Comments

  4. Dark Jaguar says

    I believe this is the first time I’ve ever laughed at this comic. (Mainly because it referenced a thing I remember. Ha! Star Trek! That DID exist!) Don’t misunderstand, I generally agree with the guy on various social issues, I just don’t think he’s funny. Though generally, I find most people I agree with who aren’t professional comedians also aren’t very funny. Funny is hard. I wish I was…

  5. magistramarla says

    PZ – You’re lucky that you got to see it when it originally aired. I didn’t get to see Star Trek until my hubby introduced me to it in 1976, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
    Our kids begged to stay up late to see Star Trek Next Generation and Dr. Who (We all loved Tom Baker).

  7. moarscienceplz says

    Captain, I recommend Twitter Earth be added to the Talus IV prohibition: Do not approach under penalty of death.

  9. moarscienceplz says

    Tony #6
    It’s a reference to Shatner’s tendancy to overact by… emphasizing words at …random/

  13. moarscienceplz says

    Radium Coyote #12

    It took me a while to figure out what you meant. I’m assuming this is a reference to George Takei being a gay man.
    I know this thread has a lot of silliness in it, and I’m all for that. I also am pretty sure you meant no harm. But stereotyping gay men as flamboyant is a bit demeaning, I think.
    I know humor often paints with very broad brushes, and George himself would probably laugh this joke off, but it just seems to me like this joke has more potential to do harm than good.

  15. screechymonkey says

    My @14 crossed with @13, so I’ll just add: “Oh my!” is somewhat of a catch-phrase of Takei’s in his post-Trek career. It’s purely an affectionate reference on my part.

  16. NitricAcid says

    I weep when I mention “the original Star Trek” in class, and my students reply, “Is that the one with Picard?”

    Then again, I asked my students why they were in my class last week, and one of them replied, “ta git lernt.”

  17. says

    moarscienceplz @13:
    There’s some truth to that. I took the comment as a light-hearted riff on your #10. In fact, I was going to joke about already being fabulous. I didn’t find a problem with the humor, but I can’t speak for all gay people.

  18. moarscienceplz says

    screechmonkey #15

    I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with with making the little eccentricities and characteristics of individual people the subject of (kindly intended) jokes, especially in the case of celebrities. Stereotypes of entire groups, however, are fraught with minefields.

  19. moarscienceplz says

    BTW, for those people who have the great taste to appreciate Star Trek TOS, :-)
    There is a wonderful site of professional quality fan-created new episodes of it: Star Trek Continues.
    Check them out. It’s free.

  20. Radium Coyote says

    @ Moar:

    You seem a little ready to take exception to people. What’s the deal? Nobody here dislikes gay people, and I don’t find any of the jokes particularly offensive.

  21. says

    Radium Coyote @20:

    @ Moar:
    You seem a little ready to take exception to people. What’s the deal? Nobody here dislikes gay people, and I don’t find any of the jokes particularly offensive.

    Whether you, or I, finds them offensive doesn’t change the fact that using certain stereotypes can be damaging if one is not careful. I think that’s all moarscienceplz is pointing out. I agree with that. All that means is that people ought to be careful when using stereotypes (maybe including a snark tag in the future).

  22. moarscienceplz says

    Radium Coyote, I’m not taking exception to you at all.
    I was just trying to gently point out that stereotyping, even in fun, can be hurtful.

  24. ChasCPeterson says

    the REAL Star Trek (you know, the one with Picard…)

    of all the obnoxiously clueless shit that gets posted here any more, that one takes the cake.
    (red velvet)

  26. says

    Chas:

    of all the obnoxiously clueless shit that gets posted here any more, that one takes the cake.
    (red velvet)

    In about ten seconds I’m going to tell you to fuck off. When you do, I hope you have a nice day.

  31. says

    Radium Coyote @27:

    … I’m new here. Are Star Trek religious wars a thing?

    Not so far as I know, and I’ve been here a few years. Some commenters like one version of ST over other versions. That’s about the it. My comment was meant in pure fun, hence the “heh heh” at the end. I’m not even a huge fan of Star Trek, though if I had to pick, TAS would be at the bottom of the list of favorite series. In any case, referring to my comment as “obnoxiously clueless” without offering an explanation why, nor noting that I was kidding, is par for the course for Chas.

  33. Radium Coyote says

    > if I had to pick, TAS would be at the bottom of the list

    We’ll have to disagree about your placement of the relative series, then. I actually rank that very highly, albeit not for its animation. I value stories, the the older series had them at their most raw.

  34. Seven of Mine, formerly piegasm says

    DS9 is totally the best Trek and I will fight anyone who says otherwise!

    Also @ Tony #32

    Little explanation? You give him too much credit. :P

  35. chigau (違う) says

    I never much cared for TAS but I just read the Pffft article and have bit more respect for it.

  36. Larry Kearney says

    I, too, watched the original Star Trek when it aired. It was all the rage of the 5th grade class at Conyer Elementary, I’ll tell you. It was so cool, we didn’t even notice when the paper machè boulders flung at Kirk just bounced off him or that the gizmo Dr. McCoy used to scan people was just a salt shaker. While TNG may have had better technical effects, its still plays second fiddle to the original.

  37. rq says

    Seven of Mine
    *tosses gauntlet in general direction of*
    I’ll meet you outside.

    Tony
    I just checked with my agent, and xe said it’s okay not to care about that.

  39. Seven of Mine, formerly piegasm says

    eeheheeee

    I was kidding, I’m actually of…erm three minds about which Trek is best. I haven’t watched any of TOS really; just can’t get into it. The three modern ones I like for different reasons. TNG has Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, DS9 is the most cohesive series overall with some really good acting and also the least objectionable in a social justice sense IMO, and Voyager just contains my favorite characters which should be obvious by the combination of my ‘nym and gravatar.

    *ducks quietly out the back door*

  41. Seven of Mine, formerly piegasm says

    Also, Roxann Dawson (B’elanna Torres from Voyager) is the most under-appreciated actor from all three modern series. So there.

  42. Seven of Mine, formerly piegasm says

    And lol I totally forgot about the existence of Enterprise. Go fig. I liked it well enough but it doesn’t stand out. Porthos is adorbs.

  43. says

    Seven of Mine @39:

    I was kidding, I’m actually of…erm three minds about which Trek is best. I haven’t watched any of TOS really; just can’t get into it. The three modern ones I like for different reasons. TNG has Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, DS9 is the most cohesive series overall with some really good acting and also the least objectionable in a social justice sense IMO, and Voyager just contains my favorite characters which should be obvious by the combination of my ‘nym and gravatar.
    *ducks quietly out the back door*

    If I can pull in a phrase from another fictional franchise…”There can be only one.”
    You must pick :)

  44. Seven of Mine, formerly piegasm says

    I’m still gonna waffle. Best I’d give to DS9 for continuity + acting. Favorite I’d give to Voyager because I identify pretty strongly with Seven and Robert Beltran (Chakotay) is gawjuss.

  47. knowknot says

    @24 ChasCPeterson

    the REAL Star Trek (you know, the one with Picard…)

    of all the obnoxiously clueless shit that gets posted here any more, that one takes the cake.

    … um… doing much reading lately?

  49. Pierce R. Butler says

    That can’t show the Earth of 2014 – we still have a little bit of icecap left, don’t we?

  50. Radium Coyote says

    contrivation leads to Galvitron. And lest we forget, TNG didn’t find its feet until it started telling NEW stories and left TOS behind.

  52. dianne says

    I fear Sulu was caught by the 2010s era internet. To the great joy of those of us also stuck with it.

  53. says

    I grew up with TNG and DS9, so it’s hard to take off the rose colored glasses. It took me a while, but after a while of watching the original series, there was a magical moment where I suddenly “got it.” There’s plenty to poke fun at, but it’s got my respect.

  54. robro says

    Are Star Trek religious wars a thing?

    How could anyone get into a religious war over a fiction?…other than Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists…did I leave anyone out?

  55. busterggi says

    Oh sure, like Kirk didn’t have a collection of photos of his conquests. Just because some were green doesn’t make them less female.

  56. Radium Coyote says

    > I thought we were talking about Star Trek, not the Transformers.

    And here I thought I’d screwed up that joke. Thank heavens for people who misspell things as much as me.

  57. frugaltoque says

    I remember reading somewhere that Shatner’s … dramatic … pauses … were actually Shatner having trouble remembering his lines. Then he just got stuck with it later (kind of like how Yoda only talked backwards when he was pretending to NOT be Yoda, but then got stuck with it for all the other movies).

  58. Menyambal says

    And I heard that Shatner had trouble remembering his lines because they often had been written just minutes before filming. He didn’t get a script and time to memorize and practice. (But nobody else seemed to have those problems.)

  59. Rich Woods says

    On the matter of Star Trek religious wars, I must declare myself a total coward.

    But DS9 had the most incredible* space battles.

    *For all meanings of incredible.

    Sorry, what was the original subject?

  60. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a brilliant concept for a ST film. Also, ST:TWOK was the best ST film ever, and introduced the coolest ST uniforms.

    If you disagree with me just know that you are wrong and you can suck my warp nacelles.

  61. PaulBC says

    For Tom Tomorrow, this is an unusually affectionate and optimistic view of current public discourse. (OK, he does allude to gun nuts, but most of the comic is a critique of triviality rather than malice.)

    The part with Scott was funny. As I understand it (or according to legend anyhow) TV was originally advanced as a medium that could further mass education. Today’s internet, oddly enough, finally fulfills that promise for anyone willing to learn from it (with a grain of salt and sufficient fact checking). So with TV, you could reasonably complain about the lack of available content, but today the blame rests much more heavily on the consumer. I do not doubt that the internet is a dream come true for a small minority of autodidacts. Even the people posting lolcats probably get a lot of useful information. Things could definitely be worse.

  62. AlexanderZ says

    Ha. ha. ha. Hilarious.

    Particularly that last panel when you remember that Grace Lee Whitney who played Rand had been sexually assaulted by a Star Trek executive, which caused a down-spiral of joblessness and substance abuse. She might have died in poverty if it weren’t for the friends and fans who supported her (most notably Nimoy) over the years.

    Did I say “hilarious”? I meant stupid and repulsive.

  63. MattP (must mock his crappy brain) says

    I second jrfdeux @60 on Wrath of Khan being awesome, but Star Wars and Empire were far better overall because of the lack of technobabble and horrible science that completely broke suspension of disbelief.

  65. says

    One ofmthese days I might get curious enough to watch me some Star Trek. Funny how I get most of the innuendo here despite neve seeing a single episode. Some sort of information osmosis got it into my brain perhaps.

  68. What a Maroon, oblivious says

    I’m a Start Trek geek of almost the same vintage as PZ (and, as an aside, Star Trek refers to the Shatner/Nimoy series; no need for a modifier), but DS9 was the best overall series. But my favorite character was B’Elanna Torres.

    (As an aside, I have vivid memories of a Star Trek episode where they travel to a planet where the women are in charge, and men are treated as the weaker sex. But when I recently rewatched the whole series, that episode never came up. Was I hallucinating it, or misattributing an episode from another series?)

  69. What a Maroon, oblivious says

    And I just realized that Seven of Mine @ 41 beat me to the awesomeness that was B’Elanna.

  71. twas brillig (stevem) says

    My Star Trek history is warped and folded, repeatedly. After watching TOS (first run) and years of reruns, I was immediately taken by TNG as more worthy, better quality overall: story, screenplay, acting, fx, etc. Found DS9 to be much more dramatic; living on a spacestation with planetary politics very relevant, not just flitting around the galaxy in a rt66-like hot rod. Voyager was … “interesting” … introducing a hot borg, and with the ship extremely lost in space. But it only seemed like a nice diversion, nowhere near DS9 quality. Final blow was Enterprise; a cheesy ripoff of the Trek legacy; seemed to be trying too hard to be relevant with a terrrorism undercurrent (recurring storyline). This set me back to enjoying TOS as the best of the Trek; striking a balance between serious stories and casual ensemble presentation. The TOS actors were clearly actors enjoying presenting the stories. TNG actors were elitist shakespearean actors, becoming fully the role they were playing.
    – argh enough
    Ranking:
    1. Star Trek (TOS) – [ most watchable/fun ]
    2. DS9 – [ best story arcs ]
    2. TNG – [ best acting ]
    4. Voyager
    99. Enterprise

  72. What a Maroon, oblivious says

    Thanks, chigau, that’s the one. I don’t know why I had it stuck in my head that that was a Shatner episode.

  73. moarscienceplz says

    What a Maroon #68

    (As an aside, I have vivid memories of a Star Trek episode where they travel to a planet where the women are in charge, and men are treated as the weaker sex. But when I recently rewatched the whole series, that episode never came up. Was I hallucinating it, or misattributing an episode from another series?)

    Are you possibly thinking of Spock’s Brain? The women lived underground and kidnapped men from the surface, using a wrist keypad that could inflict heavy pain.

  74. What a Maroon, oblivious says

    moarscienceplz,

    No, chigau jogged my memory–it’s Angel_One from TNG. For some reason in my memory it’s a Kirk episode (I guess because Riker filled his role of mating with all the aliens).

  75. zibble says

    I don’t agree with the message of this cartoon. Kirk should’ve been texting dick pix to Spock.

  77. says

    Why does Netflix not have B5? Sniff sniff.
    I’ve only seen like one episode, waaaaaaaaay back when, and I’ve read so many good things about it, and heard many more good things about it.

  79. Akira MacKenzie says

    Tony @ 77

    Sadly, no. Warner Brothers has been notoriously spiteful toward B5 over the years.

  81. says

    I’m not terribly picky about Trek, so long as it’s not Enterprise.

    TBH, I think there’s a Star Trek for every person — if not a particular series, there will be an episode, somewhere, that’s relevant to you or your life.

  86. says

    launcespeed @83:

    I liked the version with Jar-Jar Binks. Best Trek Ever.

    I have two phasers set to retroactively incinerate from continuity with yer name on ’em.
    Star Wars or Star Trek-it doesn’t matter. There is no place for Mr. Binks.

  87. unclefrogy says

    I have no favorite as to which Star Trek series I like best there were great episodes in each one. One of my favorite of all was the “heist caper” in deep space nine where they had to beat the computer and the end when the “gangsters” walked out and faded away great bit.
    I even thought Enterprise was OK. At least it tied to fit into the history of the federation not destroy Vulcan like a very disappointing movie did. It was the stupid theme song that was so really bad.

    Has anyone seen this yet
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar
    maybe ??

    uncle frogy

  88. Ichthyic says

    Why does Netflix not have B5? Sniff sniff.

    time to learn how to torrent tony.

    it’s out there.

  89. 2kittehs says

    That cartoon was a hoot. Yeah, Kirk, of course you weren’t sending dick pics to Yeoman Rand on purpose.

    Daz @11, I’d never seen the loltrek or the actual Tribbles episode – got a hoot looking at that!

    Tony! – I saw some of the animated series when I was a teenager, I think. I enjoyed it.

  91. PaulBC says

    I even thought Enterprise was OK.

    I’m not sure that series had much going for it, but I liked the opening sequence with shots of the space program and a grinning Alan Shepard. There could have done much more with the idea that it was pre-TOS technology, but it mostly turned into a rehash of the same kind of story line.

  92. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    #62 AlexanderZ

    Ha. ha. ha. Hilarious.
    Particularly that last panel when you remember that Grace Lee Whitney who played Rand had been sexually assaulted by a Star Trek executive, which caused a down-spiral of joblessness and substance abuse. She might have died in poverty if it weren’t for the friends and fans who supported her (most notably Nimoy) over the years.
    Did I say “hilarious”? I meant stupid and repulsive.

    That’s awful. :(

  94. lakitha tolbert says

    Just want to give a Shoutout And a hearty Thank You to whoever posted the link for Star Trek Conitnues!
    I only watched a couple of the videos but I love it already. The guy who lays Spock is dead on and the sets and costumes look great.

  96. Crimson Clupeidae says

    I would recommend buying the B5 DVD set (and the movies) instead of torrent. It is by far the best sci fi series even made for TV, and all but one of the movies is really good too (more than can be said for ST). Even the spinoff series, B5: Crusades, showed promise before it was cancelled.

  97. Brony says

    I was just going to say that the comic reminded me of the song “Evolution” by Korn, except that I’m not so pessimistic.

    But if I have to choose I choose Picard and the next generation.

  101. knowknot says

    Careful with the torrent, and avoid the pourovers; it’s easy to get recirculated.
    Watch for the strainers and boils, too.
    But yeah, if you’re a professional it is fun to just send clients out, and see what happens.

  102. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Daz, #40

    I allus wished they’d do a series which was completely civilian, non-star-fleet, and that came closest.

    They did. It was about a family living in a technologically advanced future, but experiencing all of the sorts of things that families with access to any level of technology experience. Kind of deep in its own way.