Star Trek: Picard

[Axaday]

It is hard for me to ever disagree with Copper Bezel. It's all true. I can see it isn't great stuff. But just like Copper, I like it anyway.

-=-=-

Am I too out of touch with the related trappings? I seems to me that by the 25th Century there might be substances that you can carry around and take whenever you need it that will make you feel really good for a while that aren't dangerous. Maybe that's silly. Maybe that is what a chocolate bar is.

 

[Dekafox]

Synthahol is an obvious example, in that it's just about that counterpart to liquor, but it seems no one's really considered running that across the board for all other psychoactives. ANd I guess, to be fair there have been a lot of people on screen who still prefer the latter to the former, despite everything.

 

[Axaday]

My understanding of synthahol may be weak. I am sure I learned that you don't get drunk. Do you get a buzz and then that is it?

It really may be that the normal mature thing is that we don't NEED to get high and anyone who thinks they do need to get high is wrong.

 

[Dake]

Fanservice can be done well or poorly. It has grown to be a pejorative but it doesn't have to be. Lower Decks takes fanservice to the extreme for comedy purposes, I think Picard S3 is using it and doing it (mostly) well compared to the first couple seasons where it tended to stumble. I agree that this season would not have the same impact without being TNG Season 8 but even in saying that, they're doing a good job with it. The flip-side of this argument is they've been able to fast-forward some of the character building to get to the story which has been part of what held the previous seasons back (because they also didn't do a great job with earlier character building).

Am I too out of touch with the related trappings? I seems to me that by the 25th Century there might be substances that you can carry around and take whenever you need it that will make you feel really good for a while that aren't dangerous. Maybe that's silly. Maybe that is what a chocolate bar is.

That stuff exists, but we're spending much more time outside of the Federation's influence. Just like today people will gripe about light beer not being the "real stuff", or you're not "doing it right" if you don't get hung over. It's reasonable that the seedier parts of any given local still cater to the "old ways" of getting wasted.

 

[Cybersnark]

It occurs to me that the thing I love about Picard this season is that it's making me imagine a USS Titan series featuring Shaw, Seven, Sydney, and Jack (and the rest of the Titan crew), with the TNG cast relegated to occasional guest appearances for the "big" episodes.

 

[Dekafox]

My understanding of synthahol may be weak. I am sure I learned that you don't get drunk. Do you get a buzz and then that is it?

It really may be that the normal mature thing is that we don't NEED to get high and anyone who thinks they do need to get high is wrong.

That's what I would assume - get the good without the bad, but some people want to get the full drunk experience. I always got the impression it wasn't for the flavor, which is the only other reason you would have such a thing, like how sugar free stuff is supposed to replicate the flavor(but seldom does). Can't pull up Memory Alpha to check currently.

 

[Thefakelink]

I thought it was more “get drunk but without a hangover.”

 

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, and specifically a drunk you could just "turn off" when it's time for duty.

Edit: Now I'm picturing something that's definitely not what synthahol is, but the curse-of-eternal-life-without-eternal-youth version, where you can shut it off instantly but get an instant hangover

 

[The Predaking]

So if you remove the fan service, you still have some amazing characters that were added this season.

Captain Shaw - a great new complex character. Another former engineer turned captain after Wolf 359, but he still does the right thing, and is an annoying pain in the butt for our pre-exisitng characters.

Jack Crusher - a great new addition to the cast. He is that rogue/Smuggler with the heart of gold type of character His condition hasn't been fully explained yet, but I am sure that it will soon.

Sidney LaForge - A great pilot and a bit of a risk taker. Love that she and Jack have some great chemistry.

 

[Copper Bezel]

Just like today people will gripe about light beer not being the "real stuff",

Missed this, but light beer isn't for your health, it's just something some people inexplicably prefer the taste of. It's the same alcohol.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Missed this, but light beer isn't for your health, it's just something some people inexplicably prefer the taste of. It's the same alcohol.

In Japan, we have fully non-alcoholic beer, with absolutely no alcohol in it whatsoever. I sometimes drink it at work (although some Japanese colleagues think it's taboo for customers to see us with such drinks).

As for synthhol:

And if you'll excuse the casual racism and "old Disney film acting circa Mary Poppins":

 

[Copper Bezel]

In Japan, we have fully non-alcoholic beer, with absolutely no alcohol in it whatsoever.

That exists everywhere. Only Americans would invent light beer though.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

And if you'll excuse the casual racism and "old Disney film acting circa Mary Poppins":

Yeah, while there have been a few attempts to chart various post-faster warp engine 22nd century cultural diaspora from Earth, people often try to forget the "Stage Irish" Neo-transcendentalists....

They could have been Travellers (the Irish ones, not the grayish ones from Tau Alpha C who may or may not also be the Aegis), but they'd be a lot less comprehensible to American ears if they were, I suspect. Maybe that was the best the UT could do with an isolated variant of Gaeilge?

Either way, Colm Meaney was largely absent from this episode, for which we and he are no doubt all grateful.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

That exists everywhere. Only Americans would invent light beer though.

As far as I can tell, it was invented in Japan in 2010:

- https://tokyoesque.medium.com/mindf...e-alternative-beverages-in-japan-e6131a37e2bf

The most famous, "All Free", is basically carbonated, beer-flavoured water, as opposed to "low" or so-called "non" alcoholic beers from other countries (which can claim to be so, even with a 0.005% of alcohol). All Free, by comparison is completely devoid of all alcohol and calories, so it's good for dieting too.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

As far as I can tell, it was invented in Japan in 2010:

- https://tokyoesque.medium.com/mindf...e-alternative-beverages-in-japan-e6131a37e2bf

The most famous, "All Free" is basically carbonated, beer-flavoured water, as opposed to "low" or so-called "non" alcoholic beers from other countries (which can claim to be so, even with a 0.005% of alcohol). All Free, by comparison is completely devoid of all alcohol and calories, so it's good for dieting too.

Why are we talking about alcohol free beer? I thought "light" beer was supposed to be (essentially) diet beer. Same alcohol content, but fewer calories.

I'm not a drinker, so I could be mistaken.

 

[Copper Bezel]

You are correct. Light beer has nothing to do with alcohol content.

so-called "non" alcoholic beers from other countries (which can claim to be so, even with a 0.005% of alcohol).

That's eighteen milligrams in a can, or about one third of a drop.

Edit: That is, if you tried to intake enough to get a buzz, the water would kill you first.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Why are we talking about alcohol free beer?

Because it was related to a discussion on synthahol, a faux-alcoholic drink that could possibly be drunk while "on duty" in the Star Trek universe.

 

[Copper Bezel]

I can see how you got there, but we know synthahol has effects, so it's not really related.

I mean O'Douls could qualify as a homeopathic hangover cure, but I'd like to think the Federation has moved on from such barbarism as homeopathy.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I can see how you got there, but we know synthahol has effects, so it's not really related.

I mean O'Douls could qualify as a homeopathic hangover cure, but I'd like to think the Federation has moved on from such barbarism as homeopathy.

I mentioned it in passing and it seemingly became of interest to others. I only commented further for clarification.

Moving on, I suppose?

 

[Axaday]

This week gives several big answers to questions about what the show itself is doing, but offers up only a tiny bit of nostalgia and it reveals what most of us have been saying. The nostalgia is the tasty part and the vegetables are iffy.