data1701d

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 happen, considering that 5 seasons has tended to be the length of most recent Trek shows (except poor old Prodigy). The only thing giving me hope is that SNW seems to be a decently successful series.

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

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.

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:

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This was his first Prodigy appearance in S1 E15 Masquerade:

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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:

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I like this look - it feels very Clone Wars. However, I can see why they might have gotten right of it - it makes it difficult for the face to show anything but aggression.

They dialed back the clone wars for his next appearance in S2 E5 Observer's Paradox:

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I think it was also largely the same in S2 E9 The Devourer of All Things Pt. 1:

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They might have enlarged the eyes a bit, but I think the other differences are mostly because of perspective differences and facial expressions.

The final, and longest-lived Jellico variant first appears in S2 E14 Cracked Mirror:

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This model leans on the more realistic side. This one is probably the most recognizable as Jellico from TNG. It also allows much more expressiveness (not just an aggressive scowl), as seen in these images from E15, E16 (It looks like a different variant, but if you go a bit before, it's actually the same one), and E20:

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Overall, I think my favorite Jellico is probably S1 E19, but I can see why they had to switch.

Still, I wonder why it took so long for them to make up their mind on the face and why they didn't get it right the first time.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19356345

I finally got around to watching some Discovery (though I'm only through the first few episodes of season 4). My thoughts:

• First three are a moderately enjoyable sci-fi drama
• I have to admit, season 3 just presented enough interesting ideas and mystery I was able to ignore most of its flaws
• I've really started to notice death by subplots, though. It feels like they try to do 4 different plots in an episode, 2 which they do okay and 2 which are way weaker than they should be. I would have rather they done 2 subplots really well.
• I felt season 4's conflict was really contrived. The plot could have almost written itself with what happened in season 3. Osyra died and we don't even talk about the aftermath in the Chain - the slavery isn't just going to magically disappear, and there's sure to be a power struggle. Also, killing Book's family was kind of idiotic - talking about grief and obsession again is like beating a dead horse. Heck, if you'd let his family live but still destroyed the planet, we could have had an interesting story on diasporas instead.
• Also, background character development feels a bit weak. I spent half the first couple seasons wondering who the heck Ariam was, and just when I did, they killed her before the audience could develop much of an attachment. They could have at least thrown in a few more crew barbecue scenes.
• I am now more impressed at what Lower Decks did with fewer, shorter episodes a season than Discovery. They really managed to create a sense that we'd been with these characters a long time and that they were growing despite the entire show being shorter than 1 TNG season. I do have a few gripes about season 5 (my main one being how does Ma'ah go from "Beckett is honorable" like, a few hours after meeting her to immediately distrusting her in the finale), but my respect for LD has only grown.

I’ve made a bizarre observation: commemorative plates tend to be associated more with Star Trek or Star Wars more than other franchise (Stargate seems to have some, too.), and I kind of wonder why.

Obviously, they’re not actually that popular anymore and have faded into kitsch, as the only plate that seems to have come out since DS9/VOY era is the Lower Decks Tom Paris plate - there are no DSC, PIC, Kelvin, or even ENT plates, while newer Star Wars plates don’t seem all that common as well unless you want paper plates.

I’m wondering if it has to do with 2 factors, still somewhat true today but especially in the 1990s:

• Both Star Wars and Star Trek are decently large fan bases with large proportions of very passionate fans that are more likely to make purchases based on their fandom.
• Both tended to attract (and still do) an upper middle class to upper class demographic (Somehow, Bezos can call himself Trekkie 🤦‍♂️) with more disposable income to spend on collecting.

These would have made the plates commercially viable, meaning to both inside and outside observers, plates became a stereotype of the fandoms.

Anyhow, what are your thoughts?

P.S. Wow, this is starting to feel like a meta version of Daystrom.

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.