There was a time when we thought we might never really achieve the level of technology that would usher in the Utopia we see in Star Trek. Now, seeing how quickly technology has advanced in such a short time, I realize that the real obstacle to a Trekkian Utopia is plain old human shittiness and greed.
What's advanced so much? There was a time my young self in the 1960/70s that I imagined the movie 2001 space odyssey would be a reaility in 2001. But they didn't have any of it by 2001. They got the ipads the astronauts had maybe 10 years later. But still no HAL, no nuclear powered rocketry, no manned missions to anywhere - heck we haven't even been out of low Earth orbit since 1972 - something achieved in 1961. Overall there is almost marginal difference in key tech engineering advances or achievements or indeed in fundamental science undertsanding than when I was born. Certainly nothing ground breaking or earth shaking --- other than the internet maybe - and and the only big difference I see is that *that* has somehow made everyone shallow, stupid and lie to each other.
@@bbbf09damn I’m glad you could have typed this out back when you were a young buck, I’m curious, would you have use an android or an iPhone at the time? Did you work on a proprietary version of RUclips in 1973? Korea just made a tank using hydrogen fuel cells instead of a diesel engine, the James webb telescope is the largest and most advanced telescope in space, allowing unparalleled sight into the unknown. We come up with safer and better medical practices and technologies weekly I would guess. None of this existed when you were young, and this is just random shit I can think of while sitting here high as a kite. What are you talking about bro?
@@Joeysaladslover I was programming my first computer at school in 1977 - age 13 - and was online and exchanging information at home with fellow nerds by 1981. The TCP/IP protocol driving the internet you use here existed 1973. iphone is just minaturiasation of computers that was predicted - its not fundamentally changed human condition - other than social media which make us dumber and less honest - and which I do not count as progress. Internet as information exchange has improved by degrees in that lots of useful info exists on there that didnt use to - but to put in context I was exchanging audio/visual and other ideas back on www at the end of 1980s via JANET network. There is nothing that makes me go wow or that I could not have predicted in 1980. What now exists is less than what I - and many other 'futurists' - predicted way back when. By the way, the iphone or ipad at least was predicted in the Kubrick film in 1968 that it should exists by 2001; Watch this; ruclips.net/video/-3949GAIokg/видео.html The fact is it didn't arrive 2001...only much later...(.and we stilldon't have manned spaceflight to anywhere expect orbit - or HAL900 sentient computer as shown here) As a teen I traded in my programmable calculator for psion PDA as soon as early 1980s. It still took a long time to transform into that iphone we were promised back in 1968. BTW I'm an engineer involved in particle acceelerator science and space science research myself so I know about progress in all these areas - my point is its just unexpectedely less than people in envisaged in the 60/70/80s. Example - Standard particle physics is pretty much the same. Higgs field now proven in last few years - but that was predicted in the 1960s. Gravitational wave detectors now exist - but exact theory was laid down in 1920s and its taken from 1960s to now to make grav detectors work. We now know black holes dominate the galaxy - but again theory laid down in 1930s and identified and confirmed in the 1970s. These are all progressive developments - but not radical paradigm shifts in our understanding that occurred in teh 19 and 20th century . When I was I 8 years old you get across the Atlantic at supersonic speeds in LESS thann 3 hours - with even faster hypersonic speeds promised by 1980/90s. Now it takes 9 hours. How is that progress? On medical science - sure there are advances but nothing seriously like those predicted from generic gene therapies predicted in 80s for example. For all the medical advances life expectancies are only marginally more than in 1960s --an extra 7 years. But if you were born in 1900 and lived to 1960s your life expectancy woudl have rocketed by 35 years. In summary - what I'm on about is that progress in science and tech in the (almost) 60 years since Star Trek first aired is just a small fraction of the mindblowing progress that occurred in the preceding 60 years before Star Trek - i.e.the first half of 20th century - this progress that genuinely transfiormed peoples lives and our understanding of the universe in a deep way. But for some reason many people see it opposite - that the more recent times encompass the greater advances. I guess my younger self looks at the world and is disappointed. definitely thought i could have booked a circumlunar trip years ago. p.s. Speakingof lunar trips - hydrogen power cells powered the first circumlunar Apollo spacecraft on the way to the moon in 1967. Am I supposed to be impressed at them being used in tanks in Korea in 2024? No
@@Joeysaladslover tunnel vision on aerospace with none on medicine, biology, etc. I’m personally very impressed with recombinant blood factors, amazing HIV meds, super-fast genomic sequencing, and now the last few years are ushering in mRNA custom-personalised cancer vaccines! Thank you for your comment offering a contrasting view. Like yeah, in some ways I wish we had all the nuclear powered cargo flights to Saturn and Mach5 passenger aircraft they dreamt up in the 60s… but also in some ways I’m glad we didn’t (sonic booms are NASTY and we don’t need NERVA until we expand to Mars anyway)
27:59 Hi Past-Steve, Future-Andrew here. Here in 2063, I walked past the statue of you in the town square and was inspired to watch your old videos. We all miss you buddy. It's a shame your experimental warp flight didn't go according to plan. We all hope you'll turn up again some day.
22:21 Futurama already did that bit (sorta). Nimoy: "when i directed Star Trek 4, i got a great performance out of Bill because i respected him so much as an actor. Shatner: "Yes, thats right! And when I directed Star Trek 5, I got such a great performance out of me, because I respected me so much!"
The only thing missing from the SNW finale proposal is the reveal that it was all a holodeck adventure Riker went on between scenes in season 3 of Picard.
@@Ninja-Hayate Star Trek has never been shy of reusing ideas especiallyif it makes an easy and cheap episode, The fact that the Enterprise holodeck finale episode was almost universally hated would do little to dissuade studio execs from greenlighting the idea. the good writers might internally combust at the thought of revisiting that concept however
Steve? STEVE. Steve, this is the Captain... Please clear off the bridge. We're an hour behind schedule and the crew and I have shit to do. You told me your video would take 30 minutes to film, your leeway has run out. This is the last time I'm letting you film on the bridge of my ship, feel free to use your quarters or the mess hall in the future. Or book an hour on the holodeck.
@@beapplebyGalaxy Quest is definitely a ST film. It’s better than several of the canon films! One of only a couple of movies I can watch over and over again and thoroughly enjoy every time.
I'd like to see a "The Naked Never", in which the crew become so repressed and prudish that they still can't get any work done. And also they all wear jorts under their uniforms.
You make fun, but i woukd say a solid writer or maybe duo of writers each with a background in stories of the highly divergent genres that would comprise this story could make it work. Maybe.
One of the only good parts of the Riker "arc" in one of the only decent episodes of Season 1 (11001001) was when he joined the jazz trio and played "The Nearness of You."
Similar to the little character touches in TNG, the senior staff poker games, which don't come up very often, are a really great way to show that these people really are all friends. They hang out after work, they seem to enjoy each other's company. It is a good way to put in some development and depth without burning huge amount of screen time.
Sean O'Brien has earned a reputation as luckiest man in Star Fleet. Everyone knows that away missions he goes on always come back. So much so that even his departmental shirt color (red) is seen as lucky. Until the day he is cursed.
The classic webcomic _Goats_ had an in-universe _Bond_ pastiche called the _Good Hitler_ franchise (e.g. _Good Hitler vs. Space Hitler)._ I choose to believe that this is his backstory.
@Texas240 I'm going to need a few more years of having certain politicos (maybe an entire party) firmly in the past tense before I feel I can laugh out loud at that one.
"What does God need with a starship?" My version: What does Trump need with the Secret Service if God is protecting him (according to his supporters)? Let's save some taxpayer money and not give him a Secret Service detail.
When they were like, "God deflected that bullet" I was all, "Is that all? He can only deflect it? The limit of his power is pushing it a couples inches over? Oh wait maybe he LET it hit him on purpose, just a bit, as a way of saying I am here for ya buddy! I gotcha back but you wouldn't know it if I didn't let it hit ya just a little bit!" I am sure if you ask Trump he would say he doesn't need protecting. He only keeps the them around to show them how a superior man protects himself so they can take those lessons and protect the lesser people under him. He is basically Donald Seagal Dux. Gonna be taking down Chong Li any day now in the Kumite.
Technically, Strange New Worlds and Discovery solved the Star Trek historical Continuity problem. The Temporal Wars had history getting jumbled around, I am among those who believe time is on some level self-aware, and when it's disrupted, it is able to repair itself, moving events around so that in the long run everything still works out. If you remember the TNG episode with Worf jumping between alternate timelines, not a single one had him either dead or otherwise not on the Enterprise. Meaning that despite the changes in events, the core elements remained constant.
Here's a thought, if Captain Janeway had been well versed with the Enterprise D's logs about what happened to Riker being duplicated by the transporter beam, she might have actually had a good solution for a way to save Tuvix when Neelix and Tuvok got merged into one person, they could've made a device which would've duplicated the interference with the transporter beam, found an M class planet, has Seven and the Doctor beam down to set up the device beam Tuvix down to planet, Seven could then activate the device and then they could beam up and split Tuvix on the ship, meanwhile the Tuvix rematerializes on the planet, then Seven and the Doctor could deactivate the device and Tuvix, Seven and the Doctor could've beamed up to the ship and all 3 Tuvix, Neelix, and Tuvok would've all been alive.
Wouldn't the real ultimate last episode of SNW be when they go through the ship and explain how each and every bit of it ends up looking exactly like it does in TOS? Captain Pike: "I see the new captain's char has arrived, it's a bit bulkier than the old one but I like it" Spock: "These new consoles and punch cards will improve efficiency by 23.5%"
A twist of Pike thwarting his fate would be a grease fire in his quarters while preparing yet another large meal for crew. Fate is a cruel mistress. Also you shouldn't use large quantities of grease in your bedroom, even in the future.
I always saw Georgiou not as turning good, but as learning that to advance in this universe, she needed a different playbook. She wasn't redeemed, she was adapting. Self serving in This universe means selflessness
@@robertt9342agreed. Not selflessness at all, but cynical adaptation to “cooperation” … which she probably thinks of as long-game self-centered manipulation. 😂
I love Lower Decks, and I love your critical take on any of Star Trek. I think your takes on Voyager are a great lens for your view on any of Star Trek. I love Voyager, but I hate Voyager's rules of reset to status quo at the end of each episode. Frankly, I love the little shots that Prodigy took at Voyager.
Ever since we got out of the 1990s without Khan Noonien-Singh taking power, I've just chalked Star Trek up to being in a different universe. Seriously, people, it isn't that hard to make sense of. It just isn't our universe!
On the subject of Star Trek 5, I’ve always had a theory that when Sybok took away people’s pain, all the negative energy from that experience is what gave the evil talking head his powers. Hence why Kirk is attacked first and why the talking head turns into Sybok.
Reminds me of a story from the Middle Ages where a priest is stopped at customs when entering a new country. When asked if he has anything to declare, he says, "I have nothing but Faith, Hope and Charity." Customs agent tries to charge him for 3 prostitutes, as those were common names for them back then.
Good point about details such as Riker playing the trombone. In "Picard," when the Borg Queen half-posseing Dr. Jurati, sang that lounge-jazz version of a Pat Benatar song, I couldn't help looking for him in the band.
Love your show Steve im based in England UK i think your funny well informed have an unbelievable talent of articulating language in a friendly comedic tone really enjoy your content 😀 👍
I maintain Georgiou is not space Hitler. Everyone is ruthless in the Terran Universe: Kira, SIsko, Dax. If you're not ruthless in the Mirror Universe you become bait. Mirror Spock convincing the Empire to become softer and gentler made subjugated by the Klingons, Cardassians, and Bajorans. I think Darth Vader's redemption arc was virtually immediate. At least Philippa saw a different way to live. Vader killed and betrayed a bunch of people because he was power hungry or unhappy about losing his squeeze. (Bones - I always assumed it was the nickname for doctors - sawbones).
From Day One, Star Trek has been about building a better future, not for the people already rich, but for all of humanity. Even though I didn't understand it when I was a toddler, as I grew up, I got it. Humanity has the potential to improve. We just have to take the steps to get there.
I've been working on watching "Lower Decks." The humor is juvenile, but I am having fun so far. I've finished Season 1 and begun Season 2. I think one of the jokes I really enjoyed was how the command crew keeps coming back after being dead for a while. No one is supposed to say anything, but poor Rutherford is so caught up in how the chief engineer returned after dying while saving Rutherford's life, that he begs the chief engineer to tell him what happened. Rutherford is then scarred by his explanation of what happened and can't focus on anything else for the rest of the episode.
In The Naked Now they posited that the Psi 2000 virus caused a chemical reaction that resulted in alcohol being generated in the subject's blood, which, in my opinion kind of wrecks the character exploration we got in The Naked Time. I mean, come on, everybody, including Spock, opened up about their innermost feelings because they were just shitfaced? In the next Naked episode I want a virus that generates THC in the blood, so everybody just really, really mellows out and gets a super case of the space-munchies. Imagine a whole starship full of Fred Kwans.
The satire-from-love is certainly one way to do it, but look at something like Starship Troopers and it's clear that's not the only good way to go. Nobody wants a satirical Starship Troopers that comes from a place of love for fascism.
Also, if you want a purely symbolic gesture...there are always some people running completely unopposed, often for local judgeships and such. A few write-in votes for Gabriel Bell won't hurt anything. I routinely write-in my cats for such positions.
I saw the twin thing happen at work. We had a new person join the team, and another colleague asked “Grace, when did you leave XYZ Corp?” It was Grace’s identical twin sister. Grace was still at XYZ Corp.
I had hoped that the plot of Strange New Worlds was going to have a version of Spock yet to undergo the ritual of Kolinahr. I know he has yet to do this according to canon but i would have loved to see it altered slightly for the sake of story. His clumsy exploration of his human side and identity would have been fascinating to watch. By the end of the show run, he would decide to fully embrace emotion and his human side but, after the accident that cripples Christopher Pike, he becomes so overwhelmed that he undergoes the ritual to purge him of that pain and loss. This alienates him from the other members of the crew, who have sought comfort from one another, thus hitting a soft-reset button of sorts that ties the character back to the original Spock we all know and love.
"Love is a key part of satire[/parody]" While Steve doesn't strike me as an anime kind of guy, the absolute best example of this principle that I'm aware of is Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Team Four Star's deep love of DBZ can be found in every aspect, almost every moment of their parody and it is precisely that deep love of the source material that makes DBZA so good. DBZA is not only genuinely funny and even funnier if you're a fan, it actually improves on the source material by fleshing out the characters better and giving them more personality and more "realistic" interactions. And that could only be done by people who love & understand the source material, flaws and all.
Watching Ensigns' Log, I'm often reminded of the, uh, frank discussions dbza characters would have. The little talks in quiet moments only parodies could have.
Only exceeded in laziness by a Not Actually Trek, Actually Comment Response Comment Response. Now that's the kind of zero effort content that keeps me coming back. re: Spiner playing Data, possessed Data, and Lore: Tatiana Maslany gives a master class in character differentiation in Orphan Black. Not only is she playing the better part of an entire cast, she's also regularly and convincingly playing those characters attempting to emulate the others, to wildly differing degrees of believability. And it sells.
Yep, she is great in *Orphan Black!* It's breathtaking how many different characters she played. And not to forget, how she played the difficulties one of those clones having to impersonate other versions of her. An actress playing and actress playing an actress…
@@Spielkalb-von-Sparta It's challenging to explain to people her playing Character X. Then she's playing Character Y trying to pass herself off as Character X and doing a good job, but still being recognizable as Character Y to the audience. Later she's Character Z pretending she's Character Ñ, and Character Z is clearly very, very bad at this. You get group moments with Y, Z, Ñ, and ¥, clearly different people with different motivations and goals. All one actor.
@@aaronmalay5497 It was especially funny when she impersonated her German clone and they've played _These Boots Are Made for Walkin'_ in a German translation. I laughed my ass of as a native speaker. _Die Stiefel sind zum wandern…_ That's so hilarious!
I think part of the reason the Bashir reveal feels planned is because they remembered to put the real one in the old uniform. It's a small, obvious touch, but it really sells the idea that they had a specific plan for when he was replaced.
I didn't expect to be in your response vid! Glad you approved of my Porthos-centric plot! Also, just realized I had my cringey high-school username on here, so I immediately changed it. 🤣 Look, I heard "this shit is bananas" one too many times on the school bus radio. But yeah, still cringe, so good riddance.
Hiya, sport. I'm here from 2637. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I actually attended Steve Shives high school. I didn't graduate because all you need is grade 8 now. Anyway, it's shaped like a baseball cap. Keep your stick on the ice.
We didn't get enough Thomas Riker. He could've been a great sympathetic villain, or reformed villain, after his DS9 appearance. And you can never have enough Jonathan Frakes
25:16 Goddamn... that's BRILLIANT Steve! I've never thought of this but that would've made the scene and even moreso Spoks Death and Rebirth so more impactful.
14:17 it's like how in Night at the Museum, Atilla the Hun's rage is explained as his dad leaving him as a child. And it's definitely not played for laughs. Nope.
Hi Steve--love your videos and I wanted to point out a couple things in response to a few of your videos. In TUC, when Spock makes the Holmes reference, it was because Nimoy played Holmes on Broadway years earlier--just a fun nod. And as for TNG---Tom Riker? In that ep, I -*-really-*- wish Will had perished in some way--stay with me-- because he'd not only get a cool death scene, but Tom could have joined the Enterprise as head of Security and there'd be a whole new dynamic on the ship. Data as 1st officer, Work at ops, and Tom and Deanna could continue their relationship and we no longer would be waiting for the latest excuse as to why Will kept turning down the big chair. I thought this would really give a fresh new perspective across the board on board.
I think the "Bones"/sawbones thing is a reference that has fallen by the wayside a bit, and that maybe not everyone is going to get, especially in non-American markets. I don't think it would be overly patronizing at this point when McCoy joins the SNW cast to explain what the hell a "sawbones" is.
"Call me Bones." "Bones?" "You know like a sawbones." "What the hell is a sawbones?" "My God people, don't you read your history books!?" off he goes grumbling about gallivanting across space with a bunch of ignorant yokels
Me: I would like to see more movies along the lines of Highlander. Also me: Highlander 2 sucks Matrix fans: A new Matrix movie would be great Also Matrix fans: Resurrections is trash
With regards to the idea of satire coming best from a place of love: That's half true. Good-natured satire works well made by people who understand both the high points and the flaws of the target. But there is another genre, critical satire, where the satire is a form of argument against the target. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is definitely satire, but it is NOT a loving ode to British economic policy of the time. The worst satires are usually half-hearted ones of either genre, where the creator understands the outer form of the target, but not what truly makes it tick.
The big deviation from the "doctors as moral center" idea of course is Phlox, who would have asked "So, we're doing genocide now? Great!" Then again Archer was also ok with treating a third gender as unequal, so guess Enterprise in general had some trouble with that moral center thing.
I'm a big Enterprise fan, so it's with some degree of love that I say Enterprise often came off as a Conservative Star Trek, at least in the first two seasons. Which is why those two seasons pretty much sucked ass.
@@KayleighBourquin I loved parts of Enterprise, and generally like the cast and the concept, and enjoyed parts of each season. But just as TNG made me hate the Prime Directive and its implied veneration of "the natural order", Enterprise had some really bizarre takes on ethics every so often. What is strange is they were more disturbing in seasons 1 and 2 than in season 3 where they were supposed to be exploring ethical gray areas.
As much as Kirk wasn't my favorite Star Trek character, your title line about that 'god' entity has got to be one of the best ever. I think many of us were thinking the same thing at the time. It's still friggin hilarious!!! Oh the ways to know someone is lying!!!! Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
You can sprinkle in details for character development to give you a sense of depth... Or you can go the Voyager route and introduce character traits for one episode that are never mentioned again...
"Tired! My. Self out? Hm. Good. Question. I like! To. Think. I can give. A. Good? Per. Formance. Without those. Gimmicks. But your mileage. Just. Might. Very well! Vary?"
LMAO - as soon as you painted the picture of Shatner being asked that question at a convention, before you even did it yourself, I saw his reaction in my head and burst out laughing. We all know EXACTLY what that would be, and yes, would love to be a fly on the wall to see it in real time should such a scene actually play out.
I don't know if you thought about the amusing aspect of that thing you joked about with the one resurrected character walking up to "God" and saying "I'm your son" - were you remembering at the moment that Nimoy was Jewish? (As Yeshua ben Yosef would have been...) *laugh* Makes your comment even funnier, at least to me. On Riker's trombone thing - I agree about that fleshing out the character. One of the best scenes for fleshing out the relationship between Deanna and Will was when he was playing, and answering her questions with the trombone, and ending with a sort of *BLAT* at her with her good-natured teasing. You got the feeling that, yes, these two have a long history together and have been friends and ... more ... over time, but that the history is in fact there. Just from a minute or so of screen time. (Just like Frakes going through multiple emotions in one scene, without ever saying a word - "Measure of a Man", when he finds the bit about the OFF switch on Data.) As for the Deadpool thing - most of the people who think you want it to be hateful may be missing part of the idea behind Deadpool - the whole concpet is lampooning some of the stuff in the comics (and comic book movies) from that place of love. The most recent one bringing Chris Evans back to a comic book movie. (I still want at least one scene where the Evans Johnny Storm and the Evans Captain America meet, and end up quipping that they both got lucky in the looks department ... *laugh*)
21:03 So you watched that Carlin video a few times too, eh? Btdubs, "What does God need with a starship" might be the spark that slowly burnt away all of my early religiosity Later on, listening to Carlin after finding out that he wasn't just Rufus pretty much finished the job
@ I forgot that one! I was thinking of the later one with Hitler, Stalin, Vlad the Impaler and Messalina. He’s not resurrected in that one either, but he is nice.
Okay, your "Pike is packing up super slow in the BK of the TOS 2nd Pilot"... could ACTUALLY be really fun. lol. Like, what if that's the MAIN story and we only see snippets of a recreation of all the Gary Mitchell wackiness in the BK, I can actually see that being VERY fun. But I am VERY partial to SNW's "shenanigans" episodes. lol Kirk sees Pike off at the end, his shirt still all torn and ripped acting like everything's fine.
The hobbies in TNG are also a good example of balancing out an ensemble cast. I feel like Strange New Worlds noted the concept but not the distribution, which might be why it seems like I've seen Pike host a dozen meals both intimate and large, but can't recall any other crew interests. (Caveat, my memory of the show is not fresh.)
I love the part about how a concept being imagined automatically has all the best parts for that audience member doing the imagining. It’s part of what bugged me about those “Axanar was so much better than Discovery!” comments, cos it was just a 20 (30?) minute extended trailer. It had a bunch of Cool Moments, and cameos I really enjoyed, but the actual plot it outlined was very basic and didn’t go beyond the crucial tension-building midpoint. Of course it played in those fans’ heads as to what might happen next, they didn’t have the pressure of actually finishing it! Comparing 10-15 episodes against a short fan film (I’m aware they kind of finished it later, after Discovery had come out) is just so different in terms of the pressures of execution.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a huge nerd. I love my nerdy stuff, I like consistency in stories, and I like details and world-building. But something you've said before and something I agree with is that whether you're telling or being told, the story has to be entertaining. It has to be engaging. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be done well; it can be done terribly and still come off as funny - the so bad it's good trope, for example - or it can be done as satire, a parody that's MEANT to be bad, or it can be a deep and meaningful serious story with a moral to it. It can be really good or really bad, as long as it's entertaining. I don't think breaking something down destroys it, the same way I don't think learning how a magic trick is done makes it any less impressive. One thing that Star Trek has done to varying degrees of success is play upon the current issues at any given point when the episodes or films are shown (though less with the films for the most part, as those seem more to just be playing off of the success of the shows - Hollywood gonna do Hollywood). Comics have done the same thing; X-Men is literally an allegory for marginalized groups, be that blacks during the civil rights era or the current lgbt issues. And while I love my consistency and details, yeah, the point of it is to tell a story and make a point, not to get all the details right. It might annoy me if they get something wrong that they've made a reference to previously - I have mild OCD, so maybe that's why - but it's not going to be completely world-shattering. I still enjoy (or don't, depending) the story and I am hopefully able to recognize the point of the given story being told. As to satire and parody...eh...I would say that's very hard to do. Probably one of the hardest things to do, in fact. Comedy is extremely subjective, and making fun of something people love is much harder to do without coming off as a bully and a spiteful jerk than just telling some jokes that might be a little offensive. And for the record, I love parodies. Robin Hood: Men in Tights was hilarious, and Blazing Saddles was great as well; hell, they didn't just break the fourth wall at the end, they SHATTERED it - because the point was to entertain, and it was funny as hell. Deadpool is so successful now because he's doing something difficult - making fun of things people love (or love to hate) - and doing it WELL. And Ryan Reynolds is legitimately funny. But at the end, it all boils down to two things: was it entertaining and was it done well. Those aren't necessarily the same thing, but they can go hand-in-hand if the right ingredients come together. In fact, I was watching a review of something from Critical Role earlier and the guy made a point: yeah, he kept talking about Sam Regal in his videos, but it wasn't just because Sam's an amazing guy with amazing characters who's good at his job; it's because the group as a whole was an incredible group of people who came together, truly cared about one another, and really put a lot of love into what they were trying to build - and to this day, people are still obsessed with campaign one of CR. They literally had the right people coming together at the right time in the right way, and it didn't have to be perfect to be entertaining as hell. I do like your snarky bits as well and have watched quite a bit of your content, so keep making us think and keep entertaining us. :) Hope you're doing alright outside this stuff, though. Take care of yourself first. That's always the most important thing. Thanks for the vids!
The holodeck computer is apparently able to simulate several people at the same time. Thus, on Voyager the Doctor should be able to manifest multiple copies of himself at the same time.
There was a time when we thought we might never really achieve the level of technology that would usher in the Utopia we see in Star Trek. Now, seeing how quickly technology has advanced in such a short time, I realize that the real obstacle to a Trekkian Utopia is plain old human shittiness and greed.
What's advanced so much?
There was a time my young self in the 1960/70s that I imagined the movie 2001 space odyssey would be a reaility in 2001. But they didn't have any of it by 2001. They got the ipads the astronauts had maybe 10 years later. But still no HAL, no nuclear powered rocketry, no manned missions to anywhere - heck we haven't even been out of low Earth orbit since 1972 - something achieved in 1961.
Overall there is almost marginal difference in key tech engineering advances or achievements or indeed in fundamental science undertsanding than when I was born. Certainly nothing ground breaking or earth shaking --- other than the internet maybe - and and the only big difference I see is that *that* has somehow made everyone shallow, stupid and lie to each other.
*God* I hate that you're right.
@@bbbf09damn I’m glad you could have typed this out back when you were a young buck, I’m curious, would you have use an android or an iPhone at the time? Did you work on a proprietary version of RUclips in 1973? Korea just made a tank using hydrogen fuel cells instead of a diesel engine, the James webb telescope is the largest and most advanced telescope in space, allowing unparalleled sight into the unknown. We come up with safer and better medical practices and technologies weekly I would guess. None of this existed when you were young, and this is just random shit I can think of while sitting here high as a kite. What are you talking about bro?
@@Joeysaladslover I was programming my first computer at school in 1977 - age 13 - and was online and exchanging information at home with fellow nerds by 1981. The TCP/IP protocol driving the internet you use here existed 1973.
iphone is just minaturiasation of computers that was predicted - its not fundamentally changed human condition - other than social media which make us dumber and less honest - and which I do not count as progress. Internet as information exchange has improved by degrees in that lots of useful info exists on there that didnt use to - but to put in context I was exchanging audio/visual and other ideas back on www at the end of 1980s via JANET network. There is nothing that makes me go wow or that I could not have predicted in 1980. What now exists is less than what I - and many other 'futurists' - predicted way back when.
By the way, the iphone or ipad at least was predicted in the Kubrick film in 1968 that it should exists by 2001; Watch this;
ruclips.net/video/-3949GAIokg/видео.html
The fact is it didn't arrive 2001...only much later...(.and we stilldon't have manned spaceflight to anywhere expect orbit - or HAL900 sentient computer as shown here) As a teen I traded in my programmable calculator for psion PDA as soon as early 1980s. It still took a long time to transform into that iphone we were promised back in 1968.
BTW I'm an engineer involved in particle acceelerator science and space science research myself so I know about progress in all these areas - my point is its just unexpectedely less than people in envisaged in the 60/70/80s.
Example - Standard particle physics is pretty much the same. Higgs field now proven in last few years - but that was predicted in the 1960s. Gravitational wave detectors now exist - but exact theory was laid down in 1920s and its taken from 1960s to now to make grav detectors work. We now know black holes dominate the galaxy - but again theory laid down in 1930s and identified and confirmed in the 1970s. These are all progressive developments - but not radical paradigm shifts in our understanding that occurred in teh 19 and 20th century .
When I was I 8 years old you get across the Atlantic at supersonic speeds in LESS thann 3 hours - with even faster hypersonic speeds promised by 1980/90s. Now it takes 9 hours. How is that progress?
On medical science - sure there are advances but nothing seriously like those predicted from generic gene therapies predicted in 80s for example. For all the medical advances life expectancies are only marginally more than in 1960s --an extra 7 years. But if you were born in 1900 and lived to 1960s your life expectancy woudl have rocketed by 35 years.
In summary - what I'm on about is that progress in science and tech in the (almost) 60 years since Star Trek first aired is just a small fraction of the mindblowing progress that occurred in the preceding 60 years before Star Trek - i.e.the first half of 20th century - this progress that genuinely transfiormed peoples lives and our understanding of the universe in a deep way. But for some reason many people see it opposite - that the more recent times encompass the greater advances.
I guess my younger self looks at the world and is disappointed. definitely thought i could have booked a circumlunar trip years ago.
p.s. Speakingof lunar trips - hydrogen power cells powered the first circumlunar Apollo spacecraft on the way to the moon in 1967. Am I supposed to be impressed at them being used in tanks in Korea in 2024? No
@@Joeysaladslover tunnel vision on aerospace with none on medicine, biology, etc. I’m personally very impressed with recombinant blood factors, amazing HIV meds, super-fast genomic sequencing, and now the last few years are ushering in mRNA custom-personalised cancer vaccines! Thank you for your comment offering a contrasting view.
Like yeah, in some ways I wish we had all the nuclear powered cargo flights to Saturn and Mach5 passenger aircraft they dreamt up in the 60s… but also in some ways I’m glad we didn’t (sonic booms are NASTY and we don’t need NERVA until we expand to Mars anyway)
27:59
Hi Past-Steve, Future-Andrew here.
Here in 2063, I walked past the statue of you in the town square and was inspired to watch your old videos.
We all miss you buddy.
It's a shame your experimental warp flight didn't go according to plan. We all hope you'll turn up again some day.
22:21 Futurama already did that bit (sorta).
Nimoy: "when i directed Star Trek 4, i got a great performance out of Bill because i respected him so much as an actor.
Shatner: "Yes, thats right! And when I directed Star Trek 5, I got such a great performance out of me, because I respected me so much!"
"All I've got left is my bones." is such a dumb line delivered so well.
It took me a long time to even process the content because I was so busy going, "OMG, he ate DeForest Kelley! 🤯"
@@KassFireborn I bet he tasted like cowboy boots
I legitimately couldn't tell how dumb that line was the first time I saw the movie because Karl Urban was just so goddamned good.
@@renatocorvaro6924 I'm still waiting for them to bring Urban back in "Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor." The material is right there.
that was the line where Karl Urban sold me on the JJ Trek.
Of course Tom Riker was evil, he had a goatee in DS9!!!! It's a dead giveaway!
😂Good one! 😂
The only thing missing from the SNW finale proposal is the reveal that it was all a holodeck adventure Riker went on between scenes in season 3 of Picard.
Don't give them any ideas!!!!!!!
They already did that in Enterprise so not likely.
@@Ninja-Hayate Star Trek has never been shy of reusing ideas especiallyif it makes an easy and cheap episode, The fact that the Enterprise holodeck finale episode was almost universally hated would do little to dissuade studio execs from greenlighting the idea. the good writers might internally combust at the thought of revisiting that concept however
Steve? STEVE.
Steve, this is the Captain... Please clear off the bridge. We're an hour behind schedule and the crew and I have shit to do. You told me your video would take 30 minutes to film, your leeway has run out. This is the last time I'm letting you film on the bridge of my ship, feel free to use your quarters or the mess hall in the future. Or book an hour on the holodeck.
" I would love to see a Star Trek show that makes fun of itself, and of the genre in general. "
Galaxy Quest: By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings.
I would love a video exploring Galaxy Quest as one of the best Star Trek films!
Star Trek show that makes fun of itself? Lower Decks, Lower Decks/SNW crossover, SNW musical episode etc...
@@beapplebyGalaxy Quest is definitely a ST film. It’s better than several of the canon films! One of only a couple of movies I can watch over and over again and thoroughly enjoy every time.
'Jean Luc-Alike' was when Steve learned his first lesson in being a part of a writer's room. ;)
I'd like to see a "The Naked Never", in which the crew become so repressed and prudish that they still can't get any work done. And also they all wear jorts under their uniforms.
I think Galaxy Quest was a perfect Satire of Star Trek that could never be repeated
It’s definitely a high bar to clear. 🖖
Star Trek fans deserve a prequel that explains how Riker came to play the trombone.
"Whiplash" but Star Trek?
Star Trek: Band Camp 😅
"Star Trek and All that Jazz"
You make fun, but i woukd say a solid writer or maybe duo of writers each with a background in stories of the highly divergent genres that would comprise this story could make it work. Maybe.
One of the only good parts of the Riker "arc" in one of the only decent episodes of Season 1 (11001001) was when he joined the jazz trio and played "The Nearness of You."
Similar to the little character touches in TNG, the senior staff poker games, which don't come up very often, are a really great way to show that these people really are all friends. They hang out after work, they seem to enjoy each other's company. It is a good way to put in some development and depth without burning huge amount of screen time.
Sean O'Brien has earned a reputation as luckiest man in Star Fleet. Everyone knows that away missions he goes on always come back. So much so that even his departmental shirt color (red) is seen as lucky.
Until the day he is cursed.
Frozen Hitler becomes a regular character in a Sci Fi show sounds like a hilarious twist
The classic webcomic _Goats_ had an in-universe _Bond_ pastiche called the _Good Hitler_ franchise (e.g. _Good Hitler vs. Space Hitler)._ I choose to believe that this is his backstory.
It's not really Sci Fi, but relevant and "funny because it's true". Check out "Look Who's Back" (2015)
Red Dwarf had a take on this in the later episode “Cured”
@Texas240 I'm going to need a few more years of having certain politicos (maybe an entire party) firmly in the past tense before I feel I can laugh out loud at that one.
That Bashir changeling story line was pretty good. It gave me one of my favorite Garak moments.
"What does God need with a starship?"
My version: What does Trump need with the Secret Service if God is protecting him (according to his supporters)? Let's save some taxpayer money and not give him a Secret Service detail.
When they were like, "God deflected that bullet" I was all, "Is that all? He can only deflect it? The limit of his power is pushing it a couples inches over? Oh wait maybe he LET it hit him on purpose, just a bit, as a way of saying I am here for ya buddy! I gotcha back but you wouldn't know it if I didn't let it hit ya just a little bit!"
I am sure if you ask Trump he would say he doesn't need protecting. He only keeps the them around to show them how a superior man protects himself so they can take those lessons and protect the lesser people under him. He is basically Donald Seagal Dux. Gonna be taking down Chong Li any day now in the Kumite.
And if he's so sure God is protecting him, why does he need bullet-proof glass in front of him?
@@johnboren8928 The exact same reason why the pope needs a bulletproof pope mobile, a lack of faith.
Technically, Strange New Worlds and Discovery solved the Star Trek historical Continuity problem. The Temporal Wars had history getting jumbled around, I am among those who believe time is on some level self-aware, and when it's disrupted, it is able to repair itself, moving events around so that in the long run everything still works out. If you remember the TNG episode with Worf jumping between alternate timelines, not a single one had him either dead or otherwise not on the Enterprise. Meaning that despite the changes in events, the core elements remained constant.
Michelle Yeoh is just good to watch playing just about any character.
Even doing laundry.
"Jean-Dupe" is a WAY better joke than "Jean-Luc Alike." For brevity alone.
With respect to Tom Riker. The quote: "I'm an evil scientist not a mad one. There is a difference you know." -- H. Doofenshmirtz applies.
Jim Kirk: "Chris, seriously, I want to move into the big quarters sometime this century"
And the Pike Packs Up episode will be titled, "Why No Man Has Gone Yet".
"The Naked Go Away Now"
Here's a thought, if Captain Janeway had been well versed with the Enterprise D's logs about what happened to Riker being duplicated by the transporter beam, she might have actually had a good solution for a way to save Tuvix when Neelix and Tuvok got merged into one person, they could've made a device which would've duplicated the interference with the transporter beam, found an M class planet, has Seven and the Doctor beam down to set up the device beam Tuvix down to planet, Seven could then activate the device and then they could beam up and split Tuvix on the ship, meanwhile the Tuvix rematerializes on the planet, then Seven and the Doctor could deactivate the device and Tuvix, Seven and the Doctor could've beamed up to the ship and all 3 Tuvix, Neelix, and Tuvok would've all been alive.
Wouldn't the real ultimate last episode of SNW be when they go through the ship and explain how each and every bit of it ends up looking exactly like it does in TOS?
Captain Pike: "I see the new captain's char has arrived, it's a bit bulkier than the old one but I like it"
Spock: "These new consoles and punch cards will improve efficiency by 23.5%"
A twist of Pike thwarting his fate would be a grease fire in his quarters while preparing yet another large meal for crew. Fate is a cruel mistress. Also you shouldn't use large quantities of grease in your bedroom, even in the future.
I always saw Georgiou not as turning good, but as learning that to advance in this universe, she needed a different playbook. She wasn't redeemed, she was adapting. Self serving in This universe means selflessness
I’d argue it’s cooperation.
@@robertt9342agreed. Not selflessness at all, but cynical adaptation to “cooperation” … which she probably thinks of as long-game self-centered manipulation. 😂
I love Lower Decks, and I love your critical take on any of Star Trek. I think your takes on Voyager are a great lens for your view on any of Star Trek. I love Voyager, but I hate Voyager's rules of reset to status quo at the end of each episode. Frankly, I love the little shots that Prodigy took at Voyager.
Ever since we got out of the 1990s without Khan Noonien-Singh taking power, I've just chalked Star Trek up to being in a different universe. Seriously, people, it isn't that hard to make sense of. It just isn't our universe!
Ok, Star Trek Deadpool.
Best way to make it work...?
Main character is a Q.
On the subject of Star Trek 5, I’ve always had a theory that when Sybok took away people’s pain, all the negative energy from that experience is what gave the evil talking head his powers. Hence why Kirk is attacked first and why the talking head turns into Sybok.
The Hope, Faith, and Charity thing REALLY HAPPENED. They were triplets, obviously, but for a while I wondered how many of them there could be. 😀🖖
Maybe they were androids from Mudd's Planet. Did they wear glowing, numbered medallions?
It would be funnier if there was just 1, and she was fucking with you.
You got a severe roasting there.
Lots of stories about triplets named Hope, Faith, and Charity, though.
@@davidsmall6322 Indeed. And then, one day later, Steve posts his own joke told in the first person. 😆
Reminds me of a story from the Middle Ages where a priest is stopped at customs when entering a new country. When asked if he has anything to declare, he says, "I have nothing but Faith, Hope and Charity." Customs agent tries to charge him for 3 prostitutes, as those were common names for them back then.
Good point about details such as Riker playing the trombone. In "Picard," when the Borg Queen half-posseing Dr. Jurati, sang that lounge-jazz version of a Pat Benatar song, I couldn't help looking for him in the band.
Love your show Steve im based in England UK i think your funny well informed have an unbelievable talent of articulating language in a friendly comedic tone really enjoy your content 😀 👍
I maintain Georgiou is not space Hitler. Everyone is ruthless in the Terran Universe: Kira, SIsko, Dax. If you're not ruthless in the Mirror Universe you become bait. Mirror Spock convincing the Empire to become softer and gentler made subjugated by the Klingons, Cardassians, and Bajorans. I think Darth Vader's redemption arc was virtually immediate. At least Philippa saw a different way to live. Vader killed and betrayed a bunch of people because he was power hungry or unhappy about losing his squeeze. (Bones - I always assumed it was the nickname for doctors - sawbones).
17:46 haha! I was surprised to be included in this response video. Thanks for the counter-programming to the election coverage in this final week.
From Day One, Star Trek has been about building a better future, not for the people already rich, but for all of humanity. Even though I didn't understand it when I was a toddler, as I grew up, I got it. Humanity has the potential to improve. We just have to take the steps to get there.
I've been working on watching "Lower Decks." The humor is juvenile, but I am having fun so far. I've finished Season 1 and begun Season 2. I think one of the jokes I really enjoyed was how the command crew keeps coming back after being dead for a while. No one is supposed to say anything, but poor Rutherford is so caught up in how the chief engineer returned after dying while saving Rutherford's life, that he begs the chief engineer to tell him what happened. Rutherford is then scarred by his explanation of what happened and can't focus on anything else for the rest of the episode.
"As a matter of cosmic history, it always been easier to destroy, than create." 💙
Dude... "The Naked, then." is amazing!
Look, if they're going to do it anyway... hell yeah, do that!
Have as much fun as possible with it!
Obviously the episode would be called the Naked Before.
HELLO it's a prequel
In The Naked Now they posited that the Psi 2000 virus caused a chemical reaction that resulted in alcohol being generated in the subject's blood, which, in my opinion kind of wrecks the character exploration we got in The Naked Time. I mean, come on, everybody, including Spock, opened up about their innermost feelings because they were just shitfaced? In the next Naked episode I want a virus that generates THC in the blood, so everybody just really, really mellows out and gets a super case of the space-munchies. Imagine a whole starship full of Fred Kwans.
@@QuintessenceMan
The naked imminent.
The naked looming.
The satire-from-love is certainly one way to do it, but look at something like Starship Troopers and it's clear that's not the only good way to go. Nobody wants a satirical Starship Troopers that comes from a place of love for fascism.
Steve, you’re just the best. Even when we aren’t in total agreement about what makes a show “good.”
Galaxy Quest was the Lower Decks we really needed.
Also, if you want a purely symbolic gesture...there are always some people running completely unopposed, often for local judgeships and such. A few write-in votes for Gabriel Bell won't hurt anything. I routinely write-in my cats for such positions.
I'm voting my cats onto the school board in the next local election!
"The naked yet to c..." sounds more like the adult movie parody.
Along with "the biggest hole in the Naked Trilogy."
I saw the twin thing happen at work. We had a new person join the team, and another colleague asked “Grace, when did you leave XYZ Corp?” It was Grace’s identical twin sister. Grace was still at XYZ Corp.
I had hoped that the plot of Strange New Worlds was going to have a version of Spock yet to undergo the ritual of Kolinahr. I know he has yet to do this according to canon but i would have loved to see it altered slightly for the sake of story. His clumsy exploration of his human side and identity would have been fascinating to watch. By the end of the show run, he would decide to fully embrace emotion and his human side but, after the accident that cripples Christopher Pike, he becomes so overwhelmed that he undergoes the ritual to purge him of that pain and loss. This alienates him from the other members of the crew, who have sought comfort from one another, thus hitting a soft-reset button of sorts that ties the character back to the original Spock we all know and love.
"Love is a key part of satire[/parody]"
While Steve doesn't strike me as an anime kind of guy, the absolute best example of this principle that I'm aware of is Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
Team Four Star's deep love of DBZ can be found in every aspect, almost every moment of their parody and it is precisely that deep love of the source material that makes DBZA so good. DBZA is not only genuinely funny and even funnier if you're a fan, it actually improves on the source material by fleshing out the characters better and giving them more personality and more "realistic" interactions. And that could only be done by people who love & understand the source material, flaws and all.
Watching Ensigns' Log, I'm often reminded of the, uh, frank discussions dbza characters would have. The little talks in quiet moments only parodies could have.
Oh speaking of, I found the music channel earlier. Did you know country is actually awful?
My 1993 grad school savior were reruns of over air TNG. I had a tiny 9" b/w tailgate tv. I was at a new Uni. and didn't know anyone.
I could totally see the finale being a shot-for-shot remake of "The Menagerie," with some side plots referencing revelations from SNW.
"Everybody always turns out fine on Lower Decks and that bugs me." How is that any different from TOS, TNG or DS9?
Steve your final thoughts on the more die hard Star Trek fan base is pretty spot on. I love Trek, but it’s not some thing beyond reproach or criticism
Steve Shives loves Sharknado confirmed. It is the best large shark eating people movie
*Looks at current US politics*
I have to throw some cold water on that "only works for fictional characters" claim.
I thought that was the joke of his comment?
No, no the SNW finale being “The Cage” and therefore a prequel of the rest of the series would be *chef’s kiss*.
Only exceeded in laziness by a Not Actually Trek, Actually Comment Response Comment Response. Now that's the kind of zero effort content that keeps me coming back.
re: Spiner playing Data, possessed Data, and Lore: Tatiana Maslany gives a master class in character differentiation in Orphan Black. Not only is she playing the better part of an entire cast, she's also regularly and convincingly playing those characters attempting to emulate the others, to wildly differing degrees of believability. And it sells.
Yep, she is great in *Orphan Black!* It's breathtaking how many different characters she played. And not to forget, how she played the difficulties one of those clones having to impersonate other versions of her. An actress playing and actress playing an actress…
@@Spielkalb-von-Sparta It's challenging to explain to people her playing Character X. Then she's playing Character Y trying to pass herself off as Character X and doing a good job, but still being recognizable as Character Y to the audience. Later she's Character Z pretending she's Character Ñ, and Character Z is clearly very, very bad at this. You get group moments with Y, Z, Ñ, and ¥, clearly different people with different motivations and goals. All one actor.
@@aaronmalay5497 It was especially funny when she impersonated her German clone and they've played _These Boots Are Made for Walkin'_ in a German translation. I laughed my ass of as a native speaker.
_Die Stiefel sind zum wandern…_
That's so hilarious!
why can't it be Miles' great grandmother? Millicent O'Brien?
You're nuts! I like that during stressful elections. Can't have too much levity right now! May the whole world live long and prosper🖖
I’m sorry, but I believe you’ve simply pitched the Shaun O’Brien story too well. That just sounds like that SNW season’s funniest comedy episode.
I think part of the reason the Bashir reveal feels planned is because they remembered to put the real one in the old uniform. It's a small, obvious touch, but it really sells the idea that they had a specific plan for when he was replaced.
Answering your question about the future. I am in Australia 15 hours into your future you are fine. LOL
I am 2 hours ahead of you, in New Zealand. Still fine.
"Would that make the movie better or worse?" I think it would kind of make it The Last Action Hero, and... that actually doesn't help me decide.
As parodies go, The Last Action Hero certainly is one of them.
I didn't expect to be in your response vid! Glad you approved of my Porthos-centric plot!
Also, just realized I had my cringey high-school username on here, so I immediately changed it. 🤣 Look, I heard "this shit is bananas" one too many times on the school bus radio. But yeah, still cringe, so good riddance.
Hiya, sport. I'm here from 2637. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I actually attended Steve Shives high school. I didn't graduate because all you need is grade 8 now. Anyway, it's shaped like a baseball cap. Keep your stick on the ice.
We didn't get enough Thomas Riker. He could've been a great sympathetic villain, or reformed villain, after his DS9 appearance. And you can never have enough Jonathan Frakes
I appreciate the candour, considerate, and thorough response to my comment. 😊
25:16
Goddamn... that's BRILLIANT Steve!
I've never thought of this but that would've made the scene and even moreso Spoks Death and Rebirth so more impactful.
I like the green screen
14:17 it's like how in Night at the Museum, Atilla the Hun's rage is explained as his dad leaving him as a child. And it's definitely not played for laughs. Nope.
Hi Steve--love your videos and I wanted to point out a couple things in response to a few of your videos. In TUC, when Spock makes the Holmes reference, it was because Nimoy played Holmes on Broadway years earlier--just a fun nod. And as for TNG---Tom Riker? In that ep, I -*-really-*- wish Will had perished in some way--stay with me-- because he'd not only get a cool death scene, but Tom could have joined the Enterprise as head of Security and there'd be a whole new dynamic on the ship. Data as 1st officer, Work at ops, and Tom and Deanna could continue their relationship and we no longer would be waiting for the latest excuse as to why Will kept turning down the big chair. I thought this would really give a fresh new perspective across the board on board.
I think the "Bones"/sawbones thing is a reference that has fallen by the wayside a bit, and that maybe not everyone is going to get, especially in non-American markets. I don't think it would be overly patronizing at this point when McCoy joins the SNW cast to explain what the hell a "sawbones" is.
"Call me Bones."
"Bones?"
"You know like a sawbones."
"What the hell is a sawbones?"
"My God people, don't you read your history books!?" off he goes grumbling about gallivanting across space with a bunch of ignorant yokels
@@KayleighBourquin "Well, I don't have the time to educate you. I'm a doctor, not a history teacher."
I was thinking that Kirk started the nickname of Bones. It seemed like a Kirk sort of thing to do. And McCoy just ran with it after that.
Me: I would like to see more movies along the lines of Highlander.
Also me: Highlander 2 sucks
Matrix fans: A new Matrix movie would be great
Also Matrix fans: Resurrections is trash
With regards to the idea of satire coming best from a place of love: That's half true. Good-natured satire works well made by people who understand both the high points and the flaws of the target. But there is another genre, critical satire, where the satire is a form of argument against the target. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is definitely satire, but it is NOT a loving ode to British economic policy of the time.
The worst satires are usually half-hearted ones of either genre, where the creator understands the outer form of the target, but not what truly makes it tick.
The big deviation from the "doctors as moral center" idea of course is Phlox, who would have asked "So, we're doing genocide now? Great!" Then again Archer was also ok with treating a third gender as unequal, so guess Enterprise in general had some trouble with that moral center thing.
I'm a big Enterprise fan, so it's with some degree of love that I say Enterprise often came off as a Conservative Star Trek, at least in the first two seasons. Which is why those two seasons pretty much sucked ass.
@@KayleighBourquin I loved parts of Enterprise, and generally like the cast and the concept, and enjoyed parts of each season. But just as TNG made me hate the Prime Directive and its implied veneration of "the natural order", Enterprise had some really bizarre takes on ethics every so often. What is strange is they were more disturbing in seasons 1 and 2 than in season 3 where they were supposed to be exploring ethical gray areas.
As much as Kirk wasn't my favorite Star Trek character, your title line about that 'god' entity has got to be one of the best ever. I think many of us were thinking the same thing at the time. It's still friggin hilarious!!! Oh the ways to know someone is lying!!!! Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
I always loved that line, and Rounding Third has made it better. Thank you.
Thanks as always Steve!
You can sprinkle in details for character development to give you a sense of depth... Or you can go the Voyager route and introduce character traits for one episode that are never mentioned again...
OTOH, the holographic doctor and 7 of 9 do change and grow during VOY. But Kim stays the same rank!
(reply from the future)- yes you are doing fine Mr. president
"Tired! My. Self out? Hm. Good. Question. I like! To. Think. I can give. A. Good? Per. Formance. Without those. Gimmicks. But your mileage. Just. Might. Very well! Vary?"
LMAO - as soon as you painted the picture of Shatner being asked that question at a convention, before you even did it yourself, I saw his reaction in my head and burst out laughing. We all know EXACTLY what that would be, and yes, would love to be a fly on the wall to see it in real time should such a scene actually play out.
I find the description of the doctor as simply, "a computer man" quite humorous for some reason...
I'd have called it 'The Naked When'
The naked never.
The naked ( whiny sigh ) whenever!
I don't know if you thought about the amusing aspect of that thing you joked about with the one resurrected character walking up to "God" and saying "I'm your son" - were you remembering at the moment that Nimoy was Jewish? (As Yeshua ben Yosef would have been...) *laugh* Makes your comment even funnier, at least to me.
On Riker's trombone thing - I agree about that fleshing out the character. One of the best scenes for fleshing out the relationship between Deanna and Will was when he was playing, and answering her questions with the trombone, and ending with a sort of *BLAT* at her with her good-natured teasing. You got the feeling that, yes, these two have a long history together and have been friends and ... more ... over time, but that the history is in fact there. Just from a minute or so of screen time. (Just like Frakes going through multiple emotions in one scene, without ever saying a word - "Measure of a Man", when he finds the bit about the OFF switch on Data.)
As for the Deadpool thing - most of the people who think you want it to be hateful may be missing part of the idea behind Deadpool - the whole concpet is lampooning some of the stuff in the comics (and comic book movies) from that place of love. The most recent one bringing Chris Evans back to a comic book movie. (I still want at least one scene where the Evans Johnny Storm and the Evans Captain America meet, and end up quipping that they both got lucky in the looks department ... *laugh*)
Shatner at GalaxyCon 2024 said something similar. Yes, it was tiring to be director and actor. But he is now 93 so he is probably tired a lot. :)
I've really enjoyed Lower Decks.
It's great Star Trek!
21:03 So you watched that Carlin video a few times too, eh?
Btdubs, "What does God need with a starship" might be the spark that slowly burnt away all of my early religiosity
Later on, listening to Carlin after finding out that he wasn't just Rufus pretty much finished the job
9:12 I don't know if you have ever watched the British space comedy Red Dwarf, but they have a resurrected Hitler who is nice in an episode
Spoiler alert-
He’s not resurrected. Unless you’re remembering an episode I’m not.
@@zorakj he's not resurrected you're right, he's a waxdroid
@ I forgot that one! I was thinking of the later one with Hitler, Stalin, Vlad the Impaler and Messalina. He’s not resurrected in that one either, but he is nice.
39:56 if TNG was made by Voyager's team, Ricker would have switched to the Saxophone for no reason.
Only the mirror universe Riker would play the Sax.
Okay, your "Pike is packing up super slow in the BK of the TOS 2nd Pilot"... could ACTUALLY be really fun. lol. Like, what if that's the MAIN story and we only see snippets of a recreation of all the Gary Mitchell wackiness in the BK, I can actually see that being VERY fun. But I am VERY partial to SNW's "shenanigans" episodes. lol
Kirk sees Pike off at the end, his shirt still all torn and ripped acting like everything's fine.
19:18 Shatner was inspired by the Televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Fae. So yes I think we can give him credit on that one.
I get the impression that Steve just wants more Red Dwarf.
The hobbies in TNG are also a good example of balancing out an ensemble cast. I feel like Strange New Worlds noted the concept but not the distribution, which might be why it seems like I've seen Pike host a dozen meals both intimate and large, but can't recall any other crew interests. (Caveat, my memory of the show is not fresh.)
I’ve always liked Trek V. It captures the humor of the series very well
I love the part about how a concept being imagined automatically has all the best parts for that audience member doing the imagining.
It’s part of what bugged me about those “Axanar was so much better than Discovery!” comments, cos it was just a 20 (30?) minute extended trailer. It had a bunch of Cool Moments, and cameos I really enjoyed, but the actual plot it outlined was very basic and didn’t go beyond the crucial tension-building midpoint.
Of course it played in those fans’ heads as to what might happen next, they didn’t have the pressure of actually finishing it! Comparing 10-15 episodes against a short fan film (I’m aware they kind of finished it later, after Discovery had come out) is just so different in terms of the pressures of execution.
My fourth "Naked" episode would have accidental time travel and be called "The Naked When"
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a huge nerd. I love my nerdy stuff, I like consistency in stories, and I like details and world-building. But something you've said before and something I agree with is that whether you're telling or being told, the story has to be entertaining. It has to be engaging. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be done well; it can be done terribly and still come off as funny - the so bad it's good trope, for example - or it can be done as satire, a parody that's MEANT to be bad, or it can be a deep and meaningful serious story with a moral to it. It can be really good or really bad, as long as it's entertaining. I don't think breaking something down destroys it, the same way I don't think learning how a magic trick is done makes it any less impressive.
One thing that Star Trek has done to varying degrees of success is play upon the current issues at any given point when the episodes or films are shown (though less with the films for the most part, as those seem more to just be playing off of the success of the shows - Hollywood gonna do Hollywood). Comics have done the same thing; X-Men is literally an allegory for marginalized groups, be that blacks during the civil rights era or the current lgbt issues. And while I love my consistency and details, yeah, the point of it is to tell a story and make a point, not to get all the details right. It might annoy me if they get something wrong that they've made a reference to previously - I have mild OCD, so maybe that's why - but it's not going to be completely world-shattering. I still enjoy (or don't, depending) the story and I am hopefully able to recognize the point of the given story being told.
As to satire and parody...eh...I would say that's very hard to do. Probably one of the hardest things to do, in fact. Comedy is extremely subjective, and making fun of something people love is much harder to do without coming off as a bully and a spiteful jerk than just telling some jokes that might be a little offensive. And for the record, I love parodies. Robin Hood: Men in Tights was hilarious, and Blazing Saddles was great as well; hell, they didn't just break the fourth wall at the end, they SHATTERED it - because the point was to entertain, and it was funny as hell. Deadpool is so successful now because he's doing something difficult - making fun of things people love (or love to hate) - and doing it WELL. And Ryan Reynolds is legitimately funny.
But at the end, it all boils down to two things: was it entertaining and was it done well. Those aren't necessarily the same thing, but they can go hand-in-hand if the right ingredients come together. In fact, I was watching a review of something from Critical Role earlier and the guy made a point: yeah, he kept talking about Sam Regal in his videos, but it wasn't just because Sam's an amazing guy with amazing characters who's good at his job; it's because the group as a whole was an incredible group of people who came together, truly cared about one another, and really put a lot of love into what they were trying to build - and to this day, people are still obsessed with campaign one of CR. They literally had the right people coming together at the right time in the right way, and it didn't have to be perfect to be entertaining as hell.
I do like your snarky bits as well and have watched quite a bit of your content, so keep making us think and keep entertaining us. :) Hope you're doing alright outside this stuff, though. Take care of yourself first. That's always the most important thing. Thanks for the vids!
Tom wasn't evil... and he wasn't a twin.... he WAS Will. I like him too
The holodeck computer is apparently able to simulate several people at the same time. Thus, on Voyager the Doctor should be able to manifest multiple copies of himself at the same time.
I'd love to see you have a roundtable discussion with Mike Stoklasa. Or a half in the bag. The puns would be out of this world.