JC's Trek Talk

Trek Throwback Thursday: Trek Games on the NES "Set a course for sector 8 (bit)"   This is the first of three posts reviewing Star Trek games on Nintendo video game consoles (NES, SNES, Gameboy).  *I know that most of these games were also released on Sega systems.  As I do not have those games or any Sega systems, therefore I have no experience with those games and cannot offer opinions on them.  I will mention the Sega versions of games in these reviews only in terms of which games had ports and where applicable general opinions of the ports compared to the Nintendo games.* The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  The system   that built Nintendo as a video game giant and at the same time resurrected the American video game market.  This system also gave us trekkies two different Star Trek games: one TOS game and one TNG game.   Star Trek 25th Anniversary Developed by: Interplay Published by: Ultra Released: 1992 An action/adventure f...

Star Trek Timelines "Timelines?! This is no time to argue about time! We don't have the time!" This next post series is a set of timelines that I have created covering the different eras of the Star Trek universe.  Each timeline post will cover one generally agreed upon era of Trek history: The TOS Era: from 2245-2269 Beginning with the launch of the legendary USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and covering the events of "The Cage", Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and The Original Series.  **As Star Trek Strange New Worlds is still being produced, as more information about those years is established those years will be upgraded.  Stay tuned.** The TMP Era: from 2270-2293 The time period in which the first 6 Star Trek movies (the TOS movies) and the beginning of Generations take place. The Lost Era: from 2294-2363 The mostly not seen years between the TOS movies and the beginning of The Next Generation. The TNG Era: from 2364-2379 Covering the time period of TNG, DS9, VOY an...

 Star Trek Starfleet Academy First Pictures/Teaser Trailer First Impressions This past week the first pictures and trailer for the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series have been released.  As much as I'm not really that interested in the series overall I've decided to take a look at the pictures and trailer and share my initial thoughts. Holly Hunter as Captain Nahla Ake, a part-Lanthanite and the commandant of Starfleet Academy Ok.  She appears to be sitting on a very SNW-esque bridge.  Lanthanite is obviously a reference to Pelia (Carol Kane) in SNW Robert Picardo returning as the EMH from Voyager and Prodigy He has a unique uniform...maybe a professor emeritus or something? Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, returning from Discovery The logical guess would be as an engineering professor.  Very Discovery-esque uniform, though slightly different. Gina Yashere as Cmdr. Lura Thot, a half Klingon/half Jem Hadar Interesting.  Maybe we'll get some lore building a...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 3 Shuttle to Kenfori The whole concept of the captain taking on a personal "off the books" mission to obtain thing needed to save someone close to them is very classic Star Trek.  It was also nice to see some more Pike/M'Benga scenes, as well as some background on M'Benga.  The zombies elements is a bit cliche at this point, but it serves to plot fine.  It was a fun twist that the female Klingon leading the "hunting party" was the daughter of Dak'Rah from season 2's "Under the Cloak of War".  Also Klingon discommendation is a nice lore reference callback to TNG and Worf's discommendation to protect the house of Duras.  I have to say, I thought the scene at the end with Una dressing down Ortegas could have been better, especially seeing as the timing of their arrival at the planet was actually critical in getting Pike and M'Benga out.  Also, if the mission to Kenfori was off the...

The Star Trek Movies: A Ranking As the tile suggests, this is a ranking MY ranking, of the Star Trek movies, all of them, from 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture to 2025's Star Trek Section 31 streaming movie, from subjective best to worst.  Again, this is MY ranking, your mileage may and probably will vary. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Can anyone argue with this being at the top of the list?  Really?  The Star Trek movie of Star Trek Movies.  A riveting story, one of the best villains in the history of the franchise, a strong theme of life (Genesis, Kirk's son David, youth, the academy, young officers) juxtaposed by the theme of death (Spock's death, Kirk feeling old, the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario and examining how one faces certain death, the idea that Genesis could be used to destroy life).  Also the themes of friendship and loyalty and sacrifice (Kirk and Spock), with some of the franchises most iconic Kirk and Spock lines "The needs of the many......

 Coming Soon Star Trek Timelines

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reactions: Episodes 1 and 2 Hegemony Part II Finally picking up where part 1 left off, we get some more intense action, interspersed with good character beats.  More Spock/Chapel, more Scotty!, more Pike/Batel, and (hopefully) an end to Gorn stuff for a while.  Me personally I'm kinda "meh" on the whole Gorn thing, especially knowing that TOS "first contacted" them in Arena nearly 6 years later.  Also the way they're depicted in SNW is honestly a little...flat.  Arena did a better job.  I guess I'm personally ready to be done with it.  Season 3 introduces a new title sequence with new visuals including a Klingon D7 battlecruiser AND a new name in the title credits, Martin Quinn (playing Scotty).  This is encouraging, that Scotty will be staying aboard the Enterprise for the rest of the series and presumably at some point taking the chief engineer baton from Pelia.  If anything it already feels like Pelia is me...

A Potential Hot Take I don't think The Alternative Factor is the worst episode of TOS.  Far from it.  Hear me out: It's not a great episode by any means, and it has its issues for sure (acting, the overall story is weak) but there are much worse episodes of TOS. "Spock's Brain" "Brain and brain! What is brain?", "Turnabout Intruder", which is honestly totally sexist (it utterly baffles me that Gene Roddenberry wrote it) not to mention the whole body swap trope was already tired and overused even in 1969, and "And The Children Shall Lead" with some of the most stilted wooden acting from Marvin Belli - this is why you don't hire a lawyer when you need an actor. The Alternative Factor is nowhere near as bad as any of those.  Yes the storyline with the two Lazaruses -Lazarii?- is confusing at times, but at least this episode is watchable, which is more than I can say from some of the episodes I mentioned above.  Don't get me wrong...

Vulcan Only Logical Stardate 42976.5 “We continue on course back toward Federation space after nearly three years of deep space exploration in the Beta Quadrant. All systems are functioning adequately. The crew are functioning equally well, although it will be agreeable to see our families on Vulcan again when we return home in approximately 15 months.” As the science vessel V’Lhan slid gracefully through deep space Commander T’Prenn finished her daily log entry and turned to her chief science officer “report, Subcommander Sovin.” Sovin checked his sensors “There is nothing of note of sensors at this time. Only the same background subspace radiation that appears to permeate this entire region. Its intensity remains constant.” His left eyebrow rose suddenly “curious. I am reading a repeating signal in orbit of a planetoid 4.37 lightyears from our position.” T’Prenn’s own eyebrows rose “can you identify the signal?” Sovin looked up, his surprise almost visible “it appears to b...

Star Trek Youtubers: The Good, The Mehh And The Ugly I know this is kinda random, but there is something I want to talk about: Star Trek youtubers.  There are many, from different parts of the world and different walks of life.  Some are good, some are mehh, and some are absolutely toxic. The Good (in no particular order) Trekyards "Captain" Stuart Foley (from Canada) and "Commander" Samuel Cockings (from the UK) discuss Star Trek episodes, tech, and primarily ships.  Generally pretty good material, although they did become apologists for Discovery amid all the fan backlash when it first came out. Venom Geek Media A smaller channel, focuses on ships (from an in universe perspective) and Star Trek battle/war history.  Very high production quality videos.  Full disclosure: I am a paid member of this channel. Certifiably Ingame Another small channel, Star Trek Online game play videos, as well as high quality documentary style videos on a variety of Trek topics. Ora...

Thoughts on the Future of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds I've been hesitating on addressing this, but it's time.  When Paramount recently announced the official release date for Strange New Worlds season 3 they simultaneously confirmed season 4 being in production AND the renewal of the series for season 5.  They also announced that season 5 would be the final season, and that it would be shortened from the normal 10 episodes to 6 episodes.   While I am sad that the series will be ending, I am not surprised.  With the series premise being a five year mission under captain Pike it is only logical that the fifth season would be the last.  Also this follows the trend of Star Trek streaming series running for 5 years (Discovery, Lower Decks). Looking forward I can only hope that TPTB continue to steer the show toward the buildup to the handover of the Enterprise from Pike to Kirk.  I mused on this in a previous post  Here .  I personally would lik...

Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode Reviews With Strange New Worlds season 3 set to release next week (Thursday July 17 with TWO episodes), I have decided that I will do mini reviews of the episodes in groups of probably 2-3 episodes as time allows.  I will definitely be doing a review of the first two episodes probably the weekend after they release as time allows.  The reviews will probably mostly release on the weekends (subject to change). This post will be updated with any changes. Stay Tuned.

Bajoran Sole Survivor The year 2371. Running. Scared, out of breath, barely able to think, as she fled through the underbrush. Major Nel Lorenn of the Bajoran Militia ran witless through the jungle foliage of the unnamed planet on which she had found herself. The young Bajoran woman focused all her attention on trying not to trip on the vines, debris, and other unseen obstructions that littered the jungle floor. How had she ended up in this predicament? It had started out like any other off-world assignment, one of many transport runs she’d been assigned to help oversee in the two years since the end of the occupation and her joining up with the militia. Two weeks out of the Volnar colony, their unarmed transport ship, the Baykara had been attacked. The Borg sphere ship had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, its first volley devastating the unarmed transports minimal shielding. The crews attempt to evade the sphere had led them into the Kuiper belt of a nearby unmapped star s...

Trek Throwback Thursday: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh is an engrossing and action filled tale that reveals the origins and backstory of Khan Noonien Singh and the oft referenced but never seen Eugenics Wars.  Presented in two volumes, The Eugenics Wars uses a combination of wit, humor, and clever Star Trek and real life historical references to tell the story of Khan Noonien Singh and the titular Eugenics Wars, all while not rewriting the 20th century history we all know.   Volume one covers the 1970s and 80s, from the super-secret eugenics/genetic engineering project that created Khan and his super-ilk, the fate of the project, Khan's formative years and the real life historical events that motivated his later actions during the Eugenics wars proper.  I especially love the way Greg Cox worked in all the references to real life historical events (the end of the Cold W...

Dominion The Order of Things 2374 The Telapora system Deep in the Gamma Quadrant, far from the Bajoran Wormhole and the core of Dominion space Research Facility 42. A highly classified Dominion base built on a lifeless planetoid in an uninhabited and otherwise unimportant system as part of a secret project started the previous year during the buildup for the inevitable war with the Federation. Now 4 months later war raged in the Alpha Quadrant, while the Dominion reinforcements remained stranded in the Gamma Quadrant, the wormholes entrance near Deep Space Nine having been mined by the Federation and their Klingon allies. On this research facility in this distant system far from the wormhole, Dominion scientists toiled away examining the possibility of creating a faster than warp system to get badly needed reinforcements to the alpha quadrant and the front lines, over half a galaxy away. The current research, based in large part on data stolen from captured Federation ships, invol...