The Real Enemy

Recently there seems to have been a great deal of opposition it the newest Trek film, simply because some of the powers that be have decided to call it a “reimaging” of TOS. This one word seems to have been widely interpreted to mean “remake” by many trekkies, and they are in all probability correct. The film is most likely going to be a remake of the original series. However, many of these same people are now, on this basis, refusing to support the Star Trek franchise, by refusing to go and see the movie when it is finally released in 2008 on the grounds that, because it is a remake, it will be a blatant violation of canon as well as an abomination of Trek itself. This is bullshit! It is completely uncalled for to judge an entire movie based only on one word. Neither the movie nor the script has even been released yet, so the only people who really know anything about what the movie is going to be like are the writers and the director! The fans don’t know their ass from the elbow at the moment, and those who have decided that this move will be terrible based on one single word should defer judgment until they do actually know something substantive! A remake is not even a bad thing! We would not even have Star Trek as we know it today if it wasn’t for TMP, which for all intents and purposes was a remake of The Original Series. Whether one likes this picture or not is irrelevant. The point is that, without this movie, there would be no other movies, or TV series; there would be no Star Trek franchise. Therefore, we have a remake to thank for the Star Trek franchise itself. Canon is not a problem either. In TMP, the gross changes to the Star Trek universe were explained by one line of dialogue: “We have spent 18 months completely redesigning and refitting the Enterprise.” And thus, canon was satisfied. The other reason why we enjoy such a large amount of Trek today is because the fans kept an open mind about TMP and, for the most part, The Next Generation. Despite the fact that there was some opposition to TNG because it didn’t have Kirk, Spock etc…, the majority of the fan base gave the show a try, and it eventually grew into possibly the most popular Trek series in the franchise. If more trekkies had refused to watch it, basically because it was something new, then we would most likely have only a few seasons of TNG and definitely no TNG movies, DS9, VOY, or Enterprise. It is partially due to the fact that we have kept an open mind that Star Trek is what it is today. However, now, we are, with good reason, running scared. Basically, if this movie isn’t a success Star Trek is dead for the foreseeable future. So while on one hand it may be tempting to refuse to patronize the movie because it might be bad- and thus lead to the demise of Star Trek that is exactly – at this critical juncture -- what we can’t do! By refusing to go to the movie en masse, we will not help Star Trek- but instead seal its fate. While our number may not be enough to make this movie a success single-handedly, the number of trekkies is definitely large enough to break it. Therefore, if this attitude continues to perpetuate among the fan base, it will not be the writers, or the director, or ever those in charge at Paramount that kill trek – but the bad attitude of its own fans! To avoid this disastrous occurrence it is our duty to support the franchise by supporting the movie, whether it may be bad or not. And even if it is, then we still must support it, in the hopes that another, better movie will be made. Hope and Fear- one must be tempered by the other. Fear regarding the quality of this movie must be tempered by hope- if Trek is to survive we the fans cannot give in

VOY - 11:59

This episode is utterly pointless, yet somehow is very good at the same time. The story of Captain Janeway’s ancestors has practically no bearing on the starship Voyager or its crew, who in this case really serve as nothing more as a frame for the main storyline of the episode which takes place in 2000. Therefore this episode is hardly Star Trek Voyager at all, but merely couched in terms of it. That being said, this is still a great episode. The story line of the episode is excellent. It is interesting , in a sort of ironic way, to watch the true story of Captain Janeway’s ancestors unfold, and at the same time to see Janeway herself learn that truth and then have to deal with the reality of the situation while at the same time both O’Donnell and Henry Janeway come to deal with the reality of theirs . While, admittedly, a steady diet of this type of episode would quickly get old, the episode is an interesting change of pace. The musical score, rather ordinary for Star Trek in general, seems to work especially well with the subject matter of the episode. The ending is also rather significant showing the importance of ancestry in the lives of those who are currently living. 11:59 is a unique episode of Star Trek, and like the crew of Voyager itself, its uniqueness is its greatest strength

DS9 - The Adversary

No changeling has ever harmed another… until now. The Adversary is, obviously, a landmark episode for the character of Odo, in which he is not only forced to kill in the line of duty for the first time, but also in doing so becomes the first of his people ever to harm another. Other than this occurrence at the end of the episode, the ominous warning given to Odo by the Founder, and Sisko’s promotion at the beginning, this episode is rather ordinary. It’s by no means a bad episode, but not necessarily outstanding either.
It merely consists of the characters running around the ship trying to catch the changeling and not having much luck. In addition, the senior officers’ decision to set the auto destruct seems rather anti-climactic for an event of that magnitude. Therefore, while not, by any means, boring, the body of this episode could have been somewhat more dramatic.

TOS - Tomorrow is Yesterday

This episode has a very interesting premise. However, it is not a good as it could have been. Tomorrow is Yesterday involves the first use of time travel in Star Trek as a major plot device. However, once the location of the Enterprise is revealed in both space and time and Captain Christopher is beamed aboard, the characters spend large amounts of time arguing about whether Christopher should be returned or not, and then rehashing that same argument. Also, Kirk’s computer problems, although meant to be funny, are simply annoying, nothing more than a stupid, completely irrelevant tangent, which does not fit in with the rather serious nature of this episode. Many of the scenes that take place in the army base are enjoyable, especially Kirk’s and Sulu’s information recovery mission and Kirk’s subsequent interrogation and rescue, which are appropriately serious, while at the same time incorporating humor into the storyline. This episode also includes a shot of the ship other than those 12 shots used over and over again through the run of the show. Most of them are actually quite good for the original series, except for one toward the end of the episode in which the Enterprise is shown leaving Earth orbit with part of its nacelle missing. There are also many continuity errors in this episode. First, when the Enterprise engages its warp drive at warp 3, it takes about 10 times longer to reach the sun then it should have. It is possible that Kirk could have ordered the ship to proceed at impulse to the vicinity of the sun before engaging warp drive, and this is simply not shown in the episode. However, it also takes the Enterprise far too long to exit our solar system, while moving at speeds in excess of warp 8. This could be explained as the effect of temporal distortion due to the fact the Enterprise was moving forward in time as well as space at the time. Also, the transporter seems to have no operational limits in this episode, given the extreme distances Captain Christopher is beamed, as well as the army patrol officer. However, this as well could be attributed to distortion in the space-time continuum due to time travel. Also unusual is the fact that the Enterprise is moving at incredibly warp when it commences transport, a very risky action, so much so that in the Voyager episode Maneuvers, B’elanna almost was prohibited from performing it by Captain Janeway. And even then she had to synchronize the angular confinement beam with the frequency at which the warp core was operating. Therefore, this could also be attributed to distortion in the space-time continuum due to time travel. Appropriate modifications to the transporter could have been made, but if they were, that fact was not included in the episode. Aside from the annoying continuity errors, computer problems, and sometimes repetitive dialog, much of this episode is actually reasonably good.

The Borg Queen

There are, of course, no individuals in the Borg Collective, except for the Borg Queen, who rules over all of the other drones. Her existence seems practically self- contradictory, as the Borg seem to hold their lack of individuality in high regard. Yet, for some reason they created a position of leadership for the entire collective, and then filled it with an individual, two actions which are seemingly in complete violation of the Borg ethos. Therefore, either the Borg Queen was a part of the design of the original collective, or was created by the collective for some reason at a later date. We know the Borg have been in existence for thousands of years, and because things rarely stay the same over such a long period of time, the Borg Queen could be a vestige of a time in which the Borg were not a collective at all, but instead were merely trying to perfect themselves. The Borg may have acquired their collective nature when they decided later that it would add to their perfection. However, if that is the case, then why wouldn’t the position of the Borg Queen have been abolished when the Borg actually became a collective? Also, there is no evidence to support that the Borg were ever individuals from the time when the Borg first decided to integrate their bodies with cybernetic devices. The second theory is much more plausible. The Borg is a collective conscience, concerned only with adding to its perfection in the most efficient way possible. The Borg also apparently do not understand why individuals resist assimilation. Locutus stated something to this effect to Worf in the Best of Both Worlds - Part II: the fact that Locutus was created by the Borg may also offer insight into why the Borg Queen was brought into existence, although it was revealed in First Contact that this may simply have been because the Borg Queen wanted to turn Picard into Locutus. At any rate, at least part of the reason why Picard was abducted for the sole purpose of being partially assimilated into Locutus of Borg, was to act as a liaison between the Borg and humanity, an assimilation facilitator, created in the hope of decreasing the amount of resistance humanity offered. It stands to reason that the Borg may have created the Queen for a similar purpose, making the Borg’s dealings with individual species proceed more efficiently. Since the Borg do not understand why alien species do not want to be assimilated, they may, in an attempt to decrease the amount of resistance that prospects of assimilation put up, have created an individual with the ability to override the will of the collective mind. The Borg Queen existed in order to insure that the Borg as a whole always took the most efficient course of action with regard to individuals. In light of the Borg’s obsession with efficiency, this would plausibly explain the existence of the Borg Queen, as a self-contradictory result of the collective’s need to be a efficient and thereby perfect as possible.

ENT - In a Mirror Darkly Part I

These two episodes are my favorite episode of Enterprise, which is sort of sad considering that they are not technically Enterprise, but instead as we have come to expect for the mirror universe, practically the exact opposite. In other mirror universe episodes I liked the characters for the normal universe. However, in “In a Mirror Darkly” I actually like the evil alternates of the Enterprise characters more. They were much more interesting than the regular crew of Enterprise. In a Mirror Darkly Part One opens with what I consider to be the second best trek moment ever. The episode takes my favorite star trek scene – first contact between Vulcans and Humans – and flips it on its ear in a very effective manner. And then it makes use of a modified opening, which again, I actually prefer to the normal Enterprise opening and theme. The plot line of the episode is riveting, and as I have previously stated, so are the characters. The recreation of the Defiant, both the interior and exterior, is exceptional, as is the the Tholian, which we finally get to see in its entirety for the first time. I like Enterprise. But I find the mirror universe version of the show to be better than the genuine article.

TOS - Miri

Miri is an interesting and certainly unique episode of Star Trek. It is also, at times, quite annoying. In this episode, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, beam down to an exact replica of earth, most likely constructed by the preservers. The captain’s yeoman also comes along for some reason that I will never understand, and encounters a dirty bunch of incredibly annoying stereotypical 1960’s children, which Kirk has to convince to help him in order to save the lives of his landing party. The element of Miri and the other children makes the episode stand out from many others in which the senior staff of the Enterprise is forced to combat a disease. In this way this plot element is beneficial to the episode, however it also makes the episode almost painful to watch at times, simply because the children are so obnoxiously stereotypical. The writers could have made the point that they were children who had developed their own “culture”, while allowing the children to seem a bit more real. Other than that, the uniqueness of the episode worked purely in its favor, making most of it interesting to watch.