come to quark's quark's is fun

star trek and quantum leap and babylon 5 and red dwarf and the expanse and farscape, prob mostly star trek though

[ensignrospromotion]

my star trek progress:

TOS: ■■■ (season 3/3)

TAS: ■■ (season 2/2)

TNG: ■■■■■■■ (season 7/7)

DS9: ■■■■■■■ (season 7/7)

VOY: ■■■■■■■ (season 7/7)

ENT: ■■■■ (season 4/4)

LD: ■■■□ (season 3/4)

PIC: ■□□□ (season 1/4)

SNW: ■■ (season 2/2)

[insectsect]

A Jadzia as this 1988 Escada Ad for fun and also because i havent drawn her yet (i love her) (seriously)

[fromstarstuff]

21 year old anxious wreck pushover junior officer ezri dax who is pressured into saying yes to the symbiont even though she doesn’t want it and loses her sense of self overnight as a result i am so fond of you and wish the writers weren’t cowards

[kelvintimeline]

Andy Wier going on an anti-woke podcast to promote his film (Project Hail Mary) and trash Star Trek (after his own ST project got rejected) just for Trekkies to terrorize him into an apology with a day… That’s one way to ruin your cutesy neo-liberal brand at breakneck speed

[kelvintimeline]

Genuinely such a dumb cunt thing to say while still trying to get Star Trek money:

“I dislike social commentary. Like… I really hate it. When I’m reading a book, I just want to be entertained, not preached at by the author. Plus, it ruins the wonder of the story if I know the author has a political or social axe to grind. I no longer speculate about all possible outcomes of the story because I know for a fact that the universe of that book will conspire to ensure that the author’s political agenda is validated. I hate that,” Weir said. “I put no politics or social commentary into my stories at all. Anyone who thinks they see something like that is reading it in on their own. I have no point to make, and I’m not trying to affect the reader’s opinion on anything. My sole job is to entertain, and I stick to that.”

[offonaherosjourney]

Here is a list of all the politics and social commentary Andy Weir did in fact include in the Project Hail Mary book that I can recall at the top of my head:

When Grace is still incredibly amnesiac and manages to remember what his apartment looks like, he remarks the lack of feminine touches in the decoration and casually wonders if this means he is single or maybe gay.

Upon learning of the astrophage problem, all the nations of the world get their shit together in record time and give Stratt basically unlimited power, authority and resources to do whatever is necessary to save Earth. This itself is a political choice. Pair it with the vastly different real world response world leaders have to climate change and it becomes a social commentary, sorry Andy but it really does.

The reason Grace decides to join the Hail Mary project is because of his students. He's in the middle of a class when he realizes the incredibly hard and bleak future that awaits his students due to the cooling Sun, and tells Stratt he wants to keep helping.

Shortly after figuring out how astrophage reproduce on his own, Grace is taken to the aircraft carrier, where he meets for the first time the other scientists involved in the project. After explaining his findings, a Chinese scientist announces their team has been able to reproduce Grace's findings, the implied reason being they had somehow spied on them.

During one of his first conversations with Rocky, Grace remarks on an unexpected hurdle of meeting aliens: pronouns. His conclusion is to just shrug and slap he/him pronouns on Rocky. There are no further conversations about this topic, not even when both of them are able to communicate fluently. Grace doesn't re-examinate his pronoun choice any further, nor, despite having a PhD in molecular biology and being curious about things like how Eridians eat, ask about Eridians' concepts of sex and gender.

Following that previous point, when Rocky mentions having a mate back home, Grace chooses for said mate the name Adrian. This is yet another reference to the Rocky movies, albeit a more obscure one, and a lot of the people that didn't realize this simply read both Rocky and Adrian as male and therefore gay.

One last bit re gender and sexuality is the fact that at no point during the book does Ryland Grace, a single man of unspecified sexuality, lament being single or express any sexual desires, which is why many people read him as being on the asexual spectrum.

The movie had to gloss over many things and completely skip over others, some of these later things were the incredible sacrifices and hardships Earth had to go through to survive until hopefully Project Hail Mary managed to find a solution to the astrophage problem. First off, in order to produce the astrophage fuel for the ship they paved a huge chunk of the Sahara desert, which had devastating ecological and climate consequences, altered or destroyed the homes and livelihoods of millions of people and created tons of refugees. Also, in order to win time and counter the effects of the cooling Sun, they start to nuke chunks of fucking Antarctica, because making climate change worse will make Earth hotter and therefore buy them time. The first time the scientist (a self-declared hippie ecologist) in charge of this orders the release of the bombs, he understandably breaks down and starts to cry. Needless to say, nuking the fucking Antarctica raises sea levels and also has horrendous ecological and climatic consequences and once again would in fact create millions of refugees. The fact that the book doesn't dwell on the consequences of any of these two actions doesn't change the fact that we as readers are supposed to extrapolate and put two plus two together whether Andy intended to or not. Expecting otherwise is frankly insulting.

At one point Stratt tells Grace what will happen to Earth while they await for the solution to the astrophage problem. She talks about the famines and how many people will die, but that's just the people that will starve to death. Millions more will die in the wars that will break out all over the planet because there is no way the richer and more powerful nations will be willing to share resources equally with the rest.

Grace gifts Rocky, a member of an alien species, a laptop that contains the sum of all human knowledge, history and media. He knows Rocky, but has never met other Eridians, and despite this he chooses to give it to them.

The fucking foundational plot of the book is interspecies collaboration, trust, and friendship. Choosing to meet and befriend an alien despite all the possible risks and dangers is just as political of a choice as choosing to kill an alien would be.

Andy Weir is very good at writing Cosmic Hope books about Space MacGyvers, but writing any kind of story is inherently full of a myriad of political and social commentary choices, whether you want to or not, and whether you realize it or not. Being unable to see or unwilling to admit this makes him a worse writer and frankly greatly mars part of his supposed genius.

[the-maddened-hatter]

I think 7 of 9 is one of the only people who could properly care for a tribble without hijinks ensuing.

Like she'd perfectly calculate the exact right amount of food to give it without giving it enough to generate a litter and introducing timing variations so it couldn't just adapt to a new set food standard.

She'd claim no particular attachment, but she is not remotely immune to its happy little cooing sounds aka "a pleasant auditory frequency".

Aside from wanting more snacks it has the best life any tribble could dream of, with tunnels, a hidey cave, a brush mat, warming stone, little cardboard maze, little sandbox, everything because "It requires further enrichment." It would have been fine after the first one or two additions, she just likes projects so now it lives in (slightly hungry) tribble heaven.

[stra-tek]

Fun fact, Uhura wasn't a linguist in TOS, she was the communications switchboard operator. The languages thing came about in the series bible for the unmade Phase II TV series (the pilot of which eventually became The Motion Picture), in order to give Nichelle/Uhura more to do. It subsequently became a staple of the novels and part of the character in the 2009 reboot and now in Strange New Worlds. IIRC, Nichelle wasn't happy in STVI that her character didn't know Klingon (something Into Darkness explictly fixed)

Growing up reading old novels (which took on the Phase II concepts as gospel), I had no idea Uhura didn't start off as a linguist until certain fans cried foul in '09.

[parrhesiac]

Also, quite clearly the linguistics background was introduced as core to the character of Hoshi Sato in ENT, intended to be the prototype of Uhura in a role that had been erased (replaced by the ship's computer) in TNG.

That position relative to the character of Uhura has been validated in SNW, where the linguistics background was made part of Uhura's character from the beginning, and connected to Hoshi Sato in "Those Old Scientists."

So for all intents and purposes, they didn't stop with salting it into Nichelle Nichols' character in the movies; at every turn, Trek writers have taken the opportunity to weave it in more deeply not only to Uhura, but also to the role she occupies.

So when the 2009 Star Trek movie was made, of course it became core to Zoe Saldana's version—but we immediately see Pike boot his current comms officer out of the seat because he's shown up as a poor linguist.

It makes sense that Gene would not have made that essential to the role of comms officer on what was essentially a US Navy vessel, because from his experience a comms officer wasn't a practicing linguist; they were a practicing cryptographer.

That remains the key role that the computer has usurped throughout Star Trek: the cryptographic aspect of military communications is no longer a human task (unless something makes it necessary to the plot of a story).

And it does make sense that linguistics replaces cryptography as a basic aspect of the job—but that, too, is a layer of complexity not original to Gene's universe. The universal translator had always already made that problem go away, unless it was necessary to the plot of a story that the perfect, invisible solution to that problem fail.

So of course that only arises in Phase II, because Gene had otherwise handwaved it out of TOS, presumably so not every story had to climb that hurdle. We see that ENT decided it was worth making the series deal with climbing that linguistic hurdle as a key aspect of humans making their way into galactic society, but that's far more cerebral than would have sold when TOS was being pitched.

And when they decided the Enterprise series would deal with that very cerebral plot aspect, who did they give it to? The Uhura character, just in the person of Hoshi Sato. In the wake of all of that development and nuance given to Uhura's actual character in Nichelle Nichols' hands (or fumbled embarrassingly before it got to her hands, as in STVI), they made that intellectual heavy-lifting job go to another woman of color, played by Linda Park, sitting in the prequel-prototype of Uhura's chair. Someone the ship couldn't leave dock without. Someone who would also act as the captain's diplomatic coach for dealing with every culture they would come into contact with. Someone also designed to be a key viewpoint character for the audience, whose reactions were always a noticeable emotional key to what was going on.

And it's because of the development of Hoshi Sato as such an essential character to the narrative that all of this development also then folds back into the character of Uhura, first in ST2009 as an alternative equilateral triangle point for Kirk and Spock in what becomes a core rhombus with Bones, and then in SNW as the absolute most visible cadet trainee and viewpoint character. That MCE never was originally intended to go to Uhura, but starting with Nichelle Nichols it got claimed for her, over and over and over, piece by piece, until it was so integral to her character that it had to be retconned in where originally absent. Vastly more than a switchboard operator, vastly more than a linguist, vastly more than a token representation of social progress.

[shnaodo1]

I love this because it also goes with the theme from ENT that they were not a warship, they were a science and exploration vessel. When Hoshi gets captured by the Xindi and they use her to decrypt the third language needed to launch the weapon against earth she explicitly says she’s a linguist not a cryptographer. And as Malcom’s tactical role evolves into a security position, so eventually does Hoshi—into a hybrid of the computer doing linguistics interpretation and finally the emergence and need for cultural compasses like Deanna, Neelix, and Quark.

Hoshi and Uhura had to be both. Cultural pulse and cryptographer - the ultimate communicator.

QUEENS

[tegdoh]

In 'Who Mourns for Adonis' Uhura is shown connecting a bypass circuit to repair the com panel. I can't express what an impression that made on me as a young girl watching TOS reruns in the 70s. Women didn't use tools, much less solder. Women weren't engineers. The bypass circuit is her idea. Spock assures her that he can think of "no one better equipped to handle it." So yeah, linguistics is cool too. But Uhura was an engineer first.

[dduane]

...Some of us invented Uhura being a linguist without ever having seen or known anything about ST: Phase II.

...Just sayin'. :)

(ETA for a quick addendum: It's wise to remember that not everything that happens in Trek [regardless of its heritage or generation] happens because of something Roddenberry did, or in reaction to something that he didn't. Some things just make sense to do.)

[puddleofbugs]

wait so why did michael burnham have a little baby vulcan bowl cut to reflect her logical upbringing when vulcans like tuvok with natural curls exist

[lady-lazarus-13]

Racism

[lady-lazarus-13]

Okay let me answer that in more nuanced way. Michael's hair was super important to showing us as an audience her character journey.

Before she was adopted by Sarek, her hair was natural and out.

Then she arrived on Vulcan. Sarek most likely didn't say anything, it would be illogical to treat Michael differently compared to the other children.

But she was taken in by two white people. Neither of them had her hair texture. So not only was she probably going to school with her hair undone, but compared to her peers they would all have very sleek uniform haircuts.

Tuvok though is a great example, but if you look at that man's hairline, I'm not fully convinced of Black Vulcan haircare.

Anyway, Black hair is a very political thing though we would rather not have it be that way. Our hair can determine if we get jobs or not. A young boy in Texas recently got suspended from school for having a certain hairstyle that the school claimed was "distracting."

While we can assume racism on Vulcan isn't exactly the same, there were Vulcans who felt Michael was so 'other' they tried to kill her. So while she wasn't necessarily being targeted because of her hair, she was probably ostracized further by her classmates and Vulcans around town.

Not only was she being judged for how she spoke, talked, dressed, but also her curly, frizzy, human, Black hair.

Canon-wise we can guess Michael's hair was done in a particular way to reflect her environment and exert control over her life. In the first two episodes ever of the series, she has this very cute pixie that begins to curl up over time. The next time we see her in episode 3, her hair no longer has future relaxer. It is completely reverted, but not styled. During her time in prison, she's given up on it. Even exerting energy over her hair in prison wasn't worth it because Michael had lost all ability to find control of her life. ((Still cute though))

We also see texturism show up in episode 3 right away with the introduction of Tilly. It is continuously brought up that Tilly's mom hated her hair, tried to control her hair, straighten it. Why? Because texturism is still a societal issue in Star Trek.

Later when Michael arrives in the future, as time goes on and she changes so does her hair. She explores new styles and gets comfortable with doing her natural hair.

Eventually she sticks with braids which fit with her current lifestyle and all the running around she does, but braids also show a level of control. It takes a lot of time and patience to braid your own hair.

((omg did Book braid it for her??? I'm writing that drabble right noooow.))

Anyway, a lot of great story telling was done utilizing Michael's hair. But unless you've experienced racism and/or texturism it's harder to notice it.

[worflesbian]

BTS of the Klingon costumes in Starfleet Academy s1e4, from the instagram of costume designer Avery Plewes: x

[overseer-picard]

I think the reason modern vernacular sounds really off in the new Star Trek shows is because the old writers treated Star Trek as a period piece and purposefully scrubbed the language of as many time-period identifiers as they could.

Small things slip in occasionally, and it’s usually limited to certain characters. Geordi speaks more casually than Picard, Picard speaks more casually than Worf, etc. But Star Trek has always had, as Patrick Stewart puts it, “elevated language” to enhance the sense that we are watching something in a time set apart from our own. I'm not just postulating here, multiple writers talk about this in behind the scenes content.

Language usage is vital for world building. This is a writing 101 rule.

Imagine if Mr. Darcy told Elizabeth Bennett that he thought she was “super hot”. Or if he even said “that’s cool”. It would sound ridiculous, right?

With futuristic periods, some writers like to create slang. This has mixed results and is usually distracting. So, the OG Trek teams did the other option which is to keep language formal. Scrub it. Slang changes by the year, formal language changes by the century. This also adds to the disciplined setting of Starfleet.

I know the new writing teams think the mid 2020’s style speech is “more relatable” but it’s actually a pretty big technical blunder on the world-building front. It will also result in the shows aging poorly because now they’ve been branded with period-specific language that will inevitably go out of use. Which is something the older shows have largely avoided.

[section-69]

Judging from actor interviews, part of it's a related push towards (contemporary) naturalism - Star Trek actors are allowed to improv now. In the old shows, directors were extremely strict about the actors being word-perfect, and any changes had to be approved by the writers. But in the modern shows, there's none of that oversight, and actors (who aren't writers and aren't evoking any period but the now) can adlib.

Not blaming the majority of poor writing on the actors, but the attitude towards the script being so much more casual now... To me, it adds to the vibe of unprofessionalism I see in new Trek.

[overseer-picard]

^^ very good point. Turns out letting Patrick Stewart talk like Patrick Stewart ruins the suspension of disbelief that I’m watching a fictional character named Picard.

[aroace-ryland-grace]

my contribution to threshold day

[tpols]

SPOCK and CHRISTINE + HANDS

[garaks-padded-bra]

So what was Chapel going for when she got nails of different lengths on her thumbs. Theories anyone

[lady-lazarus-13]

The acrylics drone was broken that week. So she just had the au naturales. Being a nurse is hard.

[respocked]

During some of the polish uprisings, peasant soldiers didn't have suitable weapons (as serfs traditionally were not allowed to carry them), so they fought with farm equipment, like axes or scythes modified to point upwards instead of curving. I think Kira would appreciate the spirit of DIY so here is her with a scythe, because @deepspacescully asked me to draw Kira and it looks cool.

[the-uss-premise]

Spockanalia & Masiform D fanzines | Uncredited artist (possibly Devra or Debbie Langsam) 1968-75

[lakariancityamusementcenteradult]

I'm a huge lifelong fan of the the little face and nervous hand gesture O'Brien makes as he waits for Worf's reaction after he tries to make a joke to about the holosuites on the Enterprise always malfunctioning and then Worf doesn't react at all

[quarkfancam]

i was ready to hit you with a pipe wednesday

[quarkfancam]

and a joyful i was ready to hit you with a pipe wednesday to you all once more

[quarkfancam]

you know what day it is

[quarkfancam]

another wonderful i was ready to hit you with a pipe wednesday is upon us

[quarkfancam]

get a pipe for your loved ones in honor of i was ready to hit you with a pipe wednesday!

[quarkfancam]

it's meld monday... it's tuvok tuesday... No... it's i was ready to hit you with a pipe wednesday

[quarkfancam]

You'll never guess what day it is

[stra-tek]

What goes on here?

[publicdomaindrivein]

[tenderpoc]

Q: What is the most fun you have had in a role?

Sid: Fun might not be the right word here but my first acting job ever in a TV mini-series called Big Battalions (1992) took me to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem in the same month. Mecca was terrifying back then (it’s been done up since). I had to shave every conceivable hair on my body (except my head weirdly) because we were going to do “Umra” which is basically the mini version of Haj. Two of us, Raad Rawi and I, were acting and we had three nominal crew to shoot this ‘documentary’ (we had to lie about that bit). Cameras in the great mosque are kind of a no-no – someone had been stoned just for taking a snapshot only weeks previously and we had quite a big one, with a 200mm lens, sitting on the roof. Raad and I would basically walk in a big circle with the thousands of people who were gathered to pray while a crew member would walk past us and whisper, “action,” whereupon we’d stop reciting the prayers we’d learned and start our dialogue. It would have been a hair-raising experience had I not already shaved most of mine off. Needless to say, our ‘man’ from the Saudi Ministry of Culture was arrested and disappeared about two days into our shoot.

[echologorrhea]

Answering the title of our previous episode