JC's Trek Talk

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 • ...

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...

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 ...

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...

On Section 31... I have never been wild about the whole concept of Section 31, since it was first established in DS9's season 6 episode "Inquisition" in which the clandestine organization abducts Dr. Bashir and then tries to recruit him.  The organization was portrayed as rogue, operation outside the purview and even official knowledge of Starfleet and the Federation.  This is in contrast to the Cardassian Obsidian Order or Romulan Tal Shiar both of which are well known and operate with the tacit approval of their respective governments.  Although the concept of Section 31 is an intriguing one in the context of DS9s many shades of grey, I personally find it unnecessary and completely antithetical to Gene Roddenberry's original vision of Star Trek.  In season 7's "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" Section 31 pops up again to meddle in Romulan Tal Shiar affairs, and then at season (and series) end it's revealed that Section 31 created a virus to commit gen...

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...

The Lost Era An era in the Star Trek timeline I would personally really like to see explored is the Lost Era, the 70-odd years between Star Trek VI/first act of Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek TNG.  Very little has been told on screen of this period in trek history, and it seems to me that it is ripe for exploration.  And yes, I know the Section 31 streaming movie is set in the Lost Era, although honestly the only thing tying to that era specifically is the presence of Lt. Rachel Garrett, future captain of the USS Enterprise-C.  Everything else in Section 31 visually and storywise could have been set in any time period.  There is a lot of material that could be covered here to provide backstory or further development to characters/plots already established in Trek canon.   To name a few:  The Cardassian occupation of Bajor Lots to establish here.  We've seen a few flashbacks to the occupation on Terok Nor (DS9) in episodes of DS9 (Necessary E...