@MLClark The crossover and the musical come off to me as gimmicks. They have only ten episodes in a season, yet they have to go for gimmicks?

What's next, Spock on water skis jumping over a shark?!

@MLClark Re the flute, methinks that when Sir Patrick passes I may have to create a music montage of his career using "The Inner Light."

@MLClark One more and I'll shut up ...

I did this montage back in 2011 when I was fiddling with the idea. This was at the end of Shuttle. From time to time, I think about doing an update, especially since I know more about video editing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3duEasNhfh4

@WordsmithFL

Definitely should. The other piece you linked makes me itchy to rewatch For All Mankind. There's a lot of good we could be leaning into as a species, for sure.

@WordsmithFL

That said, if they do a PROPER lower decks episode (like TNG S7E15), maybe framed around Chief Kyle, that could be a decent outing. But if it's Lower Decks in the style of the animated series? I revert to my original "sigh".

@MLClark We're wrapping TNG S7 now (just watched "Masks"). I saw the "Lower Decks" episode and thought, "Huh, that's the right way to do it."

@WordsmithFL

That's what I was HOPING the animated series would be. There are so many solid stories that could have been told from those crew positions - the same way that I was sorely hoping the original pitch for Discovery, of following a lieutenant's vantage point for a limited series, would *actually* stick with a lieutenant's vantage point and power. Not rush Michael up the ranks and into every key story in the cosmos.

Two very lazy approaches to Trek world-building, alack.

@MLClark Supposedly there's a "Starfleet Academy" series in pre-production. No idea what that will be like.

@WordsmithFL

I'm just disappointed by how much NuTrek leans into a style of storytelling that prioritizes the individual over the collaborative enterprise (pun intended) of exploration, discovery, survival, & recovery. Even NuTrek stories that focus on teaching characters why they need to work with others go against the fabric of a future civilization where that lesson has *already* been absorbed.

I miss proactive imagining of a better world.

We have enough "people acting badly" media as is.

@MLClark I think it's more fundamental. Starfleet supposedly grew out of the naval tradition combined with NASA. Those who serve in the military, those who are astronauts, learn to collaborate. That's the whole idea behind the ISS -- nationalities are set aside. They work together as one crew.

The lack of professionalism seen in the "NuTrek" episodes as you call it really bothers me. Individuality would have been weeded out at the academy.

@MLClark Here's the trailer for "Subspace Rhapsody."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg3-CgRitwc

@MLClark I haven't seen "For all Mankind." We don't have Apple TV, and it's not available on disc ... I know it has rave reviews, and I always trust Ron Moore's writing, but the space historian in me has a problem with the premise. The Soviets were never close to a crewed lunar landing, and by Apollo 11 had pretty much moved on to developing a small space station.

Grumble. 🤨

@WordsmithFL

I understand having to let the premise slide a touch, but it's a really good cultural analysis of what would happen to US self-image and subsequent investment directions if the US "lost" the space race.

There's also a lot to love in the care taken with showing all the moving parts (politically, as well as technically, and in training) that make such missions go. One of the best hard science space shows we have, by far.

@MLClark I'm waiting for it to show up on disc some day, hopefully.

I liked the two seasons of "Mars" that aired on Nat Geo a few years ago, but they walked away from it. I have those seasons on disc.