Author: Marc Kick

Trekology: How Deep Space Nine Saved Worf

I am Worf, son of Mogh, house of Martok, son of Sergey, house of Rozhenko, bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron.

– Worf, 2401

For 7 seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation, 4 seasons on Deep Space Nine and 4 motion pictures on the big screen, Michael Dorn played Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Worf. Worf’s story between the various incarnations of Trek goes something like this: At the beginning of The Next Generation, Worf is a junior security officer onboard the Enterprise-D until Tasha Yar’s death, at which point, he is made Acting Security Chief, which he remains for the rest of that series.

Following the destruction of the Enterprise (NCC 1701-D) on Veridian III in Star Trek: Generations, Worf takes an extended leave of absence from Starfleet to contemplate his future. However, when General Martok arrives uninvited at Deep Space Nine with a fleet of Klingons to help guard the Alpha Quadrant from the Dominion, Captain Benjamin Sisko calls in some help from Starfleet to help deal with his new Klingon problem, because as he put it, “Curzon told me once that in the long run, the only people who can really handle Klingons are Klingons,” so they fulfill his request and send him Lieutenant Commander Worf to get to the bottom of things.

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Trekology: Voyager & The Redemption of Thomas Eugene Paris/Nick Locarno

It’s really no secret, Robert Duncan McNeill’s character on Voyager is directly tied to his appearance as Cadet Nicholas Locarno on The Next Generation’s “The First Duty” Season 5, Episode 19. The premise of the episode is that Starfleet Cadet, Wesley Crusher is involved in an accident that claimed one of his fellow cadet’s lives when their squadron decided to go against Starfleet rules and attempt a banned formation in flight school. The squad’s leader, Cadet Nicholas Locarno is the one behind all this, and after the loss of a fellow cadet, Nick instructs his team to lie to the inquiry panel to save their own tails and put all the blame on their deceased friend.

Wesley, having the generally good moral compass he does, isn’t keen on lying to the panel of Starfleet Admirals, however he is also pressured by Locarno into believing that the team must stick together. It’s not until Captain Picard figures out what the squad was attempting, and threatens to out the cadets to the inquiry panel, that Wesley ultimately does come clean about the whole ordeal. In the final scene of the episode, we’re told that Locarno ended up taking all the blame for the incident and the brunt of the punishment as he continues to believe that the team comes first…before the truth.

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Captain Liam Shaw: The Most Misunderstood Character of Star Trek: Picard, Season 3

Oh Captain Shaw, how much I love your character and anxiously look forward to each week’s installment of Star Trek: Picard this season, and honestly…it’s mostly because of you! Please be advised that the following includes massive amounts of spoilers for Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard. Consider yourselves warned, proceed at your own risk.

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2023 New York Yankees Season Preview

Well, the Superbowl is done, and that means Major League Baseball’s Spring Training is here! Pitchers and catchers reported February 13th, and we’re officially off and running with the 2023 MLB season! There have been a few rule changes going into this season that will immediately be noticeable. First off, there’s a pitch clock to attempt to help speed up the game a bit. In testing it out last season in the minors, it managed to shave roughly about a half hour off of a typical game. How exactly it’ll be implemented in the postseason remains to be seen since those can be some real pressure cooker games that while it would be nice to not have to devote 5 hours to watching a single game, taking away some of the suspense might not be such a great idea. Case-in-point: ESPN ran a great story here about how Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run at-bat during Game 1 of the 1988 World Series would have been impacted by these new rules. It’s a great read, certainly worth checking out!

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Don’t worry…I’m still here! Royal Rumble Thoughts

So it’s been awhile, huh?

Yeah…life’s had me pretty busy the last few months, plus the fact that I haven’t really found a lot of inspiration to write for some time as well. However, that changed after watching the Royal Rumble Pay Per View Premium Live Event & because of it, I’m here!

So let’s get down to it. WWE hasn’t impressed me in quite some time and as I’ve argued with a couple friends lately, every time I decide to tune in and give them another shot, it’s the same crap that pushed me away in the first place: Brock Lesnar is the unbeatable monster who does what he wants, beats everyone else to the point that nobody else is interesting because the main event has been so dominated by him & Roman Reigns for the last couple of years that it seems that nobody else matters in the eyes of the writers, so everything else is just background noise that exists in it’s own bubble until someone else starts to get over, only to be smacked in the face and pushed back down the card again.

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What is Wrong With the New York Yankees?

Before I get started, I want to be completely transparent here: for the last few years, I’ve begun typing season retrospectives much like this one, and each year, they end up not getting published and are left to rot here in my drafts bin. The reason for this is because as I go back to proofread these things, I don’t necessarily like the way I come off in these pieces. I’ve always hated the notion that Yankees fans are entitled crybabies who need to be humbled. But the truth of the matter is that the team’s last owner, George M. Steinbrenner, III, instilled in fans of his team that to the Yankees organization, any season that doesn’t end with a World Series Championship is a failure.

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Yankees vs. Astros and The Building of a Rivalry

As a Yankees fan, the main rivalry for my New York Yankees has always been with the Boston Red Sox. It’s a rivalry that’s stood the test of time and has lasted well over a century now. From when Harry Frazee sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 to fund his musical, “No, No, Nanette”, and that sparked the Curse of the Bambino for Boston, in which they would go championship-less for 86 years, experiencing postseason heartbreak after painful postseason heartbreak.

To me, the best rivalries revolve around postseason matchups & over my lifetime, the ones that built over the course of a few seasons would include the Angels, and most recently, the Astros. For a few seasons there in 2002 & 2005, it seemed that Mike Scioscia’s Angels had the Yankees’ number, defeating New York in the Divisional Series both years, but that demon was slayed in 2009 when the Yankees finally defeated the Angels in the American League Championship Series en route to their 27th World Series Championship.

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It’s really no secret, Robert Duncan McNeill’s character on Voyager is directly tied to his appearance as Cadet Nicholas Locarno on The Next Generation’s “The First Duty” Season 5, Episode 19. The premise of the episode is that Starfleet Cadet, Wesley Crusher is involved in an accident that claimed the life of one of his fellow cadet’s when their squadron decided to go against Starfleet rules and attempt a banned formation in a flight demonstration. The squad’s leader, Cadet Nicholas Locarno is the one behind all this, and after the loss of a fellow cadet, Nick instructs his team to lie to the inquiry panel to save their own tails and put all the blame on their deceased friend.

Wesley, having the generally good moral compass he does, isn’t keen on lying to the panel of Starfleet Admirals, however he is also pressured by Locarno into believing that the team must stick together. It’s not until Captain Picard figures out what the squad was attempting, and threatens to out the cadets to the inquiry panel, that Wesley ultimately does come clean about the whole ordeal. In the final scene of the episode, we’re told that Locarno ended up taking all the blame for the incident and the brunt of the punishment as he continues to believe that the team comes first…before the truth.

(more…)

Trekology: Voyager & The Redemption of Thomas Eugene Paris/Nick Locarno

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Podcasts…A Beginner’s Guide

So I was driving into work this morning, listening to podcasts and came up with another topic I needed to write about…as you can see from the title of this entry, I want to share some info about podcasts. I know not everyone listens to podcasts, so I’m here to help explain what they are, where to find them, how to subscribe to them, how to listen to them & which ones I deem a good listen. So let’s get started, shall we?

I. What is a podcast?

A podcast is like talk radio, except for it’s not actually on the “air waves” anywhere. The person(s) recording will sit down to record on their own and upload the recordings to the internet for distribution to various places to be downloaded by listeners like iTunes, Google Podcasts & other like distribution sites. If they’ve built up a decent listener base, they can take their podcast to various advertisers to line up deals with them in order to make money off of their show. A lot of podcasters tend to record more for the love of getting their voice out there to be heard more so than actually making income from the shows recorded.

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