Symbiosis: A Star Trek Apocalypse

[@Raven_Frame]

"For you it was the fate of two worlds and their eminent demise, for me it was a grumpy monday, I couldn't even get the replicator to get me some Earl Grey tea that morning."

[@edboonsucks3218]

Should've told Laforge to open his damn eyes and get on that. If he can sling-shot his way out of an asteroid field, fly out of an ancient death trap machine with Scotty, wean a giant alien baby off the ships hull, buddy up with a Romulan and Macgyver his way out of a dead planet by using his visor, repair Data every now and then, giving a borg drone emotions that started a revolutionary war. Fixing food replicators should be a hobby for this guy. The only thing is impossible for him, was to get a hot date from that girl of his dreams.

[@Ribbons0121R121]

relate

[@artymoose4207]

Raven, please, step on me...

[@Red_Lanterns_Rage]

naww new Picard would go like this Admiral: you did what? Picard: we played god, we left em with the last of a drug and the other planet we left with no food and said you work it out Admiral: sheer fukking hubris Picard, sheer fukking hubris..... Picard: well what do you expect, the prime directive is clear! Crusher: you dolt, i told you then we coulda helped and you played the directive card, if on;y you had listened you womanizer Picard: but.....ugh Female officer: nobody likes you picard....you're a joke ---- meanwhile on the ship Captain what's his face: so you think they know we have a fugitive on board? crewperson: if they knew we'd be arrested and the ship impounded Picard: what's this about being pounded? [laugh track] ---- hey that is about how stupid the new shows are now....well maybe not the laugh track but still

[@edboonsucks3218]

@@Red_Lanterns_Rage Leave the laugh track in and put Seinfeld's opening theme in there too; "Booow, ba, bew, bew, bew, bew...pa, pow." Dr. Seinfeld: "We can just tell them it's a drug, and not medicine!" Cap Crammer: "And you're an Anti-prime-directite." Dr. Seinfeld: "I am not an Anti-prime-directite." Cap Crammer: "YOU'RE A RABIST ANTI-PRIME-DIRECTITE!" Cap Crammer: "Next thing you'll be saying is that they should have their own government." Dr. Seinfeld: "They do have their own government!" Cap Crammer: "SEE!?"

[@blackheartzerotheundergrou3225]

Funny story about the drugs: the Ornaran Plague was real, and the Felicium did indeed cure it a *_long_* time ago. but when the Brekkians saw how addicted their neighbors were to the drug after the fact, they decided to lie about them still having the Plague in order to barter the drug for their continued labor.

[@tonnentonie2767]

Yeah that's sounds reasonable

[@shala_shashka]

Ah yes I forgot about that brief moment of the episode.

[@lordfriedrick7911]

Another possible outcome is the possibility of a comeback of the plague Like malaria has never disappeared completely but resisted in poor parts of the world (Africa is an example)

[@pentelegomenon1175]

My memory is fuzzy, but I'm vaguely recalling the end of the plague being not too long before the episode, like a generation or two.

[@vcdonovan5943]

Remember to get your yearly boosters after taking the vaxx.

[@lainiwakura3741]

I cannot shake the feeling that this is Ross's way of saying that he joined a cult and is now becoming a farmer.

[@ScampiTheSighted]

Not a DAY goes by where I don't feel like I'm behind the curve for not being a homesteader.

[@alexanderchippel]

You man an "Accursed Farmer?"

[@kidkangaroo5213]

@@alexanderchippel full circle

[@Urammar]

This is Ross' lowkey coronavirus video, and way of warning, and I'm a little surprised nobody seems to have picked that up. I thought the ending was especially overt in tipping the hat. Guess not

[@StCerberusEngel]

@@Urammar Oh, I think we got it. It just doesn't need to be said.

[@MahDryBread]

I absolutely love how old school Ross is. If he has a random thought that he thinks will make for a good rant, then it's making it's way into a video regardless of if the channel normally talks about it or not. And it always works!

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

This isn't particularly old school since alot of people this do this but ok.

[@MahDryBread]

@@diegodankquixote-wry3242 This was the norm in early KZbin. You just make whatever you want to make, regardless of what people came to the channel for.

[@MahDryBread]

@@nKe. As a career KZbinr who has also been doing Let's Play as part of my show for the last decade, no that isn't what Let's Players are doing. That will not grind out your sub numbers, that just isn't how KZbin works anymore.

[@MahDryBread]

@@nKe. You're talking to someone who actually does this for a living. I also didn't talk about credibility at all. Could you provide sources? Because you're saying that most say otherwise.

[@RaposaCadela]

Word, dude!

[@Svecke80]

I want to imagine there's an entire section of Starfleet dedicated to cleaning up the messes that Enterprise leaves behind after their missions.

[@MapleLeaf2501]

"These are the voyages of the starship Redemption. Its ever prolonging mission, to correct mistakes made by Star Fleet. To go where we seriously have fucked up before."

[@peterhawley709]

I have really gotten into Star Trek for the last few months and I have had a similar thought. I would be willing to read a book series that delves into what happened to some of these planets after the Enterprise left. For the Original Series, I have imagined another starship following the exact route the Enterprise took during its five-year mission several years after it had occurred, checking up on every planet/phenomenon encountered. If this were a book series, I could imagine “Kirk’s Shadow” being the title of the first book. Could do a book per episode where the plot did not end cleanly. This book series idea would have the potential to go on for quite a long time, as you could first do the OG series then continue with a sequel book series following another starship examining the aftermath of some of the adventures of the Enterprise-D in TNG.

[@ardenorcrush649]

@@MapleLeaf2501 Ngl, that's an awesome idea for a sci-fi series.

[@807D14M0ND5]

@@ardenorcrush649 Not similar but yet vaguely so..there an anime called Planetes that's about a debris clearing team in space. If you can enjoy anime maybe you'd like it.

[@unfa00]

That should be called StarTruck.

[@facadeESEA]

"i'm sure its hard to envision how major destabilizing changes can transform society as we know it, occuring because of a plague or a cut off supply chain" lmao

[@TheInsomniaddict]

Okay, Bye!

[@mikejustmike9995]

Yeah, that particular sentence made me laugh. And then stare at my monitor despondently for a few seconds.

[@zuzoscorner]

it's like it relevant or something hmmm :P

[@Quackerilla]

:D

[@DoveAlexa]

Just to let everyone know, cargo is still moving! Food and supplies are still being shipped and recieved from all over the world, everyone is just taking extra precautions! No need to panic buy all the flour and especially not bottled water. The government isn't turning off your water, dammit! Stuff is and was still moving in and out of China so whatever you were told isn't coming anymore cause china made it is indeed still coming.

[@breakkid144]

I would totally be for a "Ross talks star trek" side series. and also DS9 is my personal favorite star trek series.

[@thedungeondelver]

I too would love to see a Ross Talks Trek series. DS9 is a straight rip-off of Babylon-5.

[@giladpellaeon1691]

Late TNG and DS9 (Dominion cold war/hot war seasons specifically) are my favorite bits of Star Trek TV. The '90's were a great time to grow up as a scifi fan.

[@sensibleGamer]

@@thedungeondelver Why? Because it's about a space station? How is ANYTHING about DS9 a rip-off?

[@therwfer]

second. second.

[@Alexandra-Rex]

It also has two characters that are some of the best in all of Star Trek IMO, the two main Cardassians, Garak and Gul Dukat.

[@raccoononymous]

"Are we going where no man has gone before and seeing weird space shit, or is it a soap opera in space?" In the first episode of Deep Space Nine, Sisko has to explain the concept of linear time to godlike beings. I think Ross would like it.

[@Chud_Bud_Supreme]

DS9 was when the series hit its peak. It's been downhill since then

[@Tumoxa89]

And in the last episode of DS9 Sisko awkwardly fights the corny space Satan inside mount Doom because that's his destiny or some shit. DS9 has some of the best episodes, but the wormhole aliens and Bajor are enough to ruin it. I don't want to watch it in its entirety ever again, even tho "In the Pale Moonlight" will probably remain my favorite episode of all the ST.

[@Yusuke_Denton]

DS9 is good but it does have some serious soap opera plots and side stories, just like late series TNG. I remember being bored or pissed off a lot at that stuff as a kid.

[@SvenArnhold]

1st episode: oh the station is to far-off from the fancy adventures. Let's change the stations mass ans move it towards the fun. n-th episode: let's watch a ferengi being excited over a baseball game. n+1th episode: everyone is bored, bring in Mr. Worf! I was quite disappointed about DS9.

[@VermillionR3D]

Let's not forget the best part about DS9. Sisko punches the shit out of Q.

[@toriasdax2166]

What I find so funny is that as of now in “Star Trek Lower Decks” they revisit these planets. And now there is a conclusion to what happened to both Planets.

[@Demicleas]

And it happened just as he predicted.

[@poika22]

Imagine unironically considering any of the Kurtzman shlock as canon.

[@zangl2955]

>imagine >unironically

[@tannhausergate7162]

Stealing ideas from other people isn't new with Kurtzman and his fellow repurposers, so I have to wonder if they saw this video...

[@toriasdax2166]

@@tannhausergate7162 I have heard that Kurtzman had stolen ideas. One example that comes to mind was discovery stealing the spore drive and Tardigrades from an independent pixel art game (Cant remember the name of it). But the court found the the properties where not just different enough but the timelines didn’t match, the game’s trailers where out at around the same time discovery’s trailers came out and writers for Discovery have had years to plan and write the story they want before anything was publicly announced. But given the time line it’s possible someone in paramount found this video and brought it to Kurtzman’s attention, and a couple years later an episode of Lower Decks comes out referencing this particular episode and so happens to have similar conclusions to what Accursed Farms predicted. However, I also wouldn’t say that this is stealing cause the video was just brainstorming ideas of what could happen to the two planets it wasn’t a fanfic or a written story about this episode. Its still a strange and convenient coincidence nonetheless, but one to keep in mind. Also sorry for the long response most of the comments I’ve been getting have been nothing but making fun of me liking “Lower Decks” but yours actually brought an interesting point.

[@rilesmcgiles1145]

At 13:22 you can see Tasha Yar waving as the doors close. This was the last scene she taped with the show as a regular cast member because her character died the next episode. She broke character and waved good-bye to the camera.

[@clumsybanana6524]

That's sad

[@kungfuskull]

@@clumsybanana6524 yes and no. She *wanted* her character killed off because she thought the role was beneath her. 🤷‍♂️

[@DIGITALSWOON]

that’s awesome

[@Assasin2]

@@kungfuskull it wasn’t that she thought it was beneath her, it’s that they were doing nothing with the character, she was just there, so she requested to leave. She’s even said that had they given her storylines like her final episode, she would have stayed

[@NoInfoAvail]

Ha, I didn't even notice till you pointed that out!

[@gamiezion]

"ever feel like society is imploding?" nah bruh, just another saturday.

[@KyleJMitchell]

Which is to say, *yes*. But yeah, there's a general feeling of "at least it's not next week yet" around here lately.

[@ProductofSeebach]

You should probably start a garden.

[@fmsyntheses]

This is all fine. Everything's fine.

[@alexanderchippel]

This says a lot about our society.

[@dm121984]

@@fmsyntheses This is fine...

[@DeadPollo]

Awards: -first award: Love and Hate. the episode itself is so so but DAMN, it makes you think for HOURS -second award: Drugs are BAD (m'kay) - final award: not what i asked but still. i thought it was going to be a Star Trek videogame but it was still awesome. Good job, Ross!

[@tomisabum]

Special Mention: Different Noses Equals Alien!

[@evilthecat13]

nailed it

[@dansmith1661]

The rich have it right on the nose.

[@jinxed7915]

It's impossible to read that and not hear Ross's voice

[@DeadPollo]

@@jinxed7915 thank you, i aimed at such effect

[@stevena488]

This is why Riker needs a beard. The Beard brings sanity.

[@FoxAzureOfficial]

Just a boast: Frakes was my Video Production instructor. :)

[@matthewdebona5631]

"I have to blow everything up, it's the only way to prove I'm not crazy" - Gordon Freeman, proud beard owner -

[@fattiger6957]

Riker with beard =/= skinny Riker I always found it weird how beanpole skinny he was in that first season.

[@FoxAzureOfficial]

@@fattiger6957 Yeah man, when I took his class he wasn't small at all! lol

[@TechnologicallyTechnical]

Fox Azure Was he a good instructor?

[@knate44]

Dr. Bev Crusher continues to be smartest character. Just ignore the time she entered a parasitic romantic relationship with a ghost.

[@glitchedoom]

Happens to the best of us.

[@toasega]

Or the time that she held down her own son and essentially raped him with that pleasure game that one time.

[@chickenitza8]

She is very attractive.

[@pokemaster123ism]

I mean, wasn’t the ghost messing with her mind anyway?

[@haydenemrah]

I always love when Ross sees a plot line that doesn’t really consider what it’s saying and then spends weeks thinking about the ramifications of that plot point until he HAS to make a video over it. He did the same thing w the trackmaina “plot” and I love it, keep it up!

[@claytopolis]

This is almost like a ross's game dungeon but for television. I love it and i hope there is more in the future. Also i've never watched a full episode of star trek, but i'd watch a follow up series on the planets on this episode.

[@19RaxR91]

Yeah - I as well have never been into Star Trek, but this episode makes me rethink whether I really dont want to try at least some of the series at some point...

[@R3GARnator]

You'd like SFDebris reviews of individual episodes. He really makes fun of Archer and Janeway in their more idiotic moments.

[@ThriftEGaming]

The situation for Planet B might be even worse than he's suggesting here. We don't even know if they still have seeds or plants to grow food other than the drug. They may wind up in a situation where people are eating the plant the drug is made from because there's literally nothing else to eat. So they could have the starvation problem AND a drug crisis like Planet A. Talk about getting hoisted by your own petard...

[@ThePoshboy1]

@@ThriftEGaming Or if the situation gets desperate enough, they'll start eating each other.

[@gameswithhistory]

@@19RaxR91 I said star trek was for losers until i was 22 and watched the first episode of Next Generation, and I've been a huge fan ever since. Not every episode is gold, but as a whole Next Generation is incredible. So much love for this show.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

"Facing the extinction of an entire planet qualifies" Oh how I wish that were true but instead you've found the main problem with the Prime Directive. The amount of total extinctions it's allowed is honestly astounding

[@MiniMackeroni]

And the amount of arbitrary exceptions are equally astounding.

[@Brandonious15987]

I forget the episode but you got me thinking about the shit Data pulled. He was talking to a girl on a planet that didn't know about alien life. He beamed down to the planet and brought her back to the ship.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@MiniMackeroni I don't think so most if the time it's "Fuck the Prime Directive I'm doing what's right" rarely is it actually "well under these conditions it's ok to do what you want to"

[@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist]

@@cyberninjazero5659 In short: The Federation are a bunch of holier-than-thou decadent space communists.

[@tgreaux5027]

@@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist And wed be so lucky as to have a civilization as well built as theirs

[@FlyByNate]

"Skipped most of DS9" Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal, Ross.

[@Myusername468]

I think we should call it your grave!

[@espalorp3286]

I will slowly monologue while I have the upper hand just because I am that dastardly.

[@supermagnificence7503]

Less than a minute in and that had me seething xD.

[@GrymmSoul]

Me: You said you're a Trek fan, but skipped DS9? Is any of that true? Ross: It was all true. Me: But what about the lies? Ross: Oh, especially the lies....

[@DoomRater]

He had best start catching up, or he'll be looking for a new job!

[@Great_Cthulhu]

Picard kind of has a bias about disasters. He's from a world that recovered from a global thermonuclear war, after all.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

Don't forget, prior to the global thermonuclear WW3 there were the Eugenics Wars (back in the 1990s, according to the Star Trek timeline... suddenly makes our 1990s feel great by comparison!).

[@daniellejohnson9279]

I love this because it makes Picard sound like one of those Boomers who's like, "my generation had to pay for college and health care, so everyone should have to!"

[@Drosera420]

"I'm sure its hard to envision how major destabilizing changes can transform society as we know it, occurring because of a plague or cut off supply chain...." *sweating intensifies*

[@Urammar]

Right? Nobody else in here picked up this is a lowkey coronavirus video?

[@juancasanova8434]

It's not nearly as bad, but yeah...

[@dansmith1661]

America had outsourced many of its industries/supplies to other countries for decades. It is long overdue for a red pill.

[@Stad122]

@@dansmith1661 reality check, not a red pill. Republicans seem to put a lot of faith in a stock market that China has a major presence in.

[@dansmith1661]

@@Stad122 You mean every country has a major presence in, especially Israel. It is a global market.

[@TheMaabusAdmiral]

Ah, a new... uh... yeah I'm lost on this one. Will get back to you

[@paulvontarsus729]

More on that later.

[@Isaacfess]

This would be a perfect time to talk to your wife and children!

[@daverapp]

I love that this is still a thing.

[@falloutfreek1992]

my sides are in orbit with the knowledge that this is a thing XD

[@aidangardner6538]

God bless you sir

[@PasserMontanus]

"The prime directive gets violated more often than counselor Troi" - Harry S. Plinkett

[@WailFin]

"I guess orders are flexible...again, like counselor Troi...oh yeah, honey cakes, work that business..."

[@LordVader1094]

@Főfasírozó Saucy.

[@JoeyJoJoJoestarJuniorShabadoo]

I could listen to Ross read food ingredients and rant about how ridiculous the chemical names are.

[@lordfriedrick7911]

I'd watch it

[@noahfessenden6478]

I'd petition to make it a series.

[@firestar5415]

I’d join you in petitioning.

[@SquashGuy02134]

bro, chemical Nomenclature is an art

[@cajhonson44]

"Do you feel like modern society is slowly imploding ?" No, i feel like modern society is fastly imploding

[@GruppeSechs]

I can't wait. It's so exciting! Except for not having any food because of hoarders. :(

[@XenoSpyro]

I feel like society imploded a while ago and we're just now feeling the side-effects.

[@PangolinMontanari]

Eh, it was bound to happen eventually. Hey, look on the bright side, the longer that more people are upset, the more likely we are to get a bloody uprising. That'll be interesting to watch, if nothing else.

[@ditto56789]

Now that we are 4 months later I can confirm it is definitely imploding.

[@cajhonson44]

@@ditto56789 i was right !! Yeaaah! Go me!

[@deadmaybejun6835]

“Sure, if they wanna get lynched” ok that got me, but in all seriousness you made me think much more about this episode.

[@sams3533]

Just wanna say: don't mind this kind of content. Love hearing your thoughts on stuff.

[@virtualtools_3021]

Yeah! This stuff is awesome

[@Hadkek]

Pretty exactly what I love out of RGD. If it’s Ross ranting it’s great

[@TacoWrath95]

"This reminds me of an episode of Star Trek..."

[@intrinia]

Hello Mike, is that you? :D

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Watching those two old men rant about Picard is some life-sustaining nourishment in these dark times.

[@tukkek]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 *Jay Baumann stares intently into the camera begging for the audience to end his misery once and for all*

[@banzaiperson]

tukkek thaaaaaaaaat’s right, Jay!

[@lostfan10000]

@@tukkek :|

[@losspol_3466]

Ross is really good at this format surprisingly, a Jack of all trades.

[@eZU4nQsWN9pAGsU38aHj]

ravioli_ spaghetti and master of all!

[@LehySnek]

You mean a Ross of all trades!

[@SquashGuy02134]

he is a man with many hats

[@tvdvd8661]

Ummm this is basically the same as a game dungeon

[@losspol_3466]

@@tvdvd8661 takes a different skill set to review games and analyze themes from a TV show

[@Komnen0s]

It would appear that Mike has stopped tormenting Rich for a bit so he can fly out to Poland and force Ross to make Star Trek videos.

[@cazao24]

I UNDERTANDED THAT REFERENCE AND I CLAPPED

[@RaSkipper]

V E R Y C O O L

[@geronimovallejos7232]

YESSSSS HAHA

[@GruppeSechs]

Don't cross the beams!

[@demizson576]

IT BROKE NEW GROUND!!! :)

[@TrenchWife]

I am absolutely on board for Ross breaking down and discussing the bigger picture in science-fiction stories, be it episode analysis of what happens after the credits roll, or just bigger sci-fi concepts in general, it's an entertaining and often pretty educational thing! I'm absolutely happy to get more of this stuff if we end up getting any.

[@a.hartsell6054]

"This is why we have Star Trek. It lets us imagine these things." Yeah... Imagine... Right...

[@jamespfp]

0:23 -- "I skipped most of DS:9 ... " -- For many years, I was also in this group, the "Mostly Skipped DS:9" crowd. *BUT* I must admit, while it does stray from the beaten path of most of the rest of the canon, it did get some things exceptionally right. The best minor characters of all are found in DS:9; and while the writers and producers fumbled the odd storyline or two, they didn't ignore the fanbase, which means, it's among the most beloved of all. If you want a deep thought for when you do finally watch the rest, ask yourself -- WHY IS JAKE SISKO MISSING IN THE MIRROR UNIVERSE? #HasAnAnswer

[@KyleJMitchell]

Dammit, I'm busy! If I end up losing even more time before the end of the semester because I check out DS9 and get hooked, it'll be YOUR fault. (Thanks for making some actual good points for why it's worth watching, I'll have to check it out again this summer!)

[@Colouroutofspace4]

Quark is the best. Just my favorite character in all of Star Trek. The Ferengi hold the path to peace in their hands.

[@banepo4]

A bit too soapey for my taste.

[@jamespfp]

@@Colouroutofspace4 There are two kinds of TNG fans -- those who are dumb, and think the Ferengi are somehow insulting to people from the near and middle East; and then, there are smart ones, who understand that the Ferengi are "Yankee Traders".

[@MaxiusTheGod]

What's the answer?

[@seto007]

I don't know whether this video was released at the best possible time, or the worst possible time.

[@chazdomingo475]

I think there's a reason this episode has been on his mind...

[@notoverwatch6991]

Corona is just withdrawl from the cloud drug.

[@BenWillock]

Just a correction, the drugs going to Ornara was out of Picard's hand since the Brekkans gave it to the Ornarans "for free" in order to keep them addicted. The not providing ship parts bit was in Picards hands, and was his way of breaking the cycle.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

He should have just said it is a drug, not knowing means people will think they die without it and when people think they will die they are able to do many bad things. This was in Picard's hands too and he failed here big time.

[@poika22]

Picard shipped the drugs using the Enterprise's transporter. How is it "out of his hands"? He's the captain of the ship. That transporter doesn't transport anything if he gives the command not to. Imagine in the real world, if a US Navy vessel saved a bunch of heroin traders from drowining in the ocean. If the heroin dealers then wanted to give their heroin away "for free", would the captain of the ship simply have to transport it to the nearest port? Because it's out of their hands? Of course not.

[@amisner2k]

Very interesting take, Ross. I will say that the whole "humanizing of the Borg" thing, at least as far as I've seen it in TNG, DS9, and Voyager, is to show the *victims* of the Borg. You cut to a shot of Hue from a TNG episode when you mentioned it and Hue was a character that served as a great example of what the Borg actually is and explores the idea of "can a former Borg drone be restored to their original pre-Borg selves". The humanizing of the Borg in Star Trek series' is about separating the biological hosts from the machine components bolted onto and installed into them as well as showcasing the psychological trauma experienced by those who were essentially abducted and forced into a collective servitude against their will. At least imo.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

The problem is that Hugh (who I love dearly as a character) never had a "pre-borg self", he was a _born_ Borg. The original Borg of early episodes were a non-hierarchical true consensus collective (no Queens), who used cloning to create offspring, as Riker et al found nurseries full of babies aboard a Cube. The OG Borg did not assimilate _people_ , they assimilated _advanced technology_ ! They were a threat because they were xenophobic supremacists, and in that way they served as the antithesis to the Federation: While the Federation embodies the ideal of multiple species cooperating and coexisting, the Borg can't coexist because they believe themselves the pinnacle of perfection. The OG Borg would take what they wanted ruthlessly, but ignore anyone (even intruders to their Cubes) as long as they didn't get attacked, as humans would ignore ants until they become a nuisance. Back then, Borg "drones" were not slaves, they _were_ the Collective, or rather their bodies were used as replacable drones (the way we use robotic drones), while their minds formed the consensus collective. It was stated in TNG and in Star Trek: Voyager's episode 'Unity' that the memories of a Borg would stay in the Collective even if their body died. The original Borg were a metaphor for the relentless pursuit of technological "progress" at the expense of the destruction of people and nature. Notice how in the first episodes where the Borg arrive at the edges of Federation space, before we even see the Borg themselves we see their handiwork: They ripped out entire outposts out of the surface of planets, leaving only craters. And because the Borg believed firmly in their own supremacy you could not even offer them the technology they wanted in exchange for peace. Coexistance was not an option. The early Borg were a clear military threat, not a cultural threat. Later scriptwriters would fixate on how the Borg's "collectivism" and status as cyborgs was supposedly an antithesis to the individualism and humanism of Federation culture (which also forbids genetic upgrading). (This ignores how Transhumanism as a philosophy and subculture is not antithetical to the ethical concepts of Humanism.) But as the Season 1 TNG episode "11001001" shows, the Federation has no issue with the Bynars, despite the fact that the Bynars are a cybernetically augmented race who are "neither male nor female" (suggesting that they procreate by cloning), whose culture is based on minds linked with computers. Bynars travel in squads and communicate among each other in binary code. Even when a group of Bynars tries to steal the Enterprise, this is not treated as an act of war but a misunderstanding, which in the end it turns out to be. When Picard asks the Bynars, (paraphrasing) "Why didn't you just ask us to borrow the Enterprise? We would have helped you." The Binars reply honestly, "You might have said no." In the Bynars' view, human individuums were dangerously irrational and unpredictable. The first change to the Borg came with the Season 3 TNG episode _The Best of Both Worlds_ when Picard was assimilated. But even back then, _there were no Borg Queens!_ Picard was assimilated, and this is explained quite clearly, because the Borg realized the Federation was a threat that resisted their brute force attempts and thus they needed more information. And because the Borg had analysed that human society was hierarchical, they kidnapped the captain of one of the most powerful ships of the Star Fleet and sampled his memories. They even integrated Picard's mind into their Collective to the extend that Data could later shut them all down with the Sleep subroutine routed through Picard's implants, even though the Collective had prudently blocked access to their higher functions. Back then, the Borg were infamous for having wiped out entire high-tech civilizations, including that of Guinan, when they resisted the Borg. But there was never any mention of the Borg assimilating those people physically! The big turning point was the movie _First Contact_ (1996), when the Borg were re-written completely, a massive change that carried over into _Star Trek: Voyager._ : The introduction of the Borg Queen(s) and assimilation of other species via nanites. With the (totally unneccessary) introduction of Queens, the Borg stopped being a collective and suddenly had a hierarchy, with a Queen in command who spoke of herself in the first person, the normal Borg treated as mind-controlled slaves. I suspect this change happened either because the movie's writers needed a personalized enemy that could be fought, because American audiences want a clear-cut villain. The Queen also served as a "kill switch" for the rest of the Borg, so that Picard and Data only had to neutralize the Queen to win, and the rest of the Borg would self-destruct. Or maybe the writers had simply taken the terms "hive" and "drones" too literally and misunderstood the Borg Collective as a bee colony. In that case, they obviously had no clue how colonies of eusocial insects like honey bees, termites and ants work: The queen (or in some species, several queens) are not rulers who hand out orders to the (female) warriors and workers. Rather, the queen is as much a "slave" of the colony as the workers. The queen is merely a specialized female that lays eggs for the whole colony. If a queen can no longer lay eggs, she is killed by her daughters (who are all genetically identical), then the workers will select newborn larvae to be fed special enzymes to turn them into new queens for the hive. When a colony grows too large, in spring surplus queens will take off on a mating flight with male drones (who are killed after they have fulfilled their purpose or just pushed out of the hive in autumn to die), then take a few workers with her to found a new colony. And all of sudden, the Borg were no longer interested in technology at all, but in abducting and "assimilating" members of other species; regardless of the fact that this makes no sense if the Borg already cloned drones from a DNA template, not to mention they would have to adapt their implants to bodies with different anatomies and biochemistries. _Voyager_ later tried to explain this by introducing Species 8472 from a "fluidic space" dimension, a species even more genocidal than the Borg, claiming the Borg needed fresh troops after Species 8472 had been annihilating large numbers of Borg drones, ships and even planets. In Seven of Nine's backstory, _Voyager_ also retroactively backdated the Borg's assimilation of individuums (and the first contact of humans with Borg) to even before the date when Picard's Enterprise first encountered the Borg far away from Federation space (courtesey of Q). The Borg became a metaphor for disease that infects and warps bodies. In essence they became space-vampires who would stick two tubes into the necks of victims to inject them with nanoprobes that could transform someone into a Borg in mere moments (not hours and days of surgery and implants, as it had been the case with Picard). The Borg became The Other that had to be purged. Assimilation was treated in _First Contact_ as akin to a bite from a zombie: Enterprise crew members "infected" with nanoprobes are being shot on the spot as a mercy killing. At least on _Voyager_ and later on _Star Trek: Picard_ it would be acknowledged that assimilated people could be turned back, have implants removed, or even (like Seven of Nine) continue life with implants and nanoprobes inside them as long as their mind was unlinked from the Collective 2.0. The Borg 2.0 were no longer a military threat and metaphor for technological exploitation; they were rewritten into a matriarchal dictatorship [not going to touch that can of worms!], a metaphor on slavery, and a cultural antithesis of modern American ideals of individualism. With a military enemy, you can attempt to understand their fears and change their views, to find a diplomatic solution, like the peace treaty between the Federation (and its allies in the Dominion War) and the Founders at the end of DS9. But with a cultural enemy "who hates us for our freedoms", the TV audience might not accept a peace treaty. Thus ex-Borg "drones" had to be redefined as (rape) victims and the culture of the Borg Collective had to be eradicated by purging the bodies of its members of the intrusive implants, regardless of the damage this did or if they were a born Borg like Hugh or an assimilated Borg like Annika/Seven of Nine. At least with Seven, it was established that she would die if you removed all implants, narrowly steering clear of an unfortunate implication message "people with artificial body implants aren't real people". But it raises the question: Dear writers, if the members of the Borg Collective 2.0 are just slaves with no say in the Collective, instead of a consensus community mind, then what is the Collective 2.0?? Who defines its goals? The Borg Queens? No, the Queens are clearly clones, reduced to a head and nervous system in a full cyborg body. So what then? The writers wrote themselves into a corner here.

[@amisner2k]

@@TF2CrunchyFrog Very informative and excruciatingly thorough reply.

[@Sorain1]

@@TF2CrunchyFrog Yeah, that's pretty much the most efficient summary of the problem of the Borg in Trek I've ever read. Well done.

[@michimatsch5862]

@@TF2CrunchyFrog pretty good.

[@ShogunMongol]

@@TF2CrunchyFrog This is, by far, one of the greatest comments I have ever read on KZbin, and lately, I've been having problems with reading long stuff, but this hooked me in, and I was transfixed onto every word you said. I agree with most of what you say, except some stuff. First, from my understanding, male ants aren't killed after they breed with a future queen (princess?) ant, I'm pretty sure they just straight up die. Second, and I might be entirely wrong here, I don't think the Borg were ever said to be clones, but I might be wrong on that. Third, and this isn't a disagreement really, I always heard the Borg were always meant to be a metaphor for Communism, or capitalism, but mostly Communism, however I do think your argument for what the Borg represent is more sound. Fourth, and this is my bias showing, I don't think the dumbing down or changing of the Borg was a thing for American audiences, I think it's just to make it simpler for general audiences. Besides that, I agree with all of your points, the Borg queen absolutely ruined the Borg from being a collective hive mind into a regular hierarchy. I've seen arguments that the queen/queens are more like the Borg's own attempt at Locutus of Borg, a sort of public face, I suppose, to talk to the Federation, but I don't buy it, I think it was just so First Contact could have a bad guy. Also, one thing to add on to this, the Borg were supposedly going to be insectoid originally, until the writers realized that would have been stupidly expensive and probably would have looked horrible anyway, so they made them cyborgs made of random bits of junk. So, maybe the Borg queen thing is a remnant of that whole thing, in a way. Also, yeah, queen ants/bees/wasps are absolutely not rulers, they are slaves to the colony's need to expand, just like every other drone.

[@cryptthrasher2213]

The thing with the Prime Directive is if taken literally and to it's full extent, is that yes it does say to let mass extinction happen. That's because we can not make the logical call of what our intervention would do. There is a later episode where Picard actually kinda takes shots at the Prime Directive as he says "We don't know if these people would become enlightened or if we save them we could have the next Khan". As I work in healthcare it is very equivalent and tangible to ethical decisions you face there because what is morally and legally right often don't line up, and you may never know the full story and the consequences of your actions. It is also very relate-able with ecology as is it up to us to decide which species on this planet live or die, and if so what criteria do we set? Would it be valid in every case? That's what good sci-fi should do is ask these questions, instead of having your series be about laser light show space battles and ripping off Mass Effect and stealing shutterstock. Watch Picard and STD at your own risk.

[@Idazmi7]

That's just Picard justifying his own version of the Prime Directive: the actual directive is and was about allowing primitives to have advanced technology, not leaving them to culturally implode.

[@NoriMori1992]

Yes, but as Ross said, they already _did_ intervene, and they did it in a way that made things _worse_ than they would have been before. So even going by your interpretation, they still weren't following the Prime Directive at all.

[@Idazmi7]

@@NoriMori1992 Like I said: the actual Prime Directive is and was about allowing primitives to have advanced technology, not leaving them to culturally implode. everything Picard says about the Prime Directive straightforwardly contradicts established lore.

[@emilchan5379]

This reminds me of the anime Monster, where a doctor intervenes to save a child's life who would then grow up to be a serial killer. Fewer people would die if the doctor hadn't intervened but that would have meant leaving a child to die. There was no way for the doctor to know what unforeseen consequences saving the child's life would bring.

[@TheInsomniaddict]

​@@Idazmi7 Fairly certain the Prime Directive was all about *not* allowing primitives access to culturally altering information. There's that one episode with the proto-Romulans gaining access to knowledge of alien species (humans) and forming a new religious cult around them. They tried to convince them that they were not gods but didn't do anything like beam down new farming equipment for them. The few times that the PD was used with Pre-Warp spaceflight groups they were conversations on whether or not the society was advanced enough to be given it early, or if Post-Warp whether or not they should be given protection status by the Federation. In this case the degradation of the twin societies was their own fault. It wasn't something outside the species' control; it was through their own (in)actions that allowed their space flight technology to go bunk. Giving them technology wouldn't improve their society and could cause them to continue being dependent on external influences to get by. And while Ross is right that the society probably wouldn't make a change, Picard's actions do give them the ability to solve the problem on their own. Examples: -Beta people tells Alpha what's going on, and they work to resolve the issue; Alpha doesn't need Beta really but Beta could learn to do emergency farming from Alpha so long as they have enough supplies. -Beta continues to lie but tries to get Alpha to build some other transportation method (new ship, mass driver, whatever). -Beta says nothing and allows Alpha to kill themselves while they starve to death. The last is probably the most likely outcome, even if the two groups could work together. Juntas ruling Alpha is the likely outcome, and honestly might lead to a stronger civilization in the end. Beta would be dead.

[@alulim1338]

Figure I'll add my voice to the cacophanous chorus declaring Deep Space Nine as the best one. Maybe our chant will reach such a volume as to ressurect Rene Aubergonois so he can arrest us for disturbing the peace.

[@DwarfDaddy]

RIP Constable Odo

[@Idazmi7]

@@DwarfDaddy _Robert Edwin House, 261, President, CEO, and sole proprietor of the New Vegas Strip, industrialist and technologist, founder, President, and CEO of the multi-billion-dollar pre-war robotics and software corporation, RobCo Industries, has died._

[@WolfeSpeider]

I recommend Deep Space 9, it’s easily underrated. Also stay safe, Ross.

[@elijahjarman2837]

I friggin love bashir

[@chemputer]

DS9 is my overall favorite.

[@DAS_k1ishEe]

It's not underrated at this point. But I had to drag myself through the first two seasons. It's worth the watch nontheless.

[@hannibalburgers477]

It's hard to get used to. But it's great. Maybe as great as TNG even if it's really different

[@Majima_Nowhere]

Sisko is my favorite captain for sure. Such a badass.

[@rainmanslim4611]

As others have said, lower decks did an episode following up on this. Bro you might have inspired a star trek episode with this

[@Patashu]

I am LOVING this deep dive into a single Star Trek episode.

[@cpitts385]

Ross’s mind: *exists* Boromir: “It is a gift.”

[@Torus2112]

You cannot wield it! Nobody can! The One Mind answers to Ross alone, it has no other master!

[@merrittanimation7721]

One does not simply watch Accursed Farms.

[@a.hartsell6054]

It hears it's masters call... *Whispered voice* "Welcome to the game dungeon."

[@mravv]

Anakin: "Is it possible to learn this power?"

[@GhostLink92]

@@mravv Commenter: Wrong series Mr. Incredible: MEMES ARE MEMES!

[@plumdumpster]

I love that you never address the fact these people can shoot lightning out of their fingers.

[@Brandonious15987]

I still don't get it. Like sure they can all shoot lightning. Are they the same race? How did 2 planets evolve the same race?

[@JimPlaysGames]

@@Brandonious15987 in the episode they say it's an adaptation from the radiation put out by the star, and both planets are in the same system.

[@z-beeblebrox]

@@JimPlaysGames That just raises MORE questions!

[@SvenArnhold]

I think that implies that for Ross it's totally normal to shoot lightnings out of his fingers.

[@Brandonious15987]

@@JimPlaysGames I remember that. Maybe their animals can shoot lightning too. What are the chances that 2 planets grew identical intelligent life?

[@dbzssj4678]

Red lentils are a hell of a drug.

[@JosephDavies]

The newest episode of Lower Decks, "Trusted Sources", deals with the repercussions of this TNG episode on the two planets involved. You might be interested in checking it out.

[@CliffDiverBOA]

You know, I'm shocked there hasn't been a really good Star Trek styled RPG yet. I'm not talking Mass Effect: Andromeda or anything. I'd like a full on CRPG where you go planet to planet, interacting with the population, making decisions about how involved in their affairs you want to be. You always have to keep your command in mind when you decide how to interact with the planet. Like they rate your performance depending on how well you hold up the directives. Maybe even punish you for causing chaos on a planet. Maybe the main goal of the game is to get as many planets to join you federation or whatever. I don't know I think it would be awesome.

[@tisselisse]

Ross talks Star Trek? YES! Can we please have more of this?

[@Shamino1]

Interested as to why you've avoided DS9, since its not so much a soap opera as it is concentrated sci-fi madness. Good video, I came to relatively the same conclusions- got to love the red-tinted glasses of first two seasons TNG. Interesting that *this* would be the episode that makes you do a Star Trek video, though.

[@AspiringDevil]

I think its explained in the video where he breakdown that he watchs Trek for the sci-fi concepts and not for drama and while I love DS9 it's strengths are mainly in character drama which I image is Ross"s Kryptonite. God help him if does try to watch Discovery as its 1st season is almost entirely about Micheal"s. drama.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

Um, if "Soap Opera" is now defined as "a show with actual plotted long story arcs and character development and character drama", I think I'm in a mirror universe. By that logic, Babylon 5, The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica 2.0, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad were all soap operas?

[@poika22]

@@TF2CrunchyFrog cope

[@chrislee5268]

​@@poika22 Moron.

[@jurgenronaaz4695]

"I'm sure it's hard to envision how major destabilizing changes can transform society as we know it, occurring because of a plague or cut off supply chain, BUT that's why we have Star Trek! It lets us imagine these things! BYE!" Mmmm yeah can't imagine THAT!

[@CassandraFortuna]

this episode is basically "expatriate filmmaker yells at world for not taking cautionary tales seriously" but actually likable

[@ThePenguin3030]

For follow-up, see Lower Decks season 3: "Trusted Sources". Wow, this analysis actually landed pretty close to the mark.

[@darkmage07070777]

"This is partially on you, Picard." No, actually, it's all on Planet B and their abusing the Prime Directive. The most Picard is at fault for is for letting them wield it against him like they did without really challenging it. Picard WANTED to tell the truth about the drug and not give the drugs away, but Planet B learned about the Federation's prime directive and argued that to tell the truth would be to violate it (whether they're right or not is DEFINITELY up for debate, and you're free to call Picard a callous idiot for not challenging it a little more thoroughly then "not at all"). What Picard then did was make the best of a terrible situation - he can't tell the truth and save people, but he can at least prevent any further shipments from coming out and prevent perpetuation of a slave society under his watch; brutal, as the show acknowledges ("Do you realize what you have done?!") but at least there's hope of a better tomorrow there for Planet A, and if the people from Planet B can get a warning to their world soon enough, possibly for Planet B, too. I do agree that the 90s-era "just make 'em stop" message is way too simplistic compared to the reality of drug abuse and rehabilitation (no talk of secondary effects, mental trauma or relapses, to say nothing of possible genetic consequences of GENERATIONS of people taking the drug), and you're correct that the PD can be ignored in abnormal circumstances like this (as was made clear by Kirk in the OG episode The Return of the Archons when he willfully violated it on the grounds the civilization was stagnated and dying; Picard could've easily used the same logic here, which is why I call him a idiot). But at the end of the day, Planet B brought this situation on themselves, and the secondary moral of the episode is "Laws and Rules are double-edged swords that cut both ways"; Picard ultimately made the best of a terrible situation, and I (mostly) stand behind his decision.

[@totaleNonale]

i totally agree with this. Also I always interpreted the 'grumpy' ending as more of an admission of defeat, because this is one time Picard couldn't get the Pie and eat it too, like he always does and now he just wants to leave it behind him as quickly as possible. Transferred to the Drug-Analog, they also made the message more like 'nobody wins, when drugs are involved, so just stay away from them'

[@jamestown8398]

By sending the drug shipment to Planet A, instead of letting it burn in the atmosphere, Picard set the stage for Planet A to erupt into a giant civil war as everyone tries to murder each other over a substance they not only crave but believe they will die without. He made a bad situation so much worse by that one small detail.

[@ghidorah15]

@@jamestown8398 Yeah, that's not making the best of a bad situation. He should've done something else to expose the lie and left Planet B to face the angry citizens of Planet A.

[@MrDevious88]

@@ghidorah15 At the very least he could have either held onto the drugs (claim they were transporting contraband) or swap out the drugs with the methadone. Hell, technically Planet B was space faring and already messing with Planet A, so the Prime Directive wouldn't apply.

[@poika22]

Picard is the captain of the vessel far out in space. He can do anything he wants. Just because some guy who isn't even part of the Federation tells him "but, ummm, your rules like totally say you have to do what I say, ok?" doesn't mean he has to listen to him or do what he says.

[@duuqnd]

Judging by your Sci-Fi scale you're probably going to dislike Discovery and Picard, since they're basically dramas draped in a Star Trek-themed blanket. Discovery did have a handful of decent episodes, but Picard was just "an old man does something with androids I guess and also the Romulans are both destroyed and pathetic and simultaneously a big threat".

[@GramLikesBread]

They completely drop the utopian society that made Star Trek unique too

[@ghidorah15]

More like melodramas, really. Ugh.

[@Eshanas]

@@GramLikesBread considering DIS is before TOS, which was not a utopia, just advanced, and PIC takes place at the border of an imploded empire, utopia is not the issue. There's no paradise in a shipwreck. The problem is we don't give a damn about the stakes are or characters and whatever they're doing in their cgi wankfests.

[@TreyaTheKobold]

i enjoyed Discovery quite a bit, especially season 1, but DIS and PIC almost feel like commentaries on Star Trek rather than, well... Star Trek.

[@Popdaddy88]

Discovery + Picard = Discard

[@alanbalan3539]

Oh man, early TNG sure loved to go into full smug, sanctimonious a-hole mode. See also: children do not grieve for dead parents, the attitude towards the 3 cryo sleep people episode and many poorly thought out aspects of the no money society. Thankfully this angle was heavily toned down by the time Q took them all on a trip to meet the borg. Much respect to the staff if puncturing the pompous aura like that was an intentional decision on their part. Also, I want to watch as many episodes of this new "ross talks about star trek" show as he is willing to make.

[@raccoononymous]

I'll watch as many episodes of anything Ross is willing to make.

[@espalorp3286]

Oh dear. It seems I have dropped my bar of gold pressed latinum. Wherever could it be. I will proceed to leave this vicinity as I am strapped for time.

[@KairuHakubi]

that's the 80s for you. you ever watch 80s Twilight Zone? you'll laugh into your own palmed face

[@dansmith1661]

​@@KairuHakubi Twilight Zone just couldn't stop talking about Nazis like it was the old History Channel. But then, the small hats programmed decades of hatred towards Whites.

[@nonuvurbeeznus795]

begone. you are not welcome here.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

A very timely video, all things considered. Kinda reminds me of how most of the world's manufacturing is in China because it's technically cheaper, when we should probably be doing more manufacturing at home, or at least in anywhere LESS evil than China. Not just because of morality and to not have to ship things from the other side of the world, but to also not put all our manufacturing eggs in one particular basket that could easily be destabilized further in the future.

[@spankytag]

GmodPlusWoW was thinking that too.

[@retardedfishfrogs1]

tbh the US is MORE evil than China

[@knate44]

@@retardedfishfrogs1 there is a lot of evil to go around for sure. Really we should all be growing a diverse array of crops in rotating patterns, and move away from certain things entirely. And also figure out what the heck is going on with the US cotton industry, cause you know that is a messed up supply chain.

[@spankytag]

GmodPlusWoW I was thinking the same thing, but after reading a factoid in the news today about how the PPI that IS being manufactured by US companies is being bought up by foreign countries who are outbidding American hospitals and our own governments, I doubt even domestic production could save us from our own greedy selves. Yay Capitalism.

[@TheOsamaBahama]

The only good that that would bring is to not have a large chunk of manufacturing lost overnight. Which is a good goal, don't get me wrong. But if were to lose China, we would have substitute them for more expansive labor that would make everything more expansive. Creating that prevention plan would only do this expensive substitution now instead of later (if it ever comes to happen).

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

I very much want a follow up in light of what Lower Decks did (which had me interested in Lower Decks in a way I have never been before) because as other commentors have already said; I could completely buy that the writers had watched this video.

[@IronDino]

Was just reading the Lower Decks TvTropes page and it linked me to your video. Excellent breakdown!

[@carcosian]

"They should have kept them the cold, terrifying, cryptic aliens that they are." Ah, I see now from where GW got their idea to manhandle the Necrons. Sci-fi writers need to learn to let the space Terminators be space Terminators. Not everything has to be relatable or sympathetic.

[@BloodyAltima]

Part of GW's issue was that people genuinely did not like pre-"Tomb Lords IN SPACE," Necrons, for a variety of reasons from, "They were stupidly, boringly overpowered," to, "Terminators are kinda boring in their own right, and going to space just makes them more so because there's no contrast between them and the rest of the environment." They were genuinely the most hated thing in W40k for a hot minute, and after the overhaul, the hate mostly abated to a more calm, 'it's aight'. How much credit you want to give the fluff changes and how much to them being nerfed out of boring overpoweredness is kinda the main sticking point.

[@Arcwhiteflame]

I always saw the Tyranids as the 40k equivalent to the Borg, both are space faring races from beyond our galaxy that are completely alien to us and have no real connection to our galaxy's issues they both come in out of nowhere and change the playing field using cold alien intelligence beyond our comprehension the only real difference between the two is that the Tyranids are biological rather than cybernetic.

[@Piotwor]

Many writers forget that you shouldn't explain everything and let the imagination of the audience do the work.

[@espalorp3286]

That lack of relation also leads to cosmic horror. Another plus. But if your Cthulhu has a knitted sweater you lose any of that.

[@programmingwithian]

I'm pretty new to 40k. Would you mind explaining what the Necrons used to be about? I couldn't find much online since searching "Necron history" just turns up lore about their current incarnation.

[@commenter_HIMIK-MAN]

I'd love to see you nitpick more tv show episodes. This is magical.

[@shurbrrt]

oh hey i do feel like society is- oh ok star trek alright then.

[@RageTH22]

This is nice! I like it when Ross diversifies his accursed crops!

[@Nemo-wk9tu]

Well, Star Trek Lower Decks went back to these planets. You were more or less spot on on their aftermath. Onara had a decade and a half long shitshow but have turned around and are now doing great as well as becoming a bunch of fitness freaks working on their gains. Brekka is a post apocalyptic hellhole invaded by the Breen.

[@jurgenronaaz4695]

Honestly I'd really like to see more "Ross Talks Trek" like this, this was a fun time! I also kinda wanna see him do some kinda colab with SF Debris, I cannot imagine the hilarious shit that would come from THAT meeting of the minds! And going by the System Shock 2 review, Chuck's definitely seen Freeman's Mind so it wouldn't be the hardest of sells.

[@tximistarissole]

Do a crossover with RLM

[@viewtiful1doubleokamihand253]

*Is Accursed Farms replacing RedLetterMedia ?* *Is Ross replacing Mike Stoklasa ?* *Is Gordon Freeman replacing Rich Evans ?* *Is Ross' Game Dungeon replacing re:View ?* *Is...*

[@gestaltengine6369]

Are africans and mexicans replacing whites? XDDDDD

[@BoneMachine1443]

@@gestaltengine6369 Oh fuck off.

[@Wolf_Larsen]

This reminds me of a Star Trek episode...

[@Kutaplexus]

I would give so much to see Ross discuss Stark Trek with Mike

[@PainCausingSamurai]

Get AccursedFarms on Best of the Worst. Or on the Escapist.

[@SeruraRenge11]

>A Star Trek Apocalypse What a perfect way to describe Star Trek: Picard

[@Aeolusdallas]

This weeks Lower Decks goes back to these planets and the results are pretty close to this video lol

[@cormoran2303]

TNG "drugs are bad" STP "Smoke crack erryday!"

[@caav56]

Discovery: "'Shrooooooms!"

[@CybershamanX]

This is what I like about pre-JJ/Kurtzman Trek. Here we are, decades later, analyzing the concepts/themes of certain episodes. Even the not so good ones. Discovery/Picard? Yeah, I don't think we'll be deep diving into any episodes of those shows 30+ years from now. I hope the franchise hasn't been utterly ruined by the last 10 years. I really hope we get back to the hopeful future and deep concepts that Trek was (in)famous for. I hope it happens before I shed my mortal coil. We'll see, I guess. :/ Thank you so much for this video, Ross! I really enjoyed it. I've missed these sorts of discussions. :)

[@R3GARnator]

Dude, deep space nine is the best star trek series. It has the most moral grayness, the most developed villains... Watch "In The Pale Moonlight" at least, that'll give you a sense of it.

[@mcain2911]

R3GARnator DS9 is so epic. It’s what you wanted TNG to be so many times, but Roddenberry would never allow it.

[@Rawnblade13]

DS9 is what modern Star Trek should be. Has enough dark stuff for all these writers who seem obsessed with making Star Trek as depressing and dark as possible, but it never loses the sense of adventure and optimism that defines the spirit of Star Trek.

[@EinsiJo]

Second this. Also, while I 110% agree with Ross' opinion on 'Into Darkness', the third reboot movie, 'Beyond', is actually pretty good and comes far closer than the other two to the TOS feel.

[@EinsiJo]

But also, as much as I love DS9, if Ross hates 'Soap Trek', then I could understand why he would be hesitant to watch it, since it focuses so heavily on continuity and inter character relationships.

[@frodobrommelkamp9119]

But most of the plot happens on the station or in close proximity to it, a few visits to the Gamma Quadrant aside. I have only watched TNG and DS9 so far and think DS9 is the better show - but I think it is less of the "Go out there and see lots of weird stuff!" thing Ross seems to enjoy. There is also a far greater focus on the characters relationships which all seemed extremely static in TNG, maybe with the exception of Wesley and Data.

[@jamespfp]

11:42 -- Sorry to interrupt, but I find it amazing that you haven't mentioned that the actor currently in the center of the frame, the blond dude, is Khan's right-hand man in ST2: Wrath of Khan.

[@T3mpl3t0n]

A man who was dumped into a potentially bad situation and forgotten about by another Captain of the Enterprise.

[@BoneMachine1443]

"They were straight-faced trying to equate a lost investment to the seriousness of an entire population dying off." Good thing stuff like that only happens in fiction... Anyway, make sure you keep paying your rent on time over the next couple months, everybody!

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

I get what you're saying, but to be fair I've seen a lot of utility companies saying they won't be cutting the power/gas/water for unpayied bills during the mandatory lock-downs, at least here in Ohio anyway. sure they're still going to cut it off later if you don't start paying once the quarantines are lifted, but hey, at least then you'll be able to go out and resume work/find new work/move in with someone else or whatever people normally do when they can't pay bills. after all even in the most cynical view of these companies, dead people can't pay their future lifetime's worth of bills, and the PR disaster of "we let people die/suffer in their homes without power/gas/water because they didn't pay their bills during a time where it was mandated by the state that they couldn't work and earn the money to pay us with" is a good way to get sued and loose customers.... and incur Government crackdowns and regulations.

[@GruppeSechs]

@@RipOffProductionsLLC They were starting to turn water off in my state until people wagged their fingers at them and they were like, "oops, ya got us. Aren't we stinkers?"

[@TheOsamaBahama]

The guys from Planet B weren't acting rational anyway. They could have provided a new ship for free. It's better than losing an entire planet of customers.

[@Shadowrunner523]

While I won't discount the fact that many a landlord are extraordinarily greedy people, on account of the many slums I have seen. It's a bit more complex than simple greed there. There are massive expenses that come with maintaining a property for rent. While the larger companies and complexes might be able to soak the cost, smaller operations are likely to suffer or even shut down. That being bad for both the landlord and the person leasing the property. Without rent being paid, they could lose the ability to maintain the house or complex due to lack of funds or have their rental property seized by the bank due to their inability to pay the loans. Meaning the person who is renting it is either kicked out by the bank when the house they were renting is seized, or the standard of living they have goes down due to the landlord not being able to maintain the property. To summarize, them still wanting rent is not equating the loss of investment to the loss of life, but the loss of investment going along with the loss of their ability to maintain or hold the property, resulting in a negative outcome for both the landlord and the one renting the property.

[@Kyronea]

Episodes like this help demonstrate why I hate the Prime Directive so much. It's always used as an excuse just to do nothing and pat yourself on the back for doing nothing while people die.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

I think it makes sense in a number of contexts, but the script for this episode clearly didn't get to finish baking even slightly, so to say.

[@AbandonedVoid]

Sometimes the only winning move is not to play

[@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z]

@@AbandonedVoid right? the hubris... short term good leading to the worst of hells... the idea was that they would never have the time, as an exploratory vessel to FULLY understand the consequences of acting, so it was better not to... their job was to explore, not be johnny good god for the galaxy...

[@arcadianlhadattshirotsughW33Z]

read your replies... they're an EXPLORATORY vessel... not problem solver on the quick for everyone vessel... its why you dont have drive thru psychiatry... although with how things are going, i wouldnt put that idiotic idea past some people... they cant just "help" because they wouldnt know the ramifications... there is a good stargate sg1 episode about this on a lesser, quicker example called "The Other Side"... but i agree they handled this one BADLY... but its a tv show, and thats why you dont base a god damn THING off of tv shows... not your morality, ideology, peer group, etc...

[@poika22]

I really don't understand why or how this is a prime directive episode. The prime directive itself makes perfect sense. It's about not interfering with cultures that have not yet mastered space travel. But I don't understand how you can have guests over from another space ship on your warp travel capable space ship to transport them using teleportation technology "because of the prime directive".

[@WittyUsername816]

Ok, so my math might be wrong, so feel free to correct me, but: According to the Memory Alpha wiki, T'Jon "assumed command of his ship in 2357, and, by 2364, had made twenty-six voyages to Brekka. " And the run we see on the show is run 27. So if we use 26, that's 3.7 runs per year and if we use 27 it is 3.857 runs per year. Either way we'll round to 4 runs per year for simplicity's sake. We are also going to assume every shipment is the same size, 4,000,000,000 doses. If we have 4 runs per year at 4 billion doses each, that is 16,000,000,000 or 16 billion doses per year. We know that people take three doses per day, so we take our 16 billion and divide it by 3, giving us 5333333333.33 doses, which we will round down to 5333333333 people/days delivered per year. We then divide by 365 to get rid of years, giving us 14611872.1461 or 14,611,872 people to consume the amount of drug being delivered. So the estimation provided on the wiki of thousands is way off, since, being generous with our assumptions and rounding, we have a population of just over 14.5 million.

[@CassandraFortuna]

No wonder both planets look like Mars. Their biospheres are probably hopelessly ruined and all the food production likely happens indoors.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

@@CassandraFortuna why would a population in only the tens of millions ruin their biospheres when Earth is still mostly Okay at 8 Billion humans? unless these folks have been insanely reckless/inefficient in their... well *everything* really... production, their planets should be fine with numbers that low... unless the numbers are that low after a collapse due to having previously had higher numbers that were unsustainable and caused long term damage that hasn't recovered yet(if it even can)... but you'd think something like that would be relivent enough to come up in the episode along with the "virus" and "cure" thing.

[@justsomegoblin3922]

I just wanna watch an entire series of ross talking about star trek episodes now.

[@sc6554]

Hell Yeah Accursed Farms Trek Content

[@aurex8937]

"Skipped most of Deep Space Nine, seen Voyager..." *"Ight, Imma head out"*

[@xthrax]

*Ross uploads during quarantine* me: "...I'm listening"

[@BrianFlyingPenguin]

"I wanna see HOW bad for myself." That's the only reason to watch it. And I'd watch DS9 first.

[@dereknight861]

Mr Zoat at least Deep space 9 is good.

[@CMElliotte]

The only thing I remember from Discovery is the fidget spinner of death.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

I just love all the redlettermedia content i got from those atrocious shows.

[@Nathan-kk6lb]

@@misanthropicservitorofmars2116 Getting biweekly Mike Stoklasa Star Trek rants that are averaging an hour plus is by far the best thing to come out of Star Trek: Picard.

[@handsomebrick]

Even though I'd recommend Ross avoid DS9, Discovery and Picard are basically bad versions of DS9, so if he's going to watch them all then he definitely should see DS9 first.

[@cac_deadlyrang]

This feels very Gordon Freeman, and this isn’t even Freeman’s Mind.

[@tukkek]

You might be surprised to learn that, in fact, Freedom's Mind is not narrated by Gordon Freeman (the character) but by Ross Scott himself (the person who also made this video)! I know! I'll give you some time to figure it out.

[@zigfaust]

@@tukkek Pretty sure they know that. The joke is that the video hits on dystopian symbiosis run by one ruling class sort of like a certain game involving Zero Point Energy. I'll give you some time to figure it out.

[@cac_deadlyrang]

@@tukkek I subbed for Freeman’s Mind, why would you think I didn’t know Ross was behind it?

[@DarkExcalibur42]

Ohhh shit lol. I think the writers of Star Trek Lower decks might've seen your video.

[@Harley--Quinn]

I'm glad I'm not the only one disturbed by this episode. It really bugs me that Picard made a really bad decision here. After this episode I started to dislike The Federation because their prime directive. The issue with the Federation is that it has no morals, it's just there to observe. I feel that, just as the Travelers, they help societies but in a discrete way. Which could be better than just observing and watching the fall of civilizations or starships.

[@kenshy10]

This feels like the same arguement people have with God. Oh you are all powerful and omniscient but I suffered when you could have stopped it?! I get where you are coming from but sometimes people have suffering coming to them for their bad choices. Should we stop them from making bad choices? Well we can try but some people only learn from the school of hard knocks. You can't tell them anything until the get hurt because they just won't listen.

[@TheCrownPrinceOfAustralia]

​@@kenshy10 I don't know. I think allowing one planet's civilization to collapse into a chaotic dark age, and dooming another to total extinction, might be a little too hard a lesson. "You'll never do it again, because you won't be here at all."

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Star Trek writing is very illogical and it makes the show fun to theorize about. One of the theory is because the main fuel of the ships (dilithium I guess) is a finite natural resource they just let species die so they can have more dilithium.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@kenshy10 God and the Federation is two completely different thing. If we take the Christian God he has a master plan and he send us to the earth for some reason. The federation doesn't have a master plan, they just want to live a good life. They could help but they don't want. God want to help but he don't because of the master plan.

[@mrjimjimjimmyjim9824]

7:26 this sounds like that social experiment that was propositioned in fallout new vegas (i think?), where a person was elected to become the overseer each new year, but it was the overseers job at the end of the year to either kill themselves or everyone dies instead. so no one wanted to be elected as the overseer but no overseer wanted to kill everyone. it went on and on till the last person left finally chose to kill the inhabitants because there was no one left, but instead the vault door opened and the computer just said thanks for taking part in this social experiment! the trouble being tho that the vaults inhabitants devided themselves into red and blue factions and created a deep hatred for each other, as they would try to capture the elected candidate to forcefully put into the position of overseer but scanning their thumb print. this went on for so long that people in the vault were being killed from the infighting. im not sure if i got all the details correct, but i dont think its really important, the point im trying to make is the vacuum of information in this case with picard making his choice doesnt inform anyone of the problem at hand, so the people are none the wiser, but believe they are sick and so are prepared to do whatever they can to receive that cure. which creates a power situation for the person controlling that cure, but instead of inspiring law in very likely will instill anarchy instead as the people fight to stay alive. its this faith which may cause people to respond in crazy ways when they or loved ones come down with so much as the common cold - believing this to be symptoms of the sickness tl:dr this is fucked up for picard to do this but then again it was a show filmed in the 90s trying to be cutting edge on topics mostly understood as taboo or had very clear understandings on opinions about subjects

[@Jorvard]

You mixed up two vaults. The sacrifice vault is Vault 11, where the computer would demand the death of the incumbent overseer after his reign. Vault 11 is basically an inversion of modern politics, because the voting blocs tried to get candidates from other parties elected by making them look bad. A woman who was raped by the leaders of the biggest party (and told to shut up about it, because otherwise they would make her husband overseer) committed murder on several party leaders, therefore becoming the prime candidate for overseer. She disestablished voting in lieu of a randomized computer selection. That triggered a coup by the political leaders, who feared to lose their power. The five survivors of the coup decided to defy the computer as a method of suicide, but instead getting the "Congratulations, you are morally superior"-message, which lead to four suicides by gun. The last survivor left the now unlocked vault never to be seen again. The other vault with red and blue teams is the paranoia Vault 19, where the goal was to induce paranoia through exterior and non-violent methods.

[@JohnSmith-nh2te]

This is some of the best kind of content

[@PJKP82]

So, the shipment of drugs is a metaphor of toilet paper? Or is toilet paper a metaphor in itself? I just blew my own mind.

[@LurkTheDarK]

"No I'm not making a statement on current events, i just reviewed a star trek episode" Said Ross, lying through his teeth

[@OrdinaryDemon]

Great video, Ross! Getting a deeper analysis of a Star Trek episode was pretty interesting. Hearing your thoughts on the consequences of what happened was very entertaining, and I wouldn't mind seeing more videos in that style.

[@VieVentar]

You know, I'd completely forgotten about this episode and only remembered when it came up in the feed. So, not sure if you watch Lower Decks Ross, but there's an episode you should definitely catch from the recent season. As it's litterally the crew going back to these planets to see what happened, hell - given the timing it's possible that your video may even have put the idea for the episode into the writer's heads.

[@TekedixXx]

Ross, I know this is an older video, but the reason why a lot of people are angry at Star Trek Discovery is because they plagiarized the story and characters of the whole first season from a guy making a point and click adventure game in Europe. Even went as far as to cast characters that look almost identical to the ones in his video game, and the characters have similar relationships with each other, and similar backstories. There's currently a lawsuit that the creator has filed against ABC, and they have stopped at nothing to get the thing thrown out. Regardless of how good or bad the series is, if you spend any money watching it you could be supporting plagiarism (The courts haven't ruled, but you should really see the evidence for yourself at his blog anas-tronaut) It's super tragic that ABC would do this to a small creator.

[@noahfessenden6478]

Late response, but there's always alternatives to watching a show on the Internet if you catch my meaning.

[@poika22]

No one cares about STD being plagiarized. People dislike Discovery because it's an awful show. Also, it's made by CBS.

[@JPWestmas]

Action/ Soap opera that tends to ignore consistent rules is where most "sci-fi "is going. It's not really sci-fi. More like bad mysticism with some high-technology used to spice things up.

[@hannibalburgers477]

Sci-fi part of Star Trek is just there to put the characters in different situations and make them face different problems in every single episode. It's not Space Opera because most of the characters are one dimentional, there is no inner conflict and Dama is never on focus

[@espalorp3286]

To have science fiction, you need someone that can write fiction in the first place.

[@MrDevious88]

They call that Space Fantasy, since it's in space but there's no consistent logic for how certain things work. Star Wars is a prime example of this since how The Force works changes depending on who's writing the story. It varied a lot in the EU (pre-Disney), and not even Lucas himself could keep it consistent. How else do you go from highly trained knights errant in the originals to freaking superheros in the prequels?! I won't even touch upon what happened after Disney bought the franchise.

[@JPWestmas]

Right! Fully agree. Rules are so important in a narrative, no matter how science driven or fantastical they are. Rules are mostly about having consistency and dependency. There is room for mysticism but even then that needs to be revealed occasionally so we can understand some of what happened in the past.

[@1300l]

This episode is why i love star trek and why i actually really like Season 1 of TNG, more than half of season 5 onward

[@pentelegomenon1175]

It's not too bad, it makes me curious about the "Phase II" show Roddenberry was developing before, which apparently had many elements salvaged for TNG Season 1 (and Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

[@1300l]

@@pentelegomenon1175 Yea, me too

[@dashlambda6707]

I stumbled upon this video in my recommended list, and I only hovered my mouse over it because I wasn't sure what it was. Then I saw who uploaded it, and my mind kind of went blank in bewilderment. And I thoroughly enjoyed the video. Side note, you should finish DS9. It's one of the best Treks there is.

[@kefka989]

Damn, can we get some more episode breakdowns like this? That was fun.

[@PaladinGuy]

"Skipped most of DS9." Bad move Ross, bad move.

[@rwjfan5000]

Let it be known that, while still decidedly imperfect, Star Trek Beyond is far and away a better film than Into Darkness, mostly because of Simon Pegg's character writing. And to pile onto the comment bandwagon, unless you've firmly come to conclusions about it, it really is worth giving DS9 more of a chance, a wonderful show over all.

[@gestaltengine6369]

True, but ST:D still does not offer much in terms of sci-fi.

[@Chud_Bud_Supreme]

DS9 is when Star Trek was at its peak

[@38procentkrytyk]

@@gestaltengine6369 Star Trek Michael is ridiculous just like Life is Strange.

[@Feasco]

@@38procentkrytyk ok boomer

[@38procentkrytyk]

@@Feasco Nah, I won't puke on you.

[@danielmcdonagh1693]

I hope Ross saw season 3 episode 9 of Lower Decks.

[@Skullkan6]

I would love to see you run a D&D campaign or any kind of pen and paper game ross, with how in-depth your thoughts are on such little info.

[@ignaciogomez4733]

I have showed this episode to a friend of mine... We have been discussing what would be the best answer in Picard´s dilema for an hour. We have decided to call the Federation would be the best solution. Great episode!

[@MegaFat1]

"Skipped most of Deep Space Nine" Please give it another shot.

[@BigNerdSam]

"Ever feel like modern society is slowly imploding?" Slowly?

[@Torus2112]

Skipping DS9 was a grave mistake.

[@moserfugger6363]

One of the most interesting videos about Star Trek I've watched recently. Thanks for that. Greetings from Germany! :-)

[@AnotherDoomerWeeb]

>skipping DS9 Some times I forget that DS9 is hated for deliberately breaking the Rodenberry utopia & is considered the black sheep of the franchise. Then i remember thats why its the best Trek. We await you Ross

[@RealTallestSkil]

Having not seen anything but TOS and TNG, but knowing a bit about the rest, something tells me that people have already-or will soon be-flocking to DS9 as a breath of fresh air after the apocalyptic taco farts that were Discovery and Picard. Has that held true? I’m not one for utopia. It can’t exist. It’s a delusion. It was explicitly written by Roddenberry the way it was due to his religious precepts. I don’t like delusions in media. Thing about the Star Trek franchise is that these modern shows? They’re deluded in a totally different way, and of an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE worse. There’s delusion due to lack of information (desiring utopia), and then there’s delusion due to malice (purposely not giving a shit about the story, setting, and cohesion simply because you want to sell propaganda). Roddenberry Trek was well made, if misguided. Modern Trek isn’t well made and is purposely misleading.