I like this idea a lot, it might become my new head cannon!

Possibly. But how much more wear & tear would this be compared to the wear put on the warp drive, which gets incredibly frequent use? If that warp drive can withstand it, why not the shield emitters?

Yeah, I think the power-saving argument (#4) is potentially strongest, especially if the plot needs it to be for a given episode.

But I’m having trouble thinking of a situation in the shows where the maneuverability was limited by the shields. Certainly there are plenty of cases where power was routed to shields, maybe even the power that was meant for propulsion. But I think in general, those would be cases where power was already limited, or the need for defense was much higher. In general, I don’t think I recall a trade-off where shields restrict maneuverability or speed.

I totally agree that I love the variety of options! But I would be very happy if one of the options was that we get filler/bottle episodes for a few weeks per season, but every season is 26 episodes long. They could just spread the budget for 10 episodes across all 26, and make the VFX less… shiny.

(Of course, I don’t actually want actors to be worked to the bone like they were in the 90s…)

A pretty cool episode. Top takeaways:

1. I’m going to miss Captain Ransom. I think it would have been fun to have a season or two of him. Only Discovery has had the balls to hand over the Captain’s chair to another during its main run, and I think that is a good thing.
2. Starbase 80 is now set up as a new DS9-style show. A starbase guarding a dimensional portal. God I hope that happens. I just hope they pull off the ensemble cast that made DS9 such a classic.
3. I hate the tease for Rutherford x Tendi, it’s so mean to tease it in the finale :'( But really it’s so cute.

Plenty more I missed of course.

Rewatching in preparation for the finale, and I keep feeling that the voice of Curzon Dax sounds quite similar to the voice of Odo in DS9. I’m quite aware that Rene Auberjonois passed away not that long ago: may he rest in peace. And I guess he was voiced by Fred Tatasciore (Shaxs), which I can hear too. But I keep hearing Odo which is really nice.

Yes.

Silicon isn’t the same thing as silicone 🤣

Lol

Not a “hater” in terms of trying/wanting to be mean, but I do disagree. I think a lot of people downvoting are frustrated because this attitude takes an issue in one application (yay), for one distro, and says “this is why Linux sucks / can’t be used by normies”. Clearly that’s not true of this specific instance, especially given that yay is basically a developer tool. At best, “this is why yay sucks”. (yay is an AUR helper - a tool to help you compile and install software that’s completely unvetted - see the big red banner. Using the AUR is definitely one of those things that puts you well outside the realm of the “common person” already.)

Maybe the more charitable interpretation is “these kinds of issues are what common users face”, and that’s a better argument (setting aside the fact that this specific instance isn’t really part of that group). I think most people agree that there are stumbling blocks, and they want things to be easier for new users. But doom-y language like this, without concrete steps or ideas, doesn’t feel particularly helpful. And it can be frustrating – thus the downvotes.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

It’s not even close!

What you’re saying is you wish Ira Steven Behr ran the show instead of Rick Berman. And really, don’t we all wish that?

Yes!

Or her usefulness to the episode could be that Edgar Alien Perv has a crush on her.

Yeah that was a super rough episode.

We just are taking two different perspectives about being essential. Uhura was like an organ: quietly essential to the regular operation of your body. Whereas Hoshi is like hands or maybe ears or something: very important for achieving your body’s goals, but you can compensate for them not working. You’re right Uhura is more essential. I just think it’s more interesting watching the hands / ears of the ship helping achieve the mission.

At least it wasn’t as bad as Mayweather’s character arc of becoming a background extra.

😭😭😭 so true

It’s funny because I have the exact opposite opinion! I feel like in TOS, Uhura just relays messages and presses buttons on her console. Maybe I’m missing something though. Maybe she’s critical to the intra ship communications as the “telephone operator” but she never seems to be critical to the mission.

On the other hand, ENT spends a lot of time building up how many languages Hoshi knows, and how quickly she can pick up new ones, even alien languages. She definitely has her moments where she just struggles until the UT works. But in several episodes they rely on her to translate alien writing, and in at least one or two, she learns to speak a whole new language to communicate. She’s also shown to have developed major improvements to the UT. My impression of her, even from Broken Bow when Archer recruited her, was that she’s a freaking language savant, operating and developing very new experimental tech. It is sad she didn’t get to fully realize her transition from timid linguist to badass crew member (and still linguist). But I always felt like she was doing something critical for the mission, whereas I felt Uhura (in TOS) wasn’t.

SNW Uhura is very different in that regard, she does a lot more “mission critical” stuff and she’s getting an arc that’s very reminiscent of Hoshi (totally a savant, hard working, starting out timid but growing). So I love that for her!

I appreciate the recognition, finally!

But it’s actually not that bad… It’s not good beer but whatever it is, it’s nice 🙂

It’s not cannon but at least they are somewhat officially acknowledging the absolute dumpster fire that was the ENT finale.