"Last Friday Night" by Katie Pery, DS9 AMV

 

"Shake It Out" by Florence and the Machine, DS9 AMV

 

Bore of a Canon

Growing up, people told me they'd read The Bible and I never thought too much of it. I assumed it was something everyone got around to doing. Like having sex or getting a driver's license. As an adult, I now realize not everyone has sex in their lives. And also, fewer have read The Bible.

I should specify: the Christian Bible, not the Star Trek: The Next Generation series bible.

Personally, I think it's more important that Doctor Crusher can diagnose diseases at a glance, than יְחִי הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה, whatever that means.

The Bible is just a collection of books written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. It's a collection of books and scrolls. Accounts and even just collections of letters from a couple of guys.

What collections of turn-of-the-Anno Domini writings are and aren't in The Bible isn't a matter of some unified history with one authority over them. It was a system of shared, hand-written texts that would have yearned for the anarchic underground zine resources of the late 20th Century.

A Bible–the bible most of us think of as The Bible–wasn't formed until, I think 1546 and the Council of Trent . And look, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, and Latter Day saints all have their own take. Mostly because those later two–or should I say "Latter Two"--didn't see anything particularly unique or magical about 1546. As long as their god may deign to speak, The Bible is a living document.

The First Joined Trill

What was it like for the first joined Trill?

I'm not evolutionary biologist, but symbiosis doesn't necessarily happen all at once.

This is going to be long and RHW may not want to read conjecture for writery legal reasons:

I think it involves addressing three questions: How are Trill hosts and Trill symbionts joined? Are symbionts sentient? What is the advantage to both for the first host to have a symbiont?

How are Trill hosts and Trill symbionts joined?

Modern Surgery - We've seen, I think, three transfers of hosts: Curzon->Jadzia, Jadzia->Verad, & Odan->Will Riker (Maybe Discovery had more?). In each case, the transfer was surgical, which points to a relatively modern origin.

PreHistoric Surgery - But then, trepanation has been practiced since prehistory, so a rough version of a surgical procedure could have been practiced amongst the Trill since their own prehistory. Unique factors of their physiology and planet may have made that type of procedure relatively safe  before the development of more reliable medical technology (better immune systems or fewer invasive microbes or a better natural defense against those microbes).

Early Modern Surgery - Or hey, the Trill developed subspace communications before warp, so maybe--given the fact that their civilization has surgery as a major component--they developed sanitation and germ theory before sailing, or gunpowder, or masonry, or currency, or the wheel. Maybe.

Natural Late Symbiosis - Maybe there's a 'natural' way of joining. Maybe the Trill symbiote burrows into flesh while emitting an anaesthetic slime. Then the flesh grows over it with a little scar. Maybe the host Trill have a pocket used for young, an otter pocket, or a second orifice to slowly digest some foods over time, a natural way to gain slow-release nutrition from an external plant to make up a natural deficiency. Whatever it is, which Trill symbiotes can burrow into Trill hosts, but surgical transfer is quicker and safer when the option is available. This is kind of like StarGate's Goa'uld, which were parasites instead of symbiotes. There's just a happier ending (for the record, the Trill were introduced in 1991 and Stargate came out in 1994).

I don't want to impart exotic qualities to the less human member of this pair: it's entirely possible that the host Trill have an ability to 'pocket assimilate' some organisms and develop a biological relationship with them.

Natural Early Symbiosis - Maybe the two Trill species were symbiotic before that. Maybe even before both species were sapient. Maybe the pre-sapient symbiotes provided memory assistance to the hosts that encouraged symbiotes to develop or pre-sapient hosts needed to develop motor and communications faculties that made them more appealing to sapient symbiotes.

It's kind of like if humans kept breeding dogs until they were sapient enough to communicate the things they could smell/hear and understand complex commands.

Are Symbionts Sapient?

Yes - In the first appearance of the Trill, TNG's "The Host," it's understood that the symbiont Odan was the main life form and the host was just a shell that added some flavor. That was key to the episode's LBGT allegory.

We do hear in "Equilibrium" that the symbiotes can get cranky and make demands of their Trill hosts.

This means that the joining could have been an intentional choice by the symbionts who knew a joining was possible and thought it was a good idea. Or the hosts.

No - But in DS9, we get to meet every one of Dax's past hosts, but the asset that Dax brings to Jadzia's life is the experience and wisdom of its past hosts. We break down Jadzia, Ezri, and Curzon, but don't really talk about the Dax symbiont itself.

The symbiont has been treated as a non-entity: at most, a gestalt of the previous hosts' personalities.

That dog thing I said above might be a bit insulting and I don't want to dehumanize something because it's a lumpy worm, but it's entirely possible that the symbiotes aren't that sapient.

This means that it was most likely the Trill hosts who initiated the first joining. If you can host other organisms; why host this one. If there's a parasite out there: why put it into you?

What Is the Advantage to Both for the First Host to Have a Symbiont?

Symbionts - For the Trill symbiont, it's easy to be a little bio-centric and assume just having a bipedal form with thumbs is advantage enough, when it's a mammal that has to suck air, is a big target for predators, and--assuming Trill hosts are a mammal analog--have to eat a lot to fuel their stupid warm blood.

It could be that symbionts joined because the hosts were warm or because "yeah, the apes eat all the time but damn can they cook!"

I prefer to think a simple spirit of exploration might have inspired two otherwise compatible species--parasite Trill symbiont or assimilation pocket Trill hosts--to work together and the extra vistas of experience offered by that is what kept them together. This makes Jadzia Dax's actions in "Meridian" extremely true to her nature as a Trill, but let's not do anything as dramatic as trying to justify "Meridian."

It's an easy answer, and a very Star Trek one too.

But let's assume a slightly more complex/cynical possibilities. If you're still reading I have to assume you're down with that.

Maybe it was a migratory advantage to ease overpopulation; merge with a life form and then when it hits another compatible pool which can host Trill symbiote life then you bail and get a new, roomier habitat.

Trill symbiotes could actually use hosts to compete for limited habitats, possibly due to sapients Being Like That. It's possible that the limited Trill symbiotes we see now are carrying the cultural baggage of their own self-inflicted apocalypse, now living in leftover habitats deep beneath the planet's surface.

If we assume a shrinking habitat, then host Trill become another habitat for the symbiotes. It's possible that Trill hosts are a place where lowest-status symbiotes are sent while higher-status symbiotes can stay in the pools where they're safe and comfortable. Making the pool worms the 1% of Trill society.

Or imagine if there are very smart, lake-dwelling fish whose environment is vanishing. You can give them scraps from hunting and they bring you...shiny lake rocks or seaweed spices or maybe they herd fish that you kill and split with them.

Well their environment is vanishing and Jobiah says that they if they live in water and mud and the four humors of the Trill body include water and mud, so maybe they could live in us because there's an allusion in a Trill religion to living within good people and they look at a few volunteers uteruses (uteri?)  and go, "let's try a thing." Maybe there's some animal testing?

Hosts - What does the first host gain? Obviously, once a symbiont lives with a Trill host and then outlives that host and goes into a second host, the advantages are fucking huge.

But the first host doesn't see that deferred advantage. How could they?

Sure, each member gains some memories of the others and as a land-dwelling ape I'm underselling the experiental value of being a swimming worm with EM emissions as a sensory organ. I don't think that's enough. Maybe you do.

I've suggested improved memory, because I feel like the advantages would be soft and slightly deferred. Trill hosts don't gain the kind of resilience that Gou'ald hosts do. And they don't gain any of the symbiont's environmental abilities like breathing underwater or communicating/sensing via electrical impulses (maybe they do but we've never seen it because no story has ever needed two Trills to touch stomachs to quietly communicate some information).

Would some additional universal perspective be that helpful? Would observation of aquatic life forms inspire enough people to do the same? Would a host provide a tangible, immediate benefit to the first host ever that would inspire others to do that, but wouldn't have ever come up in Star Trek before?

Maybe they do. Maybe Trill host physiology does benefit from an altered body chemistry that makes them more resistant to poisons, chemicals, or other stimuli. Small advantages not too relevant for a space-dwelling Trill, but one that's very noticeable for one that's farming, hunting, or gathering Trill.

It might be as simple as getting the second-hand enjoyment from the symbiont enjoying food, sleep, and sex as a host does. A dopamine hit from someone enjoying those things for the first time.

There's also the ever-present social issue. Maybe there's just one weirdo in a cave that merges with a symbiote who is also a weirdo in a cave and they have a little cult. Depending on the difficulty of the joining in the social milieu, it's possible that Trill history has several cults of joining (and fake cults of joining).

Widespread Adoption

There are also questions about how Trill society adopts it on a widespread basis. The earlier the first joining happens--which might be something that the Trill could capitalize and even have First Joining myths--the earlier it would get widespread adoption. If someone on 21st Century Earth learned you could stick a lobster in your chest and gain the ability to overcome a nut allergy, and then you could give that lobster to someone else after you died and they could have your memories...there would be a lot of resistance to that.

Eventually, on Trill, the practice is legitimized by science or a joined Trill rising to a position of power and making joining either required or a fashion amongst the nobility.

Or maybe it's something common Trills do that nobles don't think is important but eventually--when combined with the symbiotes-as-exiles theory above--results in a unique type of class-consciousness among the Trill.

This assumes some very Terran assumptions about historical societies, yeah, but it also assumes a citizen of the 24th century could meet the Trill version of Karl Marx.

Star Trek: Sisko

What if Patrick Stewart was unavailable and CBS All-Access made a show about Benjamin Sisko instead?

Scene I

A woman named Dahj is with her boyfriend when mooks beam in and attack her. Her boyfriend is killed because he’s a witness even though the attackers were literally in charge of Earth’s security and could have attacked her at any time and not left a Xahean family asking questions about their missing son or even beamed her into an unmarked panel van in low Earth orbit.

Dahj kills the mooks who were unprepared for the corner-case of Dahj resisting. She has a vision of Benjamin Sisko.

Scene II

Dahj finds Benjamin Sisko on vacation at Sisko’s in New Orleans. Even though Starfleet has framed her for her boyfriend’s murder and she’s a wanted woman, all Ben Sisko sees is scared a young woman with no family. While she’s not his daughter, she’s someone’s daughter and Sisko isn’t about to let a kid be alone and scared in this world.

Picard Season 2: Kirk and Picard

"Is there any value in reading Star Trek: Picard's development of Jean Luc's intervening career and retirement as a contrast to Kirk's?"

I hadn't thought about it. Kirk joined Starfleet out of personal ambition, attained great heights, found it lacking, then gave those heights up for his friends/family. He retired but still believed that being a Starfleet captain was a way to make a difference.

Picard had always wanted to be a Starfleet captain. Initially, we understand his motives to be noble and principled, but we understand that they're somehow more vainglorious than Kirk's. Kirk wants to get power and validation. Ultimately those things are hollow and unsatisfying so Kirk gave them up for what really mattered.

Now, clearly, there's no reason for Picard to take Kirk's advice any more heavily than advice from anyone else he's encountered. But maybe 'mythical Starfleet captain trapped in time like the King Arthur of space,' does beat the bell curve, and if Lower Decks is any indication of how the universe works...

Let's say he internalized Kirk's advice about being a captain as a way to make a difference. Picard still made the conscious choice to become an admiral because he thought Kirk was wrong or because making a difference wasn't as big a deal to him as being seen as the guy who made a difference.

Kirk actually no shit became friends with his crew and retired because Starfleet didn't satisfy him any more. The guy who almost destroyed Earth in TMP because he wanted to get back into space just...outgrew it.

Picard was told "no" because he couldn't or wouldn't read the political situation of Space 9/11 plus The Romulan Dunkirk and ragequit Starfleet before sulking in his tent for 15 years like Achilles with a news allergy. 15 years later, he has no knowledge of the status of Romulan refugees he personally knew and helped resettle.

Picard Season 2: Preamble

The thing about Star Trek: Picard season one was that I could describe it to friends--without embellishment--and entertain the room for an hour with just one episode. It was clearly in "so bad it's good" territory. I--

Let me start at the beginning--2015. When CBS Television Studios and Paramount Pictures decided to put Star Trek at the helm of their new TV service. You may remember this from such events as Star Trek: Voyager helming the UPN network. The planned TOS sequel series, Star Trek: Phase II being placed at the helm of the aborted Paramount TV Network of the 70's. 

[As mentioned in the 17 to 01 episode for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, true believers!]

So: Star Trek: Discovery helmed what is now Paramount Plus...Paramount Puss? I'll work on it.

Discovery was fine. I watched some and didn't care. It was like the idea of a Star Trek episode ramped up to 75 RPM and with an action dial turned up to 11. There were a series of things happening that seemed to use acting and music and telling us to create a staccato series of action and emotional beats. Not bad, actually, but not that smart and not for me.

Then they drove a dump truck of money up to Patrick Stewart's house and started making TNG's 30-year-later-sequel, Star Trek: Picard. I may be mistaken, but I recall being promised a show that was slower and more contemplative than Star Trek: Discovery. I was interested.

The Orville: Season 3, aka New Horizons

Guess what comes out today? After three years. It's the third (and final) season of Seth MacFarlane's capable ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Orville.

I think that The Orville 'grew its beard' in episode six, and that beard is a show that's slightly out of phase with TNG, much to my consternation.

Everything that tries to be TNG (including TNG movies) makes me feel like I've got Capgras Syndrome for TV shows; the same look and feel--the lunchbox iconography--but it's something different and hollow behind the eyes. 

I'll be the first to admit it's 50/50 me. Maybe everything trying to be TNG isn't just putting itself up against a TV show from 1987, but also against my own nostalgia. I feel that doing The Beige and The Bold was a good antidote for that. 

I do like shows in the same way I like TNG. But maybe they're better at being the show I imagined TNG was when I look back at it. 

That show is The Good Place, and describing it as "as good as TNG when viewed through nostalgia goggles," is the highest compliment I can think of. Accurate though.

I like The Orville, but I have remembered and forgotten it's coming out about six times since the release date was announced. Say what you will about them, but those Spotify ads work.

All Good Things

Derek and I made a good episode here.

This has been The Beige and The Bold.

Remember Rand.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/All-Good-Things-e1gt5hi

Hmmm

 Had a heated gamer moment and deleted my Paramount+ subscription.

Preemptive Strike

I'm here with Joie from The Jump and Shoot podcast. We're watching the last episode of Ro Laren with you all.

Ro has grown a lot and now she's learning about her own culture during a mission to infiltrate the Maquis. I won't ask if you can think of a reason for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar; I'll ask how many reasons you can think of for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar. 7? 47?

You can find Joe on twitter at: https://twitter.com/podcastjump

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Preemptive-Strike-e1gt56e

Emergence

It's the last solo session before this all wraps up. I fell I've said that before, but I really mean it this time.

Is the Enterprise itself enough of a character to warrant a whole episode? Was this that episode? (It wasn't)

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Emergence-e1gt522

Bloodlines

Gepwin is my guest again and we're watching "Bloodlines" with you.

Maybe there's a version of this where Dr. Crusher discovers all of the medical chicanery in Picard's Son (I forget his name and I don't care) and Data and Geordi figure out Bok's one trick that physicists hate to route his subspace transporter beam straight into a holding cell, we wrap this all up without a third act.

But we have a third act.

You can find Gepwin on Watchers of Tomorrow, available on most podcasting platforms and hosted on PodBean. https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Bloodlines-e1gt4gd

First Born

It's another Solo Session. Worf is worried about Alexander's future, but luckily a Klingon consigliere named K'mtar is there to help. Also there's something about a plot to murder Worf by, *reads smudged writing on hand* the Dumas Brisket?

I didn't have fond memories of this one, but it's surprisingly solid, even if later Treks--*ahem*--destroy everything it builds towards.

Is that such a big deal though? Do these stories matter less if we regularly throw their character growth the represent in the trash? Aren't the lessons we learn true enough, or do they only matter when they come from a series which follows through with those ideals?

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most  podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights  at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/First-Born-e1gdbim

Journey's End

Journey's End has been a long time in coming. It feels like the beginning of the end of the series and it's also an episode I recorded with this guest host almost two years ago. 

That said, there are a few things I'd like to get off of my chest:

• Picard does not have Native American heritage.
• Ro Laren was 8 episodes of TNG and a prominent character in 6 of those episodes.
• Cardassians had neck frills in their original appearance.
• The Native Americans from The Original Series episode, "The Paradise Syndrome," were from Earth, not a parallel culture.
• Romulans have never been remotely "up front."

I hope you like two white guys talking about Native American culture for 45 minutes. It was neck and neck whether we could be marginally more enlightened than Star Trek and I think we pulled ahead just a little bit.

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Journeys-End-e1gda3d

Genesis

I'm hanging out with Gepwin this week while we watch Genesis.

I feel like our science nitpicking would be really petty and mean if anything at all happened in this episode. I'm not the kind of guy to expect big arcs out of TNG, but some level of drama and real stakes are necessary. And no, "the ship will be animals forever" is not real stakes. I can suspend my disbelief with the best of them, but my arms get tired, yo.

How stupid was this episode: 

A) Stupid 

B) So stupid

You can find Watchers of Tomorrow at: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Genesis-e1gd1cb

Eye of the Beholder

I'm here with Randolph this week and we're just tryin' to get it done.

It's a heavy talk about suicide. Do series trivialize sensitive topics like suicide when they talk about them? Is it worth the risk of being disrespectful to talk about it? 

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Eye-of-the-Beholder-e1fk325

Thine Own Self

I continue watching each episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This time with my friend Dr. Izixs as a guest.

Delivered exactly on Wizard Central Time, it's the one where Data has hot rocks and no memory and Troi has no rocks and a hot memory. A memory of being in command.

Despite being a bit rickety, is this one of the best episodes of the season?

You can find Dr. Izixs' podcast, Watchers of Tomorrow, on podbean here: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Thine-Own-Self-e1fb7h5

Sub Rosa Solo Session

Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show with just you, the listener, as my companion. In "Sub Rosa," things get messy.

Sub Rosa has gotten infamous in later years as the one where Dr. Crusher fucks the ghost. I've heard it said that if Riker had fucked the ghost we wouldn't give that episode nearly as much guff. I disagree. Riker gets a lot of guff for his love interests and if he'd fucked a ghost, he'd get flack for it. It would be the ur-Riker episode.

Also, I did a little count recently and there are 10 ghost episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That's a lot of ghosts. A lot.

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Sub-Rosa-Solo-Session-e1bugju

Lower Decks

Hey it's me and Matt lookin' at one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's last classic episodes: "Lower Decks." We're gonna watch it together on Netflix and then talk about it some.

Given that Star Trek: Lower Decks is based on this episode, it's surprisingly heavy. The series has a lot of humor with only touches of drama and pathos, but it does have those as well. It's true to its roots and it's the best Star Trek I've watched since Deep Space Nine.

Less seriously, Taurik did get that Ensign killed because he couldn't count to four.

The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

source https://anchor.fm/tbntb/episodes/Lower-Decks-e1akjm4