destination of the past like Vics) and is still associated with gambling - Chakotay's hallucination of Tom Paris in VOY:"The Fight" mentions Vegas along with Mars and Orion III when mentioning the odds in a fight.
I think the fact that this is a hallucination of Tom in Chakotay's mind, combined with the fact that it was mentioned with contemporarily active places, heavily suggests that Vegas is alive and still has some form of active gambling.
However, I would imagine that a lot would still change for Vegas. Modern-day Vegas has Nellis AFB in it and Creech nearby, so it would have probably been a major target during World War III and as a result been heavily damaged. For urban planning, this probably gave a largely blank slate during redevelopment, so in many ways, Earth probably ended up becoming a typical 24th century city or town with vastly improved public

Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Warp Core


cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19747430
A sequel to https://startrek.website/post/14985611

Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Warp Core


A sequel to https://startrek.website/post/14985611

You're not the boss of me now!


cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/14985611
"Boss of Me" might be my favorite Flans song... besides "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head"... and "Music Jail"... and "Let Me Tell You About My Operation"... and "If Day for Winnipeg". Nevermind. Please don't make me choose a favorite Flans song.