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Thom

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  1. Thom
    Anyone else notice the Big-D still had the scarring on the front arc of the saucer?
  2. Thom
    I forget which modeler it was, here or on another site, who pedicelled in all the aztec on his Star Trek ship. It looked really good too. Barring that, if you have time, masking tape, an exacto blade and plenty of patience...😉
  3. Thom
    @wm cheng All those gaps are meant to be there!
  4. Thom
    Hadn't noticed that! Intentionally or not, that's pretty nice. When I ordered the second, I assumed he might, but I also sent a separate email to request it just in case. One of the reasons I wish it had been just slightly longer, to give some time to show the broader after-effects of what happened. Which is why I prefer to think of her as the re-christened Yorktown. Another Connie being retired, but just renamed and kept in service to honor and reward the crew of the 1701. I imagine her as being finally retired after Kirk and crew did. He's not dead, he's battling evil in another dimension! Let's face it, Shaw came across as an adversarial captain. Despite his personal recommendation seen at the end, he was allowing his past trauma to color his working relationship with Seven. He was having a 'redemption' arc though that was sadly cut short, cause I was really starting to like him. Makes more sense than a new build of a forty year old design.
  5. Thom
    Alright, that was pretty good. I liked it for the most part, despite it's flaws. I think the finale could have been about 10 or 15 min longer, to give some more time to the battle and to lengthen out the resolution, as it did feel a little quick to me. It wasn't as good as Episodes 6-8, but it was a nice finish.
  6. Thom
    It looks fun!
  7. Thom
    Right, and what did they replace them with? The simple answer is we don't know. I'm speculating/assuming that they have moved on to 'dumb' drones that follow simple construction procedures with extremely limited AI. I have seen nothing to prove that, but I have seen nothing to counter that either. Until shown differently, IMO, the repair yard inside the Star Fleet Museum uses a majority of dumb drones with sentient being oversight that do most of the work. They work 24/7, 365 a year and rebuilt the Big D as parts became available and were approved by Star Fleet command for their use on the rebuilt ship.
  8. Thom
    @derex3592 Nice work on the NX! I think my Wally World still has them for 20 bucks or so. @MechTech You keep pulling out all the stops! @pengbuzz That is a great find and quite fortuitous! I have two of these sitting somewhere in the Stash and am starting to consider getting some after market decals and aztec. @electric indigo Good looking fighter with a smooth first coat! @arbit Once again, your figures are looking great. Like the fleet, @derex3592! Get a bigger table and a lot more models!
  9. Thom
    Yes, Kahn was looking for the override but could not find it in time. I'm assuming the upgraded software that allowed the Borg to hijack the systems was circumvented. With a fully operational and automated repair yard, as the museum (which I do believe was the original Starbase from the movies) has to have in order to get the job done, I don't think it would be that difficult. As for secrecy, there has been nothing said to say that Star Fleet was being kept in the dark about it, just that it was intended as a surprise for Picard and Co.
  10. Thom
    That is a massive assumption. Actually it's not. We can assume comfortably that their tech is advanced more than enough to make working/building drones a big possibility. We've seen anti-gran, manipulator arms and force fields used on the show. Again, not a huge leap from worker drones loading things to building things. ...doesn't mean they have to have an illustrious history following the show. They moved on. Some stayed in Starfleet and some not. And if they had been real people, with as much adventure as seen on the show, they would be burned out. But they didn't build it on DS9. No matter if the Dominion was from DS9, this is still a TNG-legacy show. It's the one from the Next Generation series and movies, with a plausible explanation for its presence. For them to chose any other ship would have been odd.
  11. Thom
    Same here. Actually, if they looked liked the Klingons from TOS, humans with heavy make-up, it would not be a problem. We already have a good in-universe explanation for the look of the Klingons between TOS and TMP.
  12. Thom
    Definitely Prime Georgiou!
  13. Thom
    Yeah, zero interest. Saturn, over on Starship Modeler, suggested they just put her back in the captain's chair as Captain Philippa Georgiou and build a series out from there. I like that idea.
  14. Thom
    Well, I never said 'cheerful.' But despite the situation, they are able to share a camaraderie and joke with each other as a way to decompress and blow off steam or worry. Actually indicators of a good mind-set. So you would not want his job. Which is okay. But for Geordi, apparently it was a good assignment and I'm sure* one that is as probably chosen more than given. And it actually feels like a real evolution of his career from the moment he joined engineering. It's where he 'fits.' *I'm assuming here. Same as saying he has a 'dead-end' job.😉 But they were there and even as prototypes (in regards to the exo-coms) are highly capable. So when Geordi mentions drones, I also assume they are highly capable, multi-purpose machines and certainly capable of repair work. ...my dude, it was an example. Though you are right, I have not stepped into an auto plant and witnessed how it is all done. (other than seeing it on TV) Though the intent of my post still stands, it is the future and why would anyone assume that if they have drones to move cargo why would they not have drones doing work in their repair yards? As to the bolded text, I never referred to human workers as drones and I would request that you stop reading what you want to read into what I write. Which comes back to the point that these are not strictly warships, but are highly capable ships that are never-the-less able to fight and defend themselves. Or just living their lives in retirement either making wine or cooking pizza, or bringing medical aid to fringe systems, or working to defend the Federation either on a starship or in Intelligence... What do you want them to have been doing? Which brings us back to which series this is from. Just as you asked why the Changelings, if this does not have anything to do with DS9, then why choose a ship that had nothing to do with TNG? Also, @lechuck makes a good point in that familiarity is also a good reason to choose the Big D, other than just the robustness of its size. They know the ship and the limits of its capabilities, whereas only Worf would be familiar with the Defiant. There is another one as well. When Geordi was saying they were looking for a ship that was 'older, analog,' he left out the Defiant. And though they make reference to the Enterprise-E, I'm assuming they would not be able to use it for the same reason, seeing as it was even newer. The assumption there is that the Defiant would be just as susceptible as the assimilated fleet.
  15. Thom
    That is a lot of speculation, and I have to say, how you see the characters makes me think we are watching two different shows! But even if that was so, there is no problem with Geordi quietly tooling away in his 'garage' with his collection of 'hot rods.' There are worse ways to spend your career, and if it means he has family time and the ability to rebuild an iconic ship from his past, then great for him. Of the entire ensemble, he comes off as the most secure and level-headed, and I have to ask, how many here would love to have his job? Again though, there has been nothing stating exactly what he does there. For all we know, there could be a string of repair yards in trailing orbit that he is in command of, though that too is now speculation on my part. There's no leap at all, just a minor step further. Look at today's car factories, with an assembly line taking the in-progress cars past 'drones' that slap on their assigned part. Just turn the process around with the ship being stable and drones being able to move around it. And if they can load torpedos than then can slap in power transfer conduits and align magnetic interlocks. And as for examples, Discovery has some extremely capable repair drones set more than a century before this, and even TNG had the exo-xoms, and the drone Geordi remotely controlled while looking for his mother. Agreed. And that looks true for most of the ships there. Yeah, most of their tech is more a series of refinements on centuries old technology. Heck, even in the future they are all still using phasers and warp drive! But, there is the a big difference between a muzzle loading rifle and an M-16. They don't have to have more, and in fact you could probably have the Titan-A facing off against the Enterprise-A using only one phaser turret, and have it still come out the easy winner. In this instance, the quality of the weapons have improved dramatically. Isn't it though?! There are some slight differences that just a different camera angle can't account for, like the curved railing, but it is really close! All true, and we have seen in the series that despite all their medical advances, there are people who just cannot adjust or get past those wounds. That's not to say that Geordi hasn't though. Yes, he is over protective of his kids because he recalls his own past and how many brushes with death he's come across, but I have not seen anything to say that he is not 'well-adjusted' or hiding any scars. For all we know, he goes to counseling sessions twice a week and maybe cries on his wife's shoulder in the night and talks to her about it all. To go back to an earlier point in this post, he comes off as one of the most well-adjusted and level-headed of the entire crew, and maybe because he has chosen (apparently) a quieter future for himself.
  16. Thom
    Can't do that now, his old body was on the Shrike! I think 'cobbled' might be too harsh of a word. It's looks like the Fleet Museum has a fully capable shipyard inside of it. And the fact that he mentioned merely cosmetic problems, and with no mention (yet) of taking it easy on the old girl, speaks to the ship's apparent sturdiness. I would assume that the most of the work done was done just repairing the saucer. Yes, but that was over twenty years earlier. If he's not over that or has not dealt with it yet, then that would not speak highly to his mental state. BUT, there has been no dialogue or scene that even hints at that! He looks and acts well-adjusted and put together and very concerned about his daughter's safety. 🤣 It looks good. Very good in fact. Is it exact? No. but then again it's a rebuilt ship, and maybe the 'new' bridge module was slightly different in dimensions from the original Big D's? There are ways to explain it or just ignore it. My two bits anyway. Well, since that's a prequel, would that be the Silver Age..?
  17. Thom
    They've led lives. Have bad things happened? Sure, that's the drama of it. But to describe them as all broken and miserable, IMO, is a bit far. It leads to the impression that these are broken and old people who have laid down to die, when the opposite is what is happening. Picard starts off feeling so contented that he's yearning for adventure - which he gets. Sure, he then finds out that Beverly hid that they had a child and his son is dealing with the repercussions of his assimilation many years ago, but I have yet to see him being broken by that. Sad and angered, certainly, but a broken man is not likely to stand up and continue to fight, esp for his family. He is standing up and fighting. Riker and Troi are dealing with the loss of a child. I've never had to suffer that, but I'm sure I can fairly assume that it will never get easier or go away, but again, that does not make them broken or miserable. They are united and moving forward. Data seems quite happy. And yes, it is Data. (well, Neo Data.) There is a scene where we clearly see the Lore persona de-res because it is no longer a sentient part of his construct. As for Geordi, there has been no dialogue or scenes stating that he has ever had some kind of 'midlife crisis' or that he's working on the sly or absconding (stealing) starship parts, or hiding his activities and abandoning his family in favor of dealing with guilt that has never been mentioned. Yes, he survived Utopia Planetia but since he's worked on having a family, with two apparently well-adjusted children, and having a secure career in Starfleet working with what he loves; classic starships including the very one for which he has the most affinity to. And as for 'position sinecure,' how do we know this? Where was this stated? They didn't not say it either. The truth of it is, we have no idea how the rebuilding of the Big-D was carried out, but since drones were mentioned it is not a far leap to assume that they were a big part in the reconstruction. I'm not seeing what the problem is there. IMO, so what? Consider Scotty. When he had the chance to once more 'step onto' the Enterprise in the holodeck, he did so with the TOS ship. Not the TMP. He did so with the style of the ship that he had the most affinity. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Geordi is the same way and just chose to model the ship during one of it's earlier configurations. And maybe the bridge module he was able to acquire came that way and he just decided not to alter it to exactly match the pre-crash look of the ship? That the ships are far more powerful in defensive as well as offensive roles speaks to how they've shifted. Consider the Defiant and the technological refinements and breakthroughs that must have filtered out to the rest of the fleet from it. Yes, the primary role is still exploration and discovery, but we know those are wolves in sheep's clothing.
  18. Thom
    Probably the main reason they are heading back so fast, to try and keep ahead of that assimilation curve. And that's if this new type of Borg-tech can fully assimilate a person or if they need drones from the cube to do that, and if it is even there yet. We'll have to agree to disagree. I think we can both go twelve rounds! 😉 Cause I don't see them as being miserable and or broken just because they are having a hard time. Sure, they have their moments, but more often than not, they pick themselves up again pretty quick, and often relying on their friends/crewmen in true TNG fashion. Such as with Riker and Troi, recovering from their son's death. I would personally not call that broken. Data is exactly way Soong intended this version to be. The Data we knew was killed in Nemesis and this one is conglomeration of all the previous variants. And as we saw in his scenes with Lore, Lore is definitely 'gone' in the sense that he is no longer a sentient part of Data, just as the remnants of Lal and B4 are. As for Geordi, how his mental state comes into question? He's an engineer and seems to have rightly settled right where he wants to be, in a job that allows him to work with one his daughters and apparently very close with his wife. And until there is some dialogue saying he feels guilty in any way about what happened to the Big D, I would be assuming he doesn't, or has long come to terms with it. The entire feeling I got about him rebuilding the D, or the rational, is that it has been labor of love and in no way some kind of recompense. Nor something clandestine or in secret. I would assume Starfleet Command was very aware of his side project, especially as there has been no intonation that is it on the 'sly.' Unless I missed a whole string of dialogue saying how it was all done in secret. And he even said he intended it as a future surprise. But seeing how he has been busy with his own life and family for the past twenty years, as happens, I can understand the others not being aware of it, esp if it was going to be a surprise. And as has been stated in another post, it's mostly all automated. So it's literally push a button and get on with other work. It was though, but to the series specification and the not the movie specification. And though I would agree that they are not simply warships, I would say that they are more warship-like than in the TNG era.
  19. Thom
    That's if they are going against Borg ships. The tech we are seeing is biological rather than technical, and AFAWK it is still just assimilated crews with standard Starfleet ships. It's not strictly his DNA they were after, but the bio-tech 'seed' planted inside of him by the Borg while he was Locutus. It's what was misdiagnosed as Irumodic Syndrome. And it's what was needed to be disseminated through the transporter network in order for Jack's fully evolved form of bio-assimilation to work on the others. Exactly. As I mentioned above, the Defiant class was created to be part of a wolfpack. I cannot envision one lone Defiant taking down one Borg cube. It was designed to work with a squadron of sister ships, of which there are no longer. Sure, she's fast and tough, but not Galaxy class tough. Not that I expect the Big D to stand toe to toe with the assimilated Starfleet ships. Each hit would be killing innocent Starfleet crews and she wouldn't last long anyway against the entire fleet. But I still say she'd last longer than the Defiant. How is Geordi broken and miserable? We can assume he has a good relationship with his wife, loves his job and has, except for a slight misunderstanding with Sidney, a good relationship with his kids. I still don't see why people want to see them as 'broken and miserable.' Sure they have problems, but so does everybody. Just as often they are smiling and joking with each other and overcoming their problems just like normal people, and even just as they were on TNG. And why would anyone think Geordi rebuilt the Big D out of some sense of guilt? Where did that come from? Because I see it as him recreating a memorable part of his/their past, and no different than old sailors tending a retired battleship. You can see he did it for the love of the ship. And considering how devoted one daughter is to his path and that the other was estranged for an entirely different reason, it's probably safe to assume taking some time to rebuild the D didn't adversely effect his family at all. A thing of beauty. And if it is slightly different from the original in slight proportions, then so what? It's the entire picture we're looking at rather than focusing down and picking at little miss-sizings. C'mon, the plaque is literally just six inches higher! (or thereabouts, as I did not take a ruler to it.) I would say it's not wrong at all. Extra consoles or not, it is still the Big D's bridge, just redone to an era slightly before she crashed. It's such a little thing, I mean the next thing you know, people will start saying the accent carpet is too red... Damn, I did not mean to point that out! But as to style/lighting opposed to Disco or La Sirena, the Galaxy class was the epitome of Starfleet technology during the golden age of the Federation. Classically beautiful, open and bright, just like the Federation was at the time. And it was a far more peaceful time, when they had the luxury of designing for pleasing aesthetics above merely for form and function. Then they had the resurgent Romulans, and the Klingon War and the Borg, and then Dominion, and the Borg again... I don't think we'll see brightly lit and comfortable bridge's like the Big D's until some Star Trek show comes along that shows a renaissance of that golden age.
  20. Thom
    Exactly, and that will happen as soon as battle commences. But I don't see the Ent-D getting into a knock-down, drag-out fight with the assimilated fleet. Even with a full crew she should be dog meat. Their best bet, barring intervention from an allied source, will be subterfuge and whit. True, but this isn't DS9 either. Personally, whether the Changelings are more a DS9 thing or not matters little to me. It's all Star Trek in the end. We'll have to differ. I think the Galaxy class, being larger will be able to take more of a punishment even if it doesn't have more armor. Weapons still have to get through shields first and as long as those hold you don't need more armor. As for weapons, if they are working, the D has a lot to bring to a party. The Defiant looks like it should be part of wolf-pack rather than a ship of the line. So it would seem that all they did was remove the override. The D probably still has that. They might be more likely to see it from Picard's perspective. Every single one of those young officers, if they survive being un-assimilated, will be bearing the guilt of having been made to kill fellow officer and friends.
  21. Thom
    Very nicely done! Not perfect, but then what else is? The main story was there and still told it pretty well. I woudl actualy say it could have used a half hour more just to give some more personal nuances to the characters, but I'll keep it!
  22. Thom
    Just cruising from Point A to Point B is easy, it's going into battle and expecting the ship to operate at full capacity without a full crew is where the problem comes in. Ships need their crews. Now split the few people they do have between the saucer and stardrive section and they'd be dead in space in minutes. Or less. That's real world, anyway. Maybe Geordi seeded replicators throughout the ship to replicate any damaged section back into existence. or maybe there is a whole contingent of androids in deep storage. (sarcasm) I'm thinking the D can probably take a hit better than the Defiant, and it wasn't the TNG ship. Replicators! Whose to say they can't replicate entire torpedos? I'm assuming they just have it on-hand, at least for maintenance and short system runs. All of the ship appeared to be fully powered in their enclosures. ? Though Enterprise-D is networked, I doubt it is to the extreme as the modern Starfleet ships. Plus, they have Data and warning that the other ships might try to hijack their computers. That's one thing they didn't specify. Jack is all the way other 'there' far, far away from Earth but the system still worked - however they for some reason needed the entire fleet in one spot. If distance is not a problem, then they didn't need to do that, though I wouldn't put it past the Changelings to have wanted that. I haven't written them out yet, as I don't think the Borg were behind the Face Vadic was taking orders from. I could be wrong, but in that event, I'm hoping that the Changelings have a way of short-circuiting the Borg, perhaps this being a part of their plan, that could open a window for Picard and Crew to wrangle a win through.
  23. Thom
    Clearly, Geordi was feeling very nostalgic! Though I don't think they could do a saucer separation, unless Geordi automated the hell out of that. They have barely enough crew just to man the main bridge. Thoughts exactly. Their officer corps has been decimated! It's a good thing the Romulans are still on their heels after losing Romulus and the Klingons are now allies. But it will be a very turbulent decade following this. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire TNG crew ends up back on the E-D helping to train-up and rehabilitate the ranks. One thing is for certain, Picard will not be the only one now living with that kind of guilt!
  24. Thom
    I hope that is still up when I get off work!
  25. Thom
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