Star Trek: *hits blunt* The higher, the fewerrrrrr

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Star Trek: *hits blunt* The higher, the fewerrrrrr

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Here's a question for ya, crossed my mind randomly today:

In Star Trek IV, in universe, the Whale Probe signal noises were ran through an audio processor by Spock and determined to be whale song.

Were they actual whale song recordings ran through 1980s audio fx machines, or just synth gibberish?

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 25, 2024 02:37

Railing Kill: Nov 14, 2008; You are the first crack in the sheer face of god. From you it will spread.

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

I think that's kind of one of those fundamental "willing suspension of disbelief" elements of the series next to FTL and teleporters, though, because a bunch of stories would realistically end with the character leaving the show or otherwise being permanently different in a way that sucks for follow-on writers (and, arguably, viewers) to deal with.

My favorite example of this is Tom Paris, specifically in "Threshold." Dude breaches the Warp 10 Barrier which, according to this episode, means he achieves infinite velocity and briefly exists in every point in space, simultaneously. Fucken guy should come back utterly beyond anything any human can imagine. He should be either incomprehensible and catatonic, some real End of 2001 poo poo, or at least like Leto II from Dune or something. He should be cool and interesting and (unfortunately) utterly unusable to writers past that point. Maybe make him like one of the Hybrids from BSG? I dunno. But it would be a hell of a way to send off a character if he ascended to godhood right then and there. And don't tell me they couldn't do that because Kes did that a season later.

Instead, he has a little speech about how cool it was to go vroom vroom beep beep real fast, and then he turns into a lizard.

And then they win an Emmy for the episode, because we live in hell.

gently caress Voyager.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:25

TheDeadlyShoe: Feb 14, 2014

Chop Muscleshirt

Honestly Threshold isn't even bad as an episode, it's just the ending sequence is so bugfuck insane.

It had some good moments, like when the Doctor went "Ah, I know what the problem is. Computer, replace Sickbay's atmosphere with toxic hellsludge."

TheDeadlyShoe fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Jan 4, 2023

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:32

Boxturret: Oct 3, 2013; Don't ask me about Sonic the Hedgehog diaper fetish

If they did whatever they did to Janeway and Paris to unlizard them to the babies, would they have gotten a bunch of human babies?

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:50

Tom Guycot: Oct 15, 2008; Chief of Governors

Railing Kill posted:

And then they win an Emmy for the episode, because we live in hell.

gently caress Voyager.

Wait wait, What??

They won an emmy for that god drat episode?

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:50

cenotaph: Mar 2, 2013

An emmy for makeup.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 01:52

Tom Guycot: Oct 15, 2008; Chief of Governors

Oh ok, lmao.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 02:10

Tunicate: May 15, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luEDui2zAUw

# ? Jan 4, 2023 02:29

Bismack Billabongo: Oct 9, 2012; New Love Glow

I like threshold and I don�t care who knows it.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:00

Laterite: Mar 14, 2007; It's Gutfest '89; Grimey Drawer

Bismack Billabongo posted:

I like threshold and I don�t care who knows it.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:02

Gonz: Dec 22, 2009; "Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?"

https://twitter.com/TheSpaceshipper/status/1610287965531521026

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:07

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Gonz posted:

https://twitter.com/TheSpaceshipper/status/1610287965531521026

Enough with this "time" poo poo already, it's loving depressing :mad:

Also who the gently caress starts a new TV show in loving January? God, syndication was weird.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:11

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

Emissary is really good.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:18

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Emissary is the best first episode of any Trek series.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:21

Feldegast42: Oct 29, 2011; COMMENCE THE RITE OF SHITPOSTING

Its a pity that this was their last known photo before they all disappeared

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:28

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Feldegast42 posted:

Its a pity that this was their last known photo before they all disappeared

Hey, three people out of that group show up again eventually. Also O'Brien gets a giant golden statue of himself somewhere eventually.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 03:33

Angry Salami: Jul 27, 2013; Don't trust the skull.

nine-gear crow posted:

Enough with this "time" poo poo already, it's loving depressing

It is not linear.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 05:09

Delsaber: Oct 1, 2013; This may or may not be correct.

"Time"? What is this?

# ? Jan 4, 2023 05:10

HD DAD: Jan 13, 2010; Generic white guy.; Toilet Rascal

DS9 was already an �old� series in my mind when I bought the DVDs in 2003.

�Wow this show hasn�t been on the air for four years! :monocle:

�

# ? Jan 4, 2023 05:15

Sash!: Mar 16, 2001

Threshold also suffers from the issue of it solving the series. Just sedate everyone and let the Doctor fly home. If lizard complications occur, simply unlizard them at Starfleet Medical.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 05:40

McSpanky: Jan 16, 2005

Sash! posted:

The issue to me is that it is simply too ambitious. The episode is cool and entertaining, but you have to accept it with the caveat that it can't deliver.

Picard should be a fundamentally different person, not just "I clutch my flute to my chest" at the end. That's simply beyond the scope of a television show. Instead you'd have him struggling to remember who Riker is, hating tea, and maybe not even remembering English.

That's just another plausibility complaint, which misses the point of the episode and broadly the genre of space opera.

It doesn't surprise me that an episode about the last memoriam of a dying civilization as eulogized by the deep family experiences of a man with no direct family of his own is a harder sell than more immediately impactful episodes like "The Visitor" and "Tapestry", but it's still pretty damned disappointing.

For one fraction of a second, are you open to options you had never considered? That is the exploration that awaits you, goons. Not mapping nitpicks and studying minutiae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 06:55

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

cenotaph posted:

An emmy for makeup.

To be 100% fair Threshold legitimately deserved that emmy for makeup, it's just a pity it was attached to such a ridiculous plot.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 08:13

CPColin: Sep 9, 2003; Big ol' smile.

Pretty rude to refer to Robert Duncan McNeill as "a ridiculous plot" imo

# ? Jan 4, 2023 08:15

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

CPColin posted:

Pretty rude to refer to Robert Duncan McNeill as "a ridiculous plot" imo

if it works for women it should work for men too

# ? Jan 4, 2023 09:09

Gravitas Shortfall: Jul 17, 2007; Utility is seven-eighths Proximity.

https://twitter.com/BrentSpiner/status/1610337362026049536

# ? Jan 4, 2023 10:35

cenotaph: Mar 2, 2013

MikeJF posted:

To be 100% fair Threshold legitimately deserved that emmy for makeup, it's just a pity it was attached to such a ridiculous plot.

Agreed

# ? Jan 4, 2023 11:00

F_Shit_Fitzgerald: Feb 2, 2017

McSpanky posted:

That's just another plausibility complaint, which misses the point of the episode and broadly the genre of space opera.

It doesn't surprise me that an episode about the last memoriam of a dying civilization as eulogized by the deep family experiences of a man with no direct family of his own is a harder sell than more immediately impactful episodes like "The Visitor" and "Tapestry", but it's still pretty damned disappointing.

For one fraction of a second, are you open to options you had never considered? That is the exploration that awaits you, goons. Not mapping nitpicks and studying minutiae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.

You're probably right that I was nitpicking in my previous post. I still think that Tapestry is a better and more universal episode, though.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 15:52

Powered Descent: Jul 13, 2008; We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.

Delsaber posted:

"Time"? What is this?

Someone once told me that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. But I'd rather believe that time is a predator that stalks us all our lives.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:10

Fighting Trousers: May 17, 2011; Does this excite you, girl?

disaster pastor posted:

Emissary is the best first episode of any Trek series.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:46

Feldegast42: Oct 29, 2011; COMMENCE THE RITE OF SHITPOSTING

I almost fell asleep during it

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:49

Sir Lemming: Jan 27, 2009; It's a piece of JUNK!

Feldegast42 posted:

I almost fell asleep during it

This is not untrue, but it's still the best TBH

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:51

Paradoxish: Dec 19, 2003; Will you stop going crazy in there?

DS9 has unquestionably the best first season of any Star Trek series. It's still not really good, but it is the best.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:14

HD DAD: Jan 13, 2010; Generic white guy.; Toilet Rascal

I remember watching Emissary live with my mom and 4 year old me kept asking where Data was and then I fell asleep lol

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:14

No Dignity: Oct 15, 2007

Paradoxish posted:

DS9 has unquestionably the best first season of any Star Trek series. It's still not really good, but it is the best.

It is mostly pretty good, it hits the ground running with the type of character and politics focused scripts the show's known for and the only real duds are the ones where they tried goofy TNG premises (like the imagination land one, the aphasia one and Move On Home), like Kira gets more good episodes in season 1 than Harry Kim does throughout all of Voyager

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:20

F_Shit_Fitzgerald: Feb 2, 2017

I think TOS has one of the best first seasons of any Star Trek series (Mudd's Women and Alternative Factor notwithstanding), but DS9's is not bad at all.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:20

Phy: Jun 27, 2008; Fun Shoe

Have we ever seen a Federation ship hiding out in the middle of a D'deridex warbird on screen? I'm pretty sure it happened but I can't remember when

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:41

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."