Some of the early episodes are important in my opinion but a little rough at times.
Once you hit season 2, there is rarely a bad episode - they're all at the very least funny, except for "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption", which is just the most brutal form of torture and an experiment in anti-storytelling. .
Not totally right. Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy are all decent as well. TOS is also worth a watch with an episode list, and TAS has a few good ones as well.
Discovery, in my opinion, isn't as bad some say either. It's hardly peak Star Trek, but I've found I enjoy it sometimes. I also have to throw in obligatory Orville suggestion.
As others have set, Lower Decks is not the first show you should watch though - it's more enjoyable after watching everything. Also, both Lower Decks and Prodigy, I'd recommend watching through the first 10 or so episodes before making a judgement - the first few episodes aren't their best. Lower Decks is often funny and at least once a season (from season 2) puts out a masterpiece that belong with the best of Trek. I'd say the top/my favorite LD episodes are (in no particular order):
Pretty much true, but I’ve seen exceptions. At least in the Southwestern US, the smaller the home, the more likely it is the kitchen will be very near the laundry room.
In both my childhood home (built 1997, one story) and my dad’s childhood home (trailer, built 1973), the “laundry room” was basically a hallway off the kitchen.
The washer is never directly in the kitchen or under a countertop, though.
Now the epic one is Gargoyles, where many Trek actors are in it (including Mulgrew, Spiner, Dorn, and Brooks).
Two of the main villains are played by (and they work together sometimes), weirdly enough, Frakes and Sirtis.
There’s an episode where Frakes’ character is out of jail and threatens revenge upon the main characters, and one responds, “With you and what Starfleet?”
It depends. Prodigy, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds are all great (the former two take a moment to get into their element, though).
Probably watch 10 episodes of Prodigy before making your verdict, and probably through the first few episodes of season 2 for Lower Decks.
For Discovery, I've found it make many mistakes, but also been, it's been fun at times. I've only watched through part of season 4.
In all seriousness, though, I swear I'm going to break into Rick Berman's house and send him to Gre'thor for what he did to Jadzia (and honestly, most of the female cast members at he time).
I have a weird question. Some numbers of pips can have the black pip. However, the 4 captain pips have never been depicted with this.
In some ways, this makes sense; a "lower" captain wouldn't make sense, and we've seen that the highest first officers hold commander pips. It's most likely that have 4 pips with one black is totally invalid.
However, I wonder if there's ever a circumstance where the black pip would be there. For instance, let's say someone gets field promoted to acting captain, but Starfleet either takes their time making it official or it's going to take a while (a few weeks) for the ship to get back to starbase to pick up a new captain (meaning the acting captain will be a bit long-term)? Could it be used then?
I imagine most of this is speculation, but I'm wondering if there's any example in canon of a long-term acting captain that could disprove the use of this pip configuration.
When the LD SB80 episode mentioned Matt and Kimolu were infected on an away mission, it reignited some thoughts/questions about how the lives of Cetacean officers in an era of Trek where whales are beginning to become more common as crew members.
Here's the discussion that I think can be had within current canon: I can't help but notice what seems to be a difference in the quality of life between Gillian on Voyager-A and Matt and Kimolu on the Cerritos.
Sure, Matt and Kimolu don't have as flashy or futuristic-looking of an aquarium, but in addition to having each other, the pool-like design of their accommodations allows them easy interaction (a.k.a parties) with the crew. I feel like there's much more opportunity for them to have a fulfilling social life on the Cerritos.
In comparison, Gillian feels very enclosed and isolated from the rest of Voyager; there's always glass between here and the crew (as humpbacks sometimes need to surface, I image there's probably an area with some air in the aquarium), and people are shown having to wear full suits to be in the same space as her. In addition, there's no other whale with her. In fact, we don't really see a staff of officers in Cetacean ops - just Rok. It seems like a very lonely existence.
Of course, a lot of these seeming inequalities can be attributed to circumstance rather than neglect on Starfleet's part. For one, Gillian, canonically a humpback, is more than triple the size of Matt or Kimolu, belugas, so it's much harder to design any space at all for her on a starship, let alone one that gives her the freedom to safely interact with crew.
As for being the only humpback on Voyager, this is probably because there just aren't that many - her species was only repopulated less than a century ago during the whale probe incident.
Now, here's some more difficult-to-answer questions:
These questions definitely can't be answered with current lore, but I guess we can imagine and/or extrapolate from how Starfleet has accommodated other non-humanoid officers.
Flans looks like the statue really did get him high in that last frame frame
If you want to buy the thing: https://tmbgshop.com/collections/all/products/the-spine-surfs-alone-rarities-1998-2005-180g-translucent-red-vinyl
Seriously, though. I think I've seen this guy in the grocery store down here in AZ.
Let's bring glory to our friends in Cetacean ops!
Okay, I admit Vendome came after, but still, it's not like ops/security/engineering people have never become captain. Plus, come on. Vendome's face was just begging to be memed.
The main example I can think of from canonically before this moment is Uhura, though everyone was wearing red uniforms at the time.
Yes I did, and now I’ve fixed it.