A resident of Manitoba in Canada has had his license plate revoked after the authorities received complaints. Accoding to CTV, Nick Troller’s “ASIMIL8,” which he has had for two years and includes a “WE ARE THE BORG. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE” frame, is considered insensitive to the indigenous people of Canada. Manitoba Public Insurance told Troller that two people have complained and he had to surrender the plate, so in this case, resistance is indeed futile: he has the choice of getting a new personalized plate for free or getting a refund. More details in the video report below.
Forbes discovers the obvious: Star Wars is more popular than Star Trek, but Trek fans make more money
In honor of “Star Wars Day” the folks at Forbes decided to conduct a poll to find out which was more popular, Star Trek or Star Wars. The answer was a pretty obvious when one looks at box office or merchandise sales, but here is what they found:
However, the poll also revealed that those who expressed a preference for Star Trek made more money than those who expressed a preference for Star Wars. This is most likely due to a difference in the median age of the fanbases.
Advice for Star Trek Discovery: should it get political?
There is a lot of anticipation about Star Trek: Discovery, along with a lot of secrecy. To fill in the time, some have started to speculate about and offer advice to the show. New York Magazine’s Vulture blog put together a video on about how Star Trek is facing its biggest political challenge, asking “will the writers be bold enough to take on one of the most tense political environment’s in decades?”
(Click to see video at Vulture.com)
Vulture isn’t the only site thinking about Discovery; Comic Book Resources has come up with a list of “15 Characters We Want To See In Star Trek Discovery.” Their number one choice is Shran, which would make Jeffrey Combs pretty happy.
Deep Trek thoughts: Wesley actually great? Starship life would suck?
Some sites out there have been taking deeper dives and are even getting into some controversial areas in terms of Star Trek. Here are some interesting reads from the last couple of weeks from some of them:
Den of Geek: Unpopular opinion: Wesley Crusher is a great character.
Agony Booth: Battle of the Letdown Series Finales: Star Trek: Voyager vs. Xena: Warrior Princess.
Grunge: Why living on the starship Enterprise would actually be awful
Looper: Why Star Trek: The Next Generation meant more than you thought
Inverse: How Star Trek’s warp speed works
MinuteHack: Will our tech future look more like Star Wars or Star Trek?
Wired: What if Star Trek never existed?
Art of the week: Star Trek ships re-imagined as cars
In April Australia’s Budget Direct car rental company posted a list of 9 Star Trek ships redesigned as cars including the various USS Enterprises, the USS Defiant, The USS Voyager and Romulan, Klingon, Borg, and Ferengi “carships”. They even took a crack at the new USS Discovery from the upcoming series Star Trek: Discovery.
Video of the week: A Star Trek birth announcement
A birth announcement video posted to YouTube last month has become extremely popular because the proud parents-to-be used Star Trek: The Next Generation clips to get the message out:
Music video of the week
The All Hail Retcon YouTube channel has re-imagined the song “99 Problems”with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Geordi LaForge stepping in for Jay Z.
That’s it for the Great Links this week. Keep up with all the fun Star Trek ephemera with TrekMovie’s Great Links coverage.
Political content at Trekmovie. Countdown to warp core breach in 3…2…1…
In the words of Spinal Tap’s manager, Star Trek’s appeal is more selective.
I’m a huge TREK fan, but I love STAR WARS too. I don’t feel as if they compete with each other, but recently I’ve began to feel as if TREK just doesn’t try as hard. The JJvere TREK tried, and beyond TREK’09, failed for me. Rehashing Khan,just hinting at the Klingons, and the same old rehash of the tortured soul that kills, but you’re supposed to feel sorry for him, because of some past injustice. I still don’t get Krall’s beef in Beyond… the war ended, they gave him a starship, and he was pissed because there was peace. So 100 years later he kills people???? Even Nero’s story about losing his wife, has been a constant narrative in TREK. Khan, Soren, Harry Mudd?? I just feel like the quality is not there because the story is not there. At least TOS has heart..TNG tried.. DS9 did until the war cycle starte d, then it was just an excuse for star wars. There were a few though ..The Visitor comes to mind… IDK about VOY, and forget ENT…. they changed the canon at the expense of what? And what about the toys?? I collect Star Wars. I have paid for a few of George Lucas’ cars/houses over the years.
Good point. I mean, Gene Roddenberry never changed Star Trek canon.
Gene wanted Jesus Christ on the bridge in Trek 2 until he was pushed out.
Tech future won’t look like either one. Data aside, AI didn’t seem to exist in TNG except at a rudimentary level. What we have right now makes TNG look dated. That’s going to be a problem with Discovery – tech the predates TOS isn’t going to look futuristic.
Starship duty as shown in TOS had to suck. Rec rooms devoid of anything other then tables, chairs, a couple of board games, and replicators. The crew had to be screwing like rabbits to relieve the boredom…
Well, I think we all know that that is what Captain Kirk was doing.
You don’t think a little thing like Trek’s WW III might have some tech setbacks consequences? I mean the massive EMPs alone should have thrown electronics back to the ‘stone knives and bearskins’ vacuum tube tech Spock had to deal with in COTEOF.
Two people was all it took for them to say “give us your plate”? I guess Canada is more sensitive then I thought.
You have to understand the huge population of Aboriginal people we have here and how left wing and active their political leadership is. Our insurance company is publicly owned, not private and has been basically run by a left wing political party for 17 years so the idea they’d reject it after a complaint, right or wrong, is unsurprising.
Initially I thought it was ridiculous but I do understand the sensitivity to that word up here.
There was another story in Canada where a man had his custom plate taken away. It said GRABHER. It’s the man’s last name he’s had it for years. It’s a common name in parts of Europe. One complaint. People are looking for things to be upset about.
It was also Canada, I believe, where someone complained about a slur in the song “Money For Nothing” and had it pulled across the country. Then there was backlash to the removal for a few reasons, artistic expression being one and the fact the song uses the word in a way to make fun of it. The song is now played as originally intended.
But remember this Assimilate plate….you really have to understand the feelings that word conjurers up for a lot of people in Canada. Its not good. So I can understand there being complaints. But if it was me, I’d look at it and say, okay, 2 complaints….that is very minor. Tells me its a very minor issue.
You also have to take into account that Canada had residential schools, where First Nations children were taken, forcibly by law, and put into schools where they were forced to convert to Christianity, and conform to a European style of life, to ‘assimilate’. This went on up until the 1980s, when the last school was closed in Ontario. These schools were rife with sexual molestation, physical abuse, murder and failure to provide the necessities of life.
That license plate is my home town.
I love ’em both but it’s obvious that Star Trek produces (influences more ppl to become) more scientists as opposed to SW. Star Trek is science fiction and Star Wars is science fantasy. Trek actually proposes scientific theories and applications whereas Wars has actually very little science in it and resorts to space magic.
The one time Star Wars tried to go legit science resulted in midichlorians
Haters gonna’ hate, and they ain’t gonna’ make as much dough. Reminds me of my college alma mater–at one point the losing-est football in the U.S., but an academically selective school. Their cheers were “someday you’ll work for us;” and “We have higher SATs.” Guess Trek fans can adopt the same chants.
I figured out what happened with the plates before I even read it. 2 people (TWO) complained… in Trudeau’s Canada, that equals 2 million people.. #ThanksSJWs…
If Discovery goes political, I’ll turn it off faster than I did Voyager.
So you’ve turned off every Star Trek series?
LOL. A commenter going by the handle, Dr Zaius, going ape over an sf series going political. Forgive them, Pierre, APES fans know not what they do.
You know, you picked the absolute wrong handle to complain about Discovery MAYBE going political, LOL!
I collect both Star Trek and Star Wars . Star Wars is an adventure series that has deepened with it’s continuation . Star Trek has tried to combine a thoughtful view of the future with action/adventure , but because of commercial pressures has started to sputter through faltering .
I would hope Star Trek Discovery deeply expresses futuristic political content reflecting contemporary concerns as well . But I don’t honestly think CBS would offer that in any form . I think we can expect an action Series with pseudo-futuristic hopes !
So , in retrospect , I will watch Discovery , Wish the failing Star Trek Franchise Well !
And with my wallet , I will go out and buy The Expanse Collectors HD Set , knowing I can watch a Series with some serious comment on our future .
The true irony here is that this occurred due to the same Borg-like, PC groupthink it was mocking. Life imitates art, in the extremus.
PC needs to take a dirt nap.
Amen to that.
I’m glad Shran, Phlox and T’Pol made the list of “15 Characters We Want to See in Star Trek: Discovery.” They were my top-three choices as well, as long as the stories have a good reason to call for their appearance.
Fleet Captain Garth seems like a given, if not in appearance, then at least in dialogue at some point during the series. This should be right around the time when he’s a big deal in Starfleet.
Kor might be problematic, depending on what exactly the series is doing with the Klingons. But if he does appear, it’s likely he’d be a low-ranking officer at this time, like a bekk or lieutenant.
It might be nice to finally legitimize Robert April at least in canon, if not as the first captain of the Enterprise NCC-1701. He could be a starbase commodore, or in command of another starship.
If we’re going to see Pike and Spock (and the Enterprise), I think DSC will hold off until it has firmly established itself as a series. And then, I’d love to see Zachary Quinto in the role.
You know if DISCOVERY turns out to be good enough to last 10 years, something’s got to eventually give in terms of Kirk and Spock, et al showing up.
Holy shit, it’s just a show about an alternate worlds future and cannot be tied to anyone living or dead in this world. Any rebuttals will be filed under dogshit.
This kind of license plate controversy is exactly what’s wrong with the world. The people who are offended by a catchphrase for 30 years ago need to get over it. Sometimes the world doesn’t need to react to the hypersensitive.
Canada…apparently they too have gone “PC” mad. Sad & pathetic.
Numenosium,
You are aware that NINTEEN EIGHTY-FOUR was written by a Brit born in India?