I’m personally not watching it (you could call me a bit of a disco “hater” and s4 really kinda bummed me out) … but thought I’d see how people are enjoying it and think about getting a paramount subscription....
The instances hosting active Star Trek communities didn’t exist during the previous season of Discovery, so Lemmy isn’t a great way to gauge relative interest.
On Reddit, the /r/startrek discussion thread for 4x02 has 1.1k comments and 4x03 has 600 comments while the thread for 5x03 only has about 400 comments. This seems to support your hypothesis.
Alright, your propaganda here over the past months has worked. I want to get into Star Trek. Where do I start? Can I take an abbreviated tour? Or do I need to go to TOS?
I have long held that Season 5, Episode 2 of The Next Generation is the best episode to “test” if you’ll like Star Trek or not. It is a generally well-liked and well-reviewed episode, but more than that, from both a story and a character standpoint it is representative of what your average Star Trek episode is generally about.
So, my recommendation is to watch that one episode and report back.
After four seasons, Discovery still can’t figure out how to pace a full season arc. The A-plot was a miniature Humanity on Trial story which Trek has done to death, and the rest was filler.
Jinaal was a fun character and Wilson Cruz did a great job with him. “This guy really works out” made me laugh. Beyond that, sheesh, what a snooze.
That’s easy: unlimited SMS was common on most mobile plans in the US as early as the mid-2000s. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans had no financial incentive to use WhatsApp.
In the US you either had unlimited SMS or no SMS plan at all, in which case you got charged for every single message, sent or received. But I remember having unlimited SMS as early as 2003.
If you had no SMS at all then you certainly didn’t have a data plan, which ruled out WhatsApp entirely.
Well, that was certainly an episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Actually, it might be one of Discovery’s most representative episodes.
Discovery at its worst: geez that warp chase scene was awful. It wasn’t a great use of How We Got Here because there wasn’t enough time between the flashback and the redux to make the flashback seem justified—the bulk of the episode happened after the redux anyways. It wasn’t a great use of Once More With Clarity, either. I guess they were going for some sort of dramatic Rayner reveal? But, the “revelation” that the Antares was shadowing Burnham that whole time wasn’t particularly interesting. Nothing was gained by temporally displacing that scene other than frontloading the action, which makes it seem like Discovery is scared to lead with a character moment or a story beat, as if their mentality is “we gotta get to the pew pew ASAP because that’s why the audience is here.”
It felt unearned, and was just another instance of Discovery borrowing things from better shows without adding anything or seemingly even understanding why what they borrowed worked in a different context. And of course, this teed up one of Discovery’s most obnoxious long-running tropes: Burnham knows she’s right and spends a few minutes exasperatedly explaining to an unwelcome guest with equivalent or higher authority than her to no avail. The thing that’s always weird about these scenes is the way Burnham keeps going even after it’s become very clear that the person she’s trying to convince isn’t having it. At that point, focus on getting into the ship, don’t continue the argument! These scenes always feel like Burnham is trying to make sure that the viewer knows she’s right rather than the other character.
I know she’s right. She’s always right.
Discovery at its best: The scene where Discovery and Antares save the settlement on Q’mau. This had all the bits and pieces of a classic Trek triumph: the heroes put the mission, their ships, and themselves at risk to save innocent lives because it’s the right thing to do and ultimately save the day thanks to quick thinking, creativity, and Starfleet’s engineering prowess. This was actually the only sequence in the episode where the Burnham-Rayner interaction worked: Rayner’s calculated risk paid off but introduced a new complication, but Rayner was also pretty quick to concede that “ok yeah, to hell with this ‘Red Directive’ nonsense, innocent lives are at stake” and ceded authority to Burnham.
Visually, seeing Discovery and Antares literally shield the settlement was fantastic. The detail on the shields stopping the rockslide was great fun to watch. These have always been my favorite Discovery moments: classic Trek formula with modern effects and pacing.
Why I’m worried: Rayner. One of Discovery’s quirks has always been what I call “the interloper,” an external authority figured foisted onto the cast to either foil or assist Burnham depending on which direction the story needs to turn. Lorca and Pike were more pronounced instances of this quirk than Vance and Rilliak were, but all four seasons have done it.
Our season 5 interloper looks to be Rayner, and it looks like Rayner is going to be as prominent as Lorca and Pike were. And boy, I didn’t find Rayner to be interesting or compelling at all. I’ve worked with far too many “I’m allowed to be a jerk because I’m right” types to be entertained by them, particularly when played straight. I really hope they do something more novel with Rayner, and quickly.
Would a Federation warship like the Defiant out gun a Star Wars Star Destroyer? Who has a bigger armada? Who has the tactical advantage? Don’t forget that The Federation includes the Klingons, who love warfare and have fast, agile, heavily armed ships, with cloaking devices, and the Vulcans with superior logic and tactical...
It depends on whether you are approaching the question from a narrative perspective or an empirical perspective.
Narrative: The Federation wins because the Federation are The Good Guys™ and the Empire are The Bad Guys™. The Federation starts out on the back foot and it looks pretty grim in the middle, but ultimately they eke out a win. If this is a TNG two-parter it plays out the way “The Best of Both Worlds” did: engineering prowess combined with timely application of the human factor wins the day. If this is a DS9 arc or Discovery season, then Section 31 does what needs to be done.
Empirical: The Empire crushes the Federation like a bug. The Imperial industrial base is enormous and their power generation capabilities vastly surpass anything the 24th century Federation can muster:
The Death Star could violently destroy an entire planet, reducing it to asteroids. In “The Die Is Cast,” a combined Romulan-Cardassian fleet requires multiple volleys to simply glass the surface of a planet.
The Millennium Falcon—a ship a little larger than a runabout—could cross the known galaxy (Tatooine on the rim, Alderaan in the core) in a day. Voyager estimated a similar journey would take 70 years at maximum cruising speed.
In the 2360’s the Federation built six Galaxy-class ships and maybe a few dozen more throughout the course of the Dominion war. These are among the largest, most powerful, most advanced ships the Federation can build, yet they are dwarfed by an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer and the Empire built hundreds of these in the mere two decades it existed.
It you could somehow snap these two spacefaring nations into existence and pit them against each other, it would be like late-WWII United States facing off against Napoleonic France. It’s a blowout.
Transporters block shields regardless of modulation. You can modulate weapons to penetrate shields, but transporters are trickier. “We can’t get the away team back because shields are up!” would be a non-issue if the shields could be modulated to block weapon fire but allow transporters.
Most of the time they’re “blasters,” sometimes they’re “turbolasers” or “lasers.” Star Wars canon is a hot mess but they are most commonly defined as charged particle beam weapons, i.e. they’re phasers by a different name.
Yes, shields normally let transporters pass right through and definitely need to be specifically configured to block transporter beams. That’s why no away team has ever been stranded because their ship had to raise shields.
With the benefit of 11 years of hindsight, lets talk about Star Trek Into Darkness. Cards on the table: I don’t like this movie at all. It’s probably my least favorite Star Trek story across the entire canon....
O’Brien is a “chief,” Jonas and Cutler hold the rank of “Crewman,” and I think those are the only enlisted personnel who have lines and appear in more than one episode. Starfleet seems ridiculously officer heavy....
Or what has been your go to lately? I’m usually a whiskey and ginger kinda guy but I’m trying to branch out a little these days. What’re you drinking?...
Hey there! You may recognize me as a mod over on !TenForward, a Star Trek-themed meme and shitposty community. We love having our fun and hanging out but we’re also not averse to some serious discussions or news as well! While it is always allowed in TenForward, we realize that there might be a better place for it....
Creator or Daystrom here: the conditions that created Daystrom eleven years ago don’t exist on Lemmy. More simply, Lemmy isn’t big enough to host a new Daystrom.
I made Daystrom because /r/startrek was so full of memes and jokes that it was increasingly difficult to have an actual discussion about Trek. Discussion posts were drowned out between low-effort posts like memes and jokes and even if you did get a discussion prompt to garner some votes, the thread itself would have a bunch of jokes at the top, because jokes are easy to upvote. If you wanted actual discussion, you had to go hunt for it.
On Lemmy, the meme subreddits have already taken off and so it’s unlikely that [email protected] is going to be flooded with memes. [email protected] is so small that if you posted a discussion prompt right now, it would very likely be the top post in the community for the next 24 hours.
Now of course, there’s no guarantee that if you posted a discussion prompt in [email protected], the answers won’t be jokes and dismissive replies. For whatever reason, Trekkies love to respond with comments like “the real answer is ‘don’t think about it!’” which is mildly rude, honestly: if someone makes a thread about it, obviously they would like to think about it. But, outside of the very largest communities on Lemmy, there is so little comment activity that it’s easy enough to sift through the replies and discuss with people who would like to discuss.
One could make a community that enforces Daystrom’s two key rules: only discussion prompts allowed, and no memes/jokes/dismissive comments. But [email protected] exists… and it’s pretty much dead. Enforcing these rules in a place as small as Lemmy comes across as heavy-handed.
So, tl;dr if you want “Daystrom on Lemmy,” I invite you to post discussion prompts to [email protected].
Riker, the village roundabout ( lemmy.world )
s3e9 "Defiant"...
"Labyrinths" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
Prove you're really a Trekkist! ( lemmy.world )
"Erigah" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
gottem ( i.imgur.com )
He's just... unbearable ( i.imgur.com )
Rant: Star Trek writers really need to be more careful about what living scientists they choose to reference. ( www.thestand.org )
Meant to post this in main star trek community, not ten forward, d'oh....
"Whistlespeak" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
"Mirrors" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
By the Suns of Warvan ( images3.memedroid.com )
Don’t wanna bash on Discovery … but is there notable disengagement around the final season?
I’m personally not watching it (you could call me a bit of a disco “hater” and s4 really kinda bummed me out) … but thought I’d see how people are enjoying it and think about getting a paramount subscription....
"Face the Strange" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
You finally made it
Alright, your propaganda here over the past months has worked. I want to get into Star Trek. Where do I start? Can I take an abbreviated tour? Or do I need to go to TOS?
"Jinaal" discussion thread over in /c/StarTrek ( lemmy.world )
Apologies for the delayed post, Lemmy.World has had some federation issues this week.
"Jinaal" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
Lemmy.World federation is on the fritz again
/c/[email protected] is the second biggest community on Lemmy.World and yet on /0, there is nothing newer than two days....
Sunbird beta to relaunch and rejuvenate iMessage for Android ( www.androidheadlines.com )
Discovery Season Premier Discussion in /c/startrek ( lemmy.world )
"Red Directive" & "Under The Twin Moons" — Star Trek: Discovery Episode Discussion
Episode Information...
Could the Federation defeat Star Wars' Empire in an all-out war?
Would a Federation warship like the Defiant out gun a Star Wars Star Destroyer? Who has a bigger armada? Who has the tactical advantage? Don’t forget that The Federation includes the Klingons, who love warfare and have fast, agile, heavily armed ships, with cloaking devices, and the Vulcans with superior logic and tactical...
One of the Enterprise's transporter chiefs was played by Mae Jemison, an actual astronaut! ( www.youtube.com )
What was *Into Darkness* trying to say? ( lemmy.dbzer0.com )
With the benefit of 11 years of hindsight, lets talk about Star Trek Into Darkness. Cards on the table: I don’t like this movie at all. It’s probably my least favorite Star Trek story across the entire canon....
Any Trek quotes that are stuck in your head?
There are countless amazing ones but just curious if there are any that are burrowed in deep and won’t leave. For me there are two....
What's the deal with enlisted Starfleet ranks?
O’Brien is a “chief,” Jonas and Cutler hold the rank of “Crewman,” and I think those are the only enlisted personnel who have lines and appear in more than one episode. Starfleet seems ridiculously officer heavy....
What is your favorite alcoholic cocktail?
Or what has been your go to lately? I’m usually a whiskey and ginger kinda guy but I’m trying to branch out a little these days. What’re you drinking?...
MRW my instance fixes federation with Lemmy World and I can see Ten Forward again ( i.imgur.com )
Should there have been a Voyager episode or two after they got home?
I get it: Voyager was about Voyager’s voyage and there’s a strong case to be made that it ended exactly when it should have....
That's a Starfleet expression for "fuck around and find out" ( lemmy.dbzer0.com )
/c/[email protected] is under refreshed management
Hey there! You may recognize me as a mod over on !TenForward, a Star Trek-themed meme and shitposty community. We love having our fun and hanging out but we’re also not averse to some serious discussions or news as well! While it is always allowed in TenForward, we realize that there might be a better place for it....
Evidently not a UNIX system ( i.imgur.com )
The Alternative Factor. The Dauphin. Fair Haven. ( lemmy.dbzer0.com )