[+] Star Trek Discovery (Fan) Thread

[Maxperson]

So, over arching plot theorizing. All dilithium blows up at the same time. That has to be some form of sabotage. There's no way that's natural. But, it would make sense that the Federation would fall apart so badly. Every star system would be cut off almost instantly throughout the Federation and Klingon Empire. The Romulans might have avoided it, but, they are very far away, and, that far into the future, they might have integrated dilithium into their space ships anyway.

It could have been some sort of subspace or spore dimension pulse. It may have even been caused by the Discovery as it moved through time. Perhaps time travel clashed with the spore element.

 

[Maxperson]

True of the shields. For phasers, it'll just take longer to recharge their energy banks after firing them - Starfleet didn't start powering phasers directly from the warp engine until around the time of the Enterprise refit just before Star Trek The Motion Picture.

Probably a moot point in any case, given how outclassed both their shields and weapons must be at this point. Illustrated in the last episode when just a brace of torpedoes completely collapsed their shields.

It did more than just collapse the shields. It also tore their hull a new one. I was a bit surprised when they were like, "Discovery is leaving now." rather than, "Hey, you guys mind if we take a few weeks while you repair the damage you caused to the ship?"

 

[ART!]

I have some commentary on the new season in general, and the particular emotional timbre of Discovery — which is getting much clearer and is used to much better effect now — but for now let me just say “Forget Me Not” is one of the best episodes in the franchise.

(3rd season anti-curse in full effect!)

Yeah, it's a very emotional episode. There's a very strong theme so far this season of connection and communication.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, that hit the feels.

Nice to see that not everyone they meet will be automatically hostile and/or distrustful. They pop in, nice and peaceful, and folks are pretty nice and peaceful back. Ok, there was a bit of conflict, but, that came later.

What is it though with Star Trek and its fascination with early 20th century black and white movies?

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, that hit the feels.

Nice to see that not everyone they meet will be automatically hostile and/or distrustful. They pop in, nice and peaceful, and folks are pretty nice and peaceful back. Ok, there was a bit of conflict, but, that came later.

What is it though with Star Trek and its fascination with early 20th century black and white movies?

There’s no post-20th century culture in Star Trek. Culture stopped for 300 years. So all they watch and listen to is 20th century stuff.

 

[Dire Bare]

What is it though with Star Trek and its fascination with early 20th century black and white movies?

My thoughts also . . .

Why not Richard Pryor or Lenny Bruce? John Mulaney?

I think they keep doing this because to choose a more modern artist might break the suspension of disbelief a bit, or that's the fear. With our story taking place in the distant future, and our cultural callbacks in the past, we are avoiding the present reality . . .

About the only time I can remember a more modern reference, is J.J. Abrams insistence of including Beastie Boys songs in all of his Star Trek movies! Which I loved, by the way!

 

[Janx]

There’s no post-20th century culture in Star Trek. Culture stopped for 300 years. So all they watch and listen to is 20th century stuff.

When was the Eugenics wars? 1990s. Technically, a whole swath of culture shouldn't exist (at least in the sense of what we actually have from the 90s and up for a bit). The members of Pearl Jam were the first to die when Colonel Green attacked the western coast of North America. So much flannel on fire...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yeah, some people got angry when they mentioned Elon Musk alongside "historical" figures. But I think there is a challenge in creating a fictional popular culture across several centuries.
And referencing actual modern stuff - you can't just reference anything modern without paying some licensing fee for it. All the "classic" stuff - copyrights, trademarks, whatever, all have long passed.

---

This was a fantastic episode. In a way, it also felt really relevant to today because of our life with the pandemic adding a permanent "stress" factor to many people's life - but it was, AFAIK, written and filmed before the whole thing started. But I'd argue this made the show even better.

It seems intersting that the Trill say there aren't enough hosts available anymore - that suggests that they lost a lot of unjoined Trill in the urn, which seems surprising - it seemed to me that the joined Trill that all went through the rigorous Trill training programs would be the most at risk, because they probably leave the homeworld and go see the universe. It didn't seem the planet itself was harmed by anything. Or had particularly the unjoined Trill gone into diaspora because there were no symbionts at home, leaving the planet with an overall low population, but all the unjoined symbionts still constrained to the Trill homeworld, potential joining candidates being recruited from all the Trill colonies?
Or have the Trill forgotten that there are a lot more viable hosts than they publically claim?

 

[Morrus]

And referencing actual modern stuff - you can't just reference anything modern without paying some licensing fee for it.

Of course you can. You can mention anything you like. In fact, they'd probably pay you.

I went to McDonalds last month. See!

Now, you can't libel anything, or represent yourself as being endorsed by them (or as being them, which is why I can't put a D&D logo on my book), but that's a different matter. I can still mention D&D in my novel.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yeah, some people got angry when they mentioned Elon Musk alongside "historical" figures. But I think there is a challenge in creating a fictional popular culture across several centuries.
And referencing actual modern stuff - you can't just reference anything modern without paying some licensing fee for it. All the "classic" stuff - copyrights, trademarks, whatever, all have long passed.

As Morrus pointed out, you can certainly mention something without worrying about copyrights or trademarks. You can even hire an actor to portray a "modern" artist in the holodeck . . .

Where things get held up though, is playing video clips or music tracks without first securing the rights. So, in the latest Disco episode, they couldn't have played clips from Eddie Murphy's "Raw" comedy special without first securing the rights from Eddie Murphy. The wouldn't be able to play a song from Peal Jam's catalog, recorded or a "cover" played by a Starfleet person, without the rights.

It's definitely easier and less hassle to use old stuff that is in the public domain. I don't think that's the only reason why they do it, but I'm sure it's part of it.

But with living artists . . . there are tons of living artists who are also super Trekkies and would pay CBS for the chance to appear as themselves in a Star Trek episode . . . .