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 finally saw the new Star Trek movie tonight. While I take time to collect my thoughts on the new film as a whole let me comment on one little aspect of it - matters of translation. Interestingly the credits mention a Romulan and Vulcan Language Supervisor (or Consultant or some such title). However after my first viewing of the film I have to say I didn't notice any Vulcan being spoken, and I only noticed what was presumably a little Romulan shouting when Kirk and Spock beam over to Nero's ship. Perhaps there were more such moments than I realized. That being said, the basic issues of translation among alien races is acknowledged from the very beginning. From the moment Uhura is introduced to Kirk, it is clear that she is more than just a subspace-ham-radio operator. She is a linguistic expert - move over Hoshi Sato! Unlike her counterpart in the original timeline, who couldn't seem to speak Klingon if her life depended on it, this Uhura is eavesdropping on and translat...

This review of "The Smallest Choices" from Strange New Worlds 9 contains some major spoilers. There are stories in the Strange New Worlds 9 collection with incredible cosmic scope, fantastic amounts of Star Trek trivia woven into the story, or just plain creative story-telling methods . But the story that resonated the most with me emotionally was this one: "The Smallest Choices" by Jeremy Yoder . To say it had an emotional impact is something of a paradox since this quiet story has only two characters and both are Vulcans: T'Pring and Spock. But Yoder deftly handles the nuances of the Vulcan psyche in a way that is true to what we know of Vulcans and yet dramatically compelling. I see no way to comment on what made this story so great without giving away significant details, so be warned, significant spoilers follow. "Amok Time" is one of the most celebrated episodes of Star Trek . It is a landmark, indispensable moment in Trek lore. To tell a short...

"All these ships were called Enterprise ," Decker said to Ilia. The mysterious ship with the hoop-shaped warp drive has hovered around in non-canon Trek lore ever since. It even made a brief appearance on Enterprise in the episode "Home." (Look for it toward the end of the episode Archer has his last conversation with Soval . On the wall of Forrest's office, behind Archer's head, there is a picture of a ship with the distinctive ring structure.) When we finally saw ships from the Vulcan fleet on Enterprise , they also had hoop-shaped warp drive. The suggestion seemed to be that this was a Vulcan design that human tried to emulate, then gave up on, returning to Zefram Chocrane's twin nacelle design. I recently came across this article which confirms that idea, albeit not from Star Trek cannon, but from Doug Drexler who designed the Vulcan ship in the first place. That was his basic idea behind the distinctive design. You can check out the articl...

The Deep Space Nine episode “Little Green Men” presents the comical notion that Quark, Nog , Rom, and Odo were actually responsible for the infamous Roswell incident. As it turns out, it wasn ’t a weather balloon at all. It was three big-lobed Ferengi and a stowaway changeling. When Quark realizes he has traveled back in time and is dealing with primitive hu - mons — hu - mons he can relate too on one level, but disdains on another—he rattles off his plan to take over the galaxy. Sell his ship’s technology to the highest bidder, make contact with Ferenginar , and give the Ferengi a decisive advantage in the history of the Alpha Quadrant. He muses that the Ferengi will have warp drive ‘even before the Vulcans .’ As you would expect, his grandiose plans come to nothing, but the truth is, they may never had a chance, at least not in the way he envisioned them. Even assuming Rom could use his engineering expertise to manufacture twenty-fourth century gadgets with twentieth century te...