Star Trek thread of going to familiar places and beyond

[killamajig]

Section 31 is like Boba Fett, better left mysterious and nebulous.


Even as a child, I believe I understood that the reason Boba Fett was both cool and intimidating was because the only known fact about him was that he was a bounty hunter with a mysterious past. So, just like Boba the more they explain Section 31 the less interested I am.

But sometimes you get writers that are fans and understand these characters. Unfortunately they want to be the ones that create the background for these things. Then you hope you don't get a Dragon Age The Veilguard situation where they're self-inserting ideologies so it's canon. "I'm the one that made it lame and gay. Teee Heee Heee!! Now let's have a pillow fight, girls!"

[Tucker's Law]

the section 31 stuff thematically was a nice extension beyong bashirs Bond obsession, going further into what realpolitik and espionage is about than his interactions with garak who represented 'real' tradecraft and pragmatism vs the naive hollywood espionage ideas bashir had.

Also - at least in the beginning - it was very unclear to what extent section 31 was a real thing that was actually even a starfleet operation, vs just some dude doing shit of his own volition.

This was also kind of my take on it after the Bashir episodes (which I loved btw, I thought the concept for storytelling was great!), that s31 was very likely not even sanctioned by anyone in starfleet and instead a small rogue operation, just maybe a handful or even just a couple of guys (who probably were starfleet intelligence-adjacent) that thought they could recruit Julian into their more "proactive" cause.

[benji]

Section 31 as shown in DS9 wasn't odd, you had a literal attempted coup on Earth earlier in the show, Star Trek VI is a plot about hardliners in Starfleet, even TOS/TNG showed members of Starfleet organized or not who wanted it to take out threats they perceived, etc.

Section 31 as a permanent major feature, that everyone is aware of and has their own distinct combadges and the show treats as important heroes is odd. But Kurtzman has quite made clear he thinks Section 31 type entities are the only way any kind of society can exist.

I think in the case of Enterprise that like many things they were trying to show it as a precursor to what we came to know, a halfway point between our current Earth intelligence agencies and what Starfleet would have, but they failed to really think about it and execute it how it should be. Similar to how they did the Ferengi or Borg or a bunch of other stuff. This is an overall problem with Enterprise, one of execution, versus outright contempt for Trek like Discovery.

[benji]

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

Section 31 is like Boba Fett, better left mysterious and nebulous.

Even as a child, I believe I understood that the reason Boba Fett was both cool and intimidating was because the only known fact about him was that he was a bounty hunter with a mysterious past. So, just like Boba the more they explain Section 31 the less interested I am.

Really? When I first saw Boba Fett I immediately thought "I need to know about this guys childhood".

[D3RANG3D]

[benji]

[benji]

This might be the best one yet:

[MMaRsu]

[killamajig]

Is this where I can brag about my only movie prop? A conquistador statue from Harry Crane's office in Mad Men

[MMaRsu]

[Besticus Maximus]

Is this where I can brag about my only movie prop? A conquistador statue from Harry Crane's office in Mad Men

insanely jealous

[killamajig]

Thank you. At least one person is jealous. Seriously, every person I've shown that to in real life has never even watched the show. The best I get is "Oh, I've heard of that show. Cool."

 Don Draper's Rolex was the most expensive thing in auction. I took a pass on that but I'm pretty sure I paid under $200 for that statue. It wasn't the conversation starter I thought it would be but it's a nice decorative art piece either way. 

There are some reputable auction places where you can get some movie stuff for really cheap. It's been several years since I've been into that stuff but I was kind of surprised at how cheap some of the stuff was. It's something people here might want to look into. I'd rather have a busted piece of shit tricorder off the set of any Star Trek show than a new Star Trek Funko Pop.

I still remember one of the auction sites back in the day was selling all sorts of clothes from movies, like Charlie Sheen's sweat-stained t-shirt from The Arrival (1996 film).

[Eric Cartman]

[killamajig]

This sketch feels relevant...



Almost like new vs. old Trek.

[benji]

I love Julian suggesting Nog's making a run for it with Sisko's desk:


Also we now have this:

[benji]

[D3RANG3D]

[benji]

algorithm provides:

@fluxcapacitor007
1 year ago
My good buddy once met Mr. Russ at a con where he was signing photos of his Star Trek character Tuvok. My friend asked him to sign it with his famous phrase from Space Balls. Mr. Russ laughed hard and obliged him. What a great sense of humour.

[Uncle]

in the famous "there are four lights" Picard torture scene, was it "just" a lie, trying to get him to admit something that's clearly false to break him, or was there some intention that Picard was supposed to perceive Gul Madred as the fifth light, looking upon his captor as a glorious beacon etc etc?

[benji]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[Tucker's Law]

Speaking of the glorious Robert Picardo, he gives a great performance as a recurring bureaucrat in Stargate SG-1 and Atlantic, maybe a character on par with his work as the EMH. Actors today could learn a lot from him about screen presence.

[Eric Cartman]

in the famous "there are four lights" Picard torture scene, was it "just" a lie, trying to get him to admit something that's clearly false to break him, or was there some intention that Picard was supposed to perceive Gul Madred as the fifth light, looking upon his captor as a glorious beacon etc etc?

I'm pretty sure it was 'just' to break him - its like Winston Smith at the end of 1984 admitting 2+2=5.

Speaking of the glorious Robert Picardo, he gives a great performance as a recurring bureaucrat in Stargate SG-1 and Atlantic, maybe a character on par with his work as the EMH. Actors today could learn a lot from him about screen presence.

I dunno if screen presence is something people can learn...?

[benji]

@EvilMariobot
4 years ago
2:50 Janeway: It's just a crayon drawing of Voyager firing phasers at a Borg Sphere.
Naomi: Look at the back
Janeway: Well, I don't know if B'elanna can use a bat'leth like that, but slicing the Borg Queen right down the center would solve a lot of... why is Ensign Kim a Borg drone?
Naomi: I drew one of you getting assimilated, because my teacher thought it would be more exciting.

   

[benji]

edit: might as well post the scene, which is exceptionally well crafted:

[chronovore]

Good stuff. I liked the Doctor and Seven best on VOY, with Neelix becoming a surprising bronze-medal winner, after Kes left the show. Picardo really brings it. The episode where he integrates the wrong personalities with his, and gets a Mr. Hyde scenario going, he did some subtle stuff that really worked, like contact lenses that made his irises smaller.

[Tucker's Law]

This news has had the rumor mill going about Ronald Moore's possible return to a creative role with Trek.

https://deadline.com/2025/08/chris-parnell-paramount-plus-evp-originals-leaving-apple-1236494254/

Not too sure if I want this  

I've already written Star Trek off as a dead franchise, and if Moore came back that could give me the same kind of hope for new Trek that happened similarly with Doctor Who and RTD's return (only for him to go straight to burning the franchise to the ground and pissing all over its ashes).

[benji]

[Eric Cartman]

While we're considering what happened to Star Trek in better timelines, there's been a few snippets in interviews about what Noah Hawley was planning to do with the Star Trek film he was planning.

also, a fucking Quentin Tarantino trek film, which I can only assume would have had a group of Klingons looking for revenge, including the infamous Bear Klingon killing memebers of the Tal'Shiar

[benji]