Fuck

 Well, it's over. What a finale! I'll lodge my complaints first. Discovery  was far too short, and even so it's likely to end up with the most episodes of any of the current series. This is one of the reasons that this streaming era really sucks. There was no good reason that Discovery and Lower Decks couldn't have gotten seven seasons apiece. I don't think we needed that tie-in to "Calypso", especially since it raises more questions than it answers ( why did they change the ship back to the original look? Why is Craft so important? Why is it worth leaving Zora all alone for 1,000 years?). It might have nice to see that story in Season 6, as the writers were apparently planning before it got canceled, but I would have preferred to spend the short time allotted wrapping up the other characters' stories. Something more than imaginary laughs and hugs. I would've liked to see Burnham use some of the godly powers offered her, even just a little bit. Oh ...

 If you watch pretty much any Star Trek show or movie, you'll notice that the vast majority of every Starfleet crew we see is human despite these ships representing a multi-species Federation. Why is that? (I don't feel like doing a lot of research for this, so I'm mostly going to rely on my memory.) Of course, the real-world explanation is that it would cost a lot more money to get a ton of actors into alien makeup and prosthetics for every single episode (this is also why there are so many alien species that look exactly like humans, especially in TOS). In-universe, it's a bit trickier to explain. From what I recall, there have been two different canon explanations given: one is that Starfleet usually has single-species crews, another is that for whatever reason, humans are just more interested in joining Starfleet than other species. Of course, these two explanations don't have to be mutually exclusive. The first suggestion of species segregation in Starfleet com...

  Star Trek: Discovery S4E7  "...But to Connect" will be the seventh Star Trek episode with an ellipsis in the title and the second to begin with an ellipsis. The previous ones are: TNG S7E25 "All Good Things..." DS9 S5E4 "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" DS9 S5E7 "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." DS9 S7E21 "When It Rains..." ENT S4E22 "These Are the Voyages..." DIS S3E12 "There Is a Tide..." By the way, I'm really liking this season of Discovery . Interesting character development, thought-provoking plots, cool new uniforms and sets and ships...

 I noticed that the arm guards used in the duel between Archer and Shran look a bit like the weapons used by the Emerald Chain in Discovery S3. So far, this season is orders of magnitude better than previous seasons of Enterprise. I'm even beginning to like Archer. I didn't think I would ever say this, but Enterprise should've had at least one more season. Instead, we have "These Are the Voyages...", which I have yet to watch but I'm told is the best episode in Star Trek history. I need to learn IPA so I can discuss pronunciation of alien words. Specifically, "Shran" is not pronounced how I thought it would be pronounced. I need to watch TOS again. Andorians and Tellarites should've been used more in TNG, DS9, & Voyager. Going off on a tangent here, but I think that Starfleet ships (in shows taking place after Enterprise) should have more non-humans. Maybe there are budgetary concerns for how many aliens can appear regularly. Maybe there'...

I took a look at IMDb and averaged the ratings of each episode in each season of Star Trek. Apparently, Discovery Season 3 was worse than every other season of Star Trek besides TAS Season 2? I smell some review-bombing... Below is each Star Trek series ranked by the average rating for the whole show. The average episode rating is in parentheses. Next Generation: 8.6 (7.4) Original Series: 8.3 (7.5) Deep Space 9: 8.0 (7.6) Voyager: 7.8 (7.5) Enterprise & Picard: 7.5 (Enterprise 7.7, Picard 7.6) Animated Series: 7.4 (6.9 [nice]) Discovery: 7.2 (7.1) Lower Decks: 6.9 (7.6) It's not IMDb users' favorite Trek show, but the average Enterprise episode is apparently better than the average episode of any other show. Interesting. TNG is the show with the largest discrepancy between the overall rating and the average episode rating. I guess people just like to remember the best episodes of TNG.

From an interview with Spencer Garrett, who played Simon Tarses in "The Drumhead":  "I was all of the sudden in this completely foreign world. And I think it was the scene in the trial, where I’m being interrogated by Bruce French, the actor who was representing Jean Simmons’ character, and I started crying, in the scene. And we ended up having to go back and re-shoot that scene because Rick Berman, the exec producer, said, 'No, a Romulan would never cry. He would be emotionless.' So we went back and re-shot that scene without me crying." Jesus fucking Christ. There are two interpretations of Berman's statement that I can think of.  1: there are inherent biological reasons that Romulans don't cry. That's clearly bullshit. In fact, Romulans (along with Vulcans) are supposed to be more strongly inclined to emotions than humans. Even if Romulans were emotionless, Simon is only one-quarter Romulan! 2: Romulans have a taboo against showing any kind o...

Watched Enterprise S3E10 "Similitude". Yet another episode in which Archer does something awful and he's portrayed as having made the right decision. If the clone is exactly identical to Trip, including having all his memories and skills, and you might be able to give him a normal lifespan...what exactly do you need the original Trip for? Just start calling this new guy Trip and pretend nothing ever happened. Isn't that what they did with Spock in the TOS movies? Also, Phlox apparently has no ethical objections to killing this person, unlike the Doctor in "Tuvix". This show seems intent on making me hate Archer.

So, last night I watched Enterprise Season 2 Episode 22 "Cogenitor" and I'm pretty furious. Spoilers below. Enterprise makes first contact with a new species called the Vissians. They are more technologically advanced than humans, although they're not as interested in exploring very far from home. They have 3 sexes: male, female, and "cogenitor". The latter makes up only 3% of the population, but they are necessary in the reproductive process. However, that's the only thing they are allowed to do. They are not allowed to be educated or even to leave their room unsupervised by the couple they're assigned to. They don't even have names. They are slaves. Trip meets a Vissian couple and their cogenitor and is rightfully weirded out by how dehumanized (or devissianized) the cogenitor is. The couple refers to the cogenitor with the pronoun "it", and Trip uses "she". The cogenitor never expresses a preference for pronouns. (I will us...

 Okay, I'm drunk and I'm watching ENT S2E16 "Future Tense". How does Archer not recognize the temporal agent uniform? It's got some burn marks and stuff, but my drunk ass can still recognize it.

The Animated Series - 100% The Next Generation - 96.6% The Original Series - 90% Voyager - 72.0% Lower Decks - 60% Deep Space 9 - 41.6% Discovery - 35.7% Short Treks - 10% Picard - 0% Here's the breakdown by season: The Next Generation S3 - 100% The Next Generation S5 - 100% The Next Generation S2 - 100% The Animated Series S1 - 100% The Animated Series S2 - 100% The Original Series S1 - 96.7% The Next Generation S4 - 96.2% The Next Generation S6 - 96.2% The Next Generation S1 - 96% Voyager S7 - 95.8% Voyager S1 - 93.3% The Next Generation S7 - 92% The Original Series S3 - 91.6% Voyager S3 - 84.6% The Original Series S2 - 80.8% Voyager S4 - 80.8% Voyager S2 - 69.2% (nice) Discovery S2 - 64.3% Lower Decks S1 - 60% Deep Space 9 S1 - 57.9% Deep Space 9 S4 - 52% Voyager S5 - 48% Deep Space 9 S2 - 46.2% Deep Space 9 S5 - 42.3% Voyager S6 - 42.3% Deep Space 9 S3 - 38.5% Deep Space 9 S6 - 34.6% Discovery S1 - 33.3% Deep Space 9 S7 - 24% Short Treks S2 - 16.7% Discovery S3 - 7.7% Picard S1...