Numbness

 So the Wheel of Time teaser trailer just dropped and I don't know how I feel about it.

   You may remember that time long ago when I auditioned for the role of Min and didn't get it, and how it completely threw me off into a deep depression that lasted for months. How it was the one thing I wanted and not getting that lead me to wondering 'what do I even do now?', and I stopped doing many of the things I enjoyed like my acting classes - because why bother with those when they lead to nothing?

   I thought the watching the trailer would spark those feelings again, but it didn't - though it didn't feature Min, so that might have helped somewhat... I hoped I'd feel somewhat hyped, but I don't feel that either. I don't feel anything in particular about it.

   I suppose that is somewhat of an improvement over hatred and self-loathing, but... I thought I'd at least feel something about the thing that was so important to me for so long. WoT helped me through some dark moments during high school. I still remember when the last book finally came out and I almost passed out asleep with the book in my hands because I couldn't stop reading it. I still recommend the series to people, despite still not being able to retrieve the books from the bag in the shed I had to put them in when even just seeing them on my shelves was too much for me to bear. (Though I think part of that is because, since they were purchased as the books were released, they're a mismatched set and I don't particularly like mismatched sets of things...)

   Maybe it's just the weather, and lockdown depression, that are dulling things. I don't know.

Thoughts on: Star Trek DS9 Season Two

• Surely, the best person to ask for advice about a first date, in this case, would be Major Kira? Who would know better on what Bajoran girls like (generally, of course) than a Bajoran woman? ("The Homecoming")
• The Government: aloud He's alive?! thinking He's not supposed to be...
• Make up a new title for their hero, then send him offworld where he'll be out of the way of their ineffiectiveness and so be unable to do what they need him to do. Something tells me the Bajoran Provisional Government is profiting somewhat on the chaos of post-occupation Bajor.
• You can tell Odo has had years of practise dealing with Quark. ("The Circle")
• It's kinda heartening seeing how confident Nog is that he'll see Jake again. ("The Siege")
• Quark's mad, yes, but he'll be proud of his bro when he's calmed down a bit!
• Figured they were going to kill off the war hero at some point. At least it was at the end of the episode.
• I don't think Quark will be adding Klingon Rodeo to the holosuites any time soon. ("Invasive Procedures")
  
• Poor Verad. I know what it's like to feel like you've been passed over for the one thing you were born for... and how hard it is to accept that.
• A stranger approaches you and calls you handsome in one of the creepiest ways possible? Yeah, I'd be biting too! ("Cardassians")
• It's good that O'Brien is finally learning more about civilian Cardassians, even if it is one who was raised with a Bajoran worldview. Such hatred of a race because of experiences at war shouldn't be tolerated, really. There has to be a seperation between how you feel about people when you're at war with them and how you feel about them when you're at peace, otherwise your whole civilisation will collapse into hatred and selfish egotism. (totally not looking critically at certain countries right now... mine included....)
• Something tells me that "Melora" was written by a non-disabled person. The way she acts is the way someone who hasn't actually been disabled thinks a disabled person would act. I'm just waiting for the revelation that when she puts her mind to it she doesn't need any accommodations... I really hope I'm wrong.
• I mean... at least he gave you a heads up, Quark. Most vengeance-minded people would just go straight to the murdering.
• Of course she wants to be 'cured'. Just like all the rest of disabled society. (Hint: I'm being sarcastic. You'll find that actually it's only a fraction of the community who want to be cured, and those are the ones dealing with chronic pain and severe physical disabilities, of which merely needing mobility aids is not one. Wanting a cure for less severe disabilities like paralysis and autism is a very ablist notion.)
• Don't get me wrong - I'm all for the option of being cured to be there for those who do want it. I have myself at times wished I was neurotypical. But I much prefer myself the way I am. I don't want the 'there needs to be a cure' to be the majority. Being autistic is far preferable to being dead, for example. (Definitely looking at the antivaxxers out there.)
• Ha - forget gift horses - at least you know you're gonna get teeth - never look a generous Ferengi in the mouth! ("Rules of Aquisition")
• The Grand Nagus continues to make cane toads look like frog princes.
• We all love a Twelfth Night plot!
• Eight names of Bajorans who were Cardassian sympathisers, maybe? There are always some like that ("Necessary Evil")
• Ooo a flashback episode! Love me some backstory!
• 'Hooray, I saved my brother's life!.... Oh no, I saved my brother's life....'
• "Ok, but don't laugh." 'I promise.' "So, there I am, barbeque sauce on my tiddies..." ("Second Sight")
• Calling it now: Fenna has something to do with the dead star. Reignition = no more Fenna, perhaps?
• Or she's Nidell! A seperate, psychically projected personality!
• Now that is what I call out with a bang!
• Looks like they have some form of xenopox. Looks like a good old epidemic episode, this one! ("Sanctuary")
• So nope, they just lumpy... and need out of the Gamma Quadrant for some reason...
• RIP Andrew Koenig.
• O'Brien's post-raquetball defeat-tantrum is a MOOD ("Rivals")
• I like the 'pe-yoww' noise the ball's bouncing makes. Kinda satisfying, somehow.
• Nothing like singing your praise of your friend to their dad, much to their embarrassment! If Quark could bottle that feeling he really would make a fortune! ("The Alternate")
• Aw noo, dead gloop! Gross, but sad.
• Bashir: "Oh, you meant an actual raktajino..."
• So; not dead gloop. Gloop poop, maybe?
• Surely as a Bajoran, Mora would surely swear on the Prophets? It seems strange that he'd say "Dear God!" upon his realisation.
• Oh wow that's a lot of Harvesters... ("Armageddon Game")
• "Another day won't kill me." Ever the infamous last words... I know he survives, but there's still the suspension of how?!
• Yes, radiation can vaporise people but they always leave a trace - the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki left haunting silhouettes of the people caught closest to the drop sites. Surely Sisko would suspect something when this supposed radiation burst left no silhouettes of the victims!
• *50s sci-fi narrator voice* 'How will our dashing heroes get out of this one? Tune in after these advertisements to: The Make O'Brien Suffer Show!'
• Ha! Of course Keiko noticed there was something wrong! No-one would know the chief better than his wife!
• Those pillows look so uncomfortable... ("Whispers")
• Maybe this is just another test of security by the Paradas; a stress test to see how O'Brien would react to being left out of something as important as security for their meeting?
• So; actually an evil clone created to ruin the peace talks. Would be really strange watching yourself die like that though...
• D'you think, perhaps, Alixus sabotaged the ship somehow when they discovered the duonetic field cancelled out all their technology so they would be forced to land on the planet and live without it? She seems the 'my way or no way' kinda person... ("Paradise")
• "Instead of finding out why he needed to steal a candle and fixing the problem, we stuffed him in a box for a day to teach him and everyone else if you lack something you need, tough shit!"
• Um, Odo... have you looked at the face you've chosen in the mirror, ever? You may have decided on a-little-inhuman, but you still chose a good looking face all the same... ("Shadowplay")
• He sounds alomst disappointed at their innocence... "I thought I'd finally bust my first big case! I'm going to be a small town cop forever....."
• Something tells me the old man's attempt to start a colony in the valley wasn't actually as successful as he had hoped. And that his previous career was as an ingenious scientist/engineer.
• I'm almost happy-crying... probably because I'm tired. That was such a good episode though! I do so love a good heartwarming "beach episode". (A term from anime; a beach episode is one where nothing major to the over-arching plot happens, just a whole load of character development. For eg. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' S03E05 "The Beach")
• You first sight of your mentor being surrounded by and gambling with a group of Ferengi is certainly a memorable first impression! ("Playing God")
• If you have voles, best let some mink loose. Worked in the UK; the vole population was fine until some animal activists 'rescued' a load of mink. Now voles are very endangered.
• It's always trouble with Quark and women! ("Profit and Loss")
• Garak up in ops? Something must be wrong if he's taking a more direct hand in things.
• A Klingon Afternoon sure sounds tiring. ("Blood Oath")
• These guys are scarier now with the foreheads than they were 30 years afore with just the dodgy tans!
• As soon as I saw the dramatic smoky lighting I knew they were going to fight.
• Well it's rather obvious where this new guy's allegiance is. ("The Maquis p1")
• Well, Dukat, if you weren't only as trustworthy as a starved snake in a rabbit warren, kidnapping wouldn't be Sisko's first response to your comment!
• I can imagine that the Federation colonists left on the Cardassian side of the border feel a lot like modern Palistinians do regarding Israelites - told that their home now belongs to someone else who would be very happy to wipe them out to the last child and the rest of the world turning a blind eye. (when they're not selling Israel more guns...)
• CALLED IT.
• 'It's easy to be a saint in Paradise.' Need that on a shirt; one to wear to charity do's held by rich people to congratulate themselves on how generous they are when they donate a pittance. ("The Maquis p2")
• I mean, mysterious headaches are a bit more of a subtle way of saying 'this character is gravely ill' than the usual secretly coughing up blood, but it's still so cliche... ("The Wire")
• He doesn't want to remove it because it's working; he wants to replace it because it's malfunctioning!
  Garak: 'Stop being nice to me! I don't deserve nice! Grrrr! I'm a scary Cardassian go away!' Bashir: 'No' Garak: =O
• For some reason, the mental image of Garak in a big floofy fur coat and Raybans is a quite amusing one!
• I hope Andrew Robinson won a whole heap of awards for this episode.
• I'm betting - going by the episode title - that flash in the wormhole was them entering the Mirrorverse... ("Crossover")
• YEP.
• I never saw the point of the Mirrorverse. A whole universe of people who are evil just for the sake of being evil. Why?!
• Ok but we all know Winn just wants Bareil 'out of the way' so she can be Kai; of course she's going to accuse him of being a collaborator. Why would Kira believe anything that comes out of that rotten potato's face? ("The Collaborator")
• The station's communication logs were wiped; what's the betting there was 'an accident' on the other end leading to their copies of the logs being wiped too?
• Odo is totally not disappointed that she's not crushing on him like he is her; no siree not at all. Odo doesn't have emotions. Not one. Nope.
• Told ya. All messages gone. It's easier to run a deadly smear campaign when all evidence contrary is gone.
• I agree with Bareil though; 48 or 1000+? We all know the answer to that particular Trolley Problem.
• He was covering for Olpaca!
• Miles, we love you, but f**k off already! ("Tribunal")
• Ah, think I've seen this storyline in The Orville; crewmember's ex-comrade-in-arms appears, and causes trouble trying to continue the war they were in...
• Ooh... or to set up said crewmember to take the fall for their attempts to continue the war?
• Sheesh, lads, at least set up a safeword first...
• The heck is that hair..?
• 'All in good time.' We gotta get your evil clone to do the crime first.
• One year from retirement? Well, that's one way to ensure a... sudden change in your career!
• Who else would want photon torpedoes? The Cardassians, of course. So they can set up an attack against them and start another war, because the military is starting to lose control of Cardassia.
• Keiko: Oh no; no reading material; whatever will we do to entertain ourselves?
• Sisko: "Computer, how do I tell a Ferengi he's being annoying and a little creepy without sounding like an asshole?" ("The Jem'Hadar")
• Well, they's some scary lizards! They make the Cardassians seem like Beanie Babies...
• Attacking a retreating enemy is not the show of strength you think it is, Dominion.
• Sadly, the Dominion's plan to insert a spy would probably have worked if they had actually put a suppression field on her.

I didn't actually expect Bareil to survive Winn's bid/ascention to Kai; people like her have a habit of eliminating their opponents in the more literal sense... Seems like things are starting to heat up a little, as the first Trek to have more of an over-arcing story to it. I'm looking forward to the rest, when I get the chances to watch it!

Thoughts on: Star Trek Deep Space Nine Season One

• I hope the artist for the overviews of Bajor got paid a hefty sum; it's beautiful! ("Emissary")
• "Good day, commander." I hate Dukat already....! There's just something about a slimy beaurocrat you just love to hate...
• Ah, good old percussive maintenance. Works every time.
• The interior of the wormhole is delightfully trippy!
• For someone who's just a Starfleet commander, Sisko's doing an excellent job of answering the wormhole people's questions.
• Well, Garak is... certainly something. ("Past Prologue")
• Ha - thought it was a bit sus there being a rat on a space station! Of course, having seen the Next Gen episodes that occur around the same time, I wonder what they're wanting payment for? They obviously need the currency to buy that mining stuff...
• Gah, isolationists really get my goat.
• There are some people who aren't smart enough to catch any subtext in what someone says; but there are also those too smart to immediately catch on... I think perhaps the good doctor is one of them! (And then there's me, who sometimes will take a saying literally for the fun of it!)
• Odo being all "I'm so lonely" ("Man Alone")
• I thought Odo knew better than to just randomly start fights with people he doesn't like?
• Well after all that I think it's pretty obvious who the wielder of the knife isn't!
• Sisko takes Odo off the case "...Now, if anyone wants me, I will be in my pail. Sulking."
• That blob looks a little like a crabsquid from "Subnautica".
• "Killing your clone is still murder." Or is it suicide?
• "What's the problem?" The lab is screaming! ("Babel")
• A Bajoran bioweapon backfires. Oh dear. (Say that five times fast!)
• A hidden clause in a Ferengi contract... Not surprising at all. Good on the new girl for standing up for herself and going to get it fixed! ("Captive Pursuit")
• Anyone else kinda reading Tosk as like an autistic person? I know it's because he's alien to the quadrant and everything, but he's more... to the point than other 'new' people shown in past series/episodes.
• Ah. People hunting. And in order to maintain a class structure too. Glad this episode didn't give anyone ideas. Not that that sort of person would watch something as 'low class' as Star Trek, of course.   (/sarcasm)
• Odo: 'Why do humans have to be so strange?'
• DS9's theme is so good I feel guilty skipping it... ("Q-Less")
• Wait... they needed an engineer to (essentially) change the runabout's battery... Surely that would have been the first solution!?
• I KNEW IT. I mean come on... Q in the episode title and everything but still. HIM.
• Honestly, though, if my doctor was as good looking as Bashir I'd be finding any excuse to go to medbay...
• It's that big yellow gem causing the power drains. Calling it now; it's going to be like a massive leech crystal from 'Storm Hawks' - sucks enough power and KABOOM.
• "A latinum-plated bucket, to sleep in." Quark almost had Odo there!
• "A nice quiet life back on Earth." Aw she dead.
• So... no KABOOM. Just a space-ray. Ah well. Still cool.
• And they couldn't have just asked Sisko about that instead of assaulting Jadzia and Bashir?! ("Dax")
• Quark: 'How dare you use my own words against me!'
• Sounds to me the death of the general on Klaestron 4 was meant as a tactic to win the war; give the soldiers something to rally behind.
• So I was half right. The martyr tactic was planned, but after the fact.
• Wow... there's self confidence, there's arrogance - and then there's Bashir. ("The Passenger")
• It's not the Kobliad woman they need to worry about... it wasn't her who was grabbed by Vantika... (I'd like to say 'called it', but I had to spoil it for myself to look up who the aliens in this episode were...)
• Ah - the old 'playing a foreign board game that affects real people's lives' storyline. ("Move Along Home")
• ...Yeah I don't like the Starfleet Security guy either.
• Quark: 'Fuck I'm playing with real people aren't I... and I actually care about that, dammit...'
• I mean, maybe take out the risk of actual death and this game would be a viable money maker. There are plenty people out there who'd be willing to volunteer as a game piece - the same sort of people who do parkour at the top of skyscrapers with nought but a wingsuit or a parachute if things go wrong...
• Ye gads... that has to be the ugliest Ferengi I've ever seen... ("The Nagus")
• Oh no... Quark is going to be insufferable... for the next few days, at least.
• Wow. Zek just... went and went until he - stopped. My granma's dog Chess was like that. He was happy and energetic until it was like a switch was flicked and he had to be put down. No slowing down because of his age or illness...
• Alright, who showed Quark a picture of Blofeld?
• I love how Dax couldn't pretend to think aubergine stew was an attractive meal to her. Obviously, Sisko has programmed a good recipe in, judging by the massive ladleful she helps herself to after a taste!
• Who's idea was it to give the Miradorn a vagina on their forehead? ("Vortex")
• Now we - and Odo - know for definite he's from the Gamma Quadrant.
• Well, at least Odo now knows exactly what he is... in a way. Knowing that can be a huge answer in and of itself.
• Who can resist the old 'pleading puppy' look? ("Battle Lines")
• But... she was dead...
• Either it's nanobots, or you need to keep an eye on what she snacks on...
• Yep. Nanobots. (Pretty much.)
• Looks like Nog is going to get a short lesson in talking to women... ("The Storyteller")
• Amazing. All he did was embarrass himself a little. Looks like Jake's been more of a good influence on Nog than Nog a bad influence on Jake!
• If that monster keeps coming back, their champion isn't actually doing all that good a job of defeating it...
• Yes. Let's go steal someone's entire bedroom. No way they're not going to find the humour in that!
• Of course, it's all fun and games until you discover that the reason Odo isn't anywhere to be seen is because he's in his bucket.
• Great. Hillbillies. ("Progress")
• I'm sensing something along the lines of: 'I promised to trade [A] for [B], which I said I would swap for [C], which is wanted for [D], in exchange for [E]... but now it's all collapsed and everyone is mad at me...' I think that was done in another show I've seen recently..
• Quark: 'I don't know whether to be proud of you or smack you upside the head, Nog.'
• Poor Bashir! He's going all out to try to woo Jadzia... ("If Wishes were Horses")
• Surely as an Irishman, O'Brien would know plenty how to avoid shenanigans with fae creatures!
• Ah, I think I see what's going on in this one. The holosuite is leaking again...
• Jake: 'He followed me home from the holosuite! Can we keep him? Please? I promise I'll love him and feed him and walk him every day!'
• This is getting out of hand - now there are two of them!
• 'Gunji Jackdaw'? Um, Odo, that's obviously an emu...
• I'm surprised it took Odo pointing out the Dabo players' success to get Quark to realise he's not going to profit from all this... I'd have thought it would be pretty obvious that, with people now being able to just manifest their imagination they wouldn't be wanting to book any holosuite time any more...
• If enough people on the station just imagined the rift closing, would that fix it?
• 'I want to know everything there is to know about your Security Chief.' That's funny, so does he! ("The Forsaken")
• Lwaxanna Troi grins at Odo's retreating back as though she didn't just try to sexually assault him...
• Stuck in a  turbolift with Lwaxanna Troi and suddenly Odo wishes he believed in a god so he could pray for escape!
• Everyone's got the Weird... ("Dramatis Personae")
• Some sort of paranioa virus, maybe?
• Odo - master manipulator. Since I have already seen some of the later episodes, I know that it's pretty much a racial skill...
• Sheesh, first he's Morritsa, then he's Gul Darheel, now it seems he might actually be Morritsa after all. Confusing! ("Duet")
• It's understandable, though, that guilt would push him to pretend to be the one in charge so some revenge or justice could be had.
• Great. A fundamentalist. ("In the Hands of the Prophets")
• Ah - a non-fundamentalist who is in line for the leadership. Why do I get the feeling he's not going to be alive for much longer..?
• Of course, he may have survived the assassination attempt, but that doesn't prevent him 'having an accident' planetside...
• Unfortunately, I haven't been spoiled enough to more than hope something really horrible happens to Winn.

I am really enjoying this show so far. Especially O'Brien's whole thing. "Can you fix it?" 'No idea!' fiddles with computer stuff 'Fixed it!' But then, I've found the best way to discover if you can do something is to try. Of course, the hardest part of that is convincing my brain to... Autism is fun! (Especially when you are, like me, only kinda slightly autistic, so you can do all the things neurotypical people can do, like sarcasm and empathy, but with a huge, heaping helping of anxiety for flavour...)

Thoughts on: Star Trek TNG Season Seven

• 'The road to Hell is paved with good intentions'. That saying never mentions that that hell may not be for you... ("Descent P2")
• Anyone else start shipping Taitt and Barnaby after the scene in the sun? Wait, is it weird to ship two tertiary characters?
• Wish I could just choose whether to have emotions or not... would be nice to turn them off every now and then to cool my systems down so I don't end up just angry due to overload...
• The ambassador is a hungry boy! Reminds me of a certain caterpillar... ("Liaisons")
• Cocaine roots? I just know I heard that wrong... Plus they look more like parsnips to me.
• Worf is right; the ambassadors are insane...
• That poor kid - given a spoken line in which he states his name is Eric and yet is credited as 'boy'. So much for that little extra in your paycheck you get for playing named characters!
• Geordi still looks strange without his VISOR. ("Interface") Levarr Burton looks 10 years younger without the white-out contacts!
• Being completely unable to help the people you love sucks ass nuggets.
• Now if we could set up something like the VR controlled probe thing in reality for rescue work etc... Can we get the tech scientists working on this instead of silly things that sound cool but are actually unfeasable like solar roadways, or making more excessive methods of mass murder war?
• Surely Data at least would be concerned that the message or whatever confirmed everything Geordi said could have happened to the Hera? It's a bit suspicious that it would adhere so completely to his theory.
• I've seen enough spoilers to know Picard aint dead. ("Gambit P1")
• Why does Berann remind me of Griffith from "Berserk"?
• Yes, because when someone says something will take x time and you give them less than that they will definitely do a good job of it. ("Gambit P2") Scotty was right when he said to estimate high.
• The guy playing the Sigmund Freud hologram looks kinda like Mark Sheppard. ("Phantasms")
• Imagine how effective asking for advice from psychologists could be if you could simply run a program of different ones. Get multiple opinions without the hours of searching for and waiting for appointments and the troubles of payment...
• Dammit Worf, support that cat's butt when you're holding him! Such a good kitty though.
• Ooh, a Data cake! I wish I could take a byte...
• I'm sorry, but if Lwaxanna Troi were my mother she would've been dumped in an aged care home long ago. ("Dark Page")
• Don't tell me - Betazoid Dementia. Lovely.
• Deanna had an older sister who drowned... no wonder her mother is so protective and overbearing. Heartbreaking.
• Now that is what I call an 'oh SHIT' face. ("Attached")
• I'd be tempted to try to find out if there were any other prisoners and release them too to create a little confusion.
• I'm calling it now - the ambassador's in on it.
• I, too, need a plasma ball - for security reasons, of course!
• I don't think there's room in the Federation for all that paranoia - they've already got the Andorans for that!
• I find the Ferengi very frustrating. Just in general. ("Force of Nature")
• I especially wouldn't trust a Ferengi who smiled at me...
• But how can we be sure that the siblings aren't just isolationists willing to pick and choose their scientific results to fit what they want to believe? Just look at how research into vaccines and autism is taken - anti-vaxxers will scroll endlessly through google just to find the one article that proves them right and will discount the thousands of others that disprove them because they don't match what they want to believe.
• She was concerned about something that might have happened in the future so she forced it to. That's like being paranoid about dying from radiation exposure so you break into the Chernobyl Casket and lick the walls.
• Thank goodness capitalism is no longer a think in the STU. "This is how badly damaged this sector will be in 40 years." 'So we have 40 years. Great - who's for coffee?'
• Data's 'mother' seems quite unusual, in a similar way to Data himself... which I guess raises the old 'nature vs nurture' question - though in this case it's more 'programming vs nurture'. ("Inheritance")
• Or is she herself an android too? That would make 'sister' the more appropriate title.
• What peron who had just become a widow/er and could build hyper-realistic androids wouldn't recreate their spouse though? The things people in mourning would do for even one more day with their lost loved one are innumerable.
• "I hate surprise parties; I would never do that to you." Those are the words of a man who has definitely organised one. Beware! ("Parallels")
• If looks could kill, the Enterprise would need an entirely new senior staff and Worf would need a very strong vacuum cleaner to clean up the ashes.
• Something tells me Worf never actually made it back to the Enterprise...
• So I was kinda right. Weirdest birthday ever!
• I don't know about you but I would certainly love to own a plush Picard. ("The Pegasus")
• Secret experiments... we all know by now how well they turn out... *coughcoughunibombercoughcough*
• It would be so creepy to see the corpses of people you knew 12 years ago so perfectly preserved.
• I think we all knew where this was going when Nikolai suggested the artificial atmosphere thingy. ("Homeward") Of course he was going to try to set one up anyway.
• Or set up a simulation of the planet and transport them aboard the Enterprise... That's worse, in a way because it has to end at some point and the people suddenly lurched into the reality that their planet died however long ago without your knowledge...
• And so it all comes apart... as we all knew it would. How terrifying though - has everything you ever knew been a simulation? How would you know?
• Of course Nikolai has to hope his child takes more after their mother or the jig would be up even if his plan worked out flawlessly.
• The funeral in the cold open of "Sub-Rosa" suggests that Christians are still up to their missionary bs in the 24th century but to non-humans. Ugh.
• Ronan's 34... how long has he been 34..?
• Five minutes into "Lower Decks" and I can already understand all the hype about the whole animated series!
• I thought I recognised the Bajoran girl from somewhere.
• There's a superstition I read of once that if you watch someone leaving until you can no longer see them, you'll never see them again. I'm not really superstitious but that's not one I'm taking chances on... Did Worf curse Seto to never return by watching the shuttle go?
• Oh dear... I think Data has taken a little too much radiation... ("Thine Own Self")
• Whoever it is playing the native physician has obviously done more work in theatre than on screen... she seemed to be speaking her lines almost too loudly; almost declaring them.
• Well shit. He's turned the village into Pripyat. Have another heaping of PTSD, Data; on the house.
• It's like Frankenstein but with a happier ending...
• Wish my art classes had been like this one. ("Masks")
• A previously unidentified comet... Something tells me it isn't actually a comet.
• Called it!
• This one must have been fun for Brent Spiner. He gets to really stretch his acting muscles.
• A man makes plans for the day he commits suicide and they don't understand how he could do that. Sometimes depression is just like that though - you're having a regular day, looking forward to things and then just wham; you can't do any more. There are countless stories in real life of people who seem to be fine and then suddenly they suicide. ("Eye of the Beholder")
• Aw no - now we know where the woman went... How sad to have been completely forgotten.
• Barclay is sauch a mood though. 'I feel different than usual; obviously I'm dying.' ("Genesis")
• A female ginger... that is a very rare cat you have indeed, Data.
• Wait... is that a different actor for Barclay..? Or did he just buy himself a new hairline with his earnings...
• I think there's a bug going round the ship... first Worf, now Barclay... listening to him speak was like trying to talk to one of my friends - ten words a second and none of them understandable without some hard thinking!
• Ooh something is veerry wrong indeed..... hope Spot's ok...
• Somehing's got everyone devolving...
• Well... at least you'll be adorable, Captain.
• Hey, don't be too put out, Barclay - usually to get a disease named for you, you have to die of it!
• "Journey's End"... or as the Native Americans of Dorvan 5 know it, 'Oh Boy, Here We Go Again."...
• "Hello, man I only just met last night; I would like some hallucinogens, please."
• I was wondering if the Duras Sisters would reappear at some point. ("First Born")
• Everything relies on Alexander leaving the Enterprise... I smell a hidden agenda here.
• I'd have thought the Klingons of all people would have understood the impracticality of a boob window...
• ...well I didn't expect that... time travel trouble again!
• "When will I see him again?" 'It may be a long time.' You'll look in a mirror one day and be like 'wait a minute...'
• I've watched "Harrow" too recently to really appreciate a 'previously unknown son in mortal danger' plotline. ("Bloodlines")
• The ship is ALIIIVVEE!! ("Emergence")
• Now I wanna cosplay the mobster and his brick. Shouldn't be too hard, right?
• This whole episode in an exercise in the absurd!
• ..."Pre-emptive Strike" was just... kinda sad.
• "All Good Things..." Giving all the feels. Appropriate for the final episode.
• FINALLY. I've been shipping Picard and Crusher since episode 1 of season 1...

I do not think there was any better way they could have ended this amazing series. I can definitely see now why everyone says TNG is the best Star Trek series out there... aside, maybe, from DS9...

It has been recommended to me by a Redditor that I watch DS9 and Voyager concurrently, so as to get a better understanding of things, but that seems to me too daunting an option, so I shall continue with my plan for one series at a time. I have a long enough 'to watch' list as it is without confusing myself watching multiple shows at once.

I shall also make an effort to continue my almost-live-blogging of my viewing. Some readers have felt the need to explain things after reading some of my thoughts, but I assure you that is an unnecessary action as I do watch the entire episode, and I see no reason to go back and edit points once I have been proven wrong or a question answered. That would defeat the purpose of it being an almost-live blog!

Thoughts on: Star Trek TNG Season Six

• I honestly didn't think I'd end up liking Samuel Clements much as a character, but turns out I did ("Time's Arrow Pt2")
• I don't know whether to be happy or sad that anxiety is still a major problem in the 24th Century. ("Realm of Fear"). Their depiction of it is spot on though; especially the hyperchondria aspect!
• Wait... Ensign Janeway? Did they mean the Janeway I think they mean? Guess I'll find out when I watch Voyager... ("Man of the People")
• I can only hope to look as good in 'late middle age' as Troi did / Marina Sirtis does... And unlike that episode from TOS, makeup got her aging spot on!
• The stupid smile that came onto my face when Scotty appeared... ("Relics")
• Scotty was right though - sometimes the real thing is better than synthetic. We tried Splenda once; t'was nasty!
• "Schisms" was terrifying. And the aliens triggered my misophonia*.
• Nice to see a Q episode again - missed them last season. ("True Q")
• Aww, look at those kids acting their little hearts out! ("Rascals") They're doing their best; it's a good look at how time and practice improve a skill - everyone in the main cast was once just as awkward and almost wooden as the kids are. Hope they all went on to success!
• "He's my number one Dad!" Awkward hug.
• Anyone else relate to Picard as much as I did when he kept getting interrupted? ("A Fistful of Datas") It's the main reason I watch at night!
• There is no computer, only Zuul Data.
• The exo-comps are adorable somehow ("The Quality of Life")
• Such brave little robots! If I was their creator I would be so damn proud of them!
• Dammit Jellico; let a man finish a sentence will you!? ("Chain of Command P1") When I'm interrupted I hate that person just a little bit...
• Wow; John Durbin is a genius at making Gul Lemec the slimiest being!
• What is it with Star Trek and unshirting their captains? ("Chain of Command P2")
• Maroon is so not Data's colour.
• That moment when a 20 year old sci-fi series' episodes about people acting in Sherlock Holmes stories are better than "Sherlock"...
• Obviously the writer's of "Ship in a Bottle" had recently read "Frankenstein"
• Ok, but what if they ended the aforementioned episode at Picard's line about maybe their reality is a simulation and instead zoomed the focus out to reveal the scene greenscreened onto a CRT TV screen with a family watching?
• I may be a little jaded by now; my first thought on seeing the animal in the cold open of "Aquiel" was 'that's no dog'...
• They're wondering if a phaser is responsible for turning a person into a puddle of matter, when in TOS - canonically over 100 years ago - we see people literally vaporised with them?!
• I didn't know biggest-gaudest-patronuses** had a cameo in Next gen.
• Ohh nooo I was right about the dog...
• A plan that relies on mercenaries pretty much always fails... ("Face of the Enemy")
• I love when they let Troi be all smart and sneaky.
• Two Q episodes in one season?! I feel spoilt! ("Tapestry")
• I can imagine it would be a hell of a shock to go to sleep next to a cute ensign and wake up next to Q...
• While Data is not suited to maroon, Picard manages to look excellent in any hue!
• Wait am I supposed to be already watching DS9 by now? ("Birthright P1") Ah well, it can wait either way.
• Turns out, no; androids do not dream of electric sheep.
• Was that person sat against the wall in Data's second vision while he was flying supposed to be visible?
• The dishonour of the captured Klingons should not mean they do not teach the youths about their culture. The right thing to do would be to let Worf teach them about being a Klingon, and the Romulans could also teach them about Romulan culture too. That way their 'peacful society' would be more real and not just the thin veil over an interment camp that it is. ("Birthright P2")
• No one can quite pull off a smug smirk like a Klingon. ("Starship Mine")
• I can imagine what was going through Picard's head during Hutchinson's soiree... 'blah blah blah... blather blath- HORSES????'
• Mmmm, a nice delicious dish of... mints.
• Wow - don't threaten the Enterprise or Picard will go all Ripley on you!
• Shitposters required: I need an edit of a 'horse girl' movie but with Picard as the MC. I'd do it myself but I haven't the program or the skills.
• I do not want anything to wrong in "Lessons". Picard deserves some happiness, goddammit, even if it means all we get is a filler episode!
• Well, I definitely have a favourite episode of this season now!
  
• They're going to kill off Darren aren't they.
• I was wrong!
• It's always hard to say no to those who love you. ("The Chase")
• Troi looks so much better in uniform than her previous outfits of low-cut bodysuits.
• Ooof. Arriving at a planet just in time to witness the tail end of a global extinction event would suuuck!
  
• This episode is very 'H2G2'*** - life (possibly) being the program for a huge computer, only this time on a galactic scale. Also, the whole 'life seeded across space by a progenitor race' was mentioned in passing in TOS...
• WOW. If Riker hadn't joined Starfleet he could've been Hollywood's next huge star! ("Frame of Mind")
• Ok, I had kinda hoped mental healthcare had advanced somewhat in the 300 years odd since now, but... I mean this is obviously all part of some evil plan to make Riker think he's mad but it's still the usual 'mental institutions are scary evil places and the mentally ill are to be feared and shunned' bs they use in nearly everything else that means people who need help won't get it because they don't want to be looked down on as bad. It's also why it doesn't get funded, I guess - why help them now when you can wait until they snap then lock them up in jail instead and get a huge payout from the prison system?
• ...I really felt this one. Hits a little too close to home with the whole dealing with being potentially insane thing; sometimes I feel I might actually count as insane... Not thoughts I'm willing to go into right now; in a seperate post perhaps.
• I thought I recognised the name of the planet as the one Riker was going undercover on.
• Despite hearing the name spoken aloud I still have to remind myself it's 'GUY-nan' not 'GWIN-an'
• It would be an awful feeling to design a shield, and it works pretty much perfectly, but the tester still dies. ("Suspicions") Sometimes, physics just decides 'you know what, fuck it. I'mma do something different today' and all you can do is try to deal with it.
• Wait, because she found out what happened and who did it, Beverly gets away with her illegal autopsy on the Ferengi scientist? Talk about plot armour.
• 'You still do not believe.' "I want to believe." X-Files theme starts in the distance ("Rightful Heir")
• But if Kahless is from ancient Klingon history, surely he would look like TOS Klingons? Whatever happened that made them into what they are in TNG onward (until 'Discovery') must have been HUGE if it affected all Klingon-kind into the past as well.
• 'Perhaps the words are more important than the man.' I can think of a whole load of people who need to learn that...
• I was going to ask if I was the only one who thought it was obvious that, since the transporters work by deconstructing you on one side and reconstructing you on the other that 8 years previous the former part of that job didn't happen properly and Riker was duplicated instead, but then I remembered I'm not!
• They're really having fun putting the regular crew in different colours this season!
• Barf may be his own best friend, but Riker is now his own twin brother! It would be so strange to suddenly have someone who is exactly the same as you, yet different.
• "Timescape"'s cold open gave me an idea for an epic prank.
• Oh that common area must smell lovely.
• Love that Picard can still find his child at heart. But who wouldn't be tempted to draw a smiley in frozen smoke?
• Recycling a previously used graphic is understandable, but they could at least have used one from an earlier season. ("Descent P1")
• Do torpedoes that don't hit the target fizzle out at some point like terrestrial ones? Be awful if they didn't... you're just minding your own business doing some gardening when WHAM something fired from millions of lightyears away in space explodes your house.
• I don't think anger is Data's first emotion - he has certainly felt confusion and curiosity; anger is just the first 'strong' emotion he's felt. I've never seen Data as completely emotionless. He just feels emotions differently to 'organics'. (IDK if I'm explaining myself well enough...)
• In the scene where they're pulled in after the rogue Borg ship, I would have been tempted to put in a tiny TARDIS for just a second or so, just long enough to be spotted by a dedicated fan who's seen the episode often enough to be watching for tiny little details. As a treat.
• Surely even a doctor would understand that the death of one to save many is the lesser evil.
• Been a long time since we heard from Lore. Was wondering where he had gotten to.

I wrote this one while watching the season, unlike my previous ones which I did after I'd finished. Why did I not do it this way before? No idea! LOL I'm like that quite often; I'll have an excellent idea for how to do something halfway through doing it... So should I continue my watch-through this way, or return to previous? Tell me your opinion!

*Link to Wikipedia page on misophonia

**Link to "Gaud"'s Tumblr

***Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Thoughts on: Star Trek TNG Season Five

• Well; of all the things I thought the Tasha Yar lookalike would be, child born of rape wasn't one of them... ("Redemption p2") [Because consent given under threat of harm to you and/or others is not consent.]
• The whole concept of a metamorph is just... yikes. ("The Perfect Mate")
• The whole story of "The Masterpiece Society" kinda skims over one of the reasons Eugenics doesn't work: genetic mutation and degredation due to a limited gene pool. Even with gene editing, the colony would only last so many generations before collapse either way.
• "Darmok" definitely lived up to the hype! Maybe it should be shown to parents who have more than one teen these days - we have all at least once managed to convey an idea or short message by simply referencing a meme...
• Riker's response at the end of "Conundrum" to seeing his main love interest sitting and drinking with his most recent fling was perfect!
• 'I, Borg" really struck me with The Feels. Kill them with kindness indeed...
• "Cause and Effect" should definitely be added to a storytelling Hall of Fame. Brilliantly done, especially each repeat being just so slightly different enough that it wasn't dull to watch over again.
• Picard may not be a fan of kids but he makes a good father figure all the same. ("Disaster" mainly, though it has been true of the whole show so far.)

I apologise for the huge delay with this one; due to circumstances at home I had been unable until now to finish the series. Thank you for your patience!