JC's Trek Talk

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......

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...

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...

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...

Cardassian Uninvited Guests 2372 Arbak research station The dark gray mushroom-shaped space station sat at the edge of the anomaly that the Federation called the “black cluster”. The graviton wave fronts from a series of extremely old and in many cases collapsing stars provided the perfect location to develop the Unions new graviton based weaponry. Seated at a table on the observation deck Ganara Dejal looked up from her datapadd and glanced out the window at the anomaly. “Why?” she wondered. Why had she been shipped out to this base, so far from Cardassian space? She had no particular interest in the project or weapons research in general for that matter before she was assigned here. Her specialty was quantum physics, which was probably what had piqued the Central Commands interest in her when the project began. From across the room she caught the glance of Alen Gocet their “observer” from the Obsidian Order. Officially he was the Order’s liaison on the station, although ofte...

Klingon Deprived The year 2368 “Over here K'toq, I see him!” Responding to his name the young man turned “I'm coming Bae'l.” K'toq son of Kargh grabbed his spear and as silently as possible made his way through the dense forest vegetation, staying low to the ground until he reached Bae'l. The girl turned “we can flush him out.” K'toq nodded and peered through the undergrowth at their quarry, a targ about a meter long from tail to snout. He enjoyed these times, running through the woods with Bae'l and the other children on the colony, hunting targ with Bae'l and playing Kahless and Molor with his cousin Lorgh. He knew it wouldn't last too much longer. He was already 11 earth years old, leaving only two more years before he reached the age of inclusion. Then all his time would be spent studying and training to become a warrior, in preparation for the rite of ascension. Until that day came he still had time, outside of his schooling, to be a ki...

Hirogen The Hunted Hunters 2370 Deep in the Delta Quadrant, approximately 60,000 light years from Earth The alpha Hirogen checked his status board “the prey is maintaining course. He will reach the binary system in five minutes.” Beside him the beta, a proud younger Hirogen named Lanik nodded “his ship is strong, he can probably withstand the radiation longer than we can.” Kimmek, the alpha glanced up at a display showing the scans of their prey, a reptilian creature known as a Voth “he has been a formidable adversary, but it is time to end the hunt. Full speed, move to intercept.” Several brief minutes of pursuit later the beta looked up as an indicator sounded on his console “He's come to a full stop.” The alpha nodded “he's turning to make a final stand.” He moved to a wall where several large weapons were hung “prepare to board his ship as soon as we're in-” He was cut off mid-sentence by an alert at the main console. His eyes widened as a distinctive cube shap...

Federation The Fate of the Lalo Stardate 43994.8 The USS Lalo. Mediterranean Class supply ship. NCC-43837 19:00 After verifying the last few containers of medical supplies for the shipment to Sentinel Minor IV Lieutenant Lindt tapped his combadge “Lindt to bridge. That’s the last of the medical supplies. Loading is complete, we’re ready to ship out.” Standing from the command chair Commander Berg responded “right on time. Good job Ray.” She then nodded at the grey-haired Efrosian at the conn “Take us out Ganoreg. Maximum warp as soon as we break orbit.” Hearing footsteps she turned to see Captain Vargas crossing the bridge from her ready room “report Commander.” Berg smiled “Captain. Cargo is loaded, we have left Zeta Alpha II on course for Sentinel Minor IV. ETA-” She glanced at the nearest console “8 hours 7 minutes. Just a routine transfer run.” Checking the nearest chronometer readout Vargas nodded “Very good. You seem to have things under control here, if you’re ...

Operation Assimilation What do the first officer of the Lalo, a Hirogen hunting party, a Klingon youth from a frontier colony, and a Cardassian scientist have in common? They were all once individuals with their own identities, their own lives, their own personalities. Then the Borg came. And like so many other uncounted billions before them they struggled, they fought, and they ultimately met the same inevitable fate: assimilation. Their identities, their lives, their very beings were stripped away, replaced by the indomitable will of the Borg Collective. Despite their disparate origins and the vast distances between them, after their encounters with the collective one inexorable truth remained: no matter how valiant your struggle, no matter how long you hold out against the storm, the Borg will prevail. Resistance is futile. For millennia the Borg have spread throughout the galaxy like a plague, destroying thousands of civilizations on thousands of worlds across all four quadra...

Coming Soon... Resistance is Futile.