Yeah, what you're saying makes sense. I like "bad personality indicator" as an alternative, since it conveys to me it's one of many indicators you might process, maybe not even consciously. I've just had rather negative experiences being "tested" and hearing that world applied to any kind of casual social interaction gets my hackles all the way up.

You'd fail my test if I learn you have tests for people.

Maybe it's just a matter of phrasing, but the idea that I could be kind to our server all night, tip well, generally hit it out of the park, but be disproportionately judged for failing to do this one small thing because it's your personal test? Sets my social anxiety off enough that if I knew that were on your mind I'd probably just say we're not compatible.

Obviously, keep an eye out for shitty people, and don't put up with bad behaviour, but also judge people as people, wholistically.

They’re also completely absent from Discovery…

I love Discovery. Some of the criticisms are valid; every season has a few dumb moments that make me shake my head. But I love the characters, the actors are all great, Doug Jones in particular is a treasure, and the first contact in season 4 feels more like a proper science fiction scenario than any other in Trek.

One thing to keep in mind is that the tone shifts considerably season to season. It starts off quite grim and gritty, but don’t expect it to stay that way.

Still better than Musk Junior High.

In an early episode on TNG, Riker describes time warp as exceeding warp 10. Which makes sense - at warp 10 you arrive at your destination at the same moment that you left your origin, so at warp 10+ you arrive earlier than you left.

They've cancelled Discovery, Prodigy, Picard, Lower Decks, and you're worried they're going to over-do it? If they do it much less, there wont be any Trek left!

My partner does this all the time. Unfortunately, they’re often completely wrong about what I was trying to say. Suddenly we’re having two completely different conversations simultaneously.

Click baity headline. Here's the actual quote:

“There were Romulans—there was a whole thing. The idea was that Guinan’s bar was presented as a normal bar in Los Angeles, but if you knew the right thing to do, you could go into the back through the telephone phone booth and that was Rick’s Café and it was a stopping point for all these different species that were actually there on Earth with a ‘Do not interfere’ thing happening. So you had a lot more Star Trek happening in the backdrop of it. Ultimately, the powers that be at that time were like, ‘This is too much.’ But there were some really good ideas there that were pretty cool.”

Sounds like they wanted to throw in a bunch of random alien species cameos that would have done nothing but distract from the plot. Frankly, there's too much of that in Season 2 already. We don't need young Guinan, Gary Seven's team, a Soong, visitors from Vulcan, the Borg Queen, and Q all mucking about with Earth. Pick two to three of those and actually develop them.

The Vulcans didn't know the Romulans were their long lost brothers until Errand of Mercy, did they? Hard to reconcile with a group who noped off thousands of years ago and may not even exist anymore.

Not to say this wouldn't factor into the Romulan's attitude, it probably would, but it would be in an irrational way.

For the reward of instantaneous travel, I’m sure the Federation could muddle its way through amending a 100 year old law. The rest of the points don’t seem all that different than the complications we see our heroes regularly encounter exploring the galaxy. And none of them were enough to convince the crew of the Discovery to stop using the spore drive for the rest of the series.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Discovery anyway. Trek is full of miracle technologies that go conveniently forgotten. Janeway has no reason to be miffed given that she sat on an infinite speed drive herself, which had no downside that the doctor wouldn’t have been able to cure after it took them home.