[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 month ago

Honestly, GIMP feels like it's been getting rapidly more livable as a photo editor recently.

Like, I still wouldn't call it suitable for professional use, but it's been causing me noticeably less pain since they finally introduced some non-destructive editing.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 2 months ago

Who the heck came up with “Fek’lhr”?! Like, it’s clearly it intended to be a Klingon word and not an Anglicization, but they failed miserably to actually follow the rules of the language.

  • “F” is not used for that sound in any major Klingon Romanization system (“f” corresponds to “ng” in xifan hol mapping); “v” is the closest thing.
  • “k” is also not used; that should be a “q”.
  • The apostrophe usually only comes after vowels, as it denotes a glottal stop.
  • “h” is not pronounced silently like it is here; it’s a weird consonant kind of like a soft g.

It’s so bad it looks like Okrand had to fix it in one of his Klingon audio tapes - the official Klingon word is “veqlargh”, leaving the TNG onscreen versiob as a very weird Anglicization with a pointless apostrophe.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 3 months ago

You can self-sign and self-enroll secure boot keys. Can’t say it’s an easy process, though - I had a lot of misery with it on my Surface Go 1st Gen. Might be better on my Thinkpad.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 6 months ago

Unfortunately, it's not a Lower Decks continuation - I'm pretty sure that's the Tawny Newsome comedy about “Federation outsiders serving a gleaming resort planet find out their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant."

However, the involvement of Tawny Newsome makes me hopeful it will be good at least. I guess it also opens us to LD cameos at the bare minimum kind of like how they found a way to shoehorn Riker into pretty much every Trek show (I guess even technically DSC and SNW, if you count directing and/or Boimler doing the chair thing).

Admittedly, it would also be fun if they had a neo-Miranda class (perhaps we could call it Terrell class) Cerritos, but despite a similar role, it's not called the Cerritos A; it has an entirely new registry number because they somehow managed to forget about the original Cerritos.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 7 months ago

I believe in the moment, it was actually a hologram.

Still, we desperately need a statue of the Chief.

42
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by data1701d@startrek.website to c/risa@startrek.website

I usually don't post non-OCs, but this one seems relatively rare. The GIF quality was terrible, so I took the MP4 and encoded it into a high-quality animated WEBP. APNG was tempting, but when I tried that for my Prodigy meme, I ran into all sorts of issues. WEBP seems better supported.

Source: https://tenor.com/view/klingon-jump-rope-gif-7629146

15

I've once again noticed a delay of 10-12 hours with Lemmy.world. I just wanted to make sure someone's aware.

Glory to your houses, admins, and thanks for maintaining this instance.

38

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/18753661

We'll see how big the intersection between Trek and TMBG fans is here.

Shut up and get with Garak, dude. (Also, a nod to the amusing show banter in the Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg recording.)

I also posted this on the tmbw Discord.

13
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by data1701d@startrek.website to c/tmbl@lemmy.world

Shut up and get with Garak, dude. (Also, a nod to the amusing show banter in the Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg recording.)

I also posted this on the tmbw Discord.

21

In an attached clip from the video "game" Star Trek: Klingon (in-universe an educational holodeck program), a holographic Gowron violently shakes the player and yells player, "When I say jump out of an airlock, you will JUMP OUT OF AN AIRLOCK!"

My question is, outside of edge cases where it's actually necessary to win a battle, would this level of order-following actually align with proper Klingon theology?

I feel like this would be an honorless death (kind of like if your commander told you to stab yourself with a d'k tahg), and thus if you were actually given an order like this, the proper Klingon thing to do would be to challenge your commanding officer to honorable combat. I could see a more Martokian view that honor demands you follow your commander, though, but I feel like even he would have limits.

I can think of three explanations for what Gowron said: 1) It's simply a hyperbole. 2) Gowron isn't exactly a beacon of Klingon honor (as seen in the last episodes of DS9), so maybe it's a misinterpretation. 3) It's a mistake in the program. Either it's a glitch if it was made in cooperation with the Klingons or it was done entirely by Federation researchers who messed up a bit.

Obviously, this game falls more in Memory Beta territory, but I'd argue it's reasonably canon, as it's basically screen (live action or animated) Star Trek and a song in this game was later canonized in DS9.

40

That scene where they pull away from the station feels like an invisible hand is pulling on my brain.

Also, sometimes I think, "What if this could all be as beautiful as the remasters in What We Left Behind?"

Finally, why does my mind read this in the voice of Vic Fontaine?

39

I’ve made a bizarre observation: commemorative plates tend to be associated more with Star Trek or Star Wars more than other franchise (Stargate seems to have some, too.), and I kind of wonder why.

Obviously, they’re not actually that popular anymore and have faded into kitsch, as the only plate that seems to have come out since DS9/VOY era is the Lower Decks Tom Paris plate - there are no DSC, PIC, Kelvin, or even ENT plates, while newer Star Wars plates don’t seem all that common as well unless you want paper plates.

I’m wondering if it has to do with 2 factors, still somewhat true today but especially in the 1990s:

  • Both Star Wars and Star Trek are decently large fan bases with large proportions of very passionate fans that are more likely to make purchases based on their fandom.
  • Both tended to attract (and still do) an upper middle class to upper class demographic (Somehow, Bezos can call himself Trekkie 🤦‍♂️) with more disposable income to spend on collecting.

These would have made the plates commercially viable, meaning to both inside and outside observers, plates became a stereotype of the fandoms.

Anyhow, what are your thoughts?

P.S. Wow, this is starting to feel like a meta version of Daystrom.

12

Let's say we have a certain Trill symbiont with a host. What would happen if the symbiont was duplicated under the condition that:

  • The host and symbiont were transporter cloned. (2 Jadzia Daxs)
  • A person from an alternate timeline with the same symbiont ends up permanently marooned in the prime timeline. (Larry Dax from a timeline where Curzon didn't reinstate Jadzia coexisting with prime Jadzia)
  • A past host comes back from the dead with a version of the symbiont a la Spock or Shaxs, or even something similar to Doctor Who's concept of an extraction chamber (Jadzia got bored in Sto'Vo'Kor and decided to climb the Black Mountain, meaning her and Ezri exist simultaneously)

I imagine in all of them, the commission would at least let the duplicate live for the rest of the lifespan of the original host, much like the Federation at large treats transporter clones.

However, what happens when it comes time for the symbiont to be transferred? I can't imagine the commission's ideology would smile upon duplicate experiences under much of the same rationale against re-association: there would be a duplication of experiences rather than the acquiring of new ones.

I think in the first case at least, it is reasonable to assume that they'd begrudgingly transfer both symbionts, as both have the equally valid claim to being the original and randomly killing one is straight-up murder, which I imagine the rest of the Federation would dislike.

They might also do so in the second case, as at least our Larry boy has some different experiences even if some are duplicate with prime Dax.

The third one is where it gets very muddy. The nature of souls in general is a muddy subject - twofold when there are two beings involved. For the sake of argument, we'll say the Jadzia in Ezri's symbiont accessible by Zhian'tara is a "backup" of Jadzia up to her death and that a separate Jadzia Dax went to Sto'Vo'Kor^1^. What then?

1: I make this assumption because a) Ezri doesn't have Jadzia's memories of Sto'Vo'Kor and b) it was the combination of Dax and Jadzia that engaged in Klingon ritual and "just" Jadzia would not be the person that participated. Of course, this starts getting into the more mystical parts of the franchise, and it's probably good they keep it vague even through it makes canon discussion like this a nightmare... a FUN nightmare.

18

Okay, the title may be a bit of comedic overstatement. What I really mean is I love the Lower Decks soundtrack and think Westlake may have been meant for Star Trek. I don't know what it is, but it truly evokes TNG era background music but on steroids.

I can't wait for the second volume. RIP Lower Decks - may the next few years prove to be the "Search for Lower Decks" (minus the butchering of a good Vulcan character, the pointless death... okay, maybe that wasn't the most apt comparison).

28
19

In other words, is that dog technically an augment dog? How is Tendi not dismissed from Starfleet and sent to a penal colony?

16
Merp Naming (startrek.website)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by data1701d@startrek.website to c/daystrominstitute@startrek.website

I have an odd question that will probably never be answered now unless they decide to bring this species to other Trek shows: why are members of Merp’s species called “Big Merp”, “Sleepy Merp”, or just “Merp”?

Obviously out of universe, they’re likely just a parody of the Smurfs.

My personal favorite theory that would be that Merpkind (or whatever they are called) doesn’t actually have a native concept of individual names. However, they’ve got to put something on the Federation paperwork, so they typically just do whatever and stick with it.

Alternatively, fitting more with the Smurf thing, Merp communities identify each other via adjectives or roles much like the Smurfs.

What’s your ten cents?

EDIT: Thinking on it, it could be a combination. No one has a set name - some might call their spouse “Mate Merp”, while that spouse might be referred to by a boss as “Strong Employee Merp.” When doing Federation paperwork, Merps typically choose which descriptor they’re more fond of. For instance, Sleepy Merp may have been referred to as that by a parent.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 11 months ago

I think B’Elanna’s not sure what to think of her “Barge of the Dead” experience and can’t tell if it was real or just some weird hallucination.

“I hope so” indicates that uncertainty.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

To be fair, I’d say cowboy appearances would be relatively proportional to the population, maybe 1 or 2% of each series… Except DS9, which has a bit of an Alamo obsession.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

The first Paris spike is Year of Hell, or that time he dated Kes... oh crap, I need to go fix Harry real quick for dating Tom's daughter.

Anyhow, the second Paris spike is that time he got romantically involved with a starship.

The Chakotay spike is mostly my bitterness about the pairing with Seven.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

So long, pally. 🫡🖖

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

That feels like the type of thing someone on the staff had to stop Roddenberry from putting in an episode.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

Apparently, it's not on Disney+ due to licensing crap. The only way is to be a stereotypical Orion. Aaaaaarrrr! Woops. Sorry. The pheromones are really bad this time of year.

[-] data1701d@startrek.website 14 points 1 year ago

I always thought people like Kang basically just got plastic surgery once they had sufficient influence to be able to afford it.

My other thought is that most of the components of ridges are a dominant genetic trait (kind of like how the Klingon ridges were prominent in Romulan-Klingon hybrids or B'Elonna), and that through a gradual process the virus-affected Klingons interbred with unaffected Klingons until ridges returned.

As for DIS Klingons, I have several thoughts. Since the Klingons go back to normal by SNW, it could be possible that they just decided to retcon the DIS style away all together. Another weird thought is that they could be some sort of genetic glitch encountered with augment-normal hybrid Klingons where they got the ridges but their melanin's all wonky, resulting baldness and either albinism or an "anti-albinism". Once again, the interbreeding meant that eventually, these traits disappeared.

To explain why we tend to see the same type of Klingon together, there could be social biases to keep oneself surrounded by the same type of Klingon; this maybe slows interbreeding enough that communities of several types of Klingons still existed by the 23rd century, but had largely merged back into the normal-ish Klingon by the 24th.

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