Please never, as long as I'm with him.

what up i'm siegfried's sci-fi sideblog :) posting about doctor who, star trek, star wars, and quantum leap (with occasional appearances from other sci fi)!

[squantumcreap]

quantum leap is like doctor who if every episode was city on the edge of forever from star trek

[the-evil-skull]

When I was growing up, my childhood best friend and I used to joke about the "Tom Baker pain expression." Watch any story during this era, usually around the cliffhanger of episode three, and you'll see it. The Doctor appears to be not simply in discomfort, but in horrible, writhing, unendurable agony. His face is contorted, his teeth are showing, and his eyes are screwed shut.

It's glorious.

For me, the "Tom Baker pain expression" pretty much, says everything about why I love this era of Doctor Who so much. The central character is played by a man who just goes for it, every single time. That pain the Doctor is going through? It's real. It's horrible. It's terrifying. I think the word I'm searching for is... visceral.

The Doctors Are In: The Essential and Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who's Greatest Time Lord ( Graeme Burke and Robert Smith)

[the-evil-skull]

The twelfth doctor so far is very like the fourth doctor isn't he? Right off the bat in into the dalek Capaldi is very Bakerish, he's blunt, he's glib, he's patronizing, he's callous, he's economical, he's contemptuous of authority, and he doesn't pretend for anyone. The eleventh doctor previously lived for centuries on Christmas, Trenzalore, where he was physically incapable of lying and was at the end of a lifetime of hiding his rage under a whimsical veneer. The third doctor lived for years cut off from his TARDIS surrounded by "military idiots" as punishment for being a renegade. I suppose being trapped somewhere without real freedom just Does That to the Doctor

[overseer-picard]

It’s difficult to fully articulate the hold that Patrick Stewart had on audiences when TNG was airing. Between the hundreds of magazine covers, the talk show circuits, and the paparazzi nonsense, the amount of baldness puns editors were compelled to create was astounding.

It was like the media fixated on this man because he had catastrophic levels of charisma and audiences were losing their minds over him (TNG was regularly beating network shows in ratings), yet he was so far removed from the narrow Hollywood standards of beauty that it vexed and haunted these people for years.

Baldness was a joke in Hollywood. 75% of George Costanza's identity revolved around bald jokes. If you were a bald actor, you were cast as a villain or a buffoon, never the hero. And if you were losing your hair, you had to slap a wig on or risk losing your career. Yul Brynner was somewhat of an exception but he was from a much different generation of Hollywood and even Bruce Willis didn't fully shave his head until 1994 (post TNG success incidentally).

In Patrick Stewart's case, there was often an undercurrent of snide putdowns with many interviewers, drawing focus to his baldness over and over and over again with low hanging jokes. It was like you could see their vanity-based paradigms cracking in real time and it was strange to witness. Imagine how bizarre it would be if talk show hosts today could only ask The Rock, Vin Diesel, or Jason Statham about their bald heads.

But karma swooped in to the rescue. In 1992 Stewart was voted TV Guide's "Sexiest Man on Television" with a whopping 54% of votes. He beat out the likes of Luke Perry, John Corbett, A. Martinez, and even Burt Reynolds (with a total of 20 contenders).

The middle-aged bald guy in the syndicated sci-fi show beat out the hottest of the Hot Guys™️ and it wasn't even remotely close.

^ Bald joke

So yeah, today he's an old, revered thespian who is occasionally Charles Xavier, but not only did Patrick Stewart pave the way for other bald actors to be considered leading men, he discombobulated Hollywood with his unconventional attractiveness and it was amazing.

[beardycarrot]

Don't forget that he originally auditioned for TNG with a wig on, and the executives were sold on his performance... but then swooped into the dressing room right after so they could see him without it. They wanted to see for themselves how authoritative yet approachable he came across with his natural bald head.

Now, I don't actually know which wig it was that he auditioned with... he apparently got The Wig Mandate last-minute, so his wife had to pick one out from one of the plays he had recently acted in. Rumor has it that it was the wig he wore in "I, Claudius".

...But this is the image usually associated with the story:

I've heard people claim that they decided to let him go without a wig because they just couldn't arrive at anything that looked natural, or that they didn't want to deal with having to put the main character in a wig every day. These people are obviously just making stuff up without actually thinking very deeply about it; for every single scene featuring Worf, who appears in all but four episodes of TNG, Michael Dorn had to be fitted with a latex forehead and makeup, a wig, and fake facial hair.

The reality is that Patrick Stewart looked perfect as-is, and it sent a strong message. In a near-utopian, post-scarcity society, in which you can do whatever you want to do, be whoever you want to be, and look however you want to look... some people choose to be bald.

[overseer-picard]

It’s difficult to fully articulate the hold that Patrick Stewart had on audiences when TNG was airing. Between the hundreds of magazine covers, the talk show circuits, and the paparazzi nonsense, the amount of baldness puns editors were compelled to create was astounding.

It was like the media fixated on this man because he had catastrophic levels of charisma and audiences were losing their minds over him (TNG was regularly beating network shows in ratings), yet he was so far removed from the narrow Hollywood standards of beauty that it vexed and haunted these people for years.

Baldness was a joke in Hollywood. 75% of George Costanza's identity revolved around bald jokes. If you were a bald actor, you were cast as a villain or a buffoon, never the hero. And if you were losing your hair, you had to slap a wig on or risk losing your career. Yul Brynner was somewhat of an exception but he was from a much different generation of Hollywood and even Bruce Willis didn't fully shave his head until 1994 (post TNG success incidentally).

In Patrick Stewart's case, there was often an undercurrent of snide putdowns with many interviewers, drawing focus to his baldness over and over and over again with low hanging jokes. It was like you could see their vanity-based paradigms cracking in real time and it was strange to witness. Imagine how bizarre it would be if talk show hosts today could only ask The Rock, Vin Diesel, or Jason Statham about their bald heads.

But karma swooped in to the rescue. In 1992 Stewart was voted TV Guide's "Sexiest Man on Television" with a whopping 54% of votes. He beat out the likes of Luke Perry, John Corbett, A. Martinez, and even Burt Reynolds (with a total of 20 contenders).

The middle-aged bald guy in the syndicated sci-fi show beat out the hottest of the Hot Guys™️ and it wasn't even remotely close.

^ Bald joke

So yeah, today he's an old, revered thespian who is occasionally Charles Xavier, but not only did Patrick Stewart pave the way for other bald actors to be considered leading men, he discombobulated Hollywood with his unconventional attractiveness and it was amazing.

[beardycarrot]

Don't forget that he originally auditioned for TNG with a wig on, and the executives were sold on his performance... but then swooped into the dressing room right after so they could see him without it. They wanted to see for themselves how authoritative yet approachable he came across with his natural bald head.

Now, I don't actually know which wig it was that he auditioned with... he apparently got The Wig Mandate last-minute, so his wife had to pick one out from one of the plays he had recently acted in. Rumor has it that it was the wig he wore in "I, Claudius".

...But this is the image usually associated with the story:

I've heard people claim that they decided to let him go without a wig because they just couldn't arrive at anything that looked natural, or that they didn't want to deal with having to put the main character in a wig every day. These people are obviously just making stuff up without actually thinking very deeply about it; for every single scene featuring Worf, who appears in all but four episodes of TNG, Michael Dorn had to be fitted with a latex forehead and makeup, a wig, and fake facial hair.

The reality is that Patrick Stewart looked perfect as-is, and it sent a strong message. In a near-utopian, post-scarcity society, in which you can do whatever you want to do, be whoever you want to be, and look however you want to look... some people choose to be bald.

[atomikats]

his first point was going to be “i don’t even get up at night to pee”

[tgirl-gaming-thoughts]

anyone want pics of my holes?

[tgirl-gaming-thoughts]

[tgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My favorite responses to this post so far

and finally, god please no

[virtualgirladvance]

Yoooooo what that ethernet port do?

Damn you look easy to do maintenance on

[athena-cat-wizard-official]

this is how laptops used to look. but then they removed all the holes. because of woke

[automatonwithautonomy]

love when people arrive on ds9 and they're like. hey so what's up with the guy running the only bar who is clearly scamming everyone. is that not. illegal. and the officers are like oh is quark scamming people too obviously? we'll send odo. to arrest him? no. they'll exchange psychosexual threats and leer at each other. and that will stop the crime? haha. of course not.

[concentratedbastardenergy]

I’ve seen a lot of really great posts about phm and it’s messaging about how it’s a teacher who saves the world, that our hope for the future lies in a belief and uplifting of science and educators. Which like hell yeah brother, I’m with you!

But I have seen basically no one talk about how it’s not just an educator who saves us, but a historian too. Stratt studied history and for all the amazing and impressive and terrifying things that woman was and did, she was at her core a historian. She loved humanity so much that knowing it as it was in her lifetime wasn’t enough, she wanted to know who we used to be and why. Part of that history background informed her actions- she knew how people respond in a crisis because she’s seen it before throughout human history- she knew that eventually alliances would break down, that collaboration only lasts so long. She knew what she was walking into when she headed up the project- both for herself and for humanity at large but it didn’t matter because she loved beyond consequences. She studied humanity at its lowest points and at its peaks. And in spite of and because of all that we have done, Stratt saw love and value and the need for a future.

She copied (technically stole) as much knowledge and art and music and human ingenuity as she could and gave it a home in the stars. And yes her basically stealing the internet and all copyrighted material is played off for a bit of comedic relief and shown as a bit of kindness for the crew of the Mary, but I see it as so much more than that. Stratt wanted to save as many lives on Earth as she could, but she also wanted to save humanity- our collective history, accomplishments, all of our triumphs and losses. She preserved as much as she could on that tiny little blip of aluminum and wires, so that in case this whole thing failed- in case she failed or the crew failed or the science of it all failed- a part of who we are would remain in the stars, waiting for someone as curious as we are to learn from it.

A lot of people don’t always see the value in history, or if they do it’s on a very surface level of well we need to know where we were to know where we are now but it’s so much more. History at its heart is about hope for a future. We study history to better understand humanity so we can plan for and create what comes next. History is a love for ourselves that transcends time and consequences and Stratt knew that. She felt that. It was her core belief. Humanity was saved by a science teacher, but it was also saved by a historian. Hell yeah.

[mouse-doubleo100]

every sixth doctor episode opening:

peri: doctor, theres something wrong with you, please i think you need to seek professional help

six: nonsense peri, would a mentally ill person be able to do this?

-tardis proceeds to blow up

six: hmm, thats not supposed to happen. well come along now peri, i guess we dont have time to examine any mental illnesses i may or may not have

[frailgal]

[gayfour]

Okay fine here he is

[spocktoy]

his what? sorry, master, his what? his what?

[natequarter]

Time Lord: And it's like, she doesn't even see me.

Human: I know how you feel. My mum's like that, every time I go home she acts like I'm dead.

Time Lord: Yeah, I think that's the worst part. I'm not dead. I just want to shake here and tell her, I'm standing right here, I'm still the same person. I haven't gone anywhere. It's only you who doesn't see me.

Human: Man, that sounds familiar. I hope your friend stops being such a transphobic piece of shit.

Time Lord: What?

[sanguine-humor]

phm is decently popular in japan and i mostly see this when i check twitter and see accounts posting pictures of handmade rocky plushies that are so fucking round looking it brings a tear to my eye

[sanguine-humor]

he keeps me sane

[sanguine-humor]

btw, idk if this will be seen by any of the countless people who already have seen and reblogged this post, but heres the original guide posted on how to make the chibi-rocky! the OP also has a separate guide for a more accurate rocky, though obviously less simple of a guide than the little thingy shown off

(im surprised this post gained any attention, haha, if i had known i would have just shared the guides, the more handmade pebbles in the world the better)

[evstratt]

RYAN GOSLING AS RYLAND GRACE & LIONEL BOYCE AS CARL | PROJECT HAIL MARY (2026)

[ratthumbsup]

one of my favorite minor things in network effect is how often mensah's family is interrogating murderbot about its relationship with her. what are you to her? what is she to you? why does she need you in a way she doesn't need me? do you need her too?

and of course knowing the answer to these questions would mean looking directly at an emotion it's experiencing and so it will not do that and so it does not have an answer. plus, any answer it could give won't really line up with their expectations of what a relationship is.

but i don't know, if my wife or sibling couldn't go anywhere without her new friend after she was kidnapped and almost killed, and when we try to talk to her about it she calls over the new friend to escort her away from the conversation and holds its hand for comfort, even though one of the very specific things in its contract is that it will not be touched. i'd be pretty curious about what's going on there too.