JC's Trek Talk

Coming Soon For the franchise's 60th anniversary, I will be posting a seven part series of posts reflecting on the history of the entire Star Trek franchise, from the beginnings up through the present.  The first post will post on Tuesday, September 8 (Star Trek Day).  Make it so! 

Star Trek TOS Episode Tier List Season 1 56 Spectre of the Gun Kirk and co. make first contact with the noncorporeal xenophobic Melkotians, who test the crew by forcing them into a recreation of the gunfight at the OK Corral.   This one is ok, not special, the buildings in the Tombstone AZ illusion being jus facades works as part of the story while also being exhibit A of the seasons practically non-existent budget.   C tier.   57 Elaan of Troyius In a scifi retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” Kirk has to deal with the bratty self-centered Dohlman of Elas (whom the Enterprise is transporting to Troyius for an arranged marriage) while also dealing with Klingons who try to destroy the Enterprise to claim the Tellun systems dilithium and a Klingon spy/saboteur in the Troyan delegating planting a bomb on the ship.   Fun episode, also the first appearance of the Klingon D7 battlecruiser model.   C   58 The Paradise Syndrome While i...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 Reaction: Episode 6 Off Hour In a new twist for trek, the episode takes place in real time, complete with a chronometer count down on the screen.  Also a reference to Dr. Boyce.  Interesting.  We see the crew getting ready for some downtime aboard ship.  The ship gets pulled into a slipstream wormhole.  Everything get's electrified until Pike manages to get the shields up.  The ship is damaged, Scotty is stuck in the turbolift, engineering has to evacuate, Pike an co are trapped on the bridge, M'Benga and Chapel are stuck in sickbay.  Una, La'an and Spock are down in the port galley.  The split screens are an interesting choice.  The Vulcan cadet is featured in this episode, this time working with Scotty.  M'Benga is pinned against the wall by a lab table, his back injured.  If the lab table is moved he will die.  Stakes.  TNG/DS9/VOY alum Brian Markinson plays Dr. Boyce, the CMO from ...

Opinions on Star Trek's Starfleet Uniforms Part 5: Nu Trek: the late 24th (and 25th) centuries Lower Decks The first animated Trek series in the modern era featured the main crew in uniforms obviously inspired by the TNG costumes.  The Lower Decks uniforms feature a weird white piping between the black yoke (actually a dark grey not back) and the colored body and a very high collar and a division colored stripe down the edge of the flap.  The boots also feature the department color on the soles for some reason.  The LD/SNW crossover episode "Those Old Scientists" features live action versions of these uniforms.  The wraparound front flap design is inspired by the abandoned uniforms designed for but not used in Generations. Prodigy The CGI animated Star Trek Prodigy saw Starfleet officers in an updated version of the Lower Decks style uniforms with the white and division colored pipings removed and solid black boots.  This is better and more trek-like.  Thes...

Star Trek TOS Episode Tier List Season 2 30 Catspaw Investigating the death of an away team member Kirk Spock and McCoy beam down to find witches, a castle and a black cat.   In the castle the crew are captured by Scott and Sulu under mind control by two beings named Korob and Sylvia who turn out to be extragalactic explorers.   Star Trek’s first and only “Halloween episode”.   Also the episode introduces Pavel Chekov as a new regular character.   Overall it’s ok, albeit heavy on the scary (and sometimes campy) spooky imagery.   C tier   31 Metamorphosis While transporting a Federation diplomat by shuttlecraft Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the diplomat crash on an asteroid where they discover Dr. Zefram Cochrane, the human inventor of warp drive, who disappeared over a century ago.   They come to learn that Cochrane is being kept alive by a noncorporeal being known as the companion.   The companion takes over the body of the mortally wounded dipl...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 Reaction: Episode 5 Level-Five Transporter Accident Scotty wants to carry out the longest distance transport ever, and use it to get back at his academy rival.  Pike has a new captains chair, which becomes a plot point later.  Spock contacts T'Pring and invites her to Enterprise.  Spock takes a shuttle to deploy transporter buoys.  Scotty attempts his transport, an accident seemingly beams away every crewmember, then the Enterprise itself.  The Enterprise reappears, Spock goes aboard to find everyone turned into puppets.  After the crew try to determine what happened and after some overly done bickering they contact Admiral April and advise him of the situation.  Spock being the only one capable of running the ship is busy between the bridge, trying to restore the crew, and T'Pring, is overwhelmed.  An encounter with an Orion ship goes awry when the Orions see the crew in puppet form.  The Orions attack t...

The Voyager Crew Compliment Question Something that has long been debated and discussed at length by fans and something I wonder about is the crew of USS Voyager.  Specifically how many crew members were lost in the ships 7 years in the Delta Quadrant and how many made it back to Earth.  I have decided thus to deep dive this.  Some caveats: there are some big uncertainties which make determining a true count impossible, and for the most part the numbers given throughout the series cannot all be reconciled with each other due to continuity issues.   That said, I'm going to go season by season, noting the losses and gains to the crew and the effect of the count of the crew compliment.  I will not be mentioning changes that reverse in the same episode (i.e. Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman dying in "Deadlock" and being replaced by their duplicates, etc.) as these are inconsequential.  Without further ado...  Season 1 In the pilot "Caretaker", Stadi mentio...

Star Trek TOS Episode Tier List Season 1 1 The Cage The original pilot.   Since this episode is so different from the rest of the series, I will not be rating it.   2 Where No Man Has Gone Before The second pilot, introducing Kirk, Scotty and Sulu.   Great writing, great storyline, I personally love the Galactic Barrier.   Great guest stars too (Sally Kellerman and Gary Lockwood).   S   3 The Corbomite Maneuver The first regular episode of the series.   A really good Kirk episode, showcasing his skills as a captain (and his skills at the art of the bluff).   Also the introduction of Uhura and Dr. McCoy.   Most of the regulars get some good lines in this episode, as does the one off character of Lt. Bailey.   Also young child actor Clint Howard.   A   4 Mudd’s Women The episode that introduces recurring conman, rogue and general PITA Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd.   Space pimp Mudd ends up on the Enterpri...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 Reaction: Episode 4 A Case of Chiaroscuro The episode is entirely in black and white.  Interesting.  The black and white is immediately explained as part of the plot and not just a gimmick. Una leads a mission to retrieve a malfunctioning probe from inside Klingon space.  The shuttle is nearly detected by the Klingons and is forced to land on a nearby planet to hide.  They find the planet under Klingon occupation.  Much of the episode is very TOS-esque: the crew incognito on a "parallel earth" planet, the planet modelled after a specific Earth region or period (in this case 1940s-esque movie noir), the crew in native/period attire among the natives, and the planet affected by outside influence.  The message at the end-that in life things are not black and white, but many shades of grey is an interesting, vey TOS introspective look at humanity, nicely set against the episode being completely in black and white.  Dem...