JC's Trek Talk

The Prime Directive Case Studies The following is pulled from the Starfleet Academy command school curriculum for Command 101: The Prime Directive General Order 1.  The Prime Directive.  The Federations most sacred regulation.  It prohibits Federation citizens from knowingly or willfully interfering in the natural evolution, development and internal affairs of other cultures, especially those less advanced than the Federation (for planets or cultures who have not yet developed warp travel, all contact is prohibited).  The consequences short term and long term of interference to a civilizations cultural development and evolution are unimaginable, and often irreversible.   Consider these two incidents: Omega IV On stardate 4732.4 Captain Ronald Tracey of the USS Exeter NCC-1672 beamed down to the surface of Omega IV after his crew contracted and succumbed to a viral infection brought aboard by an away team.  Captain Tracey exposed himself and his advance...

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...

From the Federation historical database The following speech "The Path to Peace" was delivered by Admiral Nyota Uhura, director, Starfleet Intelligence at the second Khitomer Conference in 2344.   Stardate 21789.4 Earth date 22 July 2344   Madam president, Chancellor, Ambassadors, honored guests. 90 years ago the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire fought a bitter, bloody war that resulted in unimaginable death and destruction, a loss of life on both sides totaling perhaps as much as 100 million souls.   From that conflict the Federation emerged battered, bloody, embittered, but resolute.   From that conflict the Empire emerged battered, bloody, but unified.   From two dozen great houses splintered, infought and in conflict came a single strong unified force under one leader.   80 years ago the Federation and the Empire found themselves on the brink of a second war, fueled by mutual distrust as weapons fire lit the sky over O...

Star Trek Most Memorable Movie Quotes The Classic Movies Star Trek: The Motion Picture Ilia: "Kirk unit!  Disclose the information.  Why has the creator not responded?" Ilia: "The creator must join with V'ger." Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Spock: "Were I to invoke logic, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Kirk: "KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!" Spock: "I have been...and always shall be...your friend" Kirk: "Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most...human." Star Trek III: The Search For Spock Sulu: "Don't call me tiny" Kirk: "You Klingon bastard...you've killed my son!" Kirk: "My God, Bones, what have I done?" McCoy: "What you had to do.  What you always do.  Turn death into a fighting chance to live." Spock: "My father says you have been my friend.  That you came back for me.  Why did you do this?"...

Trek Throwback Thursday: Star Trek on Gameboy (and Game Gear) The Gameboy, Nintendo's super popular handheld.  The juggernaut that built the handheld gaming market.  Nintendo's Gameboy and it's competitor from Sega gave us three Star Trek games, one set in the TOS era and two in the TNG era.  Star Trek 25th Anniversary Developed by: Visual Concepts Published by: Ultra Released: 1992 Despite sharing the name, this is not in fact a port of Star Trek 25th Anniversary for the NES.  This action/shoot 'em up game consists of a combination of space shoot 'em up and planetside adventure maze levels, culminating in fighting the Doomsday Machine (from the eponymous TOS episode).  An ok game, the gameplay is a bit basic (necessity of being on the Gameboy), and as such the replay value suffers.   Rating: 2/5  Star Trek: The Next Generation Developed by: Imagineering Inc. Published by: Absolute Entertainment Released: 1993 This is an almost direct port of the ...

Star Trek Timeline The DSC/SNW/TOS Era (2245-2269) 2245 • USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched under the command of Robert April • Pavel Chekov is born • Michael Burnham becomes the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy • The battle of Donatu V is fought between the Federation and Klingon Empire • USS Constellation NCC-1017 is launched • Johnathan Archer dies 2246 • In response to a famine crisis Governor Kodos invokes martial law on Tarsus IV and slaughters half of the colonies population.   • Hoshi Sato dies at Tarsus IV • USS Hood NCC-1703 is launched 2247 • The Eminiar-Vendikar war begins • USS Exeter NCC-1672 is launched • Spock declines an offer to enter the Vulcan Science Academy, instead opting to join Starfleet 2248 • Starfleet loses contact with the UESPA Friendship 1 probe • USS Excalibur NCC-1664 is launched • USS Lexington NCC-1709 is launched 2249 • Michael Burnham begins serving aboard USS Shenzhou • Risa off...

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......

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...

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...

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...

Trek Throwback Thursday: The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar Julia Ecklar's The Kobayashi Maru (TOS #47) is a fun little self contained TOS novel which explores the backstories of some of our favorite TOS characters. Full disclosure: this review will be more than a bit biased. This is one of the first Star Trek novels I ever read, and one of my favorites. Set shortly after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the story opens with Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov onboard a USS Enterprise shuttlecraft disabled after hitting a gravitic mine. After Sulu likes their situation to the famous (infamous?) Starfleet Academy Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario, Kirk, Chekov, Sulu and Scotty each share the story of their respective attempts to beat the no-win scenario. From Kirk's trying three times and then cheating by reprogramming the simulation, Chekov's destroying his ship to prevent capture (his story mostly focuses on another similar training scenario), Sulu taking the test amid the...

Subject: Captain James Tiberius Kirk Serial number: SC937-0176CEC Report: List of violations of the Temporal Prime Directive "Tomorrow is Yesterday" USS Enterprise inadvertently thrown back in time to 1969 Earth after using light speed breakaway factor to escape the gravity of a black star -Destroying a 20th century aircraft with the USS Enterprise tractor beam -Getting caught and arrested by a 20th century military police officer for trespassing -Assaulting a 20th century Air Force colonel -Exposing a citizen of the 20th century, the military police officer to the USS Enterprise -Exposing a citizen of the 20th century, USAF Captain John Christopher to the USS Enterprise and extraterrestrials (Spock) -Revealing information about the future (UESPA, Starfleet) to USAF Captain John Christopher "City on the Edge of Forever" Captain Kirk and Commander Spock travelled back in time to 1930 Earth using the Guardian  of Forever to correct changes to the timeline caused by a ...

Federation Class Dreadnought class starship History 2259 In 2259 a group of engineers from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and strategists from Starfleet Tactical led by then Captain Jose Mendez introduced a proposal to the Federation Council for a new, more powerful, more heavily armed starship class, to serve as both a heavy combat vessel and a standard-bearer for Starfleet. The ship would be faster and much more heavily armed than anything that came before, even the jewel of the fleet, the Constitution Class. Many on the Federation Council were skeptical, the very idea of a dreadnought, essentially a battleship, being antithetical to Starfleet and the Federations core ideals. Within the ranks of Starfleet many officers who had served in the recently concluded Federation-Klingon war supported building the new ship while others, including Captains Pike and Wesley, Commodore Paris and Admiral April were strongly opposed to the dreadnought class ships, siding with the majority of t...