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Remember that Krola guy with the narrow glasses from Star Trek TNG 4x15: First contact?

That guy is them.

They would still use oil lamps and DOS, if they weren't forced to newer versions.

You'd think so, but the Ferengi aren't too bright.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kyle

I don't think Lt. Kyle was ever officially confirmed to be an aussie but he had the accent.

Just like rootbeer, they're so bubbly, and cloying, and... Happy. And the worst part is that if you drink enough of it, you actually start to *like* it. Paraphrased from Quark and Garak

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Blink_of_an_Eye_(episode)

Brief summary -

Voyager gets stuck in the night sky of a planet and creates seismic disturbances.

The planet rapidly develops technology to blast it out of the sky.

Missiles are necessary to shoot high speed targets. A stationary target can be eliminated far less expensively. :)

The folks at Paramount didn't want it. They felt it would be too dark for Star Trek and not have the hopeful feel that the rest of the series had.

That is because they were idiots and didn't see the potential for more realistic stories along the lines of the sixth and seventh seasons of DS9. The final seasons of DS9 were really among the best Star Trek stories ever produced because they reminded us that despite advanced technology and an "evolved understanding" (never really understood how that was supposed to work, human nature is human nature no matter how evolved we might become in our understanding) there were still wars, petty squabbles, treachery, and all of the other things which make the good guys just a little bad and the bad guys just a little good. As much as I enjoyed Star Trek, I always disagreed with the optimal "we have evolved beyond all human weaknesses" view of the future. After Gene passed, they began to take more risks with Star Trek and DS9 showed us how far they had come and could still go with a Star Trek series, but even then it does not begin to approach the sort of gritty no-nonsense reality that we see in Firefly and Serenity. The following recollections from Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore, two of the DS9 writers, really sums it up best concerning the conflict between the "optimistic we have overcome all need for violence" people and the "humans are humans 24th century and technology or not with flawed characters, relationships, wars, and all of the other gritty and real stuff" fans:

Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore were the writers most involved with the creation and development of the Dominion War. Rick Berman wanted the war to be over within three or four episodes at the most. Behr and Moore knew the series would never be able to wrap up the war in that many episodes. Berman also criticized the "depressing" and "violent" stories. Moore later said "It's a fuckin' war! What do you mean it's too violent?!"

In fact, my favorite Star Trek episode of all time is season 6 episode 19 of DS9: In the Pale Moonlight because it shows how tough situations can bring out the worst in people, even highly evolved Star Trek perfect people, and reveals some flaws in the DS9 characters that had always before that episode remained beneath the surface, often hinted at but never before fully exposed. The episode also makes really good use of the character Garek (one of my favorite Trek characters) and his unique Obsidian Order experience, training, and assassin/espionage talents.

"That's why you came to me, isn't it captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing. Well, it worked. And you'll get what you wanted: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal... and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain." -Garek

What kills me is that if they wanted to rip off Khan and include the Romulans there were much better ways to go about it. Why not bring back Sela's character in some manner? Denise Crosby was as much of a part of TNG as anyone else and deserved to be included in the send off. Instead they invent some lame race that we've never heard about before and elect to have them led by a clone of Picard who wants to exterminate humanity for the glory of the Romulan empire even though the Romulans tortured him his whole life? WTF?

Berman needs to be taken outside and shot. Preferably with a Varon-T disruptor.

What kills me is that if they wanted to rip off Khan and include the Romulans there were much better ways to go about it. Why not bring back Sela's character in some manner? Denise Crosby was as much of a part of TNG as anyone else and deserved to be included in the send off. Instead they invent some lame race that we've never heard about before and elect to have them led by a clone of Picard who wants to exterminate humanity for the glory of the Romulan empire even though the Romulans tortured him his whole life? WTF?

Berman needs to be taken outside and shot. Preferably with a Varon-T disruptor.

although, it makes sense in the context of the show... the aliens are supposedly a) all-powerful

But they weren't all-powerful. There were at least two episodes where it was revealed that you could use a plot devic^W^W"chroniton beam" to kill them. Yet the Dominion never thought to do this?

Then again, was Data's solution to the Borg problem in "Best of Both Worlds" any less contrived

Not in the context of that episode and what we knew about the Borg. It got pretty lame afterwards and I personally wish that Best of Both Worlds had been the last we saw of the Borg. At least DS9 stayed away from them, expect for the Pilot Episode, which was actually a good use of the existing back story IMHO.

And as for Sisko's role, well... you could just as easily level the same criticism against Picard in TNG leading the charge in any number of engagements.

Picard never commanded a fleet of 600+ ships or set Federation policy. Sisko seemed to be doing both as the war progressed. The size of the battles seemed at odds with continuity too. In the Best of Both Worlds Starfleet was only able to scrape together 40 ships to defend Earth but ten years later was regularly losing hundreds of ships at a time and was still able to continue the war effort? WTF?

It should be to use the setting as an environment in which one can then explore the human condition in a way that would otherwise be impossible. DS9 attempted to do that, exploring the decisions and compromises one must make during a time of war, and it did so better than, I think, any other other Trek, save for TNG.

Hey I'll grant you all that. And don't get me wrong -- I did enjoy DS9. It just got pretty hard to take seriously towards the end. For all the nit and grit of the war it still seemed too contrived -- Bajor never got devastated (indeed, after the first two seasons we forgot all about Bajor besides the wormhole aliens and some one-off episodes), the Dominion neatly withdrew from all of the Federation planets that it occupied without a fight and never made a second attempt at taking DS9 or ending the blockade of the wormhole. Then the female founder went from "We'll fight to the last man" to "I'll surrender and stand trial for my war crimes" after a three minute discussion with Odo.

I would have written it a lot differently. Have Bajor forced to pick sides -- maybe it even sides with the Dominion in the same manner that Finland sided with Nazi Germany in spite of being a Democracy -- have a Stalingrad fought on Federation soil (Betazed maybe?), have the Federation start conscripting it's citizens to try and offset the manpower advantage, have a pacifist Federation member try and sue for a separate peace (Vulcan maybe?) etc, etc, etc. There are many ways you could have done it better I think.

although, it makes sense in the context of the show... the aliens are supposedly a) all-powerful

But they weren't all-powerful. There were at least two episodes where it was revealed that you could use a plot devic^W^W"chroniton beam" to kill them. Yet the Dominion never thought to do this?

Then again, was Data's solution to the Borg problem in "Best of Both Worlds" any less contrived

Not in the context of that episode and what we knew about the Borg. It got pretty lame afterwards and I personally wish that Best of Both Worlds had been the last we saw of the Borg. At least DS9 stayed away from them, expect for the Pilot Episode, which was actually a good use of the existing back story IMHO.

And as for Sisko's role, well... you could just as easily level the same criticism against Picard in TNG leading the charge in any number of engagements.

Picard never commanded a fleet of 600+ ships or set Federation policy. Sisko seemed to be doing both as the war progressed. The size of the battles seemed at odds with continuity too. In the Best of Both Worlds Starfleet was only able to scrape together 40 ships to defend Earth but ten years later was regularly losing hundreds of ships at a time and was still able to continue the war effort? WTF?

It should be to use the setting as an environment in which one can then explore the human condition in a way that would otherwise be impossible. DS9 attempted to do that, exploring the decisions and compromises one must make during a time of war, and it did so better than, I think, any other other Trek, save for TNG.

Hey I'll grant you all that. And don't get me wrong -- I did enjoy DS9. It just got pretty hard to take seriously towards the end. For all the nit and grit of the war it still seemed too contrived -- Bajor never got devastated (indeed, after the first two seasons we forgot all about Bajor besides the wormhole aliens and some one-off episodes), the Dominion neatly withdrew from all of the Federation planets that it occupied without a fight and never made a second attempt at taking DS9 or ending the blockade of the wormhole. Then the female founder went from "We'll fight to the last man" to "I'll surrender and stand trial for my war crimes" after a three minute discussion with Odo.

I would have written it a lot differently. Have Bajor forced to pick sides -- maybe it even sides with the Dominion in the same manner that Finland sided with Nazi Germany in spite of being a Democracy -- have a Stalingrad fought on Federation soil (Betazed maybe?), have the Federation start conscripting it's citizens to try and offset the manpower advantage, have a pacifist Federation member try and sue for a separate peace (Vulcan maybe?) etc, etc, etc. There are many ways you could have done it better I think.

You'd have to change the animal so much that it wouldn't seem recognizable. The old formula has become such a cliche that there's absolutely nothing you can reuse from it. Reset button at the end of the episode, lame. Space anomalies, lame. Gritty scifi future with lots of angst, made lame by overexposure on Galactica. Aliens who look exactly like us save for bumpy foreheads? I could buy it when I was younger but it's just ridiculous these days. (I'll probably be in the minority on this one.) Time-travel plots, squishy techno-babble science plots, holodeck plots, everything that makes Trek Trek is what's been killing it. It's like asking "Can we make a healthy Big Mac?" Yeah, and by the time you're done removing everything that's bad about that burger, you're left with nothing but lettuce and sesame seeds.

As a fan, what I'd like to see is the Star Trek experience from another point of view. Don't keep giving us the "good guys", the Federation, with their Prime Directive.

Give us a series based on, say, the Klingons (TNG era .. please skip the whole "TOS to TNG" evolution thing - TOS Klingons looked that way because of budget, that's it.) A story similar to Star Trek: Klingon would make a great pilot for a Klingon-based series - a young Klingon goes through the Rite of Ascension to become a true Warrior, joins a ship. Let the series experience the Star Trek universe through the lens of a young Klingon - not some goody Federation captain, which we've now seen more times than we need.

As he experiences the universe as a Klingon warrior, so do we. Let a mentor show him the true path of a Klingon warrior. Show the audience the code of honor from the Klingons. Throw in some Klingon language (swearing in Klingon!)

In this series, there's no Prime Directive. Very little diplomacy, no helping other cultures to better themselves. And it should go without saying: no journey of self-discovery, except for the central character as he learns what it means to be a true Klingon warrior.

Hey, I'd watch that every week!

The two best ideas I've heard for a ST series are one about Section 31 (similar to stuff like Alias, but in Star Trek) and one about the 29th century with the timeships and all that.

A series about Section 31 could be pretty awesome if it was done right but anything involving time travel is a recipe for disaster and reset-button plots. Section 31 though -- think of some of the stories you could write with that. Maybe the Federation has it's own torture scandals? Maybe what they did to the Founders comes out at some point? Think of intrigue with the Tal Shiar.

but once the Dominion War plot arch started up, it went from good to truly great

Yes, if by "truly great" you mean bailed out with a plot device (wormhole aliens) and don't stop to question why Captain Sisko seemed to be single-handily running the Federation's war-effort, ranging from commanding a fleet of some 600 ships on his own to commanding a ground battle that could have been ended in two minutes if any of the Trek powers had the equivalent of machine guns or artillery. Are there really no infantry weapons bigger than rifles in the 24th century?

actually showing a real, unsanitized war with it's pretty special effects

Fixed that for you.

while portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted

That was actually one of the redeeming things about it. My favorite DS9 episodes were In the Pale Moonlight (Sisko and Garek assassinate a Romulan Senator to bring them into the war) and the various Maquis/Eddington episodes. Garek had the best character in the series (IMHO) and Eddington's critique of the Federation particularly damning:

"Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their "rightful place" on the Federation Council. You know In some ways you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people and they don't even know it."

It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism. Even DS9 continued this trend to a certain point -- mentioning "transporter credits" in one episode. Apparently the government doles out ration coupons to control how often the citizenry can move about. Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

Except this s the market, so the push towards a gender will always shift. In some ways it would be better becasue the gender that is needed will be the one people get.

Being that we are living in a patriarchal society - boys are always preferred.
Boys continue family line. Boys (still) make more money for the same job. Boys don't get home from a vacation with a "baby on board". Boys can end up in NBA, NFL, NHL and other clubs for boys through the exploitation of gene enhancement.
If you are "designing" a baby - it IS going to be a boy.

"Fathers, do you want your son to be an athlete or a genius or both? "

What's wrong with that? in fact, it would do humanity good to get those traits. Sine it is Gene manipulation, it would be passed on.

Again, it would be passed on more effectively by boys.
How much pussy did Dolph Lundgren get during his prime? We may never know...

What is wrong with that?

Well... besides your Arian ubermensch son outgunning you in every aspect by the time he is 16 and ensuring that any life lessons you had for him will fall on deaf ears...
He will also be competitive (what use is the body for running if you don't like to race), body of a body-builder, "I am smarter than you" - jerk.
Cause, he WILL be better, smarter, prettier... and most people will be stupid, ugly midgets to him. Except all his brethren that he will compete with all his life.

Racism will finally be based on some real facts and it will make sense - to him and his Arian ubermensch brothers.
See... THEY will be a new, better human race. Seven-foot, body-builders that excel in academic work (if their parents were able to afford strength, agility, beauty AND brains), their abilities outmatched only by their egos.

And about 20-30 years from now - we are going to wake up and find out that THEY find that they have more in common with each other, regardless where in the world they were made, then with us. Or with their parents and "regular" cousins.
And that there are a whole bunch of them out there - and that they are mostly boys. With not enough pussy to go around.
Just like China right now, with their 1 child per family policy, where there will be 30 million "brideless" men by 2020. Cause they all wanted boys.
And since they were made to be competitive fighters - guess what happens next?

Superior ability breeds superior ambition.

What will be the price per disk?

That would be Alpha Quadrant.

The Maharashtrians are an ethnic group from the west of India, a state on the planet known as Earth. You know where that is.

OK, I wonder how well those fancy-ass facial recognition systems work on these faces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dreman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(Voyager_episode)

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vidiian

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Pakled

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kaelon

If the biometrics can pass on these, then maybe they could begin work on testing for hyoo-mons?

But, then, these probably would all pass for each other...

OK, I wonder how well those fancy-ass facial recognition systems work on these faces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dreman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(Voyager_episode)

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vidiian

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Pakled

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kaelon

If the biometrics can pass on these, then maybe they could begin work on testing for hyoo-mons?

But, then, these probably would all pass for each other...

OK, I wonder how well those fancy-ass facial recognition systems work on these faces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dreman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(Voyager_episode)

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vidiian

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Pakled

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kaelon

If the biometrics can pass on these, then maybe they could begin work on testing for hyoo-mons?

But, then, these probably would all pass for each other...

OK, I wonder how well those fancy-ass facial recognition systems work on these faces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jem'Hadar

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dreman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(Voyager_episode)

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vidiian

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Pakled

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kaelon

If the biometrics can pass on these, then maybe they could begin work on testing for hyoo-mons?

But, then, these probably would all pass for each other...

You're not much of a nerd (or the disembodied voice of a nerd) if you weren't aware that sometime in the 24th century (of the current timeline) warp 10 was redefined as infinite speed. link : )

Species 8472? It was Voyager that negotiated a truce in exchange for detailing how to defeat 8472 (reprogrammed nanites?).

Actually it's:

"The Klingon word for this weapon is betleH, etymologically derived from batlh 'etlh ("honor blade"). "

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Bat'leth

What could go wrong? Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome.

"I am Kahless... and I have returned."

~ Kahless II

I haven't played with reiserFS since I met hans and I worried it might be an extension of his personality.

Worried your flash drive might go M-5 on you? ;)

How would such a reactor work? You encapsulate a miniature black hole, throw random matter in it, and collect the hawking radiation to power your star destroyer?

Almost right. You use it to power your Romulan Warbird. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/D'deridex_class#Propulsion_systems

"It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'captain.' "
"You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'captain,' too?"
"Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything."

- O'Brien and Nog

"It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'captain.' "
"You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'captain,' too?"
"Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything."

- O'Brien and Nog

I'm always reminded of the borg.

Star Trek's Borg, despite supposedly being on a quest to assimilate the best of everything everywhere, go nowhere.

That's because they got crippled in 2374 by Species 8472 and crippled by Janeway in 2378. Duh. Everybody knows this.

This is the last time I catch you spouting nonsense, young man. Next time you will log out of this site and hand over your geek card at the door!

I think rickb928 was refering to this particular episode: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Next_Phase_(episode)

Nice guys finish last in all times. The "nice guy" who finishes last is very likely diffident, afraid to take risks, refuses to stand up for himself, shies from taking credit for their work, and avoids confrontation. These guys finish last. The "jerks" and "assholes" who succeed stand up for themselves, take credit for themselves, and are not shy about confronting those in their paths. The nice guys get run over by these assholes and then post on the Internet how how unfair life is.

As portrayed in this episode. Nice/jerk and weak/strong can be two different axes, though, depending on how you look at it.

Mr. Montalban was probably the most significant Latino in Star Trek.

I assume you're referring to the characters, not the actors, since you cite Chekov as a Russian. Khan was not Latino; he was a Sikh from northern India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh

The article reminds me of Gagh...

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Gagh

The Klingon bowl o' worms always sounded like a pretty interesting meal to me.

This reminds me of the star trek episode where these genetically enhanced children had an immune system that could not only fight off infection within themselves, but also seek out and destroy any infectious agents in the vicinity. Of course these super-immune systems went haywire. It started attacking regular people causing them to age at an advanced rate.

The dinosaurs ... died out because they didn't have a working space program.

Says who? Maybe they just took off for the Delta Quadrant.

Q also appeared on Deep Space 9 in the episode Q-Less.

Q also appeared on Deep Space 9 in the episode Q-Less.

Q also appeared on Deep Space 9 in the episode Q-Less.

BTW, did you have that memorized or was there a somewhere with it?

This is the internet: a collection of networks put together by science geeks and computer nerds... Of course there's a site.

Patrick Stewart developed back problems from the compression of the STNG spandex uniforms which forced this change.

Wow, a bit of Star Trek trivia that I didn't know. I'm kind of ashamed ;)

I always thought the best thing they ever did in TNG was to get Troi into a real uniform. I know Starfleet isn't supposed to be a strictly military operation but c'mon..... she wore this on the bridge?

Say yes to human rights, no to infant/child circumcision.MGM Bill [mgmbill.org]

Off-topic, but amen to that.

You mean the 'Imperial Starfleet' with the sword and globe logo ala the Mirror Universe right? It seems more and more like we are going down the Terran Empire path rather than the more altruistic one originally envisioned by Mr. Rodenberry.

You mean the 'Imperial Starfleet' with the sword and globe logo ala the Mirror Universe right? It seems more and more like we are going down the Terran Empire path rather than the more altruistic one originally envisioned by Mr. Rodenberry.

Cars already are less strong than the could be, because their squishy contents are too susceptible to high acceleration.

Duh.

That why they'll invent Internial Dampeners.

You serious? Dude, that 2023 World Series Game 7 was an instant classic!

Too bad it all had to wind down by 2042...

Sounds like this could be a stepping stone on the way to a transporter pattern buffer.

I'm surprised no Trek writer ever thought of this.

Check out the plot to the TOS episode The Squire of Gothos. The main adversary is an alien whose knowledge of Earth comes from telescopic study which is out-of-date due to light speed lag.

The space gun concept would really only be good for a very narrow range of payloads that can withstand the extreme g-forces produced by such a device.

That's a problem that's easily solved: we just have to invent inertial dampers to counteract the g-forces from acceleration.

I, for one, welcome our new fluidic space-dwelling overlords!