• teft@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Its like that scene in the pilot of community where Jeff snaps the pencil:

    Jeff Winger: What makes humans different from other animals? We’re the only species on earth that observes Shark Week. Sharks don’t even observe Shark Week, but we do. For the same reason I can pick up this pencil, tell you its name is Steve and go like this…
    [breaks pencil] Abed reacts in shock
    Jeff Winger: and part of you dies just a little bit on the inside. Because people can connect with anything. We can sympathize with a pencil, we can forgive a shark, and we can give Ben Affleck an Academy Award for screenwriting.

    Humans are good at anthropomorphizing everything. Even aliens.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          It’s like how all races are more or less humanoid, all races also have a Jeffrey Combs phenotype. All of them.

          • trolololol@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            The original race that seeded the galaxy with dna must have been all made up of Jeffrey Combs.

            Pikachu face

            You can thank me later

      • trolololol@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I imagine a whole series, based on the premise that someone made thousands of clones of Jeffrey Combs, and all episodes are about a society where Jeffrey Combs plays all roles.

        If you think about it it’s just a spin off from some episodes with missed opportunity. There was this next Gen I think where there’s 6 people who are cloned forever. Or the lower decks that collects ensign Kim from multiple universes. Imagine if instead we had a dashboard counting the number of Kim’s vs <Weyoun + Brock + Shrank…>

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Well anytime the humans try to stereotype the others to support an argument of “we can’t ally our selves with them” there’s always some lieutenant noting “but Anderson over there isn’t like twice as [insert stereotype] and we generally manage to deal with him.”

    Humans have so much more variance than Vulcans or Klingons or any of the other races which are just incredibly narrow societies ideologically.

    • trolololol@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Typical definition of outgroups.

      We are: <many good things, with variability, nuance and tolerance>

      They are: <not as good, shallow and not complex, predictable>

      Hence lieutenant Woof is always saying “they’re going to attack us, we should attack first” every episode.

      Then there’s romulans. Fuck romulans.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    It’s just that humans get to have all kinds of personalities while other races are for the most part depicted as being exactly what the cliche of their races would be if they truly existed.

    Therefore Star Trek is racist.

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Perhaps the most egregious example would be the Klingons. Worf talks of Klingons in an idealized sense, code of honor and all that. But apart from him and Martok, most of the Klingons we see are stupid and belligerent, and just as conniving as any Romulan. If you assume that the totality of them as a people are what we see of them there’s simply no way they would ever have adopted the scientific method let alone made it into space. Somewhere out there there would have to be klingon scientists, lawyers, janitors, engineers, doctors, artists, etc. All we hear about is warriors but they alone do not make a civilization.

      • 5too@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I always figured Worf had an idealized view of Klingon honor, given it was a culture he cherished but wasn’t actually raised in. Dax also calls him out on his atypical behavior - “Klingons do not laugh.” “No, you don’t laugh!”

        • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          Dax also called out the empire on their bullshit. Everyone there was a snake. Backstabbing , lying, cheating. Prattle on about honour then go and behave like slightly dimwitted Romulans. At least Romulans are honest about valuing cunning and guile above all else. The workings of the Klingons empire are also a great demonstration of why monarchy is a bad idea.

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I really appreciate that the new shows actually demonstrate how Spock and T’Lyn are mavericks. They only seem stoic and stuffy because they’re around humans; put them with other vulcans and they’re clearly much more emotional and, counterintuitively, more rational, than their peers.

    • bradbeattie@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      On one hand, the Duras Sisters disprove your point. Then again, “You have manipulated the circumstances with the skill of a Romulan.” Yeeeeaaaahhh… Point taken.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        That was said not as a racial jab, but as a not so subtle statement that Picard and the Federation knew the sisters Duras were working for the romulans. It also carries the underlying significance that the Federation knew about Khitomer and their families betrayal.

        It’s a warning shot to let them know their subterfuge had been uncovered, and the Federation has them by the short hairs in several directions. Its intended to put them on the backfoot in the ensuing fight.

  • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    someone find that long post about how the vulcans let us lead because all the crazy shit we do makes breakthroughs that nobody saw coming

  • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    ENT is the best Star Trek because of Porthos. It’s not even a contest. Best character in any Trek, ever.

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      How much cheese-induced canine diarrhea do you think the crew had to clean up bc archer wasn’t a responsible pet owner? Seriously, he let Porthos romp free on worlds they’d just landed on before extensive testing-- almost killed him in that one episode too, which he tried to blame on the alien hosts.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Archer was awful, yes. If his bullshit with Porthos didn’t directly contribute to the prime directive, it should have. But that wasn’t Porthos’ fault. Poor guy was just trying to boldly go, and he’d no idea those trees were sacred.

        He also got the worst ending of nearly any character, with Scotty just misplacing him.