PICARD

well, obviously STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION: THE MOVIE: THE SERIES was going to be the most fun, thrilling, emotional season of television ever. is it nostalgia? yes. but it's nostalgia for something we barely got: proper TNG films, where our seven heroes grew and changed and were larger than life and yet more real than ever... with a classic score, epic direction, and lots and lots of starship porn. TOS got six of those movies. we got hints of it in GENERATIOINS and FIRST CONTACT, and then, well... ahem... but decades fucking later, it's finally happening.

"i am worf. son of mogh, house of martok. son of sergey, house of rozhenko. bane to the duras family. slayer of gowron. i have made some chammomile tea, do you take sugar?"

...aaand of course my favorite moments so far have been worf moments.

everyone loves the chamomile tea joke, but readers, that's not the part that made my heart swell. it was worf recognizing his adoptive russian parents as part of who he is, his makeup, part of what makes him worf. the young man who always rebelled against his humanity and was perpetually reaching for that klingon ideal... an ideal we watched him learn many times over never truly existed... he now sees and claims all of himself. he is finally whole.

do i wish he'd recognize his mothers somewhere in his little spiel? (or, lol, his son?) sure, but baby steps... recognizing the house of rozhenko is a good start.

my second favorite moment -- and if my heart swole at the first one, i don't even know how to describe what happened to my body during this one -- was worf telling us the entire reason he's here is that fucking odo warned him about the rogue changelings and what they might be planning. odo is still out there trying to do good, annoyed with his people, and probably still grumpy af. of course he would reach out to worf, and of course worf would listen. be still my fucking heart.

hey, remember the worf of starfleet? fucking classic.

my theory for the rest of the season based on absolutely nothing other than my own fantasies: what if geordi brings data back?? what if geordi has been waiting to run into lore all this time just so he can bring data back? will this season even be satisfying if we don't see all seven of our heroes back together?? lore could just be more mature too, which would be fine, and perhaps even more interesting. i don't know. but i'm excited at the possibilities!

i hope geordi and deanna enter the story properly this week, but goddamn is the show already brimming with exciting characters. seven, shaw, raffi, worf, beverly, vadic and her changeling demon hand, so much picard/riker action... i still can't believe it's really happening.

how awesome is it just seeing our heroes look cool?? they didn't get that in the TNG movies (other than "ASSIMILATE THIS" and maybe picard being weirdly buff sometimes), but now, even with most of the cast in their 70s... they get to wear badass outfits, say badass things, look hot as all hell, and cut treacherous ferengi heads off?? fucking WHAT?!?

just gotta live long enough to see how it all ends.

DEEP SPACE 9

"then why do you exist here?"

i'm sixteen episodes deep on my rewatch, and though i intellectually understand that the first season of DEEP SPACE NINE varies in quality... i'm now so in love/obsessed with these characters and this cast that this time around it already feels like the best show ever.

i just started the rumpelstiltskin episode, so i reserve the right to take that statement back.

...why the frak is there a rumpelstiltskin episode??

that fucking pilot tho. EMISSARY is so damn dense and so damn deep. dax and julian are off and rom isn't even rom yet, but every other character is already so fully realized, as is the station and the world around it. kira... kira is SO GODDAMN KIRA already, i love it! once sisko is with the prophets, the episode becomes breathtaking in its editing, pacing, and presentation of deepfuckingideas. the way the prophets coax sisko into dealing with his trauma is so moving, and it's beautiful witnessing how free he is afterwards.

last time i watched DS9 (throughout the tr*mp presidency) i tried to savor it and space it out, as it was my refuge from a world of darkness. this time i want to race to the end, i want a constant stream of DEEP SPACE NINE straight into my veins all the way up to WHAT WE LIVE BEHIND.

give it to me, i can take it.

DISCOVERY

or should that be DISCOVERY, since these fuckers went and cancelled it?

i know STAR TREK fans are blessed these days, after what felt like an eternity of a dry spell. and i know five seasons is practically an eternity in the streaming era.

but honestly, fuck them for this. DISCOVERY deserved more -- at the very least it deserved a final season that was intended and written to be a final season. and maybe it was wishful thinking, but wouldn't the classic seven season STAR TREK run have felt perfect for this show? i mean, michael just became captain, dammit!

i hate the timing of DISCOVERY being cancelled right as SNW and PICARD are booming -- both of which are incredibly safe takes on the STAR TREK franchise, the takes designed for cishet middle-aged white dudes to fucking adore.

DISCOVERY is the most daring of the new STAR TREK shows, the most bold, the most progressive, the one show daring to break new ground in the franchise and in the story -- even before the crew jumped to the far future.

for one, the new klingon makeup/aesthetic was fucking weird and cool, you complain-y dorks. l'rell was such a badass! and it's tradition for the klingon makeup to constantly be changing!

it was never flawless, but it didn't need to be. DISCOVERY was fresh, it was always trying something new. i'm going to miss this delightful cast representing STAR TREK, and i'm going to miss the fuck out of this show. i know for a fact that it's incredibly rewatchable, and i hope new viewers keep finding it long after it's over.

premature as it may be, i still can't wait for this final season, and i will savor every last second we get to spend with our favorite characters.

on the next some kind of STAR TREK i'll have more to say about those white-dude centric STAR TREK shows, but this is neither the time or the place.

2023.03.14