JC's Trek Talk

Thoughts on Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Starfleet Academy's 32nd century Starfleet Ships I am not a fan of the 32nd century Starfleet ship designs from Star Trek Discovery and the upcoming Starfleet Academy series.  I get that these are designs from a far future when new technologies and techniques have been developed by Starfleet, but there are a number of things about these ships that just don't work for me. Overall Esthetics I know that these are designs from the 31st and 32nd centuries when technologies have evolved and changed over the centuries and new technologies have been developed and discovered (see programmable matter).  That said, many of these designs don't look remotely Starfleet.   The Courage and Eisenberg classes look much more at home as battleships in some alien fleet.   The Mars Class with it's crab claw looking nacelles(?) is interesting, but again not very Starfleet.  The design would much better fit an alien ship. ...

Thoughts on Starfleet Academy's Uniforms and Combadges The two trailers and small number of pictures released to date for the upcoming Starfleet Academy gives us a pretty good look at the series uniforms and combadge.  Some thoughts: Starting with Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) in the standard(?) instructor(?) uniform.  The asymmetric bottom is very much in keeping with Star Trek Discovery's 32nd century uniforms.  Not entirely sure why they didn't just use the Discovery season 4-5 uniforms.  Overall not a huge fan of this one.  The silver and black stripe just looks strange. Robert Picardo as The Doctor (EMH) from Voyager.  His special uniform (flag officer?) is mostly white, the color for medical in Star Trek Discovery.  It still has the weird asymmetric bottom (see above). Here we see Lura Thok in a special uniform with Discovery style gorgets showing her rank.  A dress uniform maybe? Holly Hunter as Nahla Ake in what I guess is an officers uniform....

The Kelvin Timeline In light of the recent announcement that there will most likely not be a 4th Kelvin Timeline JJ-Verse reboot movie I though I would give my opinions of the Kelvin reboot movies. Star Trek 2009 Officially just titled "Star Trek" this movie "rebooted" the Star Trek franchise after it's forced hiatus following the cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise 4 years earlier.  This in itself is not a bad thing.  The issues are in execution.  First, taking Star Trek, something that has always been more than a bit intellectual and focused primarily on problem solving and characters and making it into fully action "pew pew" shootemup summer action flicks.  This totally doesn't fit with the franchise.  The biggest explanation for this is that the creative powers and primarily director J.J. Abrams were more familiar with Star Wars and tried to make Trek more like Star Wars.  Star Trek is NOT Star Wars.  The result as I see it in Star Trek 2009 i...

Scale and Size: a Discussion There is quite a lot of debate and vitriol online of late regarding size and scale of starships in Star Trek.   In an attempt to quell the fan debate SNW season 3s "What Is Starfleet?" documentary establishes a length of 442.6 meters for the constitution class USS Enterprise.  This numbers fails for several reasons.  As pointed out by VenomGeekMedia on a recent video discussion about starship scale and perspective, this size fails for several reasons.  1: with a crew compliment of 203 (during Pikes time) or even 430 (in Kirk's time) the accepted 289m length (TOS era) or 305m (Movies refit) is plenty big enough for the crew.  Despite what J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman may think, 289m is actually quite large.  To  be frank J.J. Abrams blatant upscaling of the Kelvin Enterprise to around 750 meters long simply doesn't work.  For one, the bridge, with a window viewscreen through which we can see from the outside peopl...

Star Trek Starfleet Academy Trailer A new trailer for Star Trek Starfleet Academy dropped over the weekend at NYCC. My thoughts: We get a few good views of the USS Athena NCC-392023, the ship that apparently houses Starfleet Academy.  There's a flashback with Nahla Ake in a Discovery season 3 style uniform.  The dialogue establishes that she has some kind of connection with Caleb Mir.  More of Paul Giamatti as the bad guy (though I'm not too sure why this series needs one). We see Tig Notoro (Jett Reno), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly) and Robert Picardo om various scenes with with cadets, ok cool.   We get a shot of the Athena's bridge, which I still think looks a bit too much like he SNW esthetic for 900 years hence. Lots of shots of character moments, cadet camaraderie, training, but mostly just eye candy.  Like Discovery this series looks to put a lot of focus on character drama, relationships, connections.  I'm worried that it could overpower the seri...

Strange New Worlds Season 3 Season Review Overall Impressions Uneven would be one word to describe this season, especially the first half, with a serious episode, followed by a lighthearted episode, followed by a serious episode, followed by a lighthearted episode, followed by a serious episode.  The back half of the season is more consistently serious (except of course for the Vulcan episode).  On the whole though, some pretty decent trek.  This season seemingly ended the Spock-Chapel arc and replaced it with the Spock-La'An arc, mainly to put Chapel with Roger Korby (originally established in TOS "What are Little Girls Made of". the season also expanded on and eventually wrapped up the Pike-Batel arc by adding a Batel-Gorn subplot first established in season 2's finale Hegemony, in this seasons finale New Life and New Civilizations.  As an audience member and having seen TOS, the foreknowledge that Pike will end up with Vina in TOS "The Menagerie part 2" m...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 10 New Life and New Civilizations The season 3 finale.  We finally get the see the end of Captain Batels story.  Scotty gets "pranked" into dressing in dress uniform and kilt much like how Uhura got pranked in Children of the Comet.  I'm really liking the characterization of Scotty here and in recent episodes.  I'm liking seeing more Sam Kirk.  The eye stabbing out thing was a bit much.  Batels eyes lighting up looked a little like the Zetarian from TOS "The Lights of Zetar".  Also cool seeing more Kirk and Spock working together.  Spock calls Kirk "Jim" for first time.  The mind meld to allow the two ships to work together in perfect synchronicity was a pretty cool idea.  The Pike-Batel alternate future together, alternate timeline, at different stages, different time, seeing Pike and Batel's daughter growing up scene was definitely inspired by TNG's The Inner Light.  Also the...

The Fandom: a Rant There's something I need to get off my chest: people need to take a chill pill.  You and I may not like some Star Trek series and love others, and that's fine.  You don't have to like every series that is released.  Just because you don't like a certain series doesn't mean everyone hates it.  Bad is subjective.  Some people like lower decks and Prodigy.  I personally do not.  I really like SNW, some people in this comments section obviously do not.  I am also not a fan of Enterprise or very much of Voyager, two series that were produced during the Berman Era.  I love SNW, a Kurtzman Era show.  Regardless, whether you or I like the newer shows or not, they're still Star Trek, and still canon.  Deal with it.  I personally despise Section 31, Into Darkness, and most of Discovery (first 4 seasons).  I still accept that they are and always will be part of the franchise and canon.  You and I as viewers DO...

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 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 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...

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 ...

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......

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...

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...

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...