Star Trek Social Club

I saw a bit of them at the final season of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, but it was clear the serie run out of time, I look some clips of Star Trek Discovery but I didn't like the first episode of the series, so, were can find more information of them? I'm curious about this faction, specially because I want to know how strong they are compared to Jam Hadar or The Borg.

As far I understand, they are like Star Wars mandalorian, they are basically bounty hunters or mercenaries, right?

I can understand in a "#MeToo" movement can be wrong, but at least tries to show a complicated idea.

Now, Blood Fever presents rape with fetish ideas, first, the Vulcan tries to do a forced Pon Farr, that rape attempt has no punishment, I mean, Worf was complained for following his traditions, but Vulcans seems to be safe of any complain or repercussion of the ship. I know the idea is of being understable with chemical disbalances, but I was expecting at least one saying "that is not excuse".

Then, almost episode is the sexual tension of Torres with Paris because she got affected by the Pon Farr, and she is like "Stop ignoring me, I want to have sex with you".

Tuvok, pharaprasing, order to: Tom Paris, to laid with B'ellana Torres, "or she gonna die" that porn-plot is delivered with a serious tone quote. Then the vulcan cames back to fight for mating porpuses.

Were the writers horny when they made this up? At least the episode end with Borg drone, giving some plot tension.

My question is, how "Blood Fever" is not as complained as "Retrospect" episode?

And also, sorry my bad english.

EDIT: Oh, and I forget there are aliens in the cave, because it was more of a pretext of sexual stuff.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of my favorite Trek films. It’s a great finale for the original crew and it’s both well done and also not at the same time (I could do a whole thread on the numerous continuity errors within the film, but I digress). One thing I’ve always wondered is why the galley in the Enterprise is so beat up in the scene where the senior crew debates the use of a phaser as part of the crime against the Klingon Chancellor.

So…. Why is the galley so beat up?

From @zilatreks on Instagram

Imginn link: https://imginn.com/p/DPFjARZDSJE/

I am so excited!

The title is from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act I sc v: "Come, let's away, the strangers all are gone." It also appears in King Lear, Act V sc iii: "Come, let's away to prison; We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage”.

The opening song is “UFO”, a 2023 song by Olivia Dean, which talks about the feeling of not being in control when one is newly in love - appropriate to describe what’s happening between Caleb and Tamira.

The Deltan race was first seen in TMP with Ilia. Deltans are a very sensual and sexually open people, and to prevent issues with non-Deltans obsessing over them, those who join Starfleet have to take oaths of celibacy so as not to take advantage of sexually immature species.

Tamira’s neuroinhibitors start to flash; she wears them because she claims she feels emotions more intensely than other Betazoids (SFA: “Beta Test”) and that it can harm people if she loses control.

Betazoids are telepathic with others of their own species. However, they can teach this to people they are intimate with or close to, as Deanna Troi did with William Riker (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”).

The toy bear is Caleb’s toy Scrap, which he used as a diversion 15 years prior to escape from Pikaru (SFA: “Kids These Days”). He experiences flashbacks to those events.

Ship graveyards can be either actual graveyards where the wreckage of ships is left as a memorial to those who died there like the location of the Battle of Wolf 359 (TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds”, Star Trek Online), or junkyards/depots where old ships are abandoned (TNG: “Unification”).

The USS Miyazaki (NCC-316606) is presumably named after famed anime director Hayao Miyazaki (or his namesake city in Japan). This is the first we’ve heard of the “Singularity Drive”, although the Romulans famously used a quantum singularity to power their warp engines in the 24th century.

Kelrec was previously referred to as Commander, but now Nahla calls him “Chancellor”, so it may be that commander really is his rank after all. The mission, to repower Miyazaki and reboot the computer, bears some resemblance to reactivating the USS Hathaway in TNG: “Peak Performance”, although that was in preparation for war games.

The new “plasma-based” life support system is reminiscent of the force-field-based life-support belts used by Kirk & Co. during the animated series, starting from TAS: “Beyond the Farthest Star”.

This is the first time we’ve heard of ghan’aq, presumably a Klingon drink.

This is the first appearance of the Furies, although an ancient collective of races named the Furies or the Host were the antagonists in the Invasion! series of Star Trek novels.

Latinum (or gold-pressed latinum) is a currency most often used by Ferengi. The latinum itself is liquid and then encased in relatively worthless gold. Its value comes from the fact that latinum apparently cannot be replicated.

We last saw Nus Braka escaping Athena in a lifepod at the end of “Kids These Days”. Sector 119 is first mentioned here on-screen, but a planet in Sector 119-D was the setting of the Gold Key Star Trek comic story “Dwarf Planet” in issue #25 (1974).

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…” was an aphorism quoted by Spock in ST II to Kirk, who finished it with, “… or the one.” Of course, Kirk risked everything to save Spock in ST III “because the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many.”

“The hills are alive with the sound of murder,” is an obvious take-off on “The hills are alive with the sound of music,” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical The Sound of Music, but I first read it as "the streets are alive with the sound of murder," in the book Sing along with Mad (1970), as part of a parody of the musical set in the world of organised crime, written by the great Frank Jacobs and drawn by the equally legendary Al Jaffee.

Añejo means “aged” in Spanish and is used to refer to (in this case) aged tequila or aged rum.

Vance here uses “T-Tauri System” as if it’s a proper name. Although TNG: “Clues” uses “the T-tauri system” several times, the dialogue makes it clear that it’s a type of star rather than the name of a star system and the crew are using “the” just to identify the relevant system that contains that kind of star. In fact, Data notes that unstable wormholes have been mapped near 39 T-Tauri systems.

Nus is apparently short for “Nustopher”. Taygeta is a trinary star system in the constellation of Taurus, with Taygeta V featured in the TOS novel Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass.

A hengra, also known as a hengrauggi, was a creature from the ice planet Delta Vega (not to be confused with the planetoid Delta Vega from TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”), seen in the Star Trek (2009) movie.

Stardate 898898.3 translates to 3221, which is about 30 years in the future from SFA, so that can’t be right, especially when it’s said that Miyazaki hasn’t been operational for a century. The stardate should be in the 768000s.

Nus plays with a golden version of the NX-01 Enterprise.

A trauma loop is when an individual becomes stuck and re-experiences or re-enacts traumatic events over and over again. It is usually self-perpetuating, like a person who has been abused might unconsciously seek out situations where they will experience the same kind of abuse again. Nahla mentioned previously that she lost her son because of the Burn, but here we get some more detail.

Psilosynine is a neurotransmitter linked to Betazoid telepathy (TNG: “Dark Page”). As we saw in “Beta Test”, Tarima’s father, President Emrin Sadal of Betazed, is deaf. We find out why here.

The Furies are part-Lynar, which makes their inner ears sensitive to high sonic frequencies. Lynars were mentioned in TNG: "Chain of Command" by Picard as "a kind of Celtrine bat" (native to Celtris III).

The Intrepid-class USS Sargasso referred to here is not the 24th century class that the USS Voyager belonged to, but that of the 32nd century Voyager-J, first seen in DIS: “Die Trying”.

We see a trail of green blood at B’Avi’s mouth. Vulcan blood is copper-based, hence the colour.

We get a mention of Discovery, so she must have finished her retrofit (“Kids These Days”).

Nus’ final message to Nahla, where he rages about the self-righteousness of the Federation, is similar to Eddington’s speech to Sisko in DS9: “For the Cause”, accusing the Federation of being more insidious than the Borg in assimilating cultures.

The sound of the Furies screeching plays over the end credits.

I just don't get it. What is the freaking problem of those directors, trying to rewrite federation into some kind of dystopian tech fascism?

I was annoyed by the first Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams, with those police cops. I was alienated by those anti-android resentments in Picard. I stopped watching Discovery after the first episode, because the main protagonist was sent to some kind of labor prison for disobedience, where prisoners regularly die. I didn't think it could get any worse but just watching the first 10 minutes of Starfleet Academy makes me want to bury the whole franchise [edit: and stopped watching]. Some drumhead court-martial, lifelong prison sentence, violently separating a mother from her child and some goons beating up a prisoner. How in the hell is this the same federation of TNG, Voyager and DS9?

Star Trek is supposed to be the ONE fiction with a positive, utopian view on mankind and the future. I totally get the attraction of dystopian settings but for that I can read some Warhammer 40k novels. This really makes me furious.

Fortunately there is still Strange New Worlds.

Please spoiler me, when this bullshit in Starfleet Academy gets turned around in some twist, because otherwise I will just ignore the show.

The fifth episode of Star Fleet Academy was filled with memberberries for Deep Space Nine. So now I want to re-watch this magnificent Star Trek show. I first watched it, back when it aired in the 1990s.

There are many versions of it available: DVD, Laserdisc, free streaming on pirate websites, legal streaming, pirate DVDRips, pirate AI upscaled versions.

Pirate streaming ended up being a muddy picture, mislabeled episodes and such. So I checked out torrents and found a whole zoo of DVDRips and AI upscaled versions. Some upscaled versions have gigantic file sizes of hundreds of GB.

DVDRips

There are DVDs following the analog video standards PAL and NTSC. PAL has a higher vertical resolution of 576p compared to 480p for NTSC. The colors of PAL are also better. PAL is sped up by 5% to 25 fps, leading to a slightly shorter runtime and pitched up audio. Some say the PAL version makes people speaking sound like chipmunks. I don't think it's that noticeable, if you don't compare it directly.

The version I'm currently watching is called Star Trek Deep Space Nine - Complete Series - 576P - Multi Subs - DVDrip - X265-HEVC - O69. Each episode is around 250 MB encoded in x265. The DVD extras are included and a lot of fun. It's acceptable quality wise. However the image is too dark overall. I added a gamma adjustment filter of 0.9 to bring out the contrast and details in the shadows in my video player.

Legal Streams

Use the DVDs and recompress them. So at best as good as a DVDRip.

AI Upscale

There are a bunch of different upscaled versions, and new ones are regularly. These are just a few examples of many.

DS9: Redefined

Is a newish project for an actually good upscaled version. They use LaserDisc as source, correct the colors, and then upscale.

Their demo videos actually look pretty great. Sadly I couldn't find where to actually download the completed video files. Do you know?

Other upscales

https://berglyd.net/blog/2023/08/upscaling-startrek-ds9/ shows only a slight difference. Noise and grain are reduced, sure. Details like the pips on Sisko's collar are smudged and arguably worse.

https://community.topazlabs.com/t/star-trek-deep-space-nine-upscaling-project-by-leland-kovich-pal-dvd-to-1080phd-in-4-3/92214/8 Noise and grain is suppressed, but also the texture. Too much saturation, too much contrast, sharpening, ringing. Sisko's legs are an abomination, see the parallel line in the water. The rocks went from background blur, to sharp. The whole image has lost depth and looks flat.

SFA episode 5 spoilers!!!

We were just introduced to Illa Dax, the latest host of the Dax symbiont, in the most recent episode of SFA, 'Series Acclimation Mil'. This has sparked some consternation in certain online Trek circles, because in the Disco episode, 'Jinaal', Adira claimed that is rare for a Trill symbiont to live past 800 years, but not unheard of. The Dax symbiont was born in 2018, so as of 3195 when SFA takes place, the symbiont is 1177 years old, give or take a bit to account for time travel or what have you.

Some thoughts!

in 'Jinaal', the discussion revolves around the Bix symbiont, that was active in the 24th century. The Trill xenobiologist, Jinaal, joined with Bix so that his knowledge of the Progenitors would live on past him and could be passed on to someone worthy of using the information. However, we don't know anything about Bix's hosts.

Jinaal could very well have been its first host, but I don't think that's likely given that it seems unlikely the symbiosis commission would agree to grant a new symbiont to a host simply because he "has some really important information," and "trust me, bro!" More likely Jinaal discussed it with Bix's previous host, and the symbiont agreed that Jinaal's mission was an important one.

Also, not for nothing, but Dax was over 150 years old when it was joined with its first host, so assuming that is standard, even if Jinaal was Bix's first host, it would be closer to 950 years old.

Regardless, it is unusual for symbionts to live to be more than 800. Fair enough. That information comes from Adira, who is joined to the Tal symbiont, so presumably they would know. In the liminal space where Adira meets and is accepted by the previous Tal hosts, one them is wearing a Starfleet uniform from the late 24th century, and it's established that he was not Tal's first host, so Tal is presumably also closing around 800 years of age.

In 'Jinaal' it's stated that Bix and its current host, Kalzara, are both essentially waiting to die, only holding on so they can pass on the knowledge of the Progenitor's power. Kalzara does die, and then Bix is returned to the pools of Mak'ala while be eulogized by Grey and Xi, the implication being Bix did not live much longer.

So, we know:

    • Most symbionts don't live past 800

    • The Dax and Bix symbionts did live past 800, and signs would indicate that so the Tal symbiont did as well.

    • Bix was ready to die when its purpose was finished.

I would venture that symbionts have some measure of control over their natural lifespan. They don't necessarily age the same way other beings, but so long as they're in an environment they can survive in, such as the pools, or a living host, they can survive for many centuries undeterred.

But, after a certain amount of living, symbionts choose to die. And I think that's because of who who their hosts are. In season one of DS9, we saw the recently joined Jadzia explain to Bashir that Trill attempt to "live on a higher plane" and avoid temptation. Obviously that inclination did not last very long for Jadzia, but I think it speaks to the sort of individuals the Symbiosis Commission selects to be joined. Only the best of the best get to join, and most often we see joined Trill as, reserved, high minded, trying to live up to the ideal of their species.

Several of the Dax hosts are a bit different, though. Jadzia had a lust for life that we saw on screen. Even early on, we're told that Curzon was lustful and adventurous. Torias was a test pilot. Emony, an Olympic gymnast who caroused with Starfleet officers. Dax hosts have frequently broke the mold. They go out and they live life, which is not the impression we get of most joined Trill.

So, I think the reason most symbionts choose to not live to 800 years is that they get bored. Their experiences are limited by the sorts of people who make it through the Symbiosis Commission selection process.

The ones who live longer are those like Bix, who have a specific purpose they feel the need to fulfil, or Dax who is constantly going out and experiencing new things. I suspect the Tal symbiont is in that later group, considering three of it's five hosts prior to Grey were all Starfleet officers.

Further, I believe that this could also explain why in the 32nd century, there are not enough Trill capable of joining anymore, as we learned in 'Forget Me Not', despite it being established in 'Equilibrium' that more Trill than it was commonly believed were capable of joining. The symbionts aren't finding the staid, tranquil life of the Trill to be fulfilling any more. They seek out new experiences, and, especially post-Burn when space travel was severely curtailed for 100 years, new experiences were more difficult to come by.

Since 2000 this has been the episode guide in German. It’s still going strong. A reminder of how the internet used to be.