Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

In yesterday's video Nintendo Collecting asked something akin to the following...


PNQ: What is your Holy Grail when it comes to console gaming? (You can substitute whatever hobby you follow)


For PC games the answer is easy: The ID Anthology. And the weird thing is that I only care about one of the four discs: the Vintage disc. These days it's the easiest way to own Commander Keen 6 due to the complicated rights issues behind that game. Good luck finding a copy these days for a reasonable price!


But console games? Of course there are the obvious things like Nintendo World Championship, but that would just be a trophy, I'd never actually play it. It's a hard question, but maybe you guys have better answers.

[Nate the Great]

Going through my archive of the old Troper Tales...


PNQ: A troper mentions studying Paleontology, Hydrogeology, and International Relations. What job would be at the intersection of this particular Venn Diagram?


The only one I can think of is studying fossils on the ocean floor in international waters. But how many people do that?

[Nate the Great]

Every once in awhile SF Debris converts one of his video reviews into a shorter, slideshow format to get around YouTube's content ID claim system. Today's video was "The Visitor." One of the comments on the video is:


This episode is just one of many episodes that are one and done and don't actually matter in grand scheme of things that Star Trek likes to do. This is why I prefer Babylon 5 over any Star Trek series and why I don't hate Star Trek Discovery like some others. My personal taste is more towards one big story with beginning, middle and end rather than episodic were single episodes don't matter and everything is reset after episode so that later on no one even mentions what happened.


PNQ1: What does serialization vs. episodic have to do with the quality of a show as a single, standalone factor?



Is this guy claiming that any given serialized show is better than any given episodic show, a single factor deciding everything regardless of acting or directing? Because I have a real problem with this philosophy. He can prefer serialized shows, but that's not an objective judgement even though he's claiming that it is. This is one reason why I didn't like Stargate Universe and gave up on it relatively quickly. Supposedly it was more serialized and everything mattered, but they did it very poorly. Often they had scenes that reminded us that a given plotline existed but really didn't add to it.



PNQ2: There's a difference between "events are never called back on" and "events don't matter", right?


Let's take "The Visitor", for example. Sisko remembers what happened, he has to explain what happened to Jake. This episode will affect his decisions as a father even if he never explicitly says "oh, it's because of that time with the wormhole inversion."



Picard's experiences in "The Inner Light" definitely affected his attitudes going further, even if we only saw direct ramifications in "Lessons." Look at him in "Generations", wanting a wife and family. He doesn't have to look at the camera and say "this is because of my experiences on Kataan", but as the audience we get more meaning from the action if we remember. And that's another thing: if we as the viewer remember previous events and the actions on screen can be enhanced by the memory even if technically the prior episode wasn't referred to, it still means that the previous episode matters!


And think about Pulaski's relationship with Data. The episodes are standalone, but you do see her relationship with Data evolve. Sure, she still throws jibes at him, but it's only because she knows he can take it, like Spock and McCoy.



PNQ3: Isn't "episodic=bad" a similar inane opinion to the ones I mentioned earlier in this thread....


PNQ: Why do some people apply modern technological standards to older products that didn't have said technology available?

You know what I mean. Silent movies gave way to sound, some people thought that all silent movies were worthless and boring. Black and white gave way to color, some people thought all black and white movies were worthless and boring. SD gives way to HD, some people thought all SD movies were worthless and boring. It'll happen again when glasses-free 3D is perfected, count on it.


So, what? Now that serialization is popular that automatically means all episodic shows are worthless?

[Nate the Great]

Fanart of the Zelda trinity via reddit.


PNQ: Supposedly this is "Ghibi"-style. Doesn't it look more like generic '80s anime?

[Nate the Great]

Sheet Music Bros presents "Wipe Out."


PNQ: Is it just me, or does this rendition seem a little...flat? Like there needs to be a third hand playing a third melody line?

[Nate the Great]

A video discusses the most reckless time travelers in Trek. The question is raised: why did Admiral Janeway just go back to Season Seven instead of preventing the Delta Quadrant excursion entirely?


I'm not going to attempt to explain all possible futures, but let's look at a few answers to the question:


PNQ: How would the Delta Quadrant have gone on if Voyager had never gone there?


Just a few highlights:
1. The Equinox would've poisoned Delta Quadrant opinion of Starfleet so much that when the Federation expanded that far legitimately it would've been an uphill struggle to gain a foothold there.
2. Seven would've died along with the rest of the Borg Continuum at the hands of Species 8472. Furthermore, when Species 8472 invaded the Alpha Quadrant it would've taken longer to mount a defense without the unique medical knowledge of Doc.
3. The Kazon would've been slowly assimilated by the Vidiians. No Seska means continual squabbling and no alliances.
4. The Ocampa would've died out the hands of the Kazon.

5. A huge chunk of the Delta Quadrant would've been made warp-impossible because of Omega.
6. The Unimatrix Zero crew never would've had any sort of life outside of the Collective.
7. No Q Civil War, no Q Jr., imprisoned Quinn. And as a matter of fact Q never would've become rebellious again, who knows what would've happened there.

[Nate the Great]

Watching "Trials and Tribbleations" again...


PNQ: Why do both Spock and Dax assume "one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days."?


Cyrano Jones must've arrived with at least a few dozen tribbles, right? Let's assume that he knew about the need for minimal feeding for minimal reproduction and the population exploded only upon arriving at K-7. Therefore the 1,771,561 estimate has to be multiplied by at least a factor of ten, right? And given his dialogue with the bartender, he must've had at least a few dozen for sale immediately, right?


I'm also reminded of Childcraft's proof that vampires don't exist because if a vampire has to turn someone else into a vampire every so often, there wouldn't be anyone other than vampires within a short passage of time.



Incidentally, someone did the math about how much volume the tribbles would occupy and concluded that there would be almost two hundred feet of tribbles above Kirk's head, which would kill him when they landed. Of course this is ridiculous, there was hardly only one compartment and Sisko and Dax showed that there wasn't much grain left and the tribbles were only a foot or so deep.

[Nate the Great]

Watching "Blaze of Glory" again...


PNQ: The writers really fumbled the ball with Eddington, didn't they?


The guy's a raving loon. He rewrites the situation in his head to make himself look like an oppressed man fighting back at the heartless bureaucracy. He's the hero, the Federation is the villain, full stop. He always annoyed me. I thought that Trek was supposed to be about well-rounded characters, but he isn't. When oneshot Klingons in TOS seem more sane and grounded than Eddington, someone really screwed up.



I'm reminded of Kurn in "The Sons of Mogh":


Is that how you rationalise this? By calling your people cowards so you can be a hero?

[Nate the Great]

Ignore.

[NAHTMMM]

WD-40?

Sorry, I'm no mechanic.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Should companies be allowed to call offers "free" if they ask for your credit card information even if "seriously, we won't charge you anything (yet, mwahaha!)"

[Nate the Great]

Watching SF Debris' review of The Voyage Home again, and I was reminded that when Spock nerve-pinched the bus punk, he did it overhand instead of underhand.


PNQ: Theories?


1. It's a legitimate nerve pinch and doing it overhand was just more comfortable (and logical) given the respective positions and postures of Spock and Punk.

2. Spock is still a bit muddled from the fal-tor-pan ritual and accidentally did a Tal-Shaya instead.

3. The telepathic abilities of a Vulcan can instantly detect the most efficient nerve pinch location for a given victim. The punk's substance abuse altered his physiology enough to move the points apart so Spock's overhand maneuver was required.

[Nate the Great]

Regarding "Things Past"...


PNQ: Does Garak deserve a nametag with "Former Cardassian Oppressor" on it?


Unlike many other Cardassians I don't recall him being biased against Bajorans. Not that he would've fought against the Occupation, but it was just "something that exists" to him. Furthermore, do we have any evidence of Garak even being near Bajor until just before his exile?

[Nate the Great]

The season is almost over for recaps, but I would like to start another, more informal, review series for the rest of the summer. Babylon 5 isn't in the cards right now, I'd have to actually watch the episodes instead of working off transcripts. We'd have to stick to Trek.


PNQ: Opinions on the following scenarios? Preferences?


1. Add a subplot to every episode of TOS to add focus to the non Kirk/Spock characters.

2. Find a way for Tasha to contribute to each episode of TNG as though she never died. Assume that "Yesterday's Enterprise" never happened and all Sela episodes are instead Tomalak episodes, making the appropriate changes. Worf remains a general bridge officer, assisting Tasha, Data, or Riker as appropriate.

3. Rewrite Voyager episodes with the intent to remove the Janeway/Seven/Doctor focus (making Janeway actually sane and competent, of course) and dealing with the Maquis conflict where appropriate.
4. A more basic form of 3. Toss out all Borg episodes of Voyager and replace Seven with Kes. What would've happened had she stayed? Would she still have chosen to have a child with Neelix? What other telepathic abilities would she be able to unlock and use for the crisis of the week? Would there have been a love triangle with Tom and Torres?

[Nate the Great]

Watching "Second Chances" again...


PNQ: How strong is the telepathic bond between Riker and Troi, anyway?


Tom Riker is sitting in his quarters when Troi arrives to talk to him. She rings the doorbell and he lets her in, but he gives no indication that he knows who's there before he sees her.


What? If Troi can sense Will's general emotional state when he's down on a planet, and this bond is supposed to be strong enough to allow for telepathy, shouldn't Tom be able to at least sense her through the door? It stands to reason that by now Will can block her presence from his mind unless he chooses to "look" for her, but Tom's been fixated on her for years.



Furthermore, wouldn't it serve the plot better if he gets a distracted look, the chime rings, he says in shock "It can't be...", THEN lets her in?

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: Should companies be allowed to call offers "free" if they ask for your credit card information even if "seriously, we won't charge you anything (yet, mwahaha!)"

As someone that has to do this for a living, yes.

It's actually a very good age validation tool. An authorization charge of $1 that refunds back on the card verifies that the person is above 18 and can legally accept terms of contracts, is OK to see certain content that may not be acceptable for minors (read: porn), or in the case of what I do accept packages from UPS or FedEx.





(Granted this entire argument goes out the window when I mention that my company accepts Paypal, but whatever.)

[Nate the Great]

So I just read an article about the ongoing war between calling them "Christmas Trees" and calling them "Holiday Trees"...


PNQ: Am I the only one who thinks this is silly?


Decorated pine trees are not associated with any other religion! If we tried to rename menorahs to "holiday candelabra" the Jews would go crazy, right? And they would have every right to! I don't know much about Kwanzaa, but I did some research and just one example is the Unity Cup. If we started using "holiday cup" they would have every right to go crazy as well!


If anything a handful of holiday symbols should be clustered into a joint display. Anyone who visits the "holiday grove" or whatever could see what they want and know that the symbolism of their beliefs wasn't being diluted by political correctness. It might even be a chance to have informational displays to explain the symbolism to people who don't know about it!

[Nate the Great]

I wandered across this clip and one of the viewers wondered...


PNQ: As leader of the Bajoran militia on the station, why doesn't Kira have a ship at her disposal?


One commenter suggests the the Bajoran ships available are slower and less equipped than runabouts, which I call nonsense. It just seems weird. Maybe the Federation can't overhaul the Bajoran fleet until they join the Federation, but giving the station's detachment of the Bajoran militia one runabout to do whatever they want with doesn't seem unreasonable.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching CGP Grey's History of Santa again, and some of the comments discuss the different things people leave for Santa. I knew of the mince pies in England thing, but I'm wondering...


PNQ: Do any of you do variations on Christmas customs like this, whether as a result of national heritage or whatever?


For example, while my family makes Christmas cookies like many people, my mother would also tap into our Scandinavian heritage and make lefse, rosettes, and krumkake. I was never a fan of lefse but I like the others.

[Nate the Great]

It's a long story how I stumbled upon this one...


PNQ: Do you think that the bridge dome of the TOS Enterprise was clear or opaque?


"The Cage" implied a transparent dome, but the critics say that the transition was artistic license only. The E-D does have a "skylight", so who's to say?