The Star Trek Thread

[Winckle]

Any idea where in the UK I can watch this?

[Lagamorph]

Any idea where in the UK I can watch this?

I don't think any UK Distributor has picked it up yet, but I'd expect Netflix or Amazon Prime will end up being the ones to get it.

[Carlos]

Q: did anyone else find the use of the Gregorian calendar rather than stardates in Picard really off putting? Wasn't the stardate system devised due to time dilation at FTL speeds?

[Winckle]

Q: did anyone else find the use of the Gregorian calendar rather than stardates in Picard really off putting? Wasn't the stardate system devised due to time dilation at FTL speeds?

I didn't notice until now when you pointed it out. And now yes.

[Jenuall]

Can't believe I hadn't spotted that either!

The showrunner gave this reason apparently:

Asked why Star Trek: Picard didn't use stardates, showrunner Michael Chabon said, "Using a Stardate tells you precisely nothing. Giving an audience the stardate is like if I wanted to know if I needed to put on a sweater or not, and you told me the temperature outside in Kelvin."

[Tineash]

They should take Chabon's Hugo award away just for that.

[SEP]

I've eventually come to the conclusion that I really don't like that ship design.

I guess it can work in a cartoon like this, I just hope they never try to bring it into any of the live action series.

I mean I know Star Trek has had some strawberry floating weird Kitbash models before but I just can't get my head around this one.

It's basically Oberth 2.0

[Winckle]

Can't believe I hadn't spotted that either!

The showrunner gave this reason apparently:

Asked why Star Trek: Picard didn't use stardates, showrunner Michael Chabon said, "Using a Stardate tells you precisely nothing. Giving an audience the stardate is like if I wanted to know if I needed to put on a sweater or not, and you told me the temperature outside in Kelvin."

Converting to Kelvin is easy though, you just add 273.

[Eighthours]

Stardates were cool. In Next Gen, this is what the guide was for writers and directors (during season 6):

"A Stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "46254.7". The first two digits of the Stardate are "46." The 4 stands for the 24th Century, the 6 indicates sixth season. The following three digits will progress consecutively during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point counts tenths of a day. Stardate 45254.4, therefore, represents the noon hour on the 254th "day" of the fifth season. Because Stardates in the 24th Century are based on a complex mathematical formula, a precise correlation to Earth-based dating systems is not possible."

So I always used to like how the Stardates would proceed through the course of a season, and you'd know what the next season would start with - the second digit of the number would move on by 1, and you'd be back to near 000 for the rest.

[captain red dog]

If they can't use stardates I don't think they can write Sci Fi, or at least don't respect the franchise they are writing for. It's a novel thing in Enterprise, but no excuse why they wouldn't use it in Picard. Can't say I noticed it though.

[Lagamorph]

I really liked the idea of Stardates. It was also a great explanation for why so many different alien races are using the same calendar system. The idea behind a Stardate was that "Stardate 0" was basically the moment the Federation was founded and it acted as a unified time keeping system across the Federation, rather than adopting just the system used by one of the founding members.

That's why Enterprise had a good reason for not using them, Stardates simply hadn't been invented yet in-universe. In Picard though there really isn't any excuse not to use them besides the writers simply not wanting to bother.

[Carlos]

If they can't use stardates I don't think they can write Sci Fi, or at least don't respect the franchise they are writing for. It's a novel thing in Enterprise, but no excuse why they wouldn't use it in Picard. Can't say I noticed it though.

I found it broke the suspension of belief. That and the huge unanswered AI question: what about the Doctor from Voyager?

Does he count as an AI? He had to physically code himself new abilities (like singing) rather than learning them like Data did. Does this mean he doesn't count as a true AI despite his sentience? Did he get switched off when the Fed banned androids? EMH still exists as Isaac Mendez has several holographic clones on his ship.

I enjoyed the nostalgia of Picard but it had some large plot holes that I couldn't stop thinking about like the above. And the last episode was awful. Why not have Seven turn up with the Borg Cube and blow the Romulans to smithereens rather than relying on robot flowers?

And how come there was this Romulan secret society apparently only heard of in whispers of legends that somehow everyone knew about? And don't get me started on robot Picard.

I thought the whole thing would have been better had it been about the integration of ex-borg drones back into Federation society and the prejudice they would face. Picard and Seven would have been appropriate spokespeople for their civil rights.

[SEP]

I enjoyed the nostalgia of Picard but it had some large plot holes that I couldn't stop thinking about like the above. And the last episode was awful. Why not have Seven turn up with the Borg Cube and blow the Romulans to smithereens rather than relying on robot flowers?

You mean the borg cube that had been blown up and was crashed into a planet? That one?

[Lagamorph]

[Squinty]

Dat Trip

[Memento Mori]

Can't believe I hadn't spotted that either!

The showrunner gave this reason apparently:

Asked why Star Trek: Picard didn't use stardates, showrunner Michael Chabon said, "Using a Stardate tells you precisely nothing. Giving an audience the stardate is like if I wanted to know if I needed to put on a sweater or not, and you told me the temperature outside in Kelvin."

Converting to Kelvin is easy though, you just add 273.

For us normal people who use Celsius sure but the Americans use Fahrenheit like barbarians.

[Monkey Man]

Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer - https://streamable.com/ds72si

[Winckle]

[Lagamorph]

I.....don't entirely hate it at least. I can't say I particularly liked it either.

I still don't like the ship design though.

[Eighthours]

Why do animated characters’ expressions in promo pics look like wacky YouTube video thumbnails?