Tears, Winks, and Laughs — Mostly Laughs

Compiled by Carl Slaughter: (1) Dark Voyage. ScreenRant divulges “15 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets About Star Trek: Voyager”.

  1. Robert Beltran Blames Brannon Braga For Ruining Characters’ Potential

Robert Beltran has never shied away from criticizing how Chakotay was underutilized on the show, and he thought the problem with his and other neglected characters started when Brannon Braga took over running the show.

“I guess when Brannon Braga took over, when the Seven of Nine character made her entrance, the focus changed,” Beltran related. “That was fine with me, but I think writers have an obligation to fill out all the characters if they’re regular characters on a series. I think several of the characters were diminished – Chakotay and Tuvok and Kim and Neelix.”

He continued, “I think it was just easier for these new writers that came on to write stories about the captain and about characters that weren’t really human, like Seven of Nine and the Doctor.”

“Those three characters were kind of all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent, and I think a lot of the tension and drama that was available was lost because you have to really dig hard to find tension in all-knowing, all-seeing characters,” he said.

(2) Star Trek plot holes and mistakes. Next ScreenRant lists “15 Things About Star Trek That Make No Sense”.

  1. They Break The Prime Directive All The Time

The Prime Directive, also known as General Order 1, is the guiding principle of Starfleet, outlining that they will not interfere with the development of a pre-Warp species. To follow this rule, they have created methods of studying pre-Warp societies and a captain’s adherence to the rule has often created issues that required a workaround.

The Prime Directive is supposedly one of those rules that can never be broken– only, it is broken all the time. Captain Kirk violated Starfleet’s unbreakable rule on 11 occasions, while Picard violated it nine times. Benjamin Sisko, the Captain of DS9, didn’t generally go out to meet new species, but through his actions, he violated it a number of times. Captain Janeway went out of her way to not violate the PD such that she wouldn’t compromise it to help her crew get home faster than was normally possible.

It’s a nice idea, but despite the emphasis on it, it’s rarely followed when it seems to really matter.

(3) Game of Nonsense. CheatSheet says another show doesn’t make sense either — “Things About ‘Game of Thrones’ That Make No Sense, At All”.

  1. Why the Dothraki are helping Daenerys

It’s taken quite a long time for Daenerys Targaryen to gather an army willing to help her fight for the Iron Throne. But in the final moments of Game of Thrones Season 6, we saw her rally her troops and set sail for Westeros. In some ways, it was a triumphant moment — after all, we may finally get to see her in action. But when you really think about it, it’s kind-of confusing.

There’s no question as to why her advisors, the Greyjoys and the Unsullied would follow her into battle. But after Khal Drogo died in Season 1, the Dothraki owed no allegiance to Dany. Yes, she gave that really stirring speech while riding a dragon, which was admittedly very cool. But she didn’t offer them any real incentive to join her army. In other words, it’s hard to say exactly why the Dothraki are willing to cross the sea they fear so much and risk their lives for the Mother of Dragons

(4) The eyes have it:  Honest Trailer, original Blade Runner.

(5) Stranger Honesty.

(6) Justice League memes. More ScreenRant — “15 Hilarious Justice League Memes Only Die-Hard Fans Will Understand”.

  1. Daddy Issues

To be fair, you really don’t have to be that die-hard of a fan to get this one. It’s a pretty common fact that most superheroes come with some sort of package deal – trauma, disability, dead parents, and ostracization – or at least a combination of two or more. In a way, it’s what helps motivate them to be heroes, right?

The Justice League are no exception. You’ve got Batman’s parents shot right in front of him, Wonder Woman being the illegitimate daughter of the famously promiscuous Zeus, Flash’s father being framed for murder, and now the actor of Cyborg himself has stated that Victor Stone’s own daddy issues will play a prominent role in the upcoming Justice League film.

Yeesh. Still, at least none of the League had to deal with their dad being some murderous Celestial. The MCU still takes the cake on this one.

4 thoughts on “Tears, Winks, and Laughs — Mostly Laughs

  1. (2) I remember reading a fan-written piece back in the late 70s or early 80s called “The Court-Martial of Captain James T. Kirk” that went into some legal detail of all his offenses against established Star Fleet regulations, including the Prime Directive.

    Be interesting to see if any copies of that still exist.

  2. (2) When Peter David was writing the Star Trek comic back in the late 1980s he did ‘The Trial of James T. Kirk’. One of the characters brought in as a witness was one of the mobsters from ‘A Piece of the Action’, who thought he was coming in to bring Kirk his cut.

    There was a brief reaction shot to back on the Enterprise where they’re all watching the deliberations, and the comments were, “It’s like all the Captain’s most embarrassing moments come back to haunt him. I keep expecting somebody to drop a bunch of tribbles on him.”

  3. The Voyager stuff is interesting. IMHO it crashed and burned quite hard (with few exceptions) and most of the reasons were mentioned. The focus on the three main characters, that do everything right and dont leave much space for the rest (From one point on Chakotay really just made incredible stupid “alternative” suggestions). The illogical Kazons that ran to long (Not very advanced and yet a gigantic empire?), the sexualisation of 7 of nine. Relations that came out of the blue, wodden acting. Bad writing (Moore did such a great job on DS9 – because he did something else, while it was all the same always on Vger).
    Interesting to see that things werent much better behindthe scenes.

  4. It’s taken quite a long time for Daenerys Targaryen to gather an army willing to help her fight for the Iron Throne. But in the final moments of Game of Thrones Season 6, we saw her rally her troops and set sail for Westeros. In some ways, it was a triumphant moment — after all, we may finally get to see her in action. But when you really think about it, it’s kind-of confusing.

    Uh, guys? Remember when the Dothraki took Daenerys captive and she was going to be a consort/slave for one of the chieftains? And then she set the entire meeting hut on fire and burned every last swinging chieftain to death, and walked out of the flames unscathed? (nekkid, too, but the unscathed part is what’s important here)

    I’m thinking that’s impressive enough for the rest of the survivors to go, “Hey, I’m following HER!”

Comments are closed.