andrewrgross
@andrewrgross@slrpnk.net
- Comment on 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Finale May Not Be the End, Says Tawny Newsome 1 day ago:
I think it seems hard to believe that the show really will end here. It just has the energy of a show with too much power behind it, both among fans and the people who made the show. And I think Newsome appears to agree with that take:
As far as the people creating it, we all would love to do that. I don’t know who writes the check for that, so I don’t know if they think it’s possible. But Mike has stories upon stories in him for these characters. He could do 10 more seasons. He is not done. None of us are done. Me, Jack, Eugene and Noël and not to mention the rest of our bridge crew and our recurring characters. Everybody’s like, “Yep, sign me up. We’ll be the next ‘Futurama.’ We’ll come back in 10 years, whatever you want.” So we’re all game. I would love a movie. I’d love a live-action movie, because we need to see Noël and Jerry and Eugene in human form — human-ish form.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
Yeah, Also, this really lets people make their own future for the characters.
Those two don’t need to necessarily fall in love and having a conventional monogamous romantic pairing. Just seeing a best friendship evolve is fun, and who knows? Maybe they have a fling and decide to remain platonic. Maybe they have a down-low FWB thing. This one little moment where they both see each other in a new way lets people imagine anything.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
It’s Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.
Yeah, there’s a lesson in good writing right there.
I think another way to approach this is demonstrated in The Expanse series and in a lot of Captain America stories: after you save the world, more big world-ending events get brought to you by people looking for help and enemies looking for revenge.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
I think most of this show’s jokes are great moments rather than lines, but there were definitely plenty of lines, too.
I loved “Science besties!”; “What is the viscosity of the goo?”/“Does it have anything nice to say?”; and of course “Engage the core!”
I can’t help wondering if this gets renewed.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
Yeah. Also: there has been throughout the show a nice little undercurrent of labor consciousness that was often lacking when we only follow “leadership” in stories.
This has been my favorite Trek in a long while. I like these characters a lot, and their personal and professional growth was well written.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
Overall, I think it was foreshadowed enough. In the first episode of the season, we see him having transitioned entirely to inorganic parts to fully bury his emotions, and in the end of this we see him deciding to go the other way. And I liked it.
I’m often a little critical of what seem like anti-transhumanist takes that assume organic parts are inherently superior, and mechanization is a defilement of god’s creation. But in this case, I didn’t feel like his choice was that. It felt like – and this is a complicated comparison, so follow me – an examination of what is often called “detransitioning”.
I say “often called” because I don’t think a transgender person adopting a prior gender presentation IS “detransitioning”. I think it’s just transitioning further. There’s a sort of irony, to me, in the taboo within trans-allyship toward transitioning back towards a prior gender expression, because bigots will always say that anyone who does so is proof that their transition was a mistake, and then claim that every transition is a mistake. I think this is ironic, because I celebrate anyone living their truth, and truths are complicated, and they change as we change.
Which is to say that I like cyborg Rutherford. And I also like non-cyborg Rutherford. And if Rutherford got cybernetics again or got biopunk mods, I think I’d like that Rutherford too.
I hope we do get to see more of all these characters.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation" 1 day ago:
I feel like this finale did a very impressive job of tying things up, not in the way that they are concluded and done but that we see a transition in which that which we know has ended, and now the characters are going off toward grand new things. Which is a great approach to providing resolution without essentially killing and mounting your characters like butterflies in a collection.
But also, I sort of wonder if part of the intent was to loudly tell the fans and the network that if anyone was curious, the writers had a ton of juice in the battery. This is pure speculation, but I feel like the thematic message of this finale was something to the effect of 'Just in case anyone wondered if we’re finishing because we didn’t have more to say, wrong, WRONG, WRONG. We could’ve made another five jam-packed high quality seasons of this easily.
That’s what I felt watching it. Tendi and Rutherford’s bond was always strong, but I long wondered if a romantic pairing was a possibility or not. It didn’t feel obvious or obviously out of place. Seeing Rutherford remove the implant provided in just a single scene a lot of fodder to consider what we could learn about him as a person and technology in seeing how he is the same and how he is different without the implant. And seeing him essentially look up from his cell phone and realize he has a crush on his best friend he was long avoiding thinking about is a great direction for him to go, imo. I think that would be a great story, regardless of whether it culminates in a lasting romance or leads to a decision to remain platonic.
I’d never quite liked Ransom. I don’t hate him, but his gimmick always annoyed more than endeared. But in the last minute, I had to admit that it has worked. He’s supposed to annoy, but also to remain hard to dislike. You want to dislike him, but he won’t quite let you. “Engage the core!” landed very well with me. That’s a catch phrase that kind of gets both more tired with use, and funnier as it gets more tired. I’d love to see him deliver this incredibly groan-inducing line in a moment of genuine high stakes drama, at which point you’d have no choice but to admit… it’s become iconic (and you’d hate him for doing that).
Anyway, 3 out of 5 stars (Jk, I loved the finale. Paramount should just announce that they’ve reassessed and green-lit another season. Seems like an obvious thing to do, but we’ll see).
- Comment on ‘Lower Decks’ Series Finale “The New Next Generation” Review, Plus Mike McMahan Interview 1 day ago:
I largely reject the notion of “canon”.
Others can enjoy canon if they like, but stories don’t need it, and plenty of great ones have well known, obvious paradoxes.
I’ll just add the famous Dwayne McDuffie piece on this, “Six degrees of St. Elsewhere”. RIP McDuffie.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest" 4 days ago:
It just shows how great character work transcends dialogue.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest" 4 days ago:
Oh cool, thanks for the context!
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest" 5 days ago:
I agree.
The recipe for this show is just so good. I’m really not into most of the newer stuff where they’re trying to one-up every previous series in scope and stakes. I’m thinking particularly of Discovery here. It’s fine for those who like these things, but I think having a show that’s blasse about the routineness of life-threatening adventures and also presenting characters that seem like Trekies themselves as audience proxies is such a refreshing way to both enjoy the adventures and take the pressure off of the expectation that each show somehow has to out-do all the previous adventures of all the previous crews of all the previous Enterprises.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest" 5 days ago:
Can you give the context? I can infer a bit, but I don’t know the specific wish you’re referring to.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest" 5 days ago:
Still, there was such a catharsis to his eye rolling dismissal. I don’t have the exact quotes, but when he remarks that the bad guy is certain to be this or that or this or “human Worf” or some other shocking known character I really had to smile. Also his description of it as an endless parade of lazy rehashings was just on point.
Obviously, I still enjoy it, because here we are enjoying it. But at points his weariness and sarcasm were reminding me (favorably) of Rick and Morty. With way less cynicism, but with a lot of the same remarkably well-executed self-aware snark.
- Comment on NBC created the perfect template for Star Trek to follow with future comedies 1 week ago:
Yeah. This article reads like an April Fools Day piece.
*‘The best part of Game of Thrones, all fans agree, was the stellar ending which perfectly concluded the show by showcasing the characters’ consistent ideologies and habits’
‘The Simpsons is a show that has managed to somehow get better with every single passing season. And in doing so, it’s cultural relevancy is as sharp and defining as its ever been.’
‘Star Trek Lower Decks has ultimately proven unpopular because of its unconventional choice to depict adventuring through the stars as a boring and depressing affair. The strict, rule-abiding protagonist Mariner’s recurring catch phrase ‘I do not have a deep love of Star Fleet as my emotional core,’ was a perplexing thing for her to shout at a minimum of 6 times in each episode, unprompted.’*
- Comment on If we're living in a simulation, why would the simulation creators allow the sims to ponder and speculate whether or not they live in a simulation? 1 week ago:
I like this observation a lot. Because I was going to say that if we couldn’t conceive of a simulation, we’d probably just speculate about the closest thing we could imagine.
- Comment on Is this Mastodon? 1 week ago:
Yeah, that sounds right.
I tried following Lemmy users on Mastadon. It was a cool to see that it’s technologically possible, but it was not a pleasant way to consume Lemmy content.
- Comment on How much can we hope is being put in place behind the scenes at the US federal level to mitigate the damage Trump will do? Can any of it be effective? 2 weeks ago:
I want to respond to this by saying that it is 100% correct.
Get to know your neighbors. Figure out who can do what. Is anyone undocumented? Is anyone good at fixing things? Who has kids and who is good at watching kids?
The plus side is that if we do this right, we should be able to toss out the Christian Nationalists in a few years. But we’ll have a much better shot at that if we learn how to take care of one another the way we should’ve a long time ago.
- Comment on Leonardo DiCaprio meets a woman 3 weeks ago:
This got a chuckle outta me.
But it do be true that Big Old runs the world.
- Comment on Leonardo DiCaprio meets a woman 3 weeks ago:
A conspiracy among whom?
Who were the folks in a dark room saying, ‘Listen boys: we’re here to uphold outdated gender norms. But to work, it’s all gotta be hush-hush, capiche?’
- Comment on To appease a Steam user's demands for straight representation, Webfishing added a 'Straight' title that costs 9,999 fish bucks 1 month ago:
Maybe one day we can get there, but right now it might be better for a lot of folks if the default was “I’m not horny”.
But I’m with you on the dream.
- Comment on To appease a Steam user's demands for straight representation, Webfishing added a 'Straight' title that costs 9,999 fish bucks 1 month ago:
I don’t know if this is a hot take, but I think allowing straight and cis people to identify as such is appropriate, because the alternative assumes that we live in a state of default heteronormativity.
If anything, I want to live in a world where homophobes get mad that if they want to be assumed to be straight online they have to identify like anyone else. No one gets assumed to be straight any more. That’s better imo.
- Comment on US Elections question: Bernie Sanders said that the Democrats abandoned the working class, and the working class abandoned them. How is this true? 1 month ago:
What broad coalition?
There was no coalition. It was a campaign by and for white college educated professional women in the suburbs.
That’s not a coalition, that’s a book club.
- Comment on NYCC exclusive new Lower Decks clip 1 month ago:
I’m sure whatever it is it’ll be very fun and funny. I’m looking forward to this.
- Comment on Piece work entry unpaid 2 months ago:
Okay. I don’t really have anything to add to that. Good luck though.
- Comment on Piece work entry unpaid 2 months ago:
These are good questions. I don’t know. First, what state are you in? Second, does she have any coworkers? Also, does she know anyone in a similar field? If she went to school, does she know any classmates or teachers who might have advice?
Also: can this be automated? Nowadays, you can have a large language model code a lot of things. Could she instruct one to write a python or bash script to reduce since of the work?
Ultimately, I think she should keep looking for better work. But I know that can be challenging.
- Comment on New "Lower Decks" poster 2 months ago:
This is very stupid in the best possible way
- Comment on New "Lower Decks" poster 2 months ago:
Hell yeah baby
- Comment on Why didn't the Discovery show-runners believe in the Federation? 2 months ago:
I think that as someone else pointed out, this is just a reflection of their tastes.
In a long running series like this, it’s not surprising that when every show is trying to find new conceptual territory, someone would go this way.
- Comment on Phonebooks 2 months ago:
Oh! Apologies, I just saw that someone else said something relevant and decided to post my comment as a reply to them instead of a top level comment. Sorry for the confusion!
- Comment on Phonebooks 2 months ago:
I’m from Pittsburgh. I think we ran a cross country meet in Hershey once.
The amusement park and factory tour are all quite charming. It’s hard to recommend one make a dedicated trip, but if anyone is ever on a road trip nearby, it’s worth the detour to stop by for a day.
Then again, my recommendation is 20 years old. It could be either better or worse now.