ValueSubtracted
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website
Have you ever considered that the Prime Directive is not only not ethical, but also illogical, and perhaps morally indefensible?
- Comment on Preview Episode 5 Of ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ With 13 New Images From “Series Acclimation Mil” 1 hour ago:
Oh yeah, the publicity stills are often laser-focused (phaser-focused) on being as boring as possible - if it weren’t for the logline and information on the writers and directors, I’d consider them almost completely worthless.
- Comment on Preview Episode 5 Of ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ With 13 New Images From “Series Acclimation Mil” 16 hours ago:
As a cadet sets out to solve an ancient Starfleet mystery, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learns the value of forging her own path. Meanwhile, Nahla agrees to help a fellow chancellor with an elaborate alien ritual.
I have a strong suspicion that this shot from one of the early trailers wasn’t a throwaway easter egg as many of us assumed:
- Preview Episode 5 Of ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ With 13 New Images From “Series Acclimation Mil”trekmovie.com ↗Submitted 16 hours ago to startrek@startrek.website | 5 comments
- Submitted 22 hours ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 1 day ago:
The show was from a time when the U.S. thought they had beaten fascism
I think all the time about how early TNG largely reflected the falsehoods we were being sold at the time - that all of these things were Past Problems.
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 1 day ago:
Early Picard seemed to be going that way,
Discovery went there in its first season, with the Federation prepared to sell its soul to win the war until they found another (problematic) way.
The post-Burn 32nd Century is coming at it from the other side, with SFA in particular reckoning with some of the choices that were made during the period when everything was falling apart.
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 2 days ago:
The latter too closely resembles “American exceptionalism”
Yeah, I’ve always found the “Starfleet must always be in the right” mentality to be patronizing at best, imperialistic at worst.
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 2 days ago:
Is there any evidence at all of the writers of the more recent series not having “freedom,” or of corporate interference in the shows?
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 2 days ago:
I don’t think that planet was portrayed as a particularly idyllic place…
- Comment on The recent Star Trek series are often criticized for "not being woke enough", but I've come to feel the envelope they are pushing is much more radical, bolder, and important to our specific time... 2 days ago:
I’d say they took it even further than that - the reason they were in that all-too-relevant “past” to begin with was that they had travelled back in time to an inflection point that could lead to a global descent into fascism.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 3 days ago:
I think that arrogant, quasi-imperialistic has always been simmering in the background of the Federation, so I wasn’t too surprised to see them arguing over this - and, to be clear, the actual debate was always amongst the students. Vance was determined to convince the Klingons to accept asylum, but “compelling” them did not seem to be seriously on the table.
Esri Dax’s excellent critique of the Klingon Empire
That’s an interesting point. If I were to come up with a counter-argument, I suppose it would be that the Klingons’ readiness to do this ritualistic faux combat shows some growth - they’re willing to settle for performing their culture and feeling respected, rather than endure actual warfare. A smarter person than me could probably find parallels in many modern cultural practices.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 3 days ago:
It’s not as if the Burn expunged all records of Klingon-Federation relations and the Federation had to rebuild from illuminated manuscripts copied by monks.
No, but I don’t think there’s any era that we’ve seen in which the Federation would stage an act of aggression as a diplomatic overture. Even in this episode, no one seemed sure it was going to work (and it may not have, were it not for Ake’s personal connection to Obel).
the solution was that obvious.
I do agree - they probably telegraphed it a little too hard.
- Comment on STO Ships are Canon! Again! 4 days ago:
Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
- Submitted 4 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 4 comments
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 4 days ago:
They did say they had been using “dilithium reactors” on multiple worlds.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 4 days ago:
I think Darem’s biggest issue was his drive to be the best, and he pretty much got over that last week. Other than that…IDK, he’s a bro, and I think he behaved as a bro this week.
(no need for spoiler tags in the discussion threads!)
- Comment on Starfleet Academy is Anti-Star Trek [NERD RANT] 4 days ago:
fat-shaming
Good grief, it’s literally the first “criticism” out of her mouth.
Okay, I gave it the benefit of the doubt without watching it, but we’re not going to platform that shit.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 5 days ago:
Yeah, I thought both this and the “youth movement” angle of episode two worked well.
As the cadets start venturing out into fieldwork more, they shouldn’t have to make excuses quite so often. They can go find their own trouble, and Discovery will be undergoing a perpetual refit!
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 5 days ago:
I think they’re probably fully aware, at least amongst their leadership. They’d already been offered the planet for free, after all.
I think it was about respect, not trickery.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 5 days ago:
The PD applies to all civilzations, but is more permissive with those that are already capable of FTL travel. When a species is out travelling the galaxy, you can interact and negotiate with them, but you can’t directly interfere with their business.
Caleb is leaning hard into the “pre-warp” side of it, as many fans tend to do, which is why he said those particular regulations don’t apply. He’s just conveniently ignoring the rest of the PD, assuming it’s still in force in the 32nd century.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 5 days ago:
I think the debate club is exactly the place for the conversation - Vance and Starfleet are following the PD. They’ve made the offer, been declined, and are…well, not respecting it, but obeying it. The worst you can say about them is that they’re being persistent, trying to convince someone in the Klingon leadership structure to change their mind. That may be a little obnoxious, but I don’t think it violates any Starfleet principles to give it a shot.
That leaves the cadets to debate whether respecting the Klingons’ wishes is a good thing in this case, and I don’t think there’s any indication that the debate has any weight to it - it’s not going to affect Federation foreign policy.
I liked that “good” debaters tended to fall back on Federation law and Starfleet regulations, whereas the message is to continue to treat people with respect to their culture and identity (even if that identity is sometimes muddled).
it’s the obvious solution, and they should have thought of it so much earlier.
I do agree, but (a) Starfleet’s pretty out of practice with this stuff, and we saw in the premiere just how black-and-white they became during the Burn, and (b) if it doesn’t work out…well, you’ve got a botched “Vulcan Hello” on your hands, which isn’t great.
- Submitted 5 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 57 comments
- Comment on 35 Years Ago, Star Trek Retroactively Created New Canon, And No One Noticed 5 days ago:
Respectfully, I think this is a bit of a retcon of the retcon.
“The Wounded” makes it seem like a fairly major conflict - certainly more than just “peacekeeping.”
- Comment on See The USS Athena Battle [SPOILERS] In Trailer For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Episode 4 5 days ago:
Jay-Den has been a breakout character for me, so I’m looking forward to this one.
And yeah, it’ll be good to check in with the Klingons in the 32nd century.
- Submitted 5 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 5 comments
- Comment on 35 Years Ago, Star Trek Retroactively Created New Canon, And No One Noticed 5 days ago:
I’ve been sitting on an essay concept for a few years now, all about how TNG was secretly (and unintentionally) about the end of an era of peace, and the Federation being shocked out of complacency.
The retconned Cardassian war (and to a lesser extent, the Tzenkethi conflicts) is the biggest challenge to address, but their very existence kind of supports the underlying notion that things were never as good as is popularly believed.
All of which is neither here nor there, and I think your point is a good one.
- See The USS Athena Battle [SPOILERS] In Trailer For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Episode 4trekmovie.com ↗Submitted 5 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 2 comments
- Comment on 35 Years Ago, Star Trek Retroactively Created New Canon, And No One Noticed 5 days ago:
Honestly the point of the article seems to be that changing canon is secondary to telling a really compelling sci-fi allegory story.
I think that’s exactly the point, and it’s one that is often disregarded.
And to be honest, the sudden retcon of the Cardassian wars is not very easy to square with the way the Federation was presented in early TNG, existing in an era of unprecedented peace. “Contradiction” might be a stretch, but it’s inconsistent.
- Interview — Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Raoul Bhaneja on the War College’s Commander Kelrecblog.trekcore.com ↗Submitted 6 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
- Interview: Oded Fehr On Vance Being “Tough” (But Not A Star Trek “Badmiral”) On ‘Starfleet Academy’trekmovie.com ↗Submitted 6 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
