JC's Trek Talk

Thoughts on the Maquis In the buildup to Star Trek Voyager's premiere TNG and DS9 introduced and established the Maquis, a resistance movement founded by a group of disenfranchised Federation colonists whose planets were summarily turned over to the Cardassians by an ill-advised border treaty.  This created an interesting political situation: the Cardassians secretly arming their colonists to fight the Federation colonists and drive them out while the Federation, unwilling to risk a conflict with the Cardassians and ostensibly hiding behind the Prime Directive were unwilling to actively interfere in the situation in the Demilitarized Zone.  The Federation colonists were caught in the middle of this, in fear of the Cardassians and with no protection from the Federation.  What other option do they have?  They band together as a resistance (or terrorist depending on your point of view) called the Maquis (the name borrowed from the French resistance in WWII).  The C...

Star Trek Trivia Quiz Delta 1. What actor appeared as the same character in Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Prodigy and Star Trek Starfleet Academy? 2. The planet Tars Lamora, on which the USS Protostar was found is located in which quadrant? 3. Who was appointed science officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain Decker by Admiral Kirk, but later died in a transporter accident? 4. What xenophobic group led by John Fredrick Paxton attempted to stop the formation of the Coalition of Planets in 2155 before being defeated by the NX-01 crew? 5. In the Kelvin timeline, the USS Enterprise was destroyed by Krall's swarm and the crew temporarily stranded on what planet? 6. After Vulcan reunified with the Romulans, what was the name of planet Vulcan changed to? 7. What was the name of the human soldier from Alcor IV who found the abandoned USS Discovery in the 43rd century? 8. In 2370, the Ferengi attempted to open trade relations with the Dosi, a Dominion member species from the Gamma Quadran...

Star Trek Trivia Quiz Beta 1. What was Emperor Philippa Georgiou's full name? 2. A participant in the Temporal Cold War, the Suliban Cabals mysterious benefactor was said by Agent Daniels to be from what century? 3. What was the title of the groundbreaking research paper penned by Dr. Katharine Pulaski early in her medical career? 4. What ship did James Kirk and Benjamin Finney serve on together as midshipmen? 5. After nearly 7 years in the Delta Quadrant USS Voyager was given it's first official assignment since becoming stranded: to track down an ancient UESPA probe.  What was the name of that probe?  6. On what planet were Michael Burnham's parents apparently killed during a Klingon attack? 7. Who said "before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves"? 8. La'an Noonien-Singh was the sole survivor of a Gorn attack on a colony ship.  What was the name of that ship? 9. What was D'Vana Tendi's title in the Orion Syndicate? 10. The derelict Bor...

Star Trek Trivia Quiz Alpha 1. The events surrounding the deployment of the Gamma Quadrant communication relay were foreseen three thousand years ago and written down in what piece of Bajoran scripture? 2. The ship's chef on the USS Enterprise during Kirk's tenure as captain, who contacted Kirk on the bridge to inform him that the synthesized meatloaf had turned into real turkeys was voiced by whom? 3. When she departed Earth on Voyager's fateful trip to the Badlands, Kathryn Janeway left behind her fiancé Mark and her pregnant Irish setter.  What was the dog's name? 4. Following a distress signal, Starfleet security officer turned Maquis leader Michael Eddington went down in a blaze of glory saving Maquis refugees on a secret base on what planetoid? 5. During the trip to 1986 San Francisco, James Kirk went on a dinner date with marine biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor.  What beverage did they order with their meals at the pizza restaurant? 6. DS9's "The Search, par...

The Post Dominion War Years 2376-2380 Following the end of the Dominion War and the signing of the Treaty of Bajor, the Alpha Quadrant found itself in disarray-to put it mildly.  The Federation had lost in total at least 500 ships, the Klingons at least as many.  Romulan numbers are not known, although inside sources have indicated that losses for the Romulan fleet could be as high as 30 percent.  The Federation would provide aid to many devastated worlds, including core members like Betazed and Benzar.  Cardassia Prime was left in ruins and the Cardassian Union found itself leaderless and on the brink of societal collapse.  Repairs and rebuilding of Starfleet Headquarters in San Franscisco on Earth after the Breen attack would continue into mid 2376.  Although the most destructive war in the history of the Alpha Quadrant was ended, it would be some years before affairs returned to anything resembling normalcy.   Starfleet Starfleet would focus sh...

JC's Guide to the Final Frontier III The Search for Answers Another fistful of the Final Frontier's follies and failings General Order 1 And the award for the quickest violation of the prime directive (relative to the beginning of the ship's mission) goes to...Captain Christopher Pike.  On the first day of his second five year mission, Captain Pike revealed himself, his half-Vulcan science officer and the Enterprise itself to the natives of Kylie 279.  Granted he was sent there to rescue a captured Starfleet survey team, and granted the prime directive was already violated before that when the battle between Starfleet and the Control-controlled Section 31 forces near Xahea was observed by the Kylians (a classified event in and of itself) and granted it went peacefully and the Kylians would eventually become Federation members, and the classified nature of how the Kylians learned about warp technology let Pike off the hook anyway so... I guess all's well that ends well. ...

JC's Guide to the Final Frontier Volume II  More glib, blunt and possibly politically incorrect musings on the final frontier: Unluckiest in Love Possibly the unluckiest man in the Galaxy when it comes to women is a certain eternally mono-piped ops officer on the intrepid starship Voyager.  Out of politeness I won't say his name, but it rhymes with "Harry Kim".  Among his failed exploits: a holodeck character puppeted by an alien, an ex-Borg, the wrong Delaney twin, a women from a xenophobic species (including sex without medical clearance-he got reprimanded for that one) a resurrected dead crewmember, and a group of life-sucking Taresian bridezillas.  This guy has even less luck with the opposite sex than Geordi LaForge.  Stranger Things Sir Arthur Eddington (no relation to Maquis leader Michael-we hope) once said: "Not only is the Universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine".  True.  Look at the time women from Sigma Draconi...

JC's Guide to the Final Frontier In the style of Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenbergers' Q's Guide to the Continuum, some glib, blunt and possibly politically incorrect musings on the final frontier: Gul Dukat Gul Dukat went from a self-aggrandizing narcissist and opportunist (and serial womanizer) to self-important egotist and delusional madman.  Sounds kind of like a certain 2020's U.S. President... Some Ridiculous Interstellar Fails In 2371 the crew of USS Voyager experimented with using a new form of dilithium to achieve transwarp velocity.  The test flight of a modified shuttlecraft turned Tom Paris into a salamander.  Paris kidnapped Captain Janeway and took her to transwarp.  And they had salamander babies on a planet.  Yes, this was an episode.  The crew left the salamander babies on the planet-probably for the best (with all the fucked up implications bringing them along would have). It's almost as bad as that time Christopher Pike promoted o...

Episode Spotlight VOY's Scorpion parts 1 and 2 and The Gift Scorpion Part 1 Voyager reaches Borg Space.  In one of the shortest teasers in the entire franchise two Borg cubes hail an unseen vessel "We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is-" Suddenly the cubes are struck by energy beams and explode!  After the title sequence we see Janeway in a holodeck recreation of Leonardo DaVinci's workshop, with holographic Leonardo DaVinci played by John Rhys-Davies.  After being called by Chakotay Janeway goes to engineering where she (and we) learn that one of Voyager's probes has been captured and assimilated by the Borg.  Voyager has reached Borg space.  After a meeting with the senior officers to discuss the situation the entire ship and crew are made ready for an encounter with the Borg.  Voyager proceeds to what the crew call "the northwest passage", a narrow are...

The Worst of Star Trek Voyager Threshold Threshold.  For about 10 years this episode held to dubious honor of being considered the worst episode of Trek ever (until Enterprise ended in 2005 with "These are the Voyages" which actually stole Threshold's shit crown).  The crew equip a shuttlecraft with a new form of dilithium and Tom Paris breaks the Warp 10 barrier (read: infinite speed).  After returning to the ship he mutates into a lizard creature.  He then kidnaps captain Janeway, takes her to warp 10 and they both mutate into salamander creatures.  And have salamander babies on a planet.  Even Brannon Braga has admitted this episode was a "royal steaming stinker". Virtuoso Voyager meets the Qomar, a species who have never heard music.  They then go totally googoo fan girl over the Doctors opera singing.  Boring premise.  Also the Qomar come across as jerks for fangirling over the Doctor, then just as quickly replacing him with a "superior,...

What is Star Trek About? A Reflective Essay What is Star Trek about?  This is an interesting and loaded question.  From it's beginning with the original series in the 1960's Star Trek is and always has been about deep, thoughtful, intellectual stories about an optimistic future for humanity.   The concept as conceived by Gene Roddenberry was a future in which humanity (a united humanity) works together with other races and species in common cause.  The cause being exploration, learning and personal betterment.  A future where humanity has overcome its internal struggles and provincial attitudes and prejudices and moved beyond national squabbles, beyond poverty, disease, war, into a more enlightened future.  In the original series this was often shown in the form of episodes that were in truth morality plays, set in a sci-fi concept and a future several hundred years hence. Episodes like "Let That be Your Last Battlefield" that took a very blunt look ...

Trek Throwback Thursday Star Trek in the 1990s The 1990s.  Arguably Star Trek's golden age.  Many would call it the peak of the franchise.  The Next Generation hit it's stride, Deep Space Nine ran it's entire seven seasons, Voyager ran it's first five, Kirk and company made their final motion picture appearances, and The Next Generation cast starred in three motion pictures of their own.  Whether you watched reruns or new episodes of TNG or DS9 on whichever channel had the first run syndication rights in your area or caught Voyager on UPN (remember UPN?), you saw some of Trek's finest hours: TNGs "The Best of Both Worlds", "The Inner Light" and "Chain of Command", DS9s "Duet", "The Visitor", "In the Pale Moonlight and "Far Beyond the Stars" and Voyagers "Scorpion", not to mention some of the franchises greatest movies, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek First Contact.  The h...