CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.
On Friday the 6th, I was a panelist on the following panels: “The Orville Fan Panel” and “When is Star Trek Space Opera?”. For Part 2, I present to you the audio recording of the Star Trek panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed. Listen to the raw recording here.
When is Star Trek Space Opera?
Space Opera is a subgenre of science fiction and sometimes Star Trek falls into that subgenre, but very often it does not. So when is Star Trek Space Opera, anyway? Panelists: Alexis Nordling (mod), Taylor Cisco, Justin Grays, Tim Liebe
TC Trek Trivia - Website & Facebook
We’re going to (mostly) ignore The Orville, but you can check out the previous post about The Orville here.
Is Star Trek Space Opera? For the most part, I think that it is.
Starfleet Captain Horatio Hornblower - I neglected to get this person’s name. If anybody can let me know who he is, please do so that I can credit him.
My baccalaureate paper, “Science Fiction, Gender, and Race: How Star Trek Has Failed to Live Up to its Progressive Ideals,” talks a bit about my feelings towards some of the failings of Star Trek; I plan on expanding on it further in the future.
When I’m quoting Rob Callahan, I am referring to a quote that the quipped when we were on the panel “Avoiding The Tokenism in Comics and Sci-Fi Cultures” at MarsCon 2018. In short, to help write Lieutenant Commander Chakotay, Jamake Highwater was enlisted as an consultant; however, it was later revealed that he was of Eastern European Jewish descent. He was heavily criticized by actual American Indians for his writings.
The book that I brought up that “Shuttlepod One” (ENT S1E16) may have borrowed from: The Kobayashi Maru
“Vulcans invent velcro” was a reference to “Carbon Creek” (ENT S2E02).
“The Clip Show” that we’re talking about is “Shades of Gray” (TNG S2E22).
The economics of the future are… complicated.
“You know, in some ways you’re even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You’re more insidious. You assimilate people and they don’t even know it.”
The Borg is a good example of where the nuance of Star Trek succumbs to the “good guys vs. bad guys.” Star Trek First Contact is very ray-gun, shoot-em-up, as another example of where the nuance begins to fall apart.
Also, another post for later, the Borg became less scary between TNG and VOY.
“On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well, it’s easy to be a Saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven’t been solved yet.”
Check out “The Prime Directive as Liberal Eurocentric Superiority” from MarsCon 2018; we get more into the Prime Directive there. Also, the episodes that we are referring to when quoting DS9 is “For the Cause” (DS9 S4E22) and “The Maquis, Part II” (DS9 S2E21).
“The Feeders of Spock” is the name of the comic that is the sequel to “The Apple” (S2E09).
Fair Use: this image is copyrighted, but used here under Fair Use guidelines. The image is owned by Paramount Pictures and/or CBS Studios. Kirk is a Jerk from “The Practical Joker”
“Kirk is a Jerk” and the first instance of a holodeck both come from Star Trek: The Animated Series. Both episodes were from “The Practical Joker” (TAS S2E03).
Picard did indeed violate the Prime Directive - there is a list of times here. Also, read more about Cargo Cults.
The Klingons from Discovery are not the low-budget Klingons - the Krill from The Orville are the low-budget Klingons This is because there is no one type of Klingon. The Klingon Empire is an empire (there is some debate as to how large the Empire is) and with so many planets and space, and the different kinds of Klingons and traditions that we have seen over the years, the Discovery Klingons are just as legit as the other series’ Klingons. The YouTuber EC Henry has a great video about why he likes the Discovery Klingons and how "The Klingon Death Ritual" Doesn't Exist.
“We were at war with Eastasia; we are always at war with Eastasia.”
”We were at war with Eurasia; we are always at war with Eurasia.”
We are misquoting George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The quote is actually: “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
How big is Starfleet?
One would think that I’d be better at remembering my own schedule. I am not.
If you can, please help me continue to get out to conventions and attend panels. Writing about each panel takes a lot of work, ranging from extensive note-taking and transcribing, to understanding the content of the panel, to analyzing the information, and there is maintaining this website and creating the content for ease of access. As little as $1/month will help me get into a position where I can prepare and create quality content for everyone. To this end, I am on Patreon, a membership platform service to help facilitate the relationship between patrons and creators.
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