USSBurritoTruck

I’ve been reading the ones that catch my eye for a while now, but the current books involved in this crossover are what really got me from guy who likes both Trek and comics to being interested in actually following Trek comics.

They’re just such blatant fan service in a way that does not feel at all cynical. Big fun.

Day of Blood starts out pretty strong. By which I mean there is a rollcall page featuring the main characters of both "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: Defiant", and on it we learn that Shaxs once punched a Gorn so hard it exploded.

Hell yeah, he did.

Anyways! It's the big Summer crossover event. The crews of the USS Theseus and USS Defiant come together despite their (extremely flimsy) antipathy for the big showdown with clone Emperor Kahless. It's fun to see the two crews interact for the first time since Worf left the Theseus. We got Tom and B'Elanna reuniting. We got Data and Lore. We got Shaxs and Ro. We...got Lili Sato and the Orion drug-dealer/medic, I guess. We got Doctor Crusher telling everyone to put their collective bullshit to the side and get ready to save Qo'noS. One thing that stood out to me is that T'Lir tells Spock they only know him by reputation, but early in "Star Trek" T'Lir claimed they met Spock as a child. Of course, T'Lir would not want Spock to know they'd met before, because T'Lir is actually Trelene, and if they're not I will it a tricorder toy.

Also, these comics might as well be called "Star Trek: Fanservice", but there's a moment featuring

You're not wrong, but you ever try to argue with an older person who's convinced of some nonsense because they got sucked down a facebook conspiracy theory rabbit hole? Sometimes you have to choose your battles, and I imagine La'an's battle at that moment was trying to ascertain if Pelia actually rightfully owned all of those artifacts, and not whether or not the Federation is putting chemicals in the food slots to turn children into genderless energy beings or whatever.

I feel like at this point, it's too early to trust Pelia as a reliable source of information.

I have no problem with this solution. See for example, the other Paris.

There are plenty of examples of cities in different countries, or even different territories in the same country having the same name. I feel like it's different when we're talking about a planet.

There’s a tendency to treat every alien race as a monoculture, but maybe Spock and T’Pol just came from different parts of Vulcan.

That tendency is built into Trek, for good or ill, and I would say it even applies to humans.

I actually kind of assumed that it might have been facon. While I can see the Enterprise growing real plants on its five year mission (hence Pike’s preference of real herbs), I can’t see it breeding real pigs.

In "Charlie X" Kirk does say to the galley chef, "On Earth today, it's Thanksgiving. If the crew has to eat synthetic meat loaf, I want it to look like turkey," which would seem to imply that in this era fake meat is not outside the norm. The question is though, is Pike such a foodie that he would throw his weight around be certain that there is a supply of real bacon on the ship for him to use vs. whatever's coming out of the food synthesizers.

And there's a whole other debate to be had about whether or not replicated meat would qualify as plant based which I don't feel like the body of the post is the appropriate place to get into it. My personal opinion is that replicated meats would still not be suitable for a vegan diet, because at some point there was an original source that the replicator pattern must have been based upon.

Well, I did list all those instances from the TOS era where they explicitly didn't use money, so you can draw your own conclusions.

It was necessary to save all organic life in the galaxy!

• Spock shows up wearing a toque to cover his rounded ears and eyebrows. In TOS Spock used a toque to hide his pointed ears in “City on the Edge of Forever”, “Bread and Circuses”, and “Patterns of Force”.

    • The delta on Spock’s toque is flipped backwards, perhaps implying that he hastily adhered it to the cap himself.

• The V’Shal dinner appears to be a series of petty tests intended to determine the fitness of both individuals in a Vulcan relationship to join the other’s family, as determined by their parents. In “You Are Cordially Invited” the Lady Sirella put Jadzia through a similar ordeal before she could marry Worf and join the House of Martok.

    • It is worth noting that we learned in “Amok Time” that Spock and T’Pring were not just betrothed to one another, but psychically linked as children by arrangement between their families.

• ”Plus you aren’t a practiced liar.” Spock lies all the damn time.

• The traditional Vulcan teapot has Vulcan script on it that appears to be composed of a fan-made alphabet based on what was seen on screen. Part of the lettering reads ”J O I N E D T O G E T H E R.”

• T’Pring’s ring looks very similar to one the character wears in “Amok Time”.

• This is the first time T’Pril and Sevet have been seen on screen. Perhaps not surprisingly given the events that unfold, they were not in attendance for the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee in “Amok Time”.

• Captain Pike has apparently offered the use of his quarters for the V’Shal dinner. In “Spock Amok” T’Pring noted that Spock’s quarters were too human.

• Pike’s wrap tunic is not the same one he wore in “A Quality of Mercy”. That one had leather for the yoke and outer sleeves, where as this one does not. It does, however, add white piping parallel to the edge of the closure.

    • Kirk wore three different wrap tunics during the course of TOS.

• Pike claims the Enterprise ”runs at a hotter temperature than a typical Vulcan kitchen.” Vulcan is notably a hot world, so much so that it is uncomfortable for humans. Apparently they take pains to keep their kitchens cool.

• On one of the Cervantes’ displays we see a map of the Vulcan system, and series motion graphics designer shared the map to his twitter account. It confirms the long held theory that Vulcan shares its orbit with another planet, and names that world T’Khut. We also learn that Vulcan has two other stars in the system, 40 Eridani B and 40 Eridani C, which orbit around the primary, 40 Eridani A.

    • We know from another display, that Kerkhov is a Class-J planet orbiting Eridani C.

    • No indication on the map of where Delta Vega is.

    • When Ortegas suggest contacting the Enterprise, Uhura claims she can’t reach anything more than a light year away with all the interference. The diameter of our solar system is about .00127 light years.

• Restored, Spock is able to mind meld with Amanda to complete the V’shal ritual. In “Dagger of the Mind” Spock tells Bones he had never melded with a human before, and that it could be dangerous to do so. Of course, he also melded with Gabrielle Burnham prior to this, as seen in “Perpetual Infinity”.

    • The memory Amanda shares with Spock is of the first time Vulcan children asked him to play with them. In “Yesteryear” we saw that other Vulcans bullied Spock as a child, specifically claiming that by marrying Amanda, Sarek brought shame to Vulcan.

• Spock’s reaction to T’Pril referring to Amanda as a ”handicap” echoes Kelvin timeline Spock’s reaction when the ministers of the Vulcan Science Academy called Kelvin timeline Amanda a ”disadvantage,” resulting in his refusing admission to the Academy.

• ”We have shared katras.” T’Pring is referring to the events of “Spock Amok”.

• T’Pring and Spock decide to take time apart, but we know this isn’t permanent, as they are still involved in “Amok Time”.

    • Of course, in “Amok Time” Chapel is surprised to when Spock reveals to the bridge crew that T’Pring is his wife. That is the first time she says to Spock, “I don’t know. Shut up.”

In that case, this episode needs another appearance of Runa Ewok.

Be Constructive is too subjective to be the number one rule.

We teach children the basics of critique in junior high English classes. Or at least I assume they still do; it's been a grip.

Discovery is terrible because it is too far removed from Gene’s vision.

To me that’s a valid point and constructive because it gives a reason I think it’s terrible.

That's not criticism, that's a thought terminating cliché which leaves no room for discussion of the relative merits of Disco because of some nebulous ideas you're assuming a dead man had.

Do you similarly believe that "The Undiscovered Country" is terrible? William Shatner has claimed that Roddenberry saw the film two days before his passing, and after telling everyone it was good went home and phoned his lawyer, demanding that they remove many of the movie's more militaristic elements.

According to Marina Sirtis, Gene Roddenberry would have hated DS9, and said "No" when the idea was presented to him. Rick Berman has disputed that, but Berman's accounts of how much Roddenberry was aware of even the initial pitch and character sketches have varied considerably over the years.

It isn’t very Starfleet of you.

Is it particularly Starfleet of you to complain about things being "woke" as I see you did in another comment?

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Disco is simply another combination of the elements that make Trek. It doesn't have to be to anyone's particular tastes.

I didn't say posts wouldn't be removed, I said no one was going to be banned.

There are still community guidelines which need to be met, including a requirement that criticism be constructive. It's literally Rule #1 on the sidebar. Just dashing off some spicy take and not elaborating further doesn't clear that low bar, but for people for whom that's the sort of communication that they're looking for, it sounds as though your community would be right up their alley.

That’s pretty wack.

I will say right here and now, without hesitation or equivocation, anyone engaging in bigotry in this community will have their posts comments/removed, and they will very likely be banned.

No one is going to be banned for their opinion that any particular iteration of Star Trek, new or old, isn’t very good though. That would be silly.