I read, here and there, criticism that this animated series is too whimsical for the tastes of some fans. I'm not gonna say they are wrong to feel that way. I guess I just disagree. IMO, whatever extremes Lower Decks shows us tends to pass pretty quickly. Then on to the broader story for that weeks episode.
Regarding this weeks? IMO, it was pure brilliance. I don't recommend only watching this one. There was some set-up to make this one work as well as it does.
Considering the context of the whole episode. Seeing lower decks of a Borg Cube was a genius move. I was in stitches!
An observation I have to make about the animation style. I so happened to see this weeks episode in 720p on a larger television. Normally, I stream on smaller computer. Those starships? Save for the Borg Cube they were rendered rather crisply. Cerritos has certainly had a remaster for season two. Even that mash-up of a Pakled ship got some new angles and clarity. Scale is not difficult to discern between the Cerritos, the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Vulcan cruiser. The 24th century Vulcan starship was not small. It's nice. And it has a...console...just waiting for an STO dev to flesh out.
(/\) Exploring Star Trek Online Since July 2008 (/\)
That was a great episode, definitely. Some neat development on the whole Pakled situation. A completely out of control Vulcan maverick and an actually honorable Klingon. Wonder if any of them will be recurring characters, or even become part of the cast.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
> @psiameese said: > I read, here and there, criticism that this animated series is too whimsical for the tastes of some fans.
I agree with this argument but not with the wording. I am not opposed to βwhimsyβ per se. I just think as comedy Lower Decks creates canonical crisies where dramatic personalities and cultures are reduced to characatures. For example if Packled understand that they are the butt-end of the universeβs cosmic joke and try to make super junkyard ships in order be taken seriouslyβthat doesnβt seem realistic. And it is too big of an event to dismiss as hyperbole or βwhimsy.β
If I suspend my disbelief enough to try to enjoy Lower Decks it still falls flat as comedy for me. It is Rick and Morty βliteβ and feels safe and redundant for that marketβas it is comedy by committee.
Basically the biggest problem I have is that βEaster eggsβ are not funny, I donβt get a sense of gratitude when I see a tribble on Lorcaβs desk. I feel the director is simply pandering to my Star Trek nostalgia. And although I get and appreciate the references, I donβt think name dropping βLanduβ or saying βwhalesβ is actually funny. And the overall effect in my opinion is that it cheapens the franchise and makes the universe seem smaller.
Granted the exploits of Kirk and crew probably would be well-known by that generation of Starfleet crew. And maybe even known to the same microscopic detail of a Star Trek fanβbut if that is all anyone talks about it is weird, right. It breaks the 4th wall to have Spock helmets and references to TOS as TOS or Vouager as VOY.
So I like Lower Decks for a lot of reasons. It is cheap Star Trek and is great filler between Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds. I can appreciate itβs place in the Kurtzman timetable. And some of the later episodes in season one really were strong on their own and brought the series into the realm of βgenuine comedy.β But overallβdivorced from the Star Trek brandβI donβt think the series would be very enjoyable, except in the lowest common denominator it-is-campy-but-I-am-too lazy-to-change-the-channel-sort of way.
I do really, really like the tasteful way Lower Decks has been included in STO so far, though. And as a branded Star-Trek-fan I am eternally obligated to watch any Star Trek-related content and then complain about it for 10 years. After 10 years, I can admit I βmay haveβ enjoyed it.
I think I can finally forgive JJ for 2009.
(Full Disclosure: I only watched 3 or 4 episodes of this season and have not seen the episode you are referring to with a Borg cube yet. Maybe it will change my view of the problems about the series as a whole. Who knows?)
Something I learned about the 7th episode of this season (the one where Billups' mother try to get him laid so he has no choice but to claim the throne and leave Starfleet) is how hilarious some interactions between Billups and his mother become when you know who the VAs are, especially his "You need to accept the fact that I'll be a virgin for the rest of my life." to which she replies "Well, we'll see about that.".
By itself, it just sounds a typical "I may come back later in the show to be the new Lwaxana to your Deanna, Andy" sequel hook, but then, you learn the VAs of the two are actually a married couple with kids, which also turns it into a meta joke.
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Well, if it's just a custom and not a law, he can easily say 'TRIBBLE off!' without incurring any major penalties.ββ
It is Hysperian Law. Billups is obsessed with his virginity because he wants to stay with Starfleet. If he could easily say 'TRIBBLE off?' without incurring any major penalties, then he likely would have years ago. If Billups loses his virginity, then the Federation would say sorry and send him back to his homeworld. There is likely some Starfleet rule that states that Heads of State can't be in Starfleet.
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
There is some hints he is asexual, like how, in the Naked Time simulation, he's naked but just calmly reading while everyone else is horny AF, and in his daylight episode, he's shown to have zero interest in whoever his mother pushes at him and is not even able to get "excited" when two guards are tasked to get him (they even look bored out of their mind when he's "rescued"). When Rutherford finally reveals the plot to him, he's even happy not having to deal with this anymore.
I'd love an April's Fool Borg joke mini-faction, where you can barely customize your character, you only have randomize as an option for a name, you start by walking VEEEEEERY slowly to your alcove and you have to wait here for like 4.7 RL hours and if you try to leave, the rest of the drones terminate you.
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
There is some hints he is asexual, like how, in the Naked Time simulation, he's naked but just calmly reading while everyone else is horny AF, and in his daylight episode, he's shown to have zero interest in whoever his mother pushes at him and is not even able to get "excited" when two guards are tasked to get him (they even look bored out of their mind when he's "rescued"). When Rutherford finally reveals the plot to him, he's even happy not having to deal with this anymore.
I'd love an April's Fool Borg joke mini-faction, where you can barely customize your character, you only have randomize as an option for a name, you start by walking VEEEEEERY slowly to your alcove and you have to wait here for like 4.7 RL hours and if you try to leave, the rest of the drones terminate you.
The Naked Time simulation is just a simulation so it can't be used as evidence for his asexuality. So while his records might show that he is asexual, it doesn't prove that he is due to his forced virginity being a defense mechanism.
We definitely need the new and improved Cerritos hull as a vanity shield. Rutherford's backstory seems like it will have a major role in Season 3. As far as the ending of the episode, I am certain the Pakleds are responsible for that planet's destruction.
We definitely need the new and improved Cerritos hull as a vanity shield. Rutherford's backstory seems like it will have a major role in Season 3. As far as the ending of the episode, I am certain the Pakleds are responsible for that planet's destruction.
I mean, Dorg gave them a new "boomer", they had to test it to see if he wasn't deceiving them, because they're smart, they know Klingons have no honor, unlike Vortas. /s
Or since the ship carrying the bomb was trashed by the Cerritos and the Sh'vhal in the last episode, they could have accidentally crashed into their homeworld after warping out due to the damage.
Which could mean Starfleet is just slightly correct in thinking Freeman caused the destruction of Pakled Planet.
Also, that was one hell of an ending for season 2.
Makes me question less why we were so easily framed during the Klingon Civil War, with such incompetent detectives in Starfleet.
Even in the future, ACAB.
I love how it looks like they looked at the opening of the Undiscovered Country and went "It's pretty cool, but what if we made it cooler, more intense and showed Sulu got incredibly lucky."
Also, Kayshon stating the simplest and most logical solution meta-wise only to be treated in-universe like he said the stupidest thing ever by literally everyone at the same time so we can't hear why it's the worst idea, is a funny and easy way to avoid the fridge logic behind that altogether.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Yeah, seriously...just warp past the debris - this isn't Star Wars where hyperspace still interacts with mass shadows present in normal space.
And apparently, dilithium exposed to extreme heat is...very explosive - which makes me wonder how the hell it gets mined safely.ββ
The flaw in that logic is that in Star Trek warp is not a jump drive and the ship never leaves normal space so it would still have to traverse the debris field if they went straight for the Archimedes.
Of course, for plot reasons no one thinks of simply using the warp drive to go around the debris since it is a finite field and not an unbroken shell around the whole system from what the graphics shows.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
It never leaves the bubble of normal space the warp drive creates...that does not apply to space through the REST of the universe.ββ
Actually it does, the bubble of normal space inside the field is no different from the space outside the field besides the fact that it is moving in relation to the space around it, it is not a bubble of normality surrounded by some extradimensional space.
That is not to say that other drives are impossible in Trek or that you cannot force a warp drive to make some kind of jump, just that it is not the normal (and safe) method. For instance, Star Trek ships can go into hyperspace via warp engines (though it is hard on them) as shown in TOS, but they cannot navigate in it without a Medusan. And I think in TNG it is implied that the Traveler pushed the warp drive so hard that it redefined their position in the universe instead of causing the space in the warp bubble to move relative to the rest of space, or something similar.
Neither of those are normal things for warp ships to do, and unless Cerritos has a Medusan or Traveler aboard they would not be able to do them. Likewise they don't seem to be equipped with a spore drive, Borg transwarp corridor drive, or an underspace drive or any of the other non-normalspace FTL drives seen in various Treks.
Sci-fi stories use all sorts of ways of getting around the Einsteinian light speed limit, Star Trek is just one of those sci-fi universes where the heroes' FTL system is a normal-space based drive and always has been (with the exception of DSC and its moldy superstrings). It is not Star Wars with its hyperspace jump drive or Dune with its space fold jump drive, or any of the others with various types of jump drives. It got to be almost a running joke that Voyager tried practically all of them at some point in the series.
In fact in TOS the Enterprise chases Mudd's ship through an asteroid field at high warp with rocks bouncing off the deflectors, which according to the dialog in that Lower Decks episode would be disastrous because of the charge on the rocks.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
It literally IS extradimensional space - what do you think subspace is? Certainly not normal space, even by real-world reckoning.ββ
They use subspace for communication (subspace radio), not for transportation, and subspace particles (nadions) as weapons. Warp drive never leaves normal space under normal usage, and when it does leave it in abnormal circumstances it is always a problem to be solved, not a solution itself. Subspace drives are not a thing in Alpha and Beta quadrants, it is mainly used in Delta where it is called "underspace".
Warp drives use some kind of time-related hack to cause a bubble of space to slip along in normal space in the direction they want to go, that is why when the drive field is distorted in certain ways they break out of the timestream and reenter at a different point. It is the reason they called it "time warp factor" in The Cage, and though they later dropped the word "time" because it gave the wrong impression the way the drive was supposed to work never changed as shown at the end of The Naked Time, Tomorrow Is Yesterday, and Assignment Earth.
Not every science fiction stardrive uses alternate dimensions to work, and Star Trek is one of those (though from dialog in A Piece of the Action they probably use subspace transtators in some of the circuitry used to generate or control the bubble).
Subspace was the medium by which faster-than-light transit was possible. Warp travel utilized subspace to create a warp bubble for ships to safely traverse. Without subspace, warp travel would become impossible. (VOY: "The Omega Directive")
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Subspace was the medium by which faster-than-light transit was possible. Warp travel utilized subspace to create a warp bubble for ships to safely traverse. Without subspace, warp travel would become impossible. (VOY: "The Omega Directive")
You are literally wrong.ββ
One-off statements in Voyager are not the best source considering they also said that you cannot make turns in warp when literally every other series (and even Voyager itself in other episodes) turned in warp just fine.
That said, even that quote does not disagree with what I said because transtators are probably used in the circuitry and systems that make generating the warp bubble possible, it does not say the ship ever enters subspace in the process though some of the fields and maybe even components in the drive may phase into subspace.
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
I think he is asexual. He could not....rise to the occasion, despite there being 2 near naked people in his bed, waiting for them. I think he prefers stripping screws rather than people.
Other examples of asexual characters can be Monkey D. Luffi from One Piece, and Norman Clegg from Last of the Summer Wine.
He could also be crumbling under the insane pressure heçs under, it doesn't seem easy to get into the mood when your entire people is watching you, especially after you rejected those customs in the first place. It is ultimately of little consequence whether he's asexual or not, the character bears the 'chief engineer is married to the ship' trope after all, LD just one-upped it
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
So is Billup Asexual or does he just not want to get into distractions like sex and TRIBBLE while actively serving? I mean, that line above about him being a virgin the rest of his life strongly implies Asexuality, or at least Demisexuality.ββ
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
I think he is asexual. He could not....rise to the occasion, despite there being 2 near naked people in his bed, waiting for them. I think he prefers stripping screws rather than people.
Other examples of asexual characters can be Monkey D. Luffi from One Piece, and Norman Clegg from Last of the Summer Wine.
As long as Billup is forced to be King if he shows any romantic interest, there is no way to know if he is asexual or it is a defense mechanism. His dream of being a Starfleet officer is far greater than his interest in being romantically involved with another person. If his mother removed the danger of being King, then we would be able to see if he is asexual or not.
As far as Luffy being asexual, there is the scene in Alabaster where he was knocked out by Nami flashing him and other men in the baths with her Happiness Punch. However, Luffy is so focused on becoming Pirate King that romantic relationships are a distraction.
As long as Billup is forced to be King if he shows any romantic interest, there is no way to know if he is asexual or it is a defense mechanism. His dream of being a Starfleet officer is far greater than his interest in being romantically involved with another person. If his mother removed the danger of being King, then we would be able to see if he is asexual or not.
Well, when he does think he has no choice anymore, he's still very uncomfortable about the part where he has to lose his virginity, and when he confronts his mother at the end, he doesn't say it in an annoyed "because of your stupid rules I can't have sex ever" tone but in a proud "I love my lifestyle, accept and deal with it" way.
So in the end, it doesn't really matter if he's asexual "by nature" or if it's a defense mechanism since he clearly isn't embarrassed/annoyed by it and is in fact embracing it. I guess he realized it eventually during his career and came out as a result.
Warp works however the writers say it works. It's not an Alcubierre-White warp, as evidence by the fact that the ship is not causally disconnected from the rest of the universe while in warp but is in fact able to use sensors and communicate with Starfleet.
Comments
Regarding this weeks? IMO, it was pure brilliance. I don't recommend only watching this one. There was some set-up to make this one work as well as it does.
Considering the context of the whole episode. Seeing lower decks of a Borg Cube was a genius move. I was in stitches!
An observation I have to make about the animation style. I so happened to see this weeks episode in 720p on a larger television. Normally, I stream on smaller computer. Those starships? Save for the Borg Cube they were rendered rather crisply. Cerritos has certainly had a remaster for season two. Even that mash-up of a Pakled ship got some new angles and clarity. Scale is not difficult to discern between the Cerritos, the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Vulcan cruiser. The 24th century Vulcan starship was not small. It's nice. And it has a...console...just waiting for an STO dev to flesh out.
> I read, here and there, criticism that this animated series is too whimsical for the tastes of some fans.
I agree with this argument but not with the wording. I am not opposed to βwhimsyβ per se. I just think as comedy Lower Decks creates canonical crisies where dramatic personalities and cultures are reduced to characatures. For example if Packled understand that they are the butt-end of the universeβs cosmic joke and try to make super junkyard ships in order be taken seriouslyβthat doesnβt seem realistic. And it is too big of an event to dismiss as hyperbole or βwhimsy.β
If I suspend my disbelief enough to try to enjoy Lower Decks it still falls flat as comedy for me. It is Rick and Morty βliteβ and feels safe and redundant for that marketβas it is comedy by committee.
Basically the biggest problem I have is that βEaster eggsβ are not funny, I donβt get a sense of gratitude when I see a tribble on Lorcaβs desk. I feel the director is simply pandering to my Star Trek nostalgia. And although I get and appreciate the references, I donβt think name dropping βLanduβ or saying βwhalesβ is actually funny. And the overall effect in my opinion is that it cheapens the franchise and makes the universe seem smaller.
Granted the exploits of Kirk and crew probably would be well-known by that generation of Starfleet crew. And maybe even known to the same microscopic detail of a Star Trek fanβbut if that is all anyone talks about it is weird, right. It breaks the 4th wall to have Spock helmets and references to TOS as TOS or Vouager as VOY.
So I like Lower Decks for a lot of reasons. It is cheap Star Trek and is great filler between Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds. I can appreciate itβs place in the Kurtzman timetable. And some of the later episodes in season one really were strong on their own and brought the series into the realm of βgenuine comedy.β But overallβdivorced from the Star Trek brandβI donβt think the series would be very enjoyable, except in the lowest common denominator it-is-campy-but-I-am-too lazy-to-change-the-channel-sort of way.
I do really, really like the tasteful way Lower Decks has been included in STO so far, though. And as a branded Star-Trek-fan I am eternally obligated to watch any Star Trek-related content and then complain about it for 10 years. After 10 years, I can admit I βmay haveβ enjoyed it.
I think I can finally forgive JJ for 2009.
(Full Disclosure: I only watched 3 or 4 episodes of this season and have not seen the episode you are referring to with a Borg cube yet. Maybe it will change my view of the problems about the series as a whole. Who knows?)
By itself, it just sounds a typical "I may come back later in the show to be the new Lwaxana to your Deanna, Andy" sequel hook, but then, you learn the VAs of the two are actually a married couple with kids, which also turns it into a meta joke.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
He wants to stay in Starfleet, but he is the prince of his world. So if he is no longer a virgin, then he is forced to leave Starfleet due to becoming King according to his world's customs. There is no way to know if he is Asexual or is just forced to be a virgin as long as the threat of becoming King is hanging over his head.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
It is Hysperian Law. Billups is obsessed with his virginity because he wants to stay with Starfleet. If he could easily say 'TRIBBLE off?' without incurring any major penalties, then he likely would have years ago. If Billups loses his virginity, then the Federation would say sorry and send him back to his homeworld. There is likely some Starfleet rule that states that Heads of State can't be in Starfleet.
Also, teaser to Collective's Borg gameplay, showing off how exciting it's gonna be:
The Naked Time simulation is just a simulation so it can't be used as evidence for his asexuality. So while his records might show that he is asexual, it doesn't prove that he is due to his forced virginity being a defense mechanism.
I haven't had Star Trek give those kind of chills since the cliffhanger from Best of Both Worlds, Part 1. Why? Why we gotta wait?!?
Or since the ship carrying the bomb was trashed by the Cerritos and the Sh'vhal in the last episode, they could have accidentally crashed into their homeworld after warping out due to the damage.
Also, that was one hell of an ending for season 2.
Even in the future, ACAB.
I love how it looks like they looked at the opening of the Undiscovered Country and went "It's pretty cool, but what if we made it cooler, more intense and showed Sulu got incredibly lucky."
Also, Kayshon stating the simplest and most logical solution meta-wise only to be treated in-universe like he said the stupidest thing ever by literally everyone at the same time so we can't hear why it's the worst idea, is a funny and easy way to avoid the fridge logic behind that altogether.
And apparently, dilithium exposed to extreme heat is...very explosive - which makes me wonder how the hell it gets mined safely.ββ
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
The flaw in that logic is that in Star Trek warp is not a jump drive and the ship never leaves normal space so it would still have to traverse the debris field if they went straight for the Archimedes.
Of course, for plot reasons no one thinks of simply using the warp drive to go around the debris since it is a finite field and not an unbroken shell around the whole system from what the graphics shows.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Actually it does, the bubble of normal space inside the field is no different from the space outside the field besides the fact that it is moving in relation to the space around it, it is not a bubble of normality surrounded by some extradimensional space.
That is not to say that other drives are impossible in Trek or that you cannot force a warp drive to make some kind of jump, just that it is not the normal (and safe) method. For instance, Star Trek ships can go into hyperspace via warp engines (though it is hard on them) as shown in TOS, but they cannot navigate in it without a Medusan. And I think in TNG it is implied that the Traveler pushed the warp drive so hard that it redefined their position in the universe instead of causing the space in the warp bubble to move relative to the rest of space, or something similar.
Neither of those are normal things for warp ships to do, and unless Cerritos has a Medusan or Traveler aboard they would not be able to do them. Likewise they don't seem to be equipped with a spore drive, Borg transwarp corridor drive, or an underspace drive or any of the other non-normalspace FTL drives seen in various Treks.
Sci-fi stories use all sorts of ways of getting around the Einsteinian light speed limit, Star Trek is just one of those sci-fi universes where the heroes' FTL system is a normal-space based drive and always has been (with the exception of DSC and its moldy superstrings). It is not Star Wars with its hyperspace jump drive or Dune with its space fold jump drive, or any of the others with various types of jump drives. It got to be almost a running joke that Voyager tried practically all of them at some point in the series.
In fact in TOS the Enterprise chases Mudd's ship through an asteroid field at high warp with rocks bouncing off the deflectors, which according to the dialog in that Lower Decks episode would be disastrous because of the charge on the rocks.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
They use subspace for communication (subspace radio), not for transportation, and subspace particles (nadions) as weapons. Warp drive never leaves normal space under normal usage, and when it does leave it in abnormal circumstances it is always a problem to be solved, not a solution itself. Subspace drives are not a thing in Alpha and Beta quadrants, it is mainly used in Delta where it is called "underspace".
Warp drives use some kind of time-related hack to cause a bubble of space to slip along in normal space in the direction they want to go, that is why when the drive field is distorted in certain ways they break out of the timestream and reenter at a different point. It is the reason they called it "time warp factor" in The Cage, and though they later dropped the word "time" because it gave the wrong impression the way the drive was supposed to work never changed as shown at the end of The Naked Time, Tomorrow Is Yesterday, and Assignment Earth.
Not every science fiction stardrive uses alternate dimensions to work, and Star Trek is one of those (though from dialog in A Piece of the Action they probably use subspace transtators in some of the circuitry used to generate or control the bubble).
You are literally wrong.ββ
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
One-off statements in Voyager are not the best source considering they also said that you cannot make turns in warp when literally every other series (and even Voyager itself in other episodes) turned in warp just fine.
That said, even that quote does not disagree with what I said because transtators are probably used in the circuitry and systems that make generating the warp bubble possible, it does not say the ship ever enters subspace in the process though some of the fields and maybe even components in the drive may phase into subspace.
Other examples of asexual characters can be Monkey D. Luffi from One Piece, and Norman Clegg from Last of the Summer Wine.
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As long as Billup is forced to be King if he shows any romantic interest, there is no way to know if he is asexual or it is a defense mechanism. His dream of being a Starfleet officer is far greater than his interest in being romantically involved with another person. If his mother removed the danger of being King, then we would be able to see if he is asexual or not.
As far as Luffy being asexual, there is the scene in Alabaster where he was knocked out by Nami flashing him and other men in the baths with her Happiness Punch. However, Luffy is so focused on becoming Pirate King that romantic relationships are a distraction.
So in the end, it doesn't really matter if he's asexual "by nature" or if it's a defense mechanism since he clearly isn't embarrassed/annoyed by it and is in fact embracing it. I guess he realized it eventually during his career and came out as a result.