Star Trek - Picard show

[Zero Gravitas]

...That's just the way things are. Things can't ever be any different to how they are now.

Easier to imagine the post atomic horror than the end of the sanctuary districts.

And it's quite infectious, I don't consider myself that much of a marshmallow mind but I was watching the very early seasons of TNG after the bitter taste of Picard and I couldn't help but think they were maybeee a bit of an exception, we're seeing a privileged few on a life of exploration while there's the excess labour of millions supporting them.

I'd never had an iota of similar thought in the past, sure there's at times an uneasy pseudo militarism and definitely rank, but the idea that the foundation of society is any less post-scarcity jolly never so much as existed.

There are comments about people doing things that imply something less than fully automated luxury space communism: Geordi and Jellico bonding over a boring daily shuttle run, o'Brien and his crawling through giant spider shafts but one could argue those are all anecdotes that serve the plot or scene they're not the fluidic space in which they swim.

[Edley]

+1.

Of course the imagination's there, it's just been focus-grouped to death.

Or we're in the middle of an large-scale imagination collapse.

I suppose it is possible.

I think it's less a lack of imagination than a denial of imagination. Picard is here to tell us we're not allowed to imagine nice things anymore. Because of Brexit.

On that subject (imagination, not Brexit), I'm grimly fascinated by how threatened some feel by Star Trek's contempt for money. Across hundreds of episodes, I've not yet seen a hokey sci-fi concept ruffle feathers like the very occasional reminders that humans no longer need money in the future. It inspires thinkpieces about why that's just silly and denouncements from fans who are wise enough to know better. Not bad for a concept that, off the top of my head, is made explicit in one episode of TNG, one of DS9 and two films, and usually just for a laugh.

Fortunately, the powers that be have listened and Picard has just delivered three episodes in a row where characters casually talk about money. Finally, our imaginations are free of that particular burden. Hopefully Amazon's Lord of the Rings series will follow suit and spare us the source material's infantile "wizards" and "elves". We're grownups now.

[Zero Gravitas]

I'm grimly fascinated by how threatened some feel by Star Trek's contempt for money. Across hundreds of episodes...

Three volumes of those deal with the interactions of trade from the federation's allies and the balance of their command economy.

Whereas only 2 pages even so much as mention heisenberg compensators, and that's only to hand waive them as "working very nicely thankyou".

[Chairman Yang]

It really is telling that of all the pop culture viscera that Picard is trying to repackage, our corporate nightmare world can't handle/imagine 'no money'.

Someone up thread mentioned Mott having a fucking hairdressing franchise now because 'remember Mott?'. A vast intergalactic conspiracy of horny robots is good scifi but a blue guy being a hairdresser in a space navy just because he wants to is ridiculous.

[Chairman Yang]

And on the topic of updating or subverting or inverting Star Trek or what the fuck ever; there's more to think about in Sisko's "It's easy to be a saint in paradise", than in the entirety of post-reboot Star Trek.

And to my recollection nobody gets bummed in the gob in DS9...

_{(Cue someone providing a perfect screen capture of how I'm wrong :D)}

[Zero Gravitas]

To be fair equally couldn't square:

• Benevolence in an interstellar political alliance.
• Paideia throughout a technological civilisation that didn't rely on emotionally charged news broadcasts.
• Human computer interaction beyond 2D tappable UI.
  

Let's not underestimate how little they're regressing on.

And to my recollection nobody gets bummed in the gob in DS9...

_{(Cue someone providing a perfect screen capture of how I'm wrong :D)}

Perfect? Go on then:

[Lemming]

Earth's society being broadly sketched never troubled me. Just being told that poverty and discrimination don't exist, and seeing characters react with horror or confusion to present-day issues, is good enough. Even if "technology" and "social progress" are the very vague handwave explanations for all of it, and even if the show sometimes contradicts itself - usually with sexism/20th century gender roles in TOS and parts of TNG.

If anything, the vagueness of Earth helps the series - no matter who you are or what time period you watch the series in, it's always just an abstractly "better" world than the one you live in, which lets you project a lot of your own personal hopes onto the series. I have the feeling trying to actually define the utopian society beyond some general statements would also have dated the show very quickly. Imagine if TOS tried to actually show us a hilariously 1960s-flavoured interpretation of daily life on 23rd century Earth. The show already got bad enough with Kirk's childhood consisting of fucking "dipping little girls pigtails in inkwells" 200+ years into the future.

As for the extent of the gay space communism, I think people like O'Brien having to do boring menial work is just a fact of life. But he and anyone else in the series could quit at any time and return to live in replicator-induced bliss on Earth, yet they don't. He's in Starfleet because he genuinely wants to be and he believes in what they're doing - even if it means geting frequently tortured, mindfucked, having his daughter suddenly age 18 years, having to watch Keiko get possessed by energy things twice, getting shot by weird space rays...

[Wonderful Butternut]

To a certain flavour of ideologically possessed ST fan he was the perfect character to bring back, gratuitiously torture and then with a teary eye phaser in the heart.

But I'd hope the production doesn't have its ear so close to that kind of popular pulse it influences the plot.

The violence of it wasn't awful compared to the famous tng phaser meltings in Conspiracy, and it was practically an instant compared to the shit they put Colm through.

No I'm not suggesting that the excellent fake prison memory episode compares in any way to this dross, but the franchise is no stranger to using and abusing characters as it sees fit. Focusing on the violence or characters out of nowhere going through some shitty stuff is besides the point a much worse crime is that it didn't say anything.

I'm not sure what point you're making here? Violence and misery existed in Star Trek before? Yeah, I know.

The snuff scene isn't an isolation thing. It's the culmination (so far) of them stripping all the good and optomism out of Star Trek in favour of misery and grit. And the phaser head exploding in Conspiracy is almost cartoonish in comparison. I even said it up the page: All these things were in Star Trek either on the edges or had occasional episodes about them (annual O'Brien must suffer episode), but Picard is just making them the entire content of the series. There's been little to mitigate the miserable, broken universe that this is set in.

[Zero Gravitas]

For one I don't think you need to go that far, there's more direct material issues with the dialog, plot, aesthetics and respect for audience intelligence to be getting on with before we start accusing it of failing ideological purity standards.

We've yet to see the entire series, I think a few brave souls rescuing a temporarily diminished and rom-boozled[nb]if I didn't steal that I'm quite proud.[/nb] federation back to its status of galactic shining city upon a hill is a much brighter and uplifting story than the steady-state utopian polity - if anything showing we can get there (and taking a new audience along for the ride again) after stumbling is more uplifting.

And I don't find any if this, were it done well, inconsistent with the federation's failings during martial law during the dominion war or the couple of forced relocations it has tried to enforce. Theres precursors in the text as light as they are.

Much like the technological basis of star trek the social basis is by design maleable and ill definded to accommodate weekly scripts having the freedom they need, it's virtues are situated in the shared values of the crew more than a realised society: every time we come into contact with it as a concrete entity it's all evil admirals, alien takeovers and conspiracies.

Doesn't mean I don't think it's not shit though.

[Edley]

For one I don't think you need to go that far, there's more direct material issues with the dialog, plot, aesthetics and respect for audience intelligence to be getting on with before we start accusing it of failing ideological purity standards.

I'm interested in running so-called purity tests precisely because of how dreadful this show is as a drama more generally. The dialogue is rancid, the exposition oppressive, and the plot utterly vapid. I don't have the energy to catalogue all of its basic shortcomings as drama and entertainment, but all power to those who do. I think there's probably a lot to be said about how far short it falls of its quality TV aspirations.

The only reason I'm still watching is because it's Star Trek, so I'm particularly sensitive to the ways in which it fails, by my standards at least, to even be that. Fortunately for all concerned, I'm nearing my limit and promise not to still be banging on about any of this in a few pages' time. Having read the Star Wars threads as a bemused onlooker, I am determined to restrain myself.

[Zero Gravitas]

Don't looking weird to the normals put you off we don't often get a focused natter about the best tv franchise of all time around here. I do love star trek dearly and do so desperately want this to find it's stride.

I can still remember how dirty and confrontational DS9 was in it's initial episodes how for me both Brooks and Auberjonois dialog was so stilted ot gave me shivers, how the seeming centrality of the ferengi boded dark portents of space trading show 9000.

If TNG can jump over it's first few seasons to become as beloved as it is now: anything can be made to work, but what I don't think helps is rejecting it in toto rather than clearly saying what is demonstrably poor about it.

[Blumf]

The problem is that this isn't Trek. You can't remove the central conceit of Star Trek completely, as this show has, and still cling on (heh) to the idea that this is still a Trek show. You remove the optimism for society, the idea that we can, and in-show, have moved past the bigotry holding us back, you're just left with generic action sci-fi show #35216/b. Might as well have rebooted Buck Rogers (in fact, why haven't they done that already?)

So no, excusing the duff writing etc. as being the same as TNG's wonky first few seasons isn't valid. That show kept the core idea. ST:P would have to change so drastically to regain that, with so many continuity issues, that it can not rescue itself, it would have to be a different show.

What is branded as Star Trek currently seems to back up that Fredric Jameson (maybe Zizek) quote "it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism". End of history nihilist fiction for the end of imagination.

[Zero Gravitas]

What is branded as Star Trek currently seems to back up that Fredric Jameson (maybe Zizek) quote "it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism".

At least not unless you want to get laughed at.

[Alberon]

It's a complaint I've seen raised about written science fiction. Notable exceptions aside (Iain M. Banks' Culture for instance) the future seems too much like today. Maybe they're trying to make it relatable and an easy way to generate conflict, which is admittedly harder in a post-scarcity society.

[grainger]

On that subject (imagination, not Brexit), I'm grimly fascinated by how threatened some feel by Star Trek's contempt for money. Across hundreds of episodes, I've not yet seen a hokey sci-fi concept ruffle feathers like the very occasional reminders that humans no longer need money in the future. It inspires thinkpieces about why that's just silly and denouncements from fans who are wise enough to know better. Not bad for a concept that, off the top of my head, is made explicit in one episode of TNG, one of DS9 and two films, and usually just for a laugh.

Fortunately, the powers that be have listened and Picard has just delivered three episodes in a row where characters casually talk about money. Finally, our imaginations are free of that particular burden. Hopefully Amazon's Lord of the Rings series will follow suit and spare us the source material's infantile "wizards" and "elves". We're grownups now.

Ab-so-fucking-lutely. I was going to write something about fans' contempt for a post-scarcity society but didn't get round to it. Thank you. I'm glad someone else has noticed the new consensus in fandom. I was in fandom in the early 90s, and it was full of idiots, but not like it is now.

[grainger]

If anything, the vagueness of Earth helps the series - no matter who you are or what time period you watch the series in, it's always just an abstractly "better" world than the one you live in, which lets you project a lot of your own personal hopes onto the series. I have the feeling trying to actually define the utopian society beyond some general statements would also have dated the show very quickly. Imagine if TOS tried to actually show us a hilariously 1960s-flavoured interpretation of daily life on 23rd century Earth. The show already got bad enough with Kirk's childhood consisting of fucking "dipping little girls pigtails in inkwells" 200+ years into the future.

Great points.

[grainger]

I fucking love this thread. The only decent modern discussion of Trek I've seen.

[Malcy]

Chabon answers more fan questions. Specifically the violence and lack of optimism. Long read. I couldn't be arsed but thought people would want to read it.

Concerns about the level violence in Picard:

I am not unambivalent about the violence, myself. The choice was not made lightly, though it was made collaboratively, and therefore with a good deal of conversation and debate among the creators. And so I assure you that it is not there simply "because we can," or because we are trying, as you somewhat uncharitably put it, to be "in." My partners would all have their own reasons for its presence in this story, as some of us had our own reasons for shying away from it. For me, it came down to this: there has always been violence (and even torture) in Star Trek. Sometimes that violence has been implicit, sometimes explicit, according to the dictates of censorship, the nature of the situation being depicted, the aesthetic of individual creators, or technical and/or budgetary limitations. And the reason that there has always been violence in Trek is that Trek is art, and there has always been violence—implicit and explicit—in art. It belongs there. It belongs in any narrative about human beings, even human beings of the future. Violence, often, *is* the narrative. Its source. Its engine. The question of whether it's "too much" or not is ultimately a matter of taste. Personally, I come out closer to the "less is more" end. But that is just me. In the end, I saw how little time and space we had to convey a sense of Seven's history post-Voyager, and the things that drive and haunt her. I decided, with my partners, that intensity was warranted. Seven lives outside the rational confines of the Federation, because that is where she finds her sense of purpose. But life is hard, out there. If it wasn't, people wouldn't need her help so badly. And she wouldn't have found such a compelling reason to carry on, in spite of her history of trauma. But, I hear you.

Trek and positivity (or lack thereof) and reflecting current times:

First of all, I think that the phrase (or a version of it) "Star Trek has always reflected its time" is open to multiple, potentially conflicting interpretations. It can mean, "Individual Star Trek series have always (consciously) reflected thematically many of the most pressing issues of the time when they were made." I think that's the sense intended by people involved with making the two current series, and it's pretty obviously true—starting with persistent themes of nuclear annihilation, racial prejudice, mechanization, totalitarianism vs liberal democracy, on TOS, through DS9 with its themes of individual vs group identity, chosen family, reason vs faith, and the inevitable moral compromises of war. (That's only the *conscious* ways in which Trek has reflected the times in which it was made.) But the phrase could also be taken the way (I think) you take it: that the world, the milieu depicted by Star Trek—the characters and their interactions, their capabilities and limitations as individuals, the social institutions and mores and technologies and economics and culture—reflects the world and era in which it was made. I think you're saying that this is wrong, that here is exactly where Trek doesn't, hasn't. and *shouldn't* reflect the world and times. That it has always presented its crews, Starfleet, and the Federation as improvements, as realizations of our best potential, as aspirational. If Trek has reflected our world, it's in a kind of utopian funhouse mirror, where everything looks better. I would say that by and large that has been true, though possibly not as to the degree that many Trek fans claim, or feel. But there's another side to the world—the people and society—depicted in Star Trek, which is all the characters, planets, cultures, mores and interactions that take place outside of Starfleet, the Federation. Many of these "outside" cultures and characters—the empires and alliances and unions— *have* deliberately reflected aspects of our world, with its all imperfection, intolerance, brutality, its humiliations and injustices, its evils. I don't mean just in a thematic sense, but in the behavior of individual non-Federation, non-Starfleet characters, in the construction of societies around prejudices and inequalities, violence, lust for power, etc.

That brings us to Picard. In the one, long, ten-part story we're telling, we're asking two questions about the greater world of Star Trek (i.e, the Federation *and* everything outside the Federation). One—a venerable Star Trek question, with a long pedigree in previous series and films: What happens when the Federation, the Roddenberry Federation with all its enlightened and noble intentions, free from want, disease, (internal) war, greed, capitalism, intolerance, etc., is tested by forces inimical to its values? What happens when two of its essential principles; (security and liberty, say) come into conflict? The answer has to be—at first, it buckles. It wobbles. It may, to some extent, compromise or even betray its values, or at the very least be sorely tempted to do so. If not, there's no point asking the question, though it's a question that any society with aspirations like ours or the Federation's needs to ask. If nothing can ever truly test the Federation, if nothing can rock its perfection, then it's just a magical land. It's Lothlorien, in its enchanted bubble, untouchable by the Shadow. And, also, profoundly *inhuman*. To me it's the humanity of the Federation—which means among many admirable things, its imperfection, its vulnerability and the constant need to defend it from our own worst natures—that makes it truly inspiring. The other, related question we're asking is: What about the people who live outside, at the edges (or even within) the Federation but who, for various reasons, aren't quite *of* it. Ex-Starfleet officers, refugees, people like Seven who served on a Starfleet ship but was never actually in Starfleet. People who have fallen through the cracks, or fallen victim to their own weaknesses. What is life like for people who, for whatever reason, live beyond the benevolent boundaries of the Federation—where, for example, post-scarcity is a dream, and there is a monetary economy? Again, there is precedent for this kind of story on Trek, but the fact that our story only resolves over ten episodes, not one, or two, or four out of a season of 23, might make it feel, sometimes, that there is more darkness, more trauma in our characters' lives. More *struggle.* This show unquestionably has darker tonalities than some others (DS9 is the standout exception). It lives more in the shadows, where the Federation's light can't always reach. That isn't to condemn, criticize, undo, break or, god knows, betray the Federation or Gene Roddenberry's vision. Shadow defines light.

Every new Trek series since TNG has sought to escape what can feel like the confines of previous series, not simply of canon (which can also be a strangely liberating force) but of the kinds of stories, about the kinds of characters and societies, that have already been told. Each new series has expressed this impulse to "light out for the territories" in a different way. TNG went a century into the future of TOS. DS9 went onto a station full of aliens that was both beyond the edge of the Federation and next to a wormhole that led to the Gamma Quadrant. VOY put 70k light-years between it and its predecessors, and introduced a raft of new species and worlds. ENT went deep into the early past of the Federation. Next season's DIS goes to the Trek universe's far-future.
The space we found for Picard is not "dark Federation." It's one of people who live and work at or beyond the margins of the Federation who travel beyond its boundaries to find the truth.

[Zero Gravitas]

May be the least of their crimes this week after they went down the "fuck it pimps and eyepatches" route on the costumes, but how much less effort could have gone into that rubber thing:



Vaguely the same shape but even from a distance you can tell it's a synthetic dark amalgam, but people who never saw the original won't care.

Chabon answers more fan questions. Specifically the violence and lack of optimism. Long read. I couldn't be arsed but thought people would want to read it.

I never watched or liked star trek, I find Gene Roddenberry's dreams and vision childish and wish to stomp any and all legacy his creation has into the dirt.

Almost what you'd expect from a writing room attempting to construct a defense that'll at least make you want to finish the season, all the art is in the pitch after all.

[bgmnts]

Starting to get really confused with Troi, she's incredibly sexy but is also just naturally warm and comforting and I want her cuddle me to sleep.

Brilliantly performed by Sirtis but god knows what I should be feeling.

[Blumf]

Chabon answers more fan questions. Specifically the violence and lack of optimism. Long read. I couldn't be arsed but thought people would want to read it.

...What happens when the Federation, the Roddenberry Federation with all its enlightened and noble intentions, free from want, disease, (internal) war, greed, capitalism, intolerance, etc., is tested by forces inimical to its values?...

Well, that contradicts what's been put into ST:P. The Federation hasn't been tested by outside forces, it IS full of greed, capitalism, and intolerance, according to the show.

The rest of it is pretty disingenuous. Yes there has been violence in the show, but no, that doesn't excuse graphically showing someone being subjected to vivisection[nb]Voyager did that much better, without needing to kill anything, and exploring moral issues around it.[/nb] before being mercy killed. Proper Trek allowed kids to watch, because it's important to inspire them. Many people grew up on the shows went on to work on stuff that reached for the future. The swearing doesn't help with that much either.

Doubt modern Trek would ever inspire a picture like this:

[Sin Agog]

I used to be terrified that one day in Star Trek Land we'll all die because we ate all the atoms with the replicators.

[Cloud]

I can see the point they're making on defending the show, it's a reflection of modern times in that you think things are all happy and we're constantly moving forward and away from issues like racism and poverty, and then out of the blue suddenly the Nazis are back, you have more people sleeping rough than for decades, etc.  It's a warning that a progressive society is still vulnerable and still can be endangered by complacency.  But, no doubt, will show that it can be healed if it does "wobble" as long as the right people stand up for it and hold it to account.

But yeah I get it, I miss the optimistic "inspire the present by dreaming about a perfect future" thing myself.

[evilcommiedictator]

To me, it has the same problem that new Star Wars has - there's a political backstory to be told, and lots of people who want and require it to be there to put the story in place, and it's plainly not. (ST of course, minorly about politicaly backstory a touch more than SW)

Open question - would a 5-10 minute piece of complicated handwaving make people happier with the series? Something about the Federation being ravaged and tired after fighting the Borg and Romulans, looking inward and starting to rebuild then the synth crisis hits, causing mass death and social unrest throughout the federation, the question of what is life in relation to societies and religions, some races leave, some choose entirely to not care about exploring the Galaxy, as after all, everywhere that is close and relevant has been found, thank you very much, and we'd much rather stay home and look after our families, and then in the midst of this, the Romulan disaster, where the federation, already low on ships, is asked by several of it's ranking officers to stop interstellar commerce and exploration to help an old enemy, causing outright inward looking within the major races of the Federation.

Would something like this, just putting a passably coherent reasoning behind the setting, help?

[Blumf]

Well, they did put out a three issue comic with background to the show, but it didn't really do much to flesh out the political problems.

The real issue here is that it just doesn't make sense. You can't tell that story within the ST universe because everything shown before now contradicts it: The Romulan Empire wouldn't need Federation help (and they sure as hell wouldn't want it). The synths thing would not have happened because of the events in The Measure of a Man TNG episode (and holo tech was shown to be capable of doing that kind of work anyway). Mars 'still on fire'!?? We never see it. Even so there are numerous other shipyards dotted about, not just the Fed as a whole, by the Sol system itself. The Fed economy is post-capitalism, so no, you don't get people living in poverty because they lost their Star Fleet commission.[nb]That whole thread of Raffi being pissed with Picard, then you see the flashback where she's all "I'm with you on this, you doing the right thing, etc, etc." Then she learns she's been fired and immediately turns on Picard, who has to be sorry? What!?[/nb]

And so on... It's all been highlighted before.

It's a story written by people who do not understand the fictional universe they're working with.[nb]Idea for a Lord of the Rings sequel: The humans have tanks now, Gandalf fucked off Shadofax in favour of riding around of a dragon (who doesn't speak or anything, because dragons aren't intelligent creatures), and the gang are back from the Undying Lands and this time they're pissed! Also, magic isn't a thing, never was. We don't have magic, so it's impossible to imaging a world where it exists.[/nb] At a fundamental level it is broken.

Irritatingly, you could very easily make an interesting story, involving the Romulan Empire, that chains on from the last TNG film, without having to fuck around with all the crap with synths and supernovas, still have present day political allegories, and have action and intrigue.

[Lemming]

Chabon's mega-post explaining the tone doesn't ring true. The big theme is basically "it's fine because we're showing areas outside the Federation", but that's only been the last two episodes. Everything before that has been on Earth. It also doesn't really work as a justification anyway - whenever there's been horrible planets-of-the-week (and of course, he's right, there have been many), the protagonists have effected - or at least attempted to effect - positive change and left the situation slightly better than it was before. Even if it went tits up, the heroes went in with good intentions and tried their best. Did that happen in the last episode? Not really, a chaotic evil organ-harvester-gangster and her security forces got massacred in a bar.

His explanation of the violence doesn't land either. I can't tell if he's referring to Icheb getting quadraspazzed on a life-glug, Seven executing a non-combatant, or both, but either way "it's art and all art has violence, because We Are All Human" is a really poor justification of putting something everyone hates into your script. Regardless, you have to appreciate him taking the time to address complaints like this, even if nothing he wrote actually clicks. We never got this kind of thing from the Discovery showrunners.

The real issue here is that it just doesn't make sense. You can't tell that story within the ST universe because everything shown before now contradicts it: The Romulan Empire wouldn't need Federation help (and they sure as hell wouldn't want it). The synths thing would not have happened because of the events in The Measure of a Man TNG episode (and holo tech was shown to be capable of doing that kind of work anyway). Mars 'still on fire'!?? We never see it. Even so there are numerous other shipyards dotted about, not just the Fed as a whole, by the Sol system itself. The Fed economy is post-capitalism, so no, you don't get people living in poverty because they lost their Star Fleet commission.

Yeah, this is one of the big problems. I have issues with where DS9 ended up going in its last couple seasons, but most of DS9's "deconstruction" of the Federation was earned because the writers obviously understood what the Federation actually was and found ways to push its limits plausibly. Star Trek: Picard can't test or deconstruct the Federation, because it doesn't seem to actually include the Federation to start with - not even a warped but recognisable verison of the Federation. It just gives us what essentially seems like a new sci-fi universe with Star Trek trappings. Picard can't save the Federation, because the Federation isn't there to save, judging by the snapshots we've gotten of Earth and the 14-year backstory.

Starting to get really confused with Troi, she's incredibly sexy but is also just naturally warm and comforting and I want her cuddle me to sleep.

Brilliantly performed by Sirtis but god knows what I should be feeling.

Her performance is wildly underrated, she actually *sounds* like an empath, and I'm not even sure how that's accomplished.

I wish the character got better use, she should have been front-and-centre in virtually every negotiation with hostile forces. The writers keep forgetting she's meant to be a linguistics expert too - I love that scene in an early episode where she's trying to teach Picard a language, he starts getting pissed off with its impossible grammatical rules and illogical spellings, and then she points out that written English spells knife with a 'k'.

[Malcy]

The Last Best Hope book really deals with the state of the Federation and how the people living in it react to the stuff going on with the Romulan supernova. I'm still early in but it's a lot more interesting than the show.

A lot of people at Utopia Planitia are pissed off at having to drop everything to help the Romulans and Geordie is shocked by their attitude.

The comic was just a waste. Really pointless.

[bgmnts]

Data is juuuust starting to get on my tits a bit now, get an emotion chip in him asap, already halfway through season 4.

YES baby Worf, although Alexander is the shittest name for a Klingon going. It has NO HONOUR.

Also, is a white actor playing a Klingon 'blacking up'? Unsure.

[Zero Gravitas]

Also, is a white actor playing a Klingon 'blacking up'? Unsure.

Well there's Christopher Plumber...and Lloyd and...

https://kellyplanet.com/blog/learnstuff/star-trek-actors-klingon-edition/

I always assumed they just got black people to play Klingons in the same way they only hired blue people to play Andorians.

[bgmnts]

Fuuuuuck an ENTIRE episode dedicated to Data wondering about hooman emotion.

Kill me please.