JC's Trek Talk

Trek Throwback Thursday: Trek Games on the NES "Set a course for sector 8 (bit)"   This is the first of three posts reviewing Star Trek games on Nintendo video game consoles (NES, SNES, Gameboy).  *I know that most of these games were also released on Sega systems.  As I do not have those games or any Sega systems, therefore I have no experience with those games and cannot offer opinions on them.  I will mention the Sega versions of games in these reviews only in terms of which games had ports and where applicable general opinions of the ports compared to the Nintendo games.* The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  The system   that built Nintendo as a video game giant and at the same time resurrected the American video game market.  This system also gave us trekkies two different Star Trek games: one TOS game and one TNG game.   Star Trek 25th Anniversary Developed by: Interplay Published by: Ultra Released: 1992 An action/adventure f...

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...

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...

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 ...

Head Canon: Galorndon Core Galorndon Core Hyralan Sector Near the Romulan Neutral Zone 2157 Second year of the Earth Romulan War Coalition forces are looking at locations for a temporary base of operations closer to Romulan space. Top of the short list is Galorndon Core, an L-class world near the border of Romulan space. This info is leaked to the Romulans by a Romulan spy posing as a Vulcan. The Romulan senate decides this is too close for comfort and decide to go “scorched earth” against the coalition. They sent a fleet of 5 ships armed with nuclear warheads to Galorndon core to bombard the planetoid. The fleet arrives at Galorndon Core. They attack the small coalition fleet in orbit. The NX-06 Endeavour is disabled, three other smaller ships (two Neptune class and one Vulcan Vahklas class) are destroyed. The Romulan ships then enter orbit and bombard the planet, firing their entire payloads of Nuclear weapons at the surface. The planet is left irradiated, mired in a nuclear ...

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...

From Starfleet Historical Files Filed Stardate 57262.1, February 2380 Lieutenant Aurelan Brand, Starfleet Diplomatic Corps Captain Rylen Sh'ross, Professor Emeritus, Starfleet History, Starfleet Academy An In Depth Re-Examination of the Battle of Narendra III The Battle The battle of Narendra III.  An oft overlooked yet pivotal moment in the annals of Federation history.  The year was 2344, Stardate 21096.4.  A flight of 4 A-type Romulan warbirds crossed the border into Klingon space and attacked the Klingon colony on Narendra III.  Although uncorroborated, sources inside the Romulan Empire have since indicated that the attack was a rogue operation, ordered by the then recently-deposed Praetor, Dralath.  Responding to a distress call from the colony the Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C diverted from its patrol near the Archer system and moved to defend the colony.  What happened next is unclear, as there are no first-hand accounts from the battle.  W...