Entertainment
Is The New Star Trek Spinoff About To Redeem Its Worst Character?
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While many Star Trek fans dislike various characters in Starfleet Academy, the one they hate the most isn’t one of the main characters. Like members of the early Discovery bridge crew, she has a name, but almost nobody watching actually knows it. To them, she’s mostly “the girl who ate her comm badge.”
This character (who is actually named Pickford) has only appeared in three episodes so far, and she’s always in the background, being generally useless. So useless, in fact, that you might find yourself wondering why the writers put such a stupid character in their prestige sci-fi show. Now, some Star Trek fans have a compelling theory about Pickford: that her stupidity is just an act, and she’s secretly a spy for Nus Braka!
The Woman Who Knew Too Little
In the very first episode of Starfleet Academy (“Kids These Days”), Pickford stood out in the worst possible way, nervously admitting to the Doctor that she had swallowed her comm badge. Critics pointed to this as an example of the new show having the kind of broad comedy more suitable to a Saturday morning cartoon than a new Star Trek show. After all, this was a character training to be the best of the best, but she appeared to have the wits and intelligence of a toddler in her first appearance.
She doesn’t acquit herself very well later, either: in that premiere episode, she has a full-on meltdown after Nus Braka’s pirate attack. Later, she’s rude to the holographic SAM, and in the most recent episode (“Come, Let’s Away”), she had another panic attack in a tense situation and had to be escorted off the bridge. So far, Pickford has revealed herself to be rude, stupid, and completely useless in almost any situation, prompting a growing number of Star Trek fans to ask why she was put in the show in the first place.
A Secret Spy?
Apart from just being annoying, the biggest issue with Pickford is that she doesn’t seem to be Starfleet material. Sure, she’s in the academy and wears the uniform, but she seems to have none of the emotional and mental discipline you’d expect from a future Starfleet officer. This is in direct contrast to Starfleet Academy‘s Big Bad Nus Braka, who presents himself as a goofy joke (complete with cackling monologues about time being an origami chicken) but is secretly hypercompetent.
That competence was on full display in “Come, Let’s Away,” an episode where Starfleet asks for his help in defeating nefarious villains known as the Furies. Braka pretends to cooperate, but he manipulates the situation to his advantage and has his flunkies destroy a Starfleet vessel. Later, he disables and ransacks an entire Starbase, which is quite the accomplishment; sure, the Klingons in Discovery took out a base, but now, a simple space pirate was able to obtain the same accomplishment as one of the fiercest space empires the galaxy has ever known.
In “Come, Let’s Away,” this is presented as evidence that Nus Braka is a criminal genius, but some fans aren’t buying it. A growing number of viewers believe that the only way this skeezy pirate is able to so consistently outwit the smartest people in the quadrant is because he has someone on the inside, feeding him information. The primary suspect, surprisingly enough, is the girl who fed herself a comm badge!
Hiding In Plain Sight
Why do people think Nus Braka has a spy within Starfleet? For one thing, he has shown up whenever Chancellor Ake takes her students into space; this was explained in the first episode (he tracked Caleb’s transmission), but in the second episode, he seems to know enough about the Furies and their plan to coordinate an attack that destroyed a Starfleet ship and crippled a Starbase. He was likely coordinating with the Furies and possibly with his spy, which might be why he attacked a Starbase that focuses on researching (as Nelrec says) “classified things.”
Obviously, there are many characters that could be potential spies for Nus Braka: Genesis is still very mysterious and seems to share the space pirate’s Daddy issues. Nelrec is continually disillusioned by working with Starfleet, so he might very well team up with Chancellor Ake’s biggest enemy. Heck, even the Doctor may have become disillusioned enough (or just reprogrammed) to change sides, and since multiple versions of this character exist in the galaxy, Braka might have even replaced the Voyager Doctor with a copy loyal to him.
However, I agree with the fans who think Pickford is a secret spy: antics like swallowing her comm badge are a great way to ensure that nobody thinks she is smart enough to be a double agent. Plus, her frequent meltdowns could just be a convenient way to take her out of the action. For example, she could have easily communicated with Nus Braka in “Come, Let’s Away” after being escorted from the bridge, transmitting to the pirate once she is in her quarters and away from prying eyes and ears.
Is Starfleet Academy About To Redeem Its Worst Character?
There is no definitive proof that Nus Braka has a spy, and he may very well just be the criminal mastermind he presents himself as. But now that the Federation has placed him at the top of their Most Wanted list, it stands to reason we’ll see more of this villain going forward. Honestly, it would be downright shocking if we don’t get some big reveals in the season finale, and a secret spy update would be the biggest reveal of them all.
Right now, all my latinum is on Pickford, if only because it would be such a delightful heel turn: how cool would it be if the dumbest, most incompetent cadet turns out to be the biggest traitor since Seska? This would redeem Starfleet Academy’s throwaway character in the most unexpected way and give us a new villain to hate. If nothing else, she and Nus Braka could have an earnest, onscreen debate about the most pressing question in the galaxy: what tastes better, a comm badge or an origami chicken?
Entertainment
Every Major Change One Piece Season 2 Made To The Source Material
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Now that Netflix’s live-action One Piece Season 2 has been out for awhile, you’ve probably become curious about how it matches up to the original One Piece anime. As with the first season, manga creator Eiichrio Oda was actively involved in all stages of production, even helping with adjustments from the source material and giving them his blessing. His level of involvement is why the series is the new gold standard for live-action adaptations.
The Garp And Gol D. Roger Flashback
Ripped from the Marineford arc and dropped at the start of Season 2’s Loguetown episode, Garp and Gol D. Roger’s conversation is a bit of misdirection. Fans watching only the live-action series would think that Roger is asking Garp, who we know is Luffy’s grandfather, to take care of his son. That would mean Luffy is the son of the greatest Pirate in history.
Except he’s not. Long-time fans know that Roger’s son is Ace, part of Whitebeard’s pirate crew, and user of the Flame Flame Devil Fruit. DC’s Blue Beetle, Xolo Marideuna will play Ace when he makes his first appearance in Season 3.
For now, the flashback to Roger’s execution hints at the existence of his son, misdirects the audience, and lays the stage for something Oda did a lot during One Piece Season 2: placing events from future arcs much, much earlier than before, but where they make perfect sense.
Bartolomeo Appears Much Much Earlier
An example of an early appearance comes right in Episode 1, when the memorable green hair and canines of Bartolomeo appears as a very confused bystander in Loguetown. He doesn’t appear in the anime until episode 633, over 500 episodes from the events of the first episode. But what he does do in the anime, is mention that he saw Luffy during the events in Loguetown. That makes this one of the best changes any live-action adaptation has ever made.
Bartolomeo may not be an East Blue mob boss, but his inclusion in Roger’s execution is technically, not a change from the anime. It’s a bit of a tease for fans as we may not see him again during the Netflix show’s run, unless they start compressing even more arcs each season, and they did a great job bringing the character’s strange appearance to life. He’d eventually become Luffy’s biggest fan, and his ship, the Going Luffy-senpai, is as ridiculous as his fashion sense.
Brook’s Human Form
Yet another pull from the future came in Episode 2, “Good Whale Hunting.” Anime viewers didn’t get to see Brook as a human until long after they got used to his undead skeleton form. His backstory isn’t shown until episode 379, over 40 episodes after his first appearance, and by then, it’s been hundreds of episodes since Reverse Mountain. Including the flashback right away, to explain Laboon’s obsession with ramming the mountain, teases fans with what’s to come, and gives the heartbreaking story maximum emotional impact.
If Brook ever does return to the live-action One Piece, at least Martial T. Bachamen has nailed the look for one of the most unique Straw Hat Pirates. Fans will have to keep waiting to see how they’ll get across his skeletal appearance and wild fighting style in live-action.
Luffy Befriending Laboon
The live-action series changed a lot about the Reverse Mountain arc, from Crocus living inside Laboon, to the weird sky painted on the inside of the whale’s stomach. Among all the changes, Luffy’s plea for friendship is one of the best. It’s perfectly fitting that Luffy, the most joyous, upbeat, enthusiastic character in One Piece, would use the power of friendship to win over the massive whale.
In the anime and manga, Luffy stabs Laboon with the mast of the Going Merry. Instead of declaring their friendship, he announces that he and Laboon are now rivals. On the one hand, that’s how boys make friends, on the other, the live-action did it so well while being true to Luffy’s nature, that both versions work.
Luffy And Zoro Don’t Fight
Zoro gets his shining moment in Whiskey Peak by taking on 100 members of Baroque Works, in what’s not only the highpoint of Season 2, but in the running for Netflix’s best action scene ever. What’s left out, is what comes next in the other adaptations: Luffy attacks Zoro for killing a lot of people he has no idea are Baroque agents. It’s the first real showdown between the two friends and it only comes to an end when Nami acts as the voice of reason. Sort of.
It was a stand out moment in the anime as anime fans love nothing more than debating who can beat who (saying Saitama form One-Punch Man would win is always an immediate flag on the play). Zoro, the greatest swordsman, against Luffy, the indestructible rubber man? It’s a great match up, which Luffy would win 10 out of 10 times, but it’s also easy to see why the live-action series cut it out.
Zoro And Sanji’s Dino Hunt
Little Garden is an interesting early island. Giants weren’t enough, it had to include actual dinosaurs. In the Netflix series, Zoro and Sanji argue over who can take down the biggest beast, and they end up arguing over who landed the killing blow on a massive T-Rex. In the source material, they each take down one of their own. They still argue, but it’s more evidence that Sanji isn’t the joke his only-kicks fighting style can make him look like.
Another small change that ties into the fauna of Little Garden is the missing shot of the insect that bites Nami and gets her sick. Removing any foreshadowing of the illness worked, and Nami going down during the party is an effective teaser for the next part of the journey.
The Marines vs. Baroque Works
Season 1 add a whole new subplot with Kolby and Helmpopo, so it makes sense that Season 2 keeps the Marines involved by including a sequence with Smoker and Tashigi investigating a Marine listening post under a Baroque Works assault. This is the type of addition that helps expand the world of One Piece. Even when the focus is on the Straw Hat Pirates, other characters are going on adventures in the background.
The other reason for the addition is to remind viewers that Smoker is an absolute unit. Without breaking a sweat, he goes through a unit of Agents and Miss Thursday. There’s nothing wrong with letting cool characters show why they’re cool. It’s the basis of Shonen anime.
The Flag
It’s one of the moments in the anime that establishes Luffy as a badass. When he dives and saves Chopper’s flag from destruction at the hands of King Wapol, he’s covered in smoke. Then it clears, and there’s Luffy, holding onto the tattered flag, standing on top of the castle. The kids call this aura farming.
During the Season 2 live action climax, Luffy still saves the flag and gives his speech about what the flag represents to an astonished King Wapol. The scene is still there, but the scale is smaller, the only ones present are Wapol and the crew of the Going Merry. It’s a great moment, and Luffy shows a small fraction of his potential power in absorbing the direct hit, but as with most of the changes from the anime to the live-action, it cuts everything down. Which is understandable, but if more adaptations did it like this, the track record would be a lot better.
One Piece is a Netflix Original, and can be streamed with an active subscription.
Entertainment
An OpenAI-linked news outlet appears to be entirely AI-generated
A new report from The Midas Project’s Model Republic publication has found that news site, The Wire by Acutus, relies almost entirely on AI-generated content. The publication has been operational since the end of 2025 with nearly 100 published articles across tech, energy, media, science, business, and healthcare. Stranger still, their About page describes their work as “collaborative journalism” led by an “editorial team,” but the site has no masthead and credits no editors or journalists in its publications.
The official explanation for this anonymity is buried in their How It Works subhead:
Our editorial team identifies timely topics and invites contributors with relevant, firsthand experience to share their perspective through structured conversations. Those perspectives are synthesized and edited into stories that reflect where contributors align, where they diverge, and what it all means — offering depth, balance, and clarity beyond the headline.
But when journalist Tyler Johnston ran the site’s content through Pangram, an AI detection tool that boasts a 99.98% accuracy rating, he discovered just how widely AI was relied upon: “Of the 94 articles, 69% came back flagged as fully AI-generated, with another 28% flagged as partially AI-generated. Only three articles were classified as human-authored.”
Johnston’s suspicions grew when he looked at the content itself, which was both overwhelmingly in favor of the development of artificial intelligence and dismissive of AI’s critics. One piece, for example, warns of “Escalating Anti-AI Radicalism,” while another chides the reader: “Will Republicans Let Blue States Set America’s AI Rules?”
Mashable Light Speed
The deeper Johnston dug, the clearer the picture got. As a new site with very little social media presence, articles by The Wire are seldom retweeted, but Johnston discovered that half of its engagement on X came from Patrick Hynes, the president of the PR firm Novus Public Affairs. A quick glance at their client list reveals they work on behalf of Targeted Victory, the consulting firm at the very heart of OpenAI’s lobbying efforts in Washington on behalf of its regulatory interests.
Generative artificial intelligence has already created rifts in our collective perception of reality. With enough computing power, you can create fake trailers for films that were never made and never will be, or steal a politician’s voice for a deep fake, or even invent an absurd, implausible scenario, like a shark attacking a plane, and fool at least a few credulous internet rookies.
If Johnston’s reporting is correct and his inferences are accurate, we may have an instance of an AI firm deliberately mischaracterizing its work as “independent journalism” to lobby on its behalf (something Johnston points out contravenes its own usage policies).
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Entertainment
Creative Assembly drops first look at the Alien: Isolation sequel
Twelve years after the original Alien: Isolation game was released across platforms, on the official “Alien Day” meant to celebrate the beloved franchise, game developers Creative Assembly are returning to the world of xenomorphs and unreliable robots to once again terrify the living daylights out of us.
The teaser trailer, aptly titled “False Sense of Security,” does a lot with very little, from the flashing red light in a poorly lit room to the ominous background music and eventual close-up of what looks to be a payphone, with the word “Emergency” appropriately backlit.
As you might expect from the makers of the original game, Creative Assembly is clearly reluctant to over-share, relying on atmosphere and sound to do the heavy lifting, but the brief glimpse we get of the background when the door opens suggests the possibility that, unlike the first game, the sequel might also take place on a planet’s surface, perhaps hinting at a much larger game world.
Needless to say, we’ll be covering more details about the game’s development and progress as they emerge.
Fire endeavor to keep unbeaten run alive vs. last-place SKC
Every Major Change One Piece Season 2 Made To The Source Material
