The Star Trek Monthly Monday Thread

[NewFun#6]

LOL. Love the copy for this one, Chris!

[Bibliomike]

I love the copy, too! Thanks again for inviting me on the show. I hate the sound of my voice, but that's all on me, not on you guys - the episode sounds really nice after all the editing magic has been worked.

Something I forgot to say about whether I'd miss the ambient noise of the old Enterprise bridge: I know I would because I was so psyched to hear the old "bleeps" and "bloops" and "adding machines" in the sound mix at the end of STAR TREK IV, as they're standing on the bridge of the 1701-A for the first time. It really does make it feel like home!

Oh, and 4 judges on a tribunal? Turns out that's ok: the word derives (so says the web, anyway - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tribunal) from tribunus "official in ancient Rome, magistrate," lit. "head of a tribe," from tribus (see tribe). Hence, a court of justice or judicial assembly (1580s). So it apparently doesn't have to do with "tri" (3) at all.

Chris, your Leonard "Hammer" Nimoy impression is still just as funny as it was when we recorded!

Man, get a load of that TNG teaser: "A Starfleet experiment threatens to dismantle Data for android research." That guy's tone of voice (is that Dan la Fontaine?) makes "android research" sound like something really naughty or illicit!

[JonathanCrites]

I really liked this episode; I have listened to enough STMM that I start looking for the funny details in true TTF style. I loved Court-Martial; it had ALL the best Kirk-isms.

[Hair-Metal Hero]

Loving this one too, just finished the Court Martial segment. And Mike P. is always a treat to hear on the show.

[APLUK]

Really fun episode. Good to juxtapose the two "on trial" episodes in such a way. Just a couple of points:

Court Martial was apparently re-edited before transmission and felt garbled so they added the Voice Over (unusual for Trek unless it was a Captain's Log). Measure Of A Man was edited substantially before transmission to bring it down to it's 44 minute running time, losing between 15-20 minutes apparently. Melinda Snodgrass recently posted that the un-edited print will be released on the upcoming Blu Ray NG box set.

Regarding Melinda Snodgrass: it wasn't Measure Of A Man she was displeased with (as pointed out on the show, it landed her a story editor's gig) it was the enforced re-write of Ensigns Of Command that led her to quit the story editor's gig. She has put up her original draft here

Andy

[Bibliomike]

[Bibliomike]

[Hair-Metal Hero]

OK, here it goes...
Scott, I think you are dead on in your evaluation of Data in this episode. While I too love the character, at the end of the day, yes, Data is just a machine. That being said, he does hold a rank and did complete Starfleet academy to attain a position onboard a ship. While the episode does make for great TV, and I love seeing Riker have to play devil's advocate, I fully believe that Data is just a machine, a walking computer than can incorporate new data in order to solve problems and perform a function, much like those self driving cars we're going to see in a few years. He doesn't feel physical pain, an any ethics he has are a subroutine in his positronic matrix that would have had to be pre-programmed. ANy intimate relationship he had with Tasha amounts to no more than him being an autonomous sex-toy, as crude as that sounds. I think if this issue came up post integration of his emotion chip the episode could be far more interesting, as that particular piece of him certainly changes things, though we never really get a truly integrated Data, as the writers found every way to remove that piece of him from the equation.

All that being said, it is a great slice of Hard sci-fi that certainly does raise interesting topics for discussion.

[TheDLA]

I hate being broke. Because I WANT these Blurays so bad.

[Joe Anthrax]

Because I'm at work, I can't see the image/video you've posted, but I'm assuming they are for the Blu-Ray versions of Next Generation. If they are, I've picked up the teaser Blu-Ray that has "Encounter at Farpoint", "Sins of the Father", and "The Inner Light". All the shows are in 1.33:1 ratio, but the picture quality is AMAZING!!! The exterior shots of the Enterprise are beautiful and detailed. I've only watched "The Inner Light" but if the other shows are half as well remastered, they will be a joy to watch.

Joe -- Unfortunately all my DVD's and Blu-Rays are packed up for my move -- Anthrax

[TheDLA]

I cannot believe how good the Enterprise shots look. What is nuts is that they only did a restoration job and didn't redo any special effects. It looks like they made those shots yesterday, not 20 years ago.

[JonathanCrites]

They look awesome - I hope Netflix upgrades their episodes. Like how they show the remastered OS episodes.

[Hair-Metal Hero]

With Netflix having every bit of Trek on streaming now, I'm not in any rush to pick these up, need to get the original show on Blu first. That being said, they do look purty.

[Dan North]

Just listened to the Measure of a Man debate. Shall we dance?

I think this is a debate that's all most impossibly for either side to win.

It all depends on whether or not a soul exists. If a soul does exist than Data is not alive. But if a soul exists a God would exist. Wouldn't that make human beings creations? Wouldn't that make ALL of life the creation of a higher power? Like Data.

Now if a soul doesn't exist than Data is without a doubt just as alive as any human.

But a soul can't be proven to either exist or not exist and I doubt it is admissable in a court of law.

Truthfully, I think the entire argument is a bit pretensious. What right do we have to decide what is and isn't alive? Do we even have a life? Imagine, now this is the Star Trek universe, a far advanced alien race comes upon humans and decides we are not alive because we don't measure up to their idea of 'life'. It's just so presumptious for the fans and the characters to think they can decide what is alive. If that's not playing God I don't know what is.

[TheDLA]

[Arthur Ratnik]

[stevejrogers]

In various Trek communities that I've come across, there is a big "Shipper" fanbase for Wesley and Ashley Judd's character

IIRC, because it could just be fanwanking and not in like the original script or the novelization, but supposedly she is at Riker & Troi's wedding as Wes' Plus One in Nemesis.

[NewFun#6]

[stevejrogers]

[NewFun#6]