#snw speculation

[ichayalovesyou]

Strange New Worlds tie-ins to Deep Space Nine in order (so far):

In “Tears of The Prophets”, Benjamin Sisko receives the Christopher Pike Medal of Valor for defending DS9 when it was under siege by Dominion forces.

On Pike’s personnel file in the Star Trek Discovery episode “Brother” Pike has the Carrington Award on his list of Starfleet commendations. An award Bashir was the youngest nominee for but did not win in “Prophet Motive”.

The author of the children’s book Dr. M’Benga is reading Rukiya in “Ghosts of Illyria” and “The Elysian Kingdom” which shares the book’s title is by sci-fi/fantasy novelist Benny Russel. An ancestor of Benjamin Sisko whom the Prophets gave Sisko a first hand glimpse into the life of in “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Rukiya gives up her ailing body and joins with “Debra” (her mother’s name, not entirely unlike how a Prophet was Ben Sisko’s mother). Debra is an entity whom does not fully understand corporeal reality or linear time. Rukiya stops experiencing time linearly and returns to her father as an adult to comfort him and reassure him he made the right choice, telling him that she’s certain they’ll see eachother again.

General cinematic/personality parallels between Pike and Sisko: Highly decorated fighting captains, paternal figures who love to cook, with fates that are as much pre-written as they are sealed by their conscious choices.

A tweet on July 23rd, 2022 by Eric Goldman, and I quote: “Asked if we could catch up with the DS9 characters (beyond the Lower Decks episode). Alex Kurtzman says ‘Sisko’s a critical, critical character for everybody. Conversations have definitely been had.’ #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #SDCC”

All I’m saying is, a SNW & DS9 crossover is basically confirmed at this point right?!

#star trek #star trek strange new worlds #star trek deep space 9 #star trek discovery #Star Trek snw #Star Trek ds9 #snw speculation #captain christopher pike #captain benjamin sisko #doctor Julian Bashir #doctor Joseph m’benga #rukiya m’benga #the prophets #Debra m’benga #Anson Mount #Avery brooks #eric goldman #alex kurtzman #prophet motive #tears of the prophets #brother #the ghosts of illyria #the elysian kingdom #far beyond the stars #sdcc #sdcc2022 #sdcc22 #lar trek

[trekkiehood]

Ok I am NOT saying that Pike should change his fate but couldn't he just... Step down as head of the Enterprise after saving himself lol.

Like "oh time to go live happily ever after on my farm! I've loved a good life!" After saving everyone. Bc then... It would be a lot less drastic change at least.

#snw speculation #i actually want it to stay canon #and not go au #but i also adore pike and it makes me sad #star trek snw spoilers #snw spoilers #star trek #star trek strange new worlds #christopher pike #captain pike

[tinderbox210]

Me having to wait until after work to watch the SNW finale knowing they probably gave us that silly musical episode last week so that they can crush all of our souls in the finale.

#snw #people are speculating on La’an or Erica dying #and just had the horrible thought again of them killing off Una so they can replace her with Kirk #you all better get those fix-it stories ready #in case the show decides to do something dumb

[beneviolencia]

notes on the mustachio'ed kir.k:

whether he was on tarsus iv depends on the jim and the plot. generally speaking, he was about 17 when jim was there so its more than possible he is suffering from ptsd and at the very least survivor's guilt if he wasn't. (proper hc to come)

after ep9 sam was basically on his knees begging for forgiveness from spo.ck bc of the xenophobic things he said. timeline wise he is already father, his wife might actually be pregnant again and it was more than likely an aggressive panic attack that kept him on edge. ofc while its a reason its no excuse, it is something to keep in mind bc it was a life-or-death situation but again, no excuse. so yes he did go to sp.ock to apologise and he did attend an anti-xenophobia seminar afterwards

#but i will say its odd how bones says the same shit to spo.ck on a daily basis and yet the fandom turns on sam for a one time happenstance #ive seen people speculate he sold una out like ?? okay weird shit he was probably glued to some lightbulb and had no idea what was going on #so anyways this is my take and i would love for an snw spo.ck to talk this through #s. kirk → ❛ regarding ❜ ˼

[the-lady-general]

What was up with Una in A Quality of Mercy? It's gotten so bad that I actually sat down with Cicero's c-questions and a fresh notebook, and decided to share with the class. Beware of proper heavy spoilers for s1 SNW.

TL;DR: I think Una turned herself in to Robert April during All Those Who Wander. Encouragedby the support of Chris, La'an, Joseph and Christine she tries to become the first properly, offically commissioned Illyrian in Starfleet. And this time, she's doing it by the book. With a courtroom episode!

Una's arrest came so suddenly after sidelining her for so long that I still don't really know what to make of it, but this theory is the one that makes the most sense to me. What does everybody else think?

Here's my thought process:

What - Una was arrested for violating Starfleet's genetic manipulation directive. Which we don't have in writing. But two things stand out to me: It's a Starfleet directive they got her for, not a Federation law - so she will be tried by a court martial (as "the best first officer in the fleet") rather than a civilian court. And she was arrested, which means there was hard evidence of her altered genetics, rather than just probable cause for an investigation. There was no investigation on the Enterprise because Chris would have told us.

Where - On the Federation side of the Romulan Neutral Zone. Apart from the Enterprise, the Cayuga and the Outposts, there seems to be little in the way of civilisation, or free, independent press. Running towards the Neutral Zone is a possibility, but carries the risk of sparking a war. Communication with Earth seems to be on a delay.

How - Captain Batel arrests Una on orders from an unknown source that could include anybody from Robert April (who seems to be both hers and Chris' direct superior from ep 1) to Starfleet Intelligence, and I'm not even ruling out Harry Mudd just yet. Chris seemed completely surprised by the arrest, so he wasn't warned or informed, and from Batel's dialogue we can infer that she thought he was unaware of Una being Illyrian as well. Meaning that nobody on the Enterprise is currently under suspicion for knowingly aiding a criminal. I think it's worthy to note that Batel's ship is potentially a Sombra class - which would make her faster than Enterprise. The dramatic irony of losing two senior officers in two weeks on those ships sounds like something the showrunners would do.

When - During refitting the outposts. Chris was just having An Episode, which Una witnessed and (unless I'm reading too much into it) seemed distressed by, as if she knew she wouldn't be able to be there for him. The previous week she delivered the power cells to K-7 and was notably (suspiciously?) absent ever since. Anybody who knew she's Illyrian was on Valeo Beta V, so she had the opportunity to make her move in secret.

Who - Batel said she was acting on orders; I think Robert April is the most likely source of those orders. He knows Una and Chris personally, so he knew he'd have to outmanoeuvre Chris with the arrest. Sending his ex/fuckbuddy/girlfriend/? on a faster ship without warning certainly did the trick, and even so, Chris, captain of the flagship, came very close to becoming Starfleet's second mutineer. So who delivered the evidence to Bob? Chris (already had the opportunity to turn Una in; refused), Joseph (partner in crime; they both have dirt on each other), La'an (best friend and life debtee despite her frustration in ep 3) and Christine (ride-or-die bro; specialty in genetic manipulation adjacent field) would never rat her out. That leaves only Una herself.

Why - For the longest time the X-Files nerd in me wanted it to be a secret government cover up of the Disco/Control thing. But then Chris and Spock would have been neutralised in some way as well soon after Una. Meanwhile, Una has already turned herself in once. After the captain (rules side of things), the security chief (actual threat assessment), the CMO (ethical/medical concerns) and the nurse (general opinion/enlisted crew stand-in) all learned and accepted who she was, Una might have hoped that her wish - being welcome in Starfleet as an Illyrian rather than a Human - might come true yet. So she takes the gamble and stacks the odds in her favour: She turns herself in to her old war buddy Bob, gives him everything he needs for a court martial, and hopes to set a legal precedent for Illyrians in Starfleet. Her long-term goal would be to earn her commission officially, without having to lie about her species. And who knows? Maybe that will eventually allow the Illyrians to join the Federation as valued members.

#snw #curator on ao3 #snw spoilers #strange new worlds spoilers #i am VEXED #this is going to complicate my prison break story no end #fuck-a-doodle-doo #i wish fontana was alive then the courtroom episode about the almost-human's humanity next season would just be a given #and i could move on with my life #fanfic #writing #and wild speculation

[antiqua-lugar]

to be fair to snw, rolling one's eyes and writing down one episode as "to skip" because of spock comphet is very true to my tos watching experience, so if that's what they are gonna do, they nailed that too!

#ugh #you are one of the good ones #or I just go during perfectly acceptable episodes #the only romances I got behind was the romulan captain #and maybe t'pring BC I loved the complicate situation #I hated Chapel thing because it triggers all my buttons since she went #snw speculations

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Star Trek SNW finally settles decades-old canon issues (spoiler commentary for S02E03)

(Image credit: Startrek.com)

I say spoiler right in the headline, and I mean it. Read no further if you have yet to see Star Trek: Strange New World’s latest episode, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. (The image above is a publicity image and is also in the trailer, so it’s not really a spoiler.)

The TL;DR is: one single line of dialogue fixed nearly 30 years of canon issues. I am not exaggerating. More under the break. And this will be a long one:

To “cross the streams” a moment, it is undeniable canon (not shipping wishful thinking) that not only did the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who have feelings for Clara Oswald, he even considered her not his companion, but his girlfriend. That was made undeniable canon in a couple lines in “Deep Breath” when the Twelfth Doctor said “Clara, I’m not your boyfriend,” Clara replied, “I never thought you were.” and Twelve said “I never said it was your mistake.” That was in stark fact. One line of canon dialogue confirmed what many speculated and the show hinted at. This is separate from what came after, any retcons later writers did, and all that. 

Well, one line of dialogue from a guest character in last night’s episode of Strange New Worlds put into canon something I and many others have felt not only about SNW, but the current breed of Trek shows and indeed there were signs of this going back to both Star Trek DS9 and Star Trek Voyager in the 1990s.

The Romulan time agent, Sera, played by Adelaide Kane who some may remember from playing Mary Queen of Scots in Reign, states that the Eugenics war involving Khan was supposed to happen in 1992, but was delayed 30 years due to temporal wars and other interference from the future. (To be precise she’s likely referring to Khan’s birth since he was in his 30s or 40s by the 1990s, the time TOS established the Eugenics Wars took place; here he’s a kid - possibly even a Canadian kid!  The war itself is still some years away.)

That explains a lot. Why since DS9 the Eugenics Wars were redated to the mid-21st century. Why SNW’s pilot episode last year confirmed the Eugenics Wars were part of WW3, not a separate conflict.  Why the Voyager episode where they go back to Earth on 1996 featured no mention of the Eugenics Wars. Why Kirk and everyone else already knows the name Noonien-Singh (even if La’an hadn’t introduced herself by name to “Prime” Kirk at the end, he would have seen her testimony about being Khan’s descendant at Una’s trial. There is no way in this timeline that Kirk, Spock or anyone else would not recognize Khan’s name instantly when the events of Space Seed happen. Heck, even the fact the SNW Enterprise doesn’t match up with the 1960s designs that were also featured in TNG, DS9 and Star Trek: Enterprise. Or even stuff like people like Uhura knowing who T’Pring was years before they were supposedly first introduced to her in “Amok Time”. It even gives wiggle room for the fact this time-travel episode actually breaks canon with the time-travel-based episodes of Picard Season 2! (Laris would have known about Sera and stopped her, right? Sean at TrekCulture had a gripe about this in his Youtube review)

Sera basically admitted that because of people farting around with time and the temporal wars (recall that it was strongly implied in Enterprise that the Romulans were involved if not responsible for that) that the timeline has been changed. 

It can’t be denied anymore and it’s such a liberating thing. Now, SNW is free to truly tell reimagined stories (like the retelling of Balance of Terror last season, albeit that was another alternate timeline), to make T’Pring a vital character and build her, to accelerate the Spock-Chapel romance that was only hinted at in TOS. To truly let Paul Wesley develop his own version of Kirk, not to mention Ethan Peck’s Spock and whoever next plays McCoy (you know they will bring him in eventually and if SNW avoids the fate of Prodigy and lasts a few years, they’re going to have to start getting lined up for a new TOS-era series). Hell, the door is now open for Kirk and La’an to establish a “prime-era” romance - imagine a retelling of Space Seed with La’an in the picture (or at least Kirk remembering her).

This will be a hot take for some. But my rebuttal comes from Doctor Who: “Time can be rewritten.” Finally, nearly 30 years after what was thought to be an erroneous dating of the Eugenics Wars in a throwaway line in an episode of DS9 (I believe the producers even said it was a goof back then), and 22 years of people griping about how the prequel series were not lining up with what came before, either esthetically or storyline-wise (Enterprise, Discovery, SNW, and Picard S2 to a degree), we have a firm, canonical explanation. People will still gripe about politics, general quality, casting, whatever, of shows - that’s a separate argument - but at least in terms of canon, this has changed everything. In a good way.

I only wish they hadn’t killed off Sera. I got very strong Sela vibes from her (Sela/Sera? Coincidence?) and I would have liked to see her become a recurring nemesis. Then again, as I just said, time can be rewritten. 

#star trek: strange new worlds #tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow #star trek: strange new worlds spoilers

[spirk-trek]

I would love to hear your thoughts on kirk's backstory and what happened on tarsus iv, I feel like I've read so many conflicting takes on here and none of them actually match up with the episode (conscience of the king)

Hi anon! The way you worded this makes me think you were just looking for information and not a fic request. Forgive me if I was wrong!! 😅

I think the reason there are so many conflicting ideas is because of how vague it is in canon itself (which is cool, leaves a lot of room for interpretation). Because of this, when I recently wrote a thing about Tarsus IV I also struggled with "research" for it. Here's what I came up with:

!!! Disclaimer! I am not declaring any of this the One True Canon™! This is just my interpretation/speculation based on existing lore !!!

To me, it makes most sense for Jim to be sent to Tarsus IV with his mother, and for her to be a civilian scientist/researcher of some kind. I find it very hard to believe the massacre could have taken place if Starfleet were present, which would include George Kirk, Jim's father. George is said to have been absent often due to his work (SNW), so it wouldn’t be strange for him to be separated from his family (this is also just normal in Star Trek in general, i.e. Sulu [AOS] and like… everyone with children in TNG).

A more recent Trek book called Drastic Measures seems to back this exact idea up (depends who you ask which novels are canon, and this book was written for Discovery so take it with a grain of salt).

Sam would, in the TOS timeline, be 10 years older than Jim (~23). That would make it unlikely he'd be tailing after his mother to remote colonies. It's much more likely he was concerned with his own career/family/life.

So, in summary of those points, I think it was just Jim and Winona. Jim is between 12 and 14 years old, and his mother was a civilian researcher (the novel I mentioned earlier made her a xenobiologist, probably for plot reasons).

Something I do see exaggerated sometimes is the method of killing in the massacre. An antimatter chamber appears to be what was used, similar to A Taste of Armageddon, so it would not have been mass carnage or a big dramatic fight in the end. Just... zap. 

SPOCK: "He was certainly among the most ruthless, to decide arbitrarily who would survive and who would not [...] and then to implement his decision without mercy. Children watching their parents die. Whole families, destroyed. Over four thousand people. They died quickly, without pain, but they died.”

However, these are also quotes from the episode, so I can see why people might think the massacre itself was more violent: 

- JIM: “Four thousand people were needlessly butchered.” - LEIGHTON: “I remember him. That voice. The bloody thing he did.”  - JIM: “Are you sure you didn't act this role out in front of a captive audience whom you blasted out of existence without mercy?” - KARIDIAN/KODOS: “Murder, flight, suicide, madness. I never wanted the blood on my hands ever to stain you.” 

There was a revolution of some kind, probably brought about by people easily radicalized out of hunger and desperation.

- KARIDIAN/KODOS: [reading] "The revolution is successful…” - SPOCK: “There were over eight thousand colonists and virtually no food. And that was when Governor Kodos seized full power and declared emergency martial law.”

If Kodos already had his ideas about eugenics, which it sounds like he did, he would have seized this as an opportunity. This would make him an even more solid comparison to Hitler, which they were definitely going for to at least some extent (this was written two decades after WWII which many involved in the making of star trek were deeply affected by if not veterans themselves).

Because of the above quotes, I also think there’s merit to the idea of there being multiple formal executions where Kodos gave his infamous “speech” each time rather than just once (this would be another reason Jim would remember it enough to write it down), rather than one massive execution of 4,000 people. However, this quote could be interpreted to mean the opposite:

SPOCK: “Kodos began to separate the colonists. Some would live, be rationed whatever food was left; The remainder would be immediately put to death.”

Arguably, the even more traumatic suffering would be the period of starvation and upheaval leading up to the massacre. To me, a 3-6 month period of slowly worsening starvation as the food supply shrank and shrank to nothing would make the most sense.

One aspect I don't quite get is that Kodos's body was supposed to have been "burned beyond recognition.” Since we know from Conscience of the King his death was staged, then this fake death can’t have been pulled off in the midst of Starfleet intervention upon arrival (they would have taken him into custody to stand trial rather than kill him on sight anyway). Burning yourself to death is a highly unusual form of suicide, so I’m not sure if that’s supposed to allude to him being fake killed in the carnage following the execution when the people didn't react the way he wanted or expected? My only theory is that there was unrest and rioting for the period of time between the massacre and Starfleet arriving with relief, and he used that to fake his death once he knew he would be put on trial.

Anyway, this is super long so I'll cut myself off there. Hope that answered your question, sorry for being crazy! If anyone has anything to add, please do!

#star trek #tw #cw #theory #analysis #captain kirk #tarsus iv #lore #tarsus iv massacre #discussion #reference #fanfic #canon #fanon

[ichayalovesyou]

SNW Theory: Una is Why Pike Survives The Accident

In Ghosts of Illyria when La’an is infected with the Light Virus, she attempts to jump into the warp core and Una stops her. But not before they both recieve severe exposure to radiation, Una’s Illyrian genetic modifications save them both.

When she held onto La’an, it provided her with chimeric antibodies that not only spare them both from the radiation but allowed Chapel & M’Benga to use the antibodies from La’an to derive a cure from her blood.

Whose to say those antibodies aren’t still present in La’an’s body?

In A Quality of Mercy, Admiral Pike says that two cadets die in the accident. Maat Al-Salah, and presumably the girl whose console explodes that Pike fails to drag out in time before becoming grievously wounded and exposed himself.

Those cadets die from that level of exposure, Spock dies from a similar level of exposure in WoK, but Pike doesn’t, why? Unless…

Una (likely out of necessity) does something similar for Chris, protecting him the way she saved La’an. If/when she saves him, similar chimeric antibodies would be in him.

It would not prevent him from being injured or prevent him from being severely irradiated, but he would survive long enough for medics to get to him and prevent it from killing him.

I think one of the many reasons Pike actively chooses to live the difficult life the accident’s aftermath leads to. Other than he’s not one to give into despair, and is acutely aware of his own worth to those who love him. It’s this:

Even if Starfleet medicine can’t do much to help his quality of life, what they learn from his survival will lead to better treatment for Delta radiation survivors like him. If Pike possesses chimeric antibodies from Una that made the difference between life and death for him. That would absolutely support that notion.

#star trek #star trek strange new worlds #snw theory #snw speculation #Star Trek meta #meta analysis #snw 1x03 #the ghosts of illyria #snw 1x10 #a quality of mercy #la’an noonien singh #una chin riley #number one #commander chin Riley #captain pike #christopher pike #pikeuna #christina chong #anson mount #rebecca romijn #lar trek #ichayalovescaptainpike

[elisa74]

So SNW has dropped the name “Korby.” Is that it? Or are they going further? I wish they wouldn’t - Christine deserves so much better - but I think they will. 

The latest speculation is that he’s the rebound when the thing with Spock blows up and the whole missing-fiance thing is for real. CHRISTINE DESERVES BETTER. No way this Chapel falls for a creep who dates students. No way this Chapel gives up her career for a man.

TOS Chapel was a prop, a 60s sex toy who only got any character at all because Majel Barrett is a badass. The Korby storyline is sexist garbage that needs to die. Can SNW fix it? or will they only make it worse?

CHRISTINE DESERVES BETTER.

#star trek #Strange New Worlds #Christine Chapel #christine deserves better #sexist storylines must die #snw #chapel deserves better #justice for christine

[tinderbox210]

AU idea I got from the finale about La'an never having been send off on the raft by the Gorn but instead was raised by them and eventually ends up meeting Spock when he gets captured.

I like this idea because it’s challenging and a bit more unusual, but then I realized it has a huge flaw in the logic of the premise.

If anyone's interested in reading additional thoughts on the idea:

The basic premise is like a Tarzan story with La’an being raised by the Gorn after becoming the only survivor on the breeding planet (like the concept of being raised by wolves). We know the Gorn are a lot about dominance and survival of the fittest, so I could see them being impressed by La’an’s strength and survival skills and them taking her in as one of their own.

It’s definitely an interesting question to ponder if a human could survive among the Gorn, what it would take and cost them, would they be able to keep their humanity intact etc.

Still being a young girl, La’an would have no choice but to adapt and would eventually grow attached to the Gorn due to psychological conditioning with them keeping her alive. I also think she would suffer memory loss from the trauma so she would start to see the Gorn as her “saviors” and not the monsters having slaughtered her family.

But the older La'an gets, the more the conditioning and self-preservation methods she developed in order to stay alive start to unravel and she starts to sympathize more and more with the Gorn's victims, even helping some escape under the radar of the hegemony.

Flashforward to years later, the Gorn attack the Enterprise and end up capturing Spock. La'an is supposed to interogate him about the Federation’s plans and feels immediately drawn to him. To save him from becoming a feed bag for the others, La'an claims him as her mate. (Additional thought: to make the Gorn back off she would have to scent mark him, so rubbing herself all over a half naked Spock, you're welcome for that mental image).

And this is where the flaw in logic comes in, as I’m not sure the Gorn understand the concept of “mates” with them reproducing asexual or that they would be willing to spare Spock for La’an. On the other hand, reproduction and expansion are the main goals of the hegemony and since La’an can’t do that without a mate, they might see it a necessity for her to get a mate - if nothing else her offsprings could provide additional food. It’s certainly interesting to speculate on the Gorn’s social structures and whether or not they are capable of feelings, especially feelings of affection.

After growing closer, Spock mind melds with La'an to help her regain her full memories of what happened to her family. Finding out the truth, La'an cuts ties with the Gorn (though after living for so many years with them, she might feel torn about it) and flees with Spock towards Federation space.

Side note, though this doesn’t make much sense with canon, but I sort of headcanon the Gorn to be matriarchal with female Gorns being the big scary ones we see on SNW while the males are the smaller and chubby ones on TOS (like with a lot of insects where the females are larger than the males). Also I just realized they gave them tails that they didn't have in TOS, could also be a thing that only the females have (like male deers having antlers).

#snw au #spocklaan au #spocklaan #la'an x spock #spock x la'an #and some Gorn stuff

[spirkbitch]

Love reading your discussions around SNW and the TOS timeline. But do I remember correctly Spock served under Pike for 10 years or so? Seems like SNW has plenty of time before bumping into the TOS timeline, though they already seem to be shortening it by introducing Jim Kirk.

hey thank you i get worried that i sound real stupid when i keep getting into reblog discussions

yeah i think you’re right about how long he served with pike, so i feel like they should have had plenty of time, but some of the stuff they’re doing recently has shortened the timeline like a lot.

as far as i know though SNW (season 2 at least) takes place around 2258 or maybe 2259, i think that was just speculation before but with establishing Carol Marcus as pregnant that timeline would make most sense because it would put David Marcus being about 25 in The Search For Spock, which takes place in 2285

So they could have had a lot more time before TOS maybe but as it is now they have about 5-6 years before it would run into TOS, which starts in 2265. I don’t know about y’all but i don’t really see SNW getting 5-6 more seasons (especially with how paramount has been canceling stuff recently) but idk, maybe they’ll do a timeskip or something.

and i just get the feeling that eventually they’re gonna do some more timeline bullshit and just decide none of this matters and they’re going off into their own timeline separate from TOS.

#star trek #star trek tos #star trek snw

[the-lady-general]

Strange New World's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Warhammer 40,000, the musical [audio not found].

This is from a lovely and very, very thinky Discord conversation. Thank you, guys! There's more thoughts I need to get out of my head, specifically because I've hit my personal limit of what I think the Federation can get away with as a utopia, and also because I didn't want to bore a server full of trekkies with my 40k thoughts.

TLDR: I've often said that when the fridge logic hits, ENT becomes better than what the writers intended. I think SNW has the opposite problem: When the fridge logic hits, it hits me with a spiky baseball bat. Everything I didn't like is under the cut, don't go there if you want to avoid it.

Here's the intro to the Eisenhorn omnibus, the oldest Black Library book I could reach on my shelf. I'll quickly transcribe the parts I've highlighted, explain what I love about it, and then I'll get right back to what it has to do with Strange New Worlds.

===

"For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. [...] He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. [...] But for all their multitudes, [the vast armies of the Imperium] are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. [...] Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war."

===

Fun Fact: This is where "grimdark" in speculative fiction comes from! Thanks, The General Situation of Northern England in the mid-80s!

So, it all starts with a soul-eating machine. The soul-eating machine kills ~ 1,000 people per day. It is the only way in which humans get to go faster than light, because the not-quite-corpse and soul-eating machine arrangement is basically a lighthouse for hyperspace.

The Imperium is living in the shadow of a great, bright, and optimistic past. It came out of an advanced civilisation that had gone through many destructive wars on Earth. The Emperor was a man of science and reason and wanted humanity to live in prosperity, unhindered by wars or prejudice. He abolished religion in favour of humanism. He wanted to build a utopia for all mankind. Absolute dogshit parent though.

Ultimately, he built the soul-eating machine to justify the utopia, and when he wasn't in a position to object, his successors strapped him in and slapped the go button. Utopia postponed, blame those damn heretics/mutants/aliens.

That was the decision that led to the grim dark future without escape. Do you dare *not* fed the soul-eating machine? Do you dare unplug the not-quite-corpse? It's how it has always been. It could be worse. It's every single wrong one human could possibly inflict on another for everyone, for ever. It could be worse. It'll never get better. It steadily gets worse. It could be worse. It's always two minutes to midnight and no sacrifice ever stopped the clock from ticking. It could be so much worse without the soul-eating machine.

It is unbearably bad.

By contrast, here is an excerpt from the Charter of the United Federation of Planets, as seen on Voyager (or Memory Alpha in my case):

===

"We the lifeforms of the United Federation of Planets determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and to reaffirm faith in the fundamental rights of sentient beings, in the dignity and worth of all lifeforms, in the equal rights of members of planetary systems large and small, …"

===

So Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow had a Starfleet security officer who was ready to sacrifice her career only two episodes ago in order to reunite a little girl with her parents. She goes back in time to stop an unknown event that leads to the destruction of Earth. She is confronted with baby Hitler who lives in a vague yet menacing government(?) bunker in Toronto and tells him he is *exactly* where he needs to be.

*record scratch* Sorry. That was a bit flippant. So again, from the top:

La'an travels back in time, with Sam Kirk's brother from a different timeline. She is reluctant to open up to him because of her family trauma (separate & discrete from her childhood trauma), but notorious charmer James T. Kirk (from the USS Iowa, not to be confused with James T. Kirk from Iowa, US) helps her out of her shell. They realise that someone is trying to prevent the Eugenics Wars, having already successfully delayed them until 2023. Deciding that the Eugenics Wars were the one and only factor that led to the United Federation of Planets, La'an and Kirk then decide that they must make sure the Eugenics Wars happen at any cost.

(They do not know that the one and only factor leading to the formation of the United Federation of Planets were the Vulcans witnessing humanity's first FTL flight, nor that Zefram Cochrane was motivated by greed to build the warp 1 engine.)

They find Khan Noonien-Singh in the secret Toronto bunker of the Noonien-Singh Institute, a vague yet menacing organisition with unspecified goals. Khan expects La'an to kill him, but instead she hugs him, tells him he is exactly where he needs to be and leaves him alone in his bunker slash prison question mark.

*record scratch* I mean, La'an goes through quite some emotional distress once she realises that the fate of humanity and all Federation members rests on her shoulders, and that restoring the Iowa, US timeline means killing Kirk from the USS Iowa timeline (and, presumably, everyone else from that timeline, but we're not worried about them).

(They're not aware that there is already an alternate timeline in which James T. Kirk was born on a spaceship that is happily co-existing with the Iowa, US timeline).

La'an is even further distressed when she is faced with the choice of killing Khan and preventing the Eugenics Wars and WWIII, but realises that she can absolutely not kill an innocent child. She tells the innocent child he is exactly where he is supposed to be before leaving him with a loaded gun in a top secret, vague yet menacing bunker in a room that would be declared unfit as a human habitat BY THE UK because it doesn't even have a window.

*record scratch* I mean, La'an saves baby Hitler, gives him a weapon and a justification for starting the bloodiest and most destructive wars in Earth history, and she is expressly forbidden from seeing a counsellor about this at the end of the episode.

*record scratch* I mean, a Starfleet security officer leaves seven children too young to make their own healthcare decisions to be genetically manipulated by a vague yet menacing government(?) organisation. The fact that this is to bring about the bloodiest wars in Earth history makes this better, somehow.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow says that the only way in which the United Federation of Planets can exist is by soul-eating machine. It postulates that suffering must act as the catalyst for the utopia. I find that horrifying. I already found it horrifying when Gerne it.

But this is the second time SNW has strapped a child into the soul-eating machine. Except this time, were strapping *seven* children into the soul-eating machine, and we're not even asking them for consent, let alone informed consent.

This is framed as utterly vital.

It is unbearably bad.

If the Federation can *only* exist if its defenders are ready (if unwilling) to feed children into the soul-eating machine, then it cannot be worth it. If the condition for utopia is the suffering and deaths of millions it *cannot* be worth it. It'll endlessly retread what it has always done, it'll swing from one sacrifice to the next, it'll keep shifting who constitues an acceptable sacrifice, and 10,000 years down the line they'll look at their not-quite-corpse steering a soul-eating machine and wonder where it all went wrong.

The Federation is about the dignity and worth of all sentient life. Everything else must be in service to that.

Don't we already live in a utopian world that builds it's utopia for a few billionaires on the suffering of the many? Does the story about the post-scarcity utopia really have to haggle the ratio in favour of the many instead of going balls to the wall UTOPIA FOR EVERYONE YES EVEN THOSE PEOPLE? Star Trek is the setting that *should* save everybody! Even those people!

Fuck the soul-eating Federation. It's dignity and respect for ALL life or it's self-righteous garbage.

#the lady general rambles #this is very much a don't like don't read situation #snw spoilers #this is one thing in an otherwise entertaining episode i got really hung up on #it's so minor in what the episode sets out to do but it's an absolute deal breaker for me #fuck the eugenics wars. trek doesn't need some cosmic balance. people can just decide *i want to live on a utopia. let's build it* #that's when trek is at its most hopeful for me: *you can do good things without a reason & the world will be better for it*

[old-type-40]

I've gotten used to SNW changing up the look of things as they've existed previously in Trek. In some cases, it's very understandable as the 60s view of how the future will look is a bit outdated. In other cases, I'm at a loss to understand why they changed things up. For example, why change the discharge from hand phasers to look the same as the AOS movies/Star Wars? And I don't know how a food synthesizer would materialize an item ala a replicator as happened in Under the Cloak of War.

So when La'an and the others were beamed off the planet, I didn't realize that the different transporter effect was a visual clue that it wasn't the Enterprise who had beamed them away. I just assumed that the look of the transporter effect was changed up in this instance for no good reason. Oops. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BTW, I have a guess on how this story will eventually be resolved at the beginning of season 3 based upon events in the finale and the general nature of Trek. My guess is below the cut so that those who prefer to avoid any speculation need not see it.

So as things stand, we know that Batel is carrying Gorn eggs. We also know that based upon his previous encounter with the Gorn, Pike views them as monsters. But in the season finale, Pike and the others saw a group of Gorn younglings working cooperatively rather than viciously attacking each other.

In TOS, there were times when Kirk viewed something or someone as a threat that had to be met with deadly force. But then he came to realize that his initial reactions were wrong.

When story resumes in season 3, I'm certain there will be various attempts by Pike to retrieve his crew and the colonists will be thwarted. And eventually what will happen is the Gorn will negotiate a return of his crew and the colonists in exchange for Batel because she's carrying Gorn eggs. Pike will learn that the Gorn can be reasoned with. But the lesson will be extremely painful because it means Batel's life is forfeit.

I fully reserve the fandom right to be completely and utterly wrong in this speculation. And, if this speculation does turn out to be wrong, I'll be fine with that. Sometimes people will have expectations of how things will go and then become bitterly disappointed if those expectations aren't met. And that causes them to lose out the appreciation of what actually happens. I don't want to live like that whether it comes to enjoying fictional media or experiencing real life events.

#star trek #strange new worlds #snw #snw spoilers #hegemony

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Some good news and some bad news regarding Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The good news is that now that the strikes are over, production of Season 3 is set to begin next month! This is good because there have been rumours swirling around possible cancellation in the wake of Star Trek Discovery being ended after its 5th season. But SNW continues (Lower Decks has also been renewed for Season 5). The only caveat to that is Paramount Plus still cancelled Star Trek Prodigy even with its Season 2 complete, so nothing is a guarantee anymore. (And even then, it's been reported that Prodigy S2 will at least get some sort of Netflix release).

(Further good news is Season 2, with its amazing musical and Lower Decks crossover episodes, is set for Blu-ray release before Christmas.)

The bad news - though this is likely educated speculation on Screen Rant's part - is the possibility that the 10-episode 3rd season my be split, with only 5 episodes airing in 2024 and having to wait till 2025 to see the rest. Aside from that wrecking viewer momentum, those 5 weeks will come and go very quickly. If this news is correct, though, they could be telegraphing some sort of 5-episode story arc, which should be good but I actually prefer SNW's episodic format as it better supports the type of experimentation we got with not only this past year's musical and part-animated episodes, but the episodic format is what made TOS what it was. No official word on any cast changes, though I will be surprised if S3 doesn't reintroduce Dr. McCoy in some fashion.

I haven't written much about SNW but it's my favourite of the live action modern Treks. I stopped watching Discovery and Picard but SNW has kept me. I've had songs from the musical earworming for the last week or so after I rewatched it. And I greatly appreciated the time-travel episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" for finally canonizing an explanation as to why the prequel series haven't always lined up with what we know as canon from TOS, TNG, etc. which as far as I'm concerned frees the writers to deviate and retroactively serves to rectify canon issues dating all the way back to some episodes of DS9, never mind Enterprise, Discovery and SNW itself. I will explain for those who don't know but I will put a spoiler break here for those who might be waiting for the Blu-ray or haven't had a chance to stream season 2 yet. If the break doesn't appear below, stop reading now if you don't want the spoiler.

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The episode reveals that due to the many time travel events over the years (including ones we haven't seen on screen by enemies of the Federation; the episode relates one involving Mary Queen of Scots (in-joke for the actress) what we have been seeing in SNW etc. is an alternate timeline. Maybe not as extreme as the Kelvin timeline of the films, but events such as the Eugenics Wars - indeed, the birth of Khan himself - were delayed by decades. This major change to the timeline - and then you fill in the blanks by factoring in even minor changes such as the guy who accidentally killed himself with McCoy's phaser in City on the Edge of Forever, Sisko replacing Gabriel Bell in the Bell Riots, the Voyager crew going back to 1996, Archer and T'Pol heading off agents of the temporal cold war in the early 2000s, etc. - and you can see how it's possible that things progressed differently resulting in SNW and Discovery being more technologically advanced than TOS-era ships should be as established in TNG, DS9 and Enterprise that used the original tech and designs. Also character differences, like Pike's crew being aware of T'Pring and Khan when Kirk's crew in TOS did now despite Spock having worked with La'an Noonien-Singh and Kirk being aware of La'an's feelings for him. Or the lack of reference to Kirk's brother, who dies in a famous TOS episode, having been former Enterprise crew. And it literally stems from two lines of dialogue. It's exhibit A of how quickly and simply a show like Doctor Who can fix things.

#strange new worlds #strange new worlds season 3 #strange new worlds spoilers

[data-is-my-favorite-android]

Personally I interpret Spock as demisexual, but the assertion that SNW is deviating from canon by showing that Spock fuxx and THAT IS BAD because “he wasn’t depicted that way in the original series”/that’s ace erasure just… doesn’t sit right with me. Are we watching the same TOS? There are at least three episodes I can think of off the top of my head where Spock pulls it down, and it is heavily implied that he has had meaningful (and sexual) relationships with women in the past. Vulcans don’t talk about sex much, but they have it (and not just during Pon Farr). Spock’s general disinterest in sex in other episodes can be interpreted as a) he finds it culturally distasteful to discuss the topic, particularly when asked to talk about his personal experiences, and/or b) he is demisexual and therefore disinterested in sex because he doesn’t have the right kind of relationship with the soliciting person or simply isn’t feeling it that day.

As a fan, I’m actually really enjoying the fact that SNW is acknowledging that part of the canon and exploring this side of him more. Also, let’s be real: Spock is hot, he’s always been hot, everybody knows he’s hot both in-universe and in the audience, and finally showing that on-screen and leaning into it was a smart decision. (Also, it isn’t just about his hotness, he’s attractive to audience members for lots of reasons; he’s intelligent, strong, kind, capable, clever and thoughtful, among many other desirable things, yet earlier series somehow never fully capitalized on that facet of fans’ love for Spock for whatever reason). It isn’t character assassination. It’s updating the character based on the pre-existing canon for modern audiences.

As a demisexual, I personally do not see this as ace erasure (again, he was never actually depicted as a sex-repulsed asexual man in the canon). In fact, I really love seeing what I interpret as a demisexual person having a healthy consensual sexual relationship play out on screen. While his specific sexuality has never been confirmed in canon, I always related to Spock on a variety of levels, including a demisexual level (though I didn’t have words to describe that aspect of his character or myself at the time), and this latest depiction of Spock has only further cemented that. His “fake” kiss with Chapel transforming his perception of his relationship with her from fun & playful trusting friendship feelings ☺️☺️ to “oh shit, wait, was that a sexual feeling?? 😳😳 oh fuckk when did that happen PUT IT AWAY” moment was also highly relatable. Like, he clearly wasn’t expecting that, probably because he usually doesn’t experience sexual attraction, and it SHOOK him. And since sex and emotional connection/romance are deeply intertwined for demisexual people, it makes this shift in his perception of her even harder to ignore. (This is straying increasingly into speculation and personal interpretation, though, so moving on…)

I think that because Kirk basically got laid every other episode in TOS, his reputation/characterization in pop culture pretty quickly became that of The Sex Icon of the show and, hell, even TOS’ generation of television. By contrast, it became harder to remember that Spock occasionally had sexual encounters over the course of the show and it became easier to pigeonhole him into the nerdy celibate best friend of man-about-town Captain Kirk. But there’s a difference between the often flattened pop cultural perception of the character Spock and how he was actually written, and a difference between his characterization in fanon and canon. I’m not saying that you HAVE to watch and memorize every single episode of TOS, or that you can’t enjoy the prevailing fan interpretations of the series and its characters (because I certainly enjoy the hell out of fan fiction and fan reimaginings of TOS), but I am saying that before accusing the writers and show runners of ruining the character or misrepresenting Spock egregiously, maybe just… go back and take a look at TOS first? It’s such a fun show and so worth watching anyway, and it’s worth understanding/appreciating the characters for what they were, how the fans have reimagined them in fanon, and the sheer scope of directions the new show writers can take them from here. They’ve already done wonders for developing T’Pring, Nurse Chapel, and Number One! I’m excited to see where they will take the rest of the crew next.

Anyway, Spock has had relationships before, they have been sexual, it isn’t character assassination and that is a fact. And honestly, I’m really hoping the writers just, for the love of God, go AU and give Spock a happy and supportive romantic relationship, I literally do not care with who, T’Pring, Chapel, Uhura, Kirk, WHOEVER, just let that boy love and be loved in return 😭😭😭 and let him get to keep that relationship going (instead of ending it in flames, like the TOS version of Spock and T’Pring’s relationship)

#star trek: strange new worlds #st snw #strange new worlds #Spock #star trek: the original series #meta #demisexual #rambles #your mileage may vary of course #look you can headcanon anything you want #and you should! #headcanons fix-its and au’s are fun #but I just think it isn’t reasonable to be mad #when the writers refer to existing canon