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......

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...

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...

The Mobile Emitter Paradox(es) In 2373 USS Voyager acquired the mobile holoemitter, a piece of 29th century technology, from Henry Starling, a 20th-century human who had salvaged it from the wreckage of Captain Braxton’s 29th century timeship, the Aeon. Voyager’s EMH continued to use the mobile emitter, eventually bringing it back to earth when Voyager returned home in 2378. Like all the other new technology aboard Voyager Starfleet would study it in detail and ultimately attempt to duplicate it. In Star Trek Picard season 3 ep 5 "Imposters" we see that the Federation/Starfleet has developed a mobile emitter, as evidenced by Worf and Raffi’s holo-duplicates using mobile emitters in their first meeting with the Vulcan gangster Krimm. Krimm even recognizes the mobile emitters as such (meaning that by the early 25th century the technology has not only been developed but is in common use). Krimm: (after shooting holo-Raffi) “Were you under the impression I would not recognize ...

My TOS Five Year Mission Timeline I'm going to start by saying that I know that there will be some disagreement about this. Here goes: I believe that TOS covered all 5 years of James Kirk's 5 year mission on the Enterprise (NOT just the first 3 years). Hear me out: going by the stardates given in most episodes, the stardates at the beginning of the series are in the 1xxx/x range, at the end of the series they are in the upper 5xxx.x range. Theory (mine): the first digit corresponds to which year of the 5 year mission. Therefore we have actually seen all 5 years of Kirk's famous tenure. Here I have listed all 79 episodes in stardate order, broken down by year: First Year (2265) 1312.4 Where No Man Has Gone Before 1329.1 Mudd's Women 1512.2 The Corbomite Maneuver 1513.1 The Man Trap 1533.6 Charlie X 1672.1 The Enemy Within 1704.2 The Naked Time 1709.1 Balance of Terror Second Year (2266) 2124.5 The Squire of Gothos 2534.0 Patterns of Force 2712.4 What Are Little Girls Mad...

Thoughts on the upcoming Strange New Worlds season 3 I've been holding off on this post for a while, but I'm finally deciding to do it.  My thoughts on the upcoming 3rd season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Following their standard modus operandi these days Paramount has released a couple of trailers, a set of pictures and the episode name for season 3.  The much delayed season 3 (thanks to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023).  I for one have been waiting for season 3 to see the conclusion of season 2's cliffhanger ending (Hegemony) with the Gorn.  I for one raise a serious eyebrow at the series whole use of the Gorn, as the TOS episode Arena as much as screamed that that incident was first contact between the Federation and the Gorn.  I'm not going to die on that hill, we all know how much TPTB don't care about canon.  Moving on. From the trailers and pictures it definitely looks like we're getting more Scotty (cool) and more Kirk-it'll be interestin...

Worst Starfleet Starship Designs: A Rant In 2009 we were introduced to the Kelvin timeline and JJ Abrams version of the classic NCC-1701: Yeah... Dude! It's not a hot rod! It's the Starship Enterprise.  It doesn't need all the aerodynamic fins and sh*#, it's in space.  The supposed scale is ridiculous (and doesn't work), the nacelles look totally stupid, the overall color scheme is more TMP than TOS, and I don't even know what the f*$# is going on with the neck sitting way back on the drive section. In Star Trek Beyond, it had apparently gone through a refit (IRL the ship's neck and pylons were slimmed down to make the destruction by Krall's swarm more plausible).  And it actually looks worse.  A lot worse. Into Darkness gave us this hot mess: The USS Vengeance.  When I first saw it I was like "what is this? Really? Is this a joke???" For a Star Trek ship: NO.  Just no. When Star Trek Discovery was first announced and anticipation was hig...

Star Trek Picard Season 1: A Rant Honestly...I'm not all that impressed with Star Trek Picard season 1.  Never have been since I first binge watched it during my free first month of Paramount+ during the COVID lockdowns. Some of my main complaints/peeves: (in no particular order) 1. Content Now I'm not a prude.  But honestly: I really don’t need all the blood gore and F-bombs in my Star Trek. And don't get me wrong, some light swearing is ok and Trek has done that in the past (conservatively, tactfully, tastefully) but seriously: the head admiral C-in-C of Starfleet telling retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard to "shut the f___ up" is unprofessional, unnecessary and unrealistic. And that's not the only time she says it. In the first episode she calls Picard’s plan "sheer f___ing hubris". And she's not the only character to do it either. Dr. Jurati the earth's foremost expert on artificial intelligence (the nerdy scientist girl) drops the F...

A Fan Theory... Just a theory I had...the technology used by the Caretaker to transport USS Voyager, Chakotay's Maquis ship, USS Equinox, Dreadnought, etc. to the Delta Quadrant actually utilized the mycelial network. The Nacene (the Caretaker and Suspiria) are described as a sporocystian life form.  A sporocyst is a structure in Ascosphaera fungi. The important words here are ‘spore’ and ‘fungi’. The USS Discovery’s spore drive used spores of a species of fungus, Prototaxites Stellaviatori to travel vast distances near instantaneously using the mycelial network.  Also, in “Cold Fire” it is established that Suspiria naturally lives in a subspace layer called Exosia. Theory: Exosia is actually the Nacene’s name for the mycelial plane, the subspace layer in which the mycelial network exists. I know that Discovery travelled across the Mycelial Network with little to no ill effects, while the USS Voyager et.al. suffered heavy damage/casualties in the process, however, it should be...

Star Trek Starship Creator (PC) 1998 Star Trek Starship Creator was developed by Imergy and published by Simon & Schuster Interactive in 1998 for Windows 95-XP and MacOS 7.5-9.  To call it a game is a bit of a stretch.  "Software toy" would be a better description.  As the name implies, it lets you create a starship (from one of 7 classes, the add-on pack released in 1999 adds 3 more classes) assign a crew from a list of characters from TOS,TNG, DS9, and Voyager and the movies and send the ship on pre-scripted missions.  Add-on pack also introduces the ability to send 2 ships on a mission simultaneously.  For those who are up for a bit of scripting, custom missions and crewmembers can be added.  The sequel, Starship Creator Warp II released in 2000 added some additional missions, a non federation ship class, and attempts to maked creating custom missions and custom crewmembers easier. Like Simon & Schuster's other trek offerings from the mid and lat...

Time for a little ranking fun.  Today, I’m ranking the Star Trek series finales.  Before anyone says anything, I am not counting Star Trek Prodigy 1: because I have not really watched the series, and 2: because there has been no official announcement that the series is ended.   Keep in mind that this is my ranking, you do not have to agree.  As with any ranking YMMV. From best to worst: 1. What You Leave Behind (DS9) A worthy ending for the series, wrapping up pretty much all of the remaining loose ends (granted DS9 had so many loose ends and so many story lines going that the had to start wrapping up things several episodes early).  “What You Leave Behind” is a satisfying end to the series, the Dominion War, and Sisko’s arc.  Definitely top of the list. 2. All Good Things (TNG) “All Good Things”.  Full disclaimer: I am a TNG fan first and foremost, so I am admittedly a bit biased, but I love this episode.  The only reason this isn’t at the t...