kolmapäev, 13. detsember 2017
Dune the movie and series
I like the Dune movie for its very baroque and steampunk feel, but it seems that the plot was rushed, and that there was not enough world-building. The space-based special effects and the Toto soundtrack in the movie are timeless; compare with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.
Whereas the series is much better in terms of worldbuilding, character development, actor work, storytelling, and planetside visual effects. And that unforgettable music by Brian Tyler, which was used in the Star Trek 2009 trailer.
Space-based VFX in the series were very drab, though, and remain so to this day. Ultimately, if a Blu-ray version is ever made of the series, then the space-based effects should be redone entirely, and if Lynch and the movie studio are ever okay, then the space-based effects (especially the heighliners) should be fashioned after those in the movie.
That way, it would be an ideal combination with Lynch's baroque/steampunk elements, and good storytelling.
Unlike Star Trek/Star Wars and other science fiction, a lot of the Dune story happens planetside, and worldbuilt space tech is more like an afterthought.
teisipäev, 12. detsember 2017
Family, and character development on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Data did not develop much throughout the series. It was in Generations where he did. Wesley developed in the beginning, and we see plenty of that, but then he was "put on a shuttle".
Riker's development was just the beard (because he was getting visibly older at one point), and that over time, his midsection got softer and softer.
Troi did develop, albeit slowly, and we get to see her in different settings; her role as "Major Rakal" in "Face of the Enemy" stands out. Oh, Deanna's fab mom Lwaxana, a dead father and a dead sister she didn't know about.
Throughout TNG's run, Worf got the most development of all people, as we see him promoted once or twice, find a mate, have a child later on, and we get to see his brother Kurn, and his (Worf's) adopted parents.
Data had just as much: a grandfather in Dr. Ira Graves, a father in Dr. Soong, a mother in Juliana Soong Tainer, his late daughter Lal, an evil brother, and B4, presumably a half-brother.
Compared that, we only saw Picard's brother and maybe nephew; Riker had an estranged father, a dead mother, and a clone brother; Dr. Crusher was the widow of a dead husband.
Tasha had a sister whom we saw only after Tasha's death, and her alternative-universe self got into the prime universe, and had Sela.
Let's not forget Ensign Ro. Her life seemed in some ways to reflect that of Tasha. Ro eventually left Starfleet and joined the Maquis.
O'Brien married, and he and Keiko had a daughter.
In the end, I could posit, that TNG had character development, but it was slow for all characters, and there were few who had more than even the primary characters.
Riker's development was just the beard (because he was getting visibly older at one point), and that over time, his midsection got softer and softer.
Troi did develop, albeit slowly, and we get to see her in different settings; her role as "Major Rakal" in "Face of the Enemy" stands out. Oh, Deanna's fab mom Lwaxana, a dead father and a dead sister she didn't know about.
Throughout TNG's run, Worf got the most development of all people, as we see him promoted once or twice, find a mate, have a child later on, and we get to see his brother Kurn, and his (Worf's) adopted parents.
Data had just as much: a grandfather in Dr. Ira Graves, a father in Dr. Soong, a mother in Juliana Soong Tainer, his late daughter Lal, an evil brother, and B4, presumably a half-brother.
Compared that, we only saw Picard's brother and maybe nephew; Riker had an estranged father, a dead mother, and a clone brother; Dr. Crusher was the widow of a dead husband.
Tasha had a sister whom we saw only after Tasha's death, and her alternative-universe self got into the prime universe, and had Sela.
Let's not forget Ensign Ro. Her life seemed in some ways to reflect that of Tasha. Ro eventually left Starfleet and joined the Maquis.
O'Brien married, and he and Keiko had a daughter.
In the end, I could posit, that TNG had character development, but it was slow for all characters, and there were few who had more than even the primary characters.
laupäev, 2. detsember 2017
Character development on Deep Space Nine
I can't claim, as if Garak's development was not phenomenal — it's all simply in the details. In the beginning, we learn from here and there, that Garak had to have been quite a ruthless operator, and was looking out for himself only. And Cardassia, if it benefited him. As time went on, he gradually began to look out and care for others. And Cardassia.
The show's characters all catered to different demographics. Like, Nog was there for the kids and aspiring youth, and Garak for a more discerning viewer. Think also about how Kira's relationship with her past evolves.
Interestingly, the most flawless characters were somewhat the most boring. There wasn't anything flawed about Dax, but I enjoyed seeing her romance with Worf. Or that Worf had a really romantic streak, and that he could give excellent advice on love (I should thank the writers). Ezri had the best Dax episode (meant to be 'special' for just her).
The stories revolving around Nog and Damar were a very modern take on the rags-to-riches theme. For some, it was like accelerated development. Some even had Cinderella themes (Rom).
Whereas with Kira, it was reconciling her past; with Quark, it was about being less greedy; and Bashir, well, he became less blue-eyed.
DS9 was overall about how each character developed as time went on, and it was really dynamic. In TNG, we don't see that kind of drastic character development, which hovered on being static. And now I'm not sure, which of those takes is more realistic.
The show's characters all catered to different demographics. Like, Nog was there for the kids and aspiring youth, and Garak for a more discerning viewer. Think also about how Kira's relationship with her past evolves.
Interestingly, the most flawless characters were somewhat the most boring. There wasn't anything flawed about Dax, but I enjoyed seeing her romance with Worf. Or that Worf had a really romantic streak, and that he could give excellent advice on love (I should thank the writers). Ezri had the best Dax episode (meant to be 'special' for just her).
The stories revolving around Nog and Damar were a very modern take on the rags-to-riches theme. For some, it was like accelerated development. Some even had Cinderella themes (Rom).
Whereas with Kira, it was reconciling her past; with Quark, it was about being less greedy; and Bashir, well, he became less blue-eyed.
DS9 was overall about how each character developed as time went on, and it was really dynamic. In TNG, we don't see that kind of drastic character development, which hovered on being static. And now I'm not sure, which of those takes is more realistic.
laupäev, 4. november 2017
The Q and the Borg
Written as a reply to a discussion thread under a YouTube video about the two subjects.
Why do the Q avoid 'provoking' the Borg?
The Borg are not afraid to enter alternate dimensions, or even to travel back in time. The Q exist on an alternate plane in a vulnerable form (as seen in Voyager), but they manifest as superbeings in our familiar Star Trek universe (or dimension, if you will).
To 'provoke' the Borg would be to capture their interest to the point of the Borg travelling to the Q-verse and causing mayhem there, or possibly even acquiring the powers of Q through assimilation.
Even if the Q managed to undo the damage, they must have resolved not to capture the interest of the Borg again.
My best theory is, that there might be a link between the Q and the Omega molecule, and that could be why the Borg are so interested in capturing one such molecule, and cultivating more of them.
Why do the Q avoid 'provoking' the Borg?
The Borg are not afraid to enter alternate dimensions, or even to travel back in time. The Q exist on an alternate plane in a vulnerable form (as seen in Voyager), but they manifest as superbeings in our familiar Star Trek universe (or dimension, if you will).
To 'provoke' the Borg would be to capture their interest to the point of the Borg travelling to the Q-verse and causing mayhem there, or possibly even acquiring the powers of Q through assimilation.
Even if the Q managed to undo the damage, they must have resolved not to capture the interest of the Borg again.
My best theory is, that there might be a link between the Q and the Omega molecule, and that could be why the Borg are so interested in capturing one such molecule, and cultivating more of them.
teisipäev, 24. oktoober 2017
Lethe, and Lorca's motivations.
Reply in this G+ thread.
Lorca has probably realised, that his command might be on somewhat wobbly feet, and so that seeming wobbliness has little to do with his ship, its crew, or the Klingons. There are many indications as to why. So, danger to his command manifests from outside the ship, not from within, and not because Lorca has his own issues.
On one hand, he likes Burnham, and her continued presence has given him a very good track record, especially with regard to getting the ship to jump multiple times, and making several missions successful. Essentially, winning. Burnham is like a good omen, or an amulet or talisman.
On the other hand, anyone he doesn't like, or which may potentially harm him, his command, or his ship, is put on a shuttle. Losses are inevitable during wartime.
On TNG, DS9, and Voyager, people usually survive a Starfleet shuttle trip. Sometimes, by only a hair's breadth, but still. But Discovery's track record of putting people on shuttles places the putting of Dr. Moriarty on a shuttle in TNG into what now is a very different context from back then.
Another problem is, that this young Starfleet apparently only accepts flawless people. The picture is different by TNG (Lt. Barclay).
I've noticed, that these apparently flawless people (Landry) do die on Star Trek: Discovery. Other Star Trek shows usually never show Starfleet officers of relative or low importance die, even if it's talked about. Granted, the the dead person is shown or talked about only after the death has occurred. And then an investigation happens. The difference is, that in Discovery, people are now shown on-screen, some of the viewers already root for even the minor characters, and then they die. Or maybe we have seen the comeback of redshirts in a different form.
I wouldn't see "Lethe" or every episode through the prism of trauma and other such afflictions.
Burnham's decisionmaking wrt the Klingons has, though, been informed by her trauma from her early childhood and the Klingon attack, but also the Vulcan drive to suppress her human emotions, which she's been unable to process properly for much of her life, especially when in a critical situation. The lack of war, and her posting on U.S.S. Shenzhou has shielded her from critical situations. The Battle of the Binary Stars was the first such occasion.
Whereas Lorca's conduct is not based on trauma, but survival instinct. Admiral Cornwell is also much too nosy, thinking the rescue mission to save Sarek as trivial. Strange that. For Lorca, Sarek is an important puzzle piece that keeps Burnham in order.
Lorca has probably realised, that his command might be on somewhat wobbly feet, and so that seeming wobbliness has little to do with his ship, its crew, or the Klingons. There are many indications as to why. So, danger to his command manifests from outside the ship, not from within, and not because Lorca has his own issues.
On one hand, he likes Burnham, and her continued presence has given him a very good track record, especially with regard to getting the ship to jump multiple times, and making several missions successful. Essentially, winning. Burnham is like a good omen, or an amulet or talisman.
On the other hand, anyone he doesn't like, or which may potentially harm him, his command, or his ship, is put on a shuttle. Losses are inevitable during wartime.
On TNG, DS9, and Voyager, people usually survive a Starfleet shuttle trip. Sometimes, by only a hair's breadth, but still. But Discovery's track record of putting people on shuttles places the putting of Dr. Moriarty on a shuttle in TNG into what now is a very different context from back then.
Another problem is, that this young Starfleet apparently only accepts flawless people. The picture is different by TNG (Lt. Barclay).
I've noticed, that these apparently flawless people (Landry) do die on Star Trek: Discovery. Other Star Trek shows usually never show Starfleet officers of relative or low importance die, even if it's talked about. Granted, the the dead person is shown or talked about only after the death has occurred. And then an investigation happens. The difference is, that in Discovery, people are now shown on-screen, some of the viewers already root for even the minor characters, and then they die. Or maybe we have seen the comeback of redshirts in a different form.
I wouldn't see "Lethe" or every episode through the prism of trauma and other such afflictions.
Burnham's decisionmaking wrt the Klingons has, though, been informed by her trauma from her early childhood and the Klingon attack, but also the Vulcan drive to suppress her human emotions, which she's been unable to process properly for much of her life, especially when in a critical situation. The lack of war, and her posting on U.S.S. Shenzhou has shielded her from critical situations. The Battle of the Binary Stars was the first such occasion.
Whereas Lorca's conduct is not based on trauma, but survival instinct. Admiral Cornwell is also much too nosy, thinking the rescue mission to save Sarek as trivial. Strange that. For Lorca, Sarek is an important puzzle piece that keeps Burnham in order.
teisipäev, 10. oktoober 2017
The firsts in SGU Stargate Universe
The body swap thing was the most interesting part, and was used very creatively in terms of science fiction.
SGU had so many firsts in space-based sci-fi tv:
• They had the first openly gay crew member as part of the main cast ("Wray", played by Ming-Na),
• they showed wheelchair-bound people, and how difficult was it to care for them, and also how they could reach success, if given opportunities;
• they had several episodes about ALS well before Ice Bucket Challenge;
• Music montages throughout the series, with topical songs strategically placed into almost each episode. This has never been done before in sci-fi, and was typically scarce on non-sci-fi network television.
And the awesomest incidental music by the late Joel Goldsmith.
SGU had so many firsts in space-based sci-fi tv:
• They had the first openly gay crew member as part of the main cast ("Wray", played by Ming-Na),
• they showed wheelchair-bound people, and how difficult was it to care for them, and also how they could reach success, if given opportunities;
• they had several episodes about ALS well before Ice Bucket Challenge;
• Music montages throughout the series, with topical songs strategically placed into almost each episode. This has never been done before in sci-fi, and was typically scarce on non-sci-fi network television.
And the awesomest incidental music by the late Joel Goldsmith.
esmaspäev, 9. oktoober 2017
The Klingons' Trouble with Tribbles
This was initially written as a reply to a YouTube reply comment to a video.
The smuggler, who boarded the Deep Space Station K-7 in TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles", was simply the Klingons' fall guy.
My best supposition is, that Klingons are allergic to Tribbles — so much so, that their presence causes the Klingons' appearance and other physical properties to change (to and fro), and to become more Human-like.
Since the Tribbles appeared to have been used to eat away grain (necessary for food, obviously), then I theorise, that the Klingons used to lurch them around on the edges of Federation space to cause mayhem — crop failure, famine, starvation, and ultimately, colony failure. (We should note, that when a youth, Captain Kirk survived an unrelated colony failure incident on Tarsus IV.)
What caused the Klingons to pick a fight with the Enterprise crew on the K-7 Station, was, that the Klingons were actually afraid, that the Enterprise crew knew or maybe suspected — supposedly by way of their presence — that the Tribbles, as they'd actually been carried by the Klingons, caused those Klingons to turn Human-like, and their Human-like appearance was then like a give-away, that the Klingons were the ones to have carried the Tribbles, and not the poor smuggler. Well, the Enterprise crew did not know.
I suppose, that the Klingon-engineered virus picked up and re-sequenced from the Augment embryos had a substantial effect on the Klingon population, and while the warrior race mostly recovered from it, then they were not completely healed from it either, as the presence of Tribbles would re-trigger the affliction in anyone who was sufficiently close to them.
The smuggler, who boarded the Deep Space Station K-7 in TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles", was simply the Klingons' fall guy.
My best supposition is, that Klingons are allergic to Tribbles — so much so, that their presence causes the Klingons' appearance and other physical properties to change (to and fro), and to become more Human-like.
Since the Tribbles appeared to have been used to eat away grain (necessary for food, obviously), then I theorise, that the Klingons used to lurch them around on the edges of Federation space to cause mayhem — crop failure, famine, starvation, and ultimately, colony failure. (We should note, that when a youth, Captain Kirk survived an unrelated colony failure incident on Tarsus IV.)
What caused the Klingons to pick a fight with the Enterprise crew on the K-7 Station, was, that the Klingons were actually afraid, that the Enterprise crew knew or maybe suspected — supposedly by way of their presence — that the Tribbles, as they'd actually been carried by the Klingons, caused those Klingons to turn Human-like, and their Human-like appearance was then like a give-away, that the Klingons were the ones to have carried the Tribbles, and not the poor smuggler. Well, the Enterprise crew did not know.
I suppose, that the Klingon-engineered virus picked up and re-sequenced from the Augment embryos had a substantial effect on the Klingon population, and while the warrior race mostly recovered from it, then they were not completely healed from it either, as the presence of Tribbles would re-trigger the affliction in anyone who was sufficiently close to them.
laupäev, 30. september 2017
Gul Dukat's magnanimity
reply to comment post on YouTube
First, Weyoun admires Dukat's thinking without really showing it ("I had no idea," video at 0:53). Dukat then indulges in his magnanimity, which Weyoun notices, and having realised that by 1:52, rather diplomatically calls it 'fascinating.'
Many dictators — and Dukat is no exception there — have a certain frame of mind, and thus, certain ways of rhetoric that give their dictatorial tendencies away long before most people even realise it.
On the other hand, there are people, who are incredibly charming and very effective. So, Tain and Weyoun at the apex of their power, if we consider the baddies. Good people... Well, there are Spock and Sarek, Elim Garak; President Obama, Chancellor Merkel, President Macron, Prime Minister Trudeau from the real world.
wrt dictators in the real world (and in DS9), then they are rather more multifaceted, and can be very charming, if they want to be. Some dictators in the real world are the ones that women find as dream men: Either one is rich, or he has capabilities that a previous and unpopular, though democratic leader never had, such as specifically not drinking, doing various sports, etc.
Good leaders can sport similar qualities, too: Barack plays basketball; PM Trudeau has boxed (for a charitable event, if I recall correctly), other heads of state or government run marathons.
First, Weyoun admires Dukat's thinking without really showing it ("I had no idea," video at 0:53). Dukat then indulges in his magnanimity, which Weyoun notices, and having realised that by 1:52, rather diplomatically calls it 'fascinating.'
Many dictators — and Dukat is no exception there — have a certain frame of mind, and thus, certain ways of rhetoric that give their dictatorial tendencies away long before most people even realise it.
On the other hand, there are people, who are incredibly charming and very effective. So, Tain and Weyoun at the apex of their power, if we consider the baddies. Good people... Well, there are Spock and Sarek, Elim Garak; President Obama, Chancellor Merkel, President Macron, Prime Minister Trudeau from the real world.
wrt dictators in the real world (and in DS9), then they are rather more multifaceted, and can be very charming, if they want to be. Some dictators in the real world are the ones that women find as dream men: Either one is rich, or he has capabilities that a previous and unpopular, though democratic leader never had, such as specifically not drinking, doing various sports, etc.
Good leaders can sport similar qualities, too: Barack plays basketball; PM Trudeau has boxed (for a charitable event, if I recall correctly), other heads of state or government run marathons.
teisipäev, 29. august 2017
Star Trekist ja paralleelidest
Kommentaaar Lobjaka halvasti varjatud apologeetikale.
Ma nüüd seletan Star Treki fännina kõik lahti. Et ei tekiks valestimõistmist või muid arusaamatusi.
(Varuge aega, sest on pikem jutt.)
Planeetide Ühendatud Föderatsioon (i.k. United Federation of Planets, aka UFP, lühidalt 'Föderatsioon') pole mingi ulme, vaid samasugune väärtuspõhine maailmade liit, nagu seda praegu Euroopa Liit.
Star Treki Föderatsioon sisuliselt ongi nagu Euroopa Liit, mis pole üldse kommunistlik.
Föderatsiooni Tähelaevastik on oma kaitseotstarbelt sisuliselt sama, mis NATO praegu.
Kui planeedi tsivilisatsioon on ühinenud, üleplaneedilise juhtimisega (e. pole lõhestunud) ja saavutanud tehnoloogiataseme liikumaks valgusest kiiremini, ning planeedi valitsemine ja väärtushinnangud vastavad Föderatsiooni põhiväärtustega, võetakse maailm liitumisavalduse esitamisel Föderatsiooni liikmeks. Enne liikmeksvõttu tuleb loomulikult vaatlusperiood ja läbirääkimised.
Igal planeedil on oma kultuur ja tõekspidamised, ning Föderatsioon ei lämmata neid. Igal maailmal ja tsivilisatsioonil on samuti õigus lahkuda.
Star Treki Föderatsioon ei ole loomult kommunistlik, ning raha kui ressursside vahetusühik pole ka kuhugi kadunud, vaid kasutatakse krediite. Paras võrdlus eküü ja bitcoiniga. (Huvitav, kas on võimalik Star Treki krediite võrrelda euroga, sest kohalike kollaste lehtede artiklikommenteerijad kraaksuvad alatasa, et eurol pole nagu tagatist.)
Tehnoloogia arengust johtuv ressursside paljusus ja korruptsioonivaba administreerimine Föderatsioonis on teinud raha kui sellise olemasolu sisuliselt mõttetuks: kui kõik on olemas, milleks meile raha?
Edasine eesmärk on enese ja teadmiste arendamine ja uute maailmade ja tsivilisatsioonide avastamine — "Minna sinna, kuhu keegi mees pole varem kunagi läinud," nagu Star Treki tuntud moto räägib.
Armand Sukles kirjutas:
"Star Trekis ei valitse kommunism, sest seal ei kehti igaühelt tema võimete kohaselt ja igaühele tema vajaduste järgi - seal kehtib igaühelt tema huvi kohaselt ja igaühele tema soovide järgi."
Sellega olen nõus.
Föderatsioon teistelt asustatud planeetidelt ja liikmesmaadelt väe ja võimuga ressursse ei võta, vaid pigem avastab uusi ja seni vallutamata territooriume. Kosmos on nii suur ja lai, et ressursid on igal pool olemas.
Nagu ka siinmail Euroopa Liidus, tehakse liikmetega ja tollivaba kaubavahetust.
Tsensuuri Föderatsioonis pole.
Küll on range keeld mürgitada oma kultuuriga vähearenenud maid.
Teisitimõtlejatest rääkides saab silmas pidada näiteks Maquis'd, kelle puhul oli tegemist terroristidega. Nimelt olid Maquis liikumise eelkäijad koloniseerinud piiriäärsed planeedid, mis Cardassia Liidu ja Föderatsiooni läbirääkimiste tulemusel läksid üle Cardassiale. Umbes samal ajal kui Bajor (hääld. Beidžor) Föderatsiooni protektoraadiks sai.
Föderatsioon pakkus piiriäärsete kolonistide ümberasustamist, kuid sellega kolonistid nõus ei olnud, otsustades jääda kohapeale, lootuses, et nendega midagi ei juhtu. (Yea, right.)
Cardassialased hakkasid enda territooriumile sattunud peamiselt inimestega asustatud kolooniate elanikke taga kiusama, et kolonistid äsja süllekukkunud viljakatelt planeetidelt välja süüa. Sellest sündis liikumine nimega Maquis (hääld. 'makii'), mis tahtis kolonistide (peamiselt inimeste) elu ja elukorda kaitsta, kuid nad muutusid suhteliselt kiiresti terroriorganisatsiooniks, mis meeleheitest johtuvalt vahendeid eriti ei valinud.
Maquis'de lugu on sellest, mis juhtub, kui põrkuvad kokku erinevad huvid, reaalpoliitika, pragmatism ja põikpäisus.
Romulane Föderatsioon ei hävitanud, vaid Romulani Täheimpeeriumi koduplaneet jäi ette supernoova lööklainele, sest mitte väga kaugel asuv Hobus'e täht läks ebastabiilseks ja plahvatas.
Suursaadik Spock peatas küll supernoova edasiliikumise Vulcanil toodetud Punase Mateeria abil (vrd "Punane elavhõbe"), kuid jäi Romuluse päästmisel hiljaks, sest Vulcani poliitikud venitasid kummi ega adunud olukorra tõsidust.
Romulani kaevanduslaeva kapten Nero, kelle noor pere juhtumisi Romulusel oli ja surma sai, hullus sellest, ja muutus kättemaksuhimuliseks. Nero ja Spocki laevad sattusid lühikese võitluse järel Punase Mateeria tekitatud musta auku ja Nero laev ilmus välja minevikus natuke enne James T. Kirk'i sündi. Juba siis pääses vastsündinud Jim Kirk Nero eest päris napilt.
Kui Kirk oli täisealine, hävitas kapten Nero suursaadik Spockilt kaaperdatud laevalt saadud Punase Mateeria ainult ühe tilga abil kättemaksuks terve Vulcani, mis on genotsiid. Ellu jäi umbes kümme tuhat vulcanit, kes juhtumisi Vulcani planeedil ei olnud.
Nimelt oli Vulcan ainus, mis tootis peauniversumis (-ajavoolus) Punast Mateeriat, ning nende valitsus lohistas kõvasti jalgu, sest ei tahtnud, et Punane Mateeria läheks kellegi (romulanide) käsutusse, kuna vulcanid teadsid, et seda saab relvana kasutada, ning kõigile oli selge, et romulanid on parasjagu agressiivne rahvas.
Romulani Täheimpeeriumi senat lohistas omakorda koduplaneedi evakueerimisega jalgu, sest arvati, et Hobuse täht niipea noovaks ei lähe, kuigi Spock hoiatas aegsasti ette, et täht on väga ebastabiilne.
Kui rääkida Star Trekist kõrvalvaatajana, siis tegemist on frantsiisiga, mis näitab sõjaväelist ulmet (i.k. military science fiction). Küünikud võivad näiteks väita, et see on sõjaväkke värbamise propaganda.
Star Treki peamine väärtus on siiski teisenenud, sest ta näitab ideaali, kus erinevat päritolu ja erineva taustaga inimeste ja tulnukate vahel on koostöö, ning kedagi ei diskrimineerita.
Ainus Star Treki sari, mis endale omase sõjaväelise ulme näitamisest kõrvale kaldus, on Deep Space Nine (DS9), mida Eestis näidati ainult 13 osa.
DS9 põhilugu algab sellest, et planeet Bajor (hääld. Beidžor) on vabanenud Cardassialaste viiskümmend aastat kestnud okupatsioonist.
Cardassialastest jäi alles Bajori orjatöö tulemusel ehitatud kaevandusjaam Terok Nor, millele Föderatsioon andis uue nime Deep Space Nine (e.k. "Süvakosmos 9").
Bajori kui planeedi ja tsivilisatsiooni lugu on suhtkoht täpipealt Eesti, Läti, Leedu ja teiste anastatud ja vabanenud rahvaste lugu: oli raske okupatsioon, orjus, terror, massimõrvad ja repressioonid, sekka vabadusvõitlus, siis vabanemine, päris sarja lõpus või natuke peale seda liitumine Föderatsiooniga.
Vastukaaluks esitatakse Cardassia saatust kui territooriumi kaotanud teise- ja lõpuks kolmandajärguline impeerium, mille rahvas töötab surma hinnaga ennastohverdavalt riigile.
Peale lühikest demokraatiapuhangut satub Cardassia etteotsa võimujanus kõvakäeline liider Gul Dukat, kes vingub enda meelest "õiguspäraselt Cardassiale kuulunud" territooriumi kaotamisest, kes tahab, et Cardassiat "keegi ei alandaks," et Cardassia "tõuseks põlvilt püsti," ning et "Cardassia jälle suureks teha." Iga diktaatori retoorika.
Lõpp on mõneti ootuspärane, kuid DS9 sarja tegijad ei osanud oma unenägudeski ette ennustada tulevikku ja seda, et praegugi territooriumilt suurte riikide diktaatorlikud ja diktaatoritest riigipead laiavad täpselt samamoodi. Paralleelid tänapäevaga on kõhedad.
Bajori süsteemist avastatakse peale Cardassia ikkest vabanemist stabiilne ussiauk, mis viib galaktika teise otsa Gamma-kvadranti. Seal valitseb veerandit galaktikat raudse rusikaga tehnoloogiliselt kõrgeltarenenud Dominioon, mis kavatseb Alfa- ja Beeta-kvadrandid iga hinnaga ära vallutada. Aga see on juba teine lugu.
Ma nüüd seletan Star Treki fännina kõik lahti. Et ei tekiks valestimõistmist või muid arusaamatusi.
(Varuge aega, sest on pikem jutt.)
Planeetide Ühendatud Föderatsioon (i.k. United Federation of Planets, aka UFP, lühidalt 'Föderatsioon') pole mingi ulme, vaid samasugune väärtuspõhine maailmade liit, nagu seda praegu Euroopa Liit.
Star Treki Föderatsioon sisuliselt ongi nagu Euroopa Liit, mis pole üldse kommunistlik.
Föderatsiooni Tähelaevastik on oma kaitseotstarbelt sisuliselt sama, mis NATO praegu.
Kui planeedi tsivilisatsioon on ühinenud, üleplaneedilise juhtimisega (e. pole lõhestunud) ja saavutanud tehnoloogiataseme liikumaks valgusest kiiremini, ning planeedi valitsemine ja väärtushinnangud vastavad Föderatsiooni põhiväärtustega, võetakse maailm liitumisavalduse esitamisel Föderatsiooni liikmeks. Enne liikmeksvõttu tuleb loomulikult vaatlusperiood ja läbirääkimised.
Igal planeedil on oma kultuur ja tõekspidamised, ning Föderatsioon ei lämmata neid. Igal maailmal ja tsivilisatsioonil on samuti õigus lahkuda.
Star Treki Föderatsioon ei ole loomult kommunistlik, ning raha kui ressursside vahetusühik pole ka kuhugi kadunud, vaid kasutatakse krediite. Paras võrdlus eküü ja bitcoiniga. (Huvitav, kas on võimalik Star Treki krediite võrrelda euroga, sest kohalike kollaste lehtede artiklikommenteerijad kraaksuvad alatasa, et eurol pole nagu tagatist.)
Tehnoloogia arengust johtuv ressursside paljusus ja korruptsioonivaba administreerimine Föderatsioonis on teinud raha kui sellise olemasolu sisuliselt mõttetuks: kui kõik on olemas, milleks meile raha?
Edasine eesmärk on enese ja teadmiste arendamine ja uute maailmade ja tsivilisatsioonide avastamine — "Minna sinna, kuhu keegi mees pole varem kunagi läinud," nagu Star Treki tuntud moto räägib.
Armand Sukles kirjutas:
"Star Trekis ei valitse kommunism, sest seal ei kehti igaühelt tema võimete kohaselt ja igaühele tema vajaduste järgi - seal kehtib igaühelt tema huvi kohaselt ja igaühele tema soovide järgi."
Sellega olen nõus.
Föderatsioon teistelt asustatud planeetidelt ja liikmesmaadelt väe ja võimuga ressursse ei võta, vaid pigem avastab uusi ja seni vallutamata territooriume. Kosmos on nii suur ja lai, et ressursid on igal pool olemas.
Nagu ka siinmail Euroopa Liidus, tehakse liikmetega ja tollivaba kaubavahetust.
Tsensuuri Föderatsioonis pole.
Küll on range keeld mürgitada oma kultuuriga vähearenenud maid.
Teisitimõtlejatest rääkides saab silmas pidada näiteks Maquis'd, kelle puhul oli tegemist terroristidega. Nimelt olid Maquis liikumise eelkäijad koloniseerinud piiriäärsed planeedid, mis Cardassia Liidu ja Föderatsiooni läbirääkimiste tulemusel läksid üle Cardassiale. Umbes samal ajal kui Bajor (hääld. Beidžor) Föderatsiooni protektoraadiks sai.
Föderatsioon pakkus piiriäärsete kolonistide ümberasustamist, kuid sellega kolonistid nõus ei olnud, otsustades jääda kohapeale, lootuses, et nendega midagi ei juhtu. (Yea, right.)
Cardassialased hakkasid enda territooriumile sattunud peamiselt inimestega asustatud kolooniate elanikke taga kiusama, et kolonistid äsja süllekukkunud viljakatelt planeetidelt välja süüa. Sellest sündis liikumine nimega Maquis (hääld. 'makii'), mis tahtis kolonistide (peamiselt inimeste) elu ja elukorda kaitsta, kuid nad muutusid suhteliselt kiiresti terroriorganisatsiooniks, mis meeleheitest johtuvalt vahendeid eriti ei valinud.
Maquis'de lugu on sellest, mis juhtub, kui põrkuvad kokku erinevad huvid, reaalpoliitika, pragmatism ja põikpäisus.
Romulane Föderatsioon ei hävitanud, vaid Romulani Täheimpeeriumi koduplaneet jäi ette supernoova lööklainele, sest mitte väga kaugel asuv Hobus'e täht läks ebastabiilseks ja plahvatas.
Suursaadik Spock peatas küll supernoova edasiliikumise Vulcanil toodetud Punase Mateeria abil (vrd "Punane elavhõbe"), kuid jäi Romuluse päästmisel hiljaks, sest Vulcani poliitikud venitasid kummi ega adunud olukorra tõsidust.
Romulani kaevanduslaeva kapten Nero, kelle noor pere juhtumisi Romulusel oli ja surma sai, hullus sellest, ja muutus kättemaksuhimuliseks. Nero ja Spocki laevad sattusid lühikese võitluse järel Punase Mateeria tekitatud musta auku ja Nero laev ilmus välja minevikus natuke enne James T. Kirk'i sündi. Juba siis pääses vastsündinud Jim Kirk Nero eest päris napilt.
Kui Kirk oli täisealine, hävitas kapten Nero suursaadik Spockilt kaaperdatud laevalt saadud Punase Mateeria ainult ühe tilga abil kättemaksuks terve Vulcani, mis on genotsiid. Ellu jäi umbes kümme tuhat vulcanit, kes juhtumisi Vulcani planeedil ei olnud.
Nimelt oli Vulcan ainus, mis tootis peauniversumis (-ajavoolus) Punast Mateeriat, ning nende valitsus lohistas kõvasti jalgu, sest ei tahtnud, et Punane Mateeria läheks kellegi (romulanide) käsutusse, kuna vulcanid teadsid, et seda saab relvana kasutada, ning kõigile oli selge, et romulanid on parasjagu agressiivne rahvas.
Romulani Täheimpeeriumi senat lohistas omakorda koduplaneedi evakueerimisega jalgu, sest arvati, et Hobuse täht niipea noovaks ei lähe, kuigi Spock hoiatas aegsasti ette, et täht on väga ebastabiilne.
Kui rääkida Star Trekist kõrvalvaatajana, siis tegemist on frantsiisiga, mis näitab sõjaväelist ulmet (i.k. military science fiction). Küünikud võivad näiteks väita, et see on sõjaväkke värbamise propaganda.
Star Treki peamine väärtus on siiski teisenenud, sest ta näitab ideaali, kus erinevat päritolu ja erineva taustaga inimeste ja tulnukate vahel on koostöö, ning kedagi ei diskrimineerita.
Ainus Star Treki sari, mis endale omase sõjaväelise ulme näitamisest kõrvale kaldus, on Deep Space Nine (DS9), mida Eestis näidati ainult 13 osa.
DS9 põhilugu algab sellest, et planeet Bajor (hääld. Beidžor) on vabanenud Cardassialaste viiskümmend aastat kestnud okupatsioonist.
Cardassialastest jäi alles Bajori orjatöö tulemusel ehitatud kaevandusjaam Terok Nor, millele Föderatsioon andis uue nime Deep Space Nine (e.k. "Süvakosmos 9").
Bajori kui planeedi ja tsivilisatsiooni lugu on suhtkoht täpipealt Eesti, Läti, Leedu ja teiste anastatud ja vabanenud rahvaste lugu: oli raske okupatsioon, orjus, terror, massimõrvad ja repressioonid, sekka vabadusvõitlus, siis vabanemine, päris sarja lõpus või natuke peale seda liitumine Föderatsiooniga.
Vastukaaluks esitatakse Cardassia saatust kui territooriumi kaotanud teise- ja lõpuks kolmandajärguline impeerium, mille rahvas töötab surma hinnaga ennastohverdavalt riigile.
Peale lühikest demokraatiapuhangut satub Cardassia etteotsa võimujanus kõvakäeline liider Gul Dukat, kes vingub enda meelest "õiguspäraselt Cardassiale kuulunud" territooriumi kaotamisest, kes tahab, et Cardassiat "keegi ei alandaks," et Cardassia "tõuseks põlvilt püsti," ning et "Cardassia jälle suureks teha." Iga diktaatori retoorika.
Lõpp on mõneti ootuspärane, kuid DS9 sarja tegijad ei osanud oma unenägudeski ette ennustada tulevikku ja seda, et praegugi territooriumilt suurte riikide diktaatorlikud ja diktaatoritest riigipead laiavad täpselt samamoodi. Paralleelid tänapäevaga on kõhedad.
Bajori süsteemist avastatakse peale Cardassia ikkest vabanemist stabiilne ussiauk, mis viib galaktika teise otsa Gamma-kvadranti. Seal valitseb veerandit galaktikat raudse rusikaga tehnoloogiliselt kõrgeltarenenud Dominioon, mis kavatseb Alfa- ja Beeta-kvadrandid iga hinnaga ära vallutada. Aga see on juba teine lugu.
teisipäev, 22. august 2017
Comments on America and the transactional marriage.
This is a comment I posted in Google+, and also a comment to America, Home of the Transactional Marriage, published in The Atlantic.
If I'm not wrong, then this Dr. Denmark could have been the same lady, who eventually became the world's oldest practicing pediatrician. She died in 2012 at the age of 114 years and 60 days.
Yet the article seems to have been left intentionally open-ended, stopping short of projecting what may happen in the future; because the present is not shiny, and there is no legislative movement to change anything for the better within the next three years and five months. — Not even in terms of marriage, but in terms of couples actually choosing to stay together as a cohesive unit.
(Even if the midterm elections fare well, the results will simply make the situation less worse.)
The article's pointing out the cultural differences is also salient: In the U.S. these are set remain deeply entrenched, and will not change until enough safety nets become implemented, and then given at least a generation to be in force.
There is re|post ruminating about 'Generation X/Y/Z killing this or that industry.'
The comments pointed out, that it's poverty.
Some even, that it's white middle-class poverty. Well, actually, poverty is pervasive, universal, and does not discriminate.
Despite the economic upturn and inspite of who is occupying the Oval Office, the U.S. shockwaves of the Great Recession have since not stopped reverberating into the present, and maybe even the future.
Maybe I'm too harsh here.
These rings in water have slowed down all right, yet the accumulated effects of the many crises in the U.S. are not at all likely to be undone or improved in the near-to-long-term, because many of the necessary safety nets are weak or non-existent. Apparently by design.
The Affordable Care Act (collectively dubbed "The ACA" and "Obamacare") offers some relief. The fact, that it could not be repealed after four times of trying, and that in a Republican-majority Congress, says a lot about the strength and force that the ACA possesses.
about not marrying
Marriage has become quite formalised, and it's wisely avoided by men (I think) simply to avoid divorces. If the coupling is amicable, then open marriages allow shared custody of children, and without the possibility of one of the parties adversely affecting the finances of the other through divorce proceedings. There's still alimony.wrt family planning
If I recall correctly from the "Living Longer" episode of BBC's "People's Century" documentary, then one of the early XX _c._ proponents of family planning was one Dr. Denmark, whom I saw make her case in a black-and-white recording from the 1920s or 1930s.If I'm not wrong, then this Dr. Denmark could have been the same lady, who eventually became the world's oldest practicing pediatrician. She died in 2012 at the age of 114 years and 60 days.
Solutions?
I read the article the other night, and the end offered a number of solutions that would offset the stresses that unemployment would place on the cohesion of families. These policies were long ago implemented by Canada. Ditto most of the EU.Yet the article seems to have been left intentionally open-ended, stopping short of projecting what may happen in the future; because the present is not shiny, and there is no legislative movement to change anything for the better within the next three years and five months. — Not even in terms of marriage, but in terms of couples actually choosing to stay together as a cohesive unit.
(Even if the midterm elections fare well, the results will simply make the situation less worse.)
The article's pointing out the cultural differences is also salient: In the U.S. these are set remain deeply entrenched, and will not change until enough safety nets become implemented, and then given at least a generation to be in force.
There is re|post ruminating about 'Generation X/Y/Z killing this or that industry.'
The comments pointed out, that it's poverty.
Some even, that it's white middle-class poverty. Well, actually, poverty is pervasive, universal, and does not discriminate.
Despite the economic upturn and inspite of who is occupying the Oval Office, the U.S. shockwaves of the Great Recession have since not stopped reverberating into the present, and maybe even the future.
Maybe I'm too harsh here.
These rings in water have slowed down all right, yet the accumulated effects of the many crises in the U.S. are not at all likely to be undone or improved in the near-to-long-term, because many of the necessary safety nets are weak or non-existent. Apparently by design.
The Affordable Care Act (collectively dubbed "The ACA" and "Obamacare") offers some relief. The fact, that it could not be repealed after four times of trying, and that in a Republican-majority Congress, says a lot about the strength and force that the ACA possesses.
laupäev, 12. august 2017
Xenomorph points of origin
This is |from| a reply to a comment under one of the more gruesome Alien/xenomorph expanded universe narratives.
As far as I've gathered, David learned of the xenomorph from one of the murals.
My best theory is, that the Engineers had captured a presumably xenomorph specimen in order to study it, and kept the xenomorph in stasis, appearing to the uninitiated as part of the mural.
Thence, if not that the outline of the specimen was in stasis, David seems to have become aware of xenomorphs, and seeks to recreate them from the outset; thinking maybe, that the black goo was extracted _from_ xenomorphs.
Thus it's not wrong for Ridley Scott to say, that 'David created the xenomorph.' It's only, that the wayward synthetic finalised this particular version of the species, per information he could gather from the black goo during his interaction with the Engineer ship and subsequent stay on "Paradise".
It could be a plausible claim, that the black goo that we know, was perhaps developed by the Engineers on LV-223 through the xenomorph specimen kept captured in the mural.
I actually like to think, that the black goo is of a different source, which the Engineers may simply have stumbled on. I think there's a hint to that in "Prometheus".
The conclusion of all this, is, that both the point of origin for the black goo and the xenomorph species should be much earlier than the "Prometheus" and "'Covenant" films would make us believe.
As far as I've gathered, David learned of the xenomorph from one of the murals.
My best theory is, that the Engineers had captured a presumably xenomorph specimen in order to study it, and kept the xenomorph in stasis, appearing to the uninitiated as part of the mural.
Thence, if not that the outline of the specimen was in stasis, David seems to have become aware of xenomorphs, and seeks to recreate them from the outset; thinking maybe, that the black goo was extracted _from_ xenomorphs.
Thus it's not wrong for Ridley Scott to say, that 'David created the xenomorph.' It's only, that the wayward synthetic finalised this particular version of the species, per information he could gather from the black goo during his interaction with the Engineer ship and subsequent stay on "Paradise".
It could be a plausible claim, that the black goo that we know, was perhaps developed by the Engineers on LV-223 through the xenomorph specimen kept captured in the mural.
I actually like to think, that the black goo is of a different source, which the Engineers may simply have stumbled on. I think there's a hint to that in "Prometheus".
The conclusion of all this, is, that both the point of origin for the black goo and the xenomorph species should be much earlier than the "Prometheus" and "'Covenant" films would make us believe.
neljapäev, 15. juuni 2017
Mina ja muusika
Siin ma veidi avan ennast oma muusikamaitse suhtes.
Muusikat ma armastan.
Muusikat ma armastan.
| Hehee, 26 ja nooremad on Vabariigi lapsed :)
Ise 35, kuid AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Jon Bon Jovi, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne ning alaline kõrtsibänd Smokie on kõik nagu mingid vanemast ajast pärit bändid. (Mäletab keegi Charismat ka?) — Selliseid nimetati kunagi peene sõnaga rokkansambliteks :-)
Miskipärast läksid just need kõik minust mööda. Või läksin mina neist... Aga ma ei kahetse. Erandiks on Queen.
Guns N' Roses on YouTube'is muuseas väga populaarne, st. vaatamisarvud on kaunis suured iga nende Vevo video all.
Veidi alternatiivset maitset, mida 18+ inimestel veel on:
Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Chic / Nile Rodgers, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Hole (Courtney Love ja Eric Erlandson), The KLF, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails / Trent Reznor, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rob Zombie, Skunk Anansie, Garbage, Filter, Edelweiss, Thomas D (Liebesbrief), Semisonic (Closing Time), The Notwist (Chemicals), Mahavok, HU?, Leslie Da Bass, Pedigree, Terminaator, 3Pead, Bon Iver, Greg Holden, Nick Mulvey, Fink, Pendulum, Michael Kiwanuka, Death Cab for Cutie, Kaleo...
Tõsi, nendestki pole lõviosa enam noored ja mitte kõik 100% rokkarid või rokipeerud.
pühapäev, 28. mai 2017
United Federation of Planets and the EU
A reply to a comment in a YouTube thread.
I never wrote, that the Federation was weak by any means, but that Starfleet had many weak points, including the use of legacy hardware. It's okay to use older equipment during peacetime, when there is little to no incentive for accelerated defensive development.
In many of the Dominion battles, a single Cardassian phaser shot easily disabled a Miranda-cass vessel to the point of almost destroying it. The later Cardassian orbital weapons were even more deadly.
Recalling an earlier Federation-Cardassian War, then this was the state of ships between the powers: mostly Galor-class vessels vs. Miranda-class fleet, peppered with Excelsior-class and Constellation-class ships, and maybe an Ambassador-class vessel for stronger flavour.
That conflict ended up in a stalemate, because the Cardassian Union was exhausted, and neither did the Federation think it viable to keep it going like that.
The formation of the Federation was rather based on the idea of peaceful exploration and strength in numbers, which provided the basis for a strong defense.
Offense would have meant an intentional incursion into Klingon or Romulan territory.
The Federation works like the EU, but with a difference, that the Starfleet is as capable as the U.S. military now.
Each U.S. state is not as independent as each EU country, and seceding from the U.S. is almost impossible; whereas each Federation member world does maintain their independence to such an extent, that leaving the Federation is as "easy" as Brexit, with and without the quotes.
I never wrote, that the Federation was weak by any means, but that Starfleet had many weak points, including the use of legacy hardware. It's okay to use older equipment during peacetime, when there is little to no incentive for accelerated defensive development.
In many of the Dominion battles, a single Cardassian phaser shot easily disabled a Miranda-cass vessel to the point of almost destroying it. The later Cardassian orbital weapons were even more deadly.
Recalling an earlier Federation-Cardassian War, then this was the state of ships between the powers: mostly Galor-class vessels vs. Miranda-class fleet, peppered with Excelsior-class and Constellation-class ships, and maybe an Ambassador-class vessel for stronger flavour.
That conflict ended up in a stalemate, because the Cardassian Union was exhausted, and neither did the Federation think it viable to keep it going like that.
The formation of the Federation was rather based on the idea of peaceful exploration and strength in numbers, which provided the basis for a strong defense.
Offense would have meant an intentional incursion into Klingon or Romulan territory.
The Federation works like the EU, but with a difference, that the Starfleet is as capable as the U.S. military now.
Each U.S. state is not as independent as each EU country, and seceding from the U.S. is almost impossible; whereas each Federation member world does maintain their independence to such an extent, that leaving the Federation is as "easy" as Brexit, with and without the quotes.
laupäev, 27. mai 2017
Tain and Garak on an Excursion to the Gamma Quadrant
This is a reply to a comment under a DS9 clip from "Improbable Cause".
Tain reveals to Odo and Garak his genocidal grand scheme. This is a warning sign, since Tain doesn't really want anyone to know much about his big beautiful plan, because the premise of the story is, that Tain wanted to off all of his former associates, including Garak.
Garak then expresses displeasure about the entire trip, and makes a correct assessment, that the mission is pointless by calling it an excursion. Garak apparently knows more about the Dominion than Tain.
Yet Tain does not, or chooses not to notice the analysis, dismissing it as Garak's throwing of shade. Another option could be Tain's magnanimity, and the fact, that the Obsidian Order and the Tal'Shiar as so far into the mission by then, that calling it off would discredit Tain.
Tain retorts, that Garak once betrayed him, perhaps asking, why should he spare the life of his former protégé, and so Garak pleads for his life by presenting an argument, that he came to save his mentor from the Romulans. Tain believes Garak for the first time in his life, suggesting, that it was the most honest thing he's ever heard Garak say.
Then Tain offers Garak an impression, that he will have Garak killed if Garak leaves, Odo confirms as much, to which Tain then offers a way out for Garak to work for him.
At the point where Garak looks at Odo, the simple tailor realises, that the Constable's warning was correct, so he makes a decision to side with Tain.
I also think, that Garak somehow gathers, that Odo is still on his side, despite Garak being a Cardassian, a former Obsidian Order operative, and Tain's former and soon-to-be right-hand man. This reverberates later, whereby Garak decides to be the one to interrogate Odo, and later on to go into the interview room to save the Changeling during the Battle of the Omarion Nebula.
I don't know exactly, if Tain changes his mind when Odo warns Garak, or if he wanted Garak by his side from the outset, given, that Garak still lives, and may prove himself a useful asset. Though, later on, Tain tells Garak, that he's missed him, so.
The story and dialogues are well structured, because all of those little actions have small reactions.
Tain reveals to Odo and Garak his genocidal grand scheme. This is a warning sign, since Tain doesn't really want anyone to know much about his big beautiful plan, because the premise of the story is, that Tain wanted to off all of his former associates, including Garak.
Garak then expresses displeasure about the entire trip, and makes a correct assessment, that the mission is pointless by calling it an excursion. Garak apparently knows more about the Dominion than Tain.
Yet Tain does not, or chooses not to notice the analysis, dismissing it as Garak's throwing of shade. Another option could be Tain's magnanimity, and the fact, that the Obsidian Order and the Tal'Shiar as so far into the mission by then, that calling it off would discredit Tain.
Tain retorts, that Garak once betrayed him, perhaps asking, why should he spare the life of his former protégé, and so Garak pleads for his life by presenting an argument, that he came to save his mentor from the Romulans. Tain believes Garak for the first time in his life, suggesting, that it was the most honest thing he's ever heard Garak say.
Then Tain offers Garak an impression, that he will have Garak killed if Garak leaves, Odo confirms as much, to which Tain then offers a way out for Garak to work for him.
At the point where Garak looks at Odo, the simple tailor realises, that the Constable's warning was correct, so he makes a decision to side with Tain.
I also think, that Garak somehow gathers, that Odo is still on his side, despite Garak being a Cardassian, a former Obsidian Order operative, and Tain's former and soon-to-be right-hand man. This reverberates later, whereby Garak decides to be the one to interrogate Odo, and later on to go into the interview room to save the Changeling during the Battle of the Omarion Nebula.
I don't know exactly, if Tain changes his mind when Odo warns Garak, or if he wanted Garak by his side from the outset, given, that Garak still lives, and may prove himself a useful asset. Though, later on, Tain tells Garak, that he's missed him, so.
The story and dialogues are well structured, because all of those little actions have small reactions.
kolmapäev, 24. mai 2017
Garak's friend "Elim", and Cardassians
This is a reply in a thread to a DS9 YouTube clip
Now, about that daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official that Garak spoke of... here.
Then the follow-up story here,
and the conclusion here (with the 'Sons of Tain' comment here).
Interestingly, Garak places Tain's retirement to a point of time at which Tain, per Garak, could not protect him anymore.
There's a possibility, that Tain was duly informed of the scandal, and chose to retire to avoid being implicated in it, or having fingers suspiciously pointed at him, had he stayed as head of the Obsidian Order.
Effectively, Tain washed his hands off the matter, thereby forcing, or rather, allowing Garak to slip into exile. Dukat's return to Cardassia, and Tain's retirement meant, that Garak was without protection on Cardassia.
My suspicion is, that "Elim" was really that daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official, and she got blown up in the shuttle.
It appears to me from Garak's tales, that at one time, she was a close colleague of Garak, and she found out, that Garak might not have been entirely loyal to Cardassia, of which Tain felt, that Garak betrayed him. We learn in episode "Cardassians", that Garak at one point was boastful of his contacts with the Bajoran underground. Strange, is it not?
Garak most likely released the children, then his colleague (the daughter) discovered that, decided to report it, and Garak had to make sure she didn't.
I also have another theory:
This daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official may have been the same woman linked to Dukat, who brought Rugal, the lost-and-much-later-found son of Cardassian exarch Kotan Pa'Dar, to the Bajoran orphanage.
Note, that Pa'Dar was Gul Dukat's rival in Cardassian politics, and Pa'Dar was the one, who decided to end the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor.
Garak may have gathered, that this same woman linked to Dukat was about to expose the scandal around Pa'Dar on her departure from Bajor, so he chose to subdue the scandal by letting the shuttle explode.
Cardassians
Garak did not intend to expose Dukat, because during Dukat's reign over Bajor, Garak's life on the planet probably depended on him not telling about the affair of Dukat's associate bringing Rugal to the orphanage. And other things. Garak knew that about Dukat, and Dukat knew that Garak knew.
Dukat didn't have any need to humiliate Pa'Dar so long as Dukat was reigning over Bajor. What kept Dukat quiet, is, that Garak knew, too.
As the occupation of Bajor ended, the situation changed, and upon his return to Cardassia, Dukat may have intended to save his face by way of exposing Pa'Dar and undermining the politician who ended his occupation of Bajorans, and to simultaneously neutralise Garak's knowledge.
Garak, apparently, had enough foresight to make sure that there wasn't anyone else left to corrobarate Dukat's words.
Now, about that daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official that Garak spoke of... here.
Then the follow-up story here,
and the conclusion here (with the 'Sons of Tain' comment here).
Interestingly, Garak places Tain's retirement to a point of time at which Tain, per Garak, could not protect him anymore.
There's a possibility, that Tain was duly informed of the scandal, and chose to retire to avoid being implicated in it, or having fingers suspiciously pointed at him, had he stayed as head of the Obsidian Order.
Effectively, Tain washed his hands off the matter, thereby forcing, or rather, allowing Garak to slip into exile. Dukat's return to Cardassia, and Tain's retirement meant, that Garak was without protection on Cardassia.
My suspicion is, that "Elim" was really that daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official, and she got blown up in the shuttle.
It appears to me from Garak's tales, that at one time, she was a close colleague of Garak, and she found out, that Garak might not have been entirely loyal to Cardassia, of which Tain felt, that Garak betrayed him. We learn in episode "Cardassians", that Garak at one point was boastful of his contacts with the Bajoran underground. Strange, is it not?
Garak most likely released the children, then his colleague (the daughter) discovered that, decided to report it, and Garak had to make sure she didn't.
I also have another theory:
This daughter of a prominent Cardassian military official may have been the same woman linked to Dukat, who brought Rugal, the lost-and-much-later-found son of Cardassian exarch Kotan Pa'Dar, to the Bajoran orphanage.
Note, that Pa'Dar was Gul Dukat's rival in Cardassian politics, and Pa'Dar was the one, who decided to end the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor.
Garak may have gathered, that this same woman linked to Dukat was about to expose the scandal around Pa'Dar on her departure from Bajor, so he chose to subdue the scandal by letting the shuttle explode.
Cardassians
Garak did not intend to expose Dukat, because during Dukat's reign over Bajor, Garak's life on the planet probably depended on him not telling about the affair of Dukat's associate bringing Rugal to the orphanage. And other things. Garak knew that about Dukat, and Dukat knew that Garak knew.Dukat didn't have any need to humiliate Pa'Dar so long as Dukat was reigning over Bajor. What kept Dukat quiet, is, that Garak knew, too.
As the occupation of Bajor ended, the situation changed, and upon his return to Cardassia, Dukat may have intended to save his face by way of exposing Pa'Dar and undermining the politician who ended his occupation of Bajorans, and to simultaneously neutralise Garak's knowledge.
Garak, apparently, had enough foresight to make sure that there wasn't anyone else left to corrobarate Dukat's words.
reede, 12. mai 2017
Blanche in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, and comparable past acts
This is a comment reply in a YouTube video comments thread to Blanche's song "City Lights" (BE).
Blanche's advantage is, that her song in its nature is rather subdued, and so differs from the usual Eurovision fare of bawdy ballads, rappy rap, rocky rock, and flimsy folk.
In 2015, for example, my favourite was Boggie (Czemer Boglarka) from Hungary, but her beautiful and also comparably subdued "Wars for Nothing" was bogged down (if you forgive the pun) by the high-register voice of a background singer, and so the song did not quite make it as well as it should have — reaching No. 20 out of 26 entries in the final. I recall, that the other contenders in the 2015 ESC final were much stronger that year.
In 2009 (Moscow), "Is it True?" by Yohanna was superb and executed to perfection: Despite the high notes in important places (I think one of these is called the bridge), it was mostly moderate in terms of power, not too slow and not too fast. Alas, Yohanna lost out to Belarus-born Alexander Rybak from Norway.
In 2005, the Latvian duo Valters & Kaža charmed me with their poignant "The War is not Over", eventually reaching No. 5 in the final of that year. The duo even "sang" in sign language, which was a lovely stunt. The composition was written by Mārtiņš Freimanis, who died in early 2011...
ESC 2017
Several—if not most—songs are rehashes of previous motifs. With many, it's par for the course, but this time, the Italians are so unconfident about their own song this year, that they had to bring a "gorilla". I pity the poor bloke who has to perform in the animal costume, because these are always really hot inside.
Most others' live performances were weaker; either their song was weak, or was the presentation, and only a few performances are up to any standard.
For example, Switzerland's singstress was very, very professional, but didn't make it to the finals. Lithuania was great, but too eclectic for the peevy televoters and juries. And so it usually boils down to regional voting blocs.
Estonia
The 2011 local "Eesti Laul" competition had this beautiful and innovative "Valss" by Orelipoiss, which most unfortnately lost out to the garish "Rockefeller Street" sung by Getter Jaani. Ugh.
The 2015 "Eesti Laul" had a strong contender in Maia Vahtramäe with "Üle vesihalli taeva". She lost to Elina Born and Stig Rästa, who deservedly got to 6th place at the ESC final.
In 2016, Mick Pedaja and his quiet and serene "Seis" should have won the local "Eesti Laul" competition, but lost out to Jüri Pootsmann, and I was happy with glee, when Pootsmann thereafter got about the very last position at the Eurovision.
In 2017, Daniel Levi should also have won the local competition with "All I Need", but lost to local charmeur and chanceuse couple of Koit Toome and Laura. Much to my chagrin, Daniel Levi's live-action video was poor, too.
I mean, there's such a trove of great music that regretfully never made it to the ESC.
Blanche's advantage is, that her song in its nature is rather subdued, and so differs from the usual Eurovision fare of bawdy ballads, rappy rap, rocky rock, and flimsy folk.
In 2015, for example, my favourite was Boggie (Czemer Boglarka) from Hungary, but her beautiful and also comparably subdued "Wars for Nothing" was bogged down (if you forgive the pun) by the high-register voice of a background singer, and so the song did not quite make it as well as it should have — reaching No. 20 out of 26 entries in the final. I recall, that the other contenders in the 2015 ESC final were much stronger that year.
In 2009 (Moscow), "Is it True?" by Yohanna was superb and executed to perfection: Despite the high notes in important places (I think one of these is called the bridge), it was mostly moderate in terms of power, not too slow and not too fast. Alas, Yohanna lost out to Belarus-born Alexander Rybak from Norway.
In 2005, the Latvian duo Valters & Kaža charmed me with their poignant "The War is not Over", eventually reaching No. 5 in the final of that year. The duo even "sang" in sign language, which was a lovely stunt. The composition was written by Mārtiņš Freimanis, who died in early 2011...
ESC 2017
Several—if not most—songs are rehashes of previous motifs. With many, it's par for the course, but this time, the Italians are so unconfident about their own song this year, that they had to bring a "gorilla". I pity the poor bloke who has to perform in the animal costume, because these are always really hot inside.
Most others' live performances were weaker; either their song was weak, or was the presentation, and only a few performances are up to any standard.
For example, Switzerland's singstress was very, very professional, but didn't make it to the finals. Lithuania was great, but too eclectic for the peevy televoters and juries. And so it usually boils down to regional voting blocs.
Estonia
The 2011 local "Eesti Laul" competition had this beautiful and innovative "Valss" by Orelipoiss, which most unfortnately lost out to the garish "Rockefeller Street" sung by Getter Jaani. Ugh.
The 2015 "Eesti Laul" had a strong contender in Maia Vahtramäe with "Üle vesihalli taeva". She lost to Elina Born and Stig Rästa, who deservedly got to 6th place at the ESC final.
In 2016, Mick Pedaja and his quiet and serene "Seis" should have won the local "Eesti Laul" competition, but lost out to Jüri Pootsmann, and I was happy with glee, when Pootsmann thereafter got about the very last position at the Eurovision.
In 2017, Daniel Levi should also have won the local competition with "All I Need", but lost to local charmeur and chanceuse couple of Koit Toome and Laura. Much to my chagrin, Daniel Levi's live-action video was poor, too.
I mean, there's such a trove of great music that regretfully never made it to the ESC.
pühapäev, 23. aprill 2017
Kalamaja, Kopli, Mustamäe, Õismäe, Lasnamäe
Mustamäe is really not a place with crime, because it's one of the oldest Soviet-era "Hills", and has 'grown up', so to speak. It's got lots of trees everywhere, a forest between the hospital and the university complexes, and patches of forest elsewhere, plenty of malls, and one big new cinema at Mustamäe Keskus. The district is also really compact. But since it's a sleeping area, it's got no nightlife.
Lasnamäe and Kopli have historically been more infamous, though I can't tell what it's like now. I'd venture to say, that Lasnamäe can be reasonably safe, as long as one doesn't associate oneself with questionable company.
One historically dangerous place has been Kopli Liinid on the Kopli peninsula, after which the outlying Kopli district is named. These 'Liinid are a complex of streets (liinid=lines) on one (probably eastern, IIRC) side of the peninsula with condemned and/or uninhabited wooden houses built a hundred years ago that often fall prey to arson. There are ruins. The peninsula is the endpoint of #1 and #2 tram lines.
The Kalamaja (sub)district is adjacent to Kopli near the Balti Jaam train station, and has seen gentrification. Kopli itself might one day become gentrified, too.
Õismäe and Lasnamäe are the ones with less trees. Lasnamäe is the newest and largest, and in the Soviet times, it was the endpoint for the many Russian workers and their families that came to work in the Soviet factories that were stationed here.
Lasnamäe and Kopli have historically been more infamous, though I can't tell what it's like now. I'd venture to say, that Lasnamäe can be reasonably safe, as long as one doesn't associate oneself with questionable company.
One historically dangerous place has been Kopli Liinid on the Kopli peninsula, after which the outlying Kopli district is named. These 'Liinid are a complex of streets (liinid=lines) on one (probably eastern, IIRC) side of the peninsula with condemned and/or uninhabited wooden houses built a hundred years ago that often fall prey to arson. There are ruins. The peninsula is the endpoint of #1 and #2 tram lines.
The Kalamaja (sub)district is adjacent to Kopli near the Balti Jaam train station, and has seen gentrification. Kopli itself might one day become gentrified, too.
Õismäe and Lasnamäe are the ones with less trees. Lasnamäe is the newest and largest, and in the Soviet times, it was the endpoint for the many Russian workers and their families that came to work in the Soviet factories that were stationed here.
London Grammar - "Oh Woman, Oh Man" lyric interpretation
I've found two interpretations of the song. —
The line about taking 'a devil through yellow sands' probably relates to the temptation of Jesus.
The lyrics seem to compare how Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation, and how Jesus did not give in, specifically because He knew what happened to Adam and Eve, and because He was part of a ˇgreater plan to redeem humanity.
'Taking a devil through the yellow sands' could be interpreted as Jesus driving the devil away — so the lyrics refer in some way for the listeners to drive the evil away by avoiding temptation.
At the time, Jesus was fasting in the desert, and the devil tempted him to eat in return for kingdoms of the world and in return for avoiding God, but Jesus rejected the offer. After Jesus drove the devil away, the angels came and tended to Jesus.
'Choose a path or a child' might relate to choosing the narrow road (path) to reach salvation, and the child is more-or-less a literal construct. Or even the Child of God, which is Jesus.
The 'path or a child' are not so much the choices, but outcomes of choices.
Because the implication is, that a good person can drive the evil away by being responsible by avoiding temptation by choosing the narrow path (presumably safe sex), or choosing a child if they literally give in to temptation (unsafe sex).
Ergo, evil can be avoided by making a conscious choice towards either outcome, and then responsibly living with it.
The particular verse reinterprets giving in to temptation as abandonment of responsibility, and the next verse laments, that many do not understand; or, alternately, posits a question from a man and a woman, as to whether they understand this situation.
Now, the first verse of the lyric refers to a man giving up on a relationship with a woman, and the man does not seem to have been up to any good in the first place, per others' observations, but love can be so blind.
The woman in the song pursues her lost love, and she'd do anything to get her man back, but it seems, that the relationship is beyond repair.
I can infer form the second part of the lyric, that he woman is pregnant from that man, and so the song criticizes the man as being irresponsible for having left the woman.
There's another and a more darker implication with the "And I don't know where the rest go" line, that the woman was pregnant, but did not carry it to term (against the advice of her friends). The woman contemplates, that 'it should not mean that much to her', but it does, and she now has regrets. The woman apparently did everything she thought she could to please the man she loved, but he did not return anyway. In this light, it's a tragic case of unrequited love.
Because of all this, the man is impossible from the outset (as told by the friends), and the victimised party would be wise to drive that man away, with the song excoriating him for his evil of total neglectfulness and complete lack of responsibility. Not just because the man left the woman once, and so would not be able to come around in the future, but because the woman made a sacrifice, and would make them again.
The song laments the men and women failing to understand such situations, one another, and their inner selves enough to make a conscious and responsible choice on the possible outcomes.
The two parties are a man, who was looking for a fling, and a woman, who having misinterpreted it as a serious relationship, had become far too attached.
Do note, that since 'oh woman, oh man' are on the same line, then the roles can be reversed. though a woman is singing the song, and so the other party in the song can often be interpreted to be a man.
The line about taking 'a devil through yellow sands' probably relates to the temptation of Jesus.
The lyrics seem to compare how Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation, and how Jesus did not give in, specifically because He knew what happened to Adam and Eve, and because He was part of a ˇgreater plan to redeem humanity.
'Taking a devil through the yellow sands' could be interpreted as Jesus driving the devil away — so the lyrics refer in some way for the listeners to drive the evil away by avoiding temptation.
At the time, Jesus was fasting in the desert, and the devil tempted him to eat in return for kingdoms of the world and in return for avoiding God, but Jesus rejected the offer. After Jesus drove the devil away, the angels came and tended to Jesus.
'Choose a path or a child' might relate to choosing the narrow road (path) to reach salvation, and the child is more-or-less a literal construct. Or even the Child of God, which is Jesus.
The 'path or a child' are not so much the choices, but outcomes of choices.
Because the implication is, that a good person can drive the evil away by being responsible by avoiding temptation by choosing the narrow path (presumably safe sex), or choosing a child if they literally give in to temptation (unsafe sex).
Ergo, evil can be avoided by making a conscious choice towards either outcome, and then responsibly living with it.
The particular verse reinterprets giving in to temptation as abandonment of responsibility, and the next verse laments, that many do not understand; or, alternately, posits a question from a man and a woman, as to whether they understand this situation.
Now, the first verse of the lyric refers to a man giving up on a relationship with a woman, and the man does not seem to have been up to any good in the first place, per others' observations, but love can be so blind.
The woman in the song pursues her lost love, and she'd do anything to get her man back, but it seems, that the relationship is beyond repair.
I can infer form the second part of the lyric, that he woman is pregnant from that man, and so the song criticizes the man as being irresponsible for having left the woman.
There's another and a more darker implication with the "And I don't know where the rest go" line, that the woman was pregnant, but did not carry it to term (against the advice of her friends). The woman contemplates, that 'it should not mean that much to her', but it does, and she now has regrets. The woman apparently did everything she thought she could to please the man she loved, but he did not return anyway. In this light, it's a tragic case of unrequited love.
Because of all this, the man is impossible from the outset (as told by the friends), and the victimised party would be wise to drive that man away, with the song excoriating him for his evil of total neglectfulness and complete lack of responsibility. Not just because the man left the woman once, and so would not be able to come around in the future, but because the woman made a sacrifice, and would make them again.
The song laments the men and women failing to understand such situations, one another, and their inner selves enough to make a conscious and responsible choice on the possible outcomes.
The two parties are a man, who was looking for a fling, and a woman, who having misinterpreted it as a serious relationship, had become far too attached.
Do note, that since 'oh woman, oh man' are on the same line, then the roles can be reversed. though a woman is singing the song, and so the other party in the song can often be interpreted to be a man.
The black goo spore in Alien: Covenant
This was a reply to a comment thread in YouTube discussing the effects of black goo.
The black goo reacts differently depending on what any of the other reactants are. Not just heat, but also air (+air pressure), different other gases, water or other solubles, contact with David's finger, sprakling wine, ingestion by Holloway, and contact with other Prometheus crew.
The process Holloway went through, is actually similar to what the Engineer in the opening went through, as both ingested black goo. As Holloway was "administered" much less of it and with champaigne, his 'decomposition', if you will, was a lot slower.
The "black goo" that gets into the Covenant cremember's ear, is no longer black goo, but either a spore, or a minuscule Alien life-form, as it can fly and target its flight path right into the ear of the poor colonist. I could count on the life-form being a back-goo-derived insectoid that acts as a very feeble wrapper of Alien protozoa that are to spread into a larger organism.
The black goo reacts differently depending on what any of the other reactants are. Not just heat, but also air (+air pressure), different other gases, water or other solubles, contact with David's finger, sprakling wine, ingestion by Holloway, and contact with other Prometheus crew.
The process Holloway went through, is actually similar to what the Engineer in the opening went through, as both ingested black goo. As Holloway was "administered" much less of it and with champaigne, his 'decomposition', if you will, was a lot slower.
The "black goo" that gets into the Covenant cremember's ear, is no longer black goo, but either a spore, or a minuscule Alien life-form, as it can fly and target its flight path right into the ear of the poor colonist. I could count on the life-form being a back-goo-derived insectoid that acts as a very feeble wrapper of Alien protozoa that are to spread into a larger organism.
laupäev, 15. aprill 2017
Especially the lies.
From DS9's "The Wire".
I think the daughter of an important Cardassian military person was also an Obsidian Order operative and Garak's accomplice. My thinking is, that Garak let the Bajoran children go, but she noticed it, and planned to tell Tain. To avoid that, Garak had to off her, and so there was that minor shuttle incident. And hopefully fabricated Bajoran life signatures, too.
Another option is, that she picked up the children _after_ Garak let them go, and entered the shuttle with them, thinking, that Garak would not have the shuttle destroyed, because children. Since he knew anyway, that she was going to tell on him, Garak had no choice. A suboption is, that the children were in the shuttle, but Garak also learned about their demise post factum.
I like to think, that Garak must have been instrumental in how the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended. Somehow, the Cardassian Central Command discovered, that Garak was complicit. (Dukat's fuming about Garak having killed Dukat's father, who was an archon (a Cardassian justice), seems to be an interesting piece of a puzzle.)
Enabran Tain couldn't have Garak killed, since Garak had to have had something very valuable with him, so Tain covered for his (former) right-hand-man, and Garak was exiled; with Tain hoping at least (or at best) to later bring the exile back into the fold, or else let him go. Tain's price for all that was, that he had to resign from being the head of the Obsidian Order.
I think the daughter of an important Cardassian military person was also an Obsidian Order operative and Garak's accomplice. My thinking is, that Garak let the Bajoran children go, but she noticed it, and planned to tell Tain. To avoid that, Garak had to off her, and so there was that minor shuttle incident. And hopefully fabricated Bajoran life signatures, too.
Another option is, that she picked up the children _after_ Garak let them go, and entered the shuttle with them, thinking, that Garak would not have the shuttle destroyed, because children. Since he knew anyway, that she was going to tell on him, Garak had no choice. A suboption is, that the children were in the shuttle, but Garak also learned about their demise post factum.
I like to think, that Garak must have been instrumental in how the Cardassian occupation of Bajor ended. Somehow, the Cardassian Central Command discovered, that Garak was complicit. (Dukat's fuming about Garak having killed Dukat's father, who was an archon (a Cardassian justice), seems to be an interesting piece of a puzzle.)
Enabran Tain couldn't have Garak killed, since Garak had to have had something very valuable with him, so Tain covered for his (former) right-hand-man, and Garak was exiled; with Tain hoping at least (or at best) to later bring the exile back into the fold, or else let him go. Tain's price for all that was, that he had to resign from being the head of the Obsidian Order.
reede, 7. aprill 2017
Science fiction television and use of colours
For a moment there, I thought, that a lot of it had to do with the quality of actual film that was used.
The VFX and makeup in TOS must have looked like the high end at the time, but they also did a lot of work with choosing the right colours to make interiours look futuristic and maybe even unobtrusive. Colour on television was still something very new, and the respective personnel probably did their best to accentuate the magic of colour. TOS stands out in clean and straight lines, primary colours, and many pastel colours everywhere.
TNG interiors have a lot of light and Enterprise beige, which at the time looked quite futuristic. Non-Federation ships often had different colours to accentuate their otherness. Exterior-wise, Enterprise-D itself withstands the test of time admirably.
DS9 the station is dark and artfully stylish. Compare also TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Personally, DS9 stands out to me as having struck the best balance. Interestingly enough, Season 2 of TNG had also struck the right tones. maybe it had something to do with Diana Muldaur.
Voyager had tech-y sets, but mostly failed to be dark and gritty. Ronald D. Moore fixed that with BSG.
Farscape thrived with colours, and shined in ways unimaginable.
Stargate Universe channelled the coloration of Blade Runner.
It may seem like a minor detail, but the kind of coloration, how much and what kinds of colours one uses, and then the amount of makeup on actors determines a lot in the character of a television show. JJ-verse 'Trek often feels plastic.
reede, 24. märts 2017
Canonicity of cancer and alien embryo removal
This was written in reply to a thread under a YouTube video concerning the Alien franchise, which discussed the possibilities of alien embryo removal.
The canonicity of the embryo being cancerous is up for debate: The movies never mention cancer, but it's possibe, that early on in the gestation process, the embryo works like a cancer to avoid early removal.
Only after the embryo has developed well enough to have formed a placenta around itself, would it be possible to remove it, _with_ the placenta.
The removal must be not just quick, but also clean and careful.
Because the trouble with trilobite removal from Shaw is, that right after the trilobite placenta was removed, the trilobite expanded and broke the placenta, out of which the fluid that the trilobite was in, squirted right back into Shaw's open abdomen, thus (in my view) infecting her. I expect to see a continuation of that situation in "Alien: Covenant".
High care must also be taken wrt the umbilical cord: Once broken, the creature becomes conscious and begins to move.
The canonicity of the embryo being cancerous is up for debate: The movies never mention cancer, but it's possibe, that early on in the gestation process, the embryo works like a cancer to avoid early removal.
Only after the embryo has developed well enough to have formed a placenta around itself, would it be possible to remove it, _with_ the placenta.
The removal must be not just quick, but also clean and careful.
Because the trouble with trilobite removal from Shaw is, that right after the trilobite placenta was removed, the trilobite expanded and broke the placenta, out of which the fluid that the trilobite was in, squirted right back into Shaw's open abdomen, thus (in my view) infecting her. I expect to see a continuation of that situation in "Alien: Covenant".
High care must also be taken wrt the umbilical cord: Once broken, the creature becomes conscious and begins to move.
neljapäev, 9. märts 2017
Outside influence and cultural conditioning to disbelieve the truth
followup | Update: Now, I can't recall what kind of a post caused me to write this.
Outside influence is easy to explain away as a source of corruption. I thought of a mystery element that would leave UFP Starfleet ppl inside a problem, but unable to find a solution. Sort of like cultural complacency, whereby people notice the house on fire when it's almost too late already. I recall there's a picture meme with a big-eyed doggy surrounded by flames.
Strangely enough, political corruption on the grass-roots level can happen just like that, too, with swathes of people putting party before country, and a large and vocal chunk of them unable and unwilling to believe verified and well-sourced information, just because it disagrees with them. Some of those and some others contend, that 'everybody lies.'
This unwillingness to accept verified information as truth, and pliability to conspiracy theories is nearly always a dangerous situation, IMO.
In part, such a massive disbelief of truth is actually borne out of the methods of competitive newsmaking, which perhaps unwittingly has culturally conditioned large segments of different populations to believe bad or worse-sounding news as being truer than actual facts. This makes a population gullible to only believe the lying liars who are the loudest in shouting the worst.
A little out of context: Past events do have a lot of true meaning in real life; it's that in-universe prequelisation (in Star Trek) sort of gives off a feeling that we've been there already.
24.04.2017 Update:
wrt massive disbelief of truth, then there are two other factors in having such disbeliefs:
* One is gullibility in believing everything that's seen on tv.
The argument "But it was on tv!" inherently suggests, that proper and diligent fact-checking was performed—when it really was not. Assumption of proper fact-checking of news aired on American television dates back to the early days of tv in functioning democracies. In Europe and Canada and several other countries, this remains true even now and into the foreseeable future.
But not so in the very competitive news tv market in the U.S., where lying whilst professing the reportage of news is somehow acceptable to very many people.
There, a famous (or, rather, an infamous) tv channel about news would by all appearances rather prefer to disseminate falsehoods; as if it almost specialised in shrouding the truth in a web of lies. Because, in what I could infer to be their worldview, a garish untruth supposedly sells better. As if. (Hint: One of its major personalities recently left the network amid multiple scandals over harassment, and major loss of sponsorship.)
Since that channel's audience will lap anything up, then that channel's leadership would be wise to consider reporting verified and accurate information — instead of their usual fare that's been bandied around for twenty-odd years now. Because their advertised terms of'f a i r' and 'b a l a n c e d' do not equate with truthful or accurate.
Production of lying news can—and often does become news in and of itself, and inevitably, it becomes bad news for those that have spread and continue to spread untruths.
Alas, what causes bad newspeople to be fired and bad politicians to leave office, is often a sex scandal, or a scandal involving large amounts of money.
Disseminating lies and proselytizing hate wrapped in news-like entertainment is irresponsible, and so devalues freedom of speech. Countering lies with truth and facts enhances this freedom, and thus increases its value.
Once informed, the public and advertisers will eventually lean towards those newspeople and outlets they deem to be consistently reliable and responsible in their newsmaking.
One can still be entertaining while reporting accurate and verified information, and earn great revenue with that.
* The other factor is confirmation bias. I might expand on it later, but it boils down to this: "I like their news, because I agree with their worldview."
On the surface, it looks like an innocent statement, but is not right, when the the news source intentionally spreads falsehoods, hate, supports discrimination and harassment, and promotes war, or a combination thereof.
Such a viewership would even accept lies in lieu of news, if these lies confirm their (hateful) worldview, which some use as justification to commit actual acts of hate.
The hate crimes statutes were implemented for a reason.
Outside influence is easy to explain away as a source of corruption. I thought of a mystery element that would leave UFP Starfleet ppl inside a problem, but unable to find a solution. Sort of like cultural complacency, whereby people notice the house on fire when it's almost too late already. I recall there's a picture meme with a big-eyed doggy surrounded by flames.
Strangely enough, political corruption on the grass-roots level can happen just like that, too, with swathes of people putting party before country, and a large and vocal chunk of them unable and unwilling to believe verified and well-sourced information, just because it disagrees with them. Some of those and some others contend, that 'everybody lies.'
This unwillingness to accept verified information as truth, and pliability to conspiracy theories is nearly always a dangerous situation, IMO.
In part, such a massive disbelief of truth is actually borne out of the methods of competitive newsmaking, which perhaps unwittingly has culturally conditioned large segments of different populations to believe bad or worse-sounding news as being truer than actual facts. This makes a population gullible to only believe the lying liars who are the loudest in shouting the worst.
A little out of context: Past events do have a lot of true meaning in real life; it's that in-universe prequelisation (in Star Trek) sort of gives off a feeling that we've been there already.
24.04.2017 Update:
wrt massive disbelief of truth, then there are two other factors in having such disbeliefs:
* One is gullibility in believing everything that's seen on tv.
The argument "But it was on tv!" inherently suggests, that proper and diligent fact-checking was performed—when it really was not. Assumption of proper fact-checking of news aired on American television dates back to the early days of tv in functioning democracies. In Europe and Canada and several other countries, this remains true even now and into the foreseeable future.
But not so in the very competitive news tv market in the U.S., where lying whilst professing the reportage of news is somehow acceptable to very many people.
There, a famous (or, rather, an infamous) tv channel about news would by all appearances rather prefer to disseminate falsehoods; as if it almost specialised in shrouding the truth in a web of lies. Because, in what I could infer to be their worldview, a garish untruth supposedly sells better. As if. (Hint: One of its major personalities recently left the network amid multiple scandals over harassment, and major loss of sponsorship.)
Since that channel's audience will lap anything up, then that channel's leadership would be wise to consider reporting verified and accurate information — instead of their usual fare that's been bandied around for twenty-odd years now. Because their advertised terms of
Production of lying news can—and often does become news in and of itself, and inevitably, it becomes bad news for those that have spread and continue to spread untruths.
Alas, what causes bad newspeople to be fired and bad politicians to leave office, is often a sex scandal, or a scandal involving large amounts of money.
Disseminating lies and proselytizing hate wrapped in news-like entertainment is irresponsible, and so devalues freedom of speech. Countering lies with truth and facts enhances this freedom, and thus increases its value.
Once informed, the public and advertisers will eventually lean towards those newspeople and outlets they deem to be consistently reliable and responsible in their newsmaking.
One can still be entertaining while reporting accurate and verified information, and earn great revenue with that.
* The other factor is confirmation bias. I might expand on it later, but it boils down to this: "I like their news, because I agree with their worldview."
On the surface, it looks like an innocent statement, but is not right, when the the news source intentionally spreads falsehoods, hate, supports discrimination and harassment, and promotes war, or a combination thereof.
Such a viewership would even accept lies in lieu of news, if these lies confirm their (hateful) worldview, which some use as justification to commit actual acts of hate.
The hate crimes statutes were implemented for a reason.
kolmapäev, 8. märts 2017
The Far Future of the Federation. My take.
This was written as a reply to a YouTube comment poster about his idea of post-DS9/Voyager Federation a hundred or years into the future. With some inspiration from STO & some books.
I like the Federation-in-decline premise.
I'd go as far as have the Federation having become old, stale, and corrupt. The large territory having become decentralised, has just some successful clusters, such as Vulcan, Bajor, several newly-inducted worlds that had just recently attained warp capabilities, and maybe even Betazed — sort of like a bunch of core believers of Fedeartion ideals.
They are held back from driving the correct Federation agenda by a corrupt and lying populist (either from Earth or some other world), who's being secretly blackmailed by the Klingon Empire (in cahoots with Orions) to do their bidding.
That populist Federation leader has an ideologically stupid, ardent, and vicious base. Sometimes even literally.
The balance of power has somewhat shifted somewhat towards the new entrants, but their full potential is as of yet unrealized. The worlds that border and fear the Klingon Empire, also form clusters that adhere to the core Federation ideals.
Starfleet itself would be underfunded, undermanned, outstretched, and constantly vilified by Anti-Federation cynics truly believing the disinformation that's half-secretly fed by the Klingon Empire. So these are, like, anti-Federationists.
Some of Starfleet has simply devolved into paid high-class mercenaries, who are typically sourced from the Sol system. Each person is individually a good one, but as a collective, they are unable to make correct value judgements, which can often end in disaster.
Cardassia and New Romulus:
One is a thriving democracy, yet under-resourced, but survives on trade and Cardassian workmanship; for example, by selling versatile Cardassian-made ships and reserach vessels to other peoples. Some of that is in Star Trek: Online.
New Romulus remains rich, but is in disarray, with a continually fledgling democracy, and an uncertain future. Resource distribution is inflexible because of trade links that are continually disrupted by the Klingons. Internally, the Romulans would be unable to make up their mind as to whether they should side with the Federation or the Klingons.
The Klingons have resurged after the Dominion War, and have become a constant and serious threat long after the reformist Martok was deposed; the Klingon Empire has also bitten chunks out of the former Romulan Star Empire (no Neutral Zone any longer), and are maybe even feeding the Tal'Shiar of the yore to keep influencing Romulan worlds.
At the same time, Starfleet are held back by the mostly-corrupt Federation bureaucracy from properly helping the new Romulan nation. Some in the Federation governing bodies are non-corrupt, but difficult to get access to.
Romulans as primary characters?
I'd love Denise Crosby to return as Sela, who is the embattled Captain or Commander of an older and battle-scarred Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird.
I'm fond of both Denise Crosby and Sela. I'd see Sela as a flawed character, who during the course of a series is in the process of slowly reforming to become a better Romulan and a better Human.
Sela wants the New Romulan nation to thrive, but she's correctly disillusioned about the Federation, and constant Klingon attacks make it difficult for the Romulans to have reliable trade links.
Note, that Romulan Warbirds are powered by an artificial singularity for warp speed, and if the Warbird's warp core destabilizes, it will risk imploding the ship.
New Romulan ships (Valdore-type), are well-resourced, self-sufficent, and designed to protect the Romulan Nation, but are few and far between, and always busy repelling the Klingons.
In that storyline, the warp core of Sela's Warbird is fine (for story purposes), but the rest of the ship is in complete tatters, undermanned, and often unable to properly fight on its own because of insufficient repairs.
Each resolution to a battle is dependent on ingenuous and jury-rigged engineering devised on the spot with some science. (A good science officer is needed.) And each such solution works only once and sometimes even by chance.
The crew of Sela's Warbird consists of people from different races and backgrounds; some are even refugees from the Federation — either disillusioned in its corruption, or even exiled.
Bajor and Vulcan
Many non-Federation peoples feel unwelcome in parts of the Federation, and choose to live on those worlds that have remained welcoming, Federation or otherwise.
For example, Bajor and Vulcan on their own are really strong Federation members, but internally, their cultures suffer a little because of a large number of refugees that they have decided to take in. Some integrate well, and some not so well.
This minor shift in the balance of power in the Federation means, that new entrants would prefer to trade with Bajor and Vulcan and Betazed; but Earth, Andoria, and Tellar engage in predatory competition. Oftentimes, many worlds and governments avoid the founding/early Federation members, and strive to engage trade with non-corrupt and newer member worlds.
Bajor is a major alternative producer and refitter of Starfleet vessels. Much of the production of new vessels consists of Ambassador-class ships and runabouts. The former now form the backbone of Starfleet. Ambassador-class ships are not particularly advanced, but do their job admirably. (Previously, it was the Excelsior- and Miranda-class ships that formed the backbone of Starfleet.)
Bajor is also home to the well-regarded college of the Starfleet Academy, the graduates of which form some of the better Starfleet crews.
On the other hand, the Earth-based Starfleet Academy has gained a horrible reputation for suffering from bad tutors, bad students, and abuse of cadets. The graduates are given some of the best ships — Defiant-class escorts/attack ships, Sovereign-class heavy cruisers, and Intrepids for smaller missions (of mercy, or otherwise) — but the terrible culture from the Earth-based Academy often travels along and persists in these crews. Any scandal is swept under the rug, but the whole situation keeps festering, and is in danger of overflowing.
Prometheus-class starships have become the most powerful vessels in the fleet, are now constructed on Vulcan, and mostly manned by Vulcans and Betazoids. These are like elite ships and crews, and for good reason are feared by enemies and respected by friends in the Starfleet and beyond; ships from Sol system typically avoid contact with these in order to avoid some scandal from cropping up that would further damage the reputation of Starfleet and the Federation. Prometheus-class ships are also fitted with cloaking devices.
Thing is, that it's become impossible for Federation member worlds to rely entirely on Starfleet, because each ship is a hit and a miss in peacably resolving issues. Or even such simple things as cargo transport. For the uninitiated, it's often impossible to tell, which ship has a 'good' crew or captain, and which does not.
Incidentally, both the Bajoran Starfleet College and its corresponding Vulcan academy are closely keeping tabs on those ships with 'bad' crews.
Thus, many otherwise well-meaning member worlds don't ask Starfleet for help, or would rather circumvent Starfleet by contacting a 'good' planet individually.
A number of worlds have secretly formed parallel structures to avoid Starfleet ships with bad crews. Some in the Starfleet brass have silently recognised this, but are often unable to effect real change. They understand, that if this keeps going for a long time, then a civil war might be possible.
Of course, some of those bad ship crews try to self-heal and reform (having recognised how bad they are), but since their reputation keeps accompanying them, then getting good assignments is an increasingly hard job; they're not even trusted with transporting cheap cargo. This, of course, has a very demoralising effect, so they hide in some nebula, and sit in a funk, sulking. Rather sad.
Some ships are trying to be good, but have simply given up on being in the good graces of better member worlds — this means no quality shore leave, no refits, and all manner of resources must be self-sourced. Returning to Starfleet HQ is dangerous, because the whole crew might be reassigned to some worse ship, and the previous ship might then be manned with uppity Academy graduates itching to look for trouble (think Red Squad, but worse).
Back to Sela's Warbird.
With the new Romulan Nation and the Federation formally allied and under threat from Klingons, Nausicaans, and Yridian information brokers everywhere, all Romulan starships are allowed to roam through Federation space on the condition, that they do not cloak.
Some Federation member worlds prefer to use Romulan ships for cargo and transport, because they are more reliable in terms of personnel, if sometimes in a shabby state because of disrepair.
Crew morale there is mixed, and vascillates between horribly low and unbelievably high, as running the ship is dependent on a number of smart, yet flawed crewmembers of different ranks, and who through one another's personal relationships actually form the glue of the ship depite what their different formal statuses would have been in the old Star Empire.
So, there's friction between each crewmember naturally striving to gain more status, but often choosing to forgo the classic Romulan honor and fame (aka status) in order to keep the ship going.
With older Romulans, nostalgia for the Romulan Star Empire is rife, while younger Romulans were born into a new situation and idealistically look up towards the Federation for salvation; not necessarily knowing or acknowledging, that much of the Federation is petty and corrupt, with an authoritarian and impossible-to-control Section 31 that's lost its initial purpose and running the game almost in the open already.
So, lots of Klingon political refugees/asylees, and Romulan refugees fleeing from Klingon attacks to good Federation worlds (often a hit and miss). There is some minor strife to be had when peoples of different cultures meet, but mostly, the refugee Klingons and Romulans are peaceful and even cooperating. Some Federation worlds are welcoming the refugees with arms wide open, while others have become isolated and insular.
I really don't know, where Earth would stand in this. Maybe each country on Earth is also like now, wherein some would be welcoming and able to absorb a large population, and some would be welcoming in spirit, but unable to house large populations of offworlders in order to protect their language, culture, identity, and small numbers. Other Earth countries have enough space, but are too insular and/or corrupt, being the primary sources of corrupt Starfleet officers.
It's as of yet unknown, how it came to be, that bad education and a lot of corrupt culture has seeped into Earth. This continuing mystery is secretly being investigated by the outstretched Starfleet Security and a few enterprising captains.
The Dominion have reformed a little to allow some of their subjugated worlds ostensibly more freedom, but is otherwise staying put, and watching the Alpha-Beta Quadrant issues from the sidelines. The Great Link has dispersed in order to avoid major disaster when all Changelings would be congregated in one place as the Great Link.
I actually think, that the new species that the commentermentioned, is really a Federation-inspired alliance that formed in the Delta Quadrant after USS Voyager's trips there.
The hope of the new ship that would go out to survey that new species/alliance, is to join with that alliance to reform the Federation into the power that it once was.
I like the Federation-in-decline premise.
I'd go as far as have the Federation having become old, stale, and corrupt. The large territory having become decentralised, has just some successful clusters, such as Vulcan, Bajor, several newly-inducted worlds that had just recently attained warp capabilities, and maybe even Betazed — sort of like a bunch of core believers of Fedeartion ideals.
They are held back from driving the correct Federation agenda by a corrupt and lying populist (either from Earth or some other world), who's being secretly blackmailed by the Klingon Empire (in cahoots with Orions) to do their bidding.
That populist Federation leader has an ideologically stupid, ardent, and vicious base. Sometimes even literally.
The balance of power has somewhat shifted somewhat towards the new entrants, but their full potential is as of yet unrealized. The worlds that border and fear the Klingon Empire, also form clusters that adhere to the core Federation ideals.
Starfleet itself would be underfunded, undermanned, outstretched, and constantly vilified by Anti-Federation cynics truly believing the disinformation that's half-secretly fed by the Klingon Empire. So these are, like, anti-Federationists.
Some of Starfleet has simply devolved into paid high-class mercenaries, who are typically sourced from the Sol system. Each person is individually a good one, but as a collective, they are unable to make correct value judgements, which can often end in disaster.
Cardassia and New Romulus:
One is a thriving democracy, yet under-resourced, but survives on trade and Cardassian workmanship; for example, by selling versatile Cardassian-made ships and reserach vessels to other peoples. Some of that is in Star Trek: Online.
New Romulus remains rich, but is in disarray, with a continually fledgling democracy, and an uncertain future. Resource distribution is inflexible because of trade links that are continually disrupted by the Klingons. Internally, the Romulans would be unable to make up their mind as to whether they should side with the Federation or the Klingons.
The Klingons have resurged after the Dominion War, and have become a constant and serious threat long after the reformist Martok was deposed; the Klingon Empire has also bitten chunks out of the former Romulan Star Empire (no Neutral Zone any longer), and are maybe even feeding the Tal'Shiar of the yore to keep influencing Romulan worlds.
At the same time, Starfleet are held back by the mostly-corrupt Federation bureaucracy from properly helping the new Romulan nation. Some in the Federation governing bodies are non-corrupt, but difficult to get access to.
Romulans as primary characters?
I'd love Denise Crosby to return as Sela, who is the embattled Captain or Commander of an older and battle-scarred Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird.
I'm fond of both Denise Crosby and Sela. I'd see Sela as a flawed character, who during the course of a series is in the process of slowly reforming to become a better Romulan and a better Human.
Sela wants the New Romulan nation to thrive, but she's correctly disillusioned about the Federation, and constant Klingon attacks make it difficult for the Romulans to have reliable trade links.
Note, that Romulan Warbirds are powered by an artificial singularity for warp speed, and if the Warbird's warp core destabilizes, it will risk imploding the ship.
New Romulan ships (Valdore-type), are well-resourced, self-sufficent, and designed to protect the Romulan Nation, but are few and far between, and always busy repelling the Klingons.
In that storyline, the warp core of Sela's Warbird is fine (for story purposes), but the rest of the ship is in complete tatters, undermanned, and often unable to properly fight on its own because of insufficient repairs.
Each resolution to a battle is dependent on ingenuous and jury-rigged engineering devised on the spot with some science. (A good science officer is needed.) And each such solution works only once and sometimes even by chance.
The crew of Sela's Warbird consists of people from different races and backgrounds; some are even refugees from the Federation — either disillusioned in its corruption, or even exiled.
Bajor and Vulcan
Many non-Federation peoples feel unwelcome in parts of the Federation, and choose to live on those worlds that have remained welcoming, Federation or otherwise.
For example, Bajor and Vulcan on their own are really strong Federation members, but internally, their cultures suffer a little because of a large number of refugees that they have decided to take in. Some integrate well, and some not so well.
This minor shift in the balance of power in the Federation means, that new entrants would prefer to trade with Bajor and Vulcan and Betazed; but Earth, Andoria, and Tellar engage in predatory competition. Oftentimes, many worlds and governments avoid the founding/early Federation members, and strive to engage trade with non-corrupt and newer member worlds.
Bajor is a major alternative producer and refitter of Starfleet vessels. Much of the production of new vessels consists of Ambassador-class ships and runabouts. The former now form the backbone of Starfleet. Ambassador-class ships are not particularly advanced, but do their job admirably. (Previously, it was the Excelsior- and Miranda-class ships that formed the backbone of Starfleet.)
Bajor is also home to the well-regarded college of the Starfleet Academy, the graduates of which form some of the better Starfleet crews.
On the other hand, the Earth-based Starfleet Academy has gained a horrible reputation for suffering from bad tutors, bad students, and abuse of cadets. The graduates are given some of the best ships — Defiant-class escorts/attack ships, Sovereign-class heavy cruisers, and Intrepids for smaller missions (of mercy, or otherwise) — but the terrible culture from the Earth-based Academy often travels along and persists in these crews. Any scandal is swept under the rug, but the whole situation keeps festering, and is in danger of overflowing.
Prometheus-class starships have become the most powerful vessels in the fleet, are now constructed on Vulcan, and mostly manned by Vulcans and Betazoids. These are like elite ships and crews, and for good reason are feared by enemies and respected by friends in the Starfleet and beyond; ships from Sol system typically avoid contact with these in order to avoid some scandal from cropping up that would further damage the reputation of Starfleet and the Federation. Prometheus-class ships are also fitted with cloaking devices.
Thing is, that it's become impossible for Federation member worlds to rely entirely on Starfleet, because each ship is a hit and a miss in peacably resolving issues. Or even such simple things as cargo transport. For the uninitiated, it's often impossible to tell, which ship has a 'good' crew or captain, and which does not.
Incidentally, both the Bajoran Starfleet College and its corresponding Vulcan academy are closely keeping tabs on those ships with 'bad' crews.
Thus, many otherwise well-meaning member worlds don't ask Starfleet for help, or would rather circumvent Starfleet by contacting a 'good' planet individually.
A number of worlds have secretly formed parallel structures to avoid Starfleet ships with bad crews. Some in the Starfleet brass have silently recognised this, but are often unable to effect real change. They understand, that if this keeps going for a long time, then a civil war might be possible.
Of course, some of those bad ship crews try to self-heal and reform (having recognised how bad they are), but since their reputation keeps accompanying them, then getting good assignments is an increasingly hard job; they're not even trusted with transporting cheap cargo. This, of course, has a very demoralising effect, so they hide in some nebula, and sit in a funk, sulking. Rather sad.
Some ships are trying to be good, but have simply given up on being in the good graces of better member worlds — this means no quality shore leave, no refits, and all manner of resources must be self-sourced. Returning to Starfleet HQ is dangerous, because the whole crew might be reassigned to some worse ship, and the previous ship might then be manned with uppity Academy graduates itching to look for trouble (think Red Squad, but worse).
Back to Sela's Warbird.
With the new Romulan Nation and the Federation formally allied and under threat from Klingons, Nausicaans, and Yridian information brokers everywhere, all Romulan starships are allowed to roam through Federation space on the condition, that they do not cloak.
Some Federation member worlds prefer to use Romulan ships for cargo and transport, because they are more reliable in terms of personnel, if sometimes in a shabby state because of disrepair.
Crew morale there is mixed, and vascillates between horribly low and unbelievably high, as running the ship is dependent on a number of smart, yet flawed crewmembers of different ranks, and who through one another's personal relationships actually form the glue of the ship depite what their different formal statuses would have been in the old Star Empire.
So, there's friction between each crewmember naturally striving to gain more status, but often choosing to forgo the classic Romulan honor and fame (aka status) in order to keep the ship going.
With older Romulans, nostalgia for the Romulan Star Empire is rife, while younger Romulans were born into a new situation and idealistically look up towards the Federation for salvation; not necessarily knowing or acknowledging, that much of the Federation is petty and corrupt, with an authoritarian and impossible-to-control Section 31 that's lost its initial purpose and running the game almost in the open already.
So, lots of Klingon political refugees/asylees, and Romulan refugees fleeing from Klingon attacks to good Federation worlds (often a hit and miss). There is some minor strife to be had when peoples of different cultures meet, but mostly, the refugee Klingons and Romulans are peaceful and even cooperating. Some Federation worlds are welcoming the refugees with arms wide open, while others have become isolated and insular.
I really don't know, where Earth would stand in this. Maybe each country on Earth is also like now, wherein some would be welcoming and able to absorb a large population, and some would be welcoming in spirit, but unable to house large populations of offworlders in order to protect their language, culture, identity, and small numbers. Other Earth countries have enough space, but are too insular and/or corrupt, being the primary sources of corrupt Starfleet officers.
It's as of yet unknown, how it came to be, that bad education and a lot of corrupt culture has seeped into Earth. This continuing mystery is secretly being investigated by the outstretched Starfleet Security and a few enterprising captains.
The Dominion have reformed a little to allow some of their subjugated worlds ostensibly more freedom, but is otherwise staying put, and watching the Alpha-Beta Quadrant issues from the sidelines. The Great Link has dispersed in order to avoid major disaster when all Changelings would be congregated in one place as the Great Link.
I actually think, that the new species that the commentermentioned, is really a Federation-inspired alliance that formed in the Delta Quadrant after USS Voyager's trips there.
The hope of the new ship that would go out to survey that new species/alliance, is to join with that alliance to reform the Federation into the power that it once was.
teisipäev, 7. märts 2017
The different effects of black goo
This was a reply to a YouTube video comment post I wrote a couple weeks ago.
This post discusses the differences in how the black goo in "Prometheus" affected Holloway (compared to Fifield).
The thing with Holloway was, that IMO, he was actually disintegrating in a manner similar to the Engineer in the early scene of "Prometheus", because Holloway ingested black goo, which was beyond simple (well...) skin contact, and the goo began doing its intended work on disintegrating Holloway's DNA. But the black goo did so at a much slower pace, because Holloway had ingested less than a drop mixed into fizzy wine, while the early Engineer ingested a mouthful.
Note, that the sacrificial Engineer then fell into a river of water, which apparently quickly stabilised the resulting DNA strands, that went on to mix, match and become a source of all life on Earth.
And because the dosage of black goo in Holloway was small, and the effect slow, he managed to pass some already-randomised / –transmogrified DNA into Shaw. The rest, in terms of "Prometheus", is history.
Another theory is, that everything the black goo affects, makes transformed life extremely aggressive, and always with a need to procreate, seed, and spread themselves around, case in point being hammerpedes.
End of comment.
More theories from here on.
The thing about the black goo is, that it's probably a baseline material for creating xenomorphs, as evidenced by the very xenomorph-like silhouette / relief embedded in the wall or ceiling inside the (compromised) black goo repository on LV-223.
Though I do not know, why or what has lead the black goo to be like that. Theories abound...
So, my theory is, that the black goo is blood harvested by Engineers from a species older and higher-order than even the Engineers themselves.
Assuming, that this is true, then "Prometheus" offers at least a couple hints to this; one being, that this even older species was in the beginning scenes of "Prometheus"; the other is, that the head in the Engineer laboratory is the dead head of a representative of that higher-order species. And the black goo was then harvested from the head and body of the higher-order/older species. (To me, the black goo is not Engineer blood.)
What may probably run counter to that, is that the xenomorph-like relief in the wall/ceiling is actually a Xenomorph trapped. It might be live, or might not, or might be in stasis instead. Think of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite.
Now, the head of the higher-order-species appears to have been housed in the Engineer laboratory dome—or the dome laboratory was built around the head. The Engineer ships were located inside and around the dome. The rest of the body was apparently kept buried underground, until the Engineers discovered it and surveyed the dead body... for something useful.
The dangerous nature of the black goo is, because it's the blood of a dead higher-order humanoid species. The blood of such a live person would have different and hopefully more benign properties than the blood of a dead person.
As it is in real life, then in time, dead organic matter begins to disintegrate and becomes increasingly dangerous to health.
This may have been cause for religious rules that require respect for the dead and prohibit disturbing the grave.
All this is just theories, hypotheses, and speculation for your reading enjoyment.
This post discusses the differences in how the black goo in "Prometheus" affected Holloway (compared to Fifield).
The thing with Holloway was, that IMO, he was actually disintegrating in a manner similar to the Engineer in the early scene of "Prometheus", because Holloway ingested black goo, which was beyond simple (well...) skin contact, and the goo began doing its intended work on disintegrating Holloway's DNA. But the black goo did so at a much slower pace, because Holloway had ingested less than a drop mixed into fizzy wine, while the early Engineer ingested a mouthful.
Note, that the sacrificial Engineer then fell into a river of water, which apparently quickly stabilised the resulting DNA strands, that went on to mix, match and become a source of all life on Earth.
And because the dosage of black goo in Holloway was small, and the effect slow, he managed to pass some already-randomised / –transmogrified DNA into Shaw. The rest, in terms of "Prometheus", is history.
Another theory is, that everything the black goo affects, makes transformed life extremely aggressive, and always with a need to procreate, seed, and spread themselves around, case in point being hammerpedes.
End of comment.
More theories from here on.
The thing about the black goo is, that it's probably a baseline material for creating xenomorphs, as evidenced by the very xenomorph-like silhouette / relief embedded in the wall or ceiling inside the (compromised) black goo repository on LV-223.
Though I do not know, why or what has lead the black goo to be like that. Theories abound...
So, my theory is, that the black goo is blood harvested by Engineers from a species older and higher-order than even the Engineers themselves.
Assuming, that this is true, then "Prometheus" offers at least a couple hints to this; one being, that this even older species was in the beginning scenes of "Prometheus"; the other is, that the head in the Engineer laboratory is the dead head of a representative of that higher-order species. And the black goo was then harvested from the head and body of the higher-order/older species. (To me, the black goo is not Engineer blood.)
What may probably run counter to that, is that the xenomorph-like relief in the wall/ceiling is actually a Xenomorph trapped. It might be live, or might not, or might be in stasis instead. Think of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite.
Now, the head of the higher-order-species appears to have been housed in the Engineer laboratory dome—or the dome laboratory was built around the head. The Engineer ships were located inside and around the dome. The rest of the body was apparently kept buried underground, until the Engineers discovered it and surveyed the dead body... for something useful.
The dangerous nature of the black goo is, because it's the blood of a dead higher-order humanoid species. The blood of such a live person would have different and hopefully more benign properties than the blood of a dead person.
As it is in real life, then in time, dead organic matter begins to disintegrate and becomes increasingly dangerous to health.
This may have been cause for religious rules that require respect for the dead and prohibit disturbing the grave.
All this is just theories, hypotheses, and speculation for your reading enjoyment.
esmaspäev, 27. veebruar 2017
Would it be better to create something new?
This post was inspired by discussions between supporters and detractors of "Axanar".
Would the supporters of Axanar contend with a completely new military science fiction / science fantasy movie or series about peaceful exploration of space?
Option #1 for a future project with commercial elements:
Books with military science fiction and exploration of space are legion, and a lot of it is also pulp fiction.
Would it be more interesting to properly license and create a basic production off one or more pulp fiction titles with space exploration?
Comparatively, if Alec Peters (or someone else) went forward with this idea, then their production would have just as non-professional trappings, but without the lawsuits.
Would it be better to peruse sci-fi works that have entered into the Public Domain, and whereby copyright is no longer enforceable?
Licensing existing works might not be cheap, but anything that is well-known to have become Public Domain from a long-dead author should be fair game, IMO.
Option #2 would be a completely new show with its own brand and stories.
Unlike with Star Trek, the new show's very permissive licensing rules would ensure, that everyone would be welcome to make their own fan productions under that brand: new species, new planets, etc.
Creative Commons licenses allow one to choose between commercial / non-commercial reuse, whether the derivative must have the same license, and so on. Attribution would probably be compulsory.
There is strong merit in the philosophy of the GNU GPL license in free software: If you make changes, you have to give back to the community. Other permissive licenses also exist.
The new project would have to avoid all the branding and other optics similar to anything else in science fiction, so that Paramount/CBS or anyone else would not need to sue. All of the costumes, sets, prosthetics, ship designs, species, and terminology would have to be different.
Would that instead be more rewarding?
Would the supporters of Axanar contend with a completely new military science fiction / science fantasy movie or series about peaceful exploration of space?
Option #1 for a future project with commercial elements:
Books with military science fiction and exploration of space are legion, and a lot of it is also pulp fiction.
Would it be more interesting to properly license and create a basic production off one or more pulp fiction titles with space exploration?
Comparatively, if Alec Peters (or someone else) went forward with this idea, then their production would have just as non-professional trappings, but without the lawsuits.
Would it be better to peruse sci-fi works that have entered into the Public Domain, and whereby copyright is no longer enforceable?
Licensing existing works might not be cheap, but anything that is well-known to have become Public Domain from a long-dead author should be fair game, IMO.
Option #2 would be a completely new show with its own brand and stories.
Unlike with Star Trek, the new show's very permissive licensing rules would ensure, that everyone would be welcome to make their own fan productions under that brand: new species, new planets, etc.
Creative Commons licenses allow one to choose between commercial / non-commercial reuse, whether the derivative must have the same license, and so on. Attribution would probably be compulsory.
There is strong merit in the philosophy of the GNU GPL license in free software: If you make changes, you have to give back to the community. Other permissive licenses also exist.
The new project would have to avoid all the branding and other optics similar to anything else in science fiction, so that Paramount/CBS or anyone else would not need to sue. All of the costumes, sets, prosthetics, ship designs, species, and terminology would have to be different.
Would that instead be more rewarding?
teisipäev, 21. veebruar 2017
CBS, Star Trek, and Axanar
This is in reply to a YouTube comment poster, who was dismayed, that the CBS vs Axanar lawsuit was settled.
These lawsuits are done to avoid both brand dilution and to prevent misappropriation of intellectual property.
The brand of a franchise is an important part of that intellectual property.
Around 1997/1998, when Paramount had gone after amateur websites that hosted Trek content without permission, Jonathan Frakes gave an interview to Yahoo! Internet Life, wherein he said, that when he leaves the Star Trek set, then he can take his beard with him, but not the costumes, pointing out who owns what content.
The Axanar case is unfortunate, because on one hand, the Axanar people wanted to make a great fan film, but on the other hand, CBS saw, that someone was raking in money for it through crowdfunding. Were CBS to allow that to continue, a larger production (fan, "fan", or otherwise) would have eventually felt it permissible to do so, too. And that would be quite a can of worms.
The interesting part is, that Axanar had begun to appear much better than what Paramount and CBS had been doing so far. Some fans detest JJ-Trek, and others savaged the new Discovery ship shown in a Comic-Con preview clip (I like it, btw).
If I were a pointy-haired boss at CBS, I'd see a better-looking fan film as a threat to my properties, especially at a time of one 'Trek project being in pre-production; all of which is not cheap.
From the corporate point of view, a competing fan production would potentially devalue the existing project and affect its ratings after episodes were published, because (die-hard) fans would begin to compare Axanar to Discovery, especially, if Axanar looked better.
That Axanar looked better, guaranteed bad optics when coming down with a lawsuit on Axanar people, but CBS were not in a position to make a different move.
The copyright and brand protection issues were still pertinent, and to me, it seems, CBS found themselves between a rock and a hard place, just as they were about to get busy with Discovery.
Because on one hand, CBS had to protect the Star Trek brand, and on the other hand, they had to avoid alienating fans.
Therefore, the only way to avoid a worse situation, was to settle the lawsuit.
And so, CBS now have a very tough job of making Discovery twice as better.
These lawsuits are done to avoid both brand dilution and to prevent misappropriation of intellectual property.
The brand of a franchise is an important part of that intellectual property.
Around 1997/1998, when Paramount had gone after amateur websites that hosted Trek content without permission, Jonathan Frakes gave an interview to Yahoo! Internet Life, wherein he said, that when he leaves the Star Trek set, then he can take his beard with him, but not the costumes, pointing out who owns what content.
The Axanar case is unfortunate, because on one hand, the Axanar people wanted to make a great fan film, but on the other hand, CBS saw, that someone was raking in money for it through crowdfunding. Were CBS to allow that to continue, a larger production (fan, "fan", or otherwise) would have eventually felt it permissible to do so, too. And that would be quite a can of worms.
The interesting part is, that Axanar had begun to appear much better than what Paramount and CBS had been doing so far. Some fans detest JJ-Trek, and others savaged the new Discovery ship shown in a Comic-Con preview clip (I like it, btw).
If I were a pointy-haired boss at CBS, I'd see a better-looking fan film as a threat to my properties, especially at a time of one 'Trek project being in pre-production; all of which is not cheap.
From the corporate point of view, a competing fan production would potentially devalue the existing project and affect its ratings after episodes were published, because (die-hard) fans would begin to compare Axanar to Discovery, especially, if Axanar looked better.
That Axanar looked better, guaranteed bad optics when coming down with a lawsuit on Axanar people, but CBS were not in a position to make a different move.
The copyright and brand protection issues were still pertinent, and to me, it seems, CBS found themselves between a rock and a hard place, just as they were about to get busy with Discovery.
Because on one hand, CBS had to protect the Star Trek brand, and on the other hand, they had to avoid alienating fans.
Therefore, the only way to avoid a worse situation, was to settle the lawsuit.
And so, CBS now have a very tough job of making Discovery twice as better.
reede, 17. veebruar 2017
Climate change and acceptance of science
I decided (yet again) to save a reply I'd written in a discussion under a YouTube video clip an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine about a group of genetically modified geniuses. Three of them geniuses arrive on the station, and make startling long-term analyses about the Dominion War. The analyses are complex and also correct.
One of the YouTube commenters then asked, if the writers had in mind the climate scientists, their predictions, and how many people in the public — even decisionmakers — would dismiss these scientific conclusions.
One of the YouTube commenters then asked, if the writers had in mind the climate scientists, their predictions, and how many people in the public — even decisionmakers — would dismiss these scientific conclusions.
My response was, that
The episode wasn't particularly on climate change, but about how ready the 'normal' people would be to accept accurate science, even if they did could not comprehend it.
For example, we are able and willing to use all kinds of gadgets despite the fact, that there is a huge amount of science behind them. We are able to take care of individual plants without knowing exactly how they work, but knowing, that they need sunlight, water, nutrients, and bees (for pollination).
What many people are unable to grasp wrt the climate of the Earth, is, that they fail to treat it as such a gadget or a plant that also needs care and maintenance, such as: 'Grow more plants' and 'exhaust less CO2 and other dangerous micromaterials'.
In many ways, the science fiction show "The Expanse" has a very accurate view of how the climate of the Earth might have progressed in the future. There, the icecaps of the Earth have melted quite a bit, and everything is swimming, with 30 (yes, thirty) billion people inhabiting the planet.
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