The Queue: Boldly going where no Void Elf has gone before

I admit, this Queue is light on the Blizzard questions… but we’re boldly going into what happened last night.

Call it a trip into another Warlords of Draenor-like universe where we’re all playing a Star Trek game that isn’t boring… (burn).

I’d honestly like to know this; I’m a bit confused here. Highlighting this to see if anyone is aware of the answer. I came across this while leveling my new enchanter/tailor and was surprised to see the “You haven’t collected this appearance” line flash by, when I know I have.

I wouldn’t see why not. I’ve ran dungeons with people substantially lower than me and it’s worked out just fine. There have been plenty of instances where I’ve been placed into groups with people running the daily Love is in the Air dungeon together and while the scaling shows their real level and health, my little 80 healer is performing as a level 110 would.

On another note about dungeon scaling, I have noticed that there is a bit of a band though where levels do matter. Ie: there is a difference in HP and overall character strength between a tank that’s 67 and a tank that’s 70. So depending on your level I wouldn’t expect there to be a 1:1 equivalency between you all.

Spoiler ahead for Star Trek: Discovery!

I lost it towards the end of the episode, I absolutely lost it. Two reasons:

First, this season of Trek was the darkest that we’ve ever seen. We’ve seen Picard undergo mental and physical torture, mass killing, seasons upon seasons of war and the suffering that goes with it; but we’ve never seen a Trek where in the ends justifying the means, an organization like Starfleet would go to such lengths to simply survive. The season’s finale makes the virus implanted in the Founders in DS9 or the potential actions against the Borg point via Huge point to a larger fundemental flaw at the heart of the Federation; one that says when their backs are against the wall the leadership will go to whatever lengths, include committing war crimes, to protect itself. Federation values? We now have a clear pattern that they’re only prevalent up to an extent that they services themselves. The next-to-last scene where the crew was being recognized showed off that it comes down to people with strong ideals to protect the Federation from itself. In many ways that scene encapsulated the first season nicely (albeit it was campy as hell and was a flashback to Star Trek IV): we went to a dark, dark place; literally the alternate universe, and while it influenced us, we still came out ourselves in the end.

And finally, we need to talk about the end scene. I yelled at the TV when I saw this. It wasn’t as big a moment as Hodor in GoT, but for the future of this series it was. Next season we’re going to see the tales of Christopher Pike and the Enterprise come fact-to-face with Discovery. Worlds are literally going to collide. There was a moment when the ship’s designation was coming in and we saw the numbers 17 cross the command console that my heart jumped into my throat; were we about to see one of the Enterprises? Could we get a return of TNG or see Spock?

The ship warped into view and immediately millions around the world knew what the next season is going to be about. Pike, Spock, Sarek, Michael and whatever caused the distress of the Enterprise. And yes, Spock is on that list — he was second in command of the Enterprise at that point. Is Zachary Quiento going to be showing up? He’s done plenty of TV before … and it would be incredibly incredibly satisfying for him to be there. I’m an outspoken critic of the Kelvin universe’s Star Trek, but one of the bright spots has been his portrayal of Spock; and having received the blessing of Nimoy himself, he practically has to come in and play him.

I also need to mention that the look of the ship was just phenomenal. It was The Enterprise. It wasn’t some other universe’s version of it, it wasn’t a “re-imagining” of it. It was the Enterprise shown with modern details and fidelity. When the end credits rolled and the Original Series music played, I just sat there and listened. This was my Star Trek; it was the show that I grew up with, that helped form my vision for what we could be as humanity. It wasn’t guns blazing and fighting aliens, it wasn’t perfect and clean, it wasn’t life with consequence; it was my Trek. This last episode brought it all together, and if next season and this whole show just continues to be a fan service, I am absolutely okay with that.

And then I went and unsubscribed from CBS All Access until the next season; because !@#$ that.