# Star Trek Megathread



## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

For those of you who are unaware, _Star Trek_ is the greatest fictional universe of all time. There's just so much to love about it. So as GBATemp's biggest Trekkie, I figured it was about time I posted a _Star Trek_ megathread.

What is your favorite series?
Who is your favorite character?
Are you watching any of the new series?
What did you think of the newest episode of whichever series is currently airing?


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## SaberLilly (Jul 24, 2021)

I been watching star trek for over 25 years, and asking me to pick a favorite series and character is like asking a kid what his favorite color is. The newer stuff is good but at the same time feels like its missing something that the older shows had, might just be me getting older though, so I decided to binge Enterprise on Netflix and boy is the first season a bit of a slog, but it was the last one to come out before everything went all Kelvin-like and still has a little of the old trek charm.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

SaberLilly said:


> I been watching star trek for over 25 years, and asking me to pick a favorite series and character is like asking a kid what his favorite color is. The newer stuff is good but at the same time feels like its missing something that the older shows had, might just be me getting older though, so I decided to binge Enterprise on Netflix and boy is the first season a bit of a slog, but it was the last one to come out before everything went all Kelvin-like and still has a little of the old trek charm.



I would agree.  I think star trek discovery and picard are good, but both seem too dark really, which isn't what star trek is supposed to be.


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## DinohScene (Jul 24, 2021)

Voyager for me.

Haven't watched much of the Kelvin time line tbf.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

I voted for star trek original and ds9.  I like the dominion war story arc in ds9, and star trek original has that retro tv show charm.


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

SaberLilly said:


> I been watching star trek for over 25 years, and asking me to pick a favorite series and character is like asking a kid what his favorite color is. The newer stuff is good but at the same time feels like its missing something that the older shows had, might just be me getting older though, so I decided to binge Enterprise on Netflix and boy is the first season a bit of a slog, but it was the last one to come out before everything went all Kelvin-like and still has a little of the old trek charm.


I get it. That's why in the poll, I gave the option of picking three choices.

I like _Enterprise _just fine, and it does retain that old-Trek charm, but it's Season 3 that is a slog for me.

As for the new stuff, DS9 Season 1 was pretty good, Season 2 was a bit of a slog, and I really loved Season 3. Lower Decks is just brilliant.



Spoiler: Enterprise/Discovery plot details



The Temporal Cold War, particularly the Xindi plot, was poorly executed in _Enterprise_, which is why Season 3 of Enterprise was a slog for me, and I feel like Season 2 of _Discovery _made a lot of the same mistakes and felt a lot like the Temporal Cold War. I like how Season 2 of _Discovery _ended and what it led to in Season 3, however.





godreborn said:


> I would agree.  I think star trek discovery and picard are good, but both seem too dark really, which isn't what star trek is supposed to be.


_DS9 _could be dark a lot of the time, and the farther it went, the more it became a serial instead of episodic (like _Discovery _and _Picard_). _DS9 _was so ahead of its time.



DinohScene said:


> Voyager for me.
> 
> Haven't watched much of the Kelvin time line tbf.


Have you watched _Star Trek: Picard_? You might like it if you're a _Voyager _fan.


Spoiler: Picard plot details



Seven of Nine is there, and a minor character from _Voyager _also makes a brief appearance. There's a lot of Borg stuff, and we also find out what happened to the Sikarians after Voyager left their planet.





godreborn said:


> I voted for star trek original and ds9.  I like the dominion war story arc in ds9, and star trek original has that retro tv show charm.


_DS9 _is my #1 favorite for sure. After that, it's probably a tie between _TNG_ and _Voyager_.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

true, but I don't get the same charm from discovery or picard that I get with the other series (including enterprise).  I think they're good shows, but bad star treks.  I would agree that the xindi timeline (season 3) of enterprise kinda sucks.  I think they were trying to boost ratings, because the show originally aired on a bad channel, UPN, iirc.  voyager was on there too, and they seemed to have ratings issues as well, so they introduced tna with seven of nine.  I hate the character with a passion.


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## DinohScene (Jul 24, 2021)

Lacius said:


> Have you watched _Star Trek: Picard_? You might like it if you're a _Voyager _fan.



Haven't yet but I got it on me server, I probably wait until it's finished so I can marathon it all.


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## Nikokaro (Jul 24, 2021)

Lacius said:


> What is your favorite series?
> 
> Who is your favorite character?
> 
> ...



1) Star Trek: The Original Series
2) Kirk, Spock, Sulu
3) No
4) Nothing


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## Blaze163 (Jul 24, 2021)

You know what really bugs me about Star Trek? They never make full use of their discoveries. Take the TNG episode 'Rascals' for example, where Picard and a few get de-aged in a transporter malfunction. They figure out how to reverse it at the end of the episode, but this also means you just figured out how to trigger this on and off at will. You turned the transporter into a fountain of youth. Never mentioned again. Nobody thinks to shave a few years off. I get it's because it's episodic and not everyone will see every episode so you have to have things self contained, but really? Nobody wants to even casually drop it into conversation here and there?


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

BTW, that's just my opinion on the new treks.  I don't like posting my opinion on anything, because it always seems to piss someone off.  That's the reason I blocked the politics section.


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## SAIYAN48 (Jul 24, 2021)

I love Star Trek, hence my pfp. I don't like prequel series and thought the writing of Picard was a bit off. I also quite enjoy The Orville, great parody.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

XAIXER said:


> I love Star Trek, hence my pfp. I don't like prequel series and thought the writing of Picard was a bit off. I also quite enjoy The Orville, great parody.


I like the Orville as well.  I think I saw Brannon Braga's name in the credits.  He was like a writer and producer for the later star treks.


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

godreborn said:


> true, but I don't get the same charm from discovery or picard that I get with the other series (including enterprise).  I think they're good shows, but bad star treks.  I would agree that the xindi timeline (season 3) of enterprise kinda sucks.  I think they were trying to boost ratings, because the show originally aired on a bad channel, UPN, iirc.  voyager was on there too, and they seemed to have ratings issues as well, so they introduced tna with seven of nine.  I hate the character with a passion.


On principle, I didn't want to like Seven of Nine when she was introduced, but she quickly became one of my all-time favorite characters.



Blaze163 said:


> You know what really bugs me about Star Trek? They never make full use of their discoveries. Take the TNG episode 'Rascals' for example, where Picard and a few get de-aged in a transporter malfunction. They figure out how to reverse it at the end of the episode, but this also means you just figured out how to trigger this on and off at will. You turned the transporter into a fountain of youth. Never mentioned again. Nobody thinks to shave a few years off. I get it's because it's episodic and not everyone will see every episode so you have to have things self contained, but really? Nobody wants to even casually drop it into conversation here and there?


I think they just used the transporter in that episode to restore the missing pieces of their DNA, and thus their ages when their bodies were reconstituted, but it would take a lot more of a scientific understanding about the accident before it could be used on others. At the very least, the accident was a step forward for medical research regarding how to undo the damage caused by the aging process.

However, as it was portrayed in the episode, the only options might be kid or adult, with no wiggle room in-between. As we saw in the episode, each character who suffered the accident opted to return to adulthood. If it were me, I'd stay a kid and re-age gradually over time just for the added 20-30 years to my lifespan (in Guinan's case, hundreds more years).

Star Trek has also consistently shown people (and Androids) are generally less obsessed with their own mortalities and often embrace death as necessary for giving life meaning. Ignore the antagonists in the TNG movie Insurrection though.

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XAIXER said:


> I love Star Trek, hence my pfp. I don't like prequel series and thought the writing of Picard was a bit off. I also quite enjoy The Orville, great parody.


Parts of Picard were great, while other parts felt off. I also completely forget about The Orville. It's a fantastic show. Between The Orville and Season 1 of Discovery, two shows I was watching at the same time, I preferred The Orville.


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## AncientBoi (Jul 24, 2021)

The Next Generation. Manly because of Picard and Worf. n maybe some of the android dude. Oh, Data. That dude.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

you know you take nerdom to the next level when you attend an expo, even more so if you dress up.


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## AncientBoi (Jul 24, 2021)

godreborn said:


> you know you take nerdom to the next level when you attend an expo, even more so if you dress up.




I would come as Worf.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

I've been to expos, but I've never dressed up.  I even got worf's (Michael Dorn's) autograph, along with Data's.  however, I never attended one with Picard.


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

godreborn said:


> you know you take nerdom to the next level when you attend an expo, even more so if you dress up.


You know you take nerdom to the next level when you have a custom D&D campaign that's Star Trek themed, and it has been going for 12 years.


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## godreborn (Jul 24, 2021)

Lacius said:


> You know you take nerdom to the next level when you have a custom D&D campaign that's Star Trek themed, and it has been going for 12 years.



is that you?


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

godreborn said:


> is that you?


I said I was the biggest Trekkie here, and I meant it.


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## SAIYAN48 (Jul 24, 2021)

Discovery makes no sense: they power the ship with shrooms and everything they eat is made from shit. Why?


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## Glyptofane (Jul 24, 2021)

TNG is my first and favorite Star Trek and perhaps still my favorite show of all time. My favorite character would probably be Data. I still rewatch episodes frequently just because it's on. 

I like them all pretty well through Enterprise, but didn't appreciate Enterprise when it was first airing and think I originally stopped watching during the second season. Only later through reruns did I begin to feel like it wasn't really _that_ bad. DS9 has some really good episodes, but mostly shined in the middle of the series for me. Slow start and by the end I just wanted it to be over already. Voyager is probably the funnest show, but I hate most of the characters, especially Neelix. There were a lot of great scenarios even if a lot of it was seriously over the top and shark jumping even for Trek. TOS of course stands on its own merits.

The newer movies are decent, but I'm mostly kind of indifferent toward them and I haven't and probably won't watch more Discovery after season 2. I have never seen Picard, but don't like the sound of it and have never seen Lower Decks either if that even counts for anything. Still hoping there's a chance Star Trek can truly be redeemed to the greatness of the 90s someday.


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## AncientBoi (Jul 24, 2021)

XAIXER said:


> Discovery makes no sense: they power the ship with shrooms and everything they eat is made from shit. Why?




[snorts a line of coke] I have no idea.

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Glyptofane said:


> TNG is my first and favorite Star Trek and perhaps still my favorite show of all time. My favorite character would probably be Data. I still rewatch episodes frequently just because it's on.
> 
> I like them all pretty well through Enterprise, but didn't appreciate Enterprise when it was first airing and think I originally stopped watching during the second season. Only later through reruns did I begin to feel like it wasn't really _that_ bad. DS9 has some really good episodes, but mostly shined in the middle of the series for me. Slow start and by the end I just wanted it to be over already. Voyager is probably the funnest show, but I hate most of the characters, especially Neelix. There were a lot of great scenarios even if a lot of it was seriously over the top and shark jumping even for Trek. TOS of course stands on its own merits.
> 
> The newer movies are decent, but I'm mostly kind of indifferent toward them and I haven't and probably won't watch more Discovery after season 2. I have never seen Picard, but don't like the sound of it and have never seen Lower Decks either if that even counts for anything. Still hoping there's a chance Star Trek can truly be redeemed to the greatness of the 90s someday.





Oohh Nelix. yea, that dude gets me laughing.


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

XAIXER said:


> Discovery makes no sense: they power the ship with shrooms and everything they eat is made from shit. Why?





Spoiler: Discovery plot details



They don't power the ship with mushrooms. It's powered with a deuterium/anti-deuterium reaction like all of the Starfleet ships in the 23rd century. The mushrooms come into play when they want to use the spore drive, and it's just for riding the mycelial network that exists in another spatial dimension, similar to the real-life mycelial network that exists hidden underground here on Earth.

The spore drive allows them to transport anywhere in the galaxy instantaneously.


As for what they eat "being made of shit," that's how the food replicators have always worked. Put waste matter in, which is converted to energy. Take matter out, which is converted from energy.



Glyptofane said:


> TNG is my first and favorite Star Trek and perhaps still my favorite show of all time. My favorite character would probably be Data. I still rewatch episodes frequently just because it's on.
> 
> I like them all pretty well through Enterprise, but didn't appreciate Enterprise when it was first airing and think I originally stopped watching during the second season. Only later through reruns did I begin to feel like it wasn't really _that_ bad. DS9 has some really good episodes, but mostly shined in the middle of the series for me. Slow start and by the end I just wanted it to be over already. Voyager is probably the funnest show, but I hate most of the characters, especially Neelix. There were a lot of great scenarios even if a lot of it was seriously over the top and shark jumping even for Trek. TOS of course stands on its own merits.
> 
> The newer movies are decent, but I'm mostly kind of indifferent toward them and I haven't and probably won't watch more Discovery after season 2. I have never seen Picard, but don't like the sound of it and have never seen Lower Decks either if that even counts for anything. Still hoping there's a chance Star Trek can truly be redeemed to the greatness of the 90s someday.


Discovery Season 3 is, in my opinion, the best season of Discovery. If you watched the end of Season 2, then you know what's in store in Season 3.

Based on your post, I think there's a good chance you will like Picard.



Spoiler: Picard plot details



Data and the Soong-type androids are what the main story is about.



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For those who missed it, trailers for Prodigy Season 1 and Lower Decks Season 2 have dropped.


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## Alexander1970 (Jul 24, 2021)

Without STAR TREK with Kirk and Company there would be no other Series.
So clearly the first and original Series.

Second is STAR TREK Next Generation with the same Spirit and great Crewmembers.I love(d) it like the First Series.

Third is Enterprise,unfortunately a very underrated,great STAR TREK Series,where Paramount made near the same Mistake(s) like NBC Years before...also with a great Crew.



Deep Space Nine is/was different.For me,one of the Best Series of the STAR TREK Universe.Not really compareable with STAR TREK/TNG/Enterprise.

Voyager.....never really my Series,I have watched it 1 Time complete,but....yes,not more.

Animated Series - Very funny and entertaining in German (it was first aired/synchronized like a "Children Cartoon Series" in Germany/Austria)....Thank God they made a new German Synchronisation for the DVD release.....now it is really better.

Discovery - No Comment...

Lower Decks - Never seen....


Picard...It started very good.......I will wait for more Episodes/Seasons......but honestly I am not really a great Fan of it for the Moment.But maybe....


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## Lacius (Jul 24, 2021)

alexander1970 said:


> Lower Decks - Never seen....


You're missing out.


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## jimbo13 (Jul 25, 2021)

Lacius said:


> I said I was the biggest Trekkie here, and I meant it.



Factually untrue.

I'm named after Captain Kirk after Grandma veto'ed naming me "Trelane" from the squire of Gothos.

I'm the proud Captain of 8 children all named appropriately.  McCoy, Montgomery, Xana, Gates, Leonard, Nimoy, Dorn & Patrick.

9 is due in September, if it's a boy were naming him Shatner, if it's a girl were going with Seven.

The best current Trek series is undisputed. It is The Orville until CBS does the appropriate thing and delivers on an anthology series with stand alone episodes mixing returning characters and original.  The Picard series could of been wrapped up in a two-part Season finale and we wouldn't have to continue waiting on new content from Worf.


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## FAST6191 (Jul 25, 2021)

Far better sci fi is available but I saw a fair few on a more piecemeal basis. TNG followed by Voyager mostly (which I did do week by week for most of it) but some DS9 as well. Some originals and a smattering of films of all of them.
Various arcs and episodes of all these then becoming highly highly suggested viewing, both in general and as a reasonable introduction to sci fi concepts. Might even have several fan films in that list.

The modern stuff starting with Enterprise was not for me. I tried Picard... butchers with no understanding of most of the lore, mindset and more if I am going to describe the writing team there (even if I wanted a failed empire for the federation, and bought the supernova thing being handled that badly by an otherwise highly proficient spacefaring civilisation, and most sci fi I like is more in the crapsack future/definitely not a utopia mould). Discovery, whoo charmless adventures of a Mary Sue, if claims that series 3 is better (and it took a while for others to find their groove) then it is going to have to blow the series 1-not that* shift of TNG out of the water.
Lower decks, I was warned off this by people I generally agree with on films and TV and whatnot where "Stargate Infinity has competition in worst animated spinoff stakes". There has been some morbid curiosity but at the same time the general lack of discussion from anywhere I figure tells me what I need to know -- while CBS probably are there with Fox for not understanding meme/fan culture the various funny image streams that still reference and clip TNG and the others with new stuff all these years on, and talk about the state of the civilisation, timelines, interesting stories and whatnot.
Would happily consider the Orville as one of those spiritual sequels but it also kind of did its own thing which was nice.
I will ask a question though. Do you think the modern stuff (be it Enterprise, lens flare films or going to this latest revival) will be something that creates something like the enduring fanbase among the youth similar to what the big four enjoy? Or if you prefer before this last round of films (though they might not change much) it was starting to be seen in conferences that younger people had never seen Star Wars (despite being old enough to have watched TNG first airing I only really saw them on TV, can tell you a lot about the games though, prequels I also mostly caught on DVD when bored/morbidly curious at my grandparents who have a massive DVD collection and awful internet, never bothered with the Disney efforts beyond series 1 of mandalorian and was middling at best on that). Am I similarly to expect to be at a panel (or just watching one because conferences are icky and hard to navigate) and have the ever seen star trek question popped in a few years to find few have?

*I did fairly recently go back and watch a bunch of series 1 having mostly seen later stuff originally. Definitely notable shift there after it found its groove.


Re: Them not using technology they discovered. Personally I would say if you can handwave away them clearly having seriously advanced future tech with extrapolations of what we have today then you probably have to go with that; on ageing and cures for it alone then



As far as best. For my money I reckon Voyager consistently asked more interesting questions, though TNG's high points eclipse most of those. DS9 was OK as a trading hub/diplomatic on frontier type thing but otherwise did not a lot for me.
Original, can see why some enjoy it a lot but no particularly special place to me other than I do like


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## jimbo13 (Jul 25, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> Far better sci fi is available but I saw a fair few on a more piecemeal basis. TNG followed by Voyager mostly (which I did do week by week for most of it) but some DS9 as well. Some originals and a smattering of films of all of them.



Enterprise is under appreciated.  They screwed the pooch on the finale and the garbage with Malcom but the character arch with Shran (who was also on DS9 and the voice of ratchet on Transformers Prime) is gold. 

If it's on streaming with nothing else to watch skip through to the Shran episodes.









Picard was not good, but I can't dislike seeing Patrick Stewart back on screen as Picard, hopefully Season 2 stops with "Dottering, failed old man shit".

I turned Discovery off when they started torturing the overly effeminate gay dude to engage the "Mushroom warp drive".

I wish I was making that up, they Electrocute Mr. Slave from south park to teleport using a new type of warp drive powered by magic mushrooms or some shit.   I was like okay.. I am out.

I was looking forward to a more of ensemble starfleet story with Discovery, they failed.

Even if Discovery went Mary Sue I was fine with that,  Janeway was badass. 

Old Janeway vs Younger Janeway dragging Voyager home whether they wanted to go or not was probably the best finale of any trek series.


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## Lacius (Aug 13, 2021)

Season 2 of _Star Trek: Lower Decks_ premiered yesterday. The episode wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as the beginning of the first season was, but it was still a good watch. I'm optimistic the rest of the season will make me laugh. The intro theme still makes me chuckle whenever I watch it.



Spoiler: LD S02E01 plot details



The Gary Mitchell references were funny at first, but they got old really quick.



@godreborn Did you ever watch it? I know you downloaded it were going to watch it completely legitimately.


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## godreborn (Aug 13, 2021)

Lacius said:


> Season 2 of _Star Trek: Lower Decks_ premiered yesterday. The episode wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as the beginning of the first season was, but it was still a good watch. I'm optimistic the rest of the season will make me laugh. The intro theme still makes me chuckle whenever I watch it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I haven't even watched season 1, but the first episode of season 2 downloaded to my pc automatically thanks to sonarr and nzbget.


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## Lacius (Aug 13, 2021)

godreborn said:


> I haven't even watched season 1


Somebody needs to get their priorities straight.


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## godreborn (Aug 13, 2021)

I kept the sabnzbd folder from when I was using that (now using nzbget) with usenet, but yeah:


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## AncientBoi (Aug 13, 2021)

godreborn said:


> I kept the sabnzbd folder from when I was using that (now using nzbget) with usenet, but yeah:
> 
> View attachment 273009




LoL, I don't know why I just tried to click on it to watch.


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## godreborn (Aug 13, 2021)

AncientBoi said:


> LoL, I don't know why I just tried to click on it to watch.



admit it, you were hoping for a naked picture of me.


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## Lacius (Aug 13, 2021)

AncientBoi said:


> LoL, I don't know why I just tried to click on it to watch.


It's either because _Lower Decks_ is so compelling, or because old people don't know how to use technology.


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## yuyuyup (Aug 13, 2021)

I rate Lower Decks first 10 episodes 7.5 out of 10 BEFORE subjective cringe factor, 6.5 AFTER subjective cringe factor (chu chu chu, what the fuck is that shit, I looked it up, it means nothing.) https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Chu_Chu_dance


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## AncientBoi (Aug 13, 2021)

You Made Me Spit My Soda Out On My Laptop when I read it.  @godreborn

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I gotta clean it off my laptop. later guys


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## yuyuyup (Sep 4, 2021)

Never mind I just had to think about it


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