Star Trek

While there was an announcement shortly before the WGA strike, and Alex Kurtzman confirmed the writers room is back up and at work during an NYCC panel, Paramount+ is moving forward on promotional information about the forthcoming new ‘Starfleet Academy’ show.

Will be keeping an eye out for information about preproduction design work starting up in Ontario.

@startrek Calling all Trekkies, there some explaining to do. https://medium.com/flicks-tv-hound/calling-all-trekkies-21bbf70680cf #startrek #anniversary #sciencefiction

Not sure how accurate it is but given the figures I vaguely recall, this feels pretty accurate.

Realizing that the Discovery is longer than any of these ships really puts shit into perspective

We know from Kurtzman’s messaging at NYCC recently that Michelle Yeoh put her Academy Award star power towards ensue that her Section 31 ‘movie event’ moves forward on Paramount+.

Checking in on the Director’s Guild of Canada Ontario round up of information for its members (Hot List), there’s been an interesting update.

While ‘Dovercourt’ (working title alias for the direct to streaming movie) still has a bold ‘POSTPONED’ due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, it’s moved from the ‘Preproduction stage’ section of the list to ‘Production.’

What does this suggest?

It would seem that the key preproduction production design work in Toronto has been able to be completed since the WGA strike ended.

Like SNW, the crews in Toronto are basically ready to go into production once the actors’ strike is settled. Logistically, it’s not entirely clear that both could shoot at the same time as they share some of the same crews, but it is encouraging.

I thought this was an interesting read. You can see that the seeds of what would become Star Trek were already growing.

Also, despite the name "Transporter" sounding familiar, his description of it is closer to a holodeck. It "transports" the user to different scenarios. Wild.

Kev & Rob get stuck in a cave and are forced to pass the time awaiting rescue discussing "Caves". As their supplies dwindle, they plumb the hidden depths of other cave-based episodes from Star Trek history, including "The Devil in the Dark" (TOS), "Heart of Stone" (DS9), "Final Mission" (TNG), and "Waltz" (DS9).

The title is a play on the TNG episode “The Inner Light”, where Picard is hit by a beam from a Kataan probe that makes him live out a lifetime of memories in the space of less than an hour. A similar probe last appeared in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

The scientists are studying the venomous tremble lizards of Persioff IX. Persioff IX could be a reference to veteran actor Nehemiah Persoff, who played Palor Toff in TNG: “The Most Toys”. The design of the anti-venom suits are similar to TOS-style EV suits, seen in TOS: “The Tholian Web”.

The list of ex-Starfleet Officers to be escorted include Seven of Nine, Beverly Crusher, Thomas Riker and Nick Locarno. At this point in their lives, Seven of Nine is with the Fenris Rangers (PIC: “Stardust City Rag”), Beverly Crusher has just left Starfleet after becoming pregnant with Picard’s son (PIC: “Seventeen Seconds”), Thomas Riker was last seen being sentenced to a Cardassian work camp (DS9: “Defiant”), and Nick Locarno was last seen expelled from Starfleet Academy (TNG: “The First Duty”). Space prevents me from going into beta canon sources for Riker and Lorcano, or the latter’s resemblance to Tom Paris.

The shuttle the team takes to Sherbal V is the Death Valley. As with the other Cerritos shuttles, she is named after the Californian National Park.

The Klingon Bird of Prey, based on an eyeballing of its relative size to the shuttle, is a B’rel-class scout, the same class as the Bounty from ST III and ST IV.

It may just be my imagination, but New Axton’s planetary force field which allows only ships in through a protected portal reminds me of the shield around Scariff in Rogue One: a Star Wars Story. The shuttle bringing Freeman, Rutherford and Shax to the surface has a profile and colors resembling a Tatooine landspeeder, and the staff handling planetary landings were in uniforms resembling Imperial ones and speak in pseudo-British accents (not to mention the control room looks like your standard Empire air traffic control). We had vague Star Wars references last episode, too.

Starfleet shuttles are equipped with a short-range transporter. We first saw one being used in TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”, when rescuing Picard from a Borg cube. The standard range for a shipboard transporter is 40,000km (TNG Technical Manual), but one presumes the smaller shuttle transporters have a shorter range.

From the pink blood, the masked figure that had his foot caught in the trap is Klingon. He later turns out to be Ma’ah, captain of the IKS Che’Ta’. We saw his rise from Lower Decker to commander in LD: “wej Duj” and his ship was “destroyed” by the mystery ship in LD: “Twovix”.

Among the aliens coming out from the moon shuttle are a Gorn female and a Caitian. In TOS: “The Corbomite Maneurver”, McCoy quips, “What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?”

The New Axton bar named Mudds refers to notorious conman Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd, chronologically last seen selling love potions in TAS: “Mudd’s Passion”. The patron that falls off the stool is a Galardonian (LD: “Second Contact”). The bouncer says “jippers are half price for tripeds today” - a jipper was one of Mudd’s preferred drinks (ST: “The Escape Artist”).

T’Lyn was indeed at the Battle of System 7743.8 (“wej Duj”), on the VCF Sh’val which came to the Cerritos’ rescue (we last saw the Sh’val in LD: “For a Few Badgeys More”). Also at that battle was the Che’Ta’. She did mention an encounter with a Klingon and Pakled ship to Mariner in LD: “Empathological Fallacies”, but Mariner may not have connected that with the Cerritos.

Boimler’s dream about Crusher refers to TNG: “Data’s Day” where she teaches Data to tap dance.

A dk’ tahg is a Klingon dagger, first seen in ST III but officially named TNG: “Birthright, Part II”.

The “perfect friend” that Mariner modeled herself after was Bajoran ENS Sito Jaxa, who was part of Nick Lorcano’s Nova Squadron (“The First Duty”). Sito was subsequently killed in 2370 during a covert operation to return a double agent to Cardassia Prime (TNG: “Lower Decks”).

Forgive an old chronologist’s ramblings: Sito’s fall from grace happened in 2368, and she had to retake her classes from the past year. Since she was on the Enterprise-D in the middle of 2370, the latest she could have graduated was in 2369. Mariner’s account that Sito graduated ahead of her means Mariner would have graduated at the earliest in 2370. A four-year course means she entered the Academy in 2367 - entering at age 17 (Wesley took the entrance exam at 16) makes her born in 2350, making her 31 as of 2381.

The Dominion War lasted from 2373 to 2375. If the above timeline is correct, Mariner would have served in it, especially since she served a stint on Deep Space 9 (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”, “Hear All, Trust Nothing”).

toDuj means courage or bravery in Klingon. It’s also the name of a Klingon fighter class in Star Trek Online. biHnuch doesn’t mean “idiot” but cowards - plural. The word nuch means coward and the biH means “they”, so Mariner’s usage of “a biHnuch”is grammatically incorrect.

I’m unable to understand what Ma’ah says before he hands the pip over to Mariner.

The alien at the table that Mariner, Shax and Rutherford approaches appears to be a Balok puppet (“The Corbormite Maneuver”), which was often seen in the series’ closing credits. The countdown that the “puppet” makes was also done in the TOS episode towards the Enterprise’s impending destruction. However… oops. In the non-canon novel The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett, it was established the the Balok puppet was based on the features of the larger, more intimidating Dassik species, with which Balok’s species (the Linnik) were in conflict with.

The bounty hunter’s language is similar to the sounds made by the Breen from DS9.

Tendi, is of course, the Mistress of the Winter Constellations (“We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”) raised to be the Prime of her house, the Tip of the Moonlit Blade (LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”).

More Star Wars references, specifically Return of the Jedi. The monitoring station is practically identical to the Imperial bunker on the forest moon of Endor. Attacking the Bird of Prey armed only with primitive weapons is reminiscent of the Ewoks attacking Imperial vehicles armed with similar stone-tipped spears. Sherbal V also looks like the forest moon.

Freeman’s plan for Billups to be disguised as a bounty hunter refers to Leia’s gambit to infiltrate Jabba’s Palace. We should have known, since the bounty hunter ship has a vaguely Hysperian color scheme (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”). The place where they search for Locarno even looks like Jabba’s Palace.

Of course, it stands to reason that if Mariner knew Sito, she’d know Locarno as well (the Kolvoord Starburst - the maneuver that got him drummed out of the Academy - is on his jacket as well as on the Bird of Prey). 



But if Mariner knew him at the Academy, that’s the clincher for her age. “The First Duty” takes place in 2368 as noted before, but Lorcano was graduating that year, which is why he was hell-bent on the Starburst stunt. If that’s so, then the latest time Mariner would have known Locarno is the 2367-2368 academic year, which means her latest entry into the Academy is 2367. Backtracking, her birthday is in 2350 at the latest. So coming at it from two angles - Sito and Locarno - comes up with the same minimum age: 31.

Written by: It's a secret (it was Mike McMahan)

Directed by: We're not tellin' (it was Brandon Williams)

No Discovery, Protostar, or La Sirenia… but I'll absolutely take what I can get.

• The episode title, “Caves” is a call back to the frequency in which caves or cave like structures are featured prominently in episodes of “Star Trek”, going all the way back to the original pilot, “The Cage”. Caves have been a significant part of the following episodes:

• This episode was Ben Rodgers, who voices lieutenant Steve Stevens.

CRITICAL LIST ERROR

• In this episode, we see caves on the following planets:

    • Grottonus - A grotto is a form of cave

    • Kyron 4 - Unfortunately not the fourth chyron we see in the episode

    • Balkus 9

    • Glish

• ”Oh, awesome. I feel like since we got promoted we never get paired up any more.” Boimler and Mariner were both on travel guide duty in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” two episodes together, but even then they approached the responsibility separately. That is the only episode we’ve seen where they’ve been on a mission together since their mutual promotion in the season premiere “Twovix”.

• ”I hate caves!” Mariner revealed in the series premiere, “Second Contact” that she was once trapped in a sentient cave. *”That’s a dark place that knows things.”

    • Mariner mentions the sentient cave again at the end of this episode.

• “I feel like I’ve been in this cave a hundred times.” Throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY, the same cave set was reused frequently to depict caverns on multiple planets across the galaxy. It was not every cave, but many of them.

• “Like the time we all got stuck together after that rage virus outbreak on the ship.” Tendi is referring to the events of “Second Contact”.

• Steve Levy was introduced in “No Small Parts” where we learned he’s a conspiracy theorist.

    • ”Wolf 359 was a tragedy.” In “No Small Parts” Mariner said that Levy claimed Wolf 359 was an inside job during a date they went on.

• During the flashbacks to the various caves the Lower Deckers have been trapped in, they’re all lieutenants junior grade, meaning that for all of them, the events have occurred since getting promoted in “Twovix”.

• We learn that the Vendor Prime is in the Beta Quadrant.

    • In “The Survivors” Spock claimed that the Vendorian homeworld is quarantined; “Their practice of deceit as a way of life puts them off limits.”

• The Vendorians are played by:

    • Noël Wells - Tendi

    • Dawnn Lewis - Cap’n Freeman, and Thusa this episode

    • Jerry O’Connel - Ransom, and the carnivorous moss this episode

    • Fred Tatasciore - Shaxs, and Steve Levy

• ”I thought you were just a paranoid anxiety made up by people who needed an imagined enemy.” Boimler had previously encountered a Vendorian in “Envoys”.

• ”...how you guys falsified data that going warp speed damages subspace.” In “Force of Nature” Hekaran scientists demonstrated to the crew of the USS Enterprise D that traveling at warp can damage subspace.

• ”We did not, as you put it, ‘do the Klingon civil war.’” Presumably Levy’s theory refers to the conflict between those Klingons who supported Gowron’s claim to be Chancellor of the Empire, and those who supported the House of Duras, seen in “Redemption” and “Redemption II”.

• “Sure, hang out with a guy who thinks we’re in the evil mirror universe.” The mirror universe was introduced in “Mirror Mirror”, and has been featured in several episodes of DS9, ENT, and DIS.

• Rutherford informs the Lower Deckers that he and Doctor T’Ana had a ”cave baby” together. Apparently he was impregnated by contact from a dying alien that is able to reproduce parthenogenetically through touch with a host.

    • Troi was non-consensually impregnated by a non-corporeal intelligence in “The Child”.

    • Tom Paris and Captain Janeway had children together while they were hyper evolved salamanders in “Threshold”.

    • Trip was accidentally impregnated through touch by a Xyrillian woman in “Unexpected”.

    • The less said about Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher’s child, the better.

• Doctor T’Ana states that molecular fungo-sites can’t be replicated. Other things that cannot be replicated include:

    • The vaccine for Anchilles fever - “Code of Honor”

    • Ketracel White - “The Abandoned”

    • Bio-neural gel packs - “Learning Curve”

    • Borg cortical nodes - “Imperfection”

    • Presumably latinum also cannot be replicated, but this is never explicitly established

• Delta Shift and the Lower Deckers’ rivalry with them were introduced in “Terminal Provocations”.

    • This is the first time we’ve gotten names for Karavitus, Amadou, and Asif on screen.

• Mariner’s mission with Delta Shift used the shuttle, Kings Canyon, which is the same shuttle Boimler’s team used in “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

• Pergium was introduced in “The Devil in the Dark”.

• Amadou explains that a nearby mineral vein is emitting chronitons, causing the aging effects. Chronitons were first mentioned in “The Next Phase” as subatomic particles with temporal properties.

    • In “Timescape” Picard’s hand ages rapidly when he reaches into a temporal fragment. It is not explicitly stated there are chronitons involved, but both incidents were the result of issues with a Romulan singularity drive.

• ”We’re just going to have the doc grow you a new one.” Nog’s leg was replaced with a bio-synthetic limb after he lost it in “The Siege of AR-558”.

• Delta Shift has a chant, like the Lower Deckers’ ”Lower Decks!” chant, first seen in “Second Contact”.

• The beginning of Tendi’s flashback to the USS Cerritos’ bar is taken from “Second Contact”.

• ”I thought synthohol let you shrug off the effects of alcohol.” Data explained that was the case to Scotty in “Relics”.

• Targs are Klingon animals used as pets, food, and candles. The first one seen on screen was manifested by Worf’s mind in “Where No One Has Gone Before”.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in 1999 after 7 seasons but didn't jump into feature films like The Next Generation. Here's why.

Today Paramount+ released a set of images for episode 409 but they did not release any other details, not even the title of the episode.

In the latest update the Voyager Documentary, To the Journey, have shown an image of their 4K remaster of the crash scene from Timeless.

Pretty much as the title says. I want to watch Discovery, but I just cannot find any streaming services that offer it. It’s supposed to be on Netflix, but it’s not. Tried skyshowtime and tele2 who also don’t have it.

I find everything else on these, from series to movies, except for discovery. Any tips (except for sailing)?

Rob & Kev consult their robotic overlord for its opinion on "A Few Badgeys More", before discussing other episodes where the forces of evil aligned against our heroes were artificial in nature: "The Return of the Archons" (TOS), "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "The Ultimate Computer" (TOS) and "Prototype" (VOY). Stay after the music for their thoughts on Prodigy's new lease on life on Netflix!