Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

Furthermore the name of the station would've made for an interesting six-parter. The Bajoran factions can't agree on a name and are offended every time the Starfleet crew calls the place Terok Nor. Kai Opaka would make more appearances, "dying" at the end and uniting the factions to agree on Starbase Opaka.



Have I mentioned lately how they tried to cram too much stuff into "Emissary"? Like way way WAY too much? Giving the various plots more room to breathe would've been a big improvement.

[Nate the Great]

Who does "Captain Kirk" look like in this fanart? Cause that's definitely not Captain Kirk.


Of course you could argue the same for Superman and Wonder Woman as well. Only Spock looks like he should.

[Nate the Great]

Steve Shives made a video pondering which Trek character suffered the most.


PNQ: Opinions?



Traditionally we're supposed to say O'Brien, but he also makes a case for Kirk, Picard, Pike, Rok-Tank, Harry, and Worf.


It really depends on how you define "suffer". Are we considering physical or mental anguish? Are we considering the in-the-moment pain only or considering all of the fallout and recovery as well? Are we treating each instance as of equal suffering, or are we grading considering intensity or duration?


Upon thinking of it, I would put Picard's assimilation at the top. Physical and mental anguish during the assimilation itself, plus the torture of watching the battle of Wolf 359, plus the recovery. As he said in "Family", he fought back with everything he had and it wasn't enough.



If we're considering the character with the most continual back-of-the-mind simmering torture, you could certainly argue Worf.


Most intense, prolonged physical suffering? Probably Harry during his Species 8472 infection.

[Nate the Great]

We all know that the studio didn't like Number One from "The Cage", but there's still debate on whether it was Barret's performance or the fact that she was Gene's mistress that was the problem.


Today I found an article that says that one problem people had with her was that she was "pushy."


PNQ: Opinions?


This one surprised me. I understand other complaints like "annoying" or "too masculine" or "bad actress", but not "pushy".



I had a screed about how Barret's roles were written vs. her acting talent, but it wasn't really relevant and it was drifting into bashing territory.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm on a Star Trek clip binge on YouTube and I get to Doc's ECH fantasy...


PNQ: Would a Vulcan Nerve Pinch really work on a drone?


The basic principle of the VNP is that humanoids have a neural cluster at the base of their necks that can be physically influenced. However, a Borg drone would not rely so much on said neural cluster, most signals would go through their implants.



Maybe I'd buy that a Vulcan can use their touch telepathy through a VNP (Spock was able to communicate with a few aliens at short range without physical contact) to knock out a drone because they can "change the frequency" to make contact, but not a hologram.

[Nate the Great]

Miles and Keiko get married.


In the comments a lot of people expressed dislike for Keiko...


PNQ: What was wrong with Keiko?


To me Keiko's only mistake was pushing the kelp and seaberries. You just can't expect a man of Mile's age to completely change their diet on a dime.



Maybe these viewers are so fixated on the fairytale version of marriage that they hate anything less.


Or is it something as simple as "why am I watching domestic squabbles when this show is supposed to be an escape from my own domestic squabbles"?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Steve Shives made a video pondering which Trek character suffered the most.


PNQ: Opinions?

O'Brien, Worf, Picard would all be viable choices, I agree.

There's also Lazarus from "The Alternative Factor".

[Nate the Great]

I've ranted about Admiral Morrow saying that the Enterprise is 20 years old when it's really 40 before, but...


PNQ: What do you think should be the design life span of a starship? Of course you'd want them to last awhile, but how long? What's an appropriate balance between having current tech and sticking with a reliable design that's easy to repair?


This also ties into the next question...


PNQ2: We see Excelsior classes all over the place in the 24th century, are they all a hundred years old undergoing regular refits to replace the aging parts? Or is there a shipyard out there that's been cranking them out using an efficient design?


PNQ3: I know that the Enterprise-B variant didn't exist until after TNG, but why did they never appear in DS9 or VOY?


PNQ4: Why did we never see any Ambassador-classes in the DS9 fleets? Was the design of the Enterprise-C so faulty that no amount of redesign would result in a battle-worthy ship?

[NAHTMMM]

B and C are special guest stars, you don't want to diminish the impact of rewatching the story by having seen ships just like them all over the franchise.

How long a ship's useful lifespan is is going to depend on how fast technology outpaces it and how necessary that new technology is to keep up with demands. You can keep e.g. Warp 7 tech around as long as nobody else can go faster (oversimplifying obviously). But if you come out with a Warp 9 engine and then the Romulans have a Warp 9.5 engine a week later, back to the drawing board. Ideally a ship just won't break down period, but then you get into the efficiency of devoting X more resources into an expected Y increase in lifespan.

Personally I like reliability in cars. I'd rather have a time-tested design with the latest improvements over "the totally redesigned 2024 Whatever" that might take a few years to work all the bugs out of.

[Nate the Great]

I think you're oversimplifying. The Excelsior wasn't the big dog for very long, but it persisted for decades as a reliable workhorse. And let's be real here, most missions don't need a big dog, they need a reliable workhorse.



I fail to see why the Ambassador couldn't also be a workhorse. We saw other Constitution classes in TOS, they didn't make the Enterprise less special. We saw other Galaxy classes, they didn't make the E-D less special.



Furthermore, you can't throw out entire fleets and replace them with ships with more firepower or warp capability. Technology advances too fast to be able to do that.

[Nate the Great]

I like watching videos where people watch a classic movie for the first time and react on camera. Anyway, on one such video for The Princess Bride, a commenter said that it should never be remade unless it was done as a spoof by the cast of another franchise, like the Muppets.


PNQ: Do you think a Muppet Princess Bride would work?


Miss Piggy would certainly put her own spin on the role of Buttercup. Gonzo would be Inigo, of course, with Rizzo pretending to be a giant. Statler and Waldorf would be Miracle Max and his brother, etc.



The framing device with Kermit and Robin would have to be tweaked a bit to fit the uncle/nephew relationship, but it could be done.

[Nate the Great]

So I saw another article bashing George Lazenby as James Bond...


PNQ: Was he really that bad?


It's been awhile since I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but I remember it being okay. Not one of the best, but certainly not one of the worst either (Moore certainly put out clunkers worse than OHMSS).


In fact, I think most of the trouble comes back to a perennial problem: the creators wanted to cover their butts by telling Lazenby to perform like Connery performing Bond, not how HE would perform bond. And Lazenby was never going to be a good Sean Connery.



(And yes, Lazenby saying "This never happened to the other fellow" was profoundly stupid, but that's the writer's mistake, not his)

[Nate the Great]

Someone on Facebook thinks that "Gul" is Dukat's actual first name...


PNQ: How come the writers never gave Dukat a first name in the show?


The closest we ever got was when he identified himself to the computer in "A Time to Stand" as "Dukat, S.G." Who knows if "S.G." are initials for his name or some kind of military rank or award?


I use "Skrain" as his first name since that's the one given in "A Stitch in Time" (FYI, his father, the one that Garak killed, is Procal).



You'd think that it would've come up during a conversation between Dukat and Damar (whose first name is Corat, FYI).



It's really quite annoying when lazy writers only give side characters one name.

[Nate the Great]

So I just read an article saying that it was Mulgrew who torpedoed the Janeway/Chakotay romance...


PNQ: Would this have really worked?


Upon reflecting on it for a bit, I don't think it had any chance of working. Chakotay did a good job of playing a role that would attract her, but it wasn't feasible in the long term. For Janeway to be able to truly connect with him she would have to willingly remove her armor, and I don't think she's capable of that while commanding a ship.

[Nate the Great]

So Kirk said that there were only twelve ships like the Enterprise in the fleet. Most people (including me) think that this means only twelve Constitution-class, but today on Facebook someone suggested an alternative interpretation. What if the Enterprise and the others of the twelve have special equipment that generic Constitution-classes don't?


Of course if you're going to stretch that much the skies the limit...
* There are only twelve joint Starfleet/UESPA ships.
* Only the twelve are the third-model Constitution-class (first model being what April used, second being that Discovery/SNW nonsense).
* There are twelve that are called Enterprise of different classes.
* The twelve are the ships that Kirk has served on.
* Only twelve have Scotty modifications.


Etc. Etc.

[Nate the Great]

A size comparison of movie monsters


Which led me to wonder...


PNQ: What is a uniform definition of "monster"?


1. Are all magical creatures "monsters"?
2. Are all aliens "monsters"?
3. Re: Joker and Voldemort: does a human have to have magical powers to be a "monster"? While I have no problem calling the Joker a monster in a figurative sense, he certainly isn't one in a literal sense (unless he's juiced up on Titan or Venom, of course).
4. Can Transformers really be called "monsters?"


Personally I think at bare minimum a monster has to be organic and of this Earth. I also think that anything with continual access to magic should be pushed into the "demon" category rather than monsters (with vampires possibly getting a grandfather clause). Just being created by magic (like a lot of Power Rangers baddies) is okay for "monster."

[Nate the Great]

So we know that Klingons have red blood except in STVI when it was that ugly Pepto-Bismol stuff...


PNQ: If they had known back in the TOS days that eventually they'd need Klingon blood to be a color other than red, what color do you think it should have been?


Personally I think black would've been a great option.



To me yellow is more of an insect/shellfish color. Perhaps one of the Xindi races.


Blue of course is for Andorians. Orange for Tellarites.

[Nate the Great]

So my mind was wandering and the following occurred to me...


PNQ: We know that the four big romances of Kirk's life are Carol Marcus, Miramanee, Edith Keeler, and Antonia, but who's fifth?


If we go by dialogue alone I think it was supposed to be Janice Lester, but I just don't buy it. Rayna Kapec is another obvious candidate, but I just don't see Kirk falling in love that deeply that fast. If push came to shove I'd almost pick Areel Shaw if only because she seemed strong enough to fight for a more equal balance of power in the relationship. As Meridian Chase says in Batman Forever, "You like strong women. I've done my homework."

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching TWOK again on YouTube...


PNQ: What differences can you see between Alley's and Curtis' portrayals of Saavik?


For instance, in the novels Saavik is half-Romulan, having a harsh childhood before being rescued by Spock and sponsored for Starfleet. This is plausible for Alley's Saavik, not so much for Curtis who seems to be 100% Vulcan.



Then there's the novelizations which state that Saavik had started a sexual relationship with David Marcus during the preparations for the Genesis expedition. Again, this would fit Alley's Saavik but not Curtis'.


Then there's Saavik's marriage with Spock and her other miscellaneous 24th century exploits in the novels. This time the Curtis Saavik is a better fit.



Personally I wish Saavik's Romulan heritage was made more explicit, since Saavik in TWOK is simply too emotional to be a Vulcan that Spock would respect. But what about you guys?

[Nate the Great]

According to Facebook today is Keanu Reeves' 60th birthday...


PNQ: Favorite Reeve's role?


I never watched Bill and Ted, or the Matrix movies, or John Wick, so I'm sort of limited to two: Much Ado About Nothing and Babes in Toyland. I suppose he did a better job in Much Ado, for Babes he was still too young.