redfiona99 | Entries tagged with meme

This is impossible.

There's some it's easy to discount:

Discovery and everything after it, I haven't been able to see because of the ridiculous streaming system

Enterprise and I never gelled due to their instance on making the Vulcans the bad guys way too often.

Voyager never had enough consequences for me to like it.

So that leaves me with three: TOS, TNG and DS9

And I refuse to choose between them. Utterly. Because they offer me different things, but they're all necessary things in TV shows.

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Normally I go with "Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."

Because yes, to go out and find the new and see afresh is something I want to do and inspires me.

But recently, I've been thinking about the bit in "The Measure of Man" (or, "Data is not a toaster") where Picard says:
"Now, the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this... creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of a people we are, what he is destined to be; it will reach far beyond this courtroom and this... one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom - expanding them for some... savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who come after him, to servitude and slavery? Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life; well, there it sits! - Waiting."

Because right now, we have people trying to tell us that other people are "not us". And I think we need to say that people are "us" unless there's some pretty strong evidence that they're not. Different language, different faith, different way of coming into their present state, none of that makes people "not us".

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I am naming my starship after Dorothy Hodgkin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Hodgkin Sorry, I remain a structural biologist.

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Neelix.

He can cook, he's cheerful, he once outsneaked Starfleet's best and brightest to rescue the woman he loved.

I am not sure why you would choose anyone else.

(Looking for photos for the tumblr version of this, I found this lovely article which explains my feelings better than I can - https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-neelix-leaving-the-vogayer-perfect-ending/)

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Given I have been running a fencing competition over Easter, Risa, definitely Risa. Even though I know it is not my sort of relaxation and I'd prefer doing historic touristy things because that's what I do (see also, half day in New Orleans which I spent in the Museum of Historical Pharmacy).

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I think I promised you all a rant for this one.

I have never seen an episode of Discovery, or Picard, or Lower Decks, or Prodigy or Strange New Worlds.

Why is that?

Well, it used to be that the shows would debut in the US and then 2 years later, they'd be on UK TV. Later, that changed to a year, or half a year. So you waited and, as long as you avoided spoilers, it was fine.

Nowadays, everything is on streaming services and never gets onto terrestrial TV so I have no chance. I don't have the money for twelve different streaming services so I don't bother with any of them. They don't release DVDs (or if they do, I haven't seen them anywhere) so I have no chance of watching them.

Desperately wanting to watch the recent Netflix version of The Count of Monte Cristo means I now have a new ahem-ing source (not that I could find a torrent for that Count), but when the only way most people can watch a show is by illicit means, that's not a good sign for television as a whole as a mass art form.

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I have already given my answer to this in "day 3 - Favourite Starship" because she my beloved NCC-1701 owns my heart. I presume they included this for the people who wanted to say DS9.

I must say, how 3D they made Yorktown feel was one of the reasons Star Trek: Beyond was my favourite of the new films.

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Given I'm now regularly spending 5+ hours at the weekend travelling up and down the UK, you'd think I'd go with the transporter, but I just cannot get past the replicator. If we could do that, we could cure hunger.

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Star Trek VI - Undiscovered Country

I think the three Next Gen films are solid, and I'm fonder of Insurrection than most people. (I refuse to acknowledge Generations, despite the better efforts of Malcolm McDowell and the Duras Sisters)

I am not a huge fan of Frat Trek, as you might have guessed from my nickname for it, but I blame the writing because the cast are doing their best. The third film, most removed from JJ Abrams terrible lack-of-vision, is by some way the best.

Two of the Star Trek films make me cry (the Slow Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan), I am the only person that doesn't really like Voyage Home, and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Search for Spock because it was the first one I saw.

But I just love Undiscovered Country because it contains my favourite crew, lots of Spock being Spock, some fun aliens, and a superb amount of Klingon nonsense.

And the best possible ending for my favourite crew.

"Second star to the right and straight on till morning."

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I'm not sure quite what they mean, because even horrible characters like Gul Dukat are at least interesting. I think the nearest is Kivas Fajo in Most Toys (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Most_Toys_(episode)) because he's got no good reason for what he does and what he does is so soullessly mean.

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Yes, I've only just got round to finishing them ;)

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My Year In Fic

Fics

A Man Who Trusts (1/1, TNA gen fic) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1379443.html

The New York Incident (1/1, Marvelverse gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1361675.html

Now I Turn Unto My Calling (1/1, Marvelverse Gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1365639.html

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent (1/1, AEW wrestling gen fic) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1372366.html

Out of the Ice (1/1, Captain America Gen) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1373734.html

Whiskey, Hotel, Echo, November (1/1, Torchwood and Captain America Crossover) - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1375889.html (Sequel to 'And yet they say you should never meet your heroes' - https://archiveofourown.org/works/34127452)

And a whole bundle of 3 Sentence fics - https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1366982.html

6 fics, at least two of which are expansions from the 30 AUs meme (https://redfiona99.dreamwidth.org/1333150.html). Not as much as I might want but justifiable I feel.

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I want to say Spock. I <3 Spock, he is my favourite and I wanted to grow up to be a scientist just like him. And I give a mean arched eyebrow.

Or Neelix, who is just the loveliest.

But I have to acknowledge, and the older I get, the more I get like McCoy. Who is science and curiosity too. Just there's a certain level of irascible I have to admit to.

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I could never really get into Enterprise, because they seemed to be determined to waste an interesting idea on "the Vulcans are always the bad guys".

I am not blaming the actors, because Scott Bakula has been good before and since, and Jolene Blalock was good in the episode of CSI (Vegas flavour) that she was in.

Some of the ideas had real potential, like Mayweather and the difference between planet-born people and spacers, and the-barely-into-the-Federation Earth still has a class system and how that changes. And then they do nothing with it.

I mean, I love Hoshi and Phlox (and Reed is my people to an impossible extent), but no one gets given anything to work with. (Actually, having a quick google about Hayes the MACO, Steven Culp said something really interesting - "It [Hayes's character and motivation] was sketchy at first. There wasn’t a lot on the page and I know that the second episode I did, I was kind of like 'why am I here?' Because he didn’t have much to say, but I took that as my clue. Man of few words – man of action. It was kind of an experiment with me, almost like a David Mamet kind of character. Someone who is totally defined by his actions.")

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I have to admit to not being quite certain what they want here. I'm presuming they mean "not Federation", "not Klingon", "not Romulan", "Not Cardassian", which doesn't really leave many people left over. There are some fantastically interesting people all the various ships meet, so I'm calling this one unanswerable.

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Unfortunately the summer I spent reading TV spin-off novels at the local library ended before I got around to Star Trek.

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Meld - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Meld_(episode)

I am one of the people who prefers the early seasons. They never really go into the stuff I found most narratively interesting - the integration of the Maquis crew into Voyager's crew, the things they run out of, the compromises they have to make to try to get back home - or rather they touch it but barely and never with any major consequences (with a couple of exceptions).

My interest in Voyager pretty much went with the Kazon.

I like Meld because it does touch on those things - the sort of person who volunteers for the Maquis is going to be unusual, someone who volunteers despite not being from Demilitarised Zone, is going to be even more unusual and might not have good reasons for volunteering (and Suder's really aren't good reasons). Someone like that, they're going to have issues integrating into Starfleet.

And Starfleet, being based in the Federation, is equally going to have issues coping with them.

At the centre of the episode is an excellent performance from Brad Dourif, who does a fantastic absent, which I imagine is even harder to do than it looks. Suder is bleak.

I also really like the push-me-pull-you of Tuvok's calm being completely eroded by the mind meld and how much of everyone's control is who they are versus what they could be without that control.

(Also Suder in Basic breaks my heart)

The final part doesn't quite work but I appreciate the attempt.

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Given my answer to my favourite character was Spock who is a first officer, I am going to give this one over to the Major.

<3 Major Kira so much.

I like that we get to see her grow and change, but never lose her anger entirely. Tell season 1 Kira that her best friend/mentee will be a half Cardassian girl, and imagine that look on her face [that's the one]. Tell mid-season Kira that she'll be sad when Damar dies.

She copes with so much and never lets that stop her. And that is why I love her!

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This is much easier and the delay is because of doing fun things in London.

I love Trials and Tribble-ations so much.

It would have been so easy for it to go wrong and be cheesy, which it isn't. Or for the SFX not to work, but they did, they really did and still hold up now.

They play it really nicely, and don't over do it. I love how they handle the question of the Klingons, and let's be honest, "we don't discuss it with outsiders" is better than any of the actual retcons other series have come out with.

I also love that Agent Dulmur totally would have said hello to Kirk too.

And of course, the Klingon saga of the Great Tribble Hunt.

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Gap because this one is impossible to answer. I can't even decide on my favourite type of DS9 episode.

Because you've got the various Kira / Bajor healing ones, or not healing and sometimes you can't go back and the difference between Shakar and Nalas, and the people in between. Then you have the Founder episodes or the Jem Hadar episodes and the Vorta episodes and religion and death and (oddly enough things they share with the Bajoran episodes). Or the Sisko episodes. Or the one where Martok has PTSD and Klingons not really knowing how to cope with that.

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I don't like loud noises, explosions and sudden shouting. I am not cut out to be an engineer or a navigator. My tendency to shout back if you shout at me, other than being a problem with sports coaches, probably means navigator really isn't for me, engineers tend to be cut more slack.

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