Star Trek Mania

[Arjen]

have we had a Transgender Starfleet Captain yet?

Worf.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Justo hails from a land of non-English. Perhaps that's how it's translated into foreignese.

According to my translator the correct expression is

He's dead, Jim.

The mistake is mine, on Friday I was watching an episode of Castle in which his mother prepares for twenty-four hours before the performance of a play by continuously saying the opening sentence: He’s dead.

Thanks for your understanding, Scott

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-3Jr7vYRw

 

[Justo Miranda]

This was an unexpected twist.

Who dis?

hi

 

[Justo Miranda]

Messiah or God-complex personalities emerge from the charismatic. Perhaps, not dissimilar from those born to great wealth and feel they are called to a Higher purpose. Someone inevitably tries to take over the world.

megalomania with poverty

 

[publiusr]

My Mom hated Star Trek.

My Dad spent a lot of time tweaking an early AMT Enterprise kit—the first before the steel molds resulted in a flat B/C deck up front.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMp5Vr8idU

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vl4ULTp_dsY


I took it with me during a trip to my maternal grandmother, only to learn my mean cousin was coming too.

First I tried to put it in the car..but it would have melted in the heat.

Then Mom looked at me with an evil grin and told me to show him the “Star Track”

The little bastard broke it of course.

I wasn’t even 5, yet even then—I learned I was never meant to have anything.

My Dad solved the nacelle “droop” by leaning the saucer back.

More on the 1/650

AMT’s U.S.S. Enterprise model at 55!

It’s not the sort of anniversary that a lot of people would notice or care about, and even within the vast Star Trek fandom it’s likely something only a segment of people would even rec…

daytonward.wordpress.com

To Boldly Go Where No Model Has Gone Before

TOP: Photo Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. AMT and design are registered trademarks of Round 2, LLC. All rights reserved. A vintage 18-inch plastic toy model of the USS E…

liftoffworks.com

http://www.glenswanson.space/uploads/1/2/5/7/125738648/amt_history_article.pdf

Jay Chladek has some videos on the AMT, and has authored real-space books

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WQsm-12jhlI

 

[Justo Miranda]

-My question for all the Trekkies out here: which series is your favorite and why?

-Beauties against ugly guys?...Difficult choice

 

[publiusr]

TOS for me—although I’d put ENTERPRISE’s “Dead Stop” up there with Doomsday Machine.

DS9’s “Duet” is proof that—while Babylon 5 had a better story arc—DS9 did individual episodes as well or better.

My favorite Voyager episode was THE THAW.

Make your own bridge.

Build A Starship Bridge Simulator With EmptyEpsilon

Who hasn’t dreamed of serving on the bridge of a Star Trek starship? Although the EmptyEpsilon project isn’t adorned with the Universe-famous LCARS user interface, it does provide a com…

hackaday.com

Enterprise and Hypersonics

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/hypersonic-propulsion-news-and-developments.42168/#post-773334

 

[Justo Miranda]

The "political" aspect of Star Trek was discussed at length in an amicable thread which was wide ranging and covered it well.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/world-government-1990.32431/

Star Trek was and is a pretty good reflection of its US homeland. Other countries get only cameo roles.

Globalism, historical determinism, irreversible social engineering... If only the original writers of the series had lived long enough to see how their beautiful futuristic utopia had evolved... they would have dedicated themselves to selling insurance.

 

[Foo Fighter]

I don't do Cyrillic, but I can do either German or English, or even French, in a pinch. Please, repost your statement in one of those alternatives, with the first two vastly preferred. You *do* realize though that you are using the language of a current war criminal, yes?

To be fair, the criminal, is using the language of decent people. Hopefully we can get out of the otherr side from this carp between putin, ping, pong and trump with our heads and sensibilities intact.

The Trekkie in me (I do not differentiate between trekker and trekkie) wants to believe that the big difference in all of this is a=our base humanity. I really bloody hope so.

On the topic of preference. None really I try to see good in the whole franchise. Gutted that B5 was cut short and Crusade even shorter. I try to watch B5 but will have to acquire the box set as free channels do not do it any more. A crying shame as the 'statement' is something I try to live by as I do the Trekkie unspoken creed of help those who cannot help themselves.

OK, eulogising over, have a great Sunday folks.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Meanwhile back to the differences between the series.
The stars are of course the Enterprise and similar starships.

First few years of DS9 did not have a hero ship. It had the station itself and the runabouts, but those didn't count. Most fans agree that DS9 really started to get good right about the time that USS Sisko's Pimp Hand showed up.

Trek at it's best is about exploration... or at least abut "taking it to the other guy." Hard to do if you're not going anywhere.

The Daleks would make short work of Starfleet.

For about one episode. Then the Starfleet engineers would get to work, and by the end of the season the few remaining Daleks would be repurposed into Starfleet hull scrubbers.

have we had a Transgender Starfleet Captain yet?

Starfleet? No. But season 1 of "Strange New Worlds" had a trans "pirate captain," and numerous they/thems have been shown in Starfleet in "Discovery" and "Picard." That's a whole discussion right there.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Meanwhile back to the differences between the series.
The stars are of course the Enterprise and similar starships.
Nothing has been able to recreate the shock of the first Enterprise when it appeared on TV screens. It looked clean and white (on Black and White TV in my home when it first appeared) with a dramatic but understandable shape.
Attempts to re-design the original have all left me not very wowed.
Alien ships have a hard job competing. Geometric shapes seem popular Spheres (Balok) Squares (Borg) Triangles (Tholian).
Alien life forms are less interesting than those in low budget Dr Who. The Daleks would make short work of Starfleet. Cybermen were wearing plumbing items outside their bodies many years before the Borg.
Short skirts are a recurring feature in Who and Trek. Not perhaps surprising as men are the main audience. I no longer watch TV being slightly deaf but have we had a Transgender Starfleet Captain yet?

My generation failed in what was expected of it, then it was no longer possible to reverse the trend and today's young people suffer the consequences.

 

[Stargazer]

There are those, like Picard, who claim that humanity no longer seeks to acquire wealth. He says this from his palatial family estate, mansion and vineyard, where he has an army of servants to assist him in producing his own family-named brand of wine. At the same time you see his own crew gamble (implying some means of payment) and other humans owning private starships and making bank carrying cargo and passengers. Picard is the very model of the "limousine liberal" in that he is a scion of extreme wealth and privilege, but doesn't recognize it, and lives in a different word from most other people but doesn't understand that.

Very interesting! I think you nailed it. The claim that humanity is free of greed is just as much a fallacy as the Prime Directive, which is sacred only until it doesn't quite serve the Federation's interests.

 

[southwestforests]

The *actual* line is "He’s dead, Jim",

While that is a theme in this thread,
enjoy this,

Several iconic phrases from Star Trek: The Original Series have made their way into the pop culture lexicon, including, "He's dead, Jim." Most often spoken by Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), this phrase was Bones' rather blunt way of reporting a death to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). While "Live long and prosper" and "Beam me up, Scotty" may be the most famous of the phrases to originate from Star Trek, some variation of "He's dead" was spoken more times throughout the series than either of those lines.


With his gruff personality, Dr. McCoy was not known for his good bedside manner, so it's not surprising he would report deaths rather bluntly. Although the phrase, "He's dead, Jim," is often associated with the death of so-called red shirts, Dr. McCoy never actually used this exact wording in that way. Surprisingly, the exact phrase, "He's dead, Jim," was only spoken by Dr. McCoy four times on Star Trek: The Original Series, although he used some variation of "He's dead" many more times. Here is every time McCoy uttered this now iconic phrase.

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-doctor-mccoy-every-time-hes-dead-jim-line/

 

[Stargazer]

For about one episode. Then the Starfleet engineers would get to work, and by the end of the season the few remaining Daleks would be repurposed into Starfleet hull scrubbers.

Daleks are something of a joke when you've encountered the Borg or Species 8472...

 

[southwestforests]

Star Trek was and is a pretty good reflection of its US homeland. Other countries get only cameo roles.

I'm going to expect that would be true whichever country the series had been produced in be it France, Kenya, Cambodia, or Columbia,

 

[Justo Miranda]

While that is a theme in this thread,
enjoy this,

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-doctor-mccoy-every-time-hes-dead-jim-line/

"Beam me up, Scotty"

The teleporter was originally designed to avoid the expense of building a space taxi and filming difficult flight scenes with the financial resources of the time. But in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare for the writers because that same technology would have been used to solve most of the difficult situations of the series: kidnappings, space combat, recovery of stolen equipment. The ideologues of the sixties already said it: technology is not a solution.

 

[southwestforests]

Short skirts are a recurring feature in Who and Trek. Not perhaps surprising as men are the main audience.

The thing seems to be a bit less one-dimensional than that,

Sep 7, 2022 #BehindTheSeams
Star Trek has never been afraid of bold fashion choices, especially for women. And while the short skirts of the '60s original series might seem like a double standard to keep things sexy on the Starship Enterprise, the minidress has a complicated history of female empowerment.

Let's go Behind the Seams!

and,

For feminist critics, miniskirts are a consistent focal point and often assumed to be a sexist symbol, particularly since women were “forced” to wear them as part of their uniforms. However, when the costumes were designed and originally worn, perceptions were very different. Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura (the most visible woman on the show and a groundbreaking character for racial integration), discussed the issue in her autobiography:

“In later years, especially as the women’s movement took hold in the seventies, people began to ask me about my costume. Some thought it “demeaning” for a woman in the command crew to be dressed so sexily. It always surprised me because I never saw it that way. After all, the show was created in the age of the miniskirt, and the crew women’s uniforms were very comfortable. Contrary to what many may think today, no one really saw it as demeaning back then. In fact, the miniskirt was a symbol of sexual liberation. More to the point, though, in the twenty-third century, you are respected for your abilities regardless of what you do or do not wear.”

https://www.vintag.es/2013/05/mini-skirts-in-star-trek-1966.html

 

[Arjen]

Daleks are something of a joke when you've encountered the Borg or Species 8472...

Which wouldn't even leave a smudge after an unfriendly encounter with a Vorlon, Walkers of Sigma 957 or Shadow fleet. Just remember none of them are real, powers are crafted from thin air by their writers.

 

[Foo Fighter]

I do think they missed branching out with variety, "He's proper Hovis Jim brown, bread or what".

 

[Justo Miranda]

The thing seems to be a bit less one-dimensional than that,

and,



https://www.vintag.es/2013/05/mini-skirts-in-star-trek-1966.html

According to Heinlein, there is an inexplicable historical relationship between the length of women's skirts, the length of men's beards, and the price of gold.

During the early days of Star Trek, the idea was to sell us a better future if we were tolerant enough to hire a beautiful African girl, named Swahili, to pick up the phone on the starship. At the same time, U.N.C.L.E. agents wore skirts above the knee and a pistol on the back of their belts... They were selling a different product.

 

[southwestforests]

They were selling a different product.

And that connects with what Star Trek ultimately is, a product that's for sale.

Same for all the rest of the sci-fi productions and franchises.

Same for all productions and franchises.

 

[southwestforests]

Just saw this,
posted 25 minutes ago,

https://warpfactor6.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F779478936199561216

View: https://www.tumblr.com/warpfactor6/779478936199561216?source=share

 

[Orionblamblam]

And that connects with what Star Trek ultimately is, a product that's for sale.

And sadly, it's a product that's not selling. The people who really consider themselves fans are, like myself, generally a bunch of old farts. We're fans of the Golden Age of Trek, from TOS to ENT. But nothing *since* 2005 has worked to really gain new fans. None of the movies or series have done much to excite the existing fanbase, and they've done squat to entice *new* fans. Partially this is because virtually all Trek shows these days are now of the "overarching season-long story arc" variety, which means if you miss an episode you're SOL; but mostly I think it's because they just plain suck.

The people who make Star Trek know it's dying.

One Star Trek Actor Thinks The Legendary Sci-Fi Franchise Is 'Dying' - SlashFilm

Robert Kazinsky, who appeared in 2025's Star Trek: Section 31, says he joined the movie because Trek overseer Alex Kurtzman told him the franchise was dying.

www.slashfilm.com

 

[TsrJoe]

Of course if we didn't have 'Star Trek' then we would miss out on such classics as ...

 

[Scott Kenny]

My question for all the Trekkies out here: which series is your favorite and why?

TOS/TAS because of Star Fleet Battles. Played that a lot as a kid. I've kinda slowed down to the simplified Federation Commander rule set, though. Don't have time to relearn all the SFB rules and interactions!

Lower Decks to see the inner workings of the crew that Roddenberry refused to acknowledge. ("No personal conflicts inside the crew" my ass, submariners will rip each other to shreds personally and yet will always have each other's backs professionally!)

The Orville and Galaxy Quest are also on the list as Trek stories. Even if unofficial.

Ḣ̷̙̘̹͎̲̮̰̥͔̱̄̀̃͌̋̀̑͘ͅǫ̷̰̜̯͓̖̪̱̖̥̦̻͈͋̊́̉̋̋̏̈́̀̉̒͛͝w̵͖͕̹͍̜̣̓̆͒̏̑̐̔͐̔̏́̒͑̚ ̶̝̩̲̬̺̖̹̮̋̈͆́̎̽̊̉͗ǎ̸͇͙͕͇͒̔́͐͂̔͂͊b̶̛̰̗̘̟̠̟͗̈́̋͊̀̈̋̉́o̸̰̯̝͐͊͑̒ǘ̷̢̡̩͓̣͇̣̮̜t̵̛̪͈̫̦̳͕͙̠̖͕̿̍̈́͗̓͒̔̀̎̄̚͘͝͝ ̷̨̩͇̰̝̩̈͑͛̎̆̂̍̽̈́b̸̡̨̜̪͍̩̪̬̮̟͙̮̓́͊̊̄̎̈͝à̴͎̗̖̻̒̈́͋̾̂̿̈́̕d̷̨̘̺̣̝̺͉̟͖̝̖͙̞͗͗͘̕͠͠ͅ ̶̢̫̪͈̤̞̻̄̓̑̌̒͗̉̔͘E̵̡̛̳̜͙̬̜̯͔̓͛͌̎͒̃͘͝n̷̳̟̈́͑͋͌́͘͝ͅͅg̶̹̗͈̎̎̌͆̉̃l̸̢̹̙̟̺̹̲̩̘̈́͒̏͘͠î̸̓̄̐͘͝ͅs̷͚͚̻̣̭͓̝̯̓͑̽̈̎̀̅͑̈́̾͊͝h̴̤̰̬̎̀̊̑̐͑͋͊͝͠͝͝͠?̸͕̜̹̆̔͋͗̊͛̊͗͝͝

Okay, what font is that, I need to install it on my computer!

 

[southwestforests]

TOS/TAS because of Star Fleet Battles. Played that a lot as a kid. I've kinda slowed down to the simplified Federation Commander rule set, though. Don't have time to relearn all the SFB rules and interactions!

There is justifiable cause for SFB sometimes being nicknamed "Starfleet accounting".

 

[Orionblamblam]

Okay, what font is that, I need to install it on my computer!

Zalgo text - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Originally intended to show "the influence of an eldritch deity," which would link it to Lovecraft... which is fun, because TOS had a surprising number of links to Lovecraft, something Trek kinda abandoned in later series.


Fun with Zalgo:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/6832033269685505286

View: https://www.tiktok.com/@jooystin/video/6832033269685505286

 

[Orionblamblam]

At the same time, U.N.C.L.E. agents wore skirts above the knee and a pistol on the back of their belts...

While no real man objects to a woman (or another man, for that matter) packing heat, that particular position/orientation of the pistol seems terribly non-ergonomic.
1) It'd make sitting on a normal chair difficult and uncomfortable
2) It makes grabbing by someone else easy and difficult to defend against
3) It makes it difficult for the *woman* to quickly and reliably retrieve and bring to bear.

Just put it on the hip. Or a shoulder holster if need be.

 

[publiusr]

The Daleks would make short work of Starfleet.

Even more the case

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5vgverA1QJE

Cybermen were wearing plumbing items outside their bodies many years before the Borg.

Borg-Cyberman Alliance

The Borg-Cyberman Alliance was an alliance between the Borg Collective of the Federation universe and the Cybermen who crossed over from N-Space, providing their Cyber-Armada to form the Borg-Cyberman Fleet. (COMIC: Assimilation²) The Borg-Cyberman Alliance made its first appearance to the...

tardis.fandom.com

 

[Justo Miranda]

While no real man objects to a woman (or another man, for that matter) packing heat, that particular position/orientation of the pistol seems terribly non-ergonomic.
1) It'd make sitting on a normal chair difficult and uncomfortable
2) It makes grabbing by someone else easy and difficult to defend against
3) It makes it difficult for the *woman* to quickly and reliably retrieve and bring to bear.

Just put it on the hip. Or a shoulder holster if need be.

The purpose of using that position was an attempt to differentiate the clothing of both genders, something like the position of the buttons: right for women, left for men and I seem to remember that there was also that custom in the way of wearing the watch.
Even the identification triangles were of different colors.

 

[BlackBat242]

According to Heinlein, there is an inexplicable historical relationship between the length of women's skirts, the length of men's beards, and the price of gold.

During the early days of Star Trek, the idea was to sell us a better future if we were tolerant enough to hire a beautiful African girl, named Swahili, to pick up the phone on the starship. At the same time, U.N.C.L.E. agents wore skirts above the knee and a pistol on the back of their belts... They were selling a different product.

Don't forget that it was Grace Lee Whitney, the actress who played Yeoman Janice Rand, who pushed Roddenberry into creating that miniskirt uniform!

Grace Lee Whitney wanted to wear a short skirt on TOS

Grace Lee Whitney wanted to wear a short skirt on Star Trek: The Original Series to show off her dancer's legs and Roddenberry obliged

redshirtsalwaysdie.com

In both pilots female crew members wore pants, but it was in the first production episode of TOS (Charlie X*) that the mini appears - on Rand.

She wore pants in some early press photos, but felt the pants made her look dowdy, and she wanted to show off her "dancer's legs".

Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura (the most visible woman on the show and a groundbreaking character for racial integration), discussed the issue in her autobiography:

In later years, especially as the women’s movement took hold in the seventies, people began to ask me about my costume. Some thought it “demeaning” for a woman in the command crew to be dressed so sexily. It always surprised me because I never saw it that way. After all, the show was created in the age of the miniskirt, and the crew women’s uniforms were very comfortable. Contrary to what many may think today, no one really saw it as demeaning back then. In fact, the miniskirt was a symbol of sexual liberation. More to the point, though, in the twenty-third century, you are respected for your abilities regardless of what you do or do not wear.

Star Trek Miniskirts: Feminist or Nah?

Aesthetics carry messages about values. Star Trek, while frequently written about in historical, literary, and technological terms, was also a visual experience with a distinctive aesthetic, and th…

comparativegeeks.wordpress.com

At the same time, in the 1960s, longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown was promoting the idea of the “single girl” in her magazine and several bestselling books. Brown’s single girl was professional and successful, but also playful and sexual. She was single and desirable, but had little or no interest in marriage or children, which in the 1950s were the assumed end goals for a woman’s sexuality. Female Starfleet crewmembers embody this idea perfectly. They engage in romances and flirtations with other characters, clad in symbols of sexual liberation, but marriage is always presented as incompatible with a Starfleet officer’s life. The contrast is even more apparent when Star Trek is compared to other science fiction programs of the same era such as Lost in Space, which simply transposed traditional female housekeeping roles onto another planet.

Colorful miniskirts played one final role, again embedded in trends and concerns of the time: They reassured an anxious public that femininity wouldn’t disappear in the space age. The first woman had already flown to space in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Her “mannish” and militarized appearance seemed to indicate dangerously unstable gender roles. While Star Trek challenged those roles with its scripts — even challenging heteronormativity in important ways — miniskirts helped camouflage those statements and make them palatable for the audience.

* The first episode broadcast, The Man Trap, was the 6th filmed. Charlie X was the first filmed after network approval of the series, but the second broadcast. Where No Man Has Gone Before was the second pilot (after The Cage) but not broadcast until after Charlie X (3rd overall).

 

[Scott Kenny]

While no real man objects to a woman (or another man, for that matter) packing heat, that particular position/orientation of the pistol seems terribly non-ergonomic.
1) It'd make sitting on a normal chair difficult and uncomfortable
2) It makes grabbing by someone else easy and difficult to defend against
3) It makes it difficult for the *woman* to quickly and reliably retrieve and bring to bear.

Just put it on the hip. Or a shoulder holster if need be.

With most women's waists, a pistol on the belt is difficult to draw. A shoulder holster is better for curvy women.

Also, a pistol across the spine is a terrible idea. You land flat on your back and you'll never walk again.

 

[publiusr]

It doesn’t take much to get hurt.
Police officers still have boxy radios, and landing on those doesn’t feel good either.

By Star Trek’s level of technology—everyone should look like Iron Man, really.
The suit IS your radio—the suit IS your weapon.

No boxes.

 

[Dilandu]

no longer watch TV being slightly deaf but have we had a Transgender Starfleet Captain yet?

The Federation tech level likely allows to change sex functionally, so for Federation it's likely a moot point; anyone who feels "not living in the right body" could likely just reconstruct his/her body up to the chromosome level.

 

[Orionblamblam]

The Federation tech level likely allows to change sex functionally, so for Federation it's likely a moot point; anyone who feels "not living in the right body" could likely just reconstruct his/her body up to the chromosome level.

It seems entirely reasonable that whenever a women gets pregnant she goes in for a scan of the fetus; they check its structure, its genetics and its epigenetics. Any detectable problems would likely be fixed on the spot with Magic Techno Medical Rays. Chromosomes fixed to eliminate any such problem; Mom's hormonal/chemical balance tweaked to prevent development issues. And if a fetus is found to have a female brain in a male body, one or the other is tweaked, whichever is easier or more likely to be successful.

DS9 showed that, thanks to the Eugenics Wars, *deep* genetic engineering was illegal (at least for humans). So completely re-writing an adult would be weird , rare and likely massively illegal. Fortunately, there'd be no reason to do so. Waaaaay back in TOS they showed that mental illness was a just about solved problem. In the entire Federation there were about a dozen Criminally Insane who needed to be locked up, and by the end of the episode New And Improved Meds made even *them* more or less healthy. So if this issue arises later in life, a few minutes under the Neural Neutralizer can likely clear it up.

 

[Dilandu]

It seems entirely reasonable that whenever a women gets pregnant she goes in for a scan of the fetus; they check its structure, its genetics and its epigenetics. Any detectable problems would likely be fixed on the spot with Magic Techno Medical

Nah, Federation is extremely paranoid about genetic manipulations and it didn't went well with Vulcan's IDIC.

 

[Dilandu]

So if this issue arises later in life, a few minutes under the Neural Neutralizer can likely clear it up.

Yeah, a good way to dealt with such lunacies as religious beliefs, for example)

 

[Arjen]

Or indeed any other inconvenient ideological leanings. Brave New World.
There was/still is this fad to put dissidents in psychiatric wards, enabled by compliant bods in the medical profession.

 

[uk 75]

My late father commented when we first watched Star Trek that Uhura and Rand were wearing Las Vegas Showgirl dancers outfits "that show off their legs".
He added knowingly "their knickers are the same colour and meant to be seen".
My mother and I laughed but my father got down a book he had at Architectural College about Costume by this chap

James Laver - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Years later I was reminded of this during the "up skirting" row on the Internet. Underwear often called "unmentionables" are not meant to be seen. Laver mentions this in his book.

 

[Dilandu]

Or indeed any other inconvenient ideological leanings. Brave New World.

And since Federation clearly allows a significant level of political dissent (all those "weird colonies" that Picard & Co visited constantly), we could safely assume that Federation did not like to brainwash its citizens unless they are truly unrepetant criminal types.