Season 5 Episode 10: Lucy and Ethel set up a fake charity and collect donations from the neighborhood.

Season 2 Episode 5: Lucy has been stealing money from the Ladies’ Club treasury.

Season 5 Episode 25: Lucy accidentally breaks the bank at the Monte Carlo casino

That’s an awful comparison. The Maquis are not a separate, independent culture being dominated or obliterated by another. They were already Federation citizens, born on Federation worlds into Federation culture and society, subject to Federation laws, educated by their own parents and family in Federation values, and the Federation enabled and supported their colonization efforts. The Maquis are a product of the Federation’s culture not a victim of it.

And they do have self-determination. They can stay in the DMZ on their planets if they want to, but there are consequences of that choice. And if they do leave the DMZ then they would not even have change their preferred lifestyle. There are any number of uninhabited planets they could relocate to, found new colonies, etc. They have so many options and opportunities open to them that their grievances, however valid they would be under real-world circumstances, seem childish and selfish particularly when the alternative is continuing a decades-long war.

The Maquis didn’t start the war with the Cardassians.

But they did know the border was in dispute, and had been in dispute for decades, before they colonized the area. They can’t feign surprise that the border might move if and when the dispute ended.

The Federation traded away their planets without even giving them a seat at the table.

They did have a seat at the table. They just didn’t get their way. That sometimes happens, and it doesn’t mean the process was unfair.

In a fully-automated luxury communist utopia, the Maquis are selfish assholes. Clinging to a planet because of the inconvenience of having to relocate. A planet which was never theirs to give or take in the first place. They talk a big talk about being “farmers who made something of the land,” and maybe that’s true. But they have replicators; farming is a hobby, not a livelihood.

Human, Vulcan, Bolian, etc. Maquis could lead happy, safe lives if only they were willing to lead happy, safe lives. They are not oppressed; they are not fighting in a righteous cause.

Bajorans, such as Ro, have different motivations. Bajor is not a party to the Federation-Cardassian Treaty, and Bajoran colonies were not sacrificed. Ro’s motivations are sympathy for the Maquis and hatred for Cardassians. Understandable and relatable motivations, but not heroic.

“Spock, ship’s stores can produce as many shirts as we need on demand.”

“I wasn’t referring to garments, captain.”

“A keyboard? How quaint.”

I like TOS Operation: Annihilate! because it presents a situation where a starship captain would be justified in issuing General Order 24. I’m disappointed that they didn’t actually mention GO24 in the episode, but my headcanon is that the crew were all reluctant to mention it by name.

I think GO24 is deeply misunderstood. It’s only ever been presented as a thing that a bad, crazy captain would order; as grounds for mutiny. So why would Starfleet even have such an order on the books? I think it’s actually designed for situations like the one in this episode: to prevent the spread of dangerous life forms.

This interpretation also enhances my enjoyment of another TOS episode, A Taste of Armageddon. In this episode, Kirk actually invokes General Order 24. Scotty understands that Kirk needs leverage to bluff with, and plays along. Bluffing the bad guys by citing a public health ordinance is classic Kirk. See also Corbomite and Fizzbin

I wonder what a Ferengi End-User License Agreement says.

Noo-clee-ar… wessels

PSA: There’s a special screening of Star Trek IV in San Francisco on June 13 to honor the 40th anniversary. Nick Meyer (writer/producer on IV) will be there. I’m sure he will be pleased to explain how a wizard did it.

https://www.voguemovies.com/nicholas-meyer

I contend that it is not actually missing, it’s just not visible from that perspective. When I recreate the shot in Google Earth only the extreme north tip of New Zealand is actually visible:

Joe Satriani’s Crowd Chant was originally going to be called Party on the Enterprise and would have included Trek sound effect samples, but he couldn’t get the licensing to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCRX-EXR3_U

The urgency in The Measure of a Man makes no sense. The judge should simply pause the transfer order while the question of Data’s personhood is resolved, if necessary by a higher court months or years later.

Scotty: This is the commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise. All cities and installations on Eminiar VII have been located, identified, and fed into our fire control system. In one hour and forty-five minutes, the entire inhabited surface of your planet will be destroyed. You have that long to surrender your hostages. [dramatic music]

Bonus moment, DS9:

unnamed extra: The Federation fleet has surrounded the planet.

Random one-episode extra got the best line in the whole fricken franchise.

Robot Chicken did it first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iauuuhpSfRQ

Girlish scream I’ll be there :D

The Voyage Home is the very first movie I can remember seeing, and it’s still my favorite Trek movie.

Yeah, but what about all the episodes where they didn’t detect any danger? That’s like half of TOS. By TNG it’d be hubris if they still believed they could know for sure.

It makes so much more sense to send a shuttlecraft in the first place, in every case, even if the mothership isn’t going anywhere and transporters are fully operational.

Is there air? You don’t know. But you’re going to beam me down in nothing but my pajamas? Hell no. I’ll take a shuttle with its shields and weapons and life support systems.

They also put children on the ship, so maybe the admiralty isn’t so smart.