No one is saying that any pointy-eared aliens live there, but astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting 40 Eridani A, a star known to "Star Trek" fans as the host star of Spock's home planet, Vulcan.
The newfound exoplanet is 16 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Eridanus. It orbits its host star — a sunlike star with the formal designation of HD 26965 — just inside the habitable zone, where water could exist in liquid form and where life as we know it could be possible.
"It came as a total surprise to us," Jian Ge, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and co-author of a new paper about the discovery, told NBC News MACH in an email. "We did not have an intention to look for Vulcan orbiting HD 26965."
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Now we just need to hit warp and we'll be cookin with gas!
Likes
-I love LOVE LOVE LOVE the Klingon redesign. I think it's the alien look they really needed. (Shame all the other races look their typical "humans with skinpaint and some prosthetics" Kinda wish we got a little more of their culture than was presented, as the Klingons are still pretty boring. The brief bit of
A seedy town on Qo'nos was awesome. More of that.
-I really liked the crew. Burnham grew on me, I super like Saru (Dude deserves the Captain's chair, dammit!), Tilly and Stamats. Also liked that cyborg lady that's in the background mostly and I'd like to know more about her.
-The twist with Lorca was well done and I did NOT see it coming! It was nice that, after begrudgingly tolerating him but hating his guts for most of the season, dude got murdered.
-It was totally a cheap move, but I liked that final shot. I'm a sucker.
Dislikes
-I don't care for the spore drive. I was happy when it looked like they weren't going to be able to use it anymore, but frrrrt
-I hate how the Klingon/Human war mostly just boils down to specific tech advances (Cloaking, detecting cloaking, the spore drive) for most of it, rather than tactics or strategy.
-Way too oriented on action, sadly. I get this isn't TNG, but still!
-The twist with Ash was pretty easy to figure out, even without them telegraphing to high heaven, and I'm not sure I care for it. Also "I care so much for klingon purity that I'll willingly alter myself into a human" is the kind of poetic choice that falls flat in execution, IMO.
Overall, I liked it more than disliked it, and I think I'm in for another season.
Undead Scottsman on
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Working my way through Enterprise for the first time, getting close to the end of the first season. First thoughts:
That theme song brings thoughts of suicide every time I hear it. It's catchy and fitting to the show in all the wrong ways and I hate it. It brings back memories of GWB in his flight suit declaring Mission Accomplished every time I hear it. As a Diane Warren song, it reenforces some aesthetic and other connections to the movie Armageddon. The ability to skip past the opening credits is the number one thing that has made this show watchable to me.
As for the crew: Archer is an utterly average dullard who got his job from neopotism. Malcolm is like a villain from a 90s action movie, without the charm. Trip and Mayweather are pretty dopey and bland, like coworkers that you ignore.
The pilot is utterly terrible. Everyone is at their worst and I can see why most people never watched another episode.
On the plus side, the rest of the crew is alright and even Trip, Archer and Reed are not completely disruptive most of the time. With a few exceptions the plots have been fine and most of the first 20 episodes have been more enjoyable than not.
I like what they have done with the Suliban and the episode Detained was chilling and a perfect fit for the present time. Looking forward to seeing where they are going with them.
Back when this originally aired, the time period it was set in bothered me, as it cut Trek off from all the great characters, species, and concepts they developed over the prior decade that I knew and loved. But that pain has dulled with time and I kind of like the early space exploration time period. And I like the Vulcan stuff.
Monsieur T on
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Season 2 episode 5 is where everyone simultaneously stopped watching.
"Why should I apologize to those indigenous people we offended when Porthos pissed on their sacred tree? Their stupid planet made him sick!"
"Uh, sir? Who brings their pet to an alien planet - especially one whose people are notable sticklers about decorum - during trade negotiations?"
"I do, because humans rule, aliens drool! I'm also spectacularly bad at my job in all respects!"
I don't like Mayweather because I am convinced his name is "Merryweather," and every time his name is said I feel a moment of confusion followed by a reminder that I'm wrong, still and again.
GNU Terry Pratchett
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I don't like Mayweather because I am convinced his name is "Merryweather," and every time his name is said I feel a moment of confusion followed by a reminder that I'm wrong, still and again.
You're not wrong. You just have memories from an alternate universe where his name is Merryweather and Enterprise was good.
Rewatching TOS and four episodes in (for some reason they included the original pilot with Pike), three have involved dealing with beings of powers far behind that of the Enterprise and its crew.
They really liked that plot idea back then, didn't they?
Rewatching TOS and four episodes in (for some reason they included the original pilot with Pike), three have involved dealing with beings of powers far behind that of the Enterprise and its crew.
They really liked that plot idea back then, didn't they?
They were still figuring things out, but yeah. It wasn't until later on than we got more complex plots, the Romulans had many of these. "The Enterprise Incident", "Balance of Terror" etc. These made me a fan of the Romulans.
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
Trelane was definitely not magic. He had a machine hidden in his mirror, that Kirk blew up in order to escape. When Trelane captures them again he explicitly says he has backup devices.
The whole proto-Q thing tends to ignore those parts of the episode.
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
Trelane was definitely not magic. He had a machine hidden in his mirror, that Kirk blew up in order to escape. When Trelane captures them again he explicitly says he has backup devices.
The whole proto-Q thing tends to ignore those parts of the episode.
That's cause Q-Squared is a great tie-in book and worth overlooking that for.
Not only that, but the boundary between technical trickery and actual ability was blurred by the rest of the episode, specifically Trelane using the planet to intercept the Enterprise multiple times, and then his parents being green energy blobs.
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
Or in to toungless mutants that can't breathe air for some reason. No wait, that was Voyager...
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
True, but I never really liked those episodes. Plus, I was remarking about TOS, not TNG, so.... *shrug*
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
Or in to toungless mutants that can't breathe air for some reason. No wait, that was Voyager...
The only thing I liked about Threshold is its depiction of evolution as not just being stricky about improvements. In a way evolution can go "backwards" if it allows a creature to better survive in an environment. Case in point, whales used to be land animals that evolved back into sea creates.
The Voyager's crew were never going to evolve into beings of pure energy like, say the crew of The Enterprise. The Voyager's crew seem to be better suited to the giant newt lifestyle anyway.
A common plot is that what appears to be magic isn't. It's usually just advanced technology (with Trelane being a notable exception as an almost proto-Q).
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
Or in to toungless mutants that can't breathe air for some reason. No wait, that was Voyager...
The only thing I liked about Threshold is its depiction of evolution as not just being stricky about improvements. In a way evolution can go "backwards" if it allows a creature to better survive in an environment. Case in point, whales used to be land animals that evolved back into sea creates.
The Voyager's crew were never going to evolve into beings of pure energy like, say the crew of The Enterprise. The Voyager's crew seem to be better suited to the giant newt lifestyle anyway.
I understand what you're saying, but if I may be pedantic (and of course I can, this is the Star Trek thread), I disagree with your choice of words. Evolution does not "go backwards" in any sense. It goes forward and improves on past creatures, but those improvements can be the re-evolution of things it had before and lost. Whales didn't "go back" to being sea creatures; they evolved from sea creatures to land creatures to see creatures. The same process that made them land creatures made them sea creatures again, it didn't reverse itself.
Posts
Frakes' beard game has been basically immaculate for years, even when they catch him otherwise looking like someone who just had to chase down a bus.
The dark pact he made with his own facial hair to turn TNG around demands constant tribute.
he looks great, seems like he has slimmed down a bit as well.
Likes
-I love LOVE LOVE LOVE the Klingon redesign. I think it's the alien look they really needed. (Shame all the other races look their typical "humans with skinpaint and some prosthetics" Kinda wish we got a little more of their culture than was presented, as the Klingons are still pretty boring. The brief bit of
Dislikes
-I don't care for the spore drive. I was happy when it looked like they weren't going to be able to use it anymore, but frrrrt
-I hate how the Klingon/Human war mostly just boils down to specific tech advances (Cloaking, detecting cloaking, the spore drive) for most of it, rather than tactics or strategy.
-Way too oriented on action, sadly. I get this isn't TNG, but still!
Overall, I liked it more than disliked it, and I think I'm in for another season.
Well I guess there had to be somebody
That theme song brings thoughts of suicide every time I hear it. It's catchy and fitting to the show in all the wrong ways and I hate it. It brings back memories of GWB in his flight suit declaring Mission Accomplished every time I hear it. As a Diane Warren song, it reenforces some aesthetic and other connections to the movie Armageddon. The ability to skip past the opening credits is the number one thing that has made this show watchable to me.
As for the crew: Archer is an utterly average dullard who got his job from neopotism. Malcolm is like a villain from a 90s action movie, without the charm. Trip and Mayweather are pretty dopey and bland, like coworkers that you ignore.
The pilot is utterly terrible. Everyone is at their worst and I can see why most people never watched another episode.
On the plus side, the rest of the crew is alright and even Trip, Archer and Reed are not completely disruptive most of the time. With a few exceptions the plots have been fine and most of the first 20 episodes have been more enjoyable than not.
I like what they have done with the Suliban and the episode Detained was chilling and a perfect fit for the present time. Looking forward to seeing where they are going with them.
Back when this originally aired, the time period it was set in bothered me, as it cut Trek off from all the great characters, species, and concepts they developed over the prior decade that I knew and loved. But that pain has dulled with time and I kind of like the early space exploration time period. And I like the Vulcan stuff.
(2 of which are good even!)
Objection. Stating facts not in evidence.
"Why should I apologize to those indigenous people we offended when Porthos pissed on their sacred tree? Their stupid planet made him sick!"
"Uh, sir? Who brings their pet to an alien planet - especially one whose people are notable sticklers about decorum - during trade negotiations?"
"I do, because humans rule, aliens drool! I'm also spectacularly bad at my job in all respects!"
Wish I was kidding.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
Hey now, Porthos is one of the best characters on that show.
You're not wrong. You just have memories from an alternate universe where his name is Merryweather and Enterprise was good.
Porthos is best boy and anyone who says otherwise should be side-eyed because they obviously hate animals
They really liked that plot idea back then, didn't they?
They were still figuring things out, but yeah. It wasn't until later on than we got more complex plots, the Romulans had many of these. "The Enterprise Incident", "Balance of Terror" etc. These made me a fan of the Romulans.
The ep where Spock does a James Bond to seduce a Romulan commander!
But, for me, I like the episodes that are either more grounded (the aforementioned Romulan episodes, "Amok Time," "Journey to Babel," etc.) or deal with aliens that are truly alien and not just people with make-up ("Operation: Annihilate!" "The Doomsday Machine," "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Devil in the Dark," etc.).
Trelane was definitely not magic. He had a machine hidden in his mirror, that Kirk blew up in order to escape. When Trelane captures them again he explicitly says he has backup devices.
The whole proto-Q thing tends to ignore those parts of the episode.
That's cause Q-Squared is a great tie-in book and worth overlooking that for.
... Alright I guess.
Edit: Voyager of course
The chipperest Klingon ever, too.
But TNG also established that thoughts can shape reality and species can evolve into godlike energy beings.
He's pretty awesome when he shows up again in DS9, too.
(skip to about the halfway mark, or :20, if you like)
Or in to toungless mutants that can't breathe air for some reason. No wait, that was Voyager...
True, but I never really liked those episodes. Plus, I was remarking about TOS, not TNG, so.... *shrug*
The only thing I liked about Threshold is its depiction of evolution as not just being stricky about improvements. In a way evolution can go "backwards" if it allows a creature to better survive in an environment. Case in point, whales used to be land animals that evolved back into sea creates.
The Voyager's crew were never going to evolve into beings of pure energy like, say the crew of The Enterprise. The Voyager's crew seem to be better suited to the giant newt lifestyle anyway.
I understand what you're saying, but if I may be pedantic (and of course I can, this is the Star Trek thread), I disagree with your choice of words. Evolution does not "go backwards" in any sense. It goes forward and improves on past creatures, but those improvements can be the re-evolution of things it had before and lost. Whales didn't "go back" to being sea creatures; they evolved from sea creatures to land creatures to see creatures. The same process that made them land creatures made them sea creatures again, it didn't reverse itself.
Yes, several.
Yep, we call them land sea whales. I tame them