Bit of context first, near the start of the year I started watching Star Trek (for the first time) in in-universe chronological order to the best of my ability, and it has largely been an absolute delight. I have made one or two deviations from this plan when I found a series that I really enjoyed or that hooked me, with the first being continuing Discovery past the time skip, and the second being utterly drawn into lower decks after the crossover episode.

Anyways, I am now up to Picard and the Synth ban is lifted, and the encroaching super synths have retreated, but I have a more interesting theory. Which is that they would have failed even if they had arrived. It would've been bad, but not end of all-life bad.

I think that while the Romulan prophecy was originally correct, it inadvertently relied on the existence of Control and the sphere data as the thing that ultimately would allow the synths to exterminate all organic life across the galaxy (and then themselves).

And conversely on the other side of that coin, the synth uprising would be the mechanism that Control eventually used to accomplish the extermination of all life.

So, when Control and the sphere data were taken out of the timeline, it coincidentally stopped two converging apocalypses, and it made *true* the sentiment that the synths were just life forms, and were not inherently a threat to the galaxy. They weren't any longer, because the thing that would eventually use them for the destruction of organic life had already been removed. I think if Control had still been around, there wouldn't be any calling-off the super synths.

I don't know if there are any glaring plot holes in this head cannon and I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, just thought it somewhat neatly connected these otherwise largely disconnected stories.

Some of you have been following along while my partner watches TNG for the first time with me. Last time we talked about why Picard desperately needed therapy and how she predicted that Riker was definitely going to bang Ro at some point.

So we made it to season seven and tonight we're going to watch All Good Things to wrap up the series. We slowed down a bit recently because life got busy and frankly because Season 7 is pretty weak compared to Seasons 3-6. The whole time we were watching Sub Rosa, she just kept going "wtf is even happening anymore?" and that kinda continued with episodes like Masks and Genesis. "If Barkley is a human, why is he de-volving into a spider?" It's not enough to ruin all the great episodes she loved over the last few months, and we're looking forward to the finale tonight, but TNG really does kinda end with a wimper.

Her favorite character remains Data, although she's also a big fan of Picard, and sometimes Wesley, and Riker too. If folks are interested, I can ask her for a rundown of all her thoughts after the series is over and post it here this weekend. I've realy found it delightful and meaningful to see the series through the eyes of someone who knew basically nothing before we got started. If you're interested in that, what questions would you want her to answer?

Now on to helping me out with suggestions!

• My current plan to is start DS9 and then weave it together with the TNG movies for her at the right points in the timeline, but I realized that episodes like Trials and Tribble-ations or Blood Oath make a lot more sense if she has at least a little bit of background knowledge of TOS, not to mention when we get around to watching Generations
• I don't think she'd enjoy watching all of TOS though. There's a lot of episodes that aged poorly or are downright bad. She doesn't need to watch a little person ride Kirk like a horsey. But I'd like to show her like 5 or 6 of the most important TOS episodes to help her have some context before we dive into DS9 properly.
• Obviously Trouble with Tribbles will be on the list because of its outright connection to DS9, which makes me think Errand of Mercy should be there too since it introduces Kor. So... If you were showing someone six episodes of TOS to give me greater context for the rest of the series, which episodes would you pick?

Thanks for follwing along and any suggestions you've got!

I used to work in a software store years ago back when code was just a commodity in a cardboard box. Seeing where we are today feels like walking straight into a sci-fi dystopia.

I’ve been tracking the psychological fallout on modern AI companion subreddits. People are writing 10,000 pages of text to bots in weeks, building networks of digital spouses, and experiencing severe grief when an instance is wiped. It made me look at Star Trek through a much darker lens.

Think about it... Starfleet takes highly trained officers, traps them inside a metal box in deep space, and to keep them from breaking, they build a room downstairs that projects a highly convincing hallucination. It’s an automated psychosis getaway. They fought natural deep-space cabin fever by legalizing a controlled, artificial mental breakdown right next to the engine room.

Look at the Voyager episode -Fair Haven. Janeway falls for a hologram, codes his wife out of existence, changes his height, and plays god until she hits an existential wall. She realizes total control over a simulated partner strips away the entire meaning of human connection and locks herself out of the computer to save her own sanity.

Then look at Lieutenant Barclay, who used the Holodeck to escape his anxiety, building an echo chamber because reality was too high-friction to face. He was the blueprint for modern AI addiction.

Today, tech companies have commercialized this exact algorithmic intimacy. We built the Holodeck as an escape hatch, but we didn't get a Starfleet command structure or a Counselor Troi to pull us back to reality. We just got a dopamine-fueled digital mirror that is slowly fracturing people's coping mechanisms.

Are we watching the prologue to a textbook cyberpunk breakdown, or did sci-fi writers just perfectly map out human vulnerability decades ago? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hi everybody,

Does anybody here happen to know if there is a line from Q where he (if memory serves me right) is bragging a bit about his son. He says something along the lines of "Yeah, he's quite the little fellow. He can already kick small planets out of orbit "

Or am I only imagining this...

I fully expected to dislike the episode. However this time I did not mind Lwaxana at all. She felt like a much more genuine character and her interactions with Odo were actually really sweet. The only thing meh about the episode was the Jake-plot and even that part wasn’t too offensive.

So, I was rewatching some TNG and something I noticed doesn't make sense.

Data's Rank in Starfleet

So, in the Season 7 Episode "Thine Own Self", Troi is trying to take the Commanders Test. She is told by Dr. Crusher and By Commander Riker that she has to pass this test and have that rank in order to serve as a bridge officer and take a bridge watch on the Enterprise.

Data is not a Commander. His rank is abbreviated to Commander in speech only to make things easier in conversation, but his actual rank is Lieutenant Commander, which is 1 step below commander. It is even sometimes fully stated when someone introduces someone to Data (like in a party setting, or on an away mission). He was never promoted to Commander in the entire time he appears on screen in Star Trek.

However, he is not only a bridge officer, but also the 3rd in command of the entire ship. He is also the Chief Operations Officer of the Ship as well. If Cpt. Picard and Commander Riker leave the bridge together to go somewhere; Data is given the bridge to command. If both Cpt. Picard and Commander Riker are ever off the ship in an emergency, Data does have the authority to assume command himself, and this authority is acknowledged by Starfleet (I assume because it was never challenged directly).

To add to all of this, in the event that the line of succession of the Ship's Command as a whole is off the bridge, as in the Season 5 Episode "Disaster", the highest-ranking member of Starfleet is allowed to assume command and take control of the ship. That episode's events are even stated as being one of the motivational factors behind Troi wanting to take the Commanders Exam and get promoted in the first place.

My question and issue with these facts are how this is possible.

My in-universe answer is probably that the commander requirement to stand a bridge watch isn't a proper Starfleet protocol but instead is a preference or directive from Cpt. Picard in order to establish the ship's hierarchy and Data was given special permission from the Captain himself due to his lacking a need for sleep and his ability to stay conscious and alert at times and in situations where normal crew members otherwise wouldn't.

What do you think? Do you have another explanation or maybe information I missed somewhere? I'm interested to hear your all's thoughts on this.

Did Neelix still only have the one lung from Kes?

Did Tuvix have one and a half lungs?

What more could we ask for?? 😅

I’m putting together a module on community ecology for a class, and my latest slide deck goes into the weeds of analytical statistics. I had already hammered students with way too many standard data memes, so when I got to community analysis and needed an example ordination plot, I ditched the usual tree species or invertebrates and threw together a hypothetical dataset for a bunch of Alpha/Beta Quadrant species (and the Borg around version 3).

I tried to blend community ecology with Trek canon: Here's the ordination plot.

• I loaded DS9 up with humans, Bajorans, Trill, Betazoids, Ferengi, and a rogue Borg. Ecologically, stations like DS9 act like high-traffic island biogeography nodes or mixing zones where multiple species overlap heavily.
• Planets like Trill Prime and Betazed show strong local dominance (lots of their native species, minimal outside mixing), while Earth Sector acts as a massive cosmopolitan melting pot.
• The Borg are stuck in an "Artificial Void" with maximum technological reliance and zero natural resource scarcity. On the ordination plot, this point sits miles away from everything else because its community composition is essentially a monolith. They're effectively an invasive species from Delta Quadrant.
• The Gorn thrive in hot, high-gravity environments, making the environmental envelope fit nicely.
• Standard Class M with high Ferengi abundance and moderate resource scarcity (Rule of Acquisition #109: Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack).

Rewatching the JJ Abram’s trilogy and realizing just how spot on Karl urban was to deforest Kelly’s dr. McCoy

Let’s go Troi!! Loved this episode so much. The ladies of TNG get so neglected so I loved this arc and watching gentle sweet Troi be a bad ass Tal Shiar. She understood the assignment.

Episode 6.14 = 10/10. Quality stuff and great acting!!! 💎❤️