JC's Trek Talk

Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise Trek at 60: Current Series and the Franchises' Future Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Spinning off of Discoverys second season and created in no small part because of the fan response to Anson Mount's Captain Pike, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows the adventures of the USS Enterprise (as previously seen in Discovery) on the second five year mission under Captain Pike, in the years leading up to the events of the Original Series.  Joining Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley (Number One) are Celia Rose Gooding as Cadet/Ensign/Lieutenant Uhura, Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, Babs Olusunmokun as Dr. M'Benga, Christina Chong as Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as Lieutenant Erica Ortegas, and in later seasons Carol Kane as Pelia, Martin Quinn as Montgomery Scott and Paul Wesley as Commander James T. Kirk.  The first two seasons were produced back to back i...

Episode Spotlight TOS's Space Seed Stardate 3141.8.  On a routine patrol the Enterprise detects an unidentified vessel sending a distress signal.  Coming into visual range they discover it's an old Earth vessel from the late 20th century, a DY-100 sublight vessel labeled as the S.S. Botany Bay.  Unsure if it's derelict they scan the ship, detecting heartbeats, too faint to be human.  Spock finds no S.S. Botany Bay in the registry.  The vessel dates from the time of Earth's Eugenics Wars.  Taking the ship in tow Kirk and company beam over to get a closer look.  Along with them is the ship's historian, Lieutenant Marla McGivers.  One the Botany Bay they discover the occupants in suspended animation.  Scotty actives the lights, this causes one of the pods to activate and attempt to revive it's occupant.  The pod malfunction, Kirk is forced to break it to get the occupant out.  The occupant, a human male from northern India is beamed to...

Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise NuTrek Gets Animated Star Trek: Lower Decks In 2020 Star trek returned to animation for the first time in 46 years with Star Trek: Lower Decks.  Created by Mike McMahon and produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions and Titmouse inc. Lower Decks followed a group of junior officers on the lower decks of the USS Cerritos, one of the least important ships in Starfleet.  Starring the voices of Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Noel Wells as Ensign D'Vana Tendi, Eugene Cordero as Sam Rutherford, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs and Gillian Vigman as Dr. T'Ana, the series 5 seasons and 50 episodes followed the crews adventures (and misadventures) on the Cerritos, including second contact followup missions, support assignments and the day to day life of lower decks officers.  The modern animation art st...

Temporal Investigations Incursion Report Filed Stardate 50901.2 Marion F. Dulmer, DTI Agent and Gariff A. Lucsly DTI Agent Transmitted over secured channel Alpha 992 Zeta 3 I. SUMMARY OF INCURSION On stardate 50893.5 the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E against orders joined the Starfleet armada at Earth and was crucial in defeating a Borg Cube (see Starfleet records: Battle of Sector 001).  Moments before its destruction the Borg Cube launched a Borg Sphere which utilized a modulated chroniton field to travel back in time over 300 years to Earths mid 21st century.  Captain Picard ordered the Enterprise-E to follow the sphere back in time.  The two ships emerged on April 4, 2063, one day before first contact between Humanity and the Vulcans.  The Borg Sphere opened fire on Zefram Cochrane's launch site for the warp ship phoenix in Bozeman, Montana, but was quickly destroyed by the Enterprise.  An away team led by Captain Picard disguised in period civilian clothing bea...

Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise NuTrek: New Medium, New Blood, New Beginnings Star Trek: Discovery In 2016, on the 50th anniversary year for the franchise CBS, in control of Star Trek since the 2006 CBS/Viacom split, announced a new Star Trek series, to both act as flagship show for the new CBS All Access streaming service and mark the franchise's return to the small screen. The series, Star Trek: Discovery was initially conceived by Trek alum Bryan Fuller, although Fuller would leave the production prior to the start of season 1 due to production delays and disagreements with CBS head Les Moonves, following which Alex Kurtzman, Executive Producer on Star Trek 2009 and Star Trek Beyond would become head of the franchise. In fall of 2017 Star Trek Discovery would premiere on CBS All Access and CBS network with "The Vulcan Hello", starring Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Saru and Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou.  Set in th...

Episode Spotlight TNG's "The Wounded" Stardate 44429.6.  The Enterprise is on a routine patrol near Cardassian Space.  Picard tells the crew about the last time he was in this area, fleeing a Cardassian ship on the Stargazer.  Meanwhile newlyweds Miles and Keiko O'Brien enjoy breakfast in their quarters.  The Enterprise is attacked by a Cardassian warship.  After several exchanges of phaser fire the Cardassians stand down and open communications with the Enterprise.  In response to Picard asking the reason for the attack, the Cardassian captain, Gul Macet (Marc Alaimo), says that another Starfleet ship attacked and destroyed an unarmed Cardassian outpost near the border 2 days ago. In the interest of maintaining the peace treaty Picard asks for one hour to investigate Macet's claims.  After speaking with Admiral Haden Picard learns that Macet's claims are true, the USS Phoenix under Captain Benjamin Maxwell has gone rogue, stopped answering hails and a...

Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise Reboot: The Kelvin Timeline Movies Four years after the last new Star Trek production J.J. Abrams and his production company would work with Paramount Pictures to produce a new Star Trek movie, simply titled "Star Trek".  Star Trek 2009 as it is commonly referred to is a reboot of the franchise, set in an alternate reality in the pre-TOS timeframe.  A Romulan captain, Nero (Eric Bana) and his ship have travelled back in time from 2387 (prime timeline) and encounter the USS Kelvin, whose first officer is George Kirk, father of Jim.  Most of the movie focuses on the changes to the timeline caused by Nero and how James Kirk (Chris Pike) became captain of the Enterprise.  Zachary Quinto plays the Kelvin timeline Mr. Spock, Karl Urban portrays Dr. McCoy, Simon Pegg plays Scotty, John Cho plays Sulu, Anton Yelchin plays Chekov, and Zoe Saldana plays Uhura.  Leonard Nimoy guest stars as Spock (Spock-prime), against...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 Reaction: Episode 10 Tomorrows Enterprise Uhura has returned to the Enterprise from a refresher course while the Enterprise is examining a white hole.  Uhura detects a signal right before an energy wave hits the Enterprise-music.  After being treated for minor injuries in sickbay Uhura returns to her quarters.  She continues to hear voices-Scotty yelling.  She consults with La'an who believes the Uhura may be experiencing something time travel related.  In the science lab she traces the source of the message she detected on the bridge and ends up making contact with herself.  On the other side, The Enterprise is examining a newly formed black hole.  This enterprise is about a year in the future.  Kirk is in command, Dr. Boyce is acting chief medical officer.  Uhura and Scotty are in a relationship.  Uhura, Scotty and a visiting Ortegas take a shuttle into the black hole.  Uhura detects a signal-...

Temporal Investigations Incursion Report Filed Stardate 46072.5 Commander L. Keith Marcus, DTI Analyst Transmitted over secured channel Alpha 564 Theta 3 I. SUMMARY OF INCURSION On Stardate 45959.1 the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D was recalled to Earth in re several interesting artifacts found by a work crew in a long abandoned mine approximately 1 mile beneath San Francisco.  In addition to several items from Earth's late 19th century the crews also found what seemed to be a duplicate of Lieutenant Commander Data's severed head.  Analyzing the items aboard the Enterprise it is confirmed that the duplicate head dates to the late 1890s.  Tricorder readings of the cave indicated triolic waves, an energy time foreign to Earth in both the 19th and 24th centuries.  Further investigation by Commander LaForge lead the Enterprise to planet Devidia II in the Marrab sector.  After proceeding to Devidia II the Enterprise detected a temporal disturbance and triolic waves on th...