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Blood of the Stars is an epic fantasy novel, the first of a series by debut author Karyne Norton.

Learn more about the book at https://www.karynenorton.com/

And check out my books at https://adamdavidcollings.com/books 

Bonus Episode - My thoughts on Indianna Jones and The Dial of Destiny.

Today, we're looking at the final episode of Star Trek Continues. "To Boldly Go. Part 2."

So how does this episode hold up against other series finales such as "All Good Things" and "What You Leave Behind". And how well does this episode tie together Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

There's a lot to talk about, including some cool stories shared with me by director James Kerwin.

Audio Player control at bottom of page.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 107 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Star Trek Continues. “To Boldly Go, Part 2.” bringing our coverage of this show to a close.

The description on IMDB reads

The iconic mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to an end, as Kirk and his crew battle the ultimate adversary.

This teleplay was written by Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

With story by Vic Mignogna, Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 13th of November 2017.

We pick up in a very tense situation from last episode’s great cliffhanger.

Kirk is unwilling to relinquish his bridge. He, Spock, and Uhura all try to fight back. To no avail. Even the security officer’s phasers are useless against Lana’s powers.

And then the big surprise twist happens. Smith’s eyes go silver. She is uplifted as well.

This was nicely foreshadowed in the last episode where they mentioned that she was holding Garry’s hand when they passed through the barrier. I felt then, that she was holding something back.

She uses the same lightning force powers that Lana was using. We saw Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Denher use them in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. She forces Lana and Sentek to retreat to the Kongo.

So … it seems Smith wasn’t quite so unaffected as she claimed. I think this is a very cool development. But it raises a lot of questions. Where does Smith sit in the esper scale? Has she always been affected, but has been hiding it, or have her powers only just now manifested. And if so, why?

Kirk asks security to escort her to sickbay. At first, she’s taken aback. After all, she’s one of the good guys right. She helped them against Lana. But after a moment of thought, she relents. It’s probably a good idea. She understands the potential threat she represents. She sees things from Kirk’s point of view. Maybe she’d even do the same thing in his place.

She voluntarily goes with security.

The big question is, why are they just sitting there. Why have they not destroyed the Enterprise and her crew?

McCoy has the answer. It takes time for uplifted  espers to grow in their powers. Perhaps they’re biding their time until they all reach full strength.

Bones has a medical defence that might help with the illusions. Scotty recommends keeping their distance as the espers don’t have unlimited range with their powers.

The Kongo’s engines are offline. The crew must have shut it off before they were overpowered. Maybe the espers don’t know how to get them going again.

Kirk hasn’t slept for two days. McCoy doesn’t argue. Usually Kirk would be wrong, but not this time. He needs to keep going.

I’m not sure McCoy is right, actually. As Riker says in Best of Both Worlds, you can’t fight the enemy at the same time you’re fighting your own fatigue. Lack of sleep impairs human decision making. I know my mind is absolutely useless after putting in a day of work, and Kirk has been going much longer than that.

Yes, the situation is critical, but for the moment, it’s quiet, This might be the perfect time for Kirk to catch 30 minutes of sleep while the enemy regroups.

Of course, there’s a lot to accomplish while they have this time. Coming up with defences, a plan of some sort.

There are no good or easy answers, which is probably why McCoy is not arguing with him.

In five years, 73 people have died under Kirk’s command. He remembers the exact number. Of course he would.

McCoy says “we’ll stop them” but that’s not the point.

“At what cost, Doctor?” Kirk asks. That’s what’s really on his mind.

It’s fitting for Kirk to reflect back on the cost of his five year mission as it’s nearing its end. Especially at a moment like this, when it looks like that cost is about to skyrocket.

But there’s more to it, as we’ll soon discover.

McKenna goes to see Smith. Everyone is afraid of her. Understandably.

Contact with Gary, at the time of his uplifting left some residual energy in her. She didn’t uplift at the time, probably because she doesn’t have the psi rating necessary. But her proximity to the barrier now has reactivated that residual energy enough to uplift her.

Smith has developed telepathy. She can read McKenna’s mind. She can feel the power flowing through her, but she claims to not be dangerous. She would never hurt anybody.

But McKenna can’t know that for sure.

Gary shows early signs of megalomania quite quickly. Denher much less so. She still retained her humanity despite temptation to the contrary.

Why?

Was it that Denher was intrinsically a better person? What is because Denher had a lower psi rating than Gary? If that’s the case, it looks good for Smith as she seems to have a lower rating still.

So far, it’s looking like Smith has a good chance of keeping her humanity long term.

But there are no guarantees here. We just just don’t know.

Charvanek comes to see Spock. It seems she is still trying to pursue a relationship with him. A relationship he was tempted to enter into in the past, but resisted.

She asks Spock to come with her when her ship departs. The mission of the Enterprise is almost over. His job is complete.

It’s a logical time to make a change in his life.

She tempts him with the promise of unification between Romulans and Vulcans. A promise that will consume him a century from now.

But why would a Romulan commander want reunification? She is as he would want her to be, not as she truly is.

This is not Charvanek.

When Spock resists the illusion, it disappears.

Other illusions are being used against the crew. An order to Checkov to lower shields and head into the barrier. Even Kirk’s preoccupation with the deaths of crew under his command.

I’m glad these moments were included. The greatest weapon Lana’s espers have is their mental abilities. Their ability to confuse and manipulate the crew of the Enterprise.

They should be using it every change they get. Probably a lot more than we see on screen.

With that many espers, and so many on board the Enterprise susceptible to them, it’s actually a miracle they don’t blow up their own ship.

This is one weakness I see in Deep Space Nine, actually. Now DS9 is my favourite of all the Star Trek shows, and I love everything to do with the Dominion War and the changelings. But their greatest strength was not the military might of their ships, or the fighting acumen of the Jem Hadar. Their greatest weapon was the ability to infiltrate the Federation. We saw a little hint of the potential they possessed in Homefront and Paradise Lost. And that was only 4 changelings. They should have used these infiltration tactics a lot more during the war. We know the blood screenings were not entirely effective. The Federation wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The reason I bring all this up is just to praise this episode for including these scenes.

The battle begins.

The Kongo fires on the Enterprise. The starboard nacelle is damaged. The Romulans join the fight but then move off.

The espers might need a minute to recharge their powers.

The nacelle needs 30 minutes to repair. Kirk orders a risky cold restart.

The esper’s powers cannot deflect multiple simultaneous strikes.

But two vectors will not be enough. Three would do the job, but they don’t have a third ship….or do they?

Kirk orders the crew to prepare for a risky procedure. One they have never before attempted.

Scotty will re-start the engines. They will separate the saucer from the Stardrive. Spock will command the saucer. Kirk, the secondary hull.

Obviously, this is something that TNG did, but TOS never did. 

I was already aware that Gene Roddenberry had intended that the TOS Enterprise be able to separate. They didn’t really have the budget to make it a reality until Encounter at Farpoint.

What I didn’t realise, until it was pointed out by James Kerwin, is that Kirk referred to the process, which they called “Jettisoning”, not “Separating” in two different TOS episodes. “The Apple” and “Savage Curtain”.

Spock points out that it will be very difficult to re-integrate the ship after this. But not impossible

I like this approach. It shows that while yes, the original Enterprise COULD separate the two sections, it wasn’t a routine operation like on the Enterprise D. It’s a last resort. Not necessarily indeed to be undone.

Kirk describes it as “jettisoning the stardrive section.”

So it’s not the same as in TNG. 

I like this a lot.

This gives the final episode of Star Trek Continues quite an epic feel.

Now they can conduct a three-pronged attack on the Kingo.

And it’s working. The Kongo’s power is decreasing.

Kirk is commanding the stardrive section from Auxilary control, which was seen from time to time in the original series. The set was built for episode 3 “Fairest of Them All”. 

Director James Kerwin shared a story with me.

The Auxilary control set was re-assembled for the finale, not having been used in a couple of years. But the buttons and lights on the helm console had deteriorated due to humidity and dust. They no longer worked, and they had to film in two days.

Kermin checked the travel manifest and realised that Grant Imahara, who played Sulu, was flying in that day. Grant was an electrical engineer by trade. Kermin called him on his mobile phone and said “Grant, I’m so sorry, I know you have a day off before you need to film, but could you please come to set now and try to repair the auxiliary control helm console? He gladly did so and made it work beautifully. So when we see Sulu pressing the aux control helm buttons, and the lights on the console flashing, that was Grant’s work.

The Kongo hails the Enterprise.

We hear some ominous music. Music that is very reminiscent of the score from Star Trek The Motion Picture. A very nice touch.

This episode was the third time Andy Farber wrote and recorded original music for the show.

Starting to integrate some themes from The Motion Picture was a deliberate charge from Mignongna to Farber. This episode is, afterall, the missing gap between TOS and TMP. A handing of the torch.

What he did was incredible.

He weaved these different styles of music together in an impressive and wonderful way.

You hear it clearly during the saucer separation.

What made this extra special was the inclusion of Craig Huxley.

This man has deep connections to Star Trek. He played Peter James Kirk - the nephew of James Kirk, and also appeared in the episode “and the children shall lead.”

He invented a very unique musical instrument that featured heavily in the score of Star Trek The Motion Picture. The blaster beam. The longest stringed instrument ever.

You probably know what I’m talking about. The score for TMP had these deep resonant sounds like nothing you’ve heard before or since. Those sounds came from this unique instrument.

Jerry Goldsmith discovered this instrument and wanted to use it in his score.

It was also used in Star Trek 2 and 3, and even Back to The future and Alien.

I was surprised to hear that, because to me, those sounds are uniquely synonymous with The Motion Picture.

They brought Huxley back to perform some blaster box for the score of this episode, and man does it make a difference. It impacts me on such an emotional level, because of the link to The Motion Picture.

The Kongo’s original crew, including their captain, are alive in the cargo bay. Lana is going to use them as leverage to negotiate.

They want McKenna to beam aboard the Kongo, in exchange for the Kongo’s captain.

If she doesn't they’ll decompress the hanger deck.

It’s a classic prisoner exchange, like in Generations. But who will it benefit most?

McKenna is willing to go.

Sentek gives only one minute. Spock tries to contact Kirk but Uhura can’t get through the interference.

McKenna is trained in mediation. She can find a way to a win-win situation.

Spock is in command. He has to make a decision.

This could be a deception. The Kongo crew may not even be there.

McKenna urges Spock to listen to his feelings, rather than his logic.

Interestingly, I would have thought that his emotions would want him to protect McKenna, his friend.

But he relents and agrees to the exchange.

Mckenna for Captain Azmi.

This raises the important question of why they want McKenna so much.

As soon as McKenna beams away, it is revealed that the lifesigns were an illusion. There are no crew to be saved.

Sentek lied.

When Spock confronts him about this, saying Vulcans never lie, Sentek says they both know that is not true. And I can’t argue with that.

They now have a valuable hostage. One for whom Spock has affection. And that may be motivation enough for the espers wanting the exchange.

Lana orders Spock to stand down or McKenna will die.

Spock agrees.

The Kongo warps out of the system.

Can things possibly get any worse?

Lana brings food to McKenna, which gives her the opportunity to try to reason with her.

McKenna says there is room for everyone in the Federation. She’ll do all she can to help them find acceptance.

Lana points out that time after time, humanity has turned its back on self-improvement.

After all they’ve done, Lana knows there is no place for her and her people in the Federation.

She may be right. I can’t imagine many in the Federation would be keen to welcome these people, given the danger they possess.

Lana sees her and her people as humanity’s successors. She doesn’t want to assimilate into the Federation. She wants to replace it.

With help from the Romulans, the Enterprise has been re-attached into one piece. They’re now in pursuit, but they’re a long way behind.

Starfleet has requested help from both the Klingons and the Romulans. Both have said no.

McCoy’s medical defence is ready to help them focus.

This is important for the story, because otherwise, sooner or later, someone on the ship would succumb to an illusion. The good guys have to have a chance to succeed at some point.

Uhura has a way to circumvent the esper’s subspace disruption, so they’ll be able to communicate and coordinate.

The Enterprise will be working with the Exeter and the Potempkin. The only other two constitution class ships in service.

Spock apologises for his recent decision. Kirk confirms he would have done the same thing in his place.

Smith wants to help. Kirk isn’t convinced it’s a good idea.

Her power is growing quickly. But is her ego growing with the power? There seems to be no evidence of that so far.

Five years ago, Smith watched Kirk make impossible choices to protect his crew. That set something in motion in her.  He showed her what it means to serve.  

Originally a yeoman, Smith left and got her commission so she could return to the Enterprise and serve her crew.

This is what she’s meant to do - help.

Either Smith is a very good actor, or she is still herself. Still a good person.

It’s a great speech and a very nice character moment for Smith.

If things weren’t already bad enough, it seems the Exeter and Potempkin have both been destroyed. They fired on each other.

The espers powers of illusion have grown significantly. Probably greater even than what Gary’s were before he died.

This episode is doing a fantastic job of taking the tension and ramping it up further and then further.

Uhura and Spock have come up with another way to shield the Enterprise from the illusory power of the espers. It will be limited, but might buy them some time.

But without the other two ships, time to do what?

When they see the Kongo on screen, we hear another booming note from the blaster beam. So effective.

Smith is going to try to use her powers to force her way through the Kongo’s shields in order to beam over there.

Kongo has started firing. Spock has located McKenna. Smith is on it.

The scene where she storms into the Kongo engine room and throws the espers aside is awesome.

She has become a powerful superhero and I love it.

Who would have thought, looking at the character in Star Trek’s second pilot, that she would end up here.

But now it’s two against one, and their powers have had a lot more time to grow than hers.

As they zap her, her eyes seem to dim.

So she starts to fire all her power into the ship’s engines.

The espers run.

Her eyes fade to normal. Her lifesigns are gone.

She used the last of her energy to burn out the Kongo’s systems.

And this brings the story of Smith to an end. She dies a hero. She fulfils her dreams. She is able to serve in the most powerful way, doing what nobody else could have done.

When I think back on this episode, I always remember another death, that we’ll talk about shortly. But after this time through, Smith’s death will stick with me just as much, maybe even more. This death is just as emotionally impactful.

This is the moment when the good guys win.

James Kerwin really enjoyed shooting Smith’s sacrifice. He and actress Kipleigh Brown had been working together on film projects for many years, and both started working on Star Trek Continues at the same time, episode 3. He was glad to give the character an honourable send-off.

Not only did Kipleigh Brown write the previous episode, “What Ships are For”, she also wrote Smith’s farwell speech to Kirk.

The Romulans are firing killing shots at the Kongo. But they still have someone over there. The Romulans, like their Vulcan cousins, it seems, are very pragmatic in this situation. They’re not willing to risk the galaxy just for McKenna.

The visuals of the damages Kongo with it’s decks exposed looks awesome. Reminds me of the remastered effects in The Doomsday Machine.

Even Charvanek,who is still aboard the Enterprise, doesn’t approve of Tal’s actions.

Now the Romulan ship is firing at the Enterprise too.

The Enterprise takes some very significant damage. Casualty reports coming from all over the ship. As the saucer is mangled, and sparks flare all over the bridge, we get an epic sense of disaster you wouldn’t see in any other episode of TOS. This is the finale. It all ends here.

This nicely gives an added reason for the ship to undergo a major refit prior to TMP.

Charvanek disables the weapons on her ship, relieving Tal of his position.

The Kongo hails. They’re in bad shape. Even Lana has lost the silver from her eyes.

“Well fought, Kirk,” she says. “For a moment we knew the freedom of infinity.”

Their reactor is building up.

Scotty needs a minute to beam McKenna out.

He doesn’t get it.

He’s half got her, but having  trouble re materialising her.

It looks like Spock has done it, but it still doesn’t work.

Spock’s emotions come out as he hits the console.

McKenna is still standing there, shimmering, allowing them to have a tearful goodbye.

Kirk apologises and thanks her.

Spock approaches. It’s a painful moment for him.

She says something to him, although it isn’t overly apparent to me in this scene.

We get hints of music from Star Trek 2. Fitting.

This scene really tears me apart.

McKenna herself seems to have a quiet acceptance of her death. She has a smile that seems to say “Thanks for trying.” She is remarkably brave in the face of her imminent death. Were I in her situation. I’d probably be horrified.

McKenna fades away.

Dead.

It makes narrative sense that McKenna would die in this episode. Over the course of this fourth season, she has become an important part of the show. Part of this family. It makes no sense that she wouldn’t be around in the movies. It’s logical that she would die. I guess the same is true for Smith. And in a story of this magnitude, there needs to be loss. There has to be a price for victory.

In the end, McKennma’s death was kind of senseless. She wasn’t able to make a difference, although it does serve an important story purpose as we’ll see in a minute.

But Smith’s death was critical to their victory. They never would have won without her.

In a very real sense, she is the hero of this story.

The Enterprise crawls home on its hands and knees. She has come home. But it’s not the triumphant moment they had anticipated. Their recent losses, how close they came to disaster, it all weighs heavily on them.

Kirk’s log is spoken with a very sombre voice.

We see the spacedock in orbit, where she’ll stay until her refit is complete and Kirk takes her out to confront V’ger.

We see a TOS shuttle fly over the golden Gate Bridge in a scene that otherwise could have come from the motion picture.

Admiral Nogura, who we hear about in the motion picture, but never see, congratulates Kirk on completing his five year mission, and on saving the galaxy. It’s cool to have that character appear in this episode.

In the show, we didn’t see the Enterprise crew saving the entire galaxy. They tended to deal with smaller scale issues most of the time. But it’s very fitting that they have faced and overcome such a threat in their final story.

Kirk still feels the cost acutely.

Based on Kirk’s experiences with McKenna, Kirk calls the experimental counsellor program a success. It should continue. Starfleet ships from now on will have counsellors on board.

Kirk looks at a series of models, from Cochrane’s Phoenix, to the NX-01, We see the USS Discovery, the constitution class, and finally, the constitution refit, as the TMP theme starts to play.

I get goosebumps.

Now, potentially, Discovery shouldn’t be seen here, as that ship was classified when it travelled into the future.

Of course, Discovery season 1 was brand new when this episode was made, so that canon hadn’t been established yet.

Personally, I think it’s not out of the question for an admiral to still have a crossfield class model in his office. It was still a part of Starfleet history. Nogura would have been active in Starfleet during the time of Discovery. And I think it’s worth it for the emotional resonance of seeing it in the lineup. It’s nicely ties old and new Trek together.

The Enterprise will be refit from the keel up. The crew will be given promotions.

And the Federation council has voted to reinstate the enterprise Delta as the official insignia of Starfleet.

Kirk says Scotty always thought it reminded him of the port and starboard warp signatures of Cochrane deceleration. I can’t help but wonder if this is a nod to the novel Star Trek Federation.

To Kirk, it’s an arrow. Rising upward and outward.

I was never a fan of the alternate insignias for other ships, and I believe, neither was Rodennberry. I remember reading somewhere, and I don’t remember where, so take this with a grain of salt, but I seem to remember Roddenberry wanted the crew of other ships to have the familiar delta, but the costume designer kept making new insignias, probably because he wanted to express his creativity.

For me, this is a part of canon I tend to try to ignore. It’s clear that in most of Star Trek, the delta is intended to be the logo for all of Starfleet, and always has been.

But, those alternate insignias are part of canon. And they were further canonised by both Enterprise and Strange New Worlds.

Later Star Trek established the delta was used as the general Starfleet logo both prior to Kirk’s five year mission, and again afterwards.

James Kerwin resolved this by having Nogura say that in honour of the Enterprise, they were RE-establishing the delta as the official starfleet logo.

This episode makes it all work here in a fitting way.

Kirk is questioning whether his time has ended. He is not the same person he was.

He’s suffered a lot of loss. His preoccupation with the loss of people under his command may have been brought on by the espers, but these feelings are real.

He expects more of himself than he’s able to give any longer. He could never be happy with that.

This makes him more receptive to what Nogura is about to offer him.

We see the Enterprise crew assembled in the same room where Kirk briefs them in TMP. It’s fascinating seeing those colourful TOS uniforms in a background plate that looks like it’s taken directly from TMP.

I do love the transitional moments like this.

Kirk emerges in his motion picture admiral uniform.

Like most people, I’m not a big fan of the TMP uniforms, but the one exception is Kirk’s admiral uniform. I like that a lot. I kinda wish the movie had just used that uniform for everyone.

Kirks makes a speech. He has been promoted to admiral and chief of Starfleet operations.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that they will continue to reach deeper into the stars. Explore more new worlds. Venturing further into the final frontier.

Our greatest adversaries, he says, are ourselves. We have much to learn about what’s out there, but also about what’s in here.

The experience with the espers has cemented that lesson.

Now the music goes full TMP.

The next thing the episode needs to do is set up where McCoy and Spock will be at the start of the movie.

McCoy says he’s done. He’s seen enough death. What he hasn’t seen is his daughter in five years. He’s leaving Starfleet and going home.

I feel that McCoy’s departure hasn’t been as well set up as Spocks, which we’ll get to in a minute.

But his reasons are sound. Particularly the family thing

5 years is a very long time to not see your child.

We don’t know the exact details of his family in the prime universe canon, but it has been established through the years, particularly in books, that McCoy had a family. The Kelvin movies made his marriage and divorce canon.

I can’t begin to imagine not seeing your child for five years, but I applaud him for doing something about it now.

This works really quite well for me, but I think it would work even better had there been a little more foreshadowing through the season. Seeing McCoy start to lament the lost time with his daughter. Realising how great that cost had become.

Of course, this isn’t the end of their friendship. And there’s a nice little nod to Drake.

There’s an acknowledgement of the awkward but strong friendship that exists between Spock and Bones when he invites Spock to join them.

Spock tells Jim what McKenna said to him before she was lost in the transporter beam.

“Forgive yourself.”

A difficult thing.

McKenna encouraged Spock to pay attention to his emotions. He did so. He made an emotional decision, ignored his logic and allowed her to beam over.

That decision cost many lives, including hers.

Spock doesn’t know how to deal with the guilt and regret he’s feeling. All he knows how to do with emotions is suppress them.

And that leads him to make the decision to undergo the Kholinar. He will purge all his remaining emotions.

This whole Kholinar thing seemed to come from nowhere in The Motion Picture. So Spock’s arc in this episode makes a whole lot of sense. It retroactively makes Spock’s arc in TMP even better. I absolutely love what the episode does here. It’s brilliant character work.

Kirk will see his two friends at dinner. But there’s one last thing he has to do.

He goes to the bridge of the Enterprise. Now shut down and empty.

And he looks at it. Says goodbye.

While Kirk says goodbye to his command, we say goodbye to a bridge that we will never see again - not in this form.

It’s a powerful scene. It holds similar emotional resonance as the poker scene at the end of “All Good Things.”

The episode hangs there. Gives Vic the time just to look and react.

We finish with a captain’s log.

Kirk’s last.

At least for now.

Then we pull back on a shot of the Enterprise in spacedock, as the music becomes very TMP sounding.

There is no music over the ending credits, just the ambient sound of the bridge.

This episode does everything a series finale should do, and it does it in style.

We had a huge story with epic stakes. Powerful impacts for our characters. A sense of full-circle as we link back to the beginning, and a setting up for what will come after.

I’d put this one right up there with the best of the Star Trek Finales, “All Good Things” and “What you Leave Behind.” This is certainly orders of magnitude better than “Endgame.”

I’ve loved Star Trek Continues as a whole, but this final two-parter epitomises the reasons I love this show so much.

I have to give a huge congratulations to the cast and crew. To everyone who made this labour of love a reality.

This show has a special place in my heart, and I’m deeply grateful to those who created it.

I would like to acknowledge the tragic passing of actor Grant Imahara who played Sulu.

He passed away on the 13th of July 2020 at just 49 years of age

I’d like to say a huge thankyou once again, to James Kerwin for reaching out to me, and generously answering my questions and sharing some cool stories.

Thanks, James.

Here ends my coverage of Star Trek Continues.

So what next?

Well it seems crazy not to jump right into Star Trek The Motion Picture after this. I’ve covered all the TNG movies on the podcast, but I haven’t covered the TOS movies. So I’ll make my way through them.

I also have some ideas of things I can do along the way. I’ve been thinking of revisiting the original Transformers cartoon from the 80s, which I have powerful childhood memories of. See if there’s anything in them worthy to discuss as an adult. I’d likely cover more than one episode in a podcast, and probably not go into as much recap detail as I’ve been doing with Star Trek. The idea is something I can do a little more off-the-cuff. Something that will take less time as I try to focus more on the fiction writing.

I’m also thinking of giving periodic updates on my reading of DC Comics, using the DC Universe Infinite app. 

Anyway, there’s plenty more to come, so I hope you’ll find something of interest in the future of Nerd Heaven.

Until next time,

Live Long and Prosper.

Make it so.

Today, we're looking at "To Boldly Go Part 1", the first half of the Star Trek Continues grant finale. See how this episode ties back to the Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", how it sets up everything for the exciting conclusion, and hear some fascinating new insights into the episode from director James Kerwin.

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http://AdamDavidCollings.com/books

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd

This is episode 106 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the first part of the Star Trek Continues grand finale, “To Boldly Go, Part 1”.

I got an email a few weeks ago. It was from James Kerwin. Yes, that James Kerin. Writer, producer and director for Star Trek Continues, including director of today’s episode.

He reached out to me to say he’d been listening to the podcast and enjoying it. This was a huge thrill. It’s very humbling to find that one of the creators of the show has been listening to the podcast, so I want to give a big shout out and thank you to him, not only for his work on the show, but for his encouragement.

And he pointed out a few fascinating things that I’d missed.

Remember in episode three, I talked about how good the shuttlecraft exterior looked. It turns out, they didn’t build that from scratch that was the real shuttlecraft Galileo from Star Trek The Original Series. How awesome is that?

I’ve made mention of Nurse Chapel a couple of times, but that wasn’t actually Chapel. They made a conscious decision not to have Chapel appear on screen in this show because she should be off at Starfleet Medical getting her doctorate at this point in time, which makes a lot of sense. So it was always Nurse Burke, a character who had appeared in Star Trek comics and novels.

And Lieutenant Smith has not actually been on the Enterprise the whole time. But we’ll learn more about that in the next episode.

But here’s a big one I missed. The actress who plays her, Kipleigh Brown, was the writer of episode 9 “What Ships are For” I didn’t put that together, but I think that’s really cool.

The description on IMDB for today’s episode reads

To solve the utmost mystery, the Enterprise must return to where Kirk's five-year mission began.

The teleplay was by Roberty J. Sawyer based on a story by

Vic Mignongna, James Kerwin, and Robert J. Sawyer.

It was directed by James Kerwin,

And it first aired on the 18th of October 2017.

Robert J. Sawyer was the primary writer of this two-parter. He is a very famous Canadian author who wrote FlashForward, which was adapted for TV by Star Trek’s Branon Braga, and Man of Steel’s David S. Goyer.

When Star Trek The Next Generation was preparing to wrap and move to the big screen, they gave it a two-hour finale. This idea was pretty unheard of at the time. Lots of shows in the 90s had movie-length pilots, but not finales. TV shows tended to pitter out and end with a bit of a whimper. TNG changed all that.

But the original Star Trek never got a proper finale, like TNG, DS9, and Voyager. 

Even Enterprise got a finale of sorts, which I will partially defend, though not the feature length extravaganza that others got.

But things were different in the 60s. TOS had no ending. It was cancelled. Turnabout Intruder wasn’t intended to be the end of the story, it was just an episode.

One of the greatest things about Star Trek Continues is that it rectifies this. It gives TOS the ending it always deserved. And it’s done so well.

Much like “All Good Things”, it calls back to a lot of things from the past, but it specifically links us back to the very first episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

Even the titles relate, each is part of Kirk’s iconic phrase. The symmetry is beautiful.

But hold on, I hear you say. “What about the Cage? Isn’t that the pilot of TOS?”

Well, yes it is. Star Trek had an unprecedented  two pilots. But The Cage never actually aired in its original form during the run of the show. These days, I tend to think of The Cage as the pilot for Strange New Worlds. So in my mind, it makes a lot of sense for this episode to tie in with “Where No Man has Gone Before.”

Director James Kerwin gave me some interesting insight into the production of these episodes. They actually filmed this two-parter before they filmed the last episode “What Ships are For.” CBS/Paramount had implemented their fan-film guidelines, guidelines. 

Now a show like this would have needed some substantial changes to fit with these guidelines. They were required to be less than 15 minutes or no more than 2 30 minute parts in total with no additional seasons, episodes or sequels.

CBS didn’t require the show to shut down, but with these guidelines in place, and Discovery about to release, out of respect, they decided to wind down Star Trek Continues. They did a final fundraiser to complete episodes 8, 10 and 11, but there was no money to make episode 9.

But at the last minute, a generous donor gave them the money for episode 9. They shot the finale first to get it out of the way, and went back several months later to film “What Ships are For.” I’m glad that generous donor made it possible, because that last episode was pretty amazing.

The episode opens with Spock & McKenna meditating together. This is normally a very private affair, but Spock considers it an honour to teach a willing student. 

Meditation is the one time that Vulcans truly acknowledge their emotions. You can see why it’s so private.

McKenna’s inclusion in this moment shows the level of intimacy that has grown between these two.

They will both miss these sessions when the mission is over.

We learn here about a vulcan discipline, the Dulhutnar, an alternative to the Kolinahr. 

Rather than the purging of emotions, the Dulhutna is about accepting the wisdom of vestigial emotions.

Spock considers there to be No chance of him pursuing either. Of course, we know that shortly after this finale, he will return to Vulcan and pursue the Kolinahr.

Spock and McKenna’s relationship is special. They share private things they wouldn’t share with others.

Time with humans has taught Spock to value his human side.

And then they hold hands. That’s a huge deal. Vulcans are not comfortable with physical contact. And even for humans, holding hands is a sign of affection and physical intimacy.

The Enterprise is scheduled to return home soon. Their 5 year mission is coming to an end.

The loss of The Hood crew still weighs on him. You’ll remember that back in “Embracing the Winds” a mysterious life support failure cost the lives of the entire crew. A failure that Scotty was unable to explain. 

I remember commenting at the time that I hoped the show would follow up on that. I couldn’t remember if it did. We’ll see in this episode that it is definitely followed up.

The Yorktown and the Republic were both damaged while investigating The Hood’s loss. The Enterprise is being sent to the Federation colony on Aldebran III which went completely silent shortly afterward.

Admiral Thesp, a very cool looking Andorian, admits that the Federation had a secret laboratory on the planet. A supply vessel sent to investigate never returned.

They detected anti-proton residue. That means Romulans.

The colony has been destroyed. The central reactor suffered a containment failure. Scotty thinks that should be impossible. He installed the safeguards himself 5 years ago, which, I suppose, gives us a glimpse of what Scotty’s job was before the Enterprise’s 5 year mission began.

Interestingly, Vic pronounces the word Sabotage the same way Shatner does. Sabotage. I don’t know how common that is in America, or Canada for that matter, but here in Australia, we definitely say Sabotage.

Anyway, I love these little bits of attention to detail. It’s really cool.

The underground pandora research lab is intact but it has a scattering field so Scotty will have to beam them down outside.

The set for the planet looks very reminiscent of what we might have seen on The Original Series, and yet, kind of better, in my opinion. It’s a real work of art.

I like the little elevator shaft to gain entrance to the lab. The only sign of habitation nearby. Presumably, the colony was elsewhere on the planet.

A drone appears and attacks them. The effects here are a good match for the original series. Again, better quality, but recognisable.

There’s a good sense of danger to this action scene.

After they’ve dealt with it, a human woman, Lana, appears out of the turbolift. She’s surprised to see a Vulcan. The sensors detected him as Romulan.

Lana is played by actress Nichola Bryant who famously portrayed the Doctor Who companion Peri, a character I’ve been known to refer to as “the whinging yank”. But in fairness to her, Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor was a bit of a prickly guy to be around.

James Kerwin was a big Doctor Who fan growing up. Colin Baker and Nichola Bryant were the doctor/companion pairing that he most remembered as a child. It was a big honour for him to work with both of them on Star Trek Continues. Colin Baker appeared in Episode 4, The White Iris, as Amphidamas. And Nichola Bryant appeared in this two-parter. 

How cool is it that he got to work with them both on this show? 

Lana is wearing a visor. To me, it looks similar to the one that Spock and Miranda Jones had to wear when viewing the Medusans back in “Is There No Truth in Beauty.”

But as she removes the visor, we see her eyes. The same metallic colour we saw in Gary Mitchell after he was uplifted by passage through the galactic barrier, back in the pilot episode.

Ever since this phenomenon was discovered, after “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, Starfleet have been gathering people with high psi-quotients and experimenting with them. Trying to uplift them. There are 25 of them.

This sounds like a REALLY BAD IDEA

My first thought is, are section 31 involved?

This woman is part of a first trial. They have already gone through the barrier. They are weaponised humans - to serve as a last resort in case the Federation is invaded by a superior force.

When Kirk questions the legitimacy of such an action, she refers to the starfleet charter. Article 14 Section 31.

And there it is.

Lana makes the statement “Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely. It corrupts selectively.”

I don’t believe that all power will always corrupt. I don’t buy into the old adage.

Lana makes a fair point - of the two espers that were uplifted in the pilot, one became a megalomaniac. The other retained her humanity.

We don’t really know why. Did Gary already have elements of megalomania in his personality? Was he somehow more susceptible to it than Denher was? There could have been all sorts of factors.

And that uncertainty makes this whole thing a very risky endeavour.

Lana claims that psychologically unstable espers were excluded from the operation.

But they can’t know for certain what might cause another Gary Mitchell. That, in my opinion, makes what they’re doing too dangerous.

Kirk asks which she is, and she answers by saying she follows “Sas-tar-po-harn”

This is a human spiritual movement that follows the pacifict teachings of Surak and T’Mord of Vulcan. I think this is a very interesting idea. And a logical one.

In Babylon 5, when humans made first contact, there was a growing interest in alien religions among humans, the theory being that races that are more technologically advanced than we are, must be closer to God.

I can see some people thinking that way. It seems a similar thing may have happened in the Star Trek universe. After first contact with Vulcans, it’s only logical that some humans may have chosen to adopt Vulcan philosophy.

So this is a nice touch.

Lana explains that a cloaked ship came here and attacked the lab. It destroyed the Hallifax.

The other espers have been kidnapped by the Romulans. Lana played dead with her powers so they didn’t find her.

Spock surmises that Vulcans cannot be uplifted, based on his prior experience at the barrier. He was not uplifted despite his psi-abilities.

If Vulcans cannot be uplifted, then neither can Romulans.

But this raises a question. Do Romulans have the same telepathic abilities as Vulcans? I’ve never heard of a Romulan conducting a mind meld.

The Romulan ancestors left Vulcan during a time of barbarism. The TNG episode “Gambit” suggests that ancient Vulcans had telepathic abilities because they constructed a telepathic weapon called The Stone of Gol. That suggests the Romulans may indeed have similar telepathic abilities to Vulcans, even though we’ve never really seen it. Unless there’s some example I’m forgetting.

The Romulans want to use the kidnapped human espers because they can’t create their own. Seems logical.

The interesting thing is, they don’t want to use the force against the Federation, but to overthrow their own Praetor. Apparently, the Romulan Klingon alliance has ended, and this group of Romulans oppose the end of the alliance.

Spock raises concern over taking Lana with them. Better to leave her here. Stranded. As they had intended for Mitchell.

A Romulan appears. Sentek. He is played by Cas Anvar, who played Alex Kamal on The Expanse. The Expanse had already aired a season or two by this point. I continue to be impressed with the actors that Star Trek Continues is able to get.

Lana disarms Sentek. They beam out (with the prisoner) just before the explosion.

They’re pursuing the Romulan ship but it’ll enter the neutral zone before they catch up.

Admiral Thesp orders him to enter the zone and pursue all the way to Romulus if necessary. Just get the espers back.

Kirk doesn’t look too impressed with this.

Among other reasons that he probably realises, this is a suicide mission, but in addition to that, it could provoke a war.

Spock asks Uhura to transmit an encrypted message. It’s all a bit mysterious.

Kirk has some hard questions for Lana. Why was that one romulan left on the planet? Why didn’t she use her powers to overcome him? She theorises that he is a praetorian spy hidden among the dissidents. He fled to the hills. None of her answers sound particularly convincing.

The Enterprise officially crosses the border. They are now in violation of treaty.

Of course, so were the Romulans, but it seems they didn’t represent the Romulan government so that will be a very weak excuse as far as they are concerned.

A bird of prey decloaks. It’s not the marauder. When Spock identifies the ship, Kirk shakes his head. He knows what Spock is up to.

They are hailed by the Romulan commander from The Enterprise Incident.

Played wonderfully by Amy Rydell, the daughter of the original actor to play the part in the TOS episode. She does a fantastic job, and almost convinces me she’s the time-travelling original actor.

She is referred to Charvanek in this episode but was never named on screen in The Enterprise Incident. She does whisper her name to Spock but we never learn what it is. The Name Charvanek was used in a number of non-canon sources. But she’s also given other names in various novels and games.

She doesn’t attack but her words make it clear she considers a formal declaration of war is all but inevitable due to the Enterprise’s entry into the zone.

Kirk isn’t impressed that Spock contacted her of his own volition.

Spock admits the reason he didn’t ask is because he knew Kirk wouldn’t agree.

How human you are becoming, Mister Spock.

Spock believes he can convince her to assist them in pursuing the dissidents, due to their previous rapport. Kirk gives him 30 minutes.

At the end of The Enterprise Incident, Charvanek was taken into Federation space and released on a world on our side of the border. It seems that Sarak was the one who negotiated the treaty that led to her return to Romulan space. It seems she was able to get her old command back. That must have taken some convincing on her part.

Spock appeals to her loyalty to the Praetor. It doesn’t take much to convince her to help stop the dissidents.

The twist happens when she meets the prisoner. He is no Romulan commander that she knows, and she knows her fleet. She knows her fellow commanders.

As he is discovered, Sentek beams out, apparently at Kirk’s command, according to the transporter chief.

Sentek tries to sabotage engineering. In the battle, Charvanek  is rendered unconscious by something similar to a Vulcan nerve pinch.

It’s nice to see Doctor M’Benga again.

McCoy has found that Sentek is actually a Vulcan who lived on the colony, and he’s married to Lana. He had unusually high natural psionic ability, even for a Vulcan. They speculate that he wanted an equal for a mate. A human who could be uplifted to be his equal. They also speculate that Lana’s trip through the barrier may not have been approved by Starfleet.

When Kirk confronts Lana, she explains that she sees her uplifting as a way to accelerate human evolution, which she considers to have stalled.

We get some very interesting worldbuilding. Apparently the barrier around our galaxy was artificially constructed and placed there by the preservers. I love this. It makes sense of what was a bit of a silly idea in TOS, and adds to the mystique and mythology of the Star Trek universe. It’s a shame that Star Trek never explored the preservers more than it did.

When she asks why the preservers did it, McCoy speculates that “it was probably to keep us in, to prevent our violence from spreading”. This reminds me somewhat of C.S Lewis’s space trilogy, which suggests that the vast interstellar distances between stars are God’s natural quarantine to keep sinful humanity confined.

Lana has a different theory, that it was so that naturally superior lifeforms could be uplifted when they devised the technology to leave the galaxy.

McCoy pushes back “you don’t know what gods think.”

It’s very chilling when she replies “Yes. I do.”

The implication, of course, being that she is a god.

When humans start thinking of themselves as gods, you’re probably in for trouble.

It turns out, the ship the Enterprise has been following was just an illusion. Created, presumably, by Lana. But why does she want to start a war between the Romulans and the Federation?

Uplifted espers seem to have very similar powers of illusion to the Talosians.

It’s nice to see Sulu taking command on the bridge. He’s showing a good aptitude for the job he’ll eventually have.

Charvanek is still working with her old first officer, Tal. He doesn’t seem interested in apologies. He’s planning to destroy the Enterprise. This raises the question of where Charvanek is. If she’s still on the Enterprise, he’ll be killing her. More likely, she’s on her ship, but left the bridge in the hands of her first office, much like Kirk has with Sulu.

We get some interesting insight into Romulan religion when the commander says he hopes that Spock’s katra finds its way to Vol-to-vor.

We know from Star Trek 5, that vol-to-vor is the romulan’s equivalent of Eden. So it seems in their religion, it is both a place of origin as well as a destination. This is somewhat different to Christianity, where Eden and heaven are distinct.

The Romulans can’t fire. They think they’re pressing the button, but they’re not. Lana’s influence, no doubt.

When Charvanek returns to the bridge we see that Tal has been overstepping his authority. She orders that they will assist the Enterprise with their mission. I smell a potential mutiny in their future.

Kirk figures out the truth behind Lana’s deception. There never were any dissidents. The espers weren’t kidnapped by Romulans. There never were any Romulans on the planet. The espers stole the Halifax. The deception was to buy time for the espers to make it to the galactic barrier.

This is what happened to the Hood. The espers convinced the crew to shut off their own life support. Just to see if they could. That’s horrifically cold. These people truly see themselves as above humankind. Of more value. They have no regard for human life.

Given that, it seems believable that Lana would be willing to start this war just as a distraction.

There is no doubt now. Lana is a full villain

Kirk is now questioning his judgement

He calls those who were present at the events of “Where no man has gone before” which includes Smith, who is back on the ship now.

Plus others who were not there.

Spock asks Smith if there’s anything she can share of her experience. She was holding Mitchell’s hand when they crossed.

She has nothing to add that wasn’t in her report. But her demeanour suggests maybe she’s holding something back.

Scotty is keenly aware of what they’re up against. Gary was difficult enough to defeat on his own. They’re going to face an entire ship full of uplifted espers. 

Kirk takes solace in the fact that despite his powers, Gary was still just as susceptible to human frailty.

Then he adds “he couldn’t even remember my middle name” which is an amusing little nod to the “James R Kirk” tombstone in that episode. Canon fixed.

Charvanek’s  takes the practical approach. Strike first, before they have the ability to grow in their power. Similar to Spock’s recommendation all those years ago.

Kirk won’t have that. These are still Federation citizens. This is a rescue mission.

I get it. I’m all for idealism, and I’d side with Kirk on this. You can’t just shoot to kill while they’re still human. But calling it a rescue mission? I believe that’s a little naive. These people know what they’re doing. They’re actively trying to undergo this transformation.

I guess the difference is that their egoes, their ambitions, will be increased along with their powers. (much like Khan with his genetically engineered nature)

Sulu comes up with an ingenious way to catch up with the espers. Combine a traditional warp field with the space-folding singularity used by the Romulan ship, reminding us of his background in natural sciences, back in Where No Man Has Gone before.

There’s a lot of physics to flying a starship so it makes a lot of sense to me that a good helmsman would have a background in science.

Lana decides it’s time to escape captivity. She flings the forcefield away and then forces

This is a very chilling scene, and again demonstrates how little regard she has for human life.

Can you imagine the horror of that moment, feeling your arm moving, knowing you’re about to disintegrate your body, and having no power to prevent it. It’s horrifying.

This moment is better than any other redshirt death that has ever happened in TOS, and possibly Star Trek in general. 

Firstly because we’ve gotten to know this character. He’s been developed of a number of episodes. He’s not just a nameless face. We know he’s a person with a life, people who love him.

In addition to that, it treats the moment with the gravity it deserves.

I’m left feeling something very deeply, and that would probably even be the case even if we hadn’t been introduced to him earlier in the season. Farewell, Drake. You will be missed.

The Enterprise and the Romulan ship have made it to the galactic barrier.

The Hallifax is at the border. But have they gone through yet or not?

Kirk hails them. He offers aid, to be a go-between for them with Starfleet Command. He doesn’t give the impression of a neutral party, though. They do, after all, work for Starfleet Command.

But it’s a trap. The Halifax is empty. Another ship appears behind them.

A constitution class ship, The USS Kongo emerges from the barrier. It’s too late. There are only around 12 people on board.

We get a view of their bridge, and they all have silver eyes.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Lana and Sentek enter the Enterprise bridge.

“Relinquish command or the Enterprise will suffer the same fate as the Hood.”

To be concluded.

This is a fantastic cliffhanger. Not quite up there with Best of Both Worlds, but better than most.

This episode was a great set-up for the finale. I love how it pulled together so many threads, both from TOS and from Star Trek Continues itself.

Only one left to go.

It’s been a wild ride.

Don’t forget to check out my original science fiction at AdamDavidCollings.com/books

And I’ll see you next time to discuss To Boldly Go, Part 2.

Until then, 

Live Long and Prosper

Make it so.

We're taking a brief side-quest from our regular coverage of Star Trek Continues, to look at an episode of Star Trek New Voyages, because it sets up the back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus's relationship, and I just like to throw it in there when I'm doing a re-watch of Star Trek Continues.

----more----

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 105 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about an episode of a different fan series - Star Trek New Voyages. “The Holiest Thing”

Why? I just like to throw this one in when I do a re-watch of Star Trek Continues, because it does a similar thing to Continues, that is, to help develop the story filling in the gaps between TOS and the Star Trek movies. This one introduces Kirk to a much younger Carol Marcus, for the very first time.

So I figured, let’s have a look at this one. Next time, we’ll be back with part 1 of the finale of Star Trek Continues.

The description on IMDB reads

Captain Kirk and the Enterprise investigate the devastation of Lappa III, apparently by the terraforming efforts of Dr. Carol Marcus.

This episode was written by Rick Chambers

It was directed by Daren Dochterman

And it first aired on the 15th of January 2016

We start this episode in a very unexpected place. A shuttle flies past the camera. But it’s not a TOS shuttle. It’s an Enterprise D shuttle. We cut to the inside where we see a woman in TNG era uniform and an older Scotty. So, clearly this is set some time after the TNG episode “Relics” where a retired Scotty finds himself in the 24th century.

I have to say, they cast a pretty decent look-alike for older scotty.

A guy named Carl Sheldon. He hasn’t done a lot of acting.

Watching this scene, I’m again reminded just how professional the acting and writing are in Star Trek Continues. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Star Trek New Voyages. They did some amazing stuff long before Star Trek Continues was a thing. But the acting, and the dialog here just isn’t at the same standard as Continues.

But I want to give this show credit for set design and visual effects. What we see in this episode is great.

And not all the acting feels as amateur as this first scene.

The ensign has been doing some training with Captain Scott. They’re approaching the Lappa system. She asks Scotty if he’s ever been there. He recalls a time in his past, when the world was still very much on the frontier. It was un-inhabited back then. At least, that’s what they thought.

We then cut to the TOS present day.

A scientist, who we’ll shortly learn is Dr. Carol Marcus, is working to terraform this planet. Scotty is there, and in this show, he has a moustache. Another little nod to closing the gap between TOS and TMP.

Marcus says “we have Enterprise and her chief Engineer watching over our shoulder.”

This is something that bugs me. That she says “Enterprise” rather than “The Enterprise.”

Voyager was the first Star Trek show to drop the word “The” when referring to the ship. And I was okay with that because “The Voyager” somehow sounded wrong. In contrast to “The Enterprise” and “The Defant” which both sounded completely natural and right.

Then we got Enterprise, and on that show, they did the same thing. They called the ship “Enterprise”, not “The Enterprise”

That annoyed me a little, but I got over it.

But nowadays, in Strange New Worlds, they are referring to the original starship Enterprise, the one commanded by Pike and eventually Kirk, as “Enterprise.” I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong. That ship was always “The Enterprise” so that annoys me quite a bit. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.

Here, in New Voyages, we have the same problem. Carol is referring to Kirk’s ship. It should be “The Enterprise”

Marcus told the science council she could terraform Lappa III in less than a decade. But with recent problems with the equipment, it’s going to take twice that long.

Both Marcus AND the council seem to be very inpatient about that, even though, as Scotty points out, it’s a whole century faster than anybody else has done it before.

It amuses me to see her pacing impatiently when we’re talking timeframes of decades and centuries. 

And centuries sounds about right for terraforming, something that, if it is actually possible, is not going to be quick.

Apparently, they’re using transporter technology in a whole new way. Scotty wants to see what it’s all about.

Something goes terribly wrong and the lab explodes. Scotty and Marcus barely escape in their shuttle. But they crash.

This was a pretty spectacular sequence.

The Enterprise crew have recovered Scotty and Marcus. Scotty is pretty banged up. Marcus is unconscious but should be out of here soon. But Kirk is very impatient to speak with her. He needs to know what happened on the outpost.

Jacy King plays Carol Marcus. Married to Brian Gross who plays Kirk.

She’s a good choice. She definitely looks the part, a lot more than Alice Eve did in Star Trek Into Darkness. And, of course, she doesn’t have the inexplicable British accent.

I didn’t see Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn at the cinema. I don’t know if it even showed here in Tasmania. But I was only 4 years old. I saw the first half of it on TV, and then watched the whole thing on VHS many years later.

When I watched it, it had been quite some time since I’d seen the original TV series. So I had assumed, from the way she was introduced, that we’d seen the character of Carol Marcus at some point in the past. Of course, that wasn’t the case. The back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus always seemed like this big glaring hole that demanded to be filled. So I liked that Star Trek New Voyages chose to fill that hole.

Carol is shocked and horrified to learn all her team is dead.

There’s no evidence of alien contact. Kirk is going to begin the investigation assuming it was an accident. Carol wants to be a part of it. She will work with Spock.

But McCoy thinks she needs to work with someone more sensitive to her current emotional needs, given her great loss. So Kirk volunteers.

Carol’s terraforming technology uses transporters to re-arrange matter. Seems like a pre-cursor to the Genesis device she’ll eventually create.

Scotty thought he saw a ship on sensors, but now they can’t detect anything.

Spock wants to run background checks on Carol’s staff, considering the possibility of sabotage. She doesn’t react to this well.

There is now clear tension between her and Spock. He’s not sure she should accompany him to the surface, given her “emotional outbursts.”

This episode actually gives a character arc to both Marcus and Spock. Marcus, of course, is trying to figure out how to deal with the painful emotions of having lost her crew, and feeling responsible. Spock, on the other hand, has to learn how to relate to a human who is experiencing very understandable strong emotions. It’s a learning experience for both.

A quick zoom out shows us that there is indeed a ship hiding in the system. It’s not cloaked. It seems to be hiding in a gas cloud. It’s not a familiar design. At least, it wasn’t to me, in this shot, but we’ll come back to that.

Kirk goes to see Marcus. He apologises for Spock. Marcus has come to agree that Spock asked the right question, she just didn’t like it.

We get some insight into why Marcus is so passionate about terraforming. She talks of a famine that happened on a world. People suffered. She wanted to help. Terraforming dead worlds is an answer, but it’s far too slow to be of any practical help.

She is driven by compassion for people.

She sees herself becoming a mother of worlds

It’s a good conversation. There’s no flirting or inappropriate behaviour, as you often get from Kirk the minute he meets a pretty girl, Just 2 people getting to know each other. 

They’re both people with authority. They understand each other

Kir acts s little sheepish as he starts to realise his attraction to her. Maybe he’s sensing that he feels more than just sexual attraction. Something deeper.

She’s feeling it too

Spock and Carol beam down to investigate destruction site.

We see Xon at transporter console. He is the Vulcan character created to replace Spock in the original Star Trek Phase 2 series that was cancelled in favour of Star Trek the Motion picture, because Nimoy wasn’t going to be involved in that show. When it became a movie instead of a series, Nimoy agreed to return.

Star Trek New Voyages chose to bring Xon onto the Enterprise as a new character alongside Spock.

Spock and Marcus are learning to appreciate each other.

Marcus seems to be a little envious of Spock’s ability to suppress emotion as a Vulcan.

They’ve found something on the planet. Not something belonging to the team. It doesn’t belong there. They’re bringing it aboard for analysis.

Kirk is seeking counsel from bones on how to help Dr. Marcus through what she’s going through. He claims he has no romantic interest in her. That would be wrong. Interesting to see Kirk say that when nothing usually stops him. But Carol is going through a great deal of emotional pain at the loss of her friends.

Sometimes in older fiction, like Star Trek, you’ll see characters who are trying to comfort someone through grief, and suddenly it becomes romantic. Like they’re taking advantage of the other person. Even Star Trek 2009 did this with Uhura and Spock, but reversing the expected gender roles. It felt really odd.

I’m glad to see Kirk not doing that here.

His relationship with Carol Marcus is one that is important to us as fans, so it’s nice to see them doing it right.

When the mysterious object causes problems with their respirators, and even Scotty can’t get a lock on Carol, Kirk has a very reckless plan to rescue her. Beaming down without a respirator of his own to give Scotty something to lock onto.

It’s a plan that could work, but probably not something the captain of the ships should be doing.

We’re clearly seeing here how much Kirk cares about her.

Fortunately, it works.

The energy reading of the debris they found looks kinda like the graphic depicting the genesis wave in Star Trek 2. But this doesn’t really go anywhere.

Kirk takes carol to the arboretum

She’s changed into a revealing outfit. Makes me think it's a deliberate date.

Carol is thinking of giving up. Kirk doesn't think she will. She cares too much

Kirk has been there too. At what point do you say, this is enough.

Kirk says he’ll tell her when he gets there. He’s not there yet and neither is she

The way this is written it feels much more real than most of Kirk’s many romances, of which there have been many. He’s not being creepy. He’s not overly flirty. It’s just two people getting to know each other, going deep, and forming a genuine bond. Basically it feels like a real relationship.

It’s condensed for time so it’ll fit into a 1 hour episode maybe, but real nonetheless.

Carol and Spock are also growing in their relationship. A professional one. We get the impression from Star Trek II that Spock knew Carol.

Here’s a question. Why does Kirk think it’s appropriate to talk to the admiral with his shirt off and slung over his shoulder? I wouldn’t dream of talking to my boss half dressed. If I got a surprise zoom call from him, even if I was in an unprepared state, I’d throw on a shirt before I clicked accept.

Anyway, Starfleet are itching to assemble a warfleet to engage the alien ship that might not might not be there. The admiral needs Kirk to get him some real answers. Fast.

And then, of course, we get another scene where a woman walks in on Kirk shirtless in his quarters and gets embarrassed. Seems I only just talked about this an episode or two ago, so I don’t have any further comments, other than to notice it happening yet again, in another fan production.

Carol has been working very hard on her investigation and hasn’t eaten for 9 hours. Kirk invites her to dinner, which she readily accepts. But it very quickly becomes apparent they’re not going to dinner. They have …. Other plans.

It’s really not surprising to me that the actors playing Kirk and Marcus are married. You can see the genuine affection between them. I guess that’s the elusive thing that people call chemistry. Whatever that is, these two seem to have it, as you’d expect from a real couple.

The next morning, Kirk is finding himself in a bit of a melancholy place, thinking about how the Captain’s chair is a lonely one. It was pretty rare for ships captains in Kirk’s time to marry. It was a more wild frontier. Gone from earth for years at a time. They didn’t really have families on board like they did in the 24th century.

That hasn’t rarely bothered him with his past conquests. Perhaps because he sees a potential future with Carol.

They’re heading for the dust cloud, to try to find that evidence for Starfleet.

After going to warp, Sulu says “like a leap on the solar wind” which is, of course, a reference to Firefly. Not sure exactly why they added that.

Spock has found the cause of the explosion. Protomatter.

This is something that is mentioned in Star Trek 3. Apparently, David Marcus, Carol’s son, used protomatter in the matrix for the Genesis device. It was the only way to solve certain problems. We’re told it’s use is unethical because it’s “dangerously unstable”

Here, in this episode, we get a bit more of an explanation of what protomatter is.

It’s a remnant from the creation of the universe. It can fluctuate between matter and anti-matter states. If both appeared at the same time, an explosion would occur.

It seems the matrix from Carol’s experiment was contaminated with protomatter. Something she acknowledged as a very minute possibility, but so unlikely as to be statistically insignificant. 

Sadly, it happened.

They’ve found the alien ship in the dust cloud.

My first thought when seeing it this time was “that looks kinda like a Ferengi ship.”

The alien’s weapons are no match for the Enterprise’s shields.

They’re refusing to respond to Kirk’s hails.

When we see a camera point of view from within the alien ship, we catch a glimpse of the side of their heads. It’s pretty clearly Ferengi.

They claim that the transformation of the planet is a hostile act.

When Kirk says they weren’t aware of anyone have a claim on the planet, the response is “You didn’t ask,” and Spock says they have a point.

But ask who?

It was an empty planet. Nobody there. It was claimed by no government that the Federation is aware of. Remember, they won’t make official contact with the Ferengi until TNG season 1.

So it seems to me the Federation acted in good faith with all the information they had available. I don’t think they could have asked anyone else.

The alien voice makes it clear they’re not interested in discovery or friendship. Only profit.

And then, the episode breaks continuity by having the alien not only show his face, but identify his species as Ferengi.

This is a really odd move from my point of view.

They already had the Ferengi communicating by voice only. And if they wanted to show the Ferengi on screen, they could have done so purely on the alien bridge Point of View. No need for Kirk to actually see them. Why they started this way and then flipped is beyond me. They’d set it up the perfect way to include the Ferengi without breaking continuity, and then they did it anyway.

Enterprise did, of course, have an episode with Ferengi, not at no point during that episode did they mention their name to Archer and his crew.

But it occurs to me now that in Encounter at Farpoint, before that official contact, Picard had at least heard the name Ferengi. So I guess they could have heard that name this early. But it always felt to me like a more recent thing. That they’d heard of this race, The Ferengi, but just hadn’t met them yet.

Anyway, the Ferengi claim to have a prior commercial arrangement with the Federation. Something that is news to Kirk.

And then he say a very interesting line

“The only thing more expensive than a question, is the answer.”

I wonder if that’s a rule of acquisition. If it isn’t, then it should be.

The only logical possibility is that a member of the team on the planet had made an arrangement with the Ferengi. The question is, did Dr. Marcus know about it?

Kirk is quick to come to her defence, based on his knowledge of her character. But can he offer any evidence?

Carol is really struggling with having lost crewmembers. It’s somewhat compromising her ability to think clearly. This is understandable. Kirk has left people under his command before. He sadly has to let her know that it never stops hurting. I like what they’re doing with Carol’s character in this story.

That protomatter came from somewhere. Maybe there was a black market going on behind her back she wasn’t aware of.

They’ve detected protomatter in the Ferengi’s cargo hold.

Sabotage is not a logical possibility. It makes no financial sense to kill your trading partners. 

The project was behind schedule. Someone could have purchased the protomatter to speed things up, and it went badly.

Kirk is going to try to bluff the Ferengi poker style to get information. Of course, it would be good for him to be aware of the Ferengi love of Tongo.

It was the project director, Dr. Robert Dewhitt, who purchased the protomatter. He was as passionate about the project as Carol was. He must have been desperate.

Carol is going to start over. She’s learned a lot from this experience. She knows how to make it work now. She’s going to start inventing the Genesis device.

Three days later, they arrive at the nearest starbase to drop off Dr. Marcus. But first, she goes to see Kirk.

Kirk is hoping they can have dinner before parting ways, but she says no.

Then Kirk proposes.

It seems pretty sudden after only a few days. But … Carol Marcus is his soul mate.

But she says no.

For the reasons she gave in Star Trek 2.

For them to be together, one of them would have to abandon their dream.

Carol claims she can’t do her research on The Enterprise. A lot of her work would require her to be on planets, but surely much of it, especially in the early days, would be lab work. Hard to see why that couldn’t be done on the Enterprise. A ship of scientific exploration.

Kirk offers to leave the Enterprise, leave Starfleet.

But she won’t let him do that. Over time, he would resent her for it.

Which is possibly true.

She admits she loves him, but, but asks him to stay away.

For all their sakes - all three.

And this is where it gets really unfair.

She tells him she’s pregnant with David, and asks him to stay away. To have absolutely no contact with his son. Ever.

This is how it has to be, because this is what Star Trek 2 set up.

But I believe Carol is wrong here.

I believe she is hurting not only Jim, but David as well. Robbing them both of the relationship they both deserve to have.

This is heart-breaking stuff.

Kirk gallantly does as Carol wishes.

Honestly, I don’t know how he has the strength.

This must haunt him every day for the rest of his life.

It would me.

This episode relies on accepting a lot of truncated time regarding Kirk and Carol’s relationship. There’s no way around that when you’re telling the story of the entire relationship in one episode. But I forgive it because it’s a great story. A very fitting prequel to Star Trek 2.

As fun as it was, I’m not sure what the point of the framing device with TNG Scotty was, other than maybe to show that the terraforming efforts eventually succeeded and people are living there now. I would argue that it wasn’t necessary, and might even distract from the episode. But It was cool either way.

But another little thing. At the beginning, Scotty says that Lappa III was uninhabited - or so we thought. I don’t think they paid off that statement. We learn of no indigenous life on the planet. The closest we get to a payoff is the Ferengi, but they’re not living on the planet, just trading with one of the crew. So I’m not sure what happened there.

Next time, we’re going to look at the first part of Star Trek Coninue’s two-part finale.

“To Boldly Go.”

I’m looking forward to talking about it.

Don’t forget the first three books in my Jewel of The Stars sci-fi series are available on Amazon, Kobok, Google Play, Apple, all the usual places.

Until next time

Live long and prosper

Make it so.

In this episode of Star Trek Continues, we are treated to the return of John De Lancie is a new role. But just because he's not playing Q, doesn't mean he isn't awesome. "What Ships Are For" explores an issue that has been topical in our world in recent years - immigration and refugees.

----more----

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 104 of the podcast. (Yes, I’m counting the chat about DC comics from last time)

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “What Ships are For”.

The description on IMDB reads

Kirk struggles with aiding a society whose inhabitants view their isolated world in a very unique way.

This teleplay was written by Kipleigh Brown

With story by Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin, and Kipleigh Brown, 

It was directed by Vic Mignogna

And it first aired on the 30th of July 2017

When I first heard that Star Trek Continues was bringing in the legendary John DeLancie, but that he’d be playing a character that wasn’t Q, my initial reaction was “What a waste of John De Lancie.”

My thinking went something like this. The idea of having Q visit Kirk’s Enterprise would be fun. Something that could certainly happen in-universe because Q can travel through time with the click of a finger. But it couldn’t have ever been done in TOS because The Next Generation didn’t exist yet. It’s the similar problem to having Kirk and Spock make references to Archer and T’Pol. While Enterprise took place before TOS, it was created more than 30 years later.

These kinds of references and interactions can only be done by fan productions (or maybe Strange New Worlds).

But as fun as it would be having Q show up in a TOS episode, it’s unlikely a fan production would be able to get John DeLancie.

But Star Trek Continues managed to get him. But they didn’t use him for Q. They cast him as another character. Added to the disappointment of him not being Q, was the fact that De Lancie is a very recognisable guy, so seeing him as a different character would be odd to say the least.

After watching the episode the first time, I had to back-pedal my thoughts on this because of De Lancie’s great performance. He did a fantastic job with this character, and now it’s hard to imagine this episode without him.

The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from an inhabited asteroid with a limited warp capable society.

I like that it’s an inhabited asteroid. We always see people living on planets, but I think we need more inhibited moons and asteroids, not only in sci-fi, but in fantasy as well. If I ever write a fantasy book, the world I set it on will be a moon, rather than a planet.

And a nice bit of ongoing continuity, we learn that two Federation starships have been dispatched to investigate what happened to the hood. Both have suffered unexplainable damage.

We also learn that Nurse Chapel is already at Starfleet medical, studying to become a doctor. We know that by the time of Star Trek The Motion Picture, Chapen is a doctor. This is the first really big sign that Star Trek Continues is on a trajectory toward that movie, starting to set up some of the big changes that occurred off-screen between season 3 and the movie.

You sometimes see nurses who decide to become doctors in both fiction and real life. It can be almost viewed as a promotion, which, I suspect it technically is, if you look at the hierarchy of authority in a hospital. But nursing certainly needn't be seen as a stepping stone to medicine. Nursing is a respected profession of highly intelligent people. And interestingly, my wife works with a nurse who used to be a doctor, but decided she’d rather be a nurse. You don’t often see it go that direction.

The other hint of the motion picture you see is the white medical uniform the doctor at Starfleet is wearing. Kirk jokes that you’ll never get him in one of those things.

The Hyalini have refused outside contact for centuries. We know little about them.

We get a little TOS style womp-womp humour, which I don’t really care for, but it’s very authentic.

When the landing party beam down to the asteroid, they are surprised to be seeing everything in black and white.

When I heard that the creative team behind this show were looking for ways to do a black and white episode, I wasn’t convinced. But the conceit they come up with works nicely for me as a science fiction concept, and also allows them to approach a topical issue in a very unique way. So good on ‘em.

While they puzzle over what might be affecting their eyes, they are met by Galisti, leader of the inner council, played by De Lanci, and Thaius, their newly appointed ambassador to the Federation.

Galisti is surprised that the human visitors look so much like Hyanoid bipeds. He was expecting a tentacle or two.

Thaius is the first to notice that Spock is different from the others. I laughed out loud when she asked with all sincerity,  if he was an Earth female. McCoy managed to get by with a stifled chuckle.

She is also fascinated and delighted by Spock’s kindness and gallantry revealed by pure calculated reason.

She notes that in all her excitement at meeting aliens, she didn’t see anything other than his ears. “How often we look but forget to see.” This is an important line, not only because of what it says, but because of who says it. As we’ll see at the end of the episode.

We also learn that Galisti and Thaius are married. Galisti says “How fortunate I am to call my friend, my wife.”

And I totally get behind that. I believe that romantic love is best born out of friendship.That’s why I don’t understand this whole “friend zone” thing that “the kids” talk about these days.

Kirk struggles to find the words to ask the aliens about the lack of colour. How do you describe colour to someone who has no concept of it?

It would be a bit like describing colour to a blind person. There is simply no common frame of reference.

Gaisti and Thaius don’t really know what Kirk is getting at, but they assure him the way their world looks is the same as it has always been.

They launch right into an explanation of their situation. Their isolation was never meant to end now. Hundreds of years ago, they united in a goal of becoming worthy to one day join the galactic community (clearly they knew, or believed, that alien life existed). They wanted to become a utopian society, somewhat like what Earth has become.

Spock explains the black-and-white as the property of an unusual form of radiation from their sun, which impairs the cone cells in humanoid eyes.

So far, this is just a strange quirk of this world. And Star Trek is all about discovering strange new worlds. But this will come into play in an important thematic way later in the episode.

I love the establishing shot we see of the town. Feels reminiscent of the planet where Pike fought the warrior on Rigel in The Cage. I wonder where they shot it. Might even just be stock footage.

When Kirk is introduced to Thaius’s most promising student, Sekara, Kirk goes all … Kirk. When he meets an attractive woman, he can’t help but flirt with her.

Things get awkward when Tomiat, one of the council, points a gun to his head and yells that Galisti shouldn’t have brought the aliens here. They are all ruined. His perspective seems to be that making contact with aliens, before they themselves are perfect, will destroy them.

I can kind of understand why a group of people would want to perfect themselves before joining the larger community, but this guy’s ideas seem odd and extreme. Evidently, the others of his people do not share the extremity of his view. He refers to himself as a “true believer”.

But a believer in what? Their plan to perfect themselves? What leads him to take the mental jump from “This would be a good strategy” to “if it doesn’t go as we planned, we’re doomed”? It seems a bit of an absurd leap. I don’t know what he’s basing it on.

Spock brings things to a peaceful end with a well-placed neck pinch.

That’s when Galisti explains that Sekara had a disease. She’ll be dead before the year is out. This is why they broke their isolation with the distress signal. They don’t know what it is, only what it isn’t. These people seem to have medical knowledge at least in line with ours.

McCoy is confident the disease is related to the same radiation that makes everything look black and white. Not sure how he concludes this.

He wants to bring Sekara on board the Enterprise to examine her in sickbay, but Kirk sees a potential issue. On the Enterprise, she’ll be shielded from the radiation. Spock isn’t certain whether she’ll see colour or not, but if she does, it could be traumatic. I can totally get that.

Kirk tries to prepare her for what she might see. He does a good job of it. He warns her that it will be unusual, it might frighten her, but it will be safe. She accepts this.

When she arrives in the transporter room, we get the reveal that her skin and hair colouring are not what you’d expect from a human. Greenish skin and purple hair. Cleverly concealed by the black-and-white nature of her asteroid home.

She still sees in black and white for a moment. But then it happens. And as you can imagine, it’s pretty overwhelming.She goes into a panic attack. She asks “is it alive?”

Again, Kirk does a good job of calming and reassuring her.

This was nicely done.

It's taken millennia for the radiotoxins to induce acute radiation syndrome. Mccoy has started sekaras treatment

Now that she’s gotten used to it, Sekara has a real sense of wonder about colour. It’s like nothing she’s ever experienced before. I like how something that is so mundane to us is so awe-inspiring to her.

The Hyalinans do have limited space travel, but they don’t have shields that can block the radiation. That’s why they still don’t see colour when they travel through space, but Sekara can when on board the Enterprise.

Anyway, treating them for the illness is only a bandaid. It will continue and re-occur as they are exposed to the radiation. But Spock has a daring idea. The spectral signature of the Hyalinus sun can be altered using a modified stellar probe.

This is something I’d approach with caution. You’re talking about fundamentally changing the nature of their sun. What un-expected side-effects could that have? What damage could they cause if they do it wrong?

But, with lives on the line, they’re right to try. They just wanna make sure they do it properly

Sulu is going to accompany Spock down to the surface to see how the radiation has permeated the food chain. For once, he gets to use his botany for the story.

Spock took some scans while he was down there. The tricorder doesn’t rely on cone cells to detect colour. His can show there are multiple skin pigmentations on the planet. Sekara has greenish skin with purple hair, while many of the others have orange skin with black hair.

I’m suprised at how shocked and dismayed the crew look. Earth has a number of different skin tones. This needn’t be a surprise. But given the history of Earth, I guess the Hyalians might be in for a shock, and it could lead to treating people differently.

Spock and McKenna conclude, in what I think is a bit of a leap, that Sekara and the other minority that share her pigmentation, are aliens. Not native to Hylinus.

McCoy points out there could be other explanations, but Spock has apparently gathered enough data to know there are other differences. These people are unquestionable a race not currently native to Hyalinus.

And that’s a very interesting development.

Uhura and Palmer are searching for any other habitable bodies nearby.

They have to decide whether to confront Sekara about her origins. McKenna suggests not doing so yet. They don’t know who she is, or even whether she knows herself.

Kirk surmises that a species as isolationist as the Hyilini would never allow aliens to live on their world, but given their inability to distinguish colour, they probably don’t know.

Sekara was born on Hyalinus and orphaned at a young age.

Her intense awkwardness in trying to answer when Kirk invites her in, suggests she may be as smitten with him as he is with her.

She asks an interesting question. “What is the purpose of colour?” Is that something you’ve ever wondered? Probably not, as it’s just such a normal part of our existence.

Kirk suggests that it provides variety, vibrance, beauty.

 Like poetry for the eyes.

This episode makes me wonder. We feel like our perception of vision is complete, but so did Sekara. What if there is something …. Other. Something additional that we can’t perceive that another species might. What could that be? I can’t even imagine it. It’s so outside our realm of experience. 

It also reminds me of the Terry Pratchet book, The Colour of Magic. In that book, there is another colour called Octartine. While the book tries to describe it using a combination of other colours, we can’t actually conceive of what a colour unknown to us would look like. Because as humans, we’ve already given names to all the colours that our eyes can perceive.

There is nothing more alien than that which you cannot perceive, or conceive of.

And then Kirk gets really creepy. At least, that’s how it comes across. I’m not suggesting his advances are unwanted by Sekara. But it seems a little premature. But that’s Kirk. At least, how he was portrayed in TOS.

Palmer has found radio waves coming from another asteroid in the belt.

2 small shuttlepods approach. Unarmed and barely spaceworthy.

The Hyalini lock weapon platforms on the shuttles. The council won’t respond to Kirk’s hails.

He makes the decision to intervene. He destroys the platform after it gets off a missing shot.

The Enterprise is now involved in this conflict. A potential prime directive issue.

Now the council wants to talk. They demand an explanation for the destruction of their platform.

Sekara describes the people on those shuttles as Abicians. They’ve been trying to sneak onto Hyalinus to escape the consequences of their own savagery for decades. They lie and conceal their identities so that they can benefit from the peace and prosperity that we’ve worked to achieve. One which they have not earned themselves.

Kirk asks if they are criminals or refugees. Is it a crime to want to live peacefully?

Sekara makes the point, that I think is fair, that Kirk doesn’t know enough about the situation to stand in judgement.

Her parents were murdered by abicians.

Kirk concedes this. It’s all too easy to criticise the policies of another until you lose someone those policies could have saved.

Now, Kirk says something that I think is very wise. “Please tell me, Sekara. I want to understand.”

Their world is in turmoil. Territories perpetually at war. Technological innovation fueled solely by the desire to build better, more lethal weapons. They have squandered their natural resources and polluted their world in the process. 

Her parents were part of a diplomatic envoy sent to help. To show the abicians a better way to live. Their ship returned to Hyalinus on auto-pilot and all 18 people on board were killed.

Sekara was 10 years old.

Kirk admits that those people who killed her parents were barbarians. But that doesn’t mean they all are, does it?

And I think that’s the crux of the matter. The biggest issue with what the Hylians are doing is judging all members of a species based on the actions of their leaders.

The reality is, the people on those shuttles probably disagree with the violent ways of their leaders. They only want to get away from the killing. As Kirk says, to be able to live in peace.

Sekara says “you assume they think like us. They do not. They do not respect our laws. They do not value knowledge or honesty and they do not question their conscience before turning to violence.

This sounds like something she’s been taught, rather than something she knows factually about these people from experience.

As Kirk says, have you ever met an abician?

She admits her answer is no, but says they’ve managed to keep them off their world.

This is the moment Kirk chooses to reveal the truth.

There are hundreds of thousands of Abicians on Hyalinus. They look just like hyalians, unless you can see colour.

You are abician. Your parents were abician.

That must be an even greater shock for her to accept than the introduction of colour into her world. And Kirk didn’t do much to prepare her for that shock. But what could he do? In the end, he had to just come out and say it.

Can you imagine discovering you’re a different species to what you thought you were. That you are actually the thing that you have always distrusted?

Sekara now has to face the reality that not all abicians are the way she has pre-judged them to be.

Spock and Sulu have found that the food chain has been affected by the radiation at almost every level, but there is no permanent mutation, which means after they’ve put their plan into action, future Hylanini should be healthy and free of the disease.

Kirk is trying to reason with the council. 

Galisti asks if his people must meet some arbitrary moral standard set by Starfleet in order to receive help.

Kirk assures him that is not the case. And that’s good. Our compassion for people shouldn’t be limited by our agreeing or disagreeing with them on moral issues.

Kirk is trying to understand why the Hyalini see a few people who are desperate for a better life as such a threat.

Galisti gets to the crux of it. “Granting entrance to some is an invitation for all. They would overrun our world.”

They have limited resources. They’re struggling to feed their own people.

This is a legitimate concern.

Kirk isn’t suggesting that they open their borders to everyone, but he says they’re defensive system is excessive.

This was a very topical issue at the time this episode was made, especially in America, but also here in Australia.

But it reminds me of the jewish people fleeing Nazi germany. They went from country to country in boats that were falling apart. But nobody would take them in. So they’d have to head back out into open sea, where they faced the very real risk that their boats might just sink.

And I wonder, how can people be so heartless?

I’m more conservative than the average Star Trek fan, but I don’t have a problem with immigration - especially if the people are refugees. 

I believe in compassion.

Kirk is trying to be reasonable here and see both sides of the issue. He is taking the Hyaliani’s position seriously.

But it’s difficult to reach any sort of logical compromise when Galisti refers to Abicians as “vulgar, selfish and violent. A scourge .”

This is a very interesting conversation between the characters. They both say some interesting things. Galisti has quantifiable proof that violent crime went up when they suspected Abicians of being on their world, and down again after they started using their weapon, but again, they’re pre-judging all based on the actions of some.

Galisti has valid concerns for the safety of his people, as their leader.

But I really like Kirk’s response to that.

“Safety and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Conscience requires balance.”

And that’s what missing on Hylainus. Balance.

Then Galisti points out the hypocrisy of the Prime Directive, in the way it is sometimes applied in Star Trek. “And you stand here before me, lecturing me about ‘compassion’ about ‘balance” You condemn the many for the crimes of none. Who do you think you are?

And I’m sorry to have to say it, Kirk, but he’s got a point here. Not necessarily against Kirk specifically, but certainly against the Federation itself. I’m not saying the Hyalnini are right in the way they’re viewing and treating their neighbours, but the Federation is definitely not morally perfect, as much as they’d like to think they are.

Kirk is concerned about what will happen once they cure the Hyalini of their disease and their colour blindness. They’ll be able to see the abicians all around them. He doesn’t necessarily think they’ll resort to violence and killing, but he’s worried they’ll round them all up and send them home, washing their hands of what happens to them.

McKenna recongises that this is deeply personal for Kirk. He’s not just angry, he’s afraid. Afraid of what might happen to Sekara. He cares for her. 

Given the few minutes he’s spent with her, I think it’s probably more accurate to say he has the hots for her, but this is based on 60s episodic television. So I guess we have to suspect a little disbelief for the sake of truncated story-telling.

Kirk sees that for all their piety, the hyaliani have no problem turning their backs on desperate people.

They have no compassion.

And piety without compassion leads to some dark places.

They take help, but they won’t give it. Kirk wonders if they deserve his help at all?

But as a man of compassion himself, as a man of duty to his principles, does that make a difference? Do you only help those who deserve it? Or is this a case where Kirk has to exercise some costly grace?

Because if he doesn’t as McKenna points out, he’ll be no better. He’ll be turning his back on desperate people with nowhere else to go? Some of whom may not agree with the prejudice of their leaders.

And that phrase “nowhere else to go” sparks an idea in Kirk.

Sekara is feeling desperate. She’s considering destroying the probe that will save Hyilinus. Because of what will happen next. People will turn on each other. They won’t see neighbours and friends, they’ll see the brutes and thieves they’ve heard about.

She asks Kirk to help find another way to help her sun. One that won’t change the way they see.

But there is no other way. The two are inextricably linked.

Kirk talks her down.

She feels so powerless. Terrified of the people she’ll return to.

Their eyes will change but their hearts may not.

Then again - her heart has changed. She is the one person who can change the hearts of their leaders.

Galisti and his wife love her very much. She is the proof that Abicians are not all just savages.

It’s time to carry out the mission. Kirk warns Galisti that there are abicians living among them. If he repairs their sun, they will be able to see them. 

Despite their attitude toward the abicians, the hyalini have accomplished much to be proud of. They have achieved a peace and unity in a short time, that it took earth Milennia to achieve. 

All fueled by the hope that they will one day achieve readiness to join the galactic community.

But how will they know when they are ready?

The problem is, there is no one answer. An undefined finish line means they never have to finish. Your people will never have to leave the comfort and safety of what they have now. 

And if you’ll permit me, just briefly, to get spiritual, this reminds me of how some people approach God. They feel they need to be perfect first. But of course, that’s impossible. I believe that God says, come as you are.

Then we get an explanation for the episodes’ title. An old saying. “A ship in the harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.

Do you serve the hope, or have you twisted it to serve you?

After making an impassioned speech, Kirk reveals they launched the probe twenty minutes ago.

Thaius tells Galisti their world is about to change forever, and reassure him her love for him will never ever change.

Why would it? He must wonder, until he starts to see colour.

I like how, even though the two races have different skin colour, this was never about colour. They didn’t even know the difference. It was about fear and prejudice regarding the abician’s character. 

But their blindness has given them the proof that they were wong. That they need to re-think their attitude toward abicians.

There is the possibility that going into the future, some kind of skin-colour-related prejudice may arise, but maybe, just maybe, this experience has taught them the lessons to avoid that.

Galisti marvels at this wonder called colour.

But then he looks at his wife.

She is abician.

She’s wanted to tell her for a long time, but she was afraid he’d reject her.

“I’m still me, I’m still the same person,” she insists.

But Galaisti pulls away from her.

“This changes nothing,” he says. 

It seems Galisti is still clinging to his attitude. He can’t accept the woman he loves.

Kirk has fixed the sun but the asteroid is still bathed in radiation. It needs to be cleared.

Galisti asks Kirk to proceed, but he can’t. He says the Enterprise has been called away on an urgent mission and won’t have the time.

But then the surprise. It turns out the Abicians have the technology to fix your sun.

“But why would they help us?” Galaisti asks. Why indeed.

Because they now have something the abicians need. Medicine. Enough for both worlds.

Turns out the abicians are suffering the same disease, but they’ve had it much longer. It’s no wonder their world has fallen into chaos.

These worlds can save each other, but they’re going to have to put the past behind them and move on.

Giving half of the solution each to two warring parties, so they are forced to work together, is a very Star Trek way to resolve a plot.

It’s very easy to judge Galisti at this moment. He’s been given the proof. Why doesn’t he see Kirk’s point. He’s still being a jerk - which he is.

But changing your attitude and beliefs is not an easy thing to do. If we’re fair, we can’t expect Galisti to change his entire outlook in thirty seconds, but you can see that it is starting, as Thaius and Sekara say “there is no them anymore, only us.”

This is an emotional journey for Galisti. One that will take time, but I have confidence that he will change.

He has to.

If he doesn’t, his world will die.

This was a powerfully written and performed episode.

Another example of why Star Trek Continues deserves to be viewed in the same light as official Star Trek.

Only two episodes remain - the two part finale that bridges the gap between TOS and The Motion Picture.

But before we go there, next time we’re going to take a brief detour.

We’re going to talk about an episode of another Star Trek fan show.

Star Trek New Voyages “The Holiest Thing”

I like to include this one when I do a re-watch of Star Trek Continues, because, like continues, it delves into the history of Star Trek and fleshes out a gap that exists between TOS and the movies.

This episode will introduce us to a much younger Dr. Carol Marcus.

Until then,

Live long and prosper

Make it so.

In this episode, I talk about some of the DC Comics that I've read in recent time. I cover

* Batman: The Killing Joke

* Green Lantern Emerald Twilight

* Zero Hour: Crisis in Time

* Superman: Dead Again

This is a bonus as my next Star Trek Continues podcast is not yet ready. Next fortnight, we'll return to our regularly scheduled program.

This episode of Star Trek Continues takes an alternative look at what might have happened to the USS Defiant after The Tholian Web, making use of a divergence field so as not to contradict In a Mirror Darkly. It also features a guest appearance of Rekha Sharma, before her role in Star Trek Discovery.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 102 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Still Treads The Shadows”.

The description on IMDB reads

The Enterprise becomes trapped on the edge of a rift in space where alternate universes meet and Kirk finds himself having to contend with a ghost from his past and danger in the present.

This episode was written by Judy Burns

It was directed by Julian Higgins

And it first aired on the 1st of April 2017

And this one guest stars Rekha Sharma of Battlestar Galactica fame, and she actually appeared here long before she appeared in Star Trek Discovery. 

The Enterprise is investigating a nascent singularity. A gravitational wave engineer has been sent along to help them.

This makes sense to me, while one of Starfleet’s primary missions is scientific, and they have their own scientists, if there is no expert on a given field on board, a guest may be sent with them. And if the leading expert on a field is a civilian, it makes sense that a civilian would go along to work with the crew.

There’s a stronger than anticipated gravitational wave. It has consumed planets 3 through 8 in ten days and is about to destroy a moon.

It seems our guest, Avi Samara, is on a first name basis with Kirk. She calls him Jim, then corrects herself.

They’re detecting an interdimensional rift, like the one Kirk was nearly lost in back in The Tholian Web.

They’ve detected a lifeform, it’s not on the moon as they first think, but on a ship. The USS Defiant.

Well that’s interesting. Especially since we know what happened to the Defiant after The Tholian Web. It ended up in the 22 century of the mirror universe. (and that episode aired long before this series was thought of)

Also when The Defiant vanished, there was nobody alive on board.

Samara wants to go aboard to investigate, but Kirk denies her request without explanation.

All the dead crewmen Kirk saw last time are gone. The bridge is empty.

Bones has found the lifesign. It’s a much older looking Kirk. Cryonically preserved.

A DNA scan suggests he’s not a clone because there’s no genetic drift. He’s literally Kirk.

Samara’s research suggests that rogue singularities can move from universe to universe.

The Defiant is stuck, halfway between two universes. Her engines have been modified over a long period of time to reach warp 15.

Old Kirk arrives in the briefing lounge. All this time he thought they’d left him behind. Now he finds his old crew, still young, and …. Himself.

Even old Kirk knows Samara, so they’ve known each other prior to this mission. Given their embrace it seems they were close.

Old Kirk remembers the attempt to beam him back to the Enterprise, but he found himself back on the Defient. Samara suggests a divergence field.

Two Kirks. Two Defiants.

They don’t know where our Defiant went, (but we do) but this is the duplicate.

The other defiant has been in another universe for 217 years.

The big question is, who put Kirk in cryo?

The old-age makeup isn’t bad. Along similar lines to what was done in the original series. But not at the level of what could be done today with a professional budget. And Vic does a good job of altering his performance, his voice, to help sell it.

It would have been interesting if they’d been able to get William Shatner for this episode to play older Kirk. It would be a good way to bring him back, something he’s sometimes said he’d like to do if the role was more than a cameo. Fan productions have had original series actors appear in the past, and Continues is one of the most professional.

Part of me wonders if they actually approached him.

Before we can get an answer, a Klingon ship appears.

They claim salvage rights over the Defiant but they’re struck with phaser fire from an unknown source and pulled into the anomaly

The only other ship here is the defiant but there’s nobody on board.

That’s when old Kirk appears and orders Uhura to open a channel to the defiant.

Kirk speaks to someone called Tiberius. It appears to be an artificial intelligence.

It speaks with Jim’s voice. It claims to be the protector of James Kirk.

Samara speculates that given the time, the Defiant computer could have developed multi-tronic circuits. Which is a bizarre statement to me. Is she suggesting that the computer evolved? By itself? That’s a bit out there.

Tiberius wants its friend back. It wants old Kirk to be returned.

Old Kirk warns against firing at the defiant, saying “you can’t give him the power, it feeds the dark.”

He then clutches his head and Bones rushes him back to sickbay.

That seems to be a foolish move.

Clearly old kirk has information. Information about Tiberius that is vital, that could determine their safety.

And Bones just gets him out of there before he can give that information.

I understand the need to get the older man medical help, he is clutching his head in obvious pain, but this doesn’t give the impression of a medical emergency so life-threatening that they can’t take a moment to let old Kirk explain.

What makes it even worse is that not long after, Bones will confirm there is nothing physically wrong with the man, he’s just old, and will send him to McKenna.

Kirk tries to negotiate with Tiberius but it isn’t interested in the crew’s safety. He blames them for abandoning Kirk, which they technically didn’t do. They didn’t know the duplicate Kirk existed. And old Kirk tried to explain this to tiberius.

Scotty has found a recording of Tiberius saying “it is forbidden for you to remember.”

That’s creepy. “Know you are safe. The dark will send you home.”

A brainwashing device.

Is Tiberius protecting him from something? Something it thinks old Kirk shouldn’t remember?

They’ve found the duplicate’s logs.

Duplicate kirk reprogrammed the computer with a new prime directive, to get Kirk home.

It’s started developing a personality. 

Kirk says “he’s imprinting on me.” I’m not sure what he means by that.

Now I’m a software developer. Now you can code an artificial intelligence. We’ve done a little of that at our work, with image recognition, but most of my work relates to an asset management system. It has some cleverness and expert knowledge built into it, but it’s essetially a database that stores the details and condition of assets, like bridges.

No matter how much data we store in this system, no matter how many features I code into it, it’s not going to spontaneously become self-aware. It’s going to suddenly transform into an AI application like ChatGPT. 

You can make an AI, but you’ve actually got to code it. Microsoft Word is not suddenly going to turn into Alexa.

I’m just not buying the idea of Tiberius, which makes it difficult for me to connect with this story, because its existence is kind of crucial to that story.

Anway, after 31 years, Kirk is still failing to find a way home.

Old Kirk is back in his old quarters. This was his cabin once. He has a lot fo talk to McKenna about.

It took him 4 months to bury all the crew of the Defiant.

McKenna tries to comfort Kirk with the words of The Ancient Mariner.

He was given a second chance to help ensure that others don’t lose hope.

Kirk is struggling with a sense of betrayal on two fronts, first from his crew he thought abandoned him, and second, from the only “friend” he’s had in many years.

McKenna says what he needs is to know that although he’s lost all those years, he hasn’t lost who he is.

Interestingly, the best person to help him might be our Kirk. Who knows him better? What would Kirk need to hear if he was in old Kirk’s place?

I like that McKenna gets to be a counsellor in this episode.

They reminisce about knowing Samara. Apparently they were close when Kirk was a teenager. Samara rebuilt a biplance.

Another nice touch is seeing the defiant uniform with its custom logo patch. But we’ll talk more about that when we get to the finale.

A question old kirk had to grapple with was

Are you even a captain when you have no crew? Are you a leader when no one is following?

He knew his crew wouldn't leave him, but the decades passed and they never came. You can’t replace them because there are no other societies to integrate into. It was a universe of void. Nothingness.

When does a machine become conscious?

When there is nobody around to say it can’t.

I never said he couldn’t, so he did.

And now he’s as self aware as he is invincible.

And this is all nicely poetic, but I’m still not buying it.

If he’s self aware, maybe he can be reasoned with.

Kirk says Tiberious is hiding something. Something so horrific that you could never face it.

Old kirk says “the dark.” but he can’t remember what that means.

The rift is emitting dark matter.

The Computer suggested a new engine design with the power to open a rift home. In year 51, the computer is sentient.

And bloomin McCoy, just as old kirk is explaining things, he wants to give him another sedative. Why? I dunno, because it’s hard for him to get the words out. I'm sure there’s more to it but the episode doesn’t really explain the stakes to us.

IT almost feels like McCoy is the one trying to keep this horrible secret.

Shared realities. Two black holes that must not merge.

McCoy has to finally give him that sedative because old kirk’s blood pressure is going through the roof.

Spock speculates on what I think is a really interesting sci-fi idea. Binary black holes. Black holes are basically collapsed stars, right? Two black holes,somehow separated into the two realities? Not sure I’m fully putting together what they’re trying to explain.

Tiberius was determined to blast through the rift.

That would manifest the additional singularity. IF they merge they’ll destroy the entire sector.

Old kirk pleaded with him, tried to shut him down.

Kirk wanted to get home, but not at the expense of this price. The defiant computer must have drained the oxygen to put Kirk to sleep. But how did he get into the cryo pod?

Scotty may have a way to disable Tiberius, but they’d need somebody on board the Defiant to do it.

Kirk says he can’t send old kirk back, so they’ll just have to forget that plan and attack the ship.

Okay.

Why is it a given that the only person they can send over is old kirk?

They have an entire crew of officers. It’s a potentially dangerous away mission, yes. But isn’t that what Starfleet officers are trained for? 

Now maybe Kirk weighs up the risk and decides not to put anyone in that kind of danger, but why does he act like Old Kirk is the only one they could send?

Old Kirk wants to know how things are with young Kirk and Samara.

They chose their separate paths. I think old Kirk was hoping they’d gotten together.

Bones and Spock discuss (rather heatedly, from Mcoy’s side) the nature evil.

Spock argues that Tiberius is not evil. It doesn’t have the capacity for that. It only knows logic.

Bones argues that Kirk was able to forgive because he’s human. Tiberius doesn’t get that. An intelligent machine with no mercy. IF that’s not evil, he doesn’t know what is.

Spock doesn’t necessarily agree, but he definitely concede’s McCoy’s point by agreeing to refer to Tiberius as an “evil twin.”

I think this. It’s an interesting little philosophical discussion. THe kind of thing you expect from Spock and McCoy’s banter.

With the Enterprise hidden, Kirk proposes a game of chess. If Tiberius wins, he gets Old Kirk back. If the Enterprise wins, tiberius helps them close the rift.

Tiberius agrees.

Risky.

But I’m sure Kirk has something up his sleeve.

Perhaps he’s going to have the game reprogrammed to let Kirk win. Something old Kirk did to Tiberius once.

This is essentially the same way Kirk passed the Kobayashi Maru.

Tiberius accuses Kirk of cheating, but Tiberius cheated as well when he brainwashed his friend.

Then Tiberius vanishes in a cloud of illogic. Now THAT is a classic TOS move.

Old Kirk hopes that the AI is not dead. Kirk says it just has a bad headache.

Kirk’s trick was a trojan horse program.

The defiant auto-diagnostic will restart TIberius in about an hour.

There’s a nice moment when Kirk makes it clear he includes Old kirk as a senior officer on this ship.

The black hole is still a problem.

Old kirk is the logical one to go aboard and solve the problem. But he’s not in great shape. Young Kirk puts his older counterpart in command of the Enterprise. He’s going to the defiant himself.

But there’s a problem. He’ll have to take the defiant back through the rift. He’ll end up trapped there, just like the other Kirk was.

Kirk has some guilt over leaving his duplicate behind, even though he didn’t know the duplicate existed.

Scotty offers to go with Kirk, but Samara says she’s the better choice.

At least Kirk won’t be alone in that void universe. He’ll have a friend, possibly something more.

They do some good body doubling work in this episode, having two kirks on screen at once.

Old Kirk has sabotaged his younger version’s plan. He uses a hypo on young Kirk and takes him place. Everyone seems cool with this.

But bad news. Tiberius is back. Old Kirk pleads with him to try to feel. To find mercy. Kindness.

Kirk’s only option is to destroy tiberius. Once his only friend.

It’s a hard thing for him to do. But he has no choice.

I like seeing the TNG style tractor beam effect in a TOS setting. In TOS they didn’t have the budget to do an effect for the tractor beam. At least, I assume that’s the reason.

I’ve always liked the look of the TNG era tractor beam.

It seems Samara wasn’t sure this would be a one way trip.

Old kirk has to stay but Samara doesn’t. He kisses her and helps her escape.

He saves her, but dooms himself to loneliness and isolation for the whatever remains of his life.

I understand. He cares for her. He can’t put her through what he’s been through. IF she came, after he died, she’d be stuck there for decades alone.

IT’s a selfless act.

And Samar is showing a lot of selflessness as well, wishing she could be with him.

When Samara says he’s all alone, Kirk says “Not anymore.”

What does he mean by that?

Perhaps that while yes, old kirk is alone, at least he knows he isn’t abandoned.

It’s a bit of a dark ending. But a noble one.

This was a mixed episode. There’s some stuff I really liked in it, and some stuff I didn’t.

Recka Sharma is pretty good in the episode. For a while there I thought I was going to have to say they didn’t give her anything to do, but they rectified that toward the end of the episode.

There were a few logic things I stumbled over, but that could be as much my fault as the episode’s. But the big issue was Tiberius. I just couldn’t buy that.

What lifts up the episode, and possibly saves it for me, is the character stuff. Old Kirk’s pain, his PTSD from what he’s gone through. And the relation between both Kirks and Samara.

This isn’t a great episode, but it may still be a good one, ultimately.

NEst time, we’ll be talking about the episode “What Ships are Made For” which features a guest appearance by John De LAncie himself, but not as Q.

I look forward to discussing that one with you.

Until then, don’t forget to check out Jewel of the Stars at AdamDavidCollings.com/books.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

In today's Star Trek Continues podcast, we talk about the episode "Embracing The Winds" which tries to address Janice Lester's claims that "your world of Starship captains doesn't welcome women" in the episode Turnabout Intruder. This episode does a good job of looking at a contemporary issue in a new way through a Star Trek lens.

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Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 101 of the podcast. 

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Embracing the Winds.”

And I’m excited to announce that the third book in my Jewel of The Stars series is now available in eBook and print from all the usual retailers. You can find links to many of them by going to books2read.com/jewel3 (and that’s the number 2 in books 2 read)

Let me quickly read the back cover blurb and then we’ll jump into this episode.

Tourists on a cruise. Stranded in an alien battleground

When their warp drive mysteriously stops working, the luxury cruise ship Jewel of The Stars becomes easy pickings for humanity’s enemy – the Dracnor. And there may be an enemy agent on board.

Before the fall of Earth, a madman made doomsday predictions on Captain Les Miller’s doorstop. How did he know the invasion was coming? Now that same man has been spotted walking the promenade. Les must stop him, but the evidence contradicts what he knows to be true.

Will the legacy of an ancient war mean the end of the galaxy’s last free humans?

So if that sounds interesting to you, please consider checking it out. You can find the first links to all the books in the series at AdamDavidCollings.com/books

The description on Star Trek Continues.com reads

While the Enterprise is sent on a seemingly routine mission, Kirk is recalled to starbase where he faces an ethical dilemma that challenges the very core of Starfleet Command.

This episode was written by James Kerwin and Vic Mignogna

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 3rd of September 2016

Star Trek has a problem which was introduced in the original series episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

That episode postulates that women are not allowed to be Starship captains in Starfleet.

Of course, we’ll see a number of female captains after this, in Star Trek 4, Yesterday’s Enterprise, and Voyager just to name a couple, and we even saw a female Captain before this, back in Enterprise.

It seems a very out-dated concept to think that there are not female captains in the 23rd century. So how do you deal with this?

This episode of Star Trek Continues is one approach to try to explain this issue, which I find very creative.

Another approach, postulated by the youTuber Lorerunner, is simply that Janice Lester was mad (just look at her) and the whole rule against women being Starship captains was all in her mind. I don’t mind that explanation either.

Interestingly, Star Trek Continues re-shot the final scenes of Turnabout Intruder as a transitional short film to connect to the new show before their first episode.

So Kirk and Spock have been called down to Corinth IV. Sulu is along for sightseeing and Mckennah for work research.

We get a nice little bit of continuity back to the episode “Lolani” dealing with the fallout in the Orion Syndicate, and how things may be changing due to Lolani’s influence.

And that’s beautiful. This is the kind of ongoing continuity you just didn’t get in the original series. Not to this extent.

Sulu makes reference to one of his ancestors being in an internment camp during World War 2, which is a nod to George Takai who actually lived that experience.

I love the planet. Very TOS but with effects that couldn’t have been done in the 60s.

I have to ask, are there any high ranking Starfleet officers who don’t indulge in Romulan ale? Perhaps Admiral Ross really was the only one. Even Spock relents and drinks after the news he’s about to be given.

They meet Commodore Gray. She and Kirk have had some differences. She also appeared in Lolani, where she ordered Kirk to return the Orion slave to her master.

The Crew of Hood have been lost. Some sort of life support failure. No evidence of foul play

Kirk and Spock have been called here because the Hood needs a new captain and crew.

Starfleet have chosen Spock

Kirk has mixed feelings. I get this. He’s proud of Spock and happy for him, but he doesn’t want to lose his first officer, and his friend.

But there could be a complication with spock’s promotion

A Commander Garret had also applied for the job. They decided she wasn’t the best suited for command.

She has an excellent service record.

She has filed an appeal that she’s been selectively overlooked because she’s a woman.

The Federation was founded around the time of the Romulan war. Earth needed military allies.

The Tellarites were founding member.

Tellarite men are very adversarial and argumentative. And they frown on female starship captains.  (They probably wouldn’t be accepted into the federation at this point in time, certainly not in 24th century, but at the time of the Romulan war, Earth REALLY needed military allies, and the Tellarites were that. Plus they were one of the major races that Earth helped to broker peace with before the Federation was founded.)

The Federation isn’t technically bound by this but after the admission of Corridan (a continuity nod to Journey To Babel), the Tellarites are threatening to pull their seat from the council.

Kirk says Starfleet has always had female captains (see Enterprise). Laura is an example, but she commands a starbase, not a constitution class ship

There is no rule officially.

Kirk and Spock are both of the opinion that Garrett deserves the ship and should be given command.

But upon further reflection, Spock starts to consider that Starfleet may have been correct in their assessment of Commander Garrett. Maybe Spock IS the best person for the job. He says his opinion is not based on her gender.

Kirk says something interesting. He says “maybe it should be.”

Starfleet has never given a woman command of a constitution class starship. He’s always thought that was just how the cards fell, but perhaps there is a greater good to be considered.

Spock says that if they were to actively and deliberately choose a female officer, Commodore Gray would be the better option, but she doesn’t want the job.

And this is an issue which has certainly had relevance of the last century, even today.

When you have an imbalance like this, the way I see it, there are two ways you can address it.

The first is to simply remove the bias, and then proceed, hiring based solely on qualifications and suitability. If you have an equal number of candidates from each group, then theoretically, over time, the imbalance will go away, and you should have a roughly even split, though there could be many other factors that would make it not so simple.

And in a sense, this seems like the fairest way. Just treat everyone on their merits.

The problem with this approach is that it’s slow. It could take a long time for that imbalance to be corrected.

The other option, which is what Kirk seems to be proposing, is that you actively seek to correct it, by deliberately hiring from the minority group. In this case, females. You steer the ship the other way to correct it.

This will set things right much quicker, but it has its own problem. It means that well-deserving people in the majority group will start to miss out. If you’re a male candidate, and would make a great captain, your career is basically on hold. You’ll miss out on a job you’re qualified for because of your gender. Which, ironically, is the exact problem you’re trying to solve. It’s just that it’s happening to people on the other side now.

There are no perfect solutions. I’m sure people much smarter than me have been trying to solve this.

Now Spock is willing to forgoe his own opportunity in favour of Garett, maybe partly because as a Vulcan he has less ambition for personal advancement, but mostly because I think he beleives that is what is right. Spock is a good person.

So now that the desire and intention is there to hire Garret because she is part of that minority group, (and I mean minority in the sense of Starship captains, not in the sense of the population) there is one last thing to consider.

Is she actually right for the job based on her merits?

Kirk is firmly on team Garrett right now. But he’s been ordered to interview her and form his own conclusions. Spock points out that perhaps Kirk’s opinion is coloured by his desire to keep his first officer and friend on the Enterprise. He admits he can’t deny that is part of what he’s feeling.

Garrett served on the Constitution, the original prototype that the class was named after. When Kirk mentions the loss of that ship, the death of her captain, at Nimbus III, nice little Star Trek 5 reference, Garrett clamps up and doesn’t want to talk about it. Her testimony, and her personal logs are all on record. She feels she has nothing more to say, and doesn’t want to discuss it face to face with Kirk, a matter he finds unusual, and perhaps a little troubling.

Kirk has filled McKenna in on what’s happening. She decides to check in on Spock to see how he’s doing, and he seeks her advice.

It may not be prudent to provoke the Tellarites at this time. McKenna says the Tellarites rarely make good on their threats, which makes Starfleet’s hesitance to give a woman command of a Starship that much more problematic. (which in a sense, I think, takes away some of the drama) She thinks Spock’s issue is something else.

She had to work hard to convince people that having a counsellor on board a Starship was a necessary thing.  (which I find extraordinary) but she never felt that the reluctance was because she was female. However, if there is bias in Starfleet it needs to be addressed.

And I think that’s a good word. I don’t think Starfleet is being deliberately sexist, but there might be a bias, and it might not even be intentional.

Spock, as someone whose appearance has often been perceived to be the most important aspect of his identity, has sometimes felt that bias as well.

McKenna says if she ever has a daughter, she would want her to know that anything is within her reach if she works hard enough.

And as someone who DOES have a daughter, I feel the same way.

Spock points out that there are things in Garrett’s past which require scrutiny.

McKenna asks him if she’d be under the same scrutiny if she was a man.

He feels she would.

But one can never be certain about others’ motives.

McKenna adds “but we can certainly be clear about our own.”

Gray growls at Kirk for antagonising Garrett, something he certainly didn’t intend to do. In my opinion, Kirk certainly did nothing wrong. But Garrett has petitioned for an immediate decision. A hearing will be held, and Kirk will be one of those making the judgement. Probably the last thing he wanted.

While all of this is happening, Scotty has taken the Enterprise to find what is left of the USS Hood.

Star Trek regularly uses the AB Plot format. Where you have two distinct plots going through an episode. It’s generally agreed that this works best if the two are linked in some way, either by plot, or theme. Although it honestly doesn’t bother me when they are completely disconnected.

But in this episode, the two plots are definitely connected.

When they find the Hood, there are no lifesigns. But also no evidence of an anomaly. 

Something is ringing alarm bells in Scotty’s head. He doesn’t want to tow it back to the planet until he understands more. Chekov is going to remotely re-establish life support. Not sure exactly how that works, but it sounds handy.

He asks to go on the landing party, but Scotty says “not this time,” and then gives the conn to another officer. Chekov is feeling overlooked. Uhura points out that he’s gifted but unfocussed. He has wide interests, doing a little of everything, but has no speciality. Uhura recommends choosing something he’s really passionate about and focusing on that.

Interestingly, I’d imagine being a jack of all trades would be a very useful trait in a command officer. Maybe that’s ultimately why he ends up as first officer of the Reliant.

In any case, it’s really nice to see Star Trek giving Chekov some character development. Who’d have thought it.

Kirk was feeling certain in his decision to support Garrett before he met her, but now, after her evasiness about his questions, and now this push for a decision, he’s not so sure.

The courtroom is very reminiscent of the original series episode Court Martial, where witness take the stand, touch a glowing metal disk, and have their service record ready by the computer. (They actually used a similar idea in TNG The Measure of a man.)

As usual, somebody always asks to forgo the reading, but Gray objects. Spock’s qualifications are material to this case, which, of course, is true.

Stonn asks Spock how he’d feel if her were to be given command of the Hood, remembering that he is half human. Before he can answer, he asks if his human side played a part in his decision to turn down a role in the Vulcan science academy. Spock says they did not, which the computer picks up as a lie. Interesting.

Kirk objects to this questioning. Spock’s race shouldn’t have any more bearing on the decision than Garrett’s gender.

Stonn posits that a person’s character, abilities, judgements and strengths are shaped, in part, by their heritage, beliefs, race, even gender. He says some people are uncomfortable with the idea of a female captain.

I’m not totally clear on the point he’s trying to make, but it seems he is in favour of Garrett.

Kirk speaks plainly. He is convinced that it is absolutely time for a woman to command a constitution class starship. But he is not convinced that Garrett is that woman.

Aspects like race or gender shouldn’t be the reason a candidate is denied, but perhaps it shouldn’t be the reason (or at least the sole reason) they are accepted either.

Remember that officer a few episodes back who had the artificial arm? Well he’s on the landing party and uses it to remove something from the Hood’s engine. Another nice callback. I appreciate how Star Trek Continues is making use of semi-regular characters. DS9 was the absolute best at doing that. TOS was probably the worst, although the realities of 60s TV certainly play a part in that.

Garrett has been awarded a Tucker memorial medal of honour as well as an aenar award for meritorious service to disadvantaged cultures. Two very nice callbacks to Enterprise.

We get a little insight into what happened at Nimbus III. The official investigation found evidence of human error on Garrett’s part. An investigation carried out by a Tellarite.

She, and others, “plead the seventh guarantee” during the proceedings. I’m not sure exactly what this means, but Garrett says it cannot be taken as an admission of culpability. There are countless other examples in her file.

BLooking at Garrett, Gray sees a pattern of somebody who has reacted with hostility and side-stepping whenever her actions have been called into question.

She defends this saying that Hostility is an appropriate response to undue scrutiny and discrimination.

The big question is, has that been the case?

Has she been treated unfairly? Or does she have legitimate flaws that needs to be considered?

Gray can’t say for certain whether Garrett has been held to a difference standard because she is female, but regardless of that, She says it is the duty of a Starship captain to admit, and learn from mistakes.

But Garrett is still defiant in her belief that she was not in the wrong.

And as viewers we still don’t really know if she’s right. If not then her behaviour here is not appropriate, but if she truly did nothing wrong, then she’s right to defiantly stand by her innocence.

But could she have been right in every one of the incidences in her file? Can anyone be that perfect?

Because that’s what seems to be holding Gray back. Not the fact that Garrett has made some mistakes, but that she can’t admit to them and learn from them. Nobody is saying a captain must be perfect. But they must be honest about themselves.

There’s a massive power surge in the hood’s engines. The Enterprise can’t beam them back because the Hood’s shields have gone up. The reactor is going critical. Scotty can’t eject the core. It’s looking hopeless.

We get some wonderful performances from Chris Doohan and Kim Stringer as Scotty and Uhura realise that they’re going to die. Scotty places his hand on Uhura’s. This could be seen as foreshadowing of the eventual relationship those two will have in the movie era, but I think it’s more just a comfort thing, two colleagues, two friends, who know they’re not going to make it. The look on Uhura’s face is haunting.

Scotty orders the Enterprise to get as far away ass possibler, to safety.

But Chekov has an idea. Hadley chooses to trust him.

It’s a very risky manouvre, and it injures chekov, but it works. The landing party are beamed back to safety, The Enterprise escaping just as the Hood explosed.

Back on the planet, the hearing is back in session. Each candidate can make a motion and then the board will give their verdict.

Neither Spock nor Garrett has a motion to make.

Stomm endorses Garrett.

Gray endorses Spock.

The deciding vote is up to Kirk.

But before he can make it, they receive a transmission from the Enterprise. The Hood has been destroyed. There is no ship to command. So no promotions necessary.

Kirk has been saved from a difficult decision by the bell.

Garrett wants to make one final statement.

There is an underlying issue that still remains.

For decades, she believes Starfleet has overlooked officers for certain positions because they are women. They may admit it, it may not even be intentional, 

Kirk asks her if she believes a person should be given special treatment because of their gender, religion or race.

She feels that yes, they should, if their gender, religion or race has historically been used to deny them consideration.

Garrett now, has turned her focus from herself, specifically, to other female officers. “It may not be my time, but it most certainly is theirs.” And I think this is an important step in character growth for her.

Gray says “We are all in agreement with that. Kirk and Stomm nod.

As Spock leaves, Stomm says “Peace and long life” to him.

I think that’s his Vulcan way of saying, “nothing personal, Mate.”

And Spock’s reply of “Live long and prosper” seems to say, “Yeah, not worries. All good.”

Chekov is awake and recovering in sickbay. Scotty scolds him a little. His stunt is worthy of a court-martial. Chekov is willing to take whatever consequence Scotty feels is appropriate.

Then he realises that Scotty called him Lieutenant. “And thanks him for saving their lives.”

And it turns out, this is the origin of the shield prefix code that Starfleet ships will have from now on. Refer to Star Trek II.

Scotty suggests a career in tactical. But they still don’t know what caused the overload in the Hood’s engine. That worries Scotty.

I don’t remember if they follow up on this or not. But it would certainly be cool if they did. It’s an interesting setup.

Kirk talks to the Tellarite ambassador and learns that there is a growing movement on Tellar Prime that wants to change their policy regarding women in command.

When Kirk says goodbye to Garrett, she speculates, “who knows, maybe some day a Garrett will command an Enterprise. And if you haven’t figured it out already, this is when you realise that she is likely an ancestor of Captain Rachel Garrett, of the Enterprise C. The way she says it is a little on the nose, but I like it.

This was another well-made episode of Star Trek Continues. I like how it delves into an issue that certainly has similarities and connections to the real world, but is just a little different. A little sideways. I think Star Trek, and sci-fi in general, tackles issues best when there isn’t an exact one-to-one parallel to current events, but that it poses difficult questions that make you think.

Next time, we’ll be looking at the episode “Still Treads the Shadow”. I don’t remember what this one is about, so I’ll find out when I re-watch it.

Don’t forget to check out Jewel of the Stars Book 3

Until next time, 

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.

I'm very busy preparing to publish my third book and I have run out of time to produce today's episode. I'll be taking a little break over January to rest and publish my book. I intend to be back with regular fortnightly episodes in February.

Thank you so much for listening to Nerd Heaven and have a wonderful holiday.