teisipäev, 24. oktoober 2017

Lethe, and Lorca's motivations.

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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.

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.