JC's Trek Talk

Thoughts on Fan Reaction to Starfleet Academy WARNING: Strong, Frank Language I need to talk about this.  The fan reaction to Starfleet Academy is totally ridiculous.  Not liking a show is fine.  Don't watch it.  Way too often of late so-called fans post online on social media, Youtube videos, etc. their disdain for the series, the direction the franchise is going, Alex Kurtzman and so on.  Guess what: NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO WATCH THE SHOW.  If you really don't like it, do what I did: don't watch it and wait for the fourth season of SNW.  In the meantime shut up about the show, it's "wokeness" (when has Star Trek ever not been "woke' or had a progressive, so-called "woke" agenda?), its teens in school storyline and characters (what were you expecting from a Starfleet Academy show?) and its LGBT, unconventional characters.  So what if the Klingon character is gay?  Garak the Cardassian was obviously gay, Lura Thok, the half Jem'hadar ha...

Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter 2: 'Til Death Do Us Part While explaining his Prophet vision to Jake, Sisko gets a surprise visit from Kai Winn, who offers to perform the wedding ceremony.  Sisko tells Winn about his vision, except for the Prophets warning him not to wed.  Before going to her guest quarters Winn has what she believes is her first ever Prophet vision, the Prophets say that the Emissary has faltered and she must bring about "the Restoration of Bajor".  They also tell her to wait for a guide who will carry the "wisdom of the land".  While Worf and Dax remain imprisoned on the Breen ship, on Cardassia Weyoun tells a heavily hung over Damar to prepare to leave but does not tell him where they are going.  He also tells Damar that he knows about Dukat's visit.  Damar later meets with Dukat to give him forged ID documents.  Dukat points out how Weyoun is controlling Damar and says that Damar needs to be a strong leader for Cardassia.  ...

JC's Guide to the Final Frontier Volume II  More glib, blunt and possibly politically incorrect musings on the final frontier: Unluckiest in Love Possibly the unluckily man in the Galaxy when it comes to women is a certain eternally mono-piped ops officer on the intrepid starship Voyager.  Out of politeness I won't say his name, but it rhymes with "Harry Kim".  Among his failed exploits: a holodeck character puppeted by an alien, an ex-Borg, the wrong Delaney twin, a women from a xenophobic species (including sex without medical clearance, he got reprimanded for that one) a resurrected dead crewmember, and a group of life-sucking Taresian bridezillas.  This guy has even less luck with the opposite sex than Geordi LaForge.  Stranger Things Sir Arthur Eddington (no relation to Maquis leader Michael-we hope) once said: "Not only is the Universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine".  True.  Look at the time women from Sigma Draconi...

Timeline Update I have updated the  32nd Century Timeline  post to reflect Starfleet Academy season 1 episode 10, which established that the main characters are part of the class of 3196.  Assuming a four-year program, this places season 1 in 3192-3193.

Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter 1: Penumbra On a calm evening Sisko shows Kasidy images of the land he just purchased on Bajor and tells her of his plans to build a house there once the war is over.  They also discuss the revelation that Sisko's mother was inhabited by a Prophet who arranged his birth.  In the replimat Kira informs O'Brien, Bashir and Ezri that Worf is missing in combat, the Klingon ship he was commanding near the badlands was ambushed and destroyed by Jem'Hadar.  Worf was not aboard any of the six recovered escape pods.  After a fruitless three day search the Defiant is forced to return to DS9, Dominion ships have been detected in the area.  Ezri, still haunted and confused by Dax's (Jadzia's) feelings for Worf, steals the runabout USS Gander to search for Worf on her own.  Sisko orders her to return to the station, but takes no direct action to bring her back, knowing that if anyone can find Worf, it's Dax.  Arriving at the badlan...

Episode Spotlight DS9's Duet On a seemingly run of the mill day on Deep Space Nine (at least as much as a day on Deep Space Nine can be run of the mill...) a freighter contacts Ops to dock and reports that they have passenger aboard needing medical attention for Kalla-Nohra syndrome.  The passenger is beamed to the infirmary and Kira asks to go see them, saying that the only known cases of the condition are from victims of a mining accident at Gallitep, a forced labor that she helped liberate in the resistance.  Arriving at the infirmary she is shocked to see that the patient is a Cardassian.  She calls security and orders Odo to lock him up in a security cell.  In Sisko's office Odo reports that despite Kira's claim of the Cardassian Aamin Marritza being a war criminal he cannot find his name on any official list.  Kira says that she doesn't care whether or not Marritza's listed, and emotionally describes the horrific brutal conditions at Gallitep.  Sisko ...

Coming Soon Episode by episode break downs and analyses of Deep Space Nine's 10 episode Final Chapter arc (Penumbra through What You Leave Behind)

Episode Spotlight DS9's In The Pale Moonlight Arguably one of the best, heaviest, grey-area- est episodes of DS9 and I would daresay the entire franchise.  The episode opens after the fact with Sisko relating the events of the last two weeks in his personal log.  Getting fed up with posting weekly casualty reports in the wardroom and seeing that the Federation/Klingon alliance would not be able to win the war with the Dominion without help, Sisko resolves to bring the Romulans (heretofore neutral, having signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion) into the war on the alliance side.   Sisko and Garak , the plain, simple tailor who turned out to be a former member of the Obsidian Order, hatch a plan to provide the Romulans with evidence of Dominion duplicity.  After being unable to obtain genuine proof, they decide to manufacture said proof. Sisko uses his influence to get a convicted criminal released from a Klingon prison and transported to DS9 to cre...

The Worst of Star Trek The Streaming Era Discovery: second half of season 1 – mirror universe arc Full disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of the Mirror Universe.  It's not a bad concept, and it is fun to bring up and explore once in a while.  That said, it REALLY didn't need to be brought into Discovery for several reasons.  It's anachronistic that anyone from Starfleet/the Federation would know about the Mirror Universe, since the first documented contact was in TOS a decade hence.  Also the way Discovery depicted it, the super dark, cruel, totalitarian Terran Empire where Emperor Georgiou 'space Hitler' eats sentient beings ( Kelpians ) and everyone tries to assassinate everyone else doesn't really fit with the charm of previous Trek series depictions of the Mirror Universe.  Even if Discovery was going to bring in the Mirror Universe at some point, one episode would have been enough, we really didn't need a half season long arc.  B ringing it in half a...