this post was submitted on 11 May 2024

113 points (98.3% liked)

TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

3870 readers

661 users here now

/c/TenFoward: Your home-away-from-home for all things Star Trek!

Re-route power to the shields, emit a tachyon pulse through the deflector, and post all the nonsense you want. Within reason of course.

~ 1. No bigotry. This is a Star Trek community. Remember that diversity and coexistence are Star Trek values. Any post/comments that are racist, anti-LGBT, or generally "othering" of a group will result in removal/ban.

~ 2. Keep it civil. Disagreements will happen both on lore and preferences. That's okay! Just don't let it make you forget that the person you are talking to is also a person.

~ 3. Use spoiler tags. This applies to any episodes that have dropped within 3 months prior of your posting. After that it's free game.

~ 4. Keep it Trek related. This one is kind of a gimme but keep as on topic as possible.

~ 5. Keep posts to a limit. We all love Star Trek stuff but 3-4 posts in an hour is plenty enough.

~ 6. Try to not repost. Mistakes happen, we get it! But try to not repost anything from within the past 1-2 months.

~ 7. No General AI Art. Posts of simple AI art do not 'inspire jamaharon'

~ 8. No Political Upheaval. Political commentary is allowed, but please keep discussions civil. Read here for our community's expectations.

Fun will now commence.

Sister Communities:

[email protected]

Want your community to be added to the sidebar? Just ask one of our mods!

Honorary Badbitch:

@[email protected] for realizing that the line used to be "want to be added to the sidebar?" and capitalized on it. Congratulations and welcome to the sidebar. Stamets is both ashamed and proud.

Creator Resources:

Looking for a Star Trek screencap? (TrekCore)

Looking for the right Star Trek typeface/font for your meme? (Thank you @kellyaster for putting this together!)

founded 11 months ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

113

Measure of a merit badge (aussie.zone)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Transcription

4 panels, arranged 2x2.

The first panel contains a picture of Jean-Luc Picard holding up a frame containing a number of medals. It has the text "These are your Starfleet merit badges, are they not, Mr. Data?"

The second panel has a picture of Data, with the text "Yes, Captain."

The third is a close image of the frame containing the medals. The medals take a variety of shapes, but the bottom-left medal resembles the Starfleet insignia. The panel has the text "And this shiny combadge in the lower left?"

The fourth panel is another image of Data, with the text "Communications merit badge, sir."

all 15 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Combadge Polishing is graded Pass/Fail at the Academy, but they let you keep the badge.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Working the space phone isn't as anxiety ridden because they have absolutely no social obligations like being polite, saying a greeting, or even saying goodbye before hanging up. It's like the wild west of communication. Picard has literally muted people and then talked shit while they presumably could still see everyone on their bridge not paying attention to them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Picard after: "Would anyone else like to speak up, or shall we end this charade?"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

All eight badges. Time to take on the space elite four. I wonder who he picked for a starter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

And after that his rival who looks really similar to him?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Spot

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I have to admit that this took me too long to understand.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Help me out?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think the joke is that the props department needed a collection of medals and one of them is just a combadge painted a different color. Maybe they ran out of ideas, maybe it was easy, maybe they assumed nobody would notice. Star Trek needed a lot of props that looked alien or futuristic but sometimes it's just a hair dryer with a curvy pipe glued on the outside and spray painted black.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Apparently there's specific plumbing fixtures that feature in many films and shows. Can't remember what it is exactly but it's a large pipe reducer (shaped like a cone to connect a big pipe to a small pipe) with a few extra bits here and there.

If I remember correctly, it features in many low-mid budget Sci fi shows from the 2000s as space gun parts, which is what brought my attention to it in the first place. I watched the DVD commentary for Stargate sg1, and one of the prop/sfx people mentions it. I'd love to talk to the vfx guys to see what their take on all the ridiculous "laser guns" they've had to make look good in post.

Although my personal favorite is the ever-popular, yet oh-so-simple Corrugated Pipe.

So many spray paint options, so many ways to twist and turn it and cut it to make it look like 10,000 things.

It's crazy how often you'll be watching something and then boom it hits you that the wall "support column" is actually large diameter corrugated plastic pipe for drainage, cut in half and spray painted gold.

Or realize the ship-mounted turrets are just straight pipes with a few pieces of corrugated pipe turned around the "barrel" to make it look like some kind of hi-tech turboencabulator.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

My favorite obviously fake sci-fi gun props are P90s.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

See my above comment. I'm still not certain I was correct, and it is mildly humorous at best, not funny.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Oh. I get it. Um, sort of.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

what above comment?