USSBurritoTruck

I remain skeptical. Unnamed sources claiming it was someone on the art department who hand drew it is not entirely convincing. I'd like to see the layers. Or, failing that, an explanation for why the characters are so inconsistent and indistinguishable from one panel to the next. Why the shadows don't make any sense. Why the hands when we see them don't make sense.

Also, the article claims the AR wall is using machine learning, and I'd like to see a source on that. My understanding, based on what the VFX supervisor for Disco, PIC, SNW, and SFA has said is that their AR walls do not integrate machine learning.

I follow Brian Tatosky on mastodon as well, and he says, "as far as I know" it was drawn and coloured by the art department. That is not a confirmation one way or the other.

But I went through and screenshot every image that was on screen of the comic pages. I would believe the art department mocked up the cover, but you cannot convince me the interior pages shown weren't shat out of an LLM.

I am a lot more annoyed at an official Trek production using AI slop comic book art that I probably should be.

That aside, this episode didn't do much for me. I like SFA when it's about Academy cadets doing school stuff. I really could not care less about Captain Ake's tragic backstory, or Nus Braka.

Well, yeah.

I only listed things the Federation was directly involved in, unlike the OP.

Hey, remember in ‘The Conscience of the King’ when we found out that the governor of a colony massacred half the population because they were experiencing a famine?

Remember ‘The Menagerie’ when we found out you can still get the death penalty in Federation?

Remember how Kirk consigned the populations of two planets, one of which told the Enterprise in no uncertain terms to not visit, to violent war, because he didn’t like the way they were conducting their ongoing conflict in ‘A Taste of Armageddon’?

Remember in ‘A Wolf in the Fold’ where we learned that Starfleet has alliances with less advanced worlds where the population is amenable to being “pleasure planets” for officers on shore leave to engage in sex tourism?

Remember when Kirk used a primitive culture to fight a proxy war with the Klingons in ‘A Private Little War’, and then abandoned them when he got a bit sad?

Remember that a founding member of the Federation, the Tellarites, were willing to keep a planet out of the Federation so they could continue exploiting its rich resources that the locals weren’t able to properly defend on their own, in ‘Journey to Babel’?

Remember ‘Patterns of Force’ where a former Academy instructor and renowned Federation historian introduced Nazism to a pre-warp society, even becoming their Führer?

Remember when we found out in ‘The Cloud Minders’ that an explicitly Federation member world maintains a rigid caste system?

Remember ‘To Short a Season’ where the plot was based around a Federation admiral who had supplied weapons to terrorists as a commander, resulting in a coup where the terrorist leader took control of their planet?

Remember how in ‘The Measure of a Man’, the Federation demanded that a sentient being, a member of Starfleet for 24 years, submit himself to be experimented upon so the Federation could make more of his kind for their own use?

Remember when in ‘The Survivors’’, Picard choose to do nothing to the being who committed complete genocide of a sentient species, claiming there were no laws to fit his crime?

Remember ‘The Offspring’ when an Admiral shows up to take away Data’s child for study, despite the fact that he won his right to live in ‘The Measure of a Man’?

Remember when Worf murdered a candidate for head of a foreign state in ‘Reunion’ and got off with a slap on the wrist?

Remember ‘The Drumhead’ when a respected former Starfleet admiral comes aboard the Enterprise and begins to persecute a crewpoerson based on who his grandfather was, on the basis of the fact that he committed a thoughtcrime, and Worf went along with it?

Remember in ‘Ensign Ro’ how a Starfleet admiral colluded with agents of a fascist states to blame refugees of that fascist’s states occupation of their homeworld for an attack the fascists commited, and to that end ordered a disgraced Starfleet officer to offer weapons to the refugeers?

Remember when Picard ordered the creation of a virus that might have potentially committed genocide against the Borg in ‘I, Borg’?

Remmber in ‘Descent’ how Admiral Nechayev fed picard a bowl of shit for not deploing a virus that might have caused the genocide of the Borg?

Remember ‘The Pegasus’ where we learned that an admiral was trying to recover a lost Starfleet ship that could cloak, in blatant violation of their treaty with another galactic power?

Remember how in ‘Journey’s End’ the Enterprise is tasked with the forced relocation of Federation citizens to appease a fascist state, and then when those citizens refuse to be relocated, the Federation chooses to abandon them?

Remember how Admiral Nechayev ordered the Enterprise to aid a fascist state in rooting out the freedom fighters opposing their occupation of territory that used to belong to the Federation?

Remember ‘Captain Pursuit’ where Sisko is willing to release a sentient being who is being hunted for sport to his hunters?

Remember how often Sisko was opposed to the actions of freedom fighters working against the fascist state occupying their homes, beginning with ‘The Maquis’?

Remember ‘Homefront’ and ‘Paradise Lost’ when the Federation implemented martial law on Earth, including mandatory random blood screening of its citizens?

Remember when terrorist organization tried to implement their conservative ideals on a resort planet, and Worf joined them, and then saw no repercussions for doing so in ‘Let He Who is Without Sin…’?

Remember in ‘For the Uniform’ how Sisko used biological weapons against freedom fighters resisting a fascist occupation of their homes?

Remember how in ‘Inquistion’ we learned about Section 31, an secret organization within Starfleet intelligence that exists to carry out Starfleet’s dirty business?

Remember when Sisko used a former intelligence operative from a fascist state to trick a different fascist state into joining a war effort in, ‘In the Pale Moonlight’?

Remember ‘The Seige of AR-558’ where we see Starfleet officers committing war crimes, and collecting trophies off the bodies of fallen enemies soldiers?

Remember how in ‘When it Rains…’ we learned that Section 31 infected Odo with a biological weapon to kill the Changelings, and in ‘Extreme Measures’ that the Federation Council refused to provide a cure, even after one had been created?

Remember when Worf assissinated a foreign head of state in ‘Tacking Into the Wind’ at Sisko’s implied behest, and faced no consequences for doing so?

Remember how Janeway murdered a being, who had commited no crime and had been explicitly stated as being helpful to the crew, as he begged for his life in ‘Tuvix’?

Remember in ‘Nothing Human’ when we learned that the Voyager database includes the works and psychological profile a fascist scisentist whose research involved committing atrocities on the population of a planet his people had occupied and forced into labour?

Remember when Tom Paris was senstanced to solitary confinement on the bridge by Janeay, an act that is currently considered cruel and unusual punishment, in ‘Thirty Days’?

Remember ‘Equinox’ where we learn a Starfleet crew has been knowingly capturing and murdering sentient lifeforms to fuel their ship?

Remember how in ‘Shadows of P’Jem’ we found out that the Vulcans maintained a long range listening outpost under a site they declared sacred to their culture?

Remember in ‘Cogenitor’ when Archer refused to grant asylum to an alien being who was kept in sexual slavery?

Remember when Archer tortures someone for information in ‘Anomaly’?

Remember in ‘Damage’ when Archer orders the NX-01 crew to board an alien ship and steal vital components of their warp drive, leaving those beings stranded in a hostile and dangerous region of space?

Remember ‘Kir’Shara’ where we saw Shran torture Soval to assess the truth of informaiton he was being given?

Remember in ‘Bound’ how Archer accepted a gift of three slaves?

Remember ‘Star Trek: Insurrection’ where the Federation was allied with a state that keeps slaves, and agreed to force relocate a population so they could gain access to the resources of that people’s planet?

I later learned she was also supposed to be Cardassisn, which I totally missed as well.

I found that Cardassian prosthetic they used to be pretty distracting. I'm guessing it must have been one of those full face deals based on how Tawny Newsome's features were flattened out and broadened, giving her an almost uncanny valley situation. Pretty sure the Cardassian prosthetic in the 90's shows were more appliques glued in place, and then make-up was applied on top. Also, the fact that Illa wasn't grey like every other Cardassian we've seen really bumped me. It wasn't until the reveal that she's also part Trill that the skin tone, and less obvious ridges stopped being annoying. I still don't think it was a great prosthetic.

Jeepers! Thanks for catching that

Damn, I've been enjoying the series more than I ever expected to, but this episode really got me.

868858.7 - that puts it pretty definitively after DSC season 5

Was that in question Reno being an instructor would seem proof enough that it was after her time on Discovery.

I’m going to be straight up honest and say that it’s been long enough since I watched the episode that I forgot McCoy’s revelations at the end of the episode. The part that stands out to me in that scene is Spock mind melding Kirk so he forgets he fell in love with a robot.

It certainly does throw a wrinkle into my theory.

Maybe Pike is haunted by the memory of her, knowing that because his fate is already written he wouldn’t have even been able to sacrifice himself to save her from a horrible death, as parasitic lizards burrowed out from her flesh.

I always like getting the calendar, even though I would much prefer it was possible to get a Canadian iteration.

That said, none of the images in this one are really jumping out at me. A cool variety of different ships from different eras and shows, but nothing really interesting. I like seeing the ships, but let's see them doing something. Give me some Tholian webs, or a giant green space hand.

Did you mean “Yesteryear” for TAS? “Spock Amok” is an SNW episode.

My group switched to 2e pretty quickly after it became available. There are some significant differences, but for the most part it’s a streamlined version of 1e.

Most of what’s available in the new Tech Guide would is simply information about the various technologies players would have access to. There’s only a few stat blocks.

It really does come across as a Suicide Squad riff. Which I guess is kinda what Cantwell's Defiant book has been, except he's not able to kill any of the characters, because as opposed to DC's third string jobbers like Heatmonger and Reactron, Defiant features Worf, and Spock, and B'Elanna Torres.

Neat!

The book that appeals to me most is Red Shirts, if only because I've really enjoyed Cantwell's writing on the Defiant book. The premise sounds like it could be a bit of a slog, but hopefully it's not just about seeing these characters eat it.

I guess Voyager - Homecoming is geared towards all the fans who found "Endgame" to be an unsatisfactory ending to VOY. The Bridges' work I'm mostly familiar with from their contributions to Star Trek Adventures.

Honestly find it a bit difficult to muster up any enthusiasm for an SNW comic. I'm not at all familiar with Thompson's work -- looks like he's done a lot of young reader books and Star Wars stuff for Marvel -- but I'm immediately put off by the adorable robot sidekick idea. I'll still give the book a chance, but I'm not going to go in with high expectations.

I assumed that as part of their Academy duties they'd need to maintain the Golden Gate Bridge.

"People like the bridge!"

I'm a bit more surprised than I should be. Obviously the story in these ongoings was going to have to come to an end at some point as the timeline progressed towards "Star Trek Nemesis" but it still feels like there's a lot left to explore. Still, it will be interesting to see how the books wrap everything up. And what Trek comics come next.

That headline might as well read, “Suprise: That Khan podcast thing was actually in production.”