Value Subtracted @ ValueSubtracted @startrek.website

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That was a rebrand they did last year, yeah (and, for the purposes of our episode discussions here, we've been going along with it).

I consider it a real-life UNIT dating controversy.

The great thing for me is, as is often the case with Doctor Who, I have no idea who these people are.

Turns out this is Nick's last week with Cryptic, which is pretty sad - he's been among the most accessible and patient devs I've ever seen.

I clicked hoping for a shot of the "Academy" set and left disappointed, but it's a neat article regardless. The opening anecdote is great:

Olivia Chow has a model starship in her office.

It’s the USS Toronto, a Parliament-class vessel slightly bigger than her hand. An accompanying plaque features a quote from her husband, Jack Layton, who died in 2011.

“Always have a dream that will outlast your lifetime,” it reads.

Layton, the former federal NDP leader, was a fan of “Star Trek.”

I'd like to know where the model came from - was it a gift?

I would say it's way too early to have any "hype"...but I'm curious.

I swear, they must do it on purpose.

Trek hasn't really fleshed things out, but I would think that's the goal of Bruce Maddox and other synth developers.

The Mega Bloks license ended in 2018. BlueBrixx was 2021-2024.

I somehow missed that Joy had a line that was a (very) thinly-veiled reference to the fact that she had to go through all of this while Boris Johnson and his lot were out partying.

Extremely British doors, at that.

Ever since the Star Trek: Prodigy cancellation, I've suspected that Paramount+ is struggling when it comes to younger viewers, and this certainly seems to support that theory.

where the Third Doctor berates Jo for her new age-y superstitions

You actually just made me think of the other recent Moffat episode, "Boom," in which the Doctor berates faith (and, more broadly, religion) throughout the episode, and then ends the episode admitting to having a kind of "faith" of his own.

Don’t a ton of the episodes deal with life outside the federation, boldly go where no (hu)man has gone before and all that? Hell, DS9 took place on a space station outside the federation…

I think it's a stretch to say that they do. The primary characters are nearly always Starfleet/Federation characters, and the events of the episodes are generally seen through their eyes, even if they are technically outside the Federation. The main exception would be the DS9 Ferengi episodes, but there's really only a handful of those.

Risa was part of the Federation. Unless that was retconned with nu-trek or something…

The only reason Risa came up in the article is because the pitch of the new show is that it's set on a resort planet, and people unfortunately lack imagination and assumed that meant Risa, even though the pitch also said it was set outside the Federation.

This interview confirms that the setting is not, and has never been, Risa.

We'll see how it all pans out. I feel somehow skeptical that the Federation perspective won't worm its way in there somewhere.

that reveal of the location.

You know, you're not wrong about any of this...but I honestly didn't look at it as an overtly religious thing. I guess in a show that's visited Atlantis multiple times, and established that the moon is a space dragon egg (except when it isn't), I just looked at it as a big ol' slice of holiday cheese.

It probably helps that it was a wide shot without any real details.

On a completely different note, I wanted to give more attention to the segment of the Doctor's "lost year" in the hotel with Anita. They did a lot with a little in that sequence, and I thought it was pretty special.

Also, the Doctor bootstrapping up the combination was hilarious, and I hope they don't do something like it again for a long, long time.

This is really great - thanks for sharing.

I unfortunately don't have much to add - I haven't seen either version of "War Games". I kept thinking I would watch the original over the last few months, but...didn't.

I don't think the new versions are (legally) available outside the UK?

My initial reaction is that it was pretty good - not in the top tier of Christmas specials, but pretty good.

I would imagine that some people might not appreciate the lockdown stuff, but I don't think it was pushing any kind of agenda - just acknowledging that there were some tragic side-effects of that whole situation.

What really struck me was how well the episode fleshed out Joy, Anita, Trev with fairly limited screen time. Ironically, Joy was probably the least fleshed-out, but Nicola Coughlan played the part very well.

I'm seeing credible-seeming rumours that Lego has acquired the license, but nothing official yet...

it seems to me that both things can be true: the popular economic indicators can be looking good and everyday people can be experiencing greater levels of financial hardship than they or their parents have ever known.

Absolutely - data-based decision making is good, but the data has to be robust enough to fully capture the reality.

Regularly including cost of living measures alongside GDP would be a good start.

Don't blink - you might miss it.