JC's Trek Talk

Timeline Update I have updated the  32nd Century Timeline  post to include information from Starfleet Academy.  Unless a more concrete year is established I'm placing the events of season one in 3194.

Hot Take: Star Trek Enterprises "Affliction" and "Divergence" I actually kinda like Star Trek Enterprises "Affliction" and "Divergence" two parter.  People complain about this episode and I've never understood why.  For years-nay-decades some fans complained about the Klingons in the movies/TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT looking different than those in TOS.  Many of these same fans bitched and complained when Enterprise explained the difference in the two parter as a failed attempt by the Klingons to genetically improve themselves with Human augment DNA (a-la Khan).  I actually thought this was a really good explanation for the change.  It's creative for sure, it doesn't break canon, and it fits into the Klingon mindset (honor and strength, feeling that using human DNA in their own DNA and the fact that it caused them to lose their cranial ridges and look more human would make them look and feel weaker and would be seen as dishonorable).  This also ...

The Worst of Star Trek Voyager Threshold Threshold.  For about 10 years this episode held to dubious honor of being considered the worst episode of Trek ever (until Enterprise ended in 2005 with "These are the Voyages" which actually stole Threshold's shit crown).  The crew equip a shuttlecraft with a new form of dilithium and Tom Paris breaks the Warp 10 barrier (read: infinite speed).  After returning to the ship he mutates into a lizard creature.  He then kidnaps captain Janeway, takes her to warp 10 and they both mutate into salamander creatures.  And have salamander babies on a planet.  Even Brannon Braga has admitted this episode was a "royal steaming stinker". Virtuoso Voyager meets the Qomar, a species who have never heard music.  They then go totally googoo fan girl over the Doctors opera singing.  Boring premise.  Also the Qomar come across as jerks for fangirling over the Doctor, then just as quickly replacing him with a "superior,...

Throwback Thursday Star Trek Technical Manuals Star Trek technical manuals.  The favorite reads of the geekier fans and generally hard core trekkies who want to learn more about their favorite ships and technologies from an in universe perspective.  From schematics and cutaways, to diagrams of shuttlecrafts, bridge layouts, and even the inner workings of warp drives, phasers and transporters, Star Treks various technical manuals, both official and unofficial, licensed and unlicensed are a gold mine of starship design and treknology information.  Here, in chronological order, are four classic fan favorite Star Trek technical manuals. Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph The original, the classic.  Despite its status as unlicensed and non canon Franz Josephs 1975 Technical Manual covers the original series Starfleet, the ships, the equipment, the uniforms and much more.  In additional to giving blueprints and specs for the classic TOS Constitution ...

The Worst of Star Trek Deep Space Nine Profit and Lace A potentially progressive episode in the tradition of trek, using Ferengi society to talk about gender inequality, the "glass ceiling" and women in business, totally wasted by playing the "Quark in drag" plot device as the butt of a joke.  What could have been a good "deeper message/moral lesson" episode was instead turned into a cringeworthy crossdressing comedy.   Let He Who is Without Sin… DS9's Risa episode.  Jadzia takes Worf on a vacation to Risa.  And he's miserable the whole time.  Which should have been obvious before they left.  And he bitches and complains the whole episode.  Yawn.  The episode was supposed to explore the topic of sex, but it wasn't able to deliver on that due to tv restrictions at the time.  The only thing we got resembling that was Terry Ferrell and Vanessa Williams in one piece swimsuits with their legs around each other. The Muse Bad boring A-plot abou...

Starfleet Academy Series Premiere Review Addendum: The Title Sequence Although not seen in the pilot episode "Kids These Days", the Star Trek Starfleet Academy title sequence (first seen in episode 2 "Beta Test") deserves a close look and reaction.  These are my opinions. The Sequence Heavy on the theme of growing: the seed sprouting, growing into the plant, and eventually the tree, the buildings being built.  And of course the area around the buildings is the shape of the Star Trek delta-yawn.  The tree sprouting flowers, the flower petals flying through the Academy campus/USS Athena corridors and the atrium/courtyard.  And then the show's title over a skylight window conveniently shaped like the delta.  Ending over a wide shot of the Athena landed on Earth at San Francisco.  Fade to black. The Visuals As I mentioned above, heavy of the themes of growing and building.  But that doesn't really fully tell the series story.  It doesn't really say wh...