Hi, friends! When we went into lockdown, I thought I’d be watching more TV and movies.
But I didn’t. In fact, I still have a movie out from the library that I got in mid-March right before they shut down. (They’re…probably going to want that back.)
When I have watched TV, though, it has been almost exclusively Star Trek.
We have a plethora of new Trek right now! It’s great!
(Until you get into comments on YouTube or Facebook and find they’re all full of whining about how things aren’t Trek enough, or how they’ve gone all SJW–like they ever weren’t–or how it’s just scifi and not Trek and the heck is wrong with these people? They’re stuck in a nostalgia that never really existed, I think. Also, why do people complain when they get more of their favorites? The lesson here is don’t read the comments on anything.)
First we finished the second season of Discovery, which was really good! And I love all the characters so much, which is really the point, you know? No one sat through the early seasons of Next Generation because it was a good TV show, if you know what I mean. (If not, the first two seasons of Next Gen are…bad. There, I said it.) They sat through it because they liked Data or Geordi or Deanna or whoever was their character of choice and they liked to watch them have space adventures.
(Though “adventures” in conjunction with Next Gen isn’t always the best fit either.)
(I love Next Gen, it’s just very cerebral at times.)
And the Discovery characters are good, and even minor characters feel fleshed out, and I will protect Sylvia Tilly with my life, just saying.
From there we moved on to Picard, which was good, though a bit depressing. It ended on a hopeful note, so we’ll have to see how the next season goes. But I did love all the Romulan and Borg stuff, which are my two favorite Trek species. It was worth the whole season just to hear Rihannsu (Romulan) spoken on screen. Really validated my teenage self memorizing what existed of the Romulan Dictionary back then.
And now! We’re on to Lower Decks, which I love completely and unironically. I know there are a lot of people who hate it based on concept alone (these are probably the same people who think the Orville is more Trek than Discovery) but I think it’s great. I think people are upset because it’s “disrespectful” to the sanctity of Starfleet or whatever, but it feels more real to me. I’ve been around enough military people to know that they would totally get up to this sort of shenanigans. People are people.
(I would also die for Tendi and Rutherford.)
Huh. I’ve really got to do something about my love of Trek engineers. I think it’s unhealthy.
(Also, I realize Tendi is technically medical but she’s always doing odd engineering jobs so I’m counting her. Bite me.)
Anyway! My life-long Trekkie heart is aflutter. We’ve got season 3 of Discovery starting next month, and Strange New Worlds will be soon, and we’re only halfway through Lower Decks.
My inner nerdy teenager is so pleased. We thought we were lucky back then because Next Gen AND DS9 AND Voyager were on. I wonder what me and my roleplaying friends would be doing now?
Anyway! Trek is great and I love it a lot!