Some quick questions:

1) Are you planning on watching Discovery Season 4+ when it comes out? What about Picard/Lower Decks/Prodigy/Strange New Worlds/Section 31? Obviously I know that you're not going to do videos and review posts for them, but are you going to just watch them on your own time? What about going back to The Animated Series? Any plans for that?

2) Now that Mark Does Stuff is done, for those of us who still want to follow you and support you, what would be the best way to do that?

3) Any stand-out favorite memories from Mark Does Stuff history? (Could be Star Trek stuff, or not, your choice.)

Some quick questions:

1) Are you planning on watching Discovery Season 4+ when it comes out? What about Picard/Lower Decks/Prodigy/Strange New Worlds/Section 31? Obviously I know that you're not going to do videos and review posts for them, but are you going to just watch them on your own time? What about going back to The Animated Series? Any plans for that?

2) Now that Mark Does Stuff is done, for those of us who still want to follow you and support you, what would be the best way to do that?

3) Any stand-out favorite memories from Mark Does Stuff history? (Could be Star Trek stuff, or not, your choice.)

Funnily enough, there was fan speculation that he was a Q, and people even started referring to him as "Qarl". Whether this speculation came true or not, though, I won't say. Because spoilers.

"Who the fuck is Carl???"

Well, he's a very nice jester, of course.

Oh boy, this episode. So... I have a story to tell.

At the time that this season began being filmed, Blu del Barrio, the actress who plays Adira Tal, identified as female. They would later come out as non-binary while the season was still being filmed. To go along with this, they had Adira, the character, come out as well. That's what happened in this episode. Going forward, Adira will be addressed by they/them pronouns.

But there was one slight issue. In previous episodes, Adira was referred to with she/her pronouns. Which isn't a problem, since they weren't out yet. However, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew were released throughout this, and they spoke of Adira using they/them pronouns, even before this episode aired. So it was slightly spoiled that Adira would eventually come out as non-binary.

Enter Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. I'm a frequent contributor to Memory Alpha, and the question was raised (many many times) about what to do with Adira's gender. Do we list them as female or non-binary? We decided to list them as female, and use she/her pronouns. After all, Adira was referred to by feminine pronouns in the episodes themselves, it was only behind-the-scenes footage that hinted that they might be non-binary. And that's non-canon. If it didn't happen on-screen, then it didn't happen. That's Memory Alpha's canon policy. So far, I have no problem with this.

Then this episode aired. Adira, the character, was now non-binary. It was now on-screen. It was now canonical. Okay. Memory Alpha would be updated. Done. Now, Adira is referred to with they/them pronouns. Again, I have no problem with this.

Then the administrators decided that it would be a good idea to change their gender to specify: "female (physiology), non-binary (self-identification)". I have two problems with that. One, it implies that physical gender actually matters, which is hugely offensive to people who are actually transgender. Two, if we're going by "must be on-screen to be considered canon", then this violates that, because we've never seen Adira's private parts. Maybe they have boy parts, and maybe they have girl parts. You can't just assume that they have girl parts, because "if it didn't happen on-screen, then it didn't happen". Not to mention that if we're going to be listing "past genders" as a thing, then we'd also need to update Soren, Charles, Quark, any joined Trill ever, and probably others that I'm forgetting.

I raised my concerns about this to the administrators. And they were PROMPTLY dismissed and shut-down. And when I say "promptly", I really mean it. They wasted no time in telling me off.

This really upset me, because, well... unless you're making porn, it shouldn't matter what you have between your legs.

I posted this on several other Star Trek fan sites, and got the whole community rallied behind me about this. Even a few actors/actresses from the show itself started chiming in and were backing me up on this.

The Memory Alpha administrators decided to be passive-aggressive about it, and just delete the "gender" category from every character page on the entire wiki, simply not labeling anyone. I wasn't sure if this was better or worse, but I think it's worse.

Nonetheless, it is what it is now. And the situation is done.

We actually did previously see the Qowat Milat in Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard, which Mark opted not to watch, despite my constant nagging at him in the comments to do so. The fact that we were going to see them in this episode is exactly why I wanted him to watch it. Ah well.

The episode does expect the viewer to have some familiarity with the Qowat Milat in order to get the full picture, but you can probably get enough of it from this episode alone. They do explain a lot. So it's admittedly not as bad as I initially feared.

"Regardless, in consideration of the post-credits bit (here it is for those who missed it), which is plainly outside the bounds of Trek lore for multiple reasons, it's very easy to dismiss the whole episode as non-canon silliness if you don't like it."

My head-canon is that this is the last thing that went through Edward's head before he died.

Hey Mark, just wanted to give you a quick heads-up. You're approaching the second season of Short Treks. Just so you're aware, Short Treks S2E2 has a post-credits scene, so be sure to watch after the credits. It is the first (and so far only) instance of Star Trek having a post-credits scene.

From Jordon Nardino (the writer of this episode)'s Twitter account:

"All Hail her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Kronos, Regina Andor, All Hail Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius. But what's it mean??!?

When we began digging into the Terrans last year, I had just read a newer history of Rome and was excited to use it as inspiration. (SPQR by Mary Beard, check it out.) Here's some of the titles Roman Emperors used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_emperor#Title...

So into her titles:

• Father of the Fatherland is easy, we turned that into Mother of the Fatherland (even tho we de-gendered Emperor, it felt right)
• Overlord of Vulcan: an early conquest of the Terrans, they see themselves as their protectors. It's paternalistic / delusional.
• Dominus of Kronos: Terrans are very proud of conquering Qo'noS. Dominus is a harsher title the Emperor at the time took as a result (and Georgiou kept for herself). "We OWN them." Qo'noS mispronounced out of cultural chauvinism.
• Regina Andor: Andoria is a jewel in the Terran crown. Subjugated warrior race. Early Terran conquest, pre-Sato. The title was created to celebrate this achievement.

Now as for Georgiou's many names...

"Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius"

• Philipa Georgiou: her given name and her family name, just like Prime.
• Augustus: the Terrans see themselves as inheritors of the Roman Empire so their Emperors take the title of its first Emperor.
• Iaponius is Latin for Japanese. This (in my fever dream) is a title Hoshi Sato adopted when she named herself Empress, to honor her homeland. So is Georgiou descended from Hoshi!?

Well... Hoshi was Empress. 100 years later, Georgiou is Emperor. Georgiou took one of Hoshi's titles as her own to connect them. So Hoshi's legacy as Empress must be good and Georgiou must either be connected to her in a chain of succession or might want to create that connection... But they have different ethnic backgrounds. Hoshi is Japanese, Philipa is Chinese-Malaysian. So I don't think it's likely Philipa is a direct descendant like a great-grandchild. Cousins is possible. More likely tho......whoever inherited Hoshi's throne was someone she adopted as a child & heir, the way most Roman emperors did. And that Emperor adopted his/her heir, and so on, until we get to Georgiou. And she is proud of the connection and flaunts it with the title Iaponius.

But... it's not canon until it's on screen so that's just one writer's opinion.

As for Centaurius, I figured it was the first system colonized by the Terrans since it's closest to Sol so it was a title the Emperor at the time took in tribute.

Hope someone found this informative!"

The fact that Tyler was Voq was obvious before the series even began airing, because the actor who supposedly played Voq was "Javid Iqbal", but a quick Google Search reveals that this person DOES NOT EXIST. There are no records of him having previously done *anything*, whether acting or otherwise. So it was clearly a fake name used to conceal the plot twist. But in doing so, they practically gave it away.