khaosworks
@khaosworks@startrek.website
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 4 days ago:
I don’t profess to be a writer (not anymore), but maybe the structure could have been different. Of course the debate isn’t supposed to affect policy, but the cadets could have debated it differently, and the adults watching to see if they reached the correct solution which was obvious (to them) all along.
I remember when I was in the equivalent of my junior year of high school, and coming up with what I thought was a brilliant insight into Shakespeare’s Henry V, Part 1. All excited, I went to my English teacher and started blabbering about it. He listened patiently and let me finish, then said, “That’s great. You know, it’s been said before, but the important part is that you came up with it on your own.”
A possibility could be centering the core of the cadet debate not so much on whether or not they should force a solution on the Klingons (which as I said is a non-starter because the PD should have settled the question very quickly), but how to get Faan Alpha into the hands of the Klingons without violating their autonomy.
Then you could still get Caleb to take the side of “fuck it, what’s so good about the PD anyway?” and Jay-Den says, “But we have to remain who we are!”
And when Jay-Den has his epiphany, then the adults go, “Excellent. So this is what we’re going to do.” Because the adults have always known what had to be done but wanted the kids come to the conclusion on their own.
Then it doesn’t look like anyone is being an idiot.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 4 days ago:
The PD applies to everyone the Federation encounters, pre- or post-warp.
The PD prevented the Federation from intervening in Bajoran internal affairs (DS9: “The Circle”). It prevented the Federation from intervening in the Klingon Civil War (TNG: “Redemption”). It prevented Picard from interfering with the Kaelon tradition of elder euthanasia, despite Lwaxana’s entreaties (TNG: “Half a Life”) and with the Ligonian’s racist culture (TNG: “Code of Honor”). Kirk assured the Vians that even though they were more advanced than the Federation, the PD applied to them as well (TOS: “The Empath”).
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 6 days ago:
It was okay, and I like that we got some insight into why Jay-Den is the way he is.
But… to be honest, I’m not sure why this debate between Caleb and Jay-Den is even happening. If they’re going to throwing regulations and laws around, doesn’t the actual Prime Directive exist anymore? Because I’ve not heard a single mention of it. If the PD exists, you just don’t mess with the internal workings of a civilisation (TOS: “The Apple” and “The Return of the Archons” notwithstanding). You can offer, you can plead, but whether they accept is their choice and right, even if it means they go extinct because of it. Yes, I know it’s all a metaphor for Jay-Den’s internal struggles, and perhaps given how they’re debating the Prime Directive is now scattered across several statutes and case law instead of one all-encompassing General Order and other sub-orders (VOY: “Infinite Regress”). But when you’re talking about this kind of situation, it’s precisely the Prime Directive you should be using to frame the debate.
Also, I saw the ending coming from very early on in the episode - it’s the obvious solution, and they should have thought of it so much earlier. Yes, if conquest, not charity, is what Klingons care about, just let them “conquer” Faan Alpha!
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x04 "Vox in Excelso" 6 days ago:
Annotations for 1x04 are up at: startrek.website/post/34851748
- Submitted 6 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 2 comments
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x03 "Vitus Reflux" 1 week ago:
And I was right!
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x03 "Vitus Reflux" 1 week ago:
Annotations for 1x03 are up at: startrek.website/post/34543028
- Submitted 1 week ago to startrek@startrek.website | 12 comments
- Comment on Annotations for *Star Trek: Starfleet Academy* 1x02: “Beta Test” 2 weeks ago:
Thanks!
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x01 "Kids These Days" & 1x02 "Beta Test" 2 weeks ago:
Annotations for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 are up at: startrek.website/post/34296905
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to startrek@startrek.website | 2 comments
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to startrek@startrek.website | 3 comments
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x08 "Original Sin" 2 months ago:
Annotations for 1x08 are up here: startrek.website/post/31579269
- Submitted 2 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x09 "Eternity's Face" 2 months ago:
I do apologise if people are waiting for my annotations. I also apologise for any arrogance in assuming people are waiting for them.
I haven’t found a window where I can sit down and actively listen to do them. I’m working on “Original Sin” right now and it’s taking a bit of time because (as an English nerd in high school), I have a bit to say about the use of poetry and Shakespeare in this episode.
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x07 "I Am Marla" 3 months ago:
I mean, it’s being very heavily hinted that Lear is Kali.
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x07 "I Am Marla" 3 months ago:
Annotations for 1x07 are up at: startrek.website/post/30720634
- Submitted 3 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 1 comment
- Comment on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 4 Clip | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025) 3 months ago:
It was in the TOS Writer’s Guide as far back as April 17, 1967, where it was stated (page 8):
Hyper-light speeds or space warp speeds (the latter is the terminology we prefer) are measured in WARP FACTORS. Warp factor one is the speed of light — 186,000 miles per second (or somewhat over six hundred million miles per hour.) Note: warp factors two, three and four are so on are based on a geometrical formula of light velocity. Warp factor two is actually eight times the speed of light; warp factor three is twenty-four times the speed of light; warp factor four is sixty-four times the speed of light, and so on.
It was subsequently mentioned in the behind-the-scenes book The Making of Star Trek in 1968 and Franz Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual. The TOS scale was finally made canonical when it appeared in on a viewscreen in ENT: “First Flight”.
The TNG scale was established in the series’ Writer’s Guide in 1987 establishing Warp 10 as the absolute limit (and infinite speed), so the scale had to be adjusted accordingly.
- Comment on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 4 Clip | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025) 3 months ago:
That’s correct as far as the TNG-era scale is concerned. In the TOS/SNW era it was a simple speed = warp factor^3 equation, meaning Warp 6.25 is about 244c.
- Comment on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Season 4 Clip | Paramount+ (NYCC 2025) 3 months ago:
The thing I freeze framed on was the close-up of the helm control..
The warp speed control and the impulse and weapons.
What’s interesting at the warp speed control is that it indicates the speed at Warp Factor 6.25, but that seems to be less than half speed. If the dots at the bottom of the throttle circle are correct, 6.25 is about two-fifths the top speed of the ship, which means theoretically they have a top speed of about Warp 15.6, which is just a bit higher than the Warp 14.1 we saw Kirks Enterprise achieve in TOS: “That Which Survives”, although Scotty said there that the ship wasn’t structured to even take Warp 11 for any length of time. The Kelvans did modify Enterprise to take that speed in TOS: “By Any other Name”, though. That beings said, the specifications of Enterprise usually indicate a cruising speed of Warp 6 and a maximum speed of Warp 8.
On the other side, the impulse throttle circle and the dots at the bottom seem to indicate that they are at 2/5ths impulse power (which may different from speed), and there appears to be a speed limiter next to the circle, although the speed indicator on the inside goes about a third higher than that. That’s actually consistent with the idea that full impulse isn’t the top impulse setting but there’s a limit placed on it (traditionally 0.25c) so as to avoid time dilation issues.
Another interesting bit is the weapons controls. SNW: “What is Starfleet?” stated that Enterprise had six phaser banks and two torpedo tubes. The buttons here indicate two forward phaser controls - one ready to fire and one ready to charge. There are also two photon torpedo buttons, one ready to fire and one ready to load. Does that mean a single button fires three phaser banks?
There’s also a bunch of indicators above the impulse control (where Ortegas dismisses the warning pop-up alert) which seem to be communications or sensor indicators because they talk about band limits and Rx levels (received signal strengths).
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x06 "The Good of All" 3 months ago:
Annotations for 1x06 are up at: startrek.website/post/30326603
- Submitted 3 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x05 "Imagination's Limits" 3 months ago:
Annotations for 1x05 are up at: startrek.website/post/30064816
- Submitted 3 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 1 comment
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x04 "Magical Thinking" 4 months ago:
Annotations for 1x04 are up at: startrek.website/post/29717239
- Submitted 4 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 1 comment
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x03 "Do Your Worst" 4 months ago:
You are correct that the eels were not named in ST II. However, they were named in the script.
Outside of the script, they are named in Vonda M. McIntyre’s 1982 novelisation of the movie, Shane Johnson’s (as she then was) book Star Trek: The Worlds of the Federation (1989) and in Greg Cox’s novel To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh (2005).
- Comment on Podcast Discussion | Star Trek: Khan | 1x03 "Do Your Worst" 4 months ago:
Annotations for 1x03 are up here: startrek.website/c/startrek
- Submitted 4 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 0 comments
