Star Trek Social Club

Written by: Edgar Momplaisir

Directed by: Bob Suarez

The title is a pun on the 2004 British horror parody television series Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace. The Ferengi dragging Boimler out of his room is using a Ferengithe Ferengi merchant Ulis in 2151 (ENT: “Acquisition”).

Rom became the Grand Nagus in DS9: “The Dogs of War”, Zek appointing Rom as his successor to carry on his reforms to create a kinder, gentler Ferenginar.

The Genesis Device is of course the central McGuffin of ST II. The one that blew up and created the Genesis Planet was thought to be the only one, but we’ve seen another model stored in Daystrom Station (PIC: “The Bounty”).

“He thinks Rom is the next Lonz.” A deep cut, Lonz was the most famous nose flute player in Ferengi history, also known as “Old Golden Nostril” (DS9 book: Legends of the Ferengi).

Rule of Acquisition No. 62: “The riskier the road, the greater the profit”, was first mentioned in DS9: “Rules of Acquisition”, among other episodes.

The Stardate is 58901.5. The Ferengi Alliance wanting to join the Federation is a huge deal. Although Nog was the first Ferengi in Starfleet (DS9: “Heart of Stone”), by 2400, there will be more Ferengi cadets in Starfleet Academy (PIC: “The Star Gazer”, a Ferengi flag is being flown during commencement among other flags showing the composition of the graduating class), and by the 32nd Century, Ferengi officers are seen frequently, even a Captain (DIS: “Anomaly”).

The foods being served on board the Parliament-class (LD: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”) USS Toronto (NCC-70494) include a bowl of Ferengi tube grubs (DS9: “Homefront”), cheese cut out in Starfleet delta shapes and a wooden serving board in the shape of a Galaxy-class cruiser.

The bald Admiral is Vassery, who commanded Douglas Station and was the one Mariner mocked for his pronunciation of “sen-soar” (LD: “Moist Vessel”). He also appeared in Mariner’s holoprogram (LD: “Crisis Point”).

Moab IV is the location of the Genome Colony, a self-contained domed enclosing a genetically and socially-engineered society (TNG: “The Masterpiece Society”). The environment outside the dome was uninhabitable at the time the Enterprise-D visited, so Vassery’s joke might mean that has changed. Or is just a bad joke.

The 10th Rule of Acquisition is “Greed is eternal” (DS9: “Prophet Motive”); Freeman trying to quote this expresses her skepticism about Ferenginar’s application.

Leeta’s title as “First Clerk” is the title of the Nagus’ personal financial assistant (DS9: “Ferengi Love Songs”). Rom and her are accompanied by what seems to be a female Hupyrian. The species is known to be favorites of the Grand Naguses as servants, bodyguards and food tasters due to their devotion to their masters and their vows of silence to anyone other than their master. Zek’s male servant was Maihar’du (DS9: “The Nagus”).

I got to admit, the Ceremonial Invoice and the “Friends and Family Discount” made me spit out my soda. God, I’ve missed the Ferengi - the DS9 development of them, specifically. Yes, Quark made an appearance in DS9: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”, but still.

Self-sealing stem bolts are a component that nobody is quite sure what they do or what they’re for, except that they’re self-sealing. And are stem bolts (DS9: “Progress”).

For the record, “Lieutenants junior grade” is the grammatically correct usage. Much like it’s “Attorneys-General” and not “Attorney-Generals”.

There have been two travel guides published in the real world for Star Trek under the Hidden Universe Travel Guides banner: one for the Klingon Empire and the other for Vulcan. I also love the fact that the Cerritos is statistically the horniest and least committed crew in Starfleet because that tracks so much.

Finishing each other’s diophantine equations (polynomial equations where only integer solutions are allowed) could be a reference to a classic gag from Arrested Development where Michael says about Nellie, that they finish each other’s… and Lindsay chimes in with “Sandwiches?” to Michael’s bewilderment. The same joke coincidentally shows up in That 70s Show and as part of the song “Love is an Open Door” in Frozen.

Honus is the ship’s bartender (LD: “Mugato, Gumato”) and Nurse Westlake (LD: “Second Contact”) is named for Chris Westlake, the composer for LD.

We see a Ferengi shuttle (DS9: “Little Green Men”) flying by as we approach Ferenginar, on which it is always raining (DS9: “Family Business”). The Ferengi language has 178 words for rain (and none for “crisp”), rather like the hundreds of words Inuits use to describe various types of snow (DS9: “Let He Who is Without Sin”). The tall building dominating the skyline is the Ferengi Tower of Commerce, the capital building of the government (“Prophet Motive”).

Signs advertise All You Can @#S%!, Slug-O-Cola (DS9: “Profit and Lace”), Uncle Quark’s Youth Casino, Maxium Oo-Mox Rub Dungeon, Acquire Pour Homme, Lobe’s Lodge, Slug-Nasium. A marquee says “Now Playing: Latinum Lost!!!” which may be a reference to the Litverse novella Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found), which centers around the erotic holonovel of the same title.

The aFerengi shuttle (DS9: “Little Green Men”) flying by as we approach Ferenginar, on which it is always raining (DS9: “Family Business”). which may be a reference to the Litverse novella Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found), which centers around the erotic holonovelgi lobes is a symbol of virility and business acumen, which is what the Slug-O-Cola commercial plays on.

Quimp appeared in LD: “Envoys”, meeting Mariner on Tulgana IV, staging a fake attack to boost Boimler’s confidence.

Oberth-classes (like the USS Grissom from ST III) take a lot of flak. T’Ana once screamed that she didn’t spend 7 years on one just to get reassigned to a station (LD: “The Stars at Night”).

The “dagger of the mind” drink probably refers to TOS: “Dagger of the Mind” where a neural neutralizer empties a mind and makes it susceptible to suggestion.

Rom was on Sisko’s baseball team, the Niners, in DS9: “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” and scored the only run for the team in that game.

The unicorn dog in the Ferengi landlord cop show is of the species from Alfa 177 (TOS: “The Enemy Within”). We last saw one of them in the menagerie in LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

As Boimler laughs about product placement he is sitting in front of the Paramount logo. The screen also resembles the CBS eye logo.

Parth is using a holographic imager, but oddly enough closer to the Starfleet design (last seen in SNW: “Those Old Scientists”) rather than a Ferengi one (DS9: “Meridian”).

Mariner and Quimp play dabo (DS9: “Babel”) at the Ferenginar Historical Library.

Quark’s Federation Experience Bar & Grill (referring to the late lamented Las Vegas Star Trek: The Experience), has models of the Voyager and Enterprise-D hanging from the ceiling as the TNG theme tune plays. Among the decor are signs that say Engineering, Ten Forward, Where No Gift Has Gone Before, Jeffries Tube Entrance, Red Shirts and Holodeck Arcade.

Patrons enter the place between two TOS-style nacelles and are greeted by a Ferengi with a Vulcan hairstyle and eyebrows in a blue science division uniform. In a blink and you’ll miss it moment, there is a naked female Ferengi (head and shoulders visible) at one of the tables as we initially pan towards Tendi and Rutherford. Ferengi females were traditionally not allowed to wear clothes, but this began to change with Zak’s reforms, helped along by Quark and Rom’s mother Ishka.

On display are a Mugato (TOS: “A Private Little War”), the Guardian of Forever (TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”), a Vulcan gong in the arena from TOS: “Amok Time” and a Taurean ape-man with a spear from TOS: “The Galileo Seven”.

Tendi and Rutherford are seated at a table whose wall panels have a TOS-style red trim and chairs from that era. The Red Alert sound has of course been standard since TOS. The Ferengi bouncers are dressed in TNG-era security uniforms.

Tendi’s comment about the velour uniforms catching fire is similar to Boimler talking about exploding tricorders in LD: “Those Old Scientists”.

Sitting weird in chairs is a stereotype for bisexuals, of which Mariner is one. Naturally, the Ferengi Dominion War Memorial remembers the profits lost during that conflict.

The blind box is modeled on a TOS-era shuttle. We see a rocky backdrop for one of the tables that might be Sarpeidon from TOS: “All Our Yesterdays”.

The 8th Rule of Acquisition, “Small print leads to large risk” is from the beta canon book The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.

The Ferengi dragging Boimler out of his room is using a Ferengi energy whip (TNG: “The Last Outpost).

Written by: Jamie Loftus

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

• The Orion starship we see in the opening is visually similar to the Orion interceptors seen in “Borderland” with some distinct differences.

     • Notably, this interceptor has a pair of arms extending from the underside of the ship, similar to the Orion starship seen in the TAS episode, “The Pirates of Orion.”

• Starting with Risik’s tattoos, we see several examples of the Orion alphabet introduced in “Borderland”.

• Among the plunder the Orion lower deckers are sorting is:

     • A Bat’leth

     • A number of 24th century Starfleet type-2 phasers

     • A Vulcan harp

     • A 23rd century Starfleet type-2 phaser

     • A Starfleet compression phaser rifle

• ”Hey, did you guys see that Maleer got big pieces of metal attached to her head?” In “Borderland” we were introduced to the idea that Orion body modification practices do include grafting bits of what appears to be scrap metal to their bodies.

• The captain’s chair aboard the Orion ship is similar in shape to the one seen in “The Pirates of Orion”.

• The Mysterious Threat destroys the Orion vessel, just as it did the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, IKS Che’Ta’ in “Twovix”, and a Romulan ship in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• “I have put my foot in my mouth enough when it comes to Orion stuff.” Tendi was hurt by Mariner’s insistence that all Orions are pirates who love to pillage in “Crisis Point”, and Mariner again insulted Tendi by suggesting she use her pheromones to influence a dom-jot game they were attempting to hustle in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• Among his possessions on display, Boimler has a USS Cerritos commemorative plate.

• Tendi, Mariner, and T’Lyn take the Yosemite II shuttle on their away mission/girls’ trip. The original Yosemite was destroyed in when Mariner and Boimler were caught in a gravity well and forced to crash land in “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”, and the Yosemite II was introduced in “Grounded”.

• As the shuttle approaches Orion, we see an Orion barge of the type operated by Harrad-Sar in “Bound”.

• Several of the buildings on the Orion skyline bear the symbol worn by the Orion crew in “The Pirate of Orion”.

• “You grew up in a castle, like friggin’ Billups?” We learned that chief engineer Billups grew up as heir to the throne of the human colony Hysperia, which is populated entirely by “ren faire types.”

• Tendi confirms that her family is part of the Orion Syndicate, a criminal organization first mentioned in “The Ascent”.

• B’rt Tendi is played by Nolan North, who’s portrayed several Trek characters, including:

     • Bridge officer of the USS Vengeance - “Star Trek Into Darkness”

     • The Half a Rascal - “Much Ado About Boimler”

     • Cerritos transporter chief, Lundy

     • Sokel - “wej Duj”

     • K’ranch - “The Least Dangerous Game”

• The A.B. Chambers is the steamboat that Mark Twain briefly worked on.

• Boimler and Rutherford both show up dressed as Mark Twain. The real Samuel Clemens encountered the crew of the USS Enterprise D when they travelled back to 1893 in “Time’s Arrow”.

• Tendi was first referred to as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• The bottle the Slit Throat bartender pours from features an image of the Orion captain from “The Pirates of Orion”.

• The stir stick in Madam G’s drink is topped with the symbol worn by the Orion crew in “The Pirates of Orion”.

• New Seattle is a colony on Penthara IV, a world the Enterprise D responded to a disaster on in “A Matter of Time”.

• The pattern on the privacy screens of the hump dungeon mirror those of the fence in the fantasy Captain Pike experienced of Vina as an Orion “slave girl” in “The Menagerie, Part II”.

• T’Lyn observes that the male Orions in the hump dungeon appear to be under the influence of pheromonal chemical manipulation. It was established in “Bound” that Orion culture is actually matriarchal, with women controlling the men via the use of pheromones.

• ”Tendi’s made it clear that Starfleet made those pheromones up.” Actually, all Tendi ever said in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” is that she’s, ”not even that kind of Orion.”

• Coqqor is played by Eric Bauza, who’s portrayed several PRO and LDS characters, including:

     • Barniss Frex - “Asylum”

     • Scot’Ee and Sool’U - “All the World’s a Stage”

     • Assface and Screwhead - “Skin a Cat”

• Though there has previously not been any canon Chalnoth ships, the design here appears to be based on the ships seen on the cover of DC Comics’ “Star Trek: The Next Generation” #61, published in 1994.

• The starship boneyard that Tendi and D’Erika used to play in as children contains a Federation exploration vessel of the same design as the USS Raven, which Seven of Nine’s parents used to study the Borg and get assimilated. Ship type was first seen in “The Raven”.

• Coqqor devours Rutherford and Boimler’s bonsai tree. In “Allegiance” the Chalnoth Esoqq was unable to eat the food disks provided to Picard and the others by their captors, but did strongly imply that he could subsist on the Mizarian prisoner.

• ”I may not be a pirate, but I’ve rerouted my share of EPS conduits.” Tendi demonstrated her shipjacking abilities in “Hear All, Trust Nothing”.

• ”A report without the subject’s consent would be unethical.” Vulcans monitor other species without their consent all the time, such as in “Star Trek: First Contact”, “The Andorian Incident”, and “Carbon Creek”.

• Boimler and Rutherford end the episode on the holodeck, both dressed as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The works of Mozart have been featured in:

     • “Where No One Has Gone Before”

     • “The Ensigns of Command”

     • “Sarek”

     • “A Matter of Time”

     • “A Fistful of Datas”

     • “Cogenitor”

I actually enjoy this weird episode a lot. Then again, one of my favourite VOY characters is Neelix, so what do I know? What's your take on this bizarre episode?

The title is a play on the wedding rhyme/tradition, dating back to 19th Century England, of the bride wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (and a sixpence in her shoe),” for good luck. The green, of course, refers to the pigmentation of Orions.

The ship seems to be a new class of Orion Interceptor with some extra added bits, the original design of which dates back to the 22nd Century (ENT: “Borderland”). The female Orion plays with a TOS style phaser pistol and then tosses it in the trash. They talk about body modification, specifically “bolts in the head”, which we saw on the Orion privateer Harrad-Sar (ENT: “Bound”).

Mariner calls Tendi “D”, which is a reminder that her full name is D’vana Tendi. Tendi refers to Orion “belly dancer outfits” (TOS: “The Cage”, “Whom Gods Destroy”, ENT: “Bound”). Mariner says she has put her foot in her mouth about Orion culture enough times (LD: “Crisis Point”, and Boimler did the same in SNW: “Those Old Scientists”, when both assumed all Orions were pirates).

This is the first time we’ve heard of Andorian linen, but Andorian silk was also prized as a fabric (DS9: “Q-Less”). On the shelves we see Boimler’s plate of the Cerritos, his figures of Mirror Archer, Spock in his monster maroons and Data holding a phaser rifle (LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”) and his “Boimler Effect” plaque (LD: “Temporal Edict”). On Rutherford’s side we see his DS9 model (and box) from LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing” and a replica of Wesley Crusher’s tractor beam emitter model from TNG: “The Naked Now” (also seen in “I Have No Bones…”)

Grandmama Boimler said, “A cool duvet keeps the raisin rats away.” The Boimler family owns a raisin vineyard on Earth (LD: “Grounded”). “Lil Boney” the bonsai belongs to Boimler, who acquired it reluctantly in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

As the Yosemite II shuttle approaches Orion, we see a space station in orbit and also an Orion barge, resembling that piloted by Harrad-Sar in “Bound”. In Star Trek Online the 25th Century version is known as a Blackguard-class Flight Deck Assault Cruiser. We see an Orion riding a purple rhino with two horns and two tusks.

Mariner references Chief Engineer Billups’ background as a prince of Hysperia when she remarks that Tendi also grew up in a castle (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”).

One of Tendi’s titles is “Mistress of the Winter Constellations” (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”). We learn that Tendi’s parents are the Warrior Queen Shona and B’Rt. Harrad-Sar alleged in “Bound” that while most of the galaxy harbors the misconception that Orion women are slaves, it is actually the females who dominate the males via their pheromones.

Symbolic bridal kidnappings (as opposed to actual ones, which are considered sex crimes) are still part of some cultures on Earth. In the case of Orions, the kidnapping is done by a rival family between the save the date and the issuing of the invitations. Tendi is Prime Daughter.

The real Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) appeared in TNG: “Time’s Arrow”.

Comparing the lettering with the name of the bar (“Slit Throat”), the Orion alphabet is a straight one-for-one substitution with English (like Gorn script in SNW).

New Seattle is located on Penthara IV (TNG: “A Matter of Time”).

T’Lyn observes the Orion males in the “scentuary” are under the influence of chemicals, possibly pheromones. Mariner claims that Starfleet made that up to explain why a starship captain could be taken down by “show girls”, referring to the events of “Bound”, but is proven wrong. Tendi clarifies that only some Orions control others through pheromones, but not her. Ingreeta later claims Tendi doesn’t have the pheromones (but didn’t need it).

Coqqor is a Chalnoth (TNG: “Allegiance”) and claims to be from South Chalnoth, although the name of the planet is Chalna. Coqqor could be referring to a region or a city on Chalna.

The ship that Tendi says was one her and D’Erika’s favorites appears to be of the same class as the SS Raven owned by Seven of Nine’s family (VOY: “The Raven”). Tendi was raised as a Syndicate assassin, a “prime”, to be the Tip of the Moonlit Blade.

If we’re keeping score, I think Mariner gets stabbed four times in the shoulder (at the Slit Throat, the scentuary, by D’Erika and at the daughter-daddy dagger dance).

While Mozart has never appeared on Star Trek, many of his works have been heard over the course of the series in episodes.

• Cap’n Freeman’s log records the stardate as 58759.1.

• The world of Corazonia is an artificial ringworld circling a star. In “Rosetta” and “Coming Home” we saw that Species Ten-C used similar Dyson rings to harvest energy from the stars of their original home system, and their newly established home.

     • The scale of Corazonia and its star is…questionable, but that’s hardly a new issue in Trek. Consider the USS Voyager traveling through the planetary ring in VOY’s title sequence, or the utterly massive Borg cube being visible in Jupiter’s eye in the PIC finale, “The Last Generation”.

     • Not canon, but Corazonia very much resembles the Ringworld from the cover art of Larry Niven’s 1970 novel, “Ringworld”, set in his Known Space series, which is also the origin of the Kiznti.

• Corazonia’s climate is controlled by a sentient computer, Vexilon. Other planet controlling computers have been seen in:

     • “The Return of the Archons” - Landru

     • “The Apple” - Vaal

     • “Spock’s Brain” - The Controller

     • “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” - The Oracle of the People

     • “When the Bough Breaks” - The Custodian

• Freeman roles up her sleeves before getting to work on Vexilon, not unlike the way Mariner keeps her sleeves all the time, despite it landing her in the brig at least once.

• Freeman states that she ”minored in archaic technology back at the Academy.” If Mariner is to be believed in “Room for Growth”, the USS Cerritos has been overwritten by D’Arsay technology three times.

• Boimler’s team’s shuttle is the Kings Canyon, presumably named for Kings Canyon National Park

• ”Statistically, ensigns serving under recently promoted commanders are more likely to experience death and/or dismemberment.” Wesley Crusher’s entire team in “Pen Pals” died during his first time in charge, and he wasn’t even recently promoted.

• Inside the anomaly storage room we see:

     • A probe resembling the Kataan probe from “The Inner Light” but with some notable differences

     • What appears to be an oversized Vulcan lirpa

     • Nomad from “The Changeling”, or a very similar Earth probe transformed into an artificial life form

     • A Wadi board game, from “Move Along Home”

     • What appears to be an empty transport case for a Medusan, including a visor missing the red protective lens; Ambassador Kollos used one in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”

     • A bat’leth

     • A Betazoid gift box, like the one seen in “Haven”

     • A 23rd century Romulan cloaking device, like the one Kirk and Spock stole in “The Enterprise Incident”

• Billups’ pet ferret is named Lancelot; it was established in “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” that Billups comes Hysperia, a planet colonized by “Ren faire type” humans.

• Tendi, Mariner, and Rutherford are using T-88 scanners to check the chips in the isolinear chip junction. T-88s were first seen in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” and weren’t available fleetwide yet, but Rutherford and Tendi did steal a bunch from the USS Vancouver.

• ”Is it a unotronic?” Duotronic and multitronic systems were designed by Richard Daystrom, which we learned in “The Ultimate Computer”. This is the first mention of a unotronic system, though it’s not entirely clear if that’s an actual thing, or simply a bit for Billups’ joke.

• Dirks claims he was trapped in the Wadi game for a month as a child. The Wadi are a gamma quadrant civilization who were first encountered in 2369, 12 years prior to this episode.

• Boimler refers to the large blue guy as ”Big Merp.” In “I, Excretus” the scoreboard showed that another member of the same species was also named Merp. Are all members of the species named Merp? Is it the name of their species and just what they’re all called? Or is Merp simply a common name among their species?

• Rutherford ends up in the Wadi game, where he encounters the same puzzles Captain Sisko, Kira, Doctor Bashir, and Jadzia did in “Move Along Home”.

• Dirks states the Tellarite slop jazz musician Fats B’zirtak overdosed on ketracel-white. Assuming fats was not a Jem’Hadar, I believe this is the first time we’ve heard of a non-Jem’Hadar consuming ketracel-white in canon.

• The Betazoid gift box gets zapped by the not-Kataan probe and experiences an entire simulated life, similar to what happened to Captain Picard in “The Inner Light”, though at no point from Rutherford’s perspective does the gift box appear to be unconscious.

     • ”I miss my wife.” The gift box repeats Michael Sullivan’s line from two episodes ago in “Twovix”.

• After he dies we see Boimler in room which appears to be inspired by the red room from “Twin Peaks” based on the floor pattern, lamp, and end table. Outside the window he sees the black mountain, which Shaxs described as a ”spiritual battleground” in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

     • The Koala appears, and according to the subtitles it’s ”speaking Koala” but if you reverse the audio it says, “It is not your time, Bradward Boimler.”

     • This is the second time Boimler has seen the Koala, the first being when he nearly drowned in “First First Contact”.

     • Despite being at the Black Mountain, Boimler did not have to fight three faceless aspirations of his father, nor did the surviving father feed Boimler his own heart, as Shaxs described in “We’ll Always have Tom Paris”.

• ”You never forget your first death.” Ransom implies that he too has died.

So we learn at the end that Sisko's birth was engineered by the Prophets, right? That he was always destined to be the Emissary because that's how it had to be, from the nonlinear perspective of the Prophets.

So what if they based him on a man from Earth centuries before (perhaps one of his father's ancestors)? He does say at one point that maybe God is trying to tell him to quit writing and go into the restaurant business, betraying a love for cooking, which maybe he passed on to his children - and maybe he passed this on to his descendants, one of whom moved to New Orleans and opened a Creole kitchen, which would stay in the family for many generations...

They chose this man because by some quirk he had genuine future-sight and saw forward into the life of Sisko because of their connection established by the Prophets - creating a self-sustaining loop.

Now of course that doesn't explain why all of the people in Benny's life are so similar to Sisko's people (or is it the other way around?), but maybe there's something there about celestial-temporal archetypes, or Benny is projecting those faces and personalities onto his coworkers because of his strange and exceptional mind.

Can't write a review worth a damn, but figured I'd point out this story for anyone looking for something interesting to read.

So, a few things to explain, My Little Pony (MLP) was a cartoon about magical coloured ponies, MLP: Equestria Girls was a tween spin-off that introduced the character of Sunset Shimmer who passed through a magic mirror to a world of humanoids in a high school setting where we saw alternate versions of many characters from the original MLP.

So, I decided to give this a try thanks to a different story, Sunset's Isekai. I prolly don't need to explain what that one is, I mean it's such a sci-fi trope, but just in case, it's a time and dimension traveling bar run by a version of Sunset Shimmer. I was already aware of the story, but had figured it'd be MLP:EG in space, or ponies have a first contact or start their own space program, none of which particularly interested me. SI introduces us to this version of Sunset, field promoted Captain Sunset Shimmer of the USS Phoenix, and an overview of her life and current situation, all of which sounded like a well done Star Trek story, so I decided to read it.

At nearly half a million words and three seasons, there's a lot to catch up on, but it's worth it. Thanks to a 'magic' mirror, Sunset winds up at Starfleet Academy at 11 years old, and is obviously terrified to be surrounded by aliens, none of whom speak proper Equish.

Once she gets calmed down, and a medical examination, her life begins. Adopted by two teachers at the academy, she grows up on Earth, joins Starfleet because how else will she find home?

Six months into her life, she's joined by another pony that got sucked into the mirror, who will also join Starfleet.

Sunset winds up serving on the Enterprise, but thankfully the author doesn't insert her into the episodes we know, most times she has little to do with them and often times has know idea what occurred, after all she's just another ensign there, albeit a brightly coloured unicorn. The only change she makes to Star Trek is that she delays the warp core explosion long enough that the saucer section never crashes.

Beyond that, she dies, comes back to life (like that's never happened in Star Trek), becomes the XO on the Phoenix and takes part in the Dominion War, and eventually gets home.

The story is still going on, but the Phoenix, last surviving member of it's fleet, is limping home, limited to warp 4, barely any shields or phasers, a journey expected to take a year.

——————— Overall, it's a good read. Sure, fan fic, so it won't hold up like a professionally written story, but it is a very well done story. The author doesn't fall into traps like making the pony characters a huge part of canon, they don't replace anyone, and they don't save the galaxy. They do add an extra wrinkle to the dominion war, one you might be able to guess. Familiarity with MLP isn't necessary, the author explains most of what you need to know either in the story, or the author notes at the end of every chapter.

I rewatched the first episode of Voyager, and when Neelix first comes aboard the ship, he marvels at the great culture that created it. Tuvok says something along the lines of "The Federation is made up of many cultures. I am Vulcan". A few scenes later, Neelix calls Tuvok "Mr. Vulcan", and Tuvok does not correct him. So, yeah, 100% lack of communication on Tuvok's side. Sure, Neelix hears other people call Tuvok by his proper name, and as some point he understood "Vulcan" is the name of his race. But by then, as Tuvok never corrected him or shown any visible dislike to being called that, he might have come to the conclusion that Tuvok likes it, and thinks of it as a funny nickname.

Written by: Ben Waller

Directed by: Brandon Williams

Written by: Mike McMahan

Directed by: Barry J. Kelly & Jason Zurek

Written by: Aaron Burdette

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

An interesting, deliberately thought provoking 🤔 question for a lazy long weekend Sunday morning…

Setting aside whether specific fans like specific ‘gimmicks’ (crossovers, musicals, bringing back Kirk or Khan) or tropes (transporter malfunctions), Space.com is posing the hypothesis that the proportion was too high in Strange New Worlds second season.

There’s no arguing that the season was successful in drawing in large audiences week after week. Taking a look back though, was there too much trippy-Trek(TM) dessert and not enough of a meaty main course? YMMV surely.

For my part, I can both agree that trippy Trek is something I’ve been wanting more of, and that I would have welcomed 2 or 3 more episodes were more grounded or gave the opportunity to see more of Una as a leader and dug into Ortegas backstory.

The 90s shows seemed to be bit embarrassed by trippyness, although Voyager found its pretext allowed even stern Janeway to pronounce ‘Weird is our business.’ One can argue that the high proportion in SNW is a feature, not a bug.

I’d still prefer a 12-15 episode season though.

There are inspiring, epic quotes in Star Trek. Words that stir the soul, shining a light on paths to a brighter now and a better future. But, what about those bits of dialog that don't have a stirring message, that you enjoy just because you enjoy them?

One of my favorites, from DSC season 3, Episode 1:

"I don't know. But it was temperature-sensitive and really valuable, so it's probably ice cream."

Burnham is captured and being questioned at the Merchantile. After being spritzed with a dose of space truth serum, Burnham's captors question her about stolen cargo. When asked by her captors what the cargo is, a very drugged up Burnham says the above with serious sincerity. I love the entirety of Burnham's chattering and behavior while she is under the influence of the space truth serum. That particular line always makes me smile, though.

Do you have a favored, not particularly inspiring, you just like it, Star Trek quote?

Interesting extract from a longer /Film interview with in-demand director Roxann Dawson.

I appreciate how she speaks with respect for the shows of the new era.

Susan Oliver was playing a green-skinned Orion slave girl, but I had to test her makeup because she was too expensive and I was under contract already; I was cheap, they had to pay me anyway. The makeup they put on me was green as green can be, but they kept on sending out the rushes and we would get it back for the next day, and there I was just as pink and rosy as could possibly be. This went on for three days until they finally called the lab and said, “What do we do? We’re trying to get it green.” And they said, “You want that? We’ve been color-correcting.”

Excerpt from: The Fifty-Year Mission: The First 25 Years

Paramount+ splits some episodes like Encounter at Farpoint, All Good Things and Caretaker into two 45 minute long episodes. Does anyone know if the split episodes are missing any scenes?

I'm asking because IMDb says this about Encounter at Farpoint:

"The two-part version, which is the one usually shown in syndication, is missing several short scenes. One scene cut has Riker being shown a recap of the Enterprise's encounter with The Q."

Syndication is not the same thing as streaming so I don't know if Paramount+ is also missing these scenes.