Star Trek Social Club

The critical anthology ‘Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier,’ edited by Amy H. Sturgis and Emily Strand, will surprise and inform readers from beginning to end. In the foreword, science fiction scholar and novelist Una McCormack asks, “Why ‘Star Trek’?” These essays answer that question over and over again with original perspectives, scholarly research, and thorough analysis of the ‘Star Trek’ media universe. Divided into three sections, “Exploring the Series and Films,” “Exploring the Ideas,” and “Exploring the Multimedia Storytelling,” this collection features deep dives into characters like Jonathan Archer and Seven of Nine, as well as broader investigations of the political, imperial, ecological, and linguistic systems at work on the futuristic Final Frontier. The essays range widely in content, from discussions of ancient Greece and Rome in the ‘Original Series’ and conspiracy theories in ‘Voyager,’ to series-wide studies of the creation of fictional languages and the consequences of imagining a future with infinite energy resources. Despite its range and variety, the anthology provides a rich, coherent understanding of how the series’ creators, writers, actors and fans have worked together to develop the most popular and challenging speculative fiction series of our era. Ultimately, and in the best tradition of science fiction, these critical essays on ‘Star Trek’ provide insight not only into this franchise but into our present, very human selves—our struggles, our prejudices, and our dreams.

Dr. Kathryn N. McDaniel

Andrew U. Thomas Professor of History Chair, Department of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Gender Studies Marietta College

I'm not really clear on why the turbolift would fall in the first place... Is that a gravity plating thing? I guess gravity plating must work without power?

Also Picard knew it was going to fall... are we to infer he'd rather be pancaked than spend another moment with those kids?

Be sure to watch or rewatch as soon as it drops on Netflix! Those early viewership numbers are key.

Inspired by the ongoing Resurgence giveaway, I thought it might be fun to discuss some of our favourite Trek games. Underappreciated gems are particularly welcome!

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing fine and are well prepared for the winter holidays!

We at Dramatic Labs want to sweeten the festive season a little and are therefore giving away a total of 10 copies of Star Trek Resurgence on a platform of your choice (PS4, PS5, Xbox or PC).

Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative-driven adventure game created by former members of Telltale Games that delivers all the excitement and wonder of the Star Trek universe. Join the crew of the U.S.S. Resolute as first officer Jara Rydek and enlisted engineer Carter Diaz on a mission to prevent an eons-old and powerful force from engulfing everything in its wake!

To take part, you have to comment on which Star Trek games you grew up with and which one was your favourite. The 10 winners will be randomly selected and contacted by me. The giveaway will run until 21st December 23:59 CET.

We would also be very happy if you visit us on our socials:

Discord: https://discord.gg/4PnJRN7xqy

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/TrekResurgence

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091845953352

Have fun and I look forward to your comments! 🖖

I love these edits, somehow I'd never encountered this one before. Happy Holidays!

I have mixed feelings about Disco ending. I really dug the first season's look at a Federation at war, and following the person who arguably set that war in motion dealing with her culpability. Add to that a ship that is part weird science lab, part haunted house. And yeah, I could live with the Klingon redesign.

It was inventive, it took risks and broke some moulds — and not always successfully, mind you. But I stuck with it from the hopeful "First three seasons are for growing pains" Trek paradigm.

Then the show took some odd turns. Rather than focusing on the crew's adventures in space and science, season two constructed a cosmic conundrum around Burnham and her family. I was still on board for the characters, even bearded Spock no matter how shoehorned in he felt. The show's unapologetic optimism was still a big selling point, too.

With season three came the time jump into a future that absolutely does not feel like it's a thousand years ahead of the previous season. The jump in technology should be proportional to a Viking longboat rocking up to the ISS, but it felt like a step back. And at this point, the extended crew of the Discovery was thoroughly sidelined: Burnham's personal relationships took priority over everything else.

For one example: As great as Michelle Yeoh is, the show basically redeemed a murderous space despot because... she reminded Burnham of her Starfleet counterpart?! I'm going to stop you right there, Captain "This is Starfleet" — this is a person who kept rubbing in Saru's face how familiar she was with the taste of his species' flesh.

I'll keep watching Disco through to its end because I'm invested in the remaining characters, but this isn't the show I apprehensively fell in love with anymore. Its strengths are all but gone, its faults enhanced, and its commercial(?) failure seems to have convinced the Powers That Be that future Star Trek needs to be grounded in nostalgia for previous eras.

I will miss the first season's promise of new, daring Trek shows writ large, and as much as I liked Pike and his crew in season two, SNW leans too heavily and knowingly on the franchise's campier canon for my taste (I know I'm in a minority with that opinion, and I'm not here to argue for or against). With peak TV fading, I'm afraid we won't see anything as bold as TNG, DS9 — or early Discovery — again.

Shown at the 2023 São Paulo Comic Con in Brazil

Created by @Savings-Block-1729.

Of course the real-world reason is that it's cheaper to shake the camera and set off a firecracker than to build a scale model just to paint a burn scar on the side.

But my thoughts were always that the in-universe reason had to do with the modular nature of federation starships.

In almost every episode, someone on a starship either suggests rerouting something, shunting power from one thing through another, bypassing something, compensating for one power source with another etc.

It seems that in space, being able to re-configure everything at a moment's notice is important, and to be able to do that, you need easy, fast and direct, access to everything, therefore it needs to be immediately accessible, ergo high voltage power directly behind the controls.

The lack of seatbelts goes right along with it. If a console blows up in someone's face, the next guy over needs to be able to quickly move down and take over. Don't need to have to be fighting with seatbelts when nobody is steering the ship.

I don't know why they don't have safety glasses however....