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Big changes in the cast of anything - be it books or shows or films can be very jarring on viewers. Heck in the world of TV/film if you change too many key character actors at the same time it can entirely disengage fans suddenly. A few here and there you can swap in and out or change out, but you can't just change everything.

People get attached to characters, invested in them and losing them means that you're basically starting the show over again.

That's often why series like Avatar the Last Airbender do new whole seasonal blocks when they do it; they know that a "new show" with its own story and seasons can have its own character roster much better than trying to keep it all as one mega-seasonal series. Even if the content if the episodes is identical.


Even big time jumps in the first episode are tricky to manage. People rapidly firm first impressions. That's why TV shows that often do that kind of trick will often use flashbacks. You start with the current state and characters then flashback to the before-times to show how things started. That way the first characters your audience is identifying with are the ones that will be the main characters in the story and everything else is a "flashback"

Also, after seeing a comment on Facebook about Lower Decks crew crossing over into other shows, I now want to see more 'Trouble with Tribbles' crossovers, where successive different crews find themselves mixed up in that story and have to navigate events without screwing up an increasingly complicated mess of timelines...

Will we ever reach the point where Klingons and Tribbles can just get along?

I've been watching a lot of TNG and DS9 and I've noticed that there are no toilets in the Brig.

No bathrooms at all when you are locked up seems cruel and unusual punishment for the Federation.

Unless, they transport your waste away.

What do you, the viewers at home, think?

In Star Trek V, Kirk pops the toilet out from the wall.

There's also a pop-out sink shown in a couple of TNG episodes.

I think all the Federation cell furniture is wall secreted. But, DS9 is a Cardassian facility. And I can well see them just leaving you to besmirch your pantaloons.

Which would imply Odo and Station Security do toilet trips with those held?

Cursory google turned up no Technical Layout, sadly.

Watched the episode last night where Sisko is held at Starfleet HE'S Brig.

There is not a single, anything in his cell besides a bench. Admiral Leyton offers to get him some food.

So that means that replicators aren't even nearby.

Well, you don’t want to be giving a prisoner any kind of replicator. Thats just asking for trouble.

And there may well be a difference between a Holding Cell and a “see you in a few days/weeks/months/years/never” cells.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well, you don’t want to be giving a prisoner any kind of replicator. Thats just asking for trouble.

And there may well be a difference between a Holding Cell and a “see you in a few days/weeks/months/years/never” cells.

Admiral Leyton does say (to Sisko) that he'll "get out in a few days." Still a few days with nothing but a bench seems a little harsh for Starfleet.

Toilets is something most sci-fi and and fantasy never has. In real world series they don't need to show it cause we know where they are and most scenes/houses and such will have hints as to where they are in the layout.

But in fantasy and sci-fi we rarely if never see toilets. Heck do the exploded diagrams of the Enterprise and such even show them.

We know they are there, but in general we never see them used nor featured. It's not even a point of event that characters leave to relieve themselves.

 Overread wrote:
Toilets is something most sci-fi and and fantasy never has. In real world series they don't need to show it cause we know where they are and most scenes/houses and such will have hints as to where they are in the layout.

But in fantasy and sci-fi we rarely if never see toilets. Heck do the exploded diagrams of the Enterprise and such even show them.

We know they are there, but in general we never see them used nor featured. It's not even a point of event that characters leave to relieve themselves.

The Defiant-class has toilets in its deck plans. I know because a certain player in my STA game tried pointing their lack of existence out, but I found them.

They are communal (unless you are an officer) on the Defiant.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:


There is not a single, anything in his cell besides a bench..

... Because, again, the facilities pop out from the wall...

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I think all the Federation cell furniture is wall secreted. But, DS9 is a Cardassian facility. And I can well see them just leaving you to besmirch your pantaloons.

Which would imply Odo and Station Security do toilet trips with those held?

Who do you think is the bucket

Just a stray thought...

As I have not seen all of Discovery, Strange New Worlds, or Short Treks, or Section 31 I could not disagree with someone today.

Has there ever been a giant robot/mech in Star Trek? I thought not... but I've been wrong before.

Nothing that I can think of.

I don't want to say that one has never happened because there's every chance that one might be there in some side episode. But big mechs are not really a thing in the Startrek universe. So even if there is one somewhere its very much going to be a one-off


There might have been one in some video game made; or you might be mixing it up with something like Andromeda which did have some (rarely seen) mechs.

 Overread wrote:
I don't want to say that one has never happened because there's every chance that one might be there in some side episode. But big mechs are not really a thing in the Startrek universe. So even if there is one somewhere its very much going to be a one-off


There might have been one in some video game made; or you might be mixing it up with something like Andromeda which did have some (rarely seen) mechs.

I was told there was, and I couldn't remember one... at all, even in in classic Trek large computers rarely moved and most robots were man sized or smaller.

I wonder if it appeared in the classic original series animation ?

 Overread wrote:
I wonder if it appeared in the classic original series animation ?

Or Lower Decks... I forgot all about the cartoons.

How could you forget about Fortress Tiberius?






From the Star Trek/Transformers crossover.

I'm not saying the world needs a Mobile Suit Gundam / Star Trek crossover anime, but I mean, would the world really be any worse if we had one?

We've been blessed by a lack of weeb culture in the Trek fandom, and I'd personally like to keep it that way.

So, I shouldn't post the Star Trek Mecha I've found online?

Lathe Biosas wrote:So, I shouldn't post the Star Trek Mecha I've found online?

I don't care about fan work, it's no different than the shipper Rule 34 stuff.

 Just Tony wrote:

Lathe Biosas wrote:So, I shouldn't post the Star Trek Mecha I've found online?

I don't care about fan work, it's no different than the shipper Rule 34 stuff.

A lot of it comes from Lower Decks and the Star Trek Comic Books.

Nifty that you like it. Still don't care, and I don't count the comics as Canon as they tend to contradict far too much stuff

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm not saying the world needs a Mobile Suit Gundam / Star Trek crossover anime, but I mean, would the world really be any worse if we had one?

Yes. Indubitably yes.

I've gone back to the 3rd season of The Orville recently and just got to "Tale of Two Topas".
Man... it hit hard when it came out and it sure as hell still hits hard now.

The sorrow from Topa, Bortus and Kelly, the bigoted rage from Klyden. Topa's arc in this show is just amazing from start to finish.

A question the internet has failed me on.

For how long were the Romulans allies and Advisors to the President of the Federation?

In Undiscovered Country, the President has a Romulan Advisor who sits in on classified rescue operations meetings.

Is there any explanation of when/how the Federation became good buddies with the Romulans (even though it seems that it didn't last very long) ?

Apparently the original intent was for Savik to return as a half-Romulan agent that was working with the Ambassador in a secret plot but that got cut.
In the novelisation, Valeris is noted to be half-Romulan so the idea was kept somewhere.

As for being present at the Khitomer Accords, they were a really big deal that dealt with more than just peace between the UFP and Klingons. Subspace weapons were banned by the accords, something the So'na ignored.
Having observers and signatories from the other powers in the Quadrant would be only polite.