Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

He also rode a horse and talked to Picard like the two of them were going to have hot gay sex later.

Stuff like the wind turbines also serve as something recognizable and relatable to 21st century viewers.

Relatability is part of the foundation of good storytelling.

A hand phaser vaporizes people. Multiple times over. Just to flash boil 100kg of water in 1 second, you'd need around 30 megawatts of power. But a phaser doesn't just boil a person. It turns them instantly into a gas/plasma. It does it so fast, the people standing nearby don't even get spritzered with flaming bits of goo. So, probably gigawatts of power.

That means Federation tech has got power storage densities of at least megawatts/cubic millimeter.

If you live on 24th/25th Century Earth, the guy with the matter/anti-matter reactor on the back of his hover-truck drives by once a year and tops off that car battery-sized cell that's sitting in your hall closet and you're got essentially limitless power. Run the air conditioning night and day with the windows open, leave all the lights on, play the stereo full blast, keep 87 television screens going, turn your Olympic-sized swimming pool into a jacuzzi, charge your hover-car and your household robots...you're not going to run out of power. There's plenty. And it apparently costs nothing.

These are the realities of future energy as it is presented and you must keep them in mind when debating energy usage in Star Trek.




Or...




You can realize that Trek isn't real. The technology isn't real. The technology isn't presented consistently. It's a show. Go with it.

So in an emergency situation, not for day to day use.

As others have already pointed out, humans on Star Trek have always had a weakness for outdated old-timey Earth shit. Kirk wore eyeglasses with frames made in the 18th century instead of getting 23rd century contact lenses or laser eye surgery. Riker played a musical instrument invented on Earth in the 15th century instead of a Holophoner. Paris had a replica of a 20th century television in his quarters and enjoyed holoprograms based on 1950's entertainment. O'Brien and Bashir enjoyed holoprograms based on epic battles from the 19th and 20th centuries, and Bashir loved holoprograms that simulated 20th century entertainment. Sisko was obsessed with a sport that died out in the 21st century. The entire DS9 crew willingly hung out in a recreation of a 1960's Las Vegas. Picard was jacked up to drive a wheeled ground vehicle around on a planet, at least when he wasn't riding horses. Horses! Georgiou kept an old compass around that was almost certainly inferior to modern ones. Data painted with a regular paints and a brush. The Maquis grew their own vegetables. Chakotay replicated Janeway a 19th century pocket watch as a gift when the ships computer can tell the time perfectly.

Maybe it's you that doesn't know anything about Trek.

The phasers energy density is an interesting example, because it leads to the point that there are many good reasons you don't want billions of locations on your home planets surface with that level of energy sitting around waiting to be released in accidents or sabotage.

The idea that everyone has control of that amount of energy at all times could be as quaint to 23rd century eyes as 1950s concepts depicting atomic powered cars are to ours.

my parents' house had electricity, but also oil heating.

once again, FF's "arguments" are invalid.

There are still modern new construction houses that get oil heating.

Yep. FF is on his own with this one.

In the 24th century you can have the replicator make you a glass of wine, but Picard owns a vineyard and tends his vines by hand.

Not seeing why windmills are suddenly objectionable, unless it's that Tucker Carlson has spent years telling his viewers that wind and solar power will make their peepees fall off.

Could also be that some people may just not want to use modern tech for their power, and prefer wind or solar. Religion, personal beliefs, personal preference. Could also be to preserve aesthetic or historical value. Or just like windmills.

Okay, it was a dumb nitpick, I liked the teaser, especially the shuttle.

Wait, hold up.

We're on the cusp of potentially the most exciting new Trek property since TNG premiered and instead of all of us being utterly absorbed in gushing over the first real trailer, some mush-brained bozo has derailed at least two pages by pissing himself over the supposed offense of showing WINDMILLS?

Don-fucking-Quixote lives.

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Casts Captain Kirk: Paul Wesley to Play Iconic Character

It was inevitable, but the guy doesn’t really look like Shatner, but Ethan Peck doesn’t really look like Nimoy. Next up, Bones.

This makes me think that we're going to see the change of command from Pike to Kirk during the run of Strange New Worlds. Interesting.

How much can Kirk play in this? Isn't he on another ship? The Faragut?

They’re just going to remake TOS.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

If we're not getting Kirk until season 2, they should have shut up about it.
Now it'll kind of dampen enthusiasm for season 1.
It's like finding out about the surprise free fudge, marshmallow, caramel, and peanut butter sundae you're gonna get for dessert just as the steak arrives.
Like, let me get the fucking steak down first, wouldya?
Jesus!

I guess those set photos leaked so they felt the need for an official photo release.

I'm disquieted by the idea that he's wearing Captains' stripes, the mythology had always been that Enterprise was his first command - but if this is him on some relatively minor "starter ship" well...okay...I guess. He could theoretically participate in some of his legendary events from such a role - hopefully tied to whatever plot has him on SNW.

BUT

Let's NOT make him even a semi-regular. A small arc that he's involved with before he shuffles off to do other things and we don't see him again until the last season - I'm okay with that.

They need be VERY careful how they use an iconic character like Kirk.

The show runners didn't completely fuck it up with the portrayal of Spock in Discovery, but I also wouldn't say they knocked it out of the park.

JJ Abrams managed to pull it off with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in AwesomeTrek(tm). Not sure if lightning can strike twice.

Side from seeing Pike in The Cage, I really love how Anson Mount has played Pike so far. He's really made the character so far.

I'm not so much concerned about them fucking it up, I'm concerned about Pike's crew not getting a full chance to breath. Pike and somewhat Spock basically overshadowed the entire Discovery crew to the point that the only way to not suffer by comparison was to put them in entirely different time frames (even if that was already planned) and it would be a tragic loss if everyone fixates so hard on Kirk that it overshadows Pike & Co.

Also, watching this video as I type and as he parses Kirk's established timeline, it occurs to me that I could harbor some hope that Kirk is serving as an acting Captain in some sense (maybe after the death of Garrovick?) if he's not in command of some destroyer class or whatever ship.

Now that i think of it, if the story involved him forced to serve as acting captain of Farrogut in the relatively immediate wake of the attack that killed Garrovick, there could be a ton of emotional punch to that.

One of the novels has Kirk having previously commanded a smaller ship called the Lydia Sutherland.

Lower Decks introduced the idea of a roving "babysitter Captain" without their own official command, maybe Kirk's doing that.

This is one of the problems with modern Trek.

Just keep your focus on the damn main story. Anson Mount was awesome as Pike, as were the supporting cast.

So focus on Captain Pike and his story.

We honestly don't need Kirk to tell Pike's story pre-"The Cage", but some knucklehead at the studio or in the writers' room thought it would be super kewl to have him show up.

Someone recommended Kirk to take over the Enterprise from Pike - and he clearly KNEW Pike in The Menagerie. So it would make sense if they'd had a shared adventure.