The Orville was more “Trek” than new Trek

(originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

When The Orville launched, many of the show’s characteristics matched what we loved about Star Trek more than Star Trek: Discovery did.

So I wanted to come on here and take a look back to 2017. You see, for fans of science fiction, and more importantly, Star Trek, 2017 was going to be a big year for us because while Star Trek had been given a fresh coat of paint and a revival, so to speak, with the JJ Abrams’ movies starting in 2009 and continuing on with Into Darkness in 2013 and Beyond in 2016, CBS announced plans to produce a new Star Trek television series for the first time in 12 years! Because while those JJ movies were ok, Star Trek…historically speaking, has largely enjoyed its best years on the small screen, in the form of a weekly television series. So in November of 2015, CBS announced plans to produce a new Star Trek television series called Star Trek: Discovery, which would air weekly on their new streaming service, named CBS All Access. Discovery would debut September 19, 2017.

Interestingly enough, Discovery wasn’t the only weekly sci-fi show to debut around that same time. Turns out, Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy & American Dad) had pitched his own Star Trek-esque sci-fi show to FOX, which was greenlit and aired its first episode just over a week earlier, on September 10, 2017. That show was named The Orville. It starred Seth as Captain Ed Mercer of the titular ship, The Orville. However, this was anything but the Enterprise. Because while the Orville was a ship of exploration, much like we’d get to know the USS Cerritos from Star Trek: Lower Decks for, Ed and his crew weren’t given any real important assignments. Also, we’re informed in the first episode, as Ed is first taking command of the ship, that his first officer was to be his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson, who had previously cheated on him. Hilarity ensues as he makes a few panicked runs from the bridge to his ready room onboard the ship to protest the assignment, but to no avail.

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December 15, 2023 0

5 Things Star Trek: Deep Space Nine got right

(Originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

Among a good majority of Star Trek fans, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine holds a special place in our hearts.

When you look at the formula for Star Trek, it goes a little something like this:

Crew members on spaceship exploring the cosmos
Weekly conundrum involving either an alien species or some technological issue with the ship
Said conundrum is taken care of by the end of the episode
Lather, rinse, repeat for about 26 weeks

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine came along, the established formula for an episode of Star Trek got thrown out the window. Being a space station, it resides in a singular place in space, so that first rule of “exploring the cosmos” has been killed immediately. In fact, for me, it was the fact that that first rule was nixed that made me not jump onboard the DS9 wagon at the start. It’s only through going back to watch the series years later, that I realized exactly what it was I had been missing!

So much happened in the seven-year run of this series that in looking back at its run, I think it did more to progress Star Trek than possibly almost any other series. That’s why today, I’m here to share what I think are some of the best things that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did for Star Trek – in no specific order.

December 14, 2023 0

Best new Star Trek characters of the Paramount+ era

(Originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

Paramount’s done a pretty nice job in fleshing out their new Star Trek series on Paramount+

As it stands, Paramount+ has given us a number of new Star Trek series since first launching Star Trek: Discovery in September of 2017. Those new series include: Discovery (4 Seasons), Star Trek: Picard (3 Seasons), Star Trek: Lower Decks (4 Seasons), Star Trek: Prodigy (1 Season), and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2 Seasons). You can also count Star Trek: Short Treks, but those are just shorts that don’t tie into one another and don’t have any consistent characters.

Though some of these series rely on previously established characters like Captains Christopher Pike, Jean-Luc Picard, and Kathryn Janeway, there have been a good number of new characters added to the Star Trek Universe and given quite interesting backstories and quirks. While not every one of their new characters have been fully fleshed out as I’d have hoped, there are a few notable, well-written characters who I’m here to shine a spotlight on today.

In the coming slides, I’m going to share some of my favorite new additions to the Star Trek Universe, many of whom, aren’t the central characters of their various series. In fact, most of them are actually supporting characters that I believe, their respective series would suffer greatly if they were left out. I’m here to explore some of their stories, and the reasons why I think they’re great additions. The following are my favorite new additions to the Star Trek Universe – in no specific order.

November 19, 2023 0

Star Trek Fleet Command is fun, but not “Trek”

(Originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

Last month, Scopely’s Star Trek Fleet Command celebrated its 5-year Anniversary.

For those of you who haven’t tried out Star Trek Fleet Command (available for Android, Apple iOS, Mac OS & Windows), it’s a mobile strategy game published by Scopely & CBS Interactive. When the game first launched, visually, it centered around the crew, ships, and content associated with the Star Trek 2009 rebooted series of movies that starred Chris Pine as a young James T. Kirk.

Over the course of the ensuing five years, quite a bit of content has been added to the game to bring together both the Kelvin and the Prime timelines. From new missions involving the ships & characters from Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager along with the recent additions on Paramount+ of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks & Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. They’ve done a nice job in incorporating all the various characters & ships we’ve gotten to know over the last 50+ years.

Players are urged to form and join alliances to claim territories, mine resources & materials used for constructing & upgrading new ships and buildings within your station, and also compete against one another in specialized daily events.

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November 4, 2023 0

Setting the record straight on Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager

(originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

Neelix started out quite the questionable character on Star Trek: Voyager.

When we first meet Neelix, he’s tending to his debris field where he seemingly would be selling off junked starship parts that he procured via numerous, possibly underhanded ways, and selling them off for profit in order to survive in the Delta Quadrant. The one commodity he seemingly could not obtain was something that Federation ships were able to synthesize in an instant: water. Upon realizing this, he decided to take advantage of the Voyager crew’s generosity and innocence to free his girlfriend from enslavement at the hands of the Kazon.

Neelix proved himself to be quite the conniving individual, always seemingly having friends of questionable morals in the right places throughout his region of the Delta Quadrant. The one being whose existence he held above all else was Kes, his 3-year-old Ocampan girlfriend. Since the Ocampans live abbreviated lives, with the eldest Ocampans typically living only eight or nine years, by comparison, that puts Kes to be about the equivalent of being in her mid-20s to early 30s, alternatively, it was always my understanding with all of Neelix’s life experiences, that he was fairly significantly older than Kes…not only in physical age but also in cognitive age as well, which kind of makes him a bit of a creeper. However, just as I wrote previously here, I always viewed Voyager as the story of the redemption of Nick Locarno/Tom Paris & I think the same can easily be said about Neelix as well!

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November 2, 2023 0

The best Star Trek trial episodes

(Originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

One common practice of Star Trek over the years has been to take a pause from the weekly exploration of the cosmos to center on the exploration of ourselves, our own rules or laws.

They’ve done this traditionally by holding trials. Sometimes it’s because of something that has happened in the everyday operations onboard the starship; other times it has to do with a new occurrence of the week. Either way, something has happened which has created a conundrum which must be cleared up for our characters’ lives to move on, and in order do clear up said conundrum, we’re treated to a Star Trek trial episode!

I’m sure for some these aren’t always the favorite episodes because we’re largely confined to a courtroom or inquiry panel hearing setting, so there’s far less phaser fire or meeting new and interesting alien species and the like. But for others, like me…I’ve always loved these style episodes of Star Trek! They stray from the “norm”, tend to make you think and usually there is some truly great dialogue between the characters…which sometimes includes an epic speech from the Captain!

For each entry, I’ll include the Star Trek series, season and episode numbers, and I implore you to go check out the episodes. If you have Paramount+, these episodes are all included on the subscription service, because for as detailed as I’ll try my best here to be, I can only do the episode so much justice in print form. These episodes are all well worth a good viewing in your spare time!

August 25, 2023 0

A New Endeavor

So I’m sure if you follow this site, you may have noticed a lack of new content over the last month or so, and there’s a good reason for that.

About a month ago, I decided to try to branch out and see what else might be out there from a writing standpoint. So I headed over to FanSided.com to see how the writers for that site got to do what they do & ostensibly get paid to do so. After looking around on the site for a bit, I found a link to apply to become a contributor, so naturally, I clicked it.

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August 10, 2023 0

Female Starfleet Captains and why Michael Burnham’s the worst

(Originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

For as interesting as her rise to Captain on Star Trek: Discovery has been, Michael Burnham is the weakest written female Captain in Star Trek history.

In Star Trek’s over 50 year history, we’ve had a number of female Starfleet Captains, and most of them have benefitted from a writing staff who cared deeply to make them strong characters. Even during the 90s, when women like Jeri Ryan were mostly objectified and used as sex symbols to get viewership numbers up, the female Captains were generally treated differently.

Going all the way back to The Next Generation episode, “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, we’re introduced to Rachel Garrett, Captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C). As her story goes, she responded to a distress call from a Klingon Outpost at Narendra III, who were under attack by a squadron of Romulan Warbirds during a time when the Federation and the Klingon Empire weren’t exactly as friendly as they later would come to be.

Even after being sucked into a temporal rift which sends her ship 22 years into the future, she understands her place in time and decides to return to her proper time in hopes to better the future. But it’s her call to duty and dedication to the Federation’s morals to attempt to give aid when requested, that her and her crew’s ultimate deaths are viewed as honorable by the Klingons, which sows the seeds for the eventual Khitomer Accords peace treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. We may not have known her for long, but what we do know of her are her extreme heroics in the face of adversity.

August 6, 2023 0

Don’t miss out on new Star Trek just because it’s new

(originally posted to RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com)

Why do Trekkies try so hard to resist accepting new content?

So it’s no secret, we as Trekkies (or Trekkers as some prefer to be called) hold Star Trek canon in high regards. So much so, that when new content is released, often we’re hesitant to fully accept it. This was the case back in the day with series we now hold sacred like Voyager, Enterprise, and even The Next Generation! For those who were fans of The Original Series, the mere thought of another crew onboard a NEW Enterprise, exploring the cosmos was unfathomable!

Where’s Kirk? Where’s Spock? Where’s Bones? This is the NEXT Generation, but it’s being led by some old bald British dude? And yet, he we are…and even a new series starring the same (now, even older) bald, British dude took a couple of years to be fully accepted by the Trek faithful — if it truly even has, yet. It only took bringing back almost every other cast member from TNG for us to accept it.

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t like the first two seasons of Picard either, and even while watching the first episode of Season 3, immediately, I’m yelling at my television, “No! No! You can’t receive subspace communications on a personal communicator! That’s not how this stuff works!” It took a conversation with a close friend for me to realize that I was taking things way too seriously and needed to look past that storytelling flaw. However, once I did get past it, I REALLY enjoyed Season 3 of Picard!

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July 24, 2023 0

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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June 18, 2023 0