Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris Would Be Proud 🥲

Somehow, in 2022, Tumblr University finally exists, but the only offering is a semester long English course about Dracula and everyone is enrolled

I think about this every hour of every day of every month by the way

Zevenkoppige Muizenkoning tussen de rennende muizen - Willem Wenckebach - 1898 - via Rijksmuseum

Detail from the Horae ad usum Romanum (dites Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne) - c. 1505-1510 - via Gallica

columbo cinematic universe

¡Un abrazo a la gente que viene desde tuiter! Acordáos de poner algo en la bio que suene a persona humana aunque no vayáis a postear aún, para que no os confundamos con cuentas bot y os bloqueemos.

This one.

Can we talk about the SUPURB concept scaling of Prodigy? The show is designed for kids and to be a gateway into the Star Trek universe. As such they need to slowly and carefully introduce you to the various Trek things most of us longer established fans understand without question.

Let me break down how the first half of the season establishes trek concepts step by step:

Episode 1. Introduces the universal translator, several types of Trek aliens including the Kazon and Medusans, and the Protostar ship.

Episode 2. Introduces phasers (pew pew) and shields.

Episode 3. Introduces holograms, the brig, the concept of the United federation, replicators (food and vehicle), and escape pods.

Episode 4. Introduces the concept of away missions, tricorders, and ship landings. It also reinforces the idea that holograms must remain within the ship.

Episode 5. Introduces klingons and the proto warp drive.

Episode 6. Introduces the holodeck, the concept of the Kobiashi Maru scenario, and Chakotay.

Episode 7. Introduces the transporters, Ferengi, and both the concepts of First Contact and the Prime Directive.

Episode 8. Introduces time travel shenanigans.

Episodes 9 and 10 are special because they both take everything we’ve learned up until now and puts them to work.

So by now we should understand how the protostar jump works, how universal translators work, how the holodeck works, how Medusans work, how holograms are supposed to work (to give us an added surprise when they function differently due to an upgrade) and we reinforce Starfleet ideals and beliefs.

Each episode takes you step by step, slowly acclimating you to these concepts so that further down the line when we see characters in wild settings that shouldn’t exist we just know “Ah, they’re on the holodeck.” Or see characters just appear out of nowhere “ah, that’s because of transporters.”

I know this should be obvious storytelling 101, but I’ve noticed that most other trek shows… just don’t do this at all. They just assume everyone knows what a transporter is, or what a holodeck is, or what phasers and tricorders are. And while to a degree some of that will be absorbed through pop culture osmosis, very few of the other trek shows stop and explain what these things are which makes getting into these shows more challenging for first time watchers.

So I greatly appreciate Prodigy assuming that viewers know next to NOTHING about the Trek world and take the time to let these concepts be introduced slowly over the span of multiple episodes. And each time it feels like we’re leveling up too.

This is good stuff!

I do not want my fantasy media to be realistic. I want my fantasy media to be convincing.