Trollheart

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, Enterprise NX-01, Enterprise -D, USS Voyager, Discovery, Protostar, Cerritos, Horizon, Dominion, Phoenix, Intrepid, Osiris, Odyssey, Excelsior, Exeter, Batavia, the space stations Deep Space 9 and Deep Space 12, and every other location on which the franchise is set. Starting with the first ever series, now known as Classic Trek or The Original Series (TOS) my intention is to check out each series in the franchise. Along the way I will compare the series, see how it has changed or impacted on the franchise, and note any important points each series may have contributed to the Star Trek legend. Hopefully, there’ll be time for some fun, too.

Feel free to join in, or watch with me as we go along, but equally, feel free just to read and comment, or just to read.

I also intend to tackle any “non-canon” or independent projects - fan series, that kind of thing - though in general I will NOT be looking at the movies, just TV series, or, in some cases, ones only available online. Some may only have one or two episodes, but that’s ok. Quantity is not always a good indicator of quality. The fact that there may be only a handful of episodes could be- and most likely will be - down to the fact that in the case of fan-produced efforts, with very few exceptions, there is no funding, so these are labours of love financed by the people who made them, and, well, your personal money does not last forever. So this may have been all they could afford to do without proper backing.

What will the reviews be like? That’s easy: there won’t be any reviews. I have about thirty or so series to look at, and all I want to do is give a general overview of each, note the setting, characters, ideas behind it and fill you in a little on each series, how it came to be, how it differs from, or sticks to, the main Star Trek universe. This is just so I can see - and so can you, if you have not already - what the newer series are like, as well as introducing anyone who may not have seen the “big six” (TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT/DISC) to those shows. Not quite a beginner’s guide, as such, but a grounding in the whole world originally created by one man with a vision.

If anyone feels I’m “glossing over” some series I should not, well, plead your case and if I’m sufficiently impressed/convinced then maybe I’ll take a deeper look at them. For now, the idea is to take the first - or in some cases, only - episode and do a quick runthrough of that, give my general comments and compare it to the other shows, both authorised and unauthorised, that I have at that point seen.

Star Trek has lasted the test of time, running now for almost sixty years in , at the time of writing, ten different - official - series, some of which have only begun. Should a new one begin during this project I will of course include it. Although this can, as the title proclaims, serve as your introduction to the world of Star Trek, it should be of interest also to those who are hardened Trekkers, Trekkies or whatever you’re having yourself.


Okay, a few points before we get going. Although I am well-versed in everything up to and including Voyager, I have seen little of Enterprise and only two seasons of Discovery. Anything from Picard onwards I am clueless about, so much of this will be familiar to me but some will be new, so I’ll be learning too.

For those who don’t know, a list of acronyms I will be using during this project (assume there is a Star Trek prefixed to each of these, unless otherwise noted):

TOS - The Original Series; the first one, with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, screened way back in the late 1960s, ran to three seasons.
TAS - The Animated Series, speaks for itself. Shown during the mid-seventies. Two seasons.
TNG - The Next Generation, which was the first new series and introduced us to Captain Picard, Riker and Data. Screened in the 1990s over seven seasons.
DS9 - Deep Space 9. First ever Star Trek series to take place on other than a starship, it revolves (literally) around the space station Deep Space 9. Another from the somewhat Trek-saturated 1990s. Introduced the first real story-arc-dependent version of the series. Another seven-season spectacular.
VOY - Voyager. Takes place in the unexplored Delta Quadrant of the galaxy, and was the first to feature a female captain. They got five seasons out of this one. And yes, it was shown during the 90s too.
ENT - Enterprise. (Originally without the prefix, added later) A sort of prequel, going back 200 years before the events of TOS and featuring the very first starship named Enterprise. Not very familiar with this one. Ran for four seasons. Final series made in the 1990s.
DISC - Discovery. The first major series since Enterprise ended. Shown from 2017, still on the go. In its third season as I write.
PIC - Picard, following the early career of the captain from TNG. Began in 2020. Two seasons so far.
STK - Short Treks, a two-season series of shorter episodes which take place between the events of DISC and PIC.
SNW: Strange New Worlds. A prequel to TOS but not as far back as ENT, chronicling the adventures of the original captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike. Began this year, so at the time of writing, in its first season.
LD: Lower Decks. Animated series which appears to focus on comedy (it says here) and so far has run to two seasons, having started in 2020.
STP: Prodigy, the first completely computer-animated series in the franchise, aimed (again, it says here) at younger audiences. Began last year, currently in its first season.

Apart from these official series there is also a shedload of fan-produced material, some of it almost to Hollywood standards, some of it, well, not. Again, I will be ignoring movies (don’t you think I’ve enough to do?) but that still leaves us with an additional SIXTEEN series, as below:

Note: I have no idea what acronyms relate to these, so I’ll make my own up and note them here.

HF: Hidden Frontier: A series with fifty episodes, which ran from 2000 - 2007 and led to four spinoff series. This one takes place just after the Dominion War, which dominates seasons four to seven of Deep Space 9.
EX: Exeter, only two episodes released. Ran from 2002 - 2014. Wait, what? Twelve years to result in only two episodes? Okay, well, this one is set in the TOS era and takes place on, you’ll be unsurprised to discover, the USS Exeter. Of course it does.
NV: New Voyages, also set in the TOS era and actually intended to finish the interrupted five-year mission of the original Enterprise. It was so well received that cast members from TOS were signing on to appear in it. Ran from 2004 - 2016 and had ten episodes.
DA: Dark Armada. Set after the events of the third TNG movie, Nemesis, it ran from 2006 - 2016 and had four episodes.
ODY: Odyssey. A spinoff from Hidden Frontiers, which sees the USS Odyssey trapped in the Andromeda galaxy, making it, I believe, the first and only series in the franchise to move outside of our own galaxy. Ran from 2007 - 2011 and had ten episodes.
FA: Farragut takes place in the TOS era on a sister ship to the Enterprise. Anyone want to guess her name? It ran from 2007 - 2016 and had eight episodes, though there may be more as the finale was only released last year.
INT (not to be confused, of course, with ENT): Intrepid, the first fan series to be produced in the UK, this is a Scottish production and although it ran from 2007 - 2018, I’m confused about how many episodes there are, as the producers seem to have also collaborated on episodes of Odyssey and Hidden Frontier, but I guess we’ll find out.
OS: Osiris. Seems to have been one of the duds. Ran for one year and four episodes in 2008 but was slated. I’ll make my own judgement thanks, as I always do. Set just before the events in Nemesis.
PHX: Phoenix, set after Nemesis, but seems to have only produced one episode in 2010.
CON: Continues, which, as the title suggests, attempts to continue, possibly in the same way as The New Voyages, the mission of the original Enterprise. Ran from 2013 - 2017 and produced eleven episodes.
VAL: Valiant is again set in the TOS universe and between 2014 and 2021 released three episodes.
POT: Potemkin Pictures (no Star Trek prefix), a huge franchise with ten spinoff series and over eighty episodes. 2010 - 2020, based in the TOS era.
TATV: These are the Voyages, a series of five (or possibly six) episodes set in the Enterprise (ENT) timeline. Ran from 2017 - 2019.
BOT: Blood of Tiberius (no Star Trek prefix) envisages a timeline occurring after the events in the TOS episode “Bread and Circuses”, with descendants of the crew. Not sure how many episodes, but they’re all animated.
DD: Dreadnought Dominion (no Star Trek prefix) also takes places in the TOS era, and ran for 13 episodes from 2015 - 2020.

As if that wasn’t enough to be getting on with (it is, it is!) there are also a number of parodies and even some series that have had to distance themselves from the Star Trek brand thanks to draconian “guidelines” by CBS as to what they will allow in fan made productions, and I’ll investigate these to see if they’re worthy of checking out. But that will be a long time in the future, and possibly, to counter-paraphrase (or something) Star Wars, quite far away. I have plenty of work to do, and it starts today.

FYI I will be going as chronologically as I can, which means that where there are fan series in between even major official ones, such as Enterprise or Discovery, I will do those first, so that everything fits in together along a basic Star Trek timeline, rather than do all the official series and then the fan ones. That of course means we may in fact be emulating Doctor Who and jumping up and down that timeline, as some of the fan series have their programmes set in the TOS universe, some have them in DS9 and so on, but I still reckon this is the best way to see how the franchise as a whole has evolved.

And it all began here, with a “Wagon Train to the stars”.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Series: Star Trek (TOS)
Pilot episode title: “The Man Trap”
Original transmission date: September 8 1966
Total seasons (to date if current): 3
Span: 1966 - 1969
Writer(s): George Clayton Johnson
Director: Marc Daniels
Basic premise: Visiting an outpost planet, the Enterprise crew meet what appears to be Dr. McCoy’s ex-girlfriend. But as will become usual, things are not as they seem.
Mood: Dark, depressive
Setting(s): Enterprise, Planet M-113
Themes: Loss, obsession, murder, hunger, survival, racial extinction, shapeshifting
Things I liked: The cute plant in Sulu’s quarters, sort of foreshadowing a Tribble; the most action for Janice Rand until her almost-rape scene in “The Enemy Within”; the more mature nature of the episode in general.
Things I didn’t like: The awkward flirting between Spock and Uhura (well, all Uhura really)
Timeline: 23th century
Stardate: 1513.1
Vessel: USS Enterprise
Registry: NCC-1701
Class: Constitution
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): Standard health check and supply run
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
Captain James T. Kirk
Mr. Spock, Science Officer and S-I-C
Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Ship’s Chief Medical Officer
Hikaru Sulu, Helmsman

Supporting:
Dr. Robert Crater, archaeologist
Nancy, his wife
Yeoman Janice Rand

Ancillary:
Crewman Darnell
Crewman Greene
Crewman Sturgeon
Starring (Main Cast): William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (RIP), DeForest Kelly (RIP), James Doohan (RIP), George Takei, Nichelle Nichols (RIP)
With: Alfred Ryder, Jeanne Bal, Michael Zaslow, Grace Lee Whitney, Bruce Watson, Francine Pyne, Vince Howard, John Arndt

Note: in the following category ratings, in general this refers to the series as a whole, if I know it. If I don’t, then it has to refer to the episode I get to watch.

Writing: 8/10
Acting: 7/10
CGI: 5/10
Soundtrack/effects: 5/10
Costumes: 8/10
Probability of watching more: n/a
Balance between animation and live-action: 3/10
Gender balance: 3/10


Synopsis

On the dead planet M-113, archaeologist Dr. Robert Crater and his wife are conducting research. Nancy was once Dr. McCoy’s lover, so this mission is a little hard for him ooer, but when he meets her all is not yadda yadda yadda. He sees her as the young woman he fell in love with twelve years ago and remarks that she hasn’t aged a day, and she hasn’t: not for him. But Captain Kirk sees her as she is, a grey-haired, much older woman. Crewman Darnell, the third in the party, sees her as a woman he knew, also young and pretty. When he goes outside she lures him away. Dr. Crater (they call him doctor and professor, so I’m just going to go with Doctor) seems unhappy to see them when he arrives, saying he wants to be left alone with his wife. Other than a supply of salt, he wants nothing from them. McCoy however is under orders to check on their health and will not be brushed off. There’s probably a little jealousy, too, that Crater got his girl, though his professional manner doesn’t allow that to show.

Dr. Crater seems concerned that Kirk and McCoy both see Nancy as quite different in age, but he brushes it off with the air of a man who does not want to broach a subject that may end up landing him with more questions to ask. Then Nancy screams, and they rush to find Darnell dead; Nancy says he ate a poisonous plant. Back on the ship however Spock and McCoy agree that, after an examination of Darnell, he was not poisoned. So why did Nancy say he was? And what is her weird obsession with salt? McCoy can’t even understand what killed the crewman. After a further examination, he finds that Darnell has no salt in his body, but he had no idea how he could have lost it.

They beam back down to the planet, but again Crater is unhelpful when they demand to know why he needs all the salt he has requested. Meanwhile, two more crewmen have been killed, and Nancy now seems to take the form of Greene and when they again beam up to the ship she goes with them. She wanders the ship but is unable to find any salt, or manage to take any victims (it has now become obvious she is some sort of shapeshifting alien, who needs salt to survive, and that she is responsible for the deaths of the crewmen down on the planet) until she comes across McCoy’s quarters. Meanwhile a dead crewman (yes, another one) is found in the corridors, and Nancy takes McCoy’s form while he sleeps under her power.

Kirk and Spock return to the planet, where Crater has gone over the edge, threatening them with a weapon. They find the body of Crewman Greene, so Kirk now knows that whatever beamed up with them was not him, and raises an alert on the Enterprise. They* get the jump on Crater, and while stunned he reveals that Nancy is not Nancy, but an alien shapeshifter. Taken to the ship, he recognises the creature in McCoy but says nothing, as together they try to plead the alien’s case, Crater pointing out that it is the last of its kind, that it is not dangerous (a claim that can be readily refuted as the bodycount mounts!) and that it needs salt, but also love. Kirk is not impressed with his comparing it to the buffalo on Earth, and Crater refuses to help.

As a result, the creature ends up killing him. It would have killed Spock too, but his blood is based on copper, and the salt content is not to its taste. It returns to McCoy and rouses him, turning back into Nancy. When Kirk and Spock come for it, he stands in their way. Kirk offers the creature salt, and while he and McCoy tussle the creature grabs Kirk and entrances him, preparing to kill him by extracting all the salt from his body. Spock enters and growls at McCoy to kill it, or his captain will die. Torn by indecision, he waits, as Spock wades in but has his arse kicked by the creature. He snaps “Could Nancy do that, Doctor?” and as the creature again fastens onto Kirk, McCoy sees it for what it is, and fires. The creature, wounded,* briefly reverts to Nancy but McCoy knows it now for what it is, and finishes it off.

Comments

Although of course it worked, I feel the producers took a chance here, a real one. This opinion is, I’m not surprised to find, shared by almost everyone involved with the show. As Star Trek was to become known for its easy, friendly, almost family atmosphere between the crew, this episode, as a basic pilot, has none of that. It’s very dour, very serious, and everyone is intent on their job. There’s no ribbing between the three main characters - very much a feature of the show as it progressed, and possibly one of the main reasons for its success and longevity - there’s little in the way of friendship, though there is some sympathy for McCoy, though pretty much only from Kirk. Spock remains aloof, as above, and makes no comment. Even when the message comes back that one of the landing party has died, he merely acknowledges it, though he has no way of knowing this is neither the captain nor the doctor. Uhura berates him on his lack of feeling, and perhaps it was decided he was too cold?

It’s very much a product of the fifties and sixties science fiction movies of its day, with a kind of monster-of-the-week to be tracked down, and while there is a certain humanity towards the creature - only expressed, it must be said, by Crater, who has something to gain, and the creature itself while in the form of McCoy - they still kill it in the end. Look, for a comparison, at the Horta in “Devil in the Dark”. The difference in the way the crew treat this creature is staggering, and remember, both have been killing humans, but there is a better understanding, mostly due to Spock’s mind melding with the creature, so it’s a pity they didn’t use that here. But at this point the mind meld was perhaps not even thought of, as otherwise they could have got the information they wanted from Crater that way, instead of using the old CIA standard, truth drugs.

It would also be a feature of TOS that there would be, generally, few “sad” or “dark” endings, to the effect that a large percentage of the episodes would end up with Kirk and crew laughing at some joke, thereby leaving the viewer with the indelible impression of a group of friends, or even a family, jaunting around the galaxy and having fun. This definitely does not convey that kind of feeling. So all in all, a poor one to begin with. The cardinal rule of writing is hook them in the first sentence or few sentences, but once you’ve done that you have to retain that attention, and ideally give them a happy, or at least satisfactory ending. To see one of the crew have to kill a representation of the woman he had loved and probably be haunted about it ever afterwards, is not what you’d call a happy ending. So I think it was a bad choice to showcase the series, but as time and history shows, they overcame any initial doubts and got enough of the audience’s attention to make them come back the next week, and the week after that, and the week after that. Soon, the new series was a phenomenon, and a legend was well on its way to being born.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

djchameleon

I'll be keeping up with this because over the past seven months I got hooked into a Star Trek game. I'm more of a Star Wars fan moreso than a trekkie but playing this game is giving me the itch to start watching some of the newer series like Picard, SNW and Lower Decks.

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Fame, fortune, power, titties. People say these are the most crucial things in life, but you can have a pocket full o' gold and it doesn't mean sh*t if you don't have someone to share that gold with. Seems simple. Yet it's an important lesson to learn. Even lone wolves run in packs sometimes.

Trollheart

Oh well you are in the right place, my friend. I'll be doing every series (first episode only) and giving an overview of each, as well as the fan made material. It'll be fun. Mostly.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season: 1
Episode: 1
Episode title: “Beyond the Farthest Star”
Original transmission date: September 8 1973
Total seasons (to date if current): 2
Span: 1973 - 1974
Writer(s): Samuel A. Peeples
Director: Hal Sutherland
Basic premise: The Enterprise gets pulled into the gravity of a dead star, and encounters a deadly ancient alien.
Setting(s): The Enterprise, the alien ship
Themes: Loneliness, power, abandonment, coercion, exploration
Timeline: 23rd century
Stardate: 5221.3
Vessel: USS Enterprise
Class: Constitution
Registry: NCC-1701
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): Stellar cartography
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
Captain James T. Kirk
Mr. Spock, Science Officer and S-I-C
Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Ship’s Chief Medical Officer
Hikaru Sulu, Helmsman
Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Uhura, Communications Officer
Alien helmsman
Supporting:
Ancillary:
Transporter operative Kyle
Nurse Christine Chapel
Redshirts
Starring: (The voices of) (Main Cast):[/b] William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (RIP), DeForest Kelly (RIP), James Doohan (RIP), George Takei, Nichelle Nichols (RIP), Majel Barret (Roddenberry) (RIP)
Guest Star(s):

Synopsis

In orbit around a dead star which appears to have what Mr. Spock describes as “hyper-gravity”, the Enterprise encounters a much larger alien ship drifting in the planet’s orbit. It appears to be dead, but there is some sort of signal coming from it, so they leave it alone and head on home. Yeah right. Spock’s analysis of the strange ship dates it to about 300 million years ago. Kirk organises a boarding party where the idea quickly emerges that the ship is a living entity. Or was, once. There’s also evidence that seems to suggest the crew destroyed the ship themselves. Uhura tells them the signal the ship was sending stopped once they beamed aboard.

Scotty reasons that the entire ship was set up to receive and store energy, and when they move into a sort of honeycomb chamber they find both that communication with the Enterprise has been lost and that their phasers do not work. Outside, something appears to be trying to get in, and they find some sort of communication that Kirk reckons could be the ship’s log. Or a warning. Spock tries to translate it, and finds that it is indeed a warning, a warning about the lifeform which is now onboard the ship. Rather than allow it access to their civilisation, the crew have decided to let the ship be drawn into the orbit of the dead star in order to destroy it. They have given their lives to protect their race.

Things start to explode, and the party makes a quick exit, beaming back to the ship. Unfortunately there’s a stowaway, and the alien creature in the form of a green mist seeps into the vents, into the computer systems and is gone. It then takes control of the ship (well, duh) and turns the phaser banks on the alien ship, destroying it. Then it starts shutting down life support, which is never good. It now communicates with them, confirming Kirk’s hypothesis that it is caught in the dense gravity of the dead star and needs a starship to help it break free. Now that it has taken control of the Enterprise, that’s exactly what it intends to do.

Spock tells Kirk that the alien is pure energy, but is capable of symbiotic relationships and has entered one with the ship, taking it over, in effect becoming the Enterprise. It orders Kirk to take the ship to the heart of the galaxy, where it can reproduce and take over all ships there, but Kirk has an idea. To avoid using the computers and alerting the alien, Kirk has his own walking computer do the calculations for a sling-shot manoeuvre to get them out of the planet’s orbit; Spock can do that standing on his head. But as that would be far too undignified for a Vulcan, he remains on his feet and works out the maths. As they dive towards the planet, the alien, fearing that they too are about to destroy their ship, flees, and Kirk has Sulu cut in the warp drive and they sling-shot the fuck out of there! Score!

As a downbeat postscript, the alien whines and cries about being left behind as they warp off, saying it is so lonely. Aw. Fuck it.


The Resolution

Meh, general Trek stuff. Basically a game of chicken that the alien loses. All right I suppose.


Questions, and Sometimes, Answers

I know the animation here is early and crude by today’s standards, but I always wondered what the deal was with the idea that whenever one of the characters ran they had to punch the air in front of them? Pretty funny really.

Personal Notes

It’s interesting when you see how much more can be done with a show like this when it can just be animated. Some of the sequences, especially inside the alien craft, while they could easily be replicated today, would have been way out of the reach of the effects around at the time of the original Star Trek. It’s good to see they can push the envelope, even adding in a strange alien crewmember who takes the place of Chekov beside Sulu at the helm (but who never talks), and overall it’s a pretty faithful kind of continuation of the original series.

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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.

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season: 1
Episode: 1 and 2
Episode title: “Encounter at Farpoint”
Original transmission date: September 28 1987
Total seasons (to date if current): 7
Span: 1987 - 1993
Writer(s): D.C. Fontana, Gene Roddenberry
Director: Corey Allen
Basic premise: On its maiden voyage, the new USS Enterprise encounters a strange, omnipotent alien who sets them the task of proving humanity is not still savage, using their mission to explore the mystery of Farpoint Station as the yardstick by which he will judge them, and all humanity.
Setting(s): Enterprise, Farpoint Station,
Themes: Imprisonment, impotence, slavery, animal cruelty, exploration, mystery
Things I liked: Oh what's not to like? New Star Trek, at the time? Bring it on!
Things I didn’t like: Picard's stiffness, surrender in episode one...
Timeline: 24th century
Stardate:
Vessel: USS Enterprise
Class: Galaxy
Registry: NCC-1701-D
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): To visit Farpoint Station and negotiate for the technology that has allowed the station to be built so quickly
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
(Main Crew) Captain Jean-Luc Picard
First Officer William T. Riker
Lieutenant Data, an android
Commander Geordi LaForge, Helmsman
Commander Worf, Tactical Officer
Dr. Beverly Crusher, CMO
Wesley Crusher, her son
Deanna Troi, Ship’s Counsellor, a half-Betazoid alien/human hybrid
Lieutenant Tasha Yar, Security Chief
Miles O’Brien, Helmsman
Supporting:
Q, an omnipotent, godlike alien
Groppler Zorn, administrator of Farpoint Station
Ancillary:
Admiral Leonard James “Bones” McCoy (cameo)
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Levar Burton, Will Wheaton, Michael Dorn, Colm Meany, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis
With: John de Lancie, Michael Bell

Guest Star(s): DeForest Kelly

Synopsis

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!”


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 was 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 the next article. 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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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 sometimes 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.

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Trollheart

As part of this...

A project-within-a-project, I intend to very soon begin watching this. I have not seen one single episode, not even a trailer, so I'm coming to it completely blank. I'll be doing my usual, writing a synopsis, giving my views and thoughts and then as it progresses and I watch more, seeing if it gets better, worse, or even if I keep watching. If you've seen it please keep spoilers out. I literally have not seen this and I don't want it ruined. If for some reason you want to watch along with me honestly why do I bother? Nobody ever has, and nobody ever will do that. But if some mad impulse seizes you and you feel you want to, by all means do, and let me know you are.

I can't say how regular this will be, as I also intend to watch this from the beginning, another one I haven't seen anything at all from, so I'll post as I watch and I'll watch as I get time in my schedule.

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Trollheart

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Season: 1
Episode: 1 and 2
Episode title: “Emissary”
Original transmission date: January 4 1993
Total seasons (to date if current): 7
Span: 1993 - 1999
Writer(s): Rick Berman, Michael Piller
Director: David Carson
Basic premise: Benjamin Sisko is reassigned to the Federation space station Deep Space 9, and quickly becomes entangled in politics and power as the station suddenly becomes the most important in the quadrant when a stable wormhole is discovered.
Setting(s): Battle of Wolf 359, Deep Space 9, Starfleet Command on Earth, The wormhole (entailing various dream/vision sequences including a beach, a baseball pitch and others)
Themes: Faith, war, reconciliation, travel, destiny, acceptance
Things I liked: The new idea (shut up, Babylon 5 fans including me!) of using a space station, the Cardassians, the idea of a black man in charge, Wolf 359, Odo, lots of things.
Things I didn’t like: Too much religion; I never enjoyed the religious aspect of this show, and though I'll give it its due, for me it made the storylines overly intricate, though of course it does play a huge part in the unfolding story arc later. I didn't like Kira at first. That's a lie. I never liked Kira, right to the end. The scene in the wormhole/celestial temple is stretched out too far, and did they have to bring bloody baseball into it?
Timeline: 24th century
Stardate: ?
Vessel: None; space station Deep Space 9
Class: n/a
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): n/a
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
Commander Benjamin Sisko
Major Kira Nerys, a Bajoran ex-freedom fighter/rebel
Chief Engineer Miles O’Brien
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax, a trill
Doctor Julian Bashir, CMO
Quark, Ferengi owner of a bar and casino
Odo, Head of security, some sort of shapeshifting alien
Supporting:
Kai Opaka, supreme Bajoran spiritual leader
Ancillary:
Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
Locutus of Borg
Gul Dukat
Rom, Quark’s brother
Nog, Rom’s son
Jennifer Sisko, the commander’s late wife
Starring: (Main cast) Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Colm Meany, Siddig el Fadil, Terry Farrell, Armin Shimerman, Rene Auberjonois, Cirroc Lofton
With: Camille Saviola, Aron Eisenberg, Max Grodenchik, Marc Alaimo, J.G. Hertzler, Majel Barret (Roddenberry) (RIP)
Guest Star(s):
Patrick Stewart

Synopsis

Beginning as it does with the battle at Wolf 359, if you have not already seen TNG's “The Best of Both Worlds” before embarking on your adventure into this series, it is highly recommended, otherwise the opening scene will confound you. Assuming you're conversant with those episodes though (if not, read no further: you have been warned), we see the battle being directed against the Federation by Locutus of Borg, none other than Captain Jean-Luc Picard in his Borg persona. Starfleet is losing the battle, and will suffer heavy losses before retreating against the marauding invaders, making this a watershed moment in Trek history. Never before has such a massive fleet been assembled, the very cream of Starfleet, to be brushed aside like insects as the Borg carve their way through the galaxy towards Earth.

The USS Saratoga is just one of the ships trying to stem the advance of the Borg, but they are as ineffectual as any of the others, and the ship takes a direct hit. Benjamin Sisko, serving aboard the ship, sees his wife, Jennifer, dead, pinned beneath a metal stanchion as the ship goes up in flames and he is forced to leave her there, taking his young son Jake as they escape, moments before the ship tears itself apart. Three years later, he is given command of the Federation space station, Deep Space Nine, which is in orbit around a planet called Bajor. This planet has just emerged from a long war of attrition with the Cardassian Empire, and they have requested a Federation presence in the sector, to discourage their old enemy from returning. The station the Federation are to take control of is an old Cardassian outpost known as Terak Nor, but Starfleet have renamed it.

Joining Sisko there is his new chief of operations, Miles O'Brien, whom we met in TNG previously. As it is the Enterprise that brings him and the station's doctor, Julian Bashir, to the station, it's not that surprising that we see a guest cameo for Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Sisko however is in no mood to be friendly: this is not a posting he requested and truth to tell, he is thinking of resigning his commission. He has a young son to bring up now, on his own, and a space station does not seem the best of places for him to grow up. He meets his new attache, Major Kira Nerys, who is less than overjoyed to see him. She is a Bajoran, fought against the Cardassians and is not happy to see the Federation, as she sees it, taking the place of the old oppressor. He also meets his chief of security, an alien called Odo, who can shift his shape into any form he wishes, and treats Sisko (and everyone really, bar Kira) with a sort of gruff tolerance. He was also chief of security when the Cardassians occupied this station, a fact that will not sit well with many now that the enemy has been overthrown.

After the nephew of Quark, the Ferengi who was running the local casino and bar but is now preparing to leave in the aftermath of the destruction wrought by the defeated, departing Cardassians, is caught stealing, Sisko offers him a choice. He will release the boy if Quark stays and reopens the casino. He wants someone to make a stand, put down roots and rebuild. Quark, with a tacit assurance of little or no interference from Starfleet in his gaming tables, grudgingly agrees. Odo begins to have a new respect for Sisko. Kira explains that she believes the provisional government set up to rule in the wake of the fall of the Cardassian occupation will itself fail, as factions develop and old scores are reignited. She says the only one who can reunite the planet is the spiritual leader, Kai Opaca, but she has secluded herself away. Just then, the vedek Sisko spoke to soon after his arrival advises him “it is time” and he goes to meet Opaca, who has sent for him. She shows him what she calls “a Tear of the Prophets”, a celestial orb of which she says there are nine, which appeared “mysteriously in the sky over the last ten thousand years.” She opens the casing and a blinding light suffuses him, and he is shown a most amazing vision.

He sees his future wife, Jennifer, now dead three years, as she was when he first met her. The vision does not last long, and when it is over Opaca tells him he has been chosen by the Prophets, her people's gods, to find the Celestial Temple before the Cardassians can. He has no idea what this temple is, but she tells him she cannot reunite her people until the Prophets have been warned. His pah --- the lifeforce or spiritual energy the Bajorans believe is in all beings --- is strong, and has helped her come to this conclusion. A little nonplussed, Sisko is nevertheless delighted later that night to see the promenade come alive as Quark keeps his end of the bargain and reopens the bar. The next day he greets his medical officer and his new science officer, the latter of whom is an old friend of his. Dax is a Trill, a symbiotic lifeform introduced in TNG which bonds to a host body and can live many hundreds of years. The relationship is totally benign, and neither is in control of the other, but when Sisko knew Dax he was in an old man named Curzon. Now he is in a young, pretty female called Jadzia, and Sisko is amused, still calling him “old man” despite the obvious curves.

The MO, Julian Bashir, is smitten with Jadzia, even though he knows about the Trill inside her, and is like a blushing schoolboy around her, which again affords Sisko and Dax much amusement. Sisko is less amused however when the former Cardassian Prefect of Bajor, and the man in whose office he is now sitting, drops by. Gul Dukat makes it plain that he is not happy to have been ousted, and tries to wring information from the commander about the orb he has seen, but Sisko feigns ignorance. A veiled threat that the station is “far from the protection of the Federation, with poor defences” does nothing to settle Sisko's mood of foreboding, and the two men take an instant dislike to each other, an air of mutual distrust and suspicion descending almost immediately.

Dax has been researching possible locations for this so-called “Celestial Temple”, and they now have an area they need to check out, a locus for all the sightings and navigational errors that lead them to believe this may be the place they're looking for. With Odo managing to disable the Cardassian ship berthed at the station they are free to launch unchallenged, and head off in one of the small “Runabout”-class shuttles to explore. What they find, against all logic, is the first stable wormhole known to exist, and more, within that wormhole, a planet! Or an asteroid. Both see something different when, again against all logic, they find they land on ... something. Sisko sees a desolate, windswept, storm-lashed planetoid, while Dax see a vision of a beautiful garden; trees, flowers, rolling hills, blues sky and sun. Then they both see it: an orb, floating in the air. It shoots energy beams at them, and Dax is transported back to the station. When she relates what has happened, Major Kira realises the enormous strategic importance of the wormhole and comes to perhaps an odd decision: Deep Space Nine must be moved, somehow, to the mouth of the new wormhole, so that the Bajorans (and the Federation) can lay claim to it before the Cardassians do.

Sisko however remains behind and seems to have another vision, in which he contacts the aliens inside the wormhole, and finds that they have no conception whatever of time. For them, there is no “now”, “later”, “soon”, no “past” and no “future”: everything happens to them at the same moment. They test him, calling him adversarial, violent (sound familiar?) but he wins them over and they agree to anoint him as their emissary. They also bring him face-to-face with his own guilt and pain, and allow him to say goodbye properly to Jennifer. Meanwhile, Gul Dukat has not been idle in wake of the appearance of the wormhole and sets course for it, despite the warnings of Kira and Odo. Just as his ship enters it it collapses, and soon three Cardassian warships arrive in search of Dukat. Dismissing this story of a wormhole they can neither see nor detect, they surround the station, believing that the Bajorans have somehow destroyed their ship. They demand the total surrender of the space station, but Kira and O'Brien manage to make it look as if they are well armed and would not be an easy target. Nevertheless, mindful of the approach of the Enterprise, less than a day away, Jasad orders the attack.

As the station begins to sustain heavy damage, and after holding out as long as she can Kira prepares to surrender, the wormhole suddenly reappears. Jasad is dumbfounded, the moreso as the Rio Grande comes through, towing Dukat's stricken ship! The attack is of course broken off and Sisko returns to Deep Space Nine. With the wormhole now a major attraction, both for commerce, tourists and scientific research, to say nothing of the strategic importance it has suddenly acquired in a military sense, Bajor is on the map in a way it never was before. The wormhole aliens, or Prophets as the Bajorans refer to them, have agreed to allow safe access for all through the wormhole, affording a quick and easy passage to the Gamma Quadrant, seventy thousand light-years away. His initial doubts about the post now vanished, and knowing he is where he is supposed to be, Sisko asks Picard to rescind his request for replacement, and takes his place at the helm of what will be one of the most exciting and challenging posts in Starfleet.


Houston, we have a problem!

I find it odd, unlikely in the extreme that the Cardassians are allowed back on the station off which they were ejected but two weeks ago. Admittedly, there is a reason for their visit and it is no coincidence that they wait until the Enterprise has left before approaching, but the ease with which Sisko allows them to “enjoy the facilities” is unsettling. It's like the SS coming back into Auschwitz after it's been liberated, or Al Quadea perhaps walking up to Ground Zero. Is there no tension here, no hostility? It's a Bajoran station after all; surely the locals are upset about this? But nobody seems to say anything, even raise an eyebrow. They're just accepted back. Granted, they're big heavy military types and nobody would want to mess with them, but you would think Sisko might have raised some objections, yet he doesn't. Odd, I feel.

Also, how is it that this wormhole has existed for approximately ten thousand years and yet Sisko and Dax are the first ones to ever locate it? Surely that's too massive a coincidence to ignore? Ten millennia: think about that. All right, man has only had space travel at this point for maybe two hundred years or less, but what about all the alien races passing through this sector? Did the Cardassians, in surely many supply runs to or even attacks on Bajor, never stumble across this? Is that in any way believable, that it's just been here, all this time, waiting for Sisko to discover it?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Queen Boo

Are you gonna look at the animated series?

It's essentially the fourth and fifth season of the original series.

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https://www.twitch.tv/drrobuttnik