JC's Trek Talk

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 8 Four and a Half Vulcans So...another "Vulcan hijinks" episode.  And more of the La'an-Spock relationship.  Still not sure about this one.  The story line about the mission to the planet undercover as Vulcans is interesting.  Not sure about the choice of music for the corridor scene.  I got a giggle at Pike doing the "Space the final frontier" speech as a Vulcan.  Honestly I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of the mission down to the planet, but I'm guessing story and probably budget considerations said otherwise.  The human characters acting "super Vulcan" comes off as a bit campy and stilted.  Also: contrary to the writers belief Vulcans can use contractions.  The twist of "we've fixed the problem but we don't want to use it" is cliche at this point and over used.  Honestly the "humans being over-done Vulcans" gag wears thin fast.  The Vulcan with a human...

Star Trek Gripe Star Trek can't cast child actors (especially recurring characters) age appropriately.  Especially if the character is nonhuman or half human, TPTB always cast the role waaay too old. Example 1: Alexander Rozhenko.  We know he was born during TNGs 3rd season.  When the characters is introduced (season 4, played by Jon Paul Steuer then 5 years old) he looks about 2-3 years old.  When next we see the character (mid-season 5), he's played by Brian Bonsall (then 10 years old), and looks to be at least 6-7.  By the end of the series Alexander looks maybe 8 or 9 years old.  When we see the character some years later on DS9 season 6, he's played by Marc Worden, and looks to be mid-late teens.  TNG season 3 was 2366, DS9 season 6 is 2374 (8 years).  At 8 years old he's already serving on a Klingon ship during a time of war.  Yeah, right. Example 2: Naomi Wildman.  We see Naomi's birth in the Voyager season 2 episode Deadlock (mid...

Star Trek Timeline The TNG/DS9/VOY Era (2364-2379) 2364 • Enterprise-D’s maiden voyage, Jean-Luc Picard assumes command • First contact with Q • First contact with the Ferengi • Bluegill Parasite conspiracy within Starfleet, in the aftermath Admiral Savar is forced to resign.   • Admiral Norah Satie retires • First official contact with the Romulans in over 50 years 2365 • Beverly Crusher becomes head of Starfleet Medical • Katharine Pulaski transfers to USS Enterprise-D • Data is ruled a person not Starfleet property, setting a precedent for the rights of artificial lifeforms • First official contact with the Borg at system J-25 2366 • Beverly Crusher returns to USS Enterprise-D • Alexander Rozhenko, Son of Work and K’Ehleyr is born • USS Protostar arrives on Tars Lamora from 2382 • Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan is diagnosed with Bendii Syndrome • The Borg invade Federation space, Jean-Luc Picard is assimilated and becomes Locutus of Borg • ...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 7 What is Starfleet? I love the documentary announcement at the beginning of the episode.  The documentary as a framing device for the episodes primary story is an interesting and refreshing change.  It also gave a lot of opportunities introspective moments for the crew.  Storywise, it's a nice standard Star Trek Mission complete with moral quandary and debate between the crew, very much giving TOS and cold war vibes.  It was nice to see the shuttlecraft, albeit briefly.  We haven't seen it in a bit.  Also the reveal through the "telepathic connection" with Uhura that the creature  wants to die and the plan that the crew device is very TNG in many ways.  Putting the credits and title as an ending instead of the normal title sequence was a nice touch to not break up or take away from the documentary style of the episode. Observations:  The on-screen specs of the Enterprise stating the shi...

Star Trek: Nemesis Star Trek Nemesis.  Not my favorite Star Trek movie.  In fact, my least favorite TNG movie and my least favorite of the first 10 trek movies.  Some of my biggest grievances with the movie:  Shinzon.  Not the strongest trek movie villian.  The basic concept is not a bad one, a corrupt/ "evil" clone of Picard, a mirror for Picard (paralleling B4 being a "mirror" of sorts for Data), but I feel like the message would have been stronger if Shinzon had just been a straight mirror, not a clone that looks different because he was never "aged up" to Picard's age (to explain away the visual differences between the actors.  Nothing against Tom Hardy, but I firmly believe that it would have been better and simpler to have had Patrick Stewart play Shinzon.  And Patrick Stewart is a high enough caliber actor to play both Picard and Shinzon. The "truck chase" scene.  Not my favorite scene.  Not a bad scene necessarily, but - and othe...

Star Trek Timeline The Lost Era (2294-2363) 2294 • USS Jenolan carrying retired captain Montgomery Scott disappears en route to Norpin V • The Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone ceases to exist • Rachel Garrett is born 2295 • Qagh the Albino uses a retrovirus to infect the firstborn children of Klingon warriors Kang, Kor and Koloth. The three warriors swear a blood oath to avenge their sons deaths • Outbreak of plasma plague on Obi VI 2296 • Ra-Ghoratreii of Efros is re-elected to a third term as UFP president • The Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario at Starfleet Academy is re-written to feature the Romulan Neutral Zone as the setting and Romulans as the enemies • The Ansata separatist group on Rutia IV are denied a bid for independence and begin a long terrorist campaign against the Rutian government 2297 • Turkana IV colony is established • The 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards become operational 2298 • Klingon Ambassador Kamarag, facing discommendati...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 6 The Sehlat Who Ate It's Tail So we start onboard the Farragut.  We finally get to see the real James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) which is cool at this point.  It's fun to see Enterprise and another ship working together.  The away team beaming into the corridor of the damaged USS Farragut (including Scotty talking about the damage and heading to engineering) really reminds me of the Enterprise away team beaming into the corridor of the severely damaged USS Constellation in TOS "The Doomsday Machine".  Paul Wesley does a pretty good job as "TOS Kirk": his mannerisms, delivery, without being over the top.  As one who was hitherto skeptical of Paul Wesley as "new Kirk", I was pleasantly surprised, and dare I say, I would like to see more.  The phone thing is kinda funny, especially with the triple split screen.  The twist at the end was cool, with the "scavengers" being the descendants of h...

Trek Throwback Thursday: SNES (and Genesis) Treks Boldly going into 16-bits The 16-bit era.  Better graphics, deeper gameplay, more colors.  The fourth generation of consoles gave us a bit of a mixed bag of titles for the SNES/Genesis/32X.   Star Trek Starfleet Academy Bridge Combat Simulator Developed by: Interplay Published by: Interplay Released: 1995 Adapted from Interplay's Star Trek Starfleet Academy, Bridge Combat Simulator puts players it the shoes of a Starfleet Academy cadet, working with your simulator crew of fellow cadets completing simulated assignments to level up in class rank (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior) and gain the ability to command different simulated starship classes.  Each "year" consists of 5 simulator missions, for a total of 20, plus one final mission to graduate (the infamous Kobayashi Maru scenario).  The game also includes a simulator room mode which allows for one on one (or two or three) combat simulations, as well as...

Star Trek Timeline The Motion Picture Era (2270-2293) 2270 • USS Enterprise NCC-1701 ends its historic 5 year mission under James Kirk, returns to Earth for a major refit • James Kirk is promoted to admiral • The Klingon K’tinga class battle cruiser enters service • Drs. Carol and David Marcus begin Project Genesis research at a lab on Deneva  2271 • The Klingon/Romulan alliance of 2268 ends with battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt (the Briar Patch) • The Tholian Assembly opens formal diplomatic ties with the Federation • Willard Decker is assigned to command the USS Enterprise during and after the refit • Demora Sulu is born 2272 • Betazed becomes a member of the Federation • USS Oberth is launched, the Oberth class enters service 2273 • The V'ger entity destroys several Klingon ships and station Epsilon 9 en route to earth. • Admiral Kirk assumes command of USS Enterprise to investigate the V'ger threat. • Following the departure of V'ger to ...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 5   Through the Lens of Time I like the log entries/POV at he beginning from a junior officer's perspective.  We haven't seen something like that in trek for quite some time (Lower Decks notwithstanding).  An away team going down to archaeological dig and actually discovering stuff is a refreshing change at this point in the series.  It's episodes like this where the show actually lives up to it's name, showing the ship and crew exploring Strange New Worlds.  Sadly, such episodes are becoming too rare at this point in the series.  The away team getting trapped/separating and having to science their way out or their predicament is also very classic trek.  The fight in sickbay between possessed Ensign Gamble and possessed Batel definitely gives me vibes of DS9's "The Reckoning" with prophet-possessed Kira and Pah Wraith possessed Jake Sisko.  Sad that in the end they had to kill the nurse/ensig...

Fan Reaction to Starfleet Academy's Jem'Hadar/Klingon Hybrid Character: A Rant I don't understand all this hate/vitriol online suddenly about the female Jem'Hadar/Klingon hybrid character from Starfleet Academy. People saying: "oh there can't be a female Jem'Hadar because the Jem'Hadar were all males". In the 24th century. There were no female Jem'Hadar in the 24th century because they were all genetically engineered (essentially clones "bred" not born) to be male. The Dominion genetically engineered the Jem'Hadar to be super soldiers and engineered/cloned them all to be male (being clones there was no need for women, also the Dominion mindset at the time being that having women would have made them weak). Things change over 800+ years. After returning to the Great Link Odo could have changed the Dominion and ultimately caused them to decide to clone female Jem'Hadar. For all we know the Dominion as it was in the 24th century ...

Trek Throwback Thursday: Star Trek on Gameboy (and Game Gear) The Gameboy, Nintendo's super popular handheld.  The juggernaut that built the handheld gaming market.  Nintendo's Gameboy and it's competitor from Sega gave us three Star Trek games, one set in the TOS era and two in the TNG era.  Star Trek 25th Anniversary Developed by: Visual Concepts Published by: Ultra Released: 1992 Despite sharing the name, this is not in fact a port of Star Trek 25th Anniversary for the NES.  This action/shoot 'em up game consists of a combination of space shoot 'em up and planetside adventure maze levels, culminating in fighting the Doomsday Machine (from the eponymous TOS episode).  An ok game, the gameplay is a bit basic (necessity of being on the Gameboy), and as such the replay value suffers.   Rating: 2/5  Star Trek: The Next Generation Developed by: Imagineering Inc. Published by: Absolute Entertainment Released: 1993 This is an almost direct port of the ...

Star Trek Timeline The DSC/SNW/TOS Era (2245-2269) 2245 • USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched under the command of Robert April • Pavel Chekov is born • Michael Burnham becomes the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy • The battle of Donatu V is fought between the Federation and Klingon Empire • USS Constellation NCC-1017 is launched • Johnathan Archer dies 2246 • In response to a famine crisis Governor Kodos invokes martial law on Tarsus IV and slaughters half of the colonies population.   • Hoshi Sato dies at Tarsus IV • USS Hood NCC-1703 is launched 2247 • The Eminiar-Vendikar war begins • USS Exeter NCC-1672 is launched • Spock declines an offer to enter the Vulcan Science Academy, instead opting to join Starfleet 2248 • Starfleet loses contact with the UESPA Friendship 1 probe • USS Excalibur NCC-1664 is launched • USS Lexington NCC-1709 is launched 2249 • Michael Burnham begins serving aboard USS Shenzhou • Risa off...