Software engineer, functional programming enthusiast.
they’re not really illegal at all, are they?
If a police officer commits murder but the D.A. covers it up and the officer is never charged with a crime, does this make murder by the police legal?
Yes, it is illegal, and the government does not enforce laws consistently. The point is, this is a moral failing of Starfleet/the US government. This is an injustice.
“Illegal?” DS9’s S31 was protected by Starfleet Command. They were completely untouchable.
They can be both protected and illegal. Sisko noted that the organization was completely antithetical to the laws of Starfleet, e.g. committing genocide against the Changlings of the Dominion (they used the actual word “genocide” to describe what Section 31 did in the show). But their existence was neither denied nor acknowledged by Starfleet. This is part of the reason why he asked Bashir to act as a double-agent.
It was clearly analogous to the CIA, which for decades has been collecting money from the illegal drug trade and supporting terrorist organizations around the world, all in the name of “national security.” It was a critique of the US government, like most of the Star Trek episodes that deal with the moral shades of gray within the laws of Starfleet. It is clear from their political commentary that the shows morality was staunchly anti-fascist.
And this new film on Section 31 completely reversing their former politics and joining with and celebrating the fascists is more than I can stomach.
Deep Space Nine made it absolutely clear that Section 31 is an illegal black-ops org with garb somewhat reminiscient of Nazi storm troopers, they were the bad guys.
Yeoh has described it as “Mission: Impossible in space,” and likened the tone to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Mission: Impossible, the longest-running, pro-CIA anti-socialist propaganda series in US history. OK… so now Star Trek is about making illegal black-ops Nazis look cool?
Fuck these fucking producers. I want my gay space communism back.
The Voyager theme song is by far my most favorite, probably of any TV series. I haven’t seen the whole series yet, but I like it a lot so far. Still, I think DS9 is my favorite.
deuterium is liquid at room temperature
I think you are confusing Deuterium with heavy-water. Deuterium is a heavy isotope of Hydrogen, and so is gas at room temperature. Heavy water is water where the Hydrogen atoms of the water molecule are of the Deuterium isotope, and is liquid at room temperature.
In an episode of DS9 I heard some of the characters mention that they not only have deflector shields, but also “structural reinforcement shields.” So whatever science-fictiony force field is used to protect them from phasers and micrometeorites is also coursing through the skeletal structure of the ship.
When I heard this it immediately clicked in my mind: whenever the ship is hit with phaser fire the explosions happening inside are recoil from these internal shields. Perhaps the catastrophic damage prevented by structural reinforcement shields outweighs the localized damage of potentially fatal recoil.
That is my favorite explanation, anyway.
(This assumes all ships have structural reinforcement shields, and not just the Defiant.)
I would recommend The Next Generation or Deep Space 9 first.
The Original Series is pretty campy and low-budget. I don’t think Star Trek really became Star Trek (as we know it) until Roddenberry had a second crack at it, which was The Next Generation. Be warned, both of these series start out pretty rough.
The first 2 seasons of TNG is a little corny, although they have some very good episodes, like one planet they visit which is a matriarchal society, and they show the male-female gender roles reversed. In my opinion, their 1940s nostalgia episodes (played out in the holodeck) really did not age well, fortunately they stopped doing that in season 2. Dr. Polanski gets a lot of hate, but I thought she was a fine character. I think season 3 of TNG was by far the best, with some of their boldest political statements. One episode, Picard is accidentally seen as a God by a pre-industrial society, in another, Commander Data is judged by Starfleet to be a person of a race of a single individual, and is granted personhood. In yet another episode, Mr. Data creates a child for himself which Starfleet deems to be their property, and results in one of my favorite Picard quotes of all time: “Hold your ground Mr. Data. (To the admiral) Order a man to turn his child over to the state? Not while I’m captain.” By season 6 and 7 they clearly start running out of ideas though.
In my opinion, Deep Space 9 was the hardest to start, but probably the best series of all I have seen. The first 17 episodes were so boring I could barely get through it. But starting with Season 1 episode 18 (titled “Duet”) and every single episode after it was consistently very good. They also, I think, make many more, and much bolder, political statements than The Next Generation ever did.
Yeah, and also according to Deep Space 9 lore, the massacre in skid row the sanctuary city of LA was publicized in the media and led to an outpouring of public support for policy reform that improved the conditions for the underprivileged.
In this timeline, that seems incredibly optimistic to the point of being impossible.
Bell Riots took place in 2024, so less than a year away now.
I am upvoting this thread for being relevant to the discussion, but man, this article makes me sick. They are completely ruining Star Trek.