JC's Trek Talk

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...