JennyOndioline

Dissenting opinion time: I really like "Explorers." Coming off "The Die is Cast," any episode bound by plot or intrigue is going to feel inferior, so the show decides to spend an hour playing the emotional beats. Season 4 rip-roars through plot at a ridiculous clip, to the point that having a chance to sit back and enjoy spending time with the characters is a relief. It's nice to see that Sisko has interests (outside of baseball and 20th century Earth racial politics) - his fascination with ancient Bajoran space travel gives him shades of Geeky Dad. After seeing him in full-on badass mode it's a real treat to see him embracing his inner dork.

I'm less of a fan of Bashir's plot in this episode (it's a little too after-school special) but I don't think it brings down the episode as a whole, which is a nice denouement to the epic insanity that precedes it.

As a humble sacrifice, I submit for consideration what I consider DS9's biggest turkey: "Profit and Lace." We've got Quark sexually harassing his employees (and it being played for laughs), Grand Nagus Zek, Quark's sex change operation that results in immediate worry about his looks, "There go his hormones," an around-the-table running scene ... it's a mess.

I mean, I'm as big a fan of Monty Python and Kids in the Hall style drag as anyone but this is not good. It's broad "humor" (no pun intended) based on the most outlandish of stereotypes - he talks in a whisper! he walks sexy! he's overly sensitive! He ends up having to fend off sexual assault but then "coming around" and making out with the other Ferengi anyway. And at the end of it all, he vows to never blackmail females again! Well, except not.

It's creepy, it's vile, it's disgusting, and it's DS9 at its worst. I'd watch "Move Along Home" a million times before I'd touch "Profit and Lace" again.

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last.fm | discogs

Trollheart

It’s a big galaxy out there, and as Ford Prefect once remarked, there’s all sorts of people out there, trying to rip you off, kill you … always helps to know where your towel is. Or, if you’re not familiar with “The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, then it’s at least desirable to know as much as possible about the beings you share the galaxy with. Of course, in the twenty-third century each race has its own agenda and most if not all have their own military, so everyone is at one time or another spying on everyone else, and though there’s generally, usually a state of peace or at least uneasy truce between the races, disputes can boil over into conflict and lead to war, so intelligence about the aliens who may be your friends or allies today but may be your enemies tomorrow is crucial.

In this section I’ll be looking at a specific race, telling you all I know or can find out about them, how they fit into the universe and any other stuff about them that may seem interesting or good to know. I’ll be referring, obviously, to when and how they fit into the series, and how if at all they developed from their original form, as many of the races here did. Please note that these are my own written articles from my own head, based on what I know about the series and the various races, and although I have referred to Wiki and other sources for confirmation or clarification of certain issues, this is not a copied Wiki article or anything close to it. It is also nothing like a comprehensive essay on any race, but just something to give those of you who may not know these aliens a basic grounding in who they are, where they fit into the plots, and how they relate to the other aliens. There is surely much left out, though hopefully nothing here is incorrect, and if you want to read further there are tons of articles all over the interweb, many of which are well worth reading. However do be careful if you’re doing this, as many of these articles and sites quote events in the series that you may not be aware of, and could very well contain spoilers for you. As could these, to a smaller degree.

The one I’ll kick off with is one that most if not everybody will be familiar with, the oldest aliens in Star Trek and the traditional nemeses of Captain Kirk and his crew.

Klingons

Class: Humanoid, warlike
Home planet: Qu’onos
Feature in: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY
Klingons of note: Kah’less the Unforgettable, Molor, Kang, Gorkon, Gowron, Worf, Bel’enna Torres, Kurn, Martok, K’mpec
Values: Honour, courage, respect, honesty, fighting prowess

Originally seen as the bad guys of the original Star Trek series, Klingons were one-dimensional villians for Kirk and the Enterprise to fight against and triumph over. Warlike, always seeking strength through conquest, and jeering at the Federation’s noble aims of peace through democracy and diplomacy, Klingons were I guess essentially the Russians to the Federation’s basic Americans, the Commies of the cosmos. Very limited, their appearance originally was not like the guy shown above. They were merely humans with darker skin and their faces shaped into a somewhat devilish look, giving them the aspect of satyrs or demons. They had little in the way of philosophy --- I guess “survival of the strongest” or “To the victor the spoils” would be some of the mantras they lived by --- and were, originally, looked on very unsympathetically by the writers. They were warriors, but they were always warriors. They had no time for talking, peace treaties or conferences, and they preferred, when possible, to shoot first. Ask questions later? That would be a novel concept for a Klingon, indeed! Perhaps they might ask, “Why did you wait so long to shoot?” but that would be about it.

With the emergence of TNG, and a whole different attitude towards the USSR and racism in general, with the Cold War over and Gorbachev making massive strides to bring the Soviet people into the twentieth century (steps that would be reversed thirty years later as Putin dragged his country back into the days of the hardline communist regimes), the Klingons were given more of a backstory and seen with if not a more sympathetic eye, at least a less biased one. This was necessary because, apart from anything else, there was now one serving aboard Picard’s Enterprise, and the story of how that happened would take pages in itself. But a quick recap of how relationships between the Klingon Empire and the Federation thawed:

As the onset of the twenty-fourth century loomed, a ecological and industrial disaster hit the Klingon Empire when one of the moons orbiting their home planet Qo’nos (pronounced “cone-nose” but I’ve heard it referred to as “Chronos”; may just be pronunciation issues) exploded. Praxis was the base for all the fuel the Klingons mined for use in their ships and their industry. Foreseeing the very real prospect of their extinction, the Klingon High Command opened talks with the Federation, with a view towards healing the divisions between the two races and finally bringing to an end the almost-state-of-war that had existed for over seventy years. When the crew of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701C, gave their lives defending a Klingon outpost from marauding Romulans, the pact was sealed and the Klingons could see that their new ally was indeed honourable. Honour is a value Klingons cherish and prize above all else, including their lives, and there was and is no higher honour to them than for an enemy to die defending them. Soon afterwards the Klingons, though never admitted to nor asking for membership of the Federation, were allies of the humans.

Klingons are a warrior race. They prize such qualities as courage, valour, honesty, strength, cunning and of course as I said above honour. To a degree, they could be likened to the ancient Greek warriors, the Spartans, in that every single thing they do is geared towards combat, conquest and war. Being allies of the Federation meant that could no longer make war on them of course, but there were plenty of other aliens in the galaxy they could challenge and take on. As with the Spartans, from a young age every boy is trained in the noble arts of combat, learning to use the weapons endemic to the Empire, including the curved double-handled four-bladed sword known as the bat’leth, but also to master the art of hand-to-hand combat, learning all there is to know about martial arts, breathing techniques, yoga and meditation. The dynasty of each Klingon family proceeds from the father, and is referred to as a House. Presidency of the House is passed from father to eldest son, and thence to either his son or the next eldest if he should be killed. Women are not valued as warriors, owners of property or soldiers in the Empire, though that is not to say they are second-class citizens. Indeed, many a Klingon wife can lay low with a few sharp blows of her tongue a warrior who counts many kills among his tally, and whom others rightly fear!

The Empire has of course an Emperor, but the title is largely representational, with the true power lying in the men who make up the High Council. It is they who set policy, direct the military, govern spending and dispense justice. Klingons speak their own language, a harsh, gutteral tongue, and will speak humanoid only if necessary. They may be allies of the Federation but they do not fully trust them, and see them as weak and ineffectual as they try to persuade with words where Klingons would rule by the fist. Klingons are proud of their lineage and always make sure anyone knows whose son they are. Although they have their legends, they proudly boast (whether true or not I don’t know) that they slew their gods, and they worship instead great heroes and warriors, the greatest among them being Kahless (kay-less), the very first Emperor, who, Moses-like, laid down their rules of conduct and honour.

Klingons are a fiercely proud people and for them cowardice is the one stain they cannot stand. They would far prefer to die in battle than run and live to fight another day, and the worst fear of any Klingon warrior is that he will die in bed, of old age, and not be admitted into the halls of heroes like the ancient Vikings upon whom so much of their culture appears to be based. This leads to one of their favourite battlecries: “Today is a good day to die!” They are fearless, often reckless though, thinking with the sword rather than the brain, more worried about appearing weak and craven for retreating than about taking on superior numbers. They live for the fight, and chafe in this new peacetime into which circumstance has forced them, so spend their off-hours drinking, singing battle songs and fighting.

Only one of their number has ever served on a Starfleet vessel, and Worf, son of Mogh, who has some human heritage in him, later left the Enterprise to take up station at Deep Space 9, where he became tactical chief of operations. Worf has a son, Alexander, who is not interested in the ways of his father and does not want to be a warrior. He is a constant source of worry to his proud father, Alexander’s mother having been killed by a traitor to the Empire, who was himself shortly thereafter despatched to the netherworld by Worf.

As this is not behaviour countenanced by Starfleet Worf was reprimanded for it, but as a Klingon he had to satisfy his honour, and his people approved. As in all things with Klingons, honour is the driving force behind them, and if one of their number is seen to be acting without it, they can expect to be shunned.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Woo-hoo! A comment! And from one of my favourite ladies too!
Well I disagree about "Explorers" but of course that's only my opinion. I just find it dull, dull, and ... what's that word ... tip of my tongue ... oh yeah: dull. It's slow and uninteresting. I mean, "Final mission" was boring but at least there was a point to it. I hated the way I thought "Oh finally something's happening!" when a Cardassian warship showed up, only to find it was a bloody bad-tempered escort! Boo!

As for "Profit and lace", well it's hard to choose any Ferengi story as a bad one, but I could be persuaded in the case of this one. It's almost as if the ghost of Gene Roddenberry was looking over the writer's shoulder, egging him on (I assume it was a guy; too lazy to check at the moment). Yeah, it could get chosen, certainly, though you would be possibly surprised at the amount of poor episodes I've discovered while making my list.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Time’s movin’ on people, and we ain’t as pretty as we used to be! Even I have metamorphosed from a skinny bespectacled nerd with lovely flowing long black hair into a skinny bespectacled nerd with very little hair. How has time treated our favourite Star Trek actors though? Check out the “before” and “after” pics below!
TOS
William Shatner (Captain Kirk)
Then

now



Nichelle Nichols (Uhura)
Then

Now


George Takei (Sulu)
Then

Now


Walter Koenig (Chekov)
Then

Now


We also pay our sincere respects to those who have passed on beyond the great barrier and are no longer with us: DeForest Kelly (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Scotty), Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel/Lwaxanna Troi/Computer Voice) and most tragically of all, Leonard Nimoy (Spock) who passed away less than a week ago.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Interestingly, perhaps inevitably, all Star Trek series begin with a two-hour (sometimes broken into two parts) premiere episode, and so it is with the first to pick up the baton after Kirk and Co had warped off into hypergalactic retirement, Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is often tricky, as if you make it too boring (as in “The Cage”) you can damage your prospects of being picked up by the network. But while “Encounter at Farpoint” is far from the best TNG episode, even in season one, there was never a danger of it not being picked up, as it was to be the triumphant return of the franchise after over twenty-five years in the wilderness, and the audience was certainly there for it. More, there were two distinct audience demographics: those who had grown up on the original and were either salivating at the prospect of its return (or waiting to tear it apart with savage commentary and criticism; didn't matter, they still had to watch it first) and those who either had never seen it and were interested, or else were just science-fiction fans. There wasn't much of sci-fi on the TV at that time, and so anything even vaguely space related was welcome. Plus TNG was coming in on the cusp of a new sci-fi revival, with films like Star Wars, Alien, ET and Blade Runner, to say nothing of four Trek movies whetting the appetites of sci-fi enthusiasts young and old. It was, in short, a great time for the Return of the King.

But any show that has reached such iconic, almost legendary status is going to be hard to replicate, and the inevitable comparisons would be made, so how to make this not simply a continuation of the original series, but a quantum leap forward? Well, plenty of ways. First of all, while maintaining the accepted family atmosphere aboard ship, the “power trio” idea had to be dispensed with. The original Star Trek had mostly focussed on Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with occasional contributions from the likes of Scotty, Uhura or Sulu, and later Chekov, but I don't think there's one episode in the entire three-season run that did not feature all three of the main characters. This put the others at a disadvantage, relegating them to the position almost of bit players, guest stars even. An episode would survive the absence of Sulu or Scotty, and much of the time Uhura was just a glorified telephone operator, but the three main men always had to be in the camera's crosshairs.

TNG sought to do away with that to an extent. While it's true that the captain was, and always would be, the centre of any action, this new series “farmed out” or even shared out the adventure. It would not be unheard of for Doctor Crusher, Geordi or Worf to have their own episode, and even the “kid” on board, Wesley, would feature prominently in later ones. Relationships would be explored and developed, and to a much greater degree than had been in the original series, where little more than a hint that Nurse Chapel was in love with Spock was allowed, or references were made to Kirk's many ex-girlfriends and conquests. Here, everyone was related in one way or another. Geordi and Data would become fast friends. Riker and Troi had past history they were still trying to get past, and even the captain had a romantic interest in the doctor, although it would be some time indeed before he would admit it, more before he would act on it.

The crew was larger, the ship more powerful and majestic, and the storylines would of course be more far-reaching, deep and intelligent, and there would be, by and large, little of the easy humour for which Star Trek had become known. Picard was a hard man, an authoritarian who seldom smiled, disliked and distrusted children, and seemed to have few hobbies other than reading. He was a solitary man, alone among over a thousand souls, with responsibility for their safety, and though his crew were loyal to him and would follow him into Hell, at first he does come across rather a little like Christopher Pike on his one and only voyage aboard the USS Enterprise.

“Encounter at Farpoint”

On the way to Deneb IV, the new USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, is heading towards its first mission. A starbase has been built there, called Farpoint Station, and the Federation wish to know how it was built so quickly and if more can be built. Picard is yet awaiting the arrival of his ship's doctor and first officer, who are to meet them at the station. En route though they are suddenly accosted by a malevolent intelligence which manifests upon the ship's bridge, calling itself “The Q”. It accuses the human race of being a “dangerous, savage child race” and directs Picard and his crew to return to their home planet. Picard of course refuses, loudly proclaiming the advances humanity has made, and the creature, seemingly intrigued by the captain's ideas of testing them, retires, promising to return.

The Q has however blocked the path of the Enterprise with a weblike net, which Picard now attempts to break away from. He prepares the ship for “saucer separation”, a procedure which will detach the main bridge in the flat, disc-like section of the top of the ship from the main body. As they accelerate away from the net it follows them, and they find it impossible to outrun. Picard orders the saucer separation, and despite his chagrin, Worf is ordered to take command of the saucer section, into which all the women and children have been herded. The remainder of the ship, now known as “the battle bridge” turns to take on the “hostile” as it gains on them. It is however a futile action, and Picard reluctantly orders their surrender.

Once he does, they all find themselves in a courtroom, where the judge is none other than the intelligence known as The Q. Troi confirms that, though the scene they are in is out of the late twenty-first century, and cannot be real, must be an illusion, it is real. The Q again accuses the crew of being savage and dangerous, and tricks them into admitting their guilt under duress. Outmanoeuvred, Picard puts forward a challenge: let the Q test him and his crew, let them represent what mankind has become, and let him see if they have in fact evolved beyond what the powerful alien accuses them of. The Q is satisfied, even happy with the outcome, and tells Picard that solving the mystery of Farpoint Station will serve as his litmus test. The court dissolves, and Picard and his crew are back aboard their vessel.

Meanwhile, at Farpoint Station, Commander William Riker awaits the arrival of the Enterprise and visits the man in command of the station, an alien named Zorn. He expresses amazement that the station could have been built so quickly, and so perfectly suited to the needs of the Federation. Zorn is evasive, refusing to answer questions, but when Riker has left he seems annoyed and berates something above him, almost as if he is talking to the ceiling. He talks of “arousing their suspicion”, and it's clear that something here does not meet the eye. Riker meets up with the ship's doctor, Beverley Crusher, who is also awaiting the arrival of the ship. He tells her and her son, Wesley, that he has noticed odd things about this station. Just now, he had wanted an apple and though there was none in the bowl proffered him by Zorn, a moment later there was another bowl which he could swear had not been there, and yes, it had apples in it. Similarly, Crusher looks at some cloth and notes it would be nice if there were a gold pattern on it, and suddenly there is. She of course thinks he's seeing conspiracies where none exist, and looking for ways to impress his new captain, but he is sure it's more than just an overactive imagination.

Riker is somewhat surprised to learn that Crusher is on first-name terms with the new captain, but Wesley advises him that it was Picard who brought the body of his father home, when he fell in an away mission, some years ago. Geordi LaForge, navigator aboard the ship and also awaiting its arrival so that he can take his position, reports to Riker that the ship has reached orbit but is missing the saucer section. Picard has ordered Riker to beam aboard immediately, as he does. Almost right away he is shown footage of what has transpired with The Q, and then Picard receives news that the saucer section is ready to reunite with the main ship. Seeing this as an early test of his first officer's competence and his ability to work under pressure, the captain orders Riker to conduct the reintegration of the ship, manually, a task he carries out perfectly. Picard grudgingly congratulates him on his prowess, though calls it “a fairly routine manoeuvre.” He does however take issue with his new second-in-command's determination to second-guess the captain when he deems he is putting himself in unnecessary danger.

Here though the mask slips a little and Picard allows himself a moment of weakness, as he admits he is not good with children, and asks, well orders I suppose, Riker to help him in that area. LaForge shows Crusher his visor, a computer implant that allows him to see, even though he is blind. Usage of the implant does cause him pain, but he suffers it in order to be able to see, even if he does not see the same way we do: his visor detects electromagnetic waves, colour spectrums etc. Riker is looking for Data, but Worf tells him that the android is on “special assignment”, ferrying a special guest, an admiral, to the Enterprise by shuttlecraft. This turns out to be McCoy, in what's a pretty shamefully self-indulgent cameo that last about a minute. As they prepare to leave Farpoint, The Q appears again on the viewscreen, advising them that if they do not solve the problem in twenty-four hours they risk summary judgement against them.

Riker is reintroduced to Deanna Troi, the Ship's Counsellor, but Picard is unaware they are ex-lovers. Troi is half Betazoid and therefore telepathic, and she and Riker share an uncomfortable, though private moment when she speaks to his mind only. They keep their relationship from the captain, admitting only that they know each other. All three beam down to the station and meet with Zorn, who is less than happy at Deanna's presence, she being a telepath. He is also annoyed at Picard's attempts to get him to agree to build other starbases for them, or to trade for the materials and knowledge that allowed them to build Farpoint. He makes it clear he is interested in entertaining neither suggestion, and just wants to sell the rights to use this station alone. While there, Troi experiences powerful emotions --- negative, painful ones, ones of loss and despair, but she can't say from where these feelings are emanating. As the exchanges get more heated, and all their questions continue to be evaded, the trio leave a fuming Zorn, unsure of what is going on.

Riker gets his first taste of the brand new Holodeck, a holographic projection room on the ship which can be programmed for any environment, scene or fantasy. He is looking for Data and finds him here, as well as Wesley Crusher. Data shows how superhumanly strong he is when he lifts Wesley with one hand when the kid falls into a holographically-created, but very real and very wet, stream. Riker also finds out, to his amusement, that the one thing Data wishes is to be human. He has not the software to accomplish this, but is trying to add to his programme by trying things like whistling, and hopes that by better studying humans and coming to understand them, he may one day emulate them. In the tunnel below Farpoint Station, Geordi is unable to identify the material the walls are constructed from, and Deanna receives even harsher images and emotions, making her sink to her knees in despair.

A strange alien vessel arrives and begins to attack the planet, firing unknown weapons down at the city below. It does however appear to be avoiding hitting the station itself. It refuses to respond to hails, and Zorn professes to know nothing about it, though Picard is loath to believe him. He knows, all right: it's in his voice. He's hiding something, and the arrival of the alien vessel has thrown him into almost a panic. Picard orders Riker, still on the planet, to bring him to the Enterprise where they will get what information he has out of him. However, before they can do so someone else teleports him away. Troi begins to sense a new emotion: satisfaction, but it is not from the same source. The Q reappears, gloating over Picard's inability to solve the conundrum, goading him that he has not the brains to figure it out. Q, tiring of their efforts and looking to be amused, gives them a clue: beam over to the alien vessel, he advises them, and though Picard is against it Riker volunteers to go, which impresses the seemingly-omnipotent alien.

Picard goes to Crusher, to apologise for his stiff and overly formal welcome to her: she is an old friend, or at least the wife of an old friend, and he should have been more forthcoming. He tells her that serving aboard the Enterprise may be hard for her, being constantly reminded of her husband through him, and suggests a transfer, which he will approve, but she turns him down, saying she is where she needs and wants to be. In fact, she tells him, she requested the post. On the alien vessel, Troi Data and Riker find Zorn held captive and in pain, while the empath feels anger, revenge, satisfaction from a much closer source than before.

As they rescue Zorn, Q reappears on the bridge, sneering at Picard's efforts to unravel the mystery, but when the away team returns, sent back by the alien vessel, he begins to see it. The vessel is not a ship but a living being, and it is trying to help --- rescue --- one of its own kind which has been trapped on the planet surface below. Creatures who can convert energy into matter, the second alien was pressed into service by Zorn and his people, forced to assume the shape of Farpoint Station, and allowed only enough energy to survive but not to break free. Picard has the Enterprise beam energy down to it, allowing it to break free and join its mate. Farpoint Station is no more, the duplicity has been uncovered, Q is disappointed that the humans solved the puzzle and vanishes in a huff. Picard leans forward and declares “Let's see what's out there!”

Quotes
Troi: “Captain! I'm sensing a powerful mind.”
(Picard surely wants to blush, and say “Well, I wouldn't say massive, but if you insist...”! )

Data: “It registers as solid, Captain.”
Troi: “Or an incredibly powerful forcefield! Captain, if we collide with it at this speed---”
Picard: “Shut off that damn noise!”
(Picard is referring to the red alert warning, but you can just hear Deanna grumping “I'm only saying. No need to be rude!” )

Picard: “Let's see what this “Galaxy”-class starship can do!”

Picard: “Commander, signal the following in all languages and on all frequencies: we surrender.”
(And a generation of Trekkers put their heads in their hands and groan “Kirk would never have surrendered!” Welcome to the new generation...)

Zorn (to the air apparently): “You have been told not to do that! Why can't you understand? It will arouse their suspicion, and if that happens, we will have to punish you! We will, I promise you!”

Picard: “I'm not a family man, Riker, and yet Starfleet has given me a ship with children aboard. I'm not comfortable with children. But since a captain needs an image of geniality, you're to see that's what I project.”

McCoy: “I see no points on your ears, boy, but you sure sound like a Vulcan!”
Data: “No, Sir. I am an android.”
McCoy: “Hmph! Almost as bad!”

Picard: “Counsellor, may I introduce our new First Officer, Commander William Riker. Commander, this is our Ship's Counsellor, Deanna Troi.”
Troi: “A pleasure, Commander.”
Riker: “Likewise, Counsellor.”
Picard: “Have you two met before?”
Riker: “Yes sir, we have.”
Picard: “Excellent. I consider it important for my key officers to know each other's abilities.”
Troi: “We do sir, we do.”
(How little he knows of their shared history, and the unheard telepathic message Troi sends to her “Imzadi”!)

Zorn: “Captain! The Ferengi would be very interested in a base such as this!”
Picard: “Fine. Let's hope they find you as tasty as they did their past associates!”

Riker: “But you're ...”
Data: “A machine, Sir, yes. Does that trouble you?”
Riker: “Honestly, yes.”
Data: “Understood, Sir. Prejudice is very human.”
Riker: “Now that does trouble me. Do you consider yourself superior to humans?”
Data: “I am superior, Sir, in many ways. But I would give it all up, to be human.”
Rike: “Nice to meet you, Pinocchio.”

Picard: “Some problem, Commander?”
Riker: “Just wondering if all our missions will go this way, Sir?”
Picard: “Oh no, Number One. I'm sure most of them will be much more interesting. Let's see what's out there.”

Parallels
There's a very distinct similarity here in what Q is doing to what Squire Trelayne made Kirk undergo in “The Squire of Gothos.” He, too, was a judge and accused Kirk, whom he then hunted.

There are also slightly less similar, but still alike, parallels to be drawn with “Devil n the dark”, in which the killer of miners on a planet is found to be a creature that can burrow through solid rock, and which is killing in revenge for the destruction of its eggs, cracked when the miners broke into a shaft which was in fact the creature's nursery.

It wasn't meant to be this way!
Sometimes ideas were barely pencilled in and fleshed out later, so that things changed over the course of the series, many of them taking on totally different aspects and meanings than they were originally intended to have.

Q, presented here as a dark, evil, all-powerful enemy, would soon become the butt of jokes, a nuisance, an annoyance and at one point, an unwilling member of the crew. He would become a source of comic relief, but one thing that would always be true was that, like Mister Burns in any episode of The Simpsons, you could be guaranteed a good story if he were in it.

Data, the android officer, quickly loses his stilted syntax, where he prefaces each statement with a qualifier, such as “Inqury: blah blah” or “Supposition: blah bah.” This would probably have got old very quickly, and was in fact dispensed with by the end of this episode.

The Ferengi are here mentioned only, and painted as a deeply unlikeable race who seem quite savage. When we actually meet them, in “The last outpost”, for the first time, and later, in “The battle”, this image will be kept up to an extent. But fairly quickly it becomes obvious that the Ferengi, small with huge ears and an abiding passion for wealth and its creation, and retention, are more comic relief than anything. In fact, of all the many characters and races throughout all four series and incarnations of the programme, none would come to be more loved and give us more amusement than the Ferengi, especially when we get to Deep Space 9 and meet Quark. But that's for another time. For now, all I can say is that whatever they were meant to start out as, the Ferengi became something totally different, a real and true example perhaps of a character or type taking over its own destiny, and writing itself as it wanted to be written.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Ch-ch-ch-changes

There were of course many changes from the original series, the first and most evident in the opening titles. Whereas Kirk spoke of a “five year mission” --- no doubt in the hopes that the series would get five seasons, no such luck! --- Picard talks of an “ongoing mission”. Ironic really, as TNG ended up running for seven full seasons, so he could theoretically have said “her seven year mission”. Also, the ship is not anthropomorphised, neither in the credits nor in the show. It is always “it” or “the ship”, never “she”, that I can remember. Speaking of gender neutrality, the original voiceover had declared that the mission was “to boldly go where no man has gone before”, but now it was “to boldly go where no-one has gone before”, so they kept the tagline but updated it for the more PC 1980s. Mind you, given Picard's lack of hair, it could have been rather unkindly changed to "To baldly go..."

The ship has gone from being a Constitution-class vessel with about 400 crew to having a complement of over a thousand and being upgraded to “Galaxy”-class. It's still powered, however, by the humble dilithium crystals that provided engine power to NCC-1701, and indeed, speaking of that, it retains the construction number but with an extra letter, so that it is now NCC-1701D. Some things are not open to that much change.

Whereas the original Enterprise was essentially a warship, an exploratory but primarily military vessel, with only the crew aboard essential to its operation, the new incarnation is more of a floating city, or at least floating apartment block, with families living there, shops and schools and recreational facilities all provided. Plus of course the Holodeck, of which more later. The primary goal of NCC-1701D is not combat, but exploration, and though it's armed as well as any warship in the fleet --- and is in fact the flagship --- Picard tries to rely more on diplomacy than brute strength in any negotiation. Of course, if that fails then the ship is more than able to hold its own.

Expanding on the multi-cultural idea central to the franchise, NCC-1701D has as part of its crew not only an android and a telepath, but one of the traditional enemies of the Federation, a Klingon, though we will find later on that the age-old “cold war” that had been raging between the two races over the run of TOS has come to an end, and they are now uneasy allies.

Oh, those uniforms! Seems for the Counsellor at any rate, the idea that drove the Original Series was still in vogue, and Deanna wears a quite short minidress, which quickly disappeared to be replaced by, um, a tight catsuit affair? Eventually her clothing would become more flattering and respectable, and her hair, down here but which will be for much of the first season stuck up in a very unbecoming bun, would soon flow loosely about her shoulders, allowing her to reveal the sexy woman who hid behind the cold mask of the half-Betazoid Counsellor.

The captain, too, is far from the genial, easy manner of James Kirk. Here, he's a tough authoritarian, a disciplinarian, a stickler for the rules. Slow to smile or see a joke, keeping himself aloof and unapproachable, he's almost a throwback in personality to Captain Pike. The difference here, and it's an important one, is that he is surrounded by interesting, likeable characters who, while they will certainly include the captain in their circle if and when he requires or demands it, are perfectly capable of socialising with each other and building their own strong bonds and relationships among one another. So although the captain might seem to be cold and unforgiving, his crew are quite the opposite, and though he will be the central figure in the series, there will be episodes which will take place around or even without him, and they will generally not suffer from his being the figure in the frame.

This is also the first time Star Trek will feature actors other than American ones (Sulu and Chekov excepted): the man in charge is English, something of a cosmic shift for US science-fiction, and portrayed as being of French descent, another first.

Holodeck Stories
The Holodeck is indeed an amazing technological marvel. Using the latest advances in dimensional hologrammatical creation, anything that can be imagined can be programmed into the ship's computer and realised as a holodeck simulation. This will lead to many stories being set on, or around, the Holodeck and here I'll be talking about how this innovation is used, whether its use helps or hinders the story, and whether, as the series gathered pace, the writers tended to rely a little too much on it for their storylines.

We're introduced to the Holodeck here, and it's totally incredible. Virtual reality to the nth degree; a real forest is created within the environs of the ship, so real that when Wesley falls into a stream he emerges from the holodeck soaking wet. Data explains it thusly: some matter within the holodeck itself has been reconfigured to make things like trees, rocks, and presumably, streams to be used in the simulation. I don't quite understand this, or whether it was an idea they stuck to, as when someone shuts the holodeck simulation off, we're left staring at basically a gridlike pattern in the room, the bare building blocks of the holodeck. So where, then, has the material that was supposed to be being converted gone? If there is nothing in the room, and if everything has been fabricated from a virtual reality programme, then why, when you leave the holodeck wet are you still dripping water onto the deck, outside the simulation? Is it because the programme is still running? But if you were to meet a hologrammatically-created character in there, one who existed nowhere else but in the simulation, and he or she or it tried to cross the threshold of the holodeck, it would vanish. We will see it happen: nothing truly “exists” beyond the confines of the simulated world. So by that logic, the water Wesley fell into should not either, and he should emerge dry.

Someone with deeper knowledge of the workings of the holodeck might be able to answer that. For me, it's a bit of a conundrum that, certainly within the strictures of the series, is never adequately addressed or explained. Similarly, if the wall is actually there physically, but “disguised as forest”, as Data points out when he throws a rock seemingly into the trees and it bounces off the bulkhead, how have they been able to walk “through” that bulkhead just a moment before? Holodeck mechanics will always confuse me. I mean, no matter how realistic the simulation is, how can you walk, drive or ride a road for an hour that is in reality situated in a space which would take you at best ten minutes to traverse? I don't think it's ever adequately explained though, so I certainly won't attempt to.

A real, live boy!
Data's continual pursuit of humanity is a recurring theme throughout the entire series. In this section I'll be cataloguing his efforts --- successful and less so --- to become as human as he can make himself, from physical changes to, more usually, the way he relates to the others in the crew, and they to him.

Even here, he has already dropped the qualifier before each sentence, as I already mentioned, and by the end he is frowning that he seems to be commenting on everything. Riker tells him to keep it up; it's a very human thing to do. Riker has already called him “friend”, which must please the android. Or would, if he knew what pleasure was and could recognise it. He reveals here that his rank of Lieutenant Commander is not honourary, as Riker had assumed: he went through the entire Starfleet Academy course and earned his uniform, just as any other living entity has to.

Family
Somewhat like the original pilot “The Cage”, the pilot for TNG begins with certain things already in motion. The new Enterprise is on her maiden voyage, to be sure, but certain relationships have already been established, or hinted at. This serves to give these characters history almost immediately and make us care about them, unlike the hamfisted way the TOS pilot went about it. Here I'll be cataloguing the relationships that spring up, fall apart, bind together and in some cases threaten to tear the crew apart.

Riker and Troi
We are given an insight into their history together when Troi communicates telepathically with Riker, intimating that they have had a previous sexual or romantic relationship. She calls him, in his head, imzadi, which we later learn is the Betazoid word for “beloved”. She talks about not having wanted to say goodbye, and asks if he remembers their last liaison. They say nothing of this to the captain, who might see this as a conflict of interest, romance in the workplace and all that. Riker must however be somehow unaware of Deanna's posting to the Enterprise, as he acts shocked and embarrassed and uncomfortable when he is “introduced” to her by the captain.

Their relationship threatens to resurface and overpower their duty when Troi shouts after Riker, worrying he may be hurt by staying on the planet while ordering her to return to the ship. He retorts coldly “You have your orders”, but some part of him must be gratified to see she still cares for him. As does he for her; when she is experiencing such strong emotions below the city that they threaten to overwhelm her, he flies to her side and apologises for ordering her to open her mind, even though he knows that it was necessary, even vital. But prior to that, afraid of being alone with her, and how it might compromise their mission, he refutes her suggestion as they are splitting up that she should go with him, and instead goes with Data.

Picard and Crusher
This is a much more low-key relationship throughout the series, but it's clear that Picard, while the best friend of her late husband, has feelings for Beverly, feelings he would never have acted upon or even admitted to while Jack Crusher was alive, and, feeling responsible for his death, will now never reveal, for fear of dishonouring his friend's memory. He believes the posting must be difficult for Crusher, and offers to approve a transfer request, until she tells him she actually requested the posting to his new command. Knowing that she therefore has --- or says she has --- no problem being so close to him, he relaxes but there will always be that undercurrent of repressed sexual tension that could explode at any moment.

Days with Data
Just for the craic, I'll be recording here some of the crazy things Data says, as he struggles to emulate and understand human behaviour. Sometimes they are quite remarkably funny, though here the only one that springs to mind is when he asks Picard to explain what the word “sneak” means, and after the captain has given him some synonyms, he takes over with more, saying “Ah yes! To slink, go stealthily, slither, glide, gumshoe.” It's not really funny, not this time, but it does serve to illustrate how literal he can take the world sometimes, and he will, trust me, come up with some howlers.

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JennyOndioline

I'm actually a guy, Jenny Ondioline is just my favorite Stereolab song!

The writers of "Profit and Lace" are listed as none other than Ira Steven Behr (DS9's showrunner for seasons 4-7 and primary originator of the Dominion War arc) and Hans Beimler (a longtime collaborator and writer for both TNG and DS9). I guess that one was just a complete misfire on all counts!

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last.fm | discogs

Trollheart

Um, ok... so why the marry me thing? I'm a guy too. Anyhoo, hope you're enjoying the features so far. Lots more to come.

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Trollheart

Time to check out the totty --- er, I mean, strong female characters --- in the Trekverse. More than possibly any other science-fiction series, Star Trek has some really important female characters, even a captain of a starship. The first sf series I think to really push women to the forefront, Trek has led the way in redefining the role of women, not only in science-fiction but in drama too. The days when all women did in drama was scream or be terrified or saved by the hero are long gone, and Trek has led the way in abolishing that stereotype.

Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols

Of course perhaps one of the most important, certainly one of the first African-American women to be given a role of any substance on television drama, Uhura was the feisty Swahili who, er, manned the switchboard on the original USS Enterprise. Really, to an extent I don’t understand why her role is so trumpeted and celebrated: she was nothing more than a glorified telephone operator and receptionist who took Kirk’s calls. “What? You’ll have to speak up. Cling what? Oh: Klingon! Sorry? No, I’m afraid the Captain is not available for --- what did you say again? --- man to man combat to prove who is the greater leader? No, I’m sorry, he’s currently living in an alternate existence where he moves so fast we can barely make him out as more than an insect’s buzz. Perhaps I can pencil you in for next Thursday? No? You have a planet to conquer. I see. Hmm. Monday week? That’s fine then. I’ll put it in his diary.”

In reality, much of the dialogue Uhura had was along the lines of “Message coming in for you Captain”, or “Hailing frequencies open Sir.” It was only in the movies she got to really step outside her predefined role and actually act a bit. Nevertheless, for the time I suppose it was a big step for her not to be making the synth-coffee, so there is that. Roddenberry’s ideas of equality for women though didn’t stretch to how they were dressed, as every woman on the Enterprise for most of the series wore very short skirts and FMBs. Uhura will however always been known as half of the very first ever interracial kiss on television, though the episode in which this occurs, “Plato’s stepchildren”, was banned for many years, mostly for this very reason but also because of the rather graphic for the time allusions to torture.

Uhura served on the Enterprise from the first episode after the real pilot (she wasn’t there for “The cage” either) and remained there till the end, carrying on to reprise her role in all the movies starring the original Trek crew. As a result of her portrayal of the character Nichelle Nichols got to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who convinced her to stay on, after she had been considering leaving the show, telling her that she was an icon and a beacon for black Americans. Her role inspired Whoopi Goldberg to test out for the role of Guinan in TNG, but you can’t have everything.

Interestingly, of the few female characters on TOS, Uhura generally did not get treated like a woman, as in, she was not comforted, ignored, laughed at or harrassed. Perhaps because of her role, or because she was black and therefore seen to be tough (or because the studio didn’t wish to shoot themselves in the foot by featuring a black actress and then downplaying her significance) she was generally respected and treated almost as one of the boys. She did occasionally get to go planetside, but not very often. She seems to have had a sort of crush on Kirk, as she says in the aforementioned “Plato’s stepchilden” that he always made her feel safe, always seemed to know what to do, always in command.

Uhura’s character was ported into the reboot of the franchise from 2009, and played by Zoe Saldana.

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Trollheart

He was Spock:
A personal tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy, 1931- 2015





The world was shocked and saddened to hear of the death late last month of Leonard Nimoy, world famous as the actor who brought the Vulcan Spock to the screen, and into our hearts, via our favourite programme. Nimoy had been diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), brought about through smoking, though he had quit thirty years prior. He had been hospitalised over the months before his death, on and off, but Friday February 27 was to be his final day on Earth. He passed away in his Bel Air, Los Angeles home early in the morning at the age of eighty-three.

Many tributes have of course been and will probably continue to be offered, and mine is a grain of sand beside the thoughts of those who knew him, worked with him and loved him, but I could hardly allow Star Trek Month to pass without attempting my own poor eulogy to, and retrospective of the man who became famous (incorrectly) for having no emotions, but who was one of the warmest, kindest and loved human beings on this planet. As fellow actor William Shatner would say of his friend at the end of Star Trek II: The wrath of Khan: “Of all of the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human.”

Whereas some of the tributes have glanced perhaps a little disrespectfully back to less than salubrious aspects of Nimoy’s life --- his woeful albums, his early acting parts --- I don’t wish to pursue that route. Instead, my intention is to speak a little of his early life as I have read about it, and follow his career through the Star Trek franchise. After all, that’s what we’re interested in this month, yes? So no mention of Bilbo Baggins, Mission: Impossible or Three Men and a Baby, which, while all worthy efforts (well, apart from the first) and of which he was surely and justifiably proud, lead us away from the role for which he attained world fame, and for which he will always be remembered. He write two autobiographies, one titled “I am not Spock”, the other admitting “I am Spock”, and he always would, and will be Spock to us.

Born in 1931 to Jewish parents in Boston, he quickly caught the acting bug and had minor roles in many of the big series of the time, including The Twilight Zone, Bonanza and Wagon train, but it was in a series called The Lieutenant that he caught the eye of a young producer of westerns and cop shows, who was looking for actors to take part in his new science-fiction series. Gene Roddenberry had to fight hard to retain Nimoy’s character on Star Trek, after the main pilot has been turned down by Paramount and the second pilot accepted, but on the advice that he should drop Spock. The only character (although not the only actor) to survive from the original pilot “The Cage”, Spock quickly established himself as a fan favourite and gave the new series a hook. It wasn’t just humans dashing around the galaxy after aliens: Star Trek had an alien on board, and in a position of command too: Spock was Science Officer and also First Officer on the USS Enterprise.

Nimoy’s character provided much background and story material, with an early episode, “The Menagerie”, one of only two two-part episodes (including the original pilot) and which harked back to “The Cage”, showing how dedicated he was to his former commanding officer, to the extent of risking court martial to engineer Pike’s return to Talos IV. Spock’s nerve pinch also singled him out as someone special, and tied in to the idea that his race were extremely non-violent. It of course became a favourite game in the playground or schoolyard; just as kids in the UK were dashing around pretending to be daleks, their US counterparts (and soon, over here too) were neck-pinching each other, and telling each other to “Live long and prosper.”

The cold, logical character of Spock was leavened by Leonard Nimoy’s attempts to bring some humour and warmth to the role, from a simple raising of one eyebrow to a well-chosen retort at his eternal debate nemesis, Dr. McCoy, or even on occasion losing control over his emotions completely, as he did at the end of “Amok time” and during “This side of Paradise”. Played as it had been written originally, Spock might have been a dull, even boring character but between Roddenberry and himself they imbued the emotion-avoiding Vulcan with often more humanity than many of his shipmates. They even gave him a love interest: Nurse Christine Chapel, played by Majel Barrett, who had also survived from the pilot albeit in a new role, was in love with the enigmatic and distant Vulcan, and though he rebuffed her advances all through the series, he did once come close to giving in to his feelings.

Spock’s command abilities, as well as his ability to somehow transcend the limits of his Vulcan logic, would be put to the rest in season one’s “The Galileo seven”, where, trapped in a shuttlecraft and running out of fuel, unable to make it back to the Enterprise he throws the dice, plays a hunch as McCoy later gleefully describes it, and manages to have everyone saved. In “This side of Paradise”, as briefly mentioned above, Spock, along with the rest of the crew, falls victim to alien spores on a planet they visit, which removes all inhibition and allows him to give in to his emotions. It is only cold, Vulcan mathematics and logic that bring him back from the edge and allow him to help Kirk cure the crew. In the celebrated episode “The city on the edge of forever”, he uses his mind-melding powers to allow his captain to forget meeting and falling in love with Edith Keeler, proving there is some humanity in him.

But Spock was never a full Vulcan. His mother was a human from Earth, and so there was scope within the character for him to explore that side of his nature, something others of his people had never, and would never do. It made him somewhat unique, and Trek would revisit this premise later with a half-human, half-Klingon woman in Star Trek Voyager. Season two of the series would open with “Amok time”, cataloguing how difficult it was for Vulcans to be away from home when the mating instinct struck, and how helpless they were and how their behaviour and attitudes changed as their ancient instincts surfaced unbidden and had to be dealt with. Soon after we would be introduced to a very different Spock, in the episode “Mirror, mirror”, in which the crew enter an alternate dimension where the Federation --- under the name the Empire --- is a cruel and repressive force, and Spock, sporting a beard, is a man who tries to balance his own distaste for violence with the exigencies of survival in this brutal world. He is eventually given the chance to change things, something which plays out in later “Mirror universe” episodes of Deep Space 9.

In “Journey to Babel” we meet for the first time Spock’s father, Sarek, Vulcan ambassador, and learn that he opposed his son’s enlisting in Starfleet. This is a thread which will continue throughout Spock, and Sarek’s life, until it is finally resolved in the fourth movie. Sadly, season three would open with one of the worst Trek episodes ever (yeah, even worse than “Fair Haven”!) as we would have to endure “Spock’s brain”, the series hitting its lowest point since previous season two’s “The Omega glory”. However he would quickly be redeemed in the next episode, as he fell in love --- or seemed to --- for the very first time on his own terms with a Romulan sub-commander in “The Enterprise incident”. In this episode we would learn that contrary to belief, Spock had a first name, but as he tells his lover, revealing his deception, “You could not pronounce it.”

In the episode “Is there in truth no beauty” he would sacrifice himself for his shipmates, making direct mental contact with the deadly Medusan ambassador, and being rendered temporarily blind for his pains. Spock certainly believed in the axiom he would later espouse in the movies, that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, and would often put this into practice, reasoning that to put one person in danger in order to save many more was always the most logical course. He would be forced to express his emotions against his will, and act as the torture puppet of the Platonians in “Plato’s stepchildren”, one of the episodes banned for many years for both its almost-graphic depictions of torture and its being the first example on television of a multiracial kiss.

We rarely see Spock relax in the series, or have any downtime, but in “The way to Eden” we learn that not only can he play the Vulcan lyre, he is also aware of and versed in the counterculture of the space hippies who are taken onboard Enterprise and who eventually try to take over the ship. His empathy with, and understanding of their ideals makes him a good go-between when Kirk’s authority is flatly rejected. Spock meets a facsimile of Surak, the father of Vulcan philosophy and the man seen as the saviour of their race in “The savage curtain”, while he again falls in love but has to leave his lover behind when she is unable to come with him back to his own time in “All our yesterdays”, the penultimate episode of the series.

With the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969, Leonard Nimoy joined the cast of, as mentioned briefly, Mission: Impossible, but his own mission impossible was to be the attempt to leave behind the character who had, at that time, been his constant companion for nearly four years. He lent his voice to the later, short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series and when the natural successor to the original series came along, he was convinced to guest star as Spock --- this time an ambassador, as his father had been --- in the two-part fifth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation “Unification”. In this, an older, wiser Spock is trying desperately to reunite the ancient cousins the Romulans and the Vulcans, but it all turns out to be for nothing.

With the advent of the first Star Trek movie, Nimoy reprised his role, but this time as a much sterner, less emotional and almost totally without humour Spock, although he thaws a little towards the end. Poorly received, both by critics and fans, it would be the second movie that would write the next chapter in the Spock story, while attempting to bring it to a complete close. Tired of playing the character and being typecast (leading to his first autobiography being titled “I am not Spock!”) Nimoy agreed that Spock should be killed off, but he had expected it to happen at the beginning of the movie, in a low-key way, and for it to be permanent. In fact, he only agreed to play the part on that basis. When the script was rewritten however, and he saw how much of an impact his death could have on not only the movie but the fans and his own role, he was much more sanguine about it.

Fan uproar over the leaked details of his death though led to his resurrection being pencilled in, and Star Trek II: the wrath of Khan became the first in a very successful trilogy of movies, spanning one story arc which basically told the story of Spock’s death, rebirth and return over the course of three blockbuster films. For the third movie, The search for Spock, Nimoy wanted to direct, and as he was not in it very much this was not a problem, and his direction was so inspired that he was to take the chair again for the fourth movie. This would, of course, lead to his directing other movies, outside of the franchise, but as I said at the beginning I’m not going to cover them here. Nimoy starred in two more Trek movies before the franchise moved on, with the seventh concerning the “new” crew of TNG and all the original actors signing off over the end credits of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, so that there was no doubt that this was their swansong.

And so it was. Nimoy joined the cast of sci-fi series Fringe, but when Star Trek was rebooted in 2009 with a new movie and a whole new cast, he was asked to return as an older, "future" Spock for the movie and did so. He retired from acting the following year, but broke that rule to again play the role of Spock one last time in the second “reboot” movie, the perhaps tragically prophetically titled Star Trek: Into darkness, in 2013. It would of course be the last time any of us ever saw Spock on the screen again.

For over forty years Leonard Nimoy portrayed a character who came to be so inextricably linked, not only with Star Trek but with science-fiction and the future in general, that he has now passed into the shared consciousness of this world, and will never be forgotten. The calm, unblinking, coldly logical alien who could sometimes be more human than humans themselves, and always seemed to have that slight spark in his eyes as Leonard Nimoy peeked out from behind them, will always be in our memory. If there are three words that define Star Trek, even to those who have never seen it, they are Kirk, Enterprise and Spock.

In closing, I would like to quote you the words Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, quoted on the inner sleeve of the Hawkwind album Church of Hawkwind, and which has recently become part of my signature: Lives of great men remind us we can make our lives sublime, and so departing leave behind us footsteps on the sands of time.

Thank you, Leonard, for such wonderful memories, and for teaching us things that often school, and even life could not. It’s not true to say that everything I learned I learned from Star Trek, but a hell of a lot I did, and it was all good. Your long Trek is over, my friend, may you rest in peace.

Live long, and prosper, in our memories and in our hearts.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018