Value Subtracted @ ValueSubtracted @startrek.website

[Mastodon](https://mstdn.ca/@ValueSubtracted)

---

Read more

Posts

2,498

Comments

2,693

Joined

2 yr. ago

Moderating

---

Does anybody play this game? Is that just...who the game's about?

I tried the Lower Decks game when it came out - it's an idle game, which didn't exactly interest me.

But hey, it led to me learning what an idle game is.

BASHIR: Captain, is there any word from Starfleet about Sloan or Section 31?

SISKO: There's no record of a Deputy Director Sloan anywhere in Starfleet. And as for Section 31, that's a little more complicated. Starfleet Command doesn't acknowledge its existence, but they don't deny it either. They simply said they'd look into it and get back to me.

BASHIR: When?

SISKO: They didn't say.

KIRA: That sounds like a cover up to me.

BASHIR: I can't believe the Federation condones this kind of activity.

ODO: Personally, I find it hard to believe they wouldn't. Every other great power has a unit like Section 31. The Romulans have the Tal Shiar, the Cardassians had the Obsidian Order.

When the top brass of Starfleet are covering your ass, you're an official agent, whether you're "on the books" or not.

I always took that explanation as the thinnest of lie meant to give an air of legitimacy.

I think a lot of people did, but the episode doesn't really make the case that it's a lie - in fact, Sloan is protected at the highest levels of Starfleet Command, which supports the idea that Sloan was being completely truthful when he was trying to recruit Bashir. It's a legitimate reading of the episode, at any rate.

Section 31 was portrayed less as an extremist cabal and more as a misguided morally-grey organization

My interpretation was more that they were "hiding in plain sight" at that point in time - Pike was under the impression that they were some kind of special forces, and learned the truth over the course of the season.

I only watched this trailer once, but I didn't see any insignia, so I think S31's exact status is still TBD.

The only current show that hasn't portrayed them as villains is arguably Lower Decks...

I was trying to temper my expectations, but mobile games are a bit of a letdown, to say the least.

In this case, I'm wondering if, since Spock is the origin of the serum, the crew are somehow reflecting his self-doubts.

Paramount+ has been cancelling shows (which sucks and is bad), but they're certainly not dumping the franchise has a whole.

Prodigy moved to Netflix because the studio - also owned by Paramount - was able to shop it around for a new distributor.

Please, everybody knows Garrett's natural hair colour is blue.

It should be a conspiracy of like-minded individuals that exists parasitically within Starfleet, not an official (or an unofficial official agency).

In fairness, Sloan said they were a branch of Starfleet Intelligence with an official designation in his very first appearance on DS9, and nothing that came after that really contradicted him (other than his obvious lies in "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges").

Whatever liberties have been taken since then, that wasn't one of them.

I feel insufficiently teased!

Yeah, without any evidence whatsoever it feels to me like some kind of plan was changed midstream.

Notaro and Picardo join as series regulars reprising their roles as Jett Reno and The Doctor, and Fehr and Wiseman join as guest stars reprising their roles as Admiral Vance and Sylvia Tilly.

I'm shocked that Notaro will be a series regular, and even more shocked that Wiseman will not.

It is indeed.

I was hoping for something more suggestive of the story, but I'm actually very interested in anything that explores growing up in the Mirror Universe.

That trailer seems pretty insistent that this isn't the end...

If rumours are true that Freema Agyeman is returning as Martha though

Hmm, I hadn't heard that...

Wasn’t it rather clear that she was talking to a housefly?

Maybe not quite clear enough? The buzzing was noticeable, but I watched the scene on a full-sized tv, and only caught the barest hint of movement. But hey, I also managed to put it together in the end, so 🤷

I gather that getting Nicola Coughlan is kind of a big deal - they're hyping her up a lot - but I don't think I'm familiar with her.

Well said, all around. Wacky romps aren't my favourite genre of Who, but they're fine, and this is fine.

And I think there are advantages to starting a companion with a wacky romp - when there's a lot of exposition to burn through, it's probably not a great idea to have an overly complicated plot on top of it all. And the exposition is pretty well done - Gatwa's "gone" when Ruby asks him about his people is a uniquely sublime line reading.

If the episode is missing anything that would make it work better, I think it's a scene that "humanizes" the bogeyman before it ends up in the airlock. Thinking back to "The Beast Below," another wacky second outing for a companion, there was at least a trail of clues for Amy to consider that helped her conclude that the space whale was benevolent. "Space Babies" lacks that, and while "compassion for compassion's sake" is probably the better message, it's also a much harder message to sell in the moment.

In retrospect, it's interesting to see the Doctor sieze upon the apparent coincidence of having another adventure involving babies, which gets the Ruby's birth is important narrative going. Knowing that the point of it all is that they gave it importance over time, it's neat to see that beginning here.