Lothic

Possible? Sure...
Probable? No.

I've got a wild guess about the "evil baby" plotline now that we know about the mediums (like Lafayette and Marnie) who can channel the spirits of the dead. It seems pretty likely that the Creole(?) girl we've seen hanging around is actually a ghost who's using the baby because the baby is a medium. In fact since we know the baby is Renay's maybe that'll retroactively explain him too. Wouldn't it be weird to think Renay wasn't a serial killer because he wanted to be but because he was possessed by a ghost who used him to commit the murders. For all we know we'll find out the Creole girl ghost is the actual serial killer from season one.

Well in the books we know Jason actually became a Were-Panther by being bit by the Hotshot Weres so we'll have to see if that actually happens in the TV show (despite what they've said about it). Given the way Alcide and Debbie were handled in the books I'd say how any of this gets handled in the TV show is up in the air at this point.

That's fine, and actually pretty close to what I was suggesting a couple of days ago about any ears she has being part of the tech she uses. Assuming she wears those goggles up like a headband for longer than like 2 seconds so that the audience has a decent chance to "get the reference" that's all that's really needed.

Well when you toss out the precondition that "such-n-such would be very unlikely in real life" then yes, almost anything within the context of a movie can be taken as plausible.

And I'll point out that this fellow at least had FOUR YEARS to show that he had the ability to warrant the brevet promotions involved. According to the wiki it implied he received the brevet promotion to Brigadier General almost under the assumption that he was about to die from battlefield wounds. That promotion didn't become official until after they realized he was going to live.

As I said before finding a FEW cases (I concede the point that there's more than just one example out there) of quick promotions doesn't justify Kirk's case - it again only proves that it is highly, highly unusual and even when it does happen there's at least some kind of established track record to legitimize it. Kirk playing cowboy for a week doesn't merit him a captain's chair any way you slice it unless it's a plot mechanic for a movie

This is why it takes very skilled writers to come up with time travel stories that don't implode the instant you look at them sideways. Sadly this Star Trek movie didn't really get the attention it needed in that regard and probably would've been better off with a story that didn't involve time travel at all.

Not sure exactly - maybe the forum database burped or something. That, or I subconsciously used the same Jedi mind trick that made everyone think Kirk was ready to take command of the Enterprise.

Yeah I tend to think they've painted Tara into a corner as far as what they can do with her character-wise. Even if she survives the showdown with the witches she's going to be left at odds against any vampires left standing at the end. They seem to be setting her up for some kind of suicidal "I'm going out and I'm going to take as many of you with me as I can" conclusion. I guess we'll see.

Pam was easily one of the most entertaining characters from the books. I'm glad they translated her well into the TV show. I'm hoping she gets fixed up by the end of the season because if they kill her off I'd be really bummed out.

Yes but in most (if not all) of those cases I'm sure you will find that the person in question already had at least -some- experience doing what they were good at and or were much older and more experienced than a young 20-something who only (apparently) had a few days in the captain's chair.

Again I am well aware of the concept of "battlefield promotions" throughout history but you are going to be very hard pressed to find an equivalent of a naval cadet being promoted to the captaincy of a flagship (Abrams' term, not mine) within maybe a week. Even your historical examples can't match that speed: Natanael Green started his "military career" at the relative mature age of 33 organizing militias for around a full year before Washington promoted him to Brigadier General. It was arguable that he already had the long experience needed before that to justify the formality of the "quick" promotion. And it actually took Richard Winters a year and a half to go from LT to Captain, and almost a year after that to actually be promoted to Major despite his responsibilities. This promotion rate was not unheard of during WWII by any reckoning.

I already sort of met you half way on this by suggesting that Kirk may have actually only been promoted to the rank of LtCmdr or Cmd despite being made "captain" of the Enterprise. Of course technicalities like that easily got lost in the shuffle Abrams created to make an epic movie look good on the movie screen. One more time I'm not saying what Abrams did on screen was necessarily bad or wrong. I'm just pointing out, rather tongue-in-cheek, the near impossibility of Kirk's captaincy were this anywhere near resembling a real life situation. If anything I'm highlighting just how uber-awesome Kirk is because he not only saved the Earth but he got a ship under fantastically improbable circumstances.

P.S. And while Washington and Franklin may have at one point been able to get "the continental Congress to install a pet poodle as Postmaster General" I'm still absolutely convinced they'd never be fool-hardy enough to let a raw cadet have one of their best ships in a week. I'm sure they would have made even the god-like Kirk wait at least an extra week or two for the paperwork to go through.

His story made for a good movie too. Now we come full circle.

Again as I implied this topic of Kirk's captaincy in Abrams' movie is really just the tip of the iceberg about a whole slew of things related to how Starfleet has been portrayed handling things over the years.

And while I'm sure anyone can find the one case in history where a real person was promoted from one end of a rank scale to another that's simply the exception that proves the rule.

Trust me when I say I could actually nitpick about a whole avalanche of topics concerning this movie. This is hardly my #1st, #2nd or even #54th most pressing annoyance - it just happened to be one of the main ones that came up in this thread.

Yes I actually know that the "captain" of a ship doesn't need to be a person who actually holds the -rank- of captain. But still trying to make the case that a newly graduated cadet deserves to permanently sit in -any- captain's chair (other than maybe a subwarp shuttle) would be stretch by anyone's imagination.

Never questioned the potential. Only the implausibility of putting a cadet permanently in charge of a flagship. If Starfleet is corrupt enough to give him a pass and officially give him the captain's chair after a scandalously short period of time that's their problem.

It was included when they added the 84 month Vet award to the game.

Assuming your normal launcher shortcut now has the entry to start the CoH Beta then yes.

I hadn't really thought too much about Kirk's permanent promotion to the captaincy of what they were calling the "flagship of the fleet" but surely they could have found someone more appropriate to permanently take the role given the circumstances.

First of all without even looking too hard you have Spock available. Yes he technically relinquished command to Kirk during a moment of crisis with the whole "emotional attachment to Vulcan" excuse. But after the dust cleared and the emergency was over he's still a more senior officer than Kirk on paper regardless of the "battlefield promotion" situation. If they needed an officer to -permanently- command the Enterprise then Spock would have been (forgive the pun) a logical choice.

Then even with most of the fleet destroyed you'd think they'd still have a handful of older Commodores and Admirals who had been relegated to deskjobs available to be pressed back into service as line officers. Let's put it this way: which would you put in charge of your flagship - an older officer who may be ready to retire but at least had previous experience in space or a rookie hotshot cadet? I think the choice would be simple in a real Starfleet.

Clearly Abrams let Kirk have the Enterprise because that's what everyone expected to happen movie-wise. But if the whole Starfleet thing presented in this movie were a real life organization I think Kirk would have been just about the last person to get the chair at that point. Sure he may still get to be captain someday, but not -when- he did at any rate.

In the past by the time an Issue got to open beta it usually only took 2-4 weeks before it went live so your 8-30 prediction is reasonable. It might be a bit longer since this Issue involves all the Freedom changes, but in any event I think it'll be well before October rolls around.

Well at least when you mix Star Trek, time travel and Abrams at any rate.

Yes I was also one of the few who liked how ENT handled the tensions of the original Federation founder races learning the get along with each other. I also loved their "Mirror, Mirror" episodes. Beyond that it's shame they only managed to produce about a season's worth of good episodes.

Ironically the point where Abrams rebooted the timeline would have been AFTER the timeframe of ENT. Technically speaking if Abrams remains true to what he created then he'd have to accept everything that Enterprise established.

When you think about it it's a clever ploy to be opening the beta now just before the 2x weekend. With many of the "oldtimers" likely spending more time on Beta in the next few days it'll mean that the Live servers will be a little less crowded right at the time they get loaded up for the mass of people playing the 2x.

You young whippersnappers and your badges that count for everyone on your team... I earned Back from the Future when you needed 1000 pillboxes -and- they did NOT count for teams. Of course I also earned it back when you could get a pair of players (one hero, one villain) to camp a single pillbox and simply click on it back a forth even while you were lying next to it dead. Darn those Devs and their silly fixes.