They won’t remain in the packing in our home, but they may help motivate some uptake of cooking skills among the not quite adults.

Some of both. A 1701 grey Dutch oven and a deep bluegreen Klingon braised are available in the ceramic-enameled cast iron. The shuttle is ceramic bakeware. There are also Starfleet and Klingon knobs that can replace the plain ones you may already have.

Here’s the link for the Canadian site.

I balked at Le Creuset for decades due to the price.

Once we got our first Dutch oven, there was no going back. It’s so much less hassle cooking to have pots and braisers that work well. The price is worth it, especially if you shop the online sales and get 30 or 40% off. However, these are full price plus a premium over regular equivalents.

That said, it took my partner less than 2 hours to ask which items we should be ordering…

This is one time the merch will be worth it.

I find it interesting how much attention franchise fans give to crowd-sourced ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes when we know that they are brigaded. Why give any credence to manipulated data?

As I have been watching more content from China recently, I have learned that the manipulation of social media and streaming audience data, especially ratings, is a very high profile public discussion outside North America.

In fact, there have been repeated attempts to develop and patent algorithms in China to detect manipulated ratings and streaming audience data and correct for them. None have successfully proved they can clean up brigading and manipulation to the satisfaction of national authorities.

I think that I can almost enjoy how much people are getting bent out of shape by this on other social media. (I confess to scanning a few of the comments under that TrekMovie article.)

Dropping in belatedly to say that my partner and I felt this was an improvement over the season premiere, and we felt it got things back on track.

The continuance of Paramount+ as a standalone streamer is entirely dependent on the delay of the merger. I would take anything the current management says with a certain amount of skepticism as they are having to carry on while the antitrust challenge is ongoing.

Ellison has been transparent that he is looking to consolidate the WB and Paramount streamers or at minimum restructure and retarget their content and audiences. He’s looking for synergies and in his justifications to investors regarding the merger, he’s specifically cited the intention for Paramount and WB to use Skydance’s animation studios.

I actually wonder in hindsight to what degree Paramount and Nickelodeon proactively shut down renewals with animation houses in anticipation of a deal with Skydance.

It’s interesting that they believe that they have leverage — and that it just might be the case.

Ellison suffered a setback that should not be underestimated when Taylor Sheridan unequivocally rebuffed Paramount’s offer to renew his first look contract. He has been Paramount+’s biggest content producer but flatly rejected a renewal, despite extensive personal courting by David Ellison and one of his senior people brought over from Skydance.

So, it’s not obvious that the kind of creatives that Ellison wants to work with will actually be willing to sign on with him. The Hagemans are significant creators in animation and Skydance’s animation studio is a major part of its business. They really are in a position to insist that on Prodigy renewal as part of any deal.

The choices in this list are an odd mix of ones that almost everyone acknowledges as top ranked and others that are likely not.

A Mathematically Perfect Redemption as the only standalone Lower Decks episode to make the cut?

No TAS classics such as Yesteryear, The Slaver Weapon or the Counterclockwise Incident?

TNG Qpid but not Q Who?

Nothing at all from Prodigy — the best effort and most successful landing of a serialized season the franchise has achieved?

Thanks for the thought experiment OP.

My spouse and I found this season opener disappointing, if for different reasons.

My partner couldn’t get past the bad science. More, something made them feel like they were watching low budget mid 20th century scifi.

I found the performances/acting off across the board. Given the strength of the cast one has to wonder why they were overwrought and unconvincing. The pacing and rhythm of dialogue definitely was part of it. The direction has to be part of it but the episode director has done a lot of better episodes in the this era.

I’m usually pretty forgiving on science and engineering as long as the process feels right. Without the actors selling it, I just didn’t get into the show in a way that allowed for suspension of disbelief.

The cast is saying they feel this is their strongest season yet. Based on episode one, I am unconvinced.

This is good news.

It was well done and might be something Paramount is willing to do more of even if the television franchise is on ice.

It’s not a fan novel.

The Full Circle Voyager series is official tie-in fiction published by Pocketbooks and CBS. Official tie-in fiction is beta-canon. That is, canon until overwritten by something onscreen.

The key thing in this is that the tie-in writer for this series Kirsten Beyer has significant credibility and authority within the franchise. Her research and statements on the legal situation around this are credible and official.

Kirsten Beyer was in the middle of writing the Voyager books when she joined the television writers as of the first season of Discovery. She’s officially got the mandate as the expert keeper of canon in the writers room — even if she’s not always listened too. More, she was made the liaison for the tie-in writers to the shows as of 2017. She’s now a CoExecutive Producer and cocreator of SNW.

When that book was published, and she chased down the history on Locarno/Paris, she had the greatest access to past Executive Producers and internal legal advice and archives. She wouldn’t have claimed that without solid evidence.

I suspect that it had to do with the WGA contract at the time that TNG was in production.

Writers with a script credit got specific residuals for characters they created in a script according to what Beyer wrote. So, taking a one-off character and putting them in a main cast role in a new show would be providing creator credits for the entire show.

Chief Miles O’Brien is a different story altogether. Colm Meany was originally contracted as a background regular as the transporter chief but without a name. These kind of roles are reliable and keep actors eating while allowing them to audition for other roles.

According to what I heard at a Creation Con panel back in the early 90s, the showrunners eventually decided to give the character a name. Colm Meany wasn’t advised, nor was his agent — so Meany actually was raising a complaint that he was being replaced without notice, only to find out he’d been upgraded to a named part.

Kirsten Beyer actually is on the record saying that this was confirmed to her when she was writing the Voyager Full Circle novels.

In those books, she has the incident and the consequences as part of Paris’ backstory that gets thrown in his face in a legal proceeding back on Earth.

My recollection is that she printed this in an author’s note in the specific book so it must have had legal clearance for the tie-in literature.

Unfortunately, that Instagram post seems unavailable now.

In any event, I would be happy to see both James Frain back as Sarek and Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson.

I was one of those who really liked their performances as those characters.

Yah, I was more ready to let go of new Star Trek by the time Enterprise was canceled — but that show finally felt like it was all coming together in season four so it was frustrating that it didn’t get a full run.

The miasma of sadness I feel knowing that the SFA and SNW sets have been ripped down in Toronto and Mississauga is making it hard for me to really get excited and embrace the marketing for SNW season four.

I know I will be watching with my spouse and engaging here, but it’s very really not a great feeling given I was around for TOS’ cancellation, TAS’ cancellation, Enterprise’s cancellation and now the closing of this era.

The Commitments.

Wow, that’s a lot of negativity towards both fancasting and idols. But I appreciate your laying out your perspective.

This fancasting was done with humorous intent, as one can tell by the original post text that I have included as well as the Chanel visor (since cdrama ‘traffic stars’ are known for being global brand ambassadors of high fashion houses).

So the joke is falling flat with you. The question is “Why?”

Star Trek fans always propose their ideas for new characters in the franchise and even for recasts. It’s nothing new. It’s done in the spirit of fun.

And it’s never taken particularly seriously by those who make casting decisions or we would have seen very different actors cast in all of the shows and movies over the past 50+ years of the continuing franchise. Especially, as many or most of the actors fancast are not any more skilled than idol actors — while on the other hand, the most recent Star Trek shows, that have consistently cast actors with good foundations and craft, have experienced the most fan negativity about casting.

What’s different about fancasting popularity idol ‘traffic stars’ from China vs the usual fancasting of A or B list American actors?

What I found different, and amusing, is that it’s a fancasting crossover from two very different entertainment contexts. It’s challenging assumptions with popular faces, known to the younger cdrama audience.

What’s also amusing to me is that it implicitly pokes fun at Star Trek’s baked-in tendency to cast at least some of the roles on the basis of physical attractiveness, despite its aspirational nature — and recognizes that there has been fan blowback when diversity in looks and body types are included.

I’m absolutely with you that Star Trek needs to be more inclusive of Asian actors, and generally inclusive of more non US actors to really have global reach.

The US-centric mindset of those at senior levels in charge of the franchise since Roddenberry, as well as the embedded American Exceptionalism, is a principal reason it’s cinematic features aren’t capable of making adequate profit margins.

Anime, kdramas and now cdramas, all are rising in global popularity, especially among GenZ and among young women. That’s a global trend affecting the audience that Star Trek needs to share in to survive. What’s the problem with considering what the franchise would need to do to compete with these?

Yes, there are other serious actors in Chinese film and television, as well as other Asian countries. And hopefully as the young audience that is interested in cdramas matures, they may broaden their horizons and take in productions that are more focused on quality than personal beauty.

However, it’s also true that very few, even among those who graduate from China’s top theatre and performing arts programs go directly into serious roles. Very few have the resources to create their own independent production companies. Most are contracted by agencies, with their careers managed by them — with enormous financial penalties if they seek to become independent or move agencies. Most are in their 30s before they can break into more serious film and television roles.

Let’s face it, Star Trek has historically put the most seasoned actors, with theatrical credits, in the Captain chair but the rest of the ensemble has typically been a mix of with less experienced actors included. Many legacy roles were cast with actors of an equivalent skill level to idols.

It’s very welcome to have an Asian actor of Michelle Yeoh’s calibre in a captain’s chair, but Sulu and Kim, in 60 years of the franchise, should not remain the only East Asian main ensemble characters. More, future casting of characters with Japanese, Korean or Chinese biographies should consider hiring actors who are from those countries rather than exclusively Americans with that heritage.

All to say, it’s an interesting discussion. Appreciate the engagement.

As I said, the images were posted on Reddit by someone who loves both Cdramas and Star Trek.

I’ve checked privately with the creator and they asked to watermark the images. They shared the watermarked versions with me by private messaging and agreed to let me post here.

This person is a professional vfx specialist working in television who did this for their own amusement. They have asked me to avoid sharing more detail on who they are which I believe is fair.