Remember that time when the showrunners decided to add a character to a Star Trek series to increase its sex appeal? No, I mean the first time, when they added Chekov.

Even Ryan knew she was T&A.. Hello, CATSUIT...I mean really. And somewhere along ther way we stopped seeing the Cat Suit and saw 7 as a person.. a really phenomenal, incredible person.

In “Latent Image” they were still processing the idea that the Doctor was a person. By the end of the episode Janeway realized she had made a mistake and did her best to fix it. I think it is a good example of how racism works. When you see someone a certain way for so long, i don’t think that viewpoint can change with one epiphany. It is a process. I’m not sure I explained this well.

When I first saw the preview image, I legit thought this was going to be 50 minutes of Steve fanboying over Jeri Ryan. Which, totally understandable.

As a sexual abuse and rape survivor, the quote from Picard in "Family" always makes me tear up because it hits me oh so close to the bone... "I should have been strong enough to stop them. Why couldn't I stop them?" That says it all...

Media has to tell the parable of the scorpion and the frog. It’s their nature.

One of my favorite moments from The Measure of a Man is the scene in the ready room where Picard is saying to Data "Perhaps you should let them go through with the procedure, it might turn out okay." and Data says "Geordi's VISOR is technically superior to natural human vision, right? Why doesn't Starfleet require all personnel to receive optic implants?" And Picard is like "oh shit this is about the individual's right to bodily autonomy" He dismisses Data to think a moment, then his stance has changed. He doesn't dig himself in, he realizes he is in error and changes his position. That is righteous.

I would go even further and say that there is ample evidence that Picard would take Data’s death hard. I actually think Data is in many ways, like a son to Picard. Data has a child like quality throughout the series, particularly early on, and Picard is often the person teaching, nurturing, and protecting him. Picard teaches him about death, failure, emotion, gives him his first command, all things a good father would do for his son. Picard has no children of his own and has lost his family to tragedy, and Data is a way in which his family legacy could go on. Worst of all, Data dies saving Picard life. A father would give his life for his son. It’s not supposed to happen the other way around. I think Picard would be devastated by Data’s death. He’s not just a colleague or even a friend. He’s family.

Seven of Nine was the reason I got into Star Trek. In my college years, my brother was doing a watch through of every Trek series and he was on Voyager when he moved back into the family house. While sharing space with him, I became fascinated with Seven and her struggles with being human, which drove me to start watching Voyager and other series on my own. She will forever be a favorite for me.

I would like to know what's Garak's take on the fable of the scorpion and the frog.

A griffon agrees to carry a screenwriter across a deep canyon. "I must warn you", says the griffon. "I'm allergic to overused animal fables. As soon as I hear one, I get cramps and can't fly anymore." "Don't worry", says the screenwriter.

Jeri Ryan was 100 percent added as eye candy. The real antifeminist position is thinking that because she is super hot...she can only be a sex lure for the audience. In fact her character took over the show not because of her sex appeal but because the character was written with depth and arguably the best arch in the show...and she killed the performance!

In terms of conservatives in the fandom, I was raised in a conservative christian homeschool household. I was not allowed to watch regular tv, advertisements, non christian kid shows, etc… But my parents still kept their vhs tape recordings of season 1 of Next Gen. I would slide that tape in, and prepare to be on another planet. I got upset when my dad got really into Kirk and the overtly sexual or mysoginistic episodes and then preach modesty to me, threatening to leave me on the side of the road on the way to church when he noticed I had eye shadow on. I loved Picard and Beverly and for the first time found relationships without marriage as the be-all-end-all to be something of interest and import. I remember not realizing how gay I was though until well after. And then I found Voyager. Seeing the strong female roles when I had always been given conflicting stories from my family growing up with wonderful. I saw a series that my father had used to enjoy his sexuality (while shaming mine) transform itself into something I could feel proud. It was revolutionary for me.

I would argue that, in Dr. Soong's absence, Picard served as Data's primary father-figure, and that his grief over Data's death can best be compared to that of a parent who has outlived their child. Patrick Stewert has said in interviews that he thinks that, because Picard never had children, he sort of related to his crew that way.

Regarding Voyager's doctor and his right to self-integrity, a cross-reference:

Regarding the writers, I still remember reading about when the 'year of hell' story idea was conceived as an entire season, and how energized they were about being able to create stories about this incredibly interesting idea, then how depressed they were when the idea went to the producers and... nope two episodes. Then the, ah well, back to lets just crank this out for a pay check I guess.

I think Seven of Nine & the Doctor were the two best characters on the show. They did have a proper character arch and grew throughout the show where everyone else was completely static and boring.

As someone who is both on the autism spectrum and transgender, I identified heavily with Seven, she's honestly one of my favorite characters in all of Star Trek, behind perhaps only Ezri and Jadzia Dax (and catch me on a different day and she may be above them). It's honestly why while I was excited to see Picard in Star Trek Picard, I was OVER THE MOON when I learned Jeri Ryan was returning.

Steve: I won't make a big deal out of Jeri Ryan seeing my video

Regarding Janeway’s Admiralty...wasn’t there a reference in Nemesis (or was it in VOY: Endgame??) to Janeway having racked up more first contacts than anybody else and that was a major factor in her promotion? Right along with wiping out the FREAKING BORG?!? I swear I remember something like that.