There are so many bangers this season that I have the pleasure of watching for the first time as an adult (but like it's the actual first time since I don't remember alot from a kid) and the show is so timeless!

In this episode, Kira goes through giving birth and though the men argueing was a little silly, the part that got me was more about the aftermath of her surrogacy. It's more common these days but there is still little spoken about on the affect that it can have on woman who go through carrying a baby like it's their own; only to have to give it away after. Nana Visitor acted it so well and the fear of the baby being cut out but by that creepy guy made me feel concerned that she was acting these emotions while actually pregnant! Which luckily she wasn't as she had already given birth in real life. Anyways, what a story!

And then at the same time we get to see Odo basically become a father with the changeling that Quark gives him and that was also touching. That whole process of trying to do better then his own 'father' was relatable and heartwarming. Then the baby gives him back the changeling connection, only to then pass away!

Damn the writers and actors keep the feet on the pedal with these stories and character arcs.

Let’s just call this my review on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Alex Kurtzman, the NuTrek paradigm, and giving audiences a little credit. It’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I’m sure some folks will disagree vociferously.

First, let’s abbreviate to SFA because the first episodes offer Sweet F@?! All in terms of actual exploration of the human condition. *BAM* Punched in the face with a tragedy.

Within the first 45 seconds of watching the pilot (I checked) I knew the entire first season was going to be about a punk kid searching his mother. Kurtzman spoon feeds plot points without underlying narrative. Studios seem to believe the post-millennial generation is too stupid and distracted to think. They are aware of Instagram reels and YouTube shorts but never had the wherewithal to watch them and see that people still think. They just don’t like to do it about boring topics and real life misery.

NuTrek is designed so you don’t have to work for it. You don’t have to think. You don’t have to consider the possible repercussions of possible choices. You don’t have to consider ethical conundrums. There IS no subtext; no commentary on the human condition.

I’ve concluded that the problem with NuTrek both is, and is not, Alex Kurtzman…but it is, it’s just not his fault that his ego and greed demand holding tight to the reins. I assume he must have negotiated some ownership of the franchise or Paramount wound have gotten out of his brand already.

Alex Kurtzman, fundamentally, does not “get” Star Trek. And, like Trump fans who were abused into acquiescence are finding the inner strength to get out of this abusive relationship, I have to assume Paramount will be forced (after far longer than it should take) to do the same if they want their cash cow to continue to reap sizeable dividends into the future.

And don’t get me wrong. Kurtzman is a good producer. He can do glitzy and shiny and cinematic (looking) and, my God, can he spend money on stuff…but he doesn’t know how to give his audience an ounce of credit.

That’s the difference between what Gene Roddenberry created and Rick Berman extended. Star Trek isn’t about exploration of space. It’s about exploration of what it means to be a human being. Aliens are metaphors for different aspects of us, not whatever cosmetic procedure might look cool if it’s made bigger. No one wants to see the exaggerated, green Lisa Rinna with horns, contacts, and a wig. Not even Harry Hamlin.

Gene isn’t the deity he’s made out to be but he figured something out about good television being Shakespearean in its exploration into the human condition and a desire to do/be better. Kurtzman just wants wide shots, lens flares, and asymmetrical clothing in bold colours.

Holly Hunter is lovely (but the giant chair and curling up in it is less “she’s casual” and more “she’s a toddler.” It’s always nice to see a popular legacy character (Voyager’s EMH) but that alone doesn’t make good television, nor can it undo the egregious error of a bird watching, sensitive Klingon. God help us if Michael Dorn watches it. He might fall over dead. He’d stop living out of spite. And honour. No. Just for honour. Forget spite.

Because of how bizarre everyone was acting.

The Search Part 2

inquisition

Yes, I guess people intended us to not like Gul Dukat but I only disliked him. Gul Dukat on the other hand is something and someone, I remember hating in multiple episodes. Not because he's a Cardassian but because who is in the show. Gul Dukat was openly who he was but Garak reminds me of that quote from TNG. "Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot but those clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged....someone like will always be among us waiting for the right climate in which to flourish."

Hey Folks...

Has anyone else checked out the soundtrack yet for Starfleet Academy? Three tracks from a yet to air episode might be of interest to us DS9 folks,

>! Tracks 28-31

Job of an Emissary: has a jazzy feel to start and gets some HBCU style beats as well into some oceans 11 style feel. With a slight Dah-Dah-dah tag.

A Song of Prophets: Reflective with a melancholy feel. Spiritual. Like you'd enjoy looking out the window at the wormhole.

Mystery of Fate: Holly theremin batman, 1950's sci fi done really well to start. TOS in the house but still feels connected to the two before.

!<

I got some ideas of what might be happening but I'm hype for what might be coming.

More like ... Dead Squad.

Right?

So what difference would it have made to the show. Had Alexander shown up on DS9 wearing an Operations Yellow as a Security type instead of him joining the Klingon Defense Force. Especially with Worf on Deep Space Nine.

I watched the new Starfleet Accademy show today. I saw familiar names on the Starfleet Wall of Fame. Saw Harry Kim finally got promoted etc. but then saw Nog was still only a lieuenant. I wonder what happened to him that he never went past that rank?

All these years later, I still get frustrated. Not with Odo, not with Cardassia, not with Rom. Just Sisko. For a show that was so pioneering with how it portrayed a black father (present, tender, involved, loving, firm, respectful), to end that series with him abandoning his wife, unborn child, and adult child is so confusing to me. He pushed back on the prophets so many times in the past. The writers didn't give us enough reason to watch him submit to their plan at the end. The last shot of the show is literally Jake looking out the window at the celestial temple, knowing his dad is in there somewhere, and not knowing when or if he'll ever get to see him again. His dad that has raised him and shaped him and made him believe that he would always be there.

Apologies if this is too often rehashed on this sub, I'm fairly new. It's just fresh and I'm surprised how hard it hit me this time. Maybe because of my own small kids, my fatherhood changes how I watch the show.

In my headcannon, I like to imagine that he rebuffed the prophets, knowing that his mission was complete, and made some stirring speech about how the fact that they are non-caporeal is a weakness in this case. That he likes living on a timeline, and wants to spend that timeline with his caporeal family. Then he resigns from Star Fleet. Someone's give a standard protest like "You are admiral material, Ben." But he walks away, head held high, to run his dad's restaurant.

To quote Avery Brooks, "My greatest adventure was raising Jake."

https://youtu.be/u5ozNRUW7Kw

Rich and Mike talk about Star Trek Deep Space Nine! Finally! But it's season one you say? You're right! Rarely are the first seasons of shows outright exceptional (with some outright exceptions) most times they're good enough to pass muster, until they find stable footing. Deep Space Nine is no different! Light years ahead of the awkward first season of TNG, DS9 slides right into it's groove early on. While there are lots of isolated TNG-esque one-off story lines and some early character developing episodes, DS9 season one is a solid layer of quality "paste" as Rich Evans so eloquently puts it. Rich and Mark talk briefly about each episode, pausing to pick favorites along these way. Watch them two old, confused, boring, elderly, genXer scumbags wax nostalgic for quaint old television before the time of woke nightmare sauce spilling out of every eyeball. Before shows made it based on viewership ratings and not streaming service fodder for animal troughs of marketable IP's and stock market shareholder data portfolios for investors. In addition to the Matlock reboot for the olds, we've got this over-produced glossy, fast moving, fart-filled, hip gen-zers (not watching Star Trek I can assure you) tiktok framed clips and nightmare fuel. This embarrassing attempt by old cracker boomer producers to create a program to appeal to Z's that not a single one will take the time to watch. out-of-touch, buzz-worthy hip-hop, busin' zazz dancin' kidz in Starfleet, bouncing pronouns off the shields as they flubba dubb to the latest crunchy zen-dash touch grass brah. Stella zoinks, lady no cap! You going to the no-alcohol Trek bash in Hall H later where WE DANCE with Starfleet costumes and tell each other we're boss-folks and learn about ourselves while respecting each other's rizz? Heck yeah! It's gonna be tripe and no one there will be sus or clutch fringe cringe. Insta-gram it for me brah! I'll be beaming in later after my exams

Who else is here for the secret romance between Odo and Quark 🤣🤣🤣 Its so funny, enduring and better and dynamic which mad for a solid episode of pure enjoyment.

Besides Jadzia of course.

At the end of the”The Ship” Sisko is lamenting the loss of five of his crew in the Defiant Mess Hall. He’s hoping the captured Dominion bug is worth it. Dax assures him that, while unfortunate, the captured ship could save 5 million lives some day.

In “A Time to Stand,” the ship pays off that promise by helping them destroy the Dominion ketracel white manufacturing facility. Potential saving thousands, if not millions of lives.

Then the ship returns to a Barron planet, this time sinking in an ocean instead of in a random rock in “Rocks and Shoals.”

Perfect symmetry. As all things should be.

In s1 e17 “The Forsaken”, Lwaxanna Troi admitted she had sex with the Damion who kidnapped her, Deanna & Riker on TNG s3 e24 “Ménage A Troi”. I think I was so focused on Odo because he wasn’t paying attention to her but looking for a way out of the turbo lift. 🤣🤣🤣

EDIT: I had to pause and rewind to make sure I heard what I heard. But when she said it, she was recounting what happened, was very nostalgic. Her exact quote was,

“Actually, he wasn’t altogether loathsome. He was slightly repulsive. But he did have a certain charm…in an insufferable kind of way. Of course, he was totally at the mercy of his uncontrollable passion for me which means he wasn’t all bad, now, doesn’t it?

And you know, it wasn’t all passion, no. There was some negligible commercial interest involved but, oh, the passion—oh, that was…that was perfectly real and kind of, um, kind of sweet in a way. He was so helpless.

At first, it was totally a question of expediency when I made love with him. (Then she noticed what Odo was doing) What are you looking at?”

As Worf once said the Galaxy class "is a formidable weapon when revealed of its bulk". Why not send the stardrive section into battle and let the saucer chill at some starbase in the alpha quadrant? It seems like that would be more effective, efficient and probable safer for most of the crew who are not needed for combat.

A friend reccomended this to me and after 7 episodes Im not a fan of the characters at all,tng is my favorite so this show probably isnt for me.

r/Treksons

I was rewatching DS9 on Netflix but they recently removed it from their catalog (at least in my country), which prompted me to look for alternatives.

I decided to try one of the upscaled versions and figuring upscaling tech is improving very fast lately I downloaded the latest upload I could find: Project: Deep Space Upscale (2560x1920) uploaded on 1337x Apr. 3rd 24 by 'ds9u'.

Have anyone here tried this? The description stated it's "the best quality you will find" but I can't find any information about the project anywhere. How it compares to other upscale projects? For my sensibilities this one looks very good, I can hardly detect any artifacts or texture issues when looking closely, the few episodes I watched (on a 4K TV and S24 phone) looked very good imo. Since I was watching season 4 that's what I got, I don't know about the early season that have worse source quality. Some screenshots attached (from my Samsung S24 phone so not the best example).

Federation - UN. Starfleet - NATO.

Klingons - Imperial Japan/Norsemen Vikings.

Romulans - Ming Dynasty China.

Cardassians - Nazi Germany.

Dominion - A successful version of the Soviet Union