sfdebris nu trek

[Frustration]

I think it would be better to cultivate a thicker skin and learn to tolerate even ideas that you find offensive than to avoid the entire episode. Particularly as the story revolves around what's merely an exaggeration of sexual charisma.

There's not much use to having aliens if they're all human beings with funny prosthetics glued to their foreheads.

[CharlesPhipps]

He seems to like some of the later Lower Decks episodes.

Certainly, he seems to have skipped over Picard to do more of them.

[clearspira]

I simply do not watch any of the new Trek reviews. I am now beyond apathetic with modern Trek. Nerd rage has given way to just not caring.

Now... depending on how many others among us share my views... I wonder what Chuck's ad revenue looks like on the new stuff. Yeah, he's still being paid to review it via Patreon or donation, but it makes you think anyway. Why continue to release a product that makes less money?

[TGLS]

Now... depending on how many others among us share my views... I wonder what Chuck's ad revenue looks like on the new stuff.

Honestly, just looking at the Red channel, lower decks is on par or higher than most other videos. Of course this is difficult to estimate because there are lots of parts to some videos and lots of reruns.

[Deledrius]

I think it would be better to cultivate a thicker skin and learn to tolerate even ideas that you find offensive than to avoid the entire episode. Particularly as the story revolves around what's merely an exaggeration of sexual charisma.

There's not much use to having aliens if they're all human beings with funny prosthetics glued to their foreheads.

I do think that's what they were going for, but the episode doesn't actually examine or engage with that aspect at all, so what we're left with is just awful. I don't think I'm alone in this assessment. To your point, they made no use of it at all, so it fails as an excuse for the content of the story.

[Frustration]

Except... it *does* engage with the idea that the human sexual response isn't rational, is capable of overriding our rationality, and can be induced to do so by external stimuli.

Ed's having a wild fling with Darloolio (or whatever his name was) was the point. His better judgment, sense of responsibility, awareness of obligation, and general sexual preferences were all overwhelmed by the pheremones of an alien being, and said alien regarded that as normal and expected - because for his species, sharing his biology, it IS.

[Sir Will]

No, it was rape. Period. He had no right to do that to them.

[Frustration]

If he had taken a drug that caused his body to release pheromones, I'd agree absolutely. But the pheromones were part of his biology, were considered normal to his people, and weren't even considered by him - he thought everything that happened was completely normal and unremarkable.

And for his species, it was.

Clearly the fleet needs to establish rules and guidelines about his species - and issue warnings for others - but he can't be considered to have raped Kelly and Ed, and neither of them seem to have initiated legal action against him. They were deeply annoyed, but not enraged.

Your applying normal human expectations to the issue means you're one of the people the episode was trying to get to re-examine their preconceptions. It just... didn't work in your case.

[CrypticMirror]

If he had taken a drug that caused his body to release pheromones, I'd agree absolutely. But the pheromones were part of his biology, were considered normal to his people, and weren't even considered by him - he thought everything that happened was completely normal and unremarkable.

Cool story, still rape. Rape is when a victim is forced, coerced or tricked into sex. Just because the rapist thought it was normal doesn't make it not rape.

[Frustration]

By what world's rules? By his, they weren't forced, coerced, or tricked.

If an attractive human flirts with another human, and arousal causes the flirtee's rational decision making to become impaired, is that coercion?

What if we're talking about a human flirter and an alien, and we're on the alien's world where their laws apply?