Star Trek Ruminations

Are they really speaking English on Star Trek, or does it just appear that way for the sake of the 20th/21st century audience? We can't necessarily trust our ears, since the Universal Translator may simply be translating for us as the 20th/21st century audience.  But an exchange between Neelix and Tuvok strongly indicates that it truly is English being spoken on Starfleet ships in the 24th century. A Riddle that Solves the Riddle The episode "Riddles" (VOY) starts and ends with two alternate punchlines for the same riddle: NEELIX: Okay, here goes. A lone Ensign finds himself stranded on a class L planetoid with no rations. His only possession, a calendar. When Starfleet finds him twelve months later, he's in perfect health. Why didn't he starve to death? TUVOK: It is a theoretical possibility that such planetoids contain hot water springs, which could sustain the man for several weeks. NEELIX: But not for a whole year. TUVOK: I concur. Logic dictates that the Ensi...

I can't personally comment on how "I, Mudd" compares to the first episode featuring Harry Mudd, but the comic overtones in this episode seem right on target. Not only is there some great banter between Mudd and Kirk, but the solution to overload the androids involves some all-out silliness that's plain entertaining. (In fact this episode contributes some great footage to the " Python's Camelot interlude, by Kirk and crew, " which I also happened upon recently.) But aside from all the silliness, it struck me that this episode lays the groundwork for a lot of modern Trek . What I mean is this: The androids in this episode have a kind of collective consciousness that almost anticipates the Borg collective. Norman is basically the Borg Queen of his day. He processes and controls the other "drones." If you can put all the silliness aside and consider the implications of what the androids were attempting to do, their objective to control biological l...

I recently saw "The Changeling" for the first time. I had read summaries of it before, and basically knew what to expect - V'Ger -lite - but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of its execution. When Scotty was pronounced dead and it cut to a commercial my attention was captured. Sure, I knew Scotty would come back somehow, and I could guess that Nomad would be the one to bring him back, but somehow it still managed to be shocking. Scotty was dead! And perhaps in an even more daring move for which Nomad did not have a magic reset button, Uhura's mind had been erased! I also enjoyed some of the camera work - particularly when the camera followed right along side Nomad . On one hand it was smart from a technical standpoint because Nomad could appear to be floating without having to find some way to conceal the strings or rods that held him up. But from an aesthetic standpoint it created a very eerie almost claustrophobic feeling, a very real sense that this dead...

Some reviewers have criticized “Cathexis” ( Voyager ; season one) as a retread of alien possession clichés. Well, maybe I’m a sucker for alien possession clichés, because I thought it was one of the more interesting episodes of the first season. For one thing, I liked the sense of paranoia it created, and learning that Chakotay is the consciousness at work on the ship lets you to see the “alien’s” efforts in a new light during a second viewing. But one of the most memorable details of the episode is Tuvok’s use of the phaser to stun the entire bridge crew at once. Later in the episode, speaking as the alien intruder, he says, “This phaser is set to wide beam dispersal and set to kill.” “Wide beam dispersal.” I remember thinking (as a fourteen year old kid) how cool that was – a never before seen bit of Star Trek lore. But if the plot of “Cathexis” is a retread of sci-fi story lines, so is this seemingly unique detail. Of all the Star Trek series, I am least familiar with The Original...