I like how Picard needs a whole other episode to emotionally recover— an unusual, but necessary move in this otherwise very episodic show.
As a matter of the fact I found them terrifying as a child… but think of the spatial geometry of movement and why would they use a cube?
I am unlikely to use any other kind. 
when Worf before said “the shuttle has penetrated the shield,” he just as well could have said “the shield has enveloped the shuttle.” oh, culture.
That’s not a fair statement. The shield is not taking any action. It’s not reaching out to envelope anything. It’s passively sitting there as an object penetrates it. It’s not a matter of point of view. One object is acting; the other is being acted upon.
A more reasonable example: to throw oneself on the sword. The sword penetrates the body, yes, but it’s not performing the action. It’s passively existing until a body drops itself upon it, thereby enveloping it.
It’s irrational to assume that such phrasing is inherently interchangeable just because of gender bias, IMO. 
Yeah. I wasn’t really impressed with the resolution for Best of Both Worlds. ‘Family’ really impressed me. A very powerful performance by Sir Patrick.
I agree that the throwing self on sword example doesn’t follow, but I disagree otherwise - it is indeed a matter of perspective. I get why Worf talks about penetrating the shield (though dude, there was a lot of talk of penetration in this episode), but I don’t see why the shield’s non-agressiveness means that it can’t be the grammatical actor in the sentence Making the choice to say things one way or the other is always open for interpretation
Crap! I forgot about part II because of the draft tonight. ):
Maximized use of space, with built-in redundancy. For all intents and purposes, they’re modular homes.
The difference is that compliance isn’t forced by the Federation upon all whom they encounter. If your world wishes to join them, then you do need to comply with the laws of the Federation, but joining is itself optional.
Nice shot there, with Picard looking out the window and the Earth being reflected back. I don’t care that the windows are impractical!
How are they impractical? Transparent aluminum is awesome! 
Sir Patrick. He’s just lovely.
Sadly, though, I’m fading fast, and I don’t think I’ll be able to make it through the whole episode 
so to bed I go.
A parting thought from this Trek Tart - I may be misremembering, but I found that the Borg’s violation of Picard’s bodily integrity really could have been addressed a bit more. I think they did a good job showing him coming to grips with the guilt of Wolf 359, though.
IYKWIM.
I can’t help myself.
I remember rewatching Best of Both Worlds and Family over and over again.
Couldn’t get tired of it.
OK so I’m still talking (probably a sign of my tiredness lol)
I know what you mean about it being optional, but that’s the rhetoric, and maybe I’m just cynical enough these days that I wonder if the utopia of worlds williningly chosing to comply and getting along together is at all realistic (even though my optimistic side is like YES! My dissertation writing side is like, um… huh.) The Federation is still about who controls the power, they just seems to have gotten everyone to agree (except for when they don’t) about the correct ways to use that power. And I guess I’m interested in thinking more systematically about when that getting along breaks down, like with the Maqui, etc.
Star Trek has a reset button. You get used to it. Besides, these open questions lead to the expanded universe and debate. Arcs to a certain extent don’t allow that.
Non-aggressive action still requires an action. Passive existence is, well, IS. To my mind, it is more gender-biased to assume passivity equates with the feminine. That is not true, in any sense. Consider the classic movie monster The Blob. It envelops. One would never make the mistake of saying that its victims are penetrating it. And yet, its enveloping action is clearly aggressive and — more importantly — active. In such a scenario, is the Blob feminine or masculine? Neither, because it’s alien gelatinous goo. Assigning gender to it is absurd.
Not only is joining the Federation optional, the Federation won’t even make contact with a planet until it’s reached a certain level of technological and social development (The Prime Directive).
The Federation is a representative democracy (don’t make me bring out my copy of the Articles of Federation, cuz I will ) 
I hear ya. I was against Enterprise for the reason of showing the building of the Federation. Without following Gene’s vision, there is no reason to even go there. Braga and Berman had a totally different vision.
The Star Trek universe had expanded too far to fully represent Gene’s vision. UGH!
Is joining the Federation really optional when the Federation promises to cure your diseases, improve your infrastructure, come to your aid if you’re in a war, and provide technology (provided you’re of comparable technology level) that can make food and water out of thin air though?
Unless the world has certain theological restraints, I don’t see anyone saying no to all that.
Yeah, they didn’t need to go that route. They could have covered the early days of the Federation instead of doing pre-Federation.
I suspect Roddenberry would have opposed the notion of Vulcans being so dominant over Humans in the early days. Gene was all about “No, it’s we humans that are the amazing ones.”
It was more that the Borg and Romulan dissidents brainwashed him. He had a lot of his skills (hand to hand combat and shuttle piloting are the ones I remember being explicitly mentioned). He was pretty much back to normal once the brainwashing was removed. I did get a bit tired of the “Kirk’s the only one who can save the Federation” mindset of some of the later books, but The Return was my favorite book for a year or two.