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While also caring developing its characters extremely well; I think only DS9 had better character development.

To be fair, the Kelvin timeline had about 25 years to diverge technologically and aesthetically, considering the USS Kelvin was destroyed in 2233. 25 years is more than enough for the Starfleet design philosophy to completely change - look at the Enterprise C vs the Enterprise D.

The USS Kelvin looks pretty prime - a little fancier because of modern VFX, but not more advanced than the SNW Enterprise. I would chalk down discrepancies to just evolution in production effects; I mean, doesn’t even the NX-01 look more advanced in many ways than the TOS Enterprise? Effects getting anachronistically better in Star Trek is not new, and I don’t think it signifies a “back propagation” of timeline alteration.

Also, I don’t think Kelvin Vulcans are that weird; I think it’s mostly consistent with canon. Spock’s childhood in the film is practically a recap of TAS: Yesteryear, while the Vulcan education system seems consistent with the testing Spock did on himself at the beginning of Star Trek IV. The government and culture feel consistent with most depictions.

Additionally, the idea of infinite multiverses has been canon in Star Trek for a while, heavily suggested with TNG:”Parallels” and outright confirmed in Prodigy and Lower Decks - Wesley even explicitly names the Kelvin timeline as its own parallel universe called “the Narada Incursion” in PRO.

I think the variance in temporal mechanics in the franchise can be chalked up to the different methods in which time travel happens - each method is its own “User Interface” where your actions can affect reality differently. Some of them are more traditional time travel narratives, some are loops, some are parallel universes you can return from, etcetera.

Ultimately, I think the Temporal Prime Directive comes down to what you said; each timeline is its own “world” and it’s just best to leave them alone.

I think the plot of PRO is a perfect example of why the Temporal Prime Directive matters even in less-than-linear mechanics; going to the future can cause the future to alter the past, which causes the past to alter the future again and thus the past in a different way, and so on. Basically, messing with time and realities in any way is a dumpster fire in the making.

They briefly mention one where Tuvix becomes Captain of Voyager A in Prodigy.

In my opinion, it's not that worth it as a beverage; it's best enjoyed in a root beer float. Of course, that makes it even more sugary, but it's at least a pleasurable experience of texture.

I most frequently have A & W; it's pretty rare we get anything else. I don't think I've had a lot of Mug; I've certainly had some before, but it feels like I see more A & W and Barq's around my area. I don't think I've ever actually been to an A & W; all the Las Vegas locations had been closed for years (and still are) back when I lived in Vegas, and there's only 1 in the entirety of the Phoenix area where I current live.

Honestly, for me, root beer is root beer. Also, I rarely drink it as a standalone beverage these days; I mostly just use it in root beer floats. I'd only really choose it if there was no Dr. Pepper around or I was avoiding caffeine.

The root beer thing sounds so surreal to me, but it really shouldn't.

Your body replaces most of its cells over the course of about a decade, give or take a few years (except for brain cells, which admittedly throws a wrench in my point). What’s not to say it didn’t kill the version of you 10 years ago?

Further more, think of yourself from 1 day ago. Can that exact version of yourself still act on the world, or is that version effectively dead as the result of your mind changing over time? That exact version of you isn’t somehow carried on by soul.

In some sense, the very continuity of consciousness could be viewed as a continual process of death of the old self; all the transporter does is create a brief gap in that continuum.

In a nutshell, we’re always dying in some form as a product of the nature of time itself. Why should we get mad at the transporter?

Maybe the soul is how we transcend these deaths; maybe there’s no such thing as a soul.

And like teach the newly unemployed business majors to be actually useful… as construction workers…

Reminds me of this delusion I got the other day:

I love how the other TOTK subplots are environmental crises, and then we just randomly have drug rocks.

If only Apple Music would give Linux users some way to access lossless…

Though honestly, I’m only on Apple Music because my parents pay for it anyway (I’m a college kid), and I’ve already started accumulating a CD/digital audio file collection, which currently covers the first 6 studio albums plus albums 8 and 21 plus 1 B sides compilation, 1 single, half a live album, an album demos compilation, and 1 single.

Although the 256kpbs limitation on the browser isn’t the worst (better than a lot of video streaming services forcing 480p on unapproved devices), it still irks me.