JC's Trek Talk

  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. 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 the decade before the original series season 1 would chr...

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...

Nutrek's Characterization of James T. Kirk: Kelvin Movies vs. SNW I've observed an interesting pattern with the way Nutrek characterizes and depicts one of the most iconic characters in the franchise, James T. Kirk.  To preface this (and get it out of the way first), I know that Kelvin Kirk has a majorly different history and backstory than classic prime timeline Kirk, mainly due to Kelvin Kirk's childhood and upbringing being so radically different than prime Kirk's (see Star Trek 2009), and as such they are essentially different characters.   The Kelvin timeline Kirk's character (this also applies to many of the Kelvin timeline characters, but mainly Kirk) is heavily based on the cultural stereotypes of James T. Kirk, many off which come primarily from the Star Trek movies not The Original Series.  The primary characterizations of Kirk in the Kelvin movies is of Kirk as a maverick, loose-cannon, womanizer, cowboy captain.  While this is not wholly inaccurate t...

Star Trek 60th Anniversary Reflecting on the Franchise The Rick Berman Era Star Trek: The Next Generation In 1987, riding on the success of the movie franchise Star trek made its return to the small screen with Star Trek: The Next Generation, a new series following a new crew on a new Starship Enterprise a century after the adventures of Kirk and co.  It is no secret that this is my personal favorite series. The ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Johnathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Brent Spiner as the android Lieutenant Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, Levar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Marina Sirtis as Counsellor Deanna Troi, Denise Crosby as security chief Tasha Yar and Wil Wheaton and Wesley Crusher.  Despite a grueling first season (due in no small part to interference by Gene Roddenberry's lawyer Leonard Maizlish) and the departure of Denise Crosby, the show ...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 Reaction: Episode 9 Once La'an a Time After returning to the Enterprise from a Benzite dignitary's wedding (which La'an saved by exposing an Orion diplomat as a spy) the crew encounter an artificially created flat planet.  Beaming down the crew find themselves in a medieval fairytale land, based on as it turs out, the storybook Dr. M'Benga used to read to his daughter.  Only M'Benga remembers the events of the original encounter.  The planet is populated by doppelgängers of the crew.  The Bolzman Brain entity original helped M'Benga deal with difficult issues he was going through, now it is doing the same with La'an who has been dealing with some personal issues.  The crew dress up as their doppelgängers to see the story out.  La'an poses as her doppelgänger, Princess Talia.  Prince Dashing appears in the likeness of James Kirk.  While the away team are imprisoned in a dungeon, Pike and Spock's counterparts be...

Admiral Leyton's Coup: The Aftermath On stardate 49334.6 Admiral James Leyton, along with a group of other mostly high ranking officers attempted amplify Dominion cold war, Founder infiltration fears as an excuse to declare martial law on Earth and plane Earth under Starfleet military control (effectively a Starfleet coup).  The coup would fortunately fail when Captain Sisko forced Leyton to stand down and Captain Erika Benteen, Leyton's closest loyalist turned against him.  On stardate 49372.4 a full investigation would be carried out by the Starfleet Command Judge Advocate Generals office, spearheaded by recently appointed Judge Advocate General for Starfleet Command Captain Phillipa Louvois.  The investigation would result in the courts-martial and dismissal from Starfleet of Leyton and several others:  Admiral James Robert Leyton, Chief of Starfleet Operations After being taken into custody by Captain Benjamin Sisko, Admiral Leyton would be court-martialed on cha...