#but what if captain seven of the uss enterprise

[sniperct]

its been 20 years since a trek series was set onboard an Enterprise

With all the hints they keep dropping about a legacy series (with elements of the previous generations passing down to the new generation) I really really want a 25th century trek set on board the successor to the F.

[stra-tek]

Random spoilerific reasons to read Star Trek novels, with little to no context:

Ro/Quark is a thing

A Jem'Hadar joins DS9, tries to fit in but eventually snaps and tries to kill everybody

You learn the origins and final fate of the Borg

A thinly-veiled Dr. House clone joins the Voyager crew

Geordi briefly has 2 girlfriends at once (due to different writers not co-ordinating enough, but still)

There's a TOS book that's a musical

There are YA stories about Jake and Nog making mischief on DS9

YA stories about Worf, Geordi, Picard, Beverly, Kirk, Spock and McCoy at SFA

YA series about the Kelvinverse gang (including Gaila!) as cadets, taking on a drug problem at SFA and a very unique Borg scout in San Francisco

We very briefly meet the people who are to Q what the Q are to humanity

Janeway/Chakotay is a thing

Kirk's first mission in command of the Enterprise! Erm, at least twice.

Kirk was married between TOS and TMP

Her name was Lori

In the future, you have yearly marriage contracts that you either update or you don't and I think that's amazing

Trip didn't die! He faked his death to join Section 31 and go undercover as a Romulan

It's not great, tbh

The ENT books get better after the Romulan wars though, it's proper founding of the Federation stuff

We meet Jack Crusher (erm, the OG) when 4 timelines start overlapping and he's a bit unhinged

Teenage Kirk stole a car and his choice was go to jail or join Starfleet

What happened when Voyager got home? Seven broke up with Chakotay like 30 pages in

Kirk gets cloned, and his clone becomes the sub of an evil invincible super genius and its all very gay

George Kirk was Robert April's first officer on the first ever mission of the unnamed starship with the Naval Construction Contract 1701

Robert is a hard-core pacifist and has to turn command over to George whenever it's time to fire weapons

Data becomes fully human for a couple of days and it's really sweet

They never say "wristwatch" or "phone", it's always "wrist chrono" or "personal comm"

There are gays but they don't say that word because it's the 1990's and Rick Berman runs the franchise

Spock has a son in the past with Zarabeth

Everyone in the post-Nemesis era does spy missions all the time non stop, as if Starfleet has abandoned exploring the cosmos for doing Space Mission: Impossible

Bashir does it better than anyone else, he takes on Section 31 from the inside

Remember Control? It's from the novels, except the novels do it SO MUCH BETTER.

Remember how we never found out who Future Guy was? We do.

It's very underwhelming, nobody we know

We find out how the Romulans and Vulcans split

Surak was a Vulcan internet blogger

A Borg Cube eats Pluto

Janeway dies

Janeway gets better

At least one TOS book features a wizard

There's a Star Trek TOS/Here Come the Brides crossover novel

It had cameos from The Doctor (as in, Who), Han Solo, Starbuck and others

Whole book series about Section 31

Whole book series about the Department of Temporal Investigations

One time they do the Bill and Ted thing to escape confinement and it works

Wanna know how Riker and Troi met?

Wanna know what Picard got up to on the Stargazer?

Andorians have 4 sexes and it's very complicated

Data comes back from the dead as Data 2.0, and it was fresh and exciting because it happened long before ST: Picard did it twice.

Lal comes back too and we get father/daughter android stuff! They have a home and everything but keep having to save the universe

One time Mirror Seven is led around on a leash naked on Terok Nor

Geordi becomes captain of the USS Challenger, decides it's not for him because plot, and goes back to engineering on the Enterprise

Kirk is shot on the bridge and dies

Kirk gets better

They watch 3D holos of old Doctor Who episodes in the Enterprise rec room

The Enterprise also has an AI named Moira, which was Zora long before Zora

The TOS crew get together for one last mission. About three times.

There's a Perry Mason book except it's about Kirk's lawyer from that TOS episode

Data 2.0 owns and runs a massive gambling empire on Orion

Spock keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

Scotty keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

Bones keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

You're on Tumblr so you already know about Killing Time

There's a guy named McKenzie Calhoun and he's a total badass and captains a ship of weirdos and misfits

Kirk comes back from the dead, saves the galaxy repeatedly, has an intersex child (who identifies as male) with a Romulan/Klingon hybrid

Kirk beats up Worf

Kirk's child has superpowers

Kirk's child saves the galaxy at age 6

The Kirk stuff is 100% ignored in the other novels

About 50% of the novels are ignored in the other 50%, and the ones that are meant to be in direct continuity with each other aren't always quite

Just like the TV shows and movies, then

Lwaxana Troi meets Q, and it goes as well as you'd expect

Someone tells Data, yes you idiot you had emotions all along and he's like, oh shit you're right

McCoy is left in command of the Enterprise as a joke by Kirk, who is then immediately kidnapped

Ro Laren is captain of Deep Space Nine

Picard/Beverly is a thing, they get married and have a child named Rene. No running away and raising your kid in secret here

Riker and Troi are married, serve on the Titan together with a bunch of adorable weirdos and have a daughter named Tasha

You get to watch all the 24th century characters die horribly in the end along with their entire universe. Holy fuck it's a bleak horror show. Personally, I love it. But if that's not your cup of tea I'd skip the Coda trilogy

[spockderangementsyndrome]

I was just going to go look at the Wikipedia page, but I decided this would be more fun. Someone please rate how I did here.

What I think happens in Star Trek (2009) based solely on AOS Kirk/Spock fanfic:

George Kirk dies heroically on the USS Kelvin, baby Jim is born in space the same day. Jim grows up with a shitty step-dad & mega daddy issues. He maybe goes to Tarsus? He definitely builds a motorbike, crashes a car over a cliff and gets into fistfights. Pike meets him in a bar and dares him to make something of himself & enroll in Starfleet. He does. He meets Bones and has an allergic reaction to something. He sleeps around, including with Gaila(?), an Orion(?). Uhura thinks he's a fuckboy and hates him. He does well in his classes, and when faced with the no-win scenario of the Kobayashi Maru simulation, he hacks it. Spock, formidable Vulcan instructor who also hates him, brings him up on some sort of academic dishonesty charges which culminates in a public trial like a fucking court martial. The proceedings get interrupted by Nero attacking Vulcan. Amanda definitely dies but maybe Sarek doesn't? The gang somehow all ends up on the Enterprise together (including the 'classic seven' of Uhura, Scott, Chekhov, Sulu & Bones). Pike is captain, or maybe somebody else? Action happens. At some pivotal point, Jim taunts Spock to the point that he chokes him out on the bridge, and maroons him on an ice planet. On the ice planet, he meets real Spock in a cave and they mindmeld & Jim finds out how to stop Nero? And definitely that he and nuSpock are meant to be besties. He's reunited with the ship and stops Nero from destroying Earth and/or the galaxy. Nyota kisses Spock on the bridge (#nohomo). Jim gets handed the captaincy based on pluck and can-do spirit. Everybody agrees to sign up for a five year mission with him. The end.

[dukeofriven]

I have so many problems with Strange New Worlds, but fundamentally I'd like it so much better if it wasn't about yhe USS Enterprise NCC-1701. It is forever cut-off by the knees by this idiotic choice to make it a prequel—for all that Discovery failed to achieve, its smartest idea was if you HAD to make it a TOS-era prequel, you set it on a ship never mentioned before, with a crew never mentioned before, and even its lead—nominally the sister of a famous TOS-era character—at least came from a prior tradition of never-heretofore mentioned spare Spock siblings. The show was free to fly around and tell its own stories, and as for the handful of canon characters it did have—at least in its most-ambitious-but-messy first season—they were peripheral enough that so long as they didn't kick the bucket they'd make their future character rendezvous fairly intact as characters.

But SNW is struck down by a fatal case of prequelitis. 'We've made Nurse Chapel so dynamic and three dimensional now' yeah sure but in doing so you've also made it really weird that Nurse Chapel eventually 'evolves' into a glorified background extra eith a boring fiancee. 'We've fleshed out Doctor M'Benga!' Okay, so that he can… later agree to a demotion and be replaced by Doctor McCoy as CMO for some reason? They've done the stupid Star Wars thing, in which the entire galaxy is only five feet wide and contains the same eight people, who all know each-other. What was Uhura's career before the Enterprise? She didn't have one: she apparently spent her entire Starfleet career aboard the ship, plagued with the same Muppet Baby Syndrome that her alt-unvierse counterpart got in the Kelvinverse. Other Starfleet officers lead diverse lives: it's a plot point that Riker's career was so damaged by the fact that he spent seven years about the D that if it hadn't been for the Dominion war wiping-out half of Starfleet's officer corp ,he'd never have made captain. Good officers move around. But SNW is doing an Abrams: everyone ends up on the Enterprise and then just... stay there. Forever. (They're probably going to bring Chekov back as a cadet too so that he's placed to meet Khan in the bathroom later and thus Screenrant can write an article about how we've finally fixed that 'plot hole' that doesn't fucking matter.) There's no reason to waste these actors in such a manner. Everyone who isn't Spock and Kirk (and sometimes McCoy) on TOS fairly infamously never got a damn thing to do. When they were filming the TOS movies most of the Bridge Crew did a couple of days of filming out of a month and a half long shoot because Uhura's only role was to do some reaction shots. So why make a prequel about people these characters clearly are not: Jess Bush can't be playing Nurse Chapel because Nurse Chapel is boring. Celia Rose Gooding can't be playing Uhura: Nichelle Nichols almost quit the series because of how little Uhura ever said or did. Who are these dynamic people and what kind of story arc emerge from them becoming one-dimensional? Even pike isn't freed from this: they beat us over the head, over and over, that he cannot escape his canon fate: he is doomed to live-through The Menagerie and get all melty. Why? WHY? I don't get it. They could be free of the weight of having to connect with TOS, but they keep doubling down and its that, more than anything—more than even the hair-pulling too-contemporary dialogue—that makes SNW so frustrating.

[fyeahcompetentwomen]

Leia Organa vs. Seven of Nine

Remember: don't vote on "who would win in a fight", but on "who, when given a task that fits her skillset and talents, would do that task better: more comprehensively, faster, with more pizzazz, with less collateral, etc."

Endorsements! "What is she good at?"

Leia Organa, Star Wars: everything. y'all know her. but to be clear in her very first scene she lies directly to vader's face without blinking. then iconically takes charge of her own rescue missions bc luke and han are useless. then she outlives that main trio, is a force user, senator, general, and everyone loves her.

Seven of Nine, Star Trek: severed from the Borg collective after spending most of her life with them (she was assimilated *as a child*), she found a way to reconcile her human and her Borg heritage, and helped her new "collective", the Voyager crew, overcome all the obstacles that the Delta Quadrant threw at them - including the Borg themselves. Never afraid to speak her mind, she impressed Kathryn Janeway into a relationship some see as friendly, some see as romantic. After Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, Seven joined the Fenris Rangers to do good in places that the Federation did not (want to) reach, and in the process saved the day for another Starfleet captain (and former Borg!), Jean-Luc Picard. Snarky, standoffish, with a heart as big as the galaxy behind a barrier just a tiny little bit more penetrable than the final frontier, she proved her humanity all over again - including serving as queen for a lone Borg cube and coming back from that! And then she gave us the first canon lesbian couple, with Raffi, and later was promoted to captain of the newest USS Enterprise - the first canon queer/wlw captain of the entire show! (okay I'll stop now)

[this-is-a-love-story-isnt-it]

*Spoilers for Picard series finale*

It's 4:10 AM and I just finished the episode lmaoooo.

Thoughts after first viewing:

-CAPTAIN SEVEN OF THE ENTERPRISE G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-First officer Raffi!

-One of my friends has been predicting all season that the crew of the Enterprise D (AKA the TNG characters) was gonna sacrifice themselves for the universe. I kept saying they wouldn't do that... but then when they were all in the Borg cube... I thought he was right. I'm glad he wasn't!

-Are the Borg dead for good? What about the race of "good" borg that was created at the end of season 2?

-WHAT IS CAPTAIN SEVEN'S "engage!"????

-What happened to the Enterprise F?

-dunno how I feel about Jack being appointed as "special counselor to the captain". I'm not sure how he earned that.

-Worf hugging Raffi when they parted ways

-Seven and Sydney hug

-So I guess Seven and Raffi's romantic relationship status is unknown... but at least they're working side by side as captain and first officer of the same ship!!! I wish we could have seen a conversation between them and a scene where Seven appointed Raffi as first officer

-Q!!!!!!!!!!!!???????

They seemed to definitely leave it open for a series centered around the Enterprise G. Like hopefully finding out what Seven's opening line of her legacy was, developing whatever hers and Raffi's relationship is, and the whole thing with Jack and Q!!!!

-I loved the cute poker scene between the TNG characters at the end.

-What an incredible journey for Seven of Nine, too. From being rescued from a borg cube 25 years ago as a human assimilated at the age of six, watching her journey of learning to become more human, then seeing her again over 20 years later in ST: Picard, where we learn that she had tried to get into Starfleet at one time but she was denied bc she was former borg, so she'd become a fenris ranger for a number of years- traveling all over the galaxy helping people, to first officer of the USS Titan, to Captain of the Enterprise G!

That's it for now. I'll watch it again later today.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Bakers Dozen: Liscensed Ships I want in Star Trek Online

Welcome back to Bakers Dozen! This time we return to Star Trek Online ships, but instead of canon, its liscensed. Simply put, 12 ships (and one honorable mention) I want in STO, that aren’t canon, but appeared in an offical Star Trek Product (Books, Comics, Games, Ect.)

1.Premonition Class 

Hailing from Star Trek Armada, The U.S.S. Premonition went back in time to warn the Enterprise E of an impeding borg invasion. I never had the full game, but I played the demo countless times. Just look at her. She aleady looks like an Sto ship. One of the most iconic Star Trek Video games ships, I think she would be a great ship to appear in the current arc time/multiverse themed arc.

2.Yorktown Class (ENT Era)

Long before Captain Seven of Nine commanded the enterprise, and even long before STO. There was a Yorktown Class Starship in Star Trek Legacy. Star Trek legacy was the first star trek game I owned, and the Yorktown was a favorite of mine. The battleship to the NX Cruiser, the Yorktown was a powerhouse in the 22nd century. She’d need a new name, as the current Enterprise in STO is a very different Yorktown Class, but we could always use more Enterprise era ships.

3.Belknap/Ascension Class

Quite possibly my favorite TMP Era design (yes including the refit) The Belknap from  Ships of the Star Fleet Vol. 1 is the Constitution Refit’s smaller agile cousin. Stripped of diplomatic suites and scientic labratories, the Belknap posseses the Constituion’s firepower in a more compact and agile frame.

A “Dreadnoght” version exists, the Ascension class, but it’s literally a Belnap with the third nacelle of a Federation classs refit, maybe to give her longer warp sustainability?

4.Andor Class

This TMP era missle cruiser was introduced with FASA, and I loved this odd ball. I could see her functioning as a TMP era defiant, a small ship darting in with heavy torpedo fire. Also more TMP is always a win

5.Archer Class

Apperaing in the Star Trek Vangaurd Novels, this was a tiny tos scout ship, with only a crew of 14, and still didn’t have enough room for personal bunks. Incredibly fast and agile, she was too small for turbolifts, instead only having ladders.  Pls let me 1v1 a cube with this smol ship. Also TOS Ships are always a win.

6. Aegis Class

The U.S.S. Aegis is the hero ship of Star Trek Bridge Crew, and my god what a gorgeous ship. STO needs more Kelvin ships, and what better one than a proper Hero ship that has her own games, and looks this good?

7.Romulan Warbird, Unknown Class

This Stormbird (Romulan D7) esk dreadnought appeared in the DC Star Trek Comics in the 80s. Decades later, younger me would find the comics as a kid, and fall in love with this oship. Romulan TMP Warbird? Sign me up! Pls?

Also this comic has this awesome shot

8.USS Dorothy Garrod

From the IDW Dicovery Comic, this Federation science vessel looks cool. Thats it. Thats all I know. Discovery rep is always a win.

9.D-18 Gull Class

A Klingon ship from Fasa, this is a troop transport. Its weird and I love it. I had a fried who 3d prints move the neck to the top of the secondary hull and flip the bridge module upside down for a more traditional look, but I dont have any good pics of her on hand.

10. Chandley Class

Speaking of troop transports, The Chandley is perhaps Fasa’s most popular ship, and its not hard to see why. Maybe Sto, could give her a boarding console. 

11.Saladin/Hermes

Orginally appearing in the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, this ship has TOS and TMP varaints, as well as a Kelving timeline version from both the comics and Star Trek Fleet Command. Simple yet iconic, with so many flavors. Legendary Discovery Variant?

12.Insignia Class

This gorgeous ship originally was a fan design, then was included in the Ships of the Line calender. It later appeared in the TNG Waypoint comics as the ‘Chimer’ class...USS ENTERPRISE???

This version of the Enterprise served at the same time as the Enteprise E (ummmm?) and was commanded by Geordi La Forge.

The Chimer name sucks though. Insignia class is a way better name.

Honorable Mention:

Locknar class

Another Fasa Ship, this is an honorable mention bc it is kinda...maybe...canon?

In Lower Decks we she the USS Titan’s lineage wall...including what was confirmed to be a Locknar class USS Titan?

Yes I am a TOS/TMP nerd, how can you tell?

[discotreque]

Red yarn & thumbtacks

I’ve been thinking a totally normal amount about the LCARS graphics in the closing credits of this season of Picard, and I haven’t jumped to a single unhinged conclusion or ludicrous conspiracy theory.

I’ve got several.

Theory #1: Jack Crusher is a clone of the Jack Crusher

Let’s make this storyline even stupider, shall we? There’s a ton of DNA-related imagery throughout, and it’s directly associated with Ed Speleers’s name—just like Seven of Nine’s “performance evaluation” appears when Jeri Ryan’s credit does.

Ridiculous? Yes. Possibly even more offensive than Bev just hiding a kid from Jean-Luc this whole time? Also yes. But on a show that’s never met an outlandish plot twist it didn’t passionately embrace, “he’s definitely their naturally-conceived child and she never told Jean-Luc about him” feels like it can’t be the whole story. Not this early.

Also? This is the melody to “Pop Goes the Weasel,” and in a cadence that evokes old mechanical wind-up music toys. Like you might find in, for example… a jack-in-the-box. A CLONE BOX. *drops mic*

Theory #2: Captain Shaw was at Wolf 359

*picks mic back up*

The USS Constance (NCC-10387; a Constellation-class like the Stargazer) was lost in action under redacted circumstances, on a stardate right at the beginning of TNG Season 4.

I think Liam Shaw was a junior officer on the Constance when Locutus destroyed it, he got PTSD that almost ruined his career (per Vadic’s taunting about his psych profile), and that’s why he’s got a chip on his shoulder about ex-Borg and an aversion to wham-bang escapades.

Theory #3: The ultimate target will be the Fleet Museum

What is truly irreplaceable to Starfleet? Not to sound callous, but you can always replicate more materiel, build more starships, recruit more adrenaline junkies. From an evil antagonist’s point of view, blowing up recruitment centres or even entire starbases is just costing Starfleet resources. How can you subject a post-scarcity society to meaningful loss? Like, psychologically?

Well, you can destroy its history. They can commission a Voyager-A and -B, but they can’t replace the actual ship that went to the Delta Quadrant and back. They can make new Enterprises all the way down to -Z, but they won’t be the same NCC-1701-A that went to the centre of the galaxy and killed god. The USS Excelsior is… also there. And so on.

I’m guessing that Moriarty or Sela or the insects from “Conspiracy” or whoever’s actually pulling the strings here is going to attempt an existential blow to the entire Federation by wiping out the legacy (!) of its most historic surviving starships.

Theory #4: We’re already in Moriarty’s holo-trap

What if Picard and Riker’s conversation in 10 Forward in the very first episode of this season was actually in a holodeck?

What if this entire season so far has been inside a holodeck?

What if everything since TNG Season 6 has been inside a holodeck???

Miscellaneous bullshit:

I don’t recognize this alien script, and couldn’t find anything even close on Memory Alpha. Those are the little fighters deployed from the Shrike, though, right? So maybe it’s that clicky language Vadic’s crew speak. Weird that it’s integrated right into the LCARS like that…

Uhhhhhhh, Garth Nix crossover?

Yeahhhh, okay, I’ve got nothing.

[startreklogicoftheforce]

Star Trek: Logic of the Force - Chapter Four

The USS Enterprise continued its warp journey towards Vulcan, moving at warp factor seven. Zefram Cochrane's breakthrough in faster-than-light travel had occurred three centuries earlier. Captain Riker, now in command of the Federation starship Farrokh, occupied his former Number One chair from his days as First Officer aboard the Enterprise. Memories of Cochrane's song on the Phoenix echoed in his mind.

"It's akin to a magical journey," Riker mused to his mentor, Captain Picard.

Picard smiled, reflecting. "It's more profound than that, Will. It's the discovery of wonders throughout one's life." The star trails raced across the viewscreen, evoking contemplation. "Will, why the name Farrokh for your starship?"

"It was the real name of Earth musician Freddie Mercury," Riker revealed.

Picard and Riker embarked on an impromptu singing session. "GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO FIGARO!" Suddenly, Picard experienced a vision through Borg eyes. Electric sensations surged within him, tied to the remaining nanoprobes. He groaned and collapsed to the deck.

Riker reacted instantly, panic in his eyes. Memories of Picard's near-death from a malfunctioning artificial heart resurfaced. He couldn't bear the thought of losing his mentor and friend again. "SICK BAY! MEDICAL EMERGENCY ON THE BRIDGE!"

Troi jumped up, attuning herself to Picard's emotions as he lay unconscious.

"Deanna, what's happening?" Riker inquired. "What do you sense?"

"Confusion," Troi conveyed. "Fear... and anger. Also…"

"What else?" Riker probed.

"There's another presence. A sense of coldness, bitterness. And..." Troi's voice trailed off as a vision consumed her: countless voices silenced abruptly in agony. At the center stood two figures clad in black. One was elderly, bearing wrinkled skin and yellow eyes. The other was younger, eyebrows arched, and with pointed ears. "I have a foreboding about..."

Before Riker could inquire further, the turbolift doors slid open. Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher entered with two medics. Beverly knelt beside Picard, employing a tricorder for a comprehensive scan. "It's the nanoprobes again," she diagnosed. "His episodes are worsening." Beverly glanced at Riker. "Eventually, one of these spells might prove fatal."

A voice from the security console interrupted. "And when that time comes," announced a towering Klingon over 2.5 meters tall, "you will be expected to assume command."

"Not something I look forward to, Commander Worf," Riker replied. As Beverly continued her examination, Picard gradually regained consciousness, eliciting relief from Riker. "Welcome back."

Picard surveyed his surroundings, smiling at the familiar face of Dr. Beverly Crusher, a former lover. "Thank you, Beverly. If only there were a way to rid myself of these nanoprobes."

"Jean-Luc," Beverly spoke gently, "they're tied to your artificial heart. Without them, your heart would cease, and you'd die."

Sadness washed over Picard. "I despise them," he admitted, voice quivering with anguish. Tears welled up, his resolve breaking. "I hate what they did to me. Being tethered to their collective..."

Anguish morphed into bitterness and anger. Hatred replaced sorrow. "I should've eradicated their entire collective when I had the chance."

Gradually, Picard recollected discussions with Ambassadors Spock and Sarek, recalling the mind meld with Sarek prior to the elder Vulcan's passing. This anger lacked logic. Softly, he muttered, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to…"

A voice interrupted from navigation. "Captain," Troi reported, "Vulcan is ahead."

"Reduce to impulse," commanded Picard.

"Aye, sir," responded the Bajoran helmsman.

Regaining his composure, Picard embraced his duty. "Standard orbit."

"Aye, sir," affirmed the helmsman.

"Commander Worf," Picard addressed the Klingon, "have Commander Sonal's quarters been arranged in accordance with Vulcan customs?"

"They have, sir," Worf confirmed. "Lighting adjusted, and we've provided a Vulcan lyre."

"I always wanted to learn that," Picard smiled.

An intercom voice chimed in. "Captain, LaForge reporting. Transporter power at full capacity, sir. You may beam Commander Sonal whenever ready."

"Thank you, Geordi," Picard replied. He turned to Riker and Troi. "Would you join me in the transporter room?"

"With pleasure, sir," Riker consented. The trio stepped into the turbolift. "Deck three," Riker directed, as the turbolift descended.

As the lift stopped, they exited, heading to the transporter room.

"I've successfully locked onto Commander Sonal's signal, sir," reported the transporter chief.

"Thank you, Chief Long." Picard directed his attention to the transporter console. "Energize." Chief Long initiated the transporter sequence, and an array of bright lights appeared, assembling in what seemed like an intricate dance. The lights coalesced into a humanoid figure, gradually taking on the appearance of humanoid flesh and clothing. Fingers and an exposed face with a slight greenish tint became visible against the pitch-black background. Finally, the figure was fully formed, revealing a tall and slender Vulcan dressed in a black hooded robe.

Stepping off the transporter pad, the Vulcan raised his hand in the traditional Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, crewmen and officers of the Federation starship Enterprise. I am Commander Sonal." Sonal's voice carried an icy detachment, devoid of emotion. He held a golden pyramid-like object in his hands, adorned with intricate etchings and ancient hieroglyphs.

"Welcome aboard, Commander," Picard greeted. He extended his hand in friendship, surprised by Sonal's prompt response. Their handshake felt firm and congenial. "I assume you require rest and time for meditation. You may retire to your quarters and commence your duties tomorrow at 0930."

"Thank you, sir," acknowledged Sonal. He turned and headed towards his quarters, clutching the small pyramid.

As Sonal walked away, Troi regarded him with uncertainty. Could he be the figure from her vision? "Captain," Troi began, a trace of apprehension in her voice, "there's something amiss with him. I sense intense anger and hatred."

"Deanna," Riker inquired, "can you identify the source of that anger and hatred?"

Troi shifted her gaze between Riker and Picard. "It's directed towards... the Borg."

[shinobicyrus]

Meeting for the First Time Again

A short little DS9 fic inspired by @c-rowlesdraws more alien redesign of Dax. Here’s a re-imagining Sisko’s reunion with his old friend.

Besides bearing DS9’s new Science and Medical officers, the USS Bhaskara was offloading much-needed support personnel and medical supplies for both the station and Bajor. With the Enterprise being called away earlier than anticipated, the Bhaskara would likely be the last Federation ship any of them would see for weeks.

Major Kira had accompanied Sisko aboard, and had stood straight-backed and on edge during the formalities between him and the Bhaskara’s captain. Charitably, Sisko figured it might not have been comfortable for her to be stuck in the unfamiliar close quarters of a Federation starship, or it maybe being surrounding by over a hundred sapients of a dozen different species all in their matching, pristine uniforms.

He still hadn’t come to a final verdict with her, yet. Certainly she had no love for the Federation. Hadn’t been at all shy to disclose that fact either, which he couldn’t help but privately admire. It was the kind of refreshingly straightforward attitude that Sisko didn’t encounter as often as he liked, anymore.

At least he knew where they stood. There may never be any friendliness there, but there could at least be a mutual respect, if they didn’t give each other brain damage butting heads all day.

Well. That was what their new doctor was for.

He was human and very young. His blue uniform was freshly replicated, and a medical bag hung off of his shoulder as if he expected to start performing first aid the moment he stepped off the ship. Sisko had read his file. Doctor Julian Subatoi Bashir had the highest qualifications of any medical practitioner he’d ever seen, and the academic accolades to have his pick of duty assignments.

Instead of research or a ship’s physician, he chooses a barely-functional Cardassian monstrosity on the furthest fringes of Federation space.

No one makes that choice unless they have something to prove. That never boded well. Sisko could only hope the few weeks tending to a people trying to recover from decades of slavery and genocide will give the good doctor a good dose of sobering reality.

Thankfully, Captain T’Shel was vulcan and took zero offense when Sisko politely declined their offer of a light tea in their stateroom. With the amount of work still needed to get DS9 up and running, it was only Logical he take his officers and return to work as soon as possible.

Their disembarkation went without incident, though Sisko half-expected the airlock to jam again. Next to him, Doctor Bashir took in the grim Cardassian architecture of the promenade with that eagerness unique to academy graduates on their first assignment; his eyes sparkled with adventure and Sisko marveled that he himself had ever been that young. 

DS9’s Science officer was more sedate, flowing over the tall rim of the airlock on many legs with a smooth, liquid grace. Two pairs of stubby but strong limbs pushed her long body upright and brought her flat, vaguely amphibian head at about his chest-level, passably mimicking a biped.

“Commander.” Major Kira looked uncertainly at her charges. “If you’d like me to give these two a tour of the station – ”

“You and Doctor Bashir go ahead, Major.” He turned to the trill and saw her already looking at him. The face of a stranger. Still, he smiled at her. “I’m afraid I have to put Lieutenant Dax to work right away.”

Dax nodded, unperturbed at being put to work so soon after a long starship journey. Not even time to throw her pack into her new quarters.

Major Kira for one just seemed relieved. The sidelong glance she gave Dax made it clear how unused she was to dealing with non-humanoids. Sisko couldn’t bring himself to judge – all of her interactions with off-worlders before now had involved Cardassians.

Before she could herd him away, Doctor Bashir half-ran past Kira to Dax’s side, stopping them from leaving. Sisko was too surprised – and too curious of Dax’s reaction – to chide him.

This time.

“Jadzia!” He adjusted the strap of his bag, completely heedless of the disgruntled glare Major Kira had leveled at him like a charging phaser. “I was thinking. Maybe we could…” He cocked his head, boyish smile shy but still precocious. “Get together later. For dinner?”

Dax did not answer immediately, as if he...she were weighing the question. As one second, then another ticked by without a response, Sisko watched the fear creep into Bashir’s eyes as it slowly dawned on him that he was holding up his commanding officer. Sisko said nothing to add or alleviate his anxiety, and Bashir stammered, looking to him and then back to Dax. “O-o-or a drink?”

Dax blinked slowly. Her mouth curled into a shape a human would find friendly. Her voice was thick, melodious and warm like rain on a muggy day. “I’d be delighted.”

Three words was evidently all it took to leave Doctor Bashir a dumb, grinning blob of hormones stuck in place in front of the airlock. Dax and Sisko left him to be pried off the deck by the Major.

They walked side-by-side down through the promenade. Sisko kept his strides small so the four shorter limbs on Dax’s lower body could keep up without much difficulty.

While trills could stand upright just fine, walking without all eight limbs was another matter; like expecting a human to hop around on one foot all day. Any Federation-raised citizen wouldn’t think twice about trill walking past low to the ground, but Curzon had stubbornly mastered the art.  

‘Gotta look them in the eye, Benjamin. Think I could have gotten anything done at Khitomer crawling around the Klingons’ pointy boots?’

Watching her walk was what did it. The dignified posture, head bobbing and both pairs of upper-arms clasped behind her back. It was all Curzon, but eerily incongruous. Like looking into the mirror and seeing the wrong color uniform.

Sisko leaned down to ask, “He’s a little young for you, isn’t he?”

“Trills mature a little faster than humans, but we’re close in Standard,” Dax said. “He’s twenty-seven and I’m –”

“Three-hundred twenty-seven?”

“You know I stopped counting, Benjamin.”

“How convenient for you.”

Dax chortled a bubbly trill laugh. “What was that human expression you told me once? About youth and old age?”

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

“A pitfall I’m glad to have avoided,” Dax grinned.

“You’re dodging the question.”

She stroked her whiskers like Curzon used to do when he was pretending to be a forgetful old man. When...she was pretending. “And what question would that be?”

“Whether the man knows he’s chasing after someone who’s technically older than his great-grandparents.

“Of course he knows,” Dax’s upper body stood a tad straighter. “He finds it fascinating. He’s never met a joined species before.”

“‘Fascinated’ isn’t the word I’d have chosen to describe it.”

“It’s the spots. And the arms,” She raised two of them to fend off his raised eyebrow. “Don’t worry Benjamin, I’ve been around humans long enough to be able to spot a harmless crush. He’ll sigh and pine at the ‘unattainable older woman’ shield he put around me until he gets over it.”

“I’ll trust your expertise on the matter,” Sisko said wryly. “While we’re on the subject, what’s your opinion of him?”

“My opinion?”

“You've trained your share of clueless ensigns and terrorized enough trill initiates...”

“That’s true,” Dax agreed. “I happen to remember one young cadet who swore he’d be captain of a starship by thirty.”

“And an admiral by forty.”

“How is that going for you?”

“Further along than Cal. And you’re changing the subject.”

Those whiskers, again. “The subject being?”

“Come on now, Dax. You two were stuck on the Bhaskara for three weeks. That’s more than long enough for you to get a good read on him.”

“Is this an official request from my superior officer?”

Superior officer. Curzon. That…was going to take some getting used to. “If it has to be, but I’d rather be talking with an old friend whose opinion I trust.”

Dax looked pensively at patterns on the deck plating as they walked. “He’s...young. Eager. Brilliant and knows it, but even the arrogance feels like an affectation. Almost obligatory. At least, it’s flimsy enough that I doubt it will last long outside of a competitive Academy environment.”

“He specifically asked to be here.”

Dax’s hum was like rippling water. “He told me that as well.”

“That sounds like a man with something to prove.” Sisko didn’t hide the disapproval in his voice. From another officer under his command, maybe. Not from Dax.

“Yes, but it’s to himself first and foremost. I’m not a counselor Benjamin, so I couldn’t tell you why, but  I’m confident his rough edges will be smoothed over with little bit of time, wisdom, and real-world experience. And,” she added with a thin smile. “The guiding hand of a wise mentor.”

“I hope I can live up to your example.”

“Oh, I meant me. You’ll do too, I suppose,” Dax winked. “I taught you everything you know.”

For the first time since he boarded that godforsaken Cardassian station, Ben Sisko laughed. “Not everything, Old Man.”

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 5 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 5.

Following in the footsteps of Season 3, the first batch of episodes in Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 do two things: The overall story of the season-long arc is explored, but, the episode itself presents a standalone story in the classic Star Trek tradition. Last week, Tilly got her “Galileo Seven” moment, but this week, in “The Examples,” DISCO tackles a classic Trek ethical dilemma.

As Burnham and Book navigate the morality of saving prisoners on a doomed colony, “The Examples” front-loads the episode with a ton of callbacks and Easter eggs to the rest of the franchise. Here’s every Easter egg and big reference we spotted in Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 5…

USS Janeway

Right away, the episode hits us with a few starship names that sound familiar. The first is the USS Janeway, an obvious reference to Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, and more recently, Star Trek: Prodigy. Interestingly, however, the USS Janeway doesn’t appear to be of the souped-up 32nd Century “Intrepid Class” ships. Instead, it looks like it’s one of the new Constitution-class ships, kind of like the USS Armstrong, which was referenced in Episode 4.

Interestingly, although the Voyager-J is a 32nd Century Intrepid Class when this style of ship was incorporated into the game Star Trek: Online, a variant class was called “Janeway-class.”

The T’Pau

The other ship, which is almost certainly from Ni’Var, is called “the T’Pau.” This references the character T’Pau, first introduced in the TOS episode “Amok Time,” and later appeared in the Enterprise three-parter which began with “The Forge.” In the TNG episode “Unification I,” Geordi and Riker are also trying to analyze the wreckage of a Vulcan ship called the T’Pau, proving that this is one Easter egg Star Trek loves; naming Vulcan ships after the lady who officiated Spock’s wedding. 

Vance name-drops a lot of god-like alien species

If someone asks you if you are a space god, you say…yes! In trying to figure out various candidates as to who could have constructed the DMA, Admiral Vance throws out some very deep cuts to aliens who might have had the super-advanced tech to cook up this artificially constructed space wave of doom. Although the DMA kind of looks like V’ger from The Motion Picture, nobody mentions V’ger,and V’ger continues not to get the love it needs. 

But, Vance does mention the following four groups

Metrons– These were the god-like beings who forced Kirk to fight the Gorn on Cestus III in the TOS episode “Arena.” 

Nacene– A tricky one. This is the formal name for the “Caretaker” species from Voyager. Does DISCO love referencing Voyager or what?!

Iconian Empire- This one is such a deep cut, that, when it comes to actual visual canon, we’ve not even really seen the Iconian Empire. They originated in the TNG episode  “Contagion,” and in terms of onscreen canon are technically extinct. The big thing they’re known for is their “gateways,” which can instantly transport people across space. Not to be confused with the Tkon Empire, another super-powerful extinct empire from “The Last Outpost.”

Q Continuum – Vance says there hasn’t been contact with the Q in “600 years.” By this, we have to assume reported contact. The events of Picard take place over 700 years prior to Discovery seasons 3 and 4. So that checks out. But does this mean the Q have ignored the mere mortals of the galaxy for six centuries? Why?

Working with Aurelio

We’re told hotshot scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) is “working with Aurelio,” on research about the DMA. Aurelio is the human scientist, formally working for the Emerald Chain, introduced in Discovery Season 3. Although he doesn’t appear in this episode,  is played by longtime Discovery star, Kenneth Mitchell.

No Owosekun or Detmer up front

Notably, this episode is one of the first times we don’t see Owosekun and Detmer in their usual positions at the ops station, and at the helm. Instead, there are two new characters, upfront. This isn’t an Easter egg exactly, but it does mean that the crew of Discovery seems to finally be on some kind of sensible shift rotation. 

Tig Notaro in opening credits

Although Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno has appeared as a semi-regular since the start of Discovery Season 2, the opening credits for this episode seem to give her a promotion to series regular! Cool.

“Not harming the jahSepp”

Stamets mentions that he’s been giving notes to Ruon Tarka about “not harming the jahSepp.” This references the alien species, the jahSepp, who live inside of the mycelial network. The jahSepp were first revealed in Discovery Season 2, and for much of that season, took the form of May Ahearn (Bahia Watson), someone Tilly had known as a child. 

“The Examples” and the Prime Directive 

The premise of this episode of Discovery presents a somewhat classic Star Trek ethical dilemma. Although the government of this colony doesn’t fall under the Prime Directive, the people themselves are not Federation citizens. In all of Star Trek canon, the idea that a planet can be contacted, but not messed with is murky, and it almost always has to do with the planet being a non-Federation world. In Deep Space Nine, Sisko often had to take a step back from internal affairs on Bajor, even though he didn’t want to. In The Next Generation, Picard couldn’t directly influence the political affairs of the Klingon Empire, even though he totally did. But, on the other hand, when Worf murdered Duras, Picard was in a legal grey area; by Federation law it was illegal, but under Klingon law, it wasn’t at all.

Book’s negative reaction to Burnham granting autonomy that results in suicide isn’t an intentional Easter egg, but it does echo Lwaxana Troi’s reaction to ritualistic suicide in the TNG episode “Half a Life.” Interestingly, that planet, Kaelon II, was also a non-Federation government.

TLDR: When non-Federation planets are involved, Starfleet tends to get kind of Prime Directive-y, even if the exact rule doesn’t apply.

A reference to Battlestar Galactica, 1978?

This is probably a stretch, but the idea of symbolic prisoners, serving out entirely unfair sentences vaguely echoes an episode of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica called “The Long Patrol.” In it, Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) crashlands on a planet populated by prisoners who are in jail for crimes committed by their ancestors. As such, they all have names like “Bootlegger 137.” It also leads to the classic question: “what kind of crime is star-bucking?” Okay, BSG digression over.

“Counted Cards at a Tongo Club”

One of the prisoners in “The Examples,” mentioned that their crime was that they “counted cards at a tongo club.” Tongo is a game that first appeared on Deep Space Nine, and is, seemingly, a Ferengi game. Like many sci-fi card games (see, sabacc in Star Wars), the rules of tongo are a little odd. It is a card game, but it also has a spinning wheel element to it, too. In DS9, Dax was a tongo shark.

Culber’s burden…bridge crew always come back

In a show-stopping therapy session, David Cronenberg’s Dr. Kovich reminds Dr. Culber — and the audience — of a somewhat unresolved plot point. “You died,” Kovich says to Culber, and then mentions that his official file was fairly generic in terms of how Culber recovered from that experience, emotionally. This references the events of “Saints of Imperfection,” in Season 2 as well as “If Memory Serves…” But, more broadly, this addresses an interesting trope in Star Trek, which Lower Decks interestingly tackled this year, too. Very often in Trek canon, major characters come back from having died. In LDS Season 2, this was turned into an inside joke; insofar as junior officers would often be entirely in the dark as to why a dead character returned to life…and active duty immediately! 

With Culber and Kovich’s conversation in this episode does something similar: address a very common Star Trek trope, with a new level of scrutiny. This time though, what Kovich says is pretty smart: If someone did die and come back to life, they might develop a martyr complex right away. Which, oddly enough, explains quite a bit of Star Trek narratives from a physiological point of view. 

It’s a lot to unpack, but Kovich’s 10 minutes are up! 

Phaser beams 

When Burnham and Book disable the force field surrounding the prison, their phasers emit solid beams. This is a small thing, but this rarely happens in Discovery. Although solid beams from phasers are a staple of the franchise before the 21st century, the post-Abrams era has seen most phasers fire little pew-pew bolts. In the Season 2 finale of Discovery, “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2,” we did see the Enterprise fire solid blue phaser beams, as it often did in TOS. In DISCO Season 3, we saw Burnham’s new phaser fire a solid blue beam when she was using it to cauterize a wound in her leg. And here again, Burnham and Book’s phasers are emitting solid beams, kind of like an old-school TNG effect.

It’s a small thing, but for longtime Trekkies, it’s pretty cool.

Risa

The biggest news in this episode is easily the introduction of Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle). While we have no idea what the deal is with that thing that Book spotted on his neck, we do know that the tattoo on his head means he’s from the planet Risa. In “The Examples,” he jokes dismissively about being from “the pleasure planet.” Risa was first introduced in the TNG episode, “Captain’s Holiday,” and has subsequently been referenced throughout the franchise.

Interestingly, there’s never really been a major character on Star Trek from Risa though. As Tarka implies, it’s a place people visit, but we haven’t ever really heard of anyone leaving there. It seems unlikely that Discovery is going to take a holiday to Risa anytime soon, but if Tarka sticks around this season, we could see the planet again. For him, Risa isn’t a vacation. It’s home.

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Star Trek: Discovery airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 5 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[writingsfromstarfleet]

The Artist - Data X Reader

A/N: This wasn’t a request per say, though I know @sorlux did ask for some more Data, and here he is! Alas, I must admit: Do I hate this? Sorta. Do I know where I was going with this? Definitely not. Do I hope you all enjoy it regardless? Absolutely :’)

Art was a passion of yours, and had been as long as you could remember. Any form of material, be it a pen, paints, or clay, you were able to create something beautiful from it. Your family had always said you were gifted, and hoped for you to pursue a career in it. Instead, you had opted for a career in space. Your decision to join Starfleet over attending an art college was disappointing to your parents, though you knew in your heart they would still support it regardless. You were top of your xenobiology class, and had been offered a position on the USS Enterprise-D under Jean-Luc Picard, a well known captain amongst Starfleet cadets.

Two years had passed on the Enterprise, and you had made some wonderful friends amongst the crew. Least likely and yet possibly the closest one you had was with Data. He had become a very close friend, despite seeming closed off in the beginning. Now, however, you couldn't be more thankful for him. Data was a fan of the arts too, from music to craft, and that was how you bonded. Data was unaware of your talents in the creative department, it was something you had kept to your own whilst on the ship.

"Lieutenant Y/N, may I join you?" You smiled as you were greeted in Ten Forward by Data, looking up at the android and motioning for him to sit.

"Would I ever say no to you, Data?" You laughed, and he tilted his head in acknowledgement and sat. The silence was comfortable, the two of you just enjoying each others presence.

"Y/N, might I ask you something?" Data inquired, his usual tone of voice giving no emotions away. You smiled.

"Of course, what is it?"

"I have been writing another poem, and I was wondering if I could perform it to you before I read to the crew, and perhaps get your opinion on it?"

Your smile grew wider.

"Absolutely, Data. I have to head off back to work now, but how about you meet me in my quarters at 19:00 hours and you can show me then?"

"That would be acceptable. I shall see you then, Lieutenant," He nodded, and you squeezed his shoulder with a wink and left to return to your duties.

The day had dragged itself on, menial tasks here and there; a less exciting day than you were used to. Still, you had the night to yourself. Throwing on some old clothes and pulling out your draw full of art supplies, you began working once more on a brand new piece, a portrait of a woman. Portraits were never your speciality, though you felt it was time to branch out your line of style, and what better way to do it than to leave the comfort zone.

So engrossed in your art, not to mention the boredom of the day you'd had, it had completely slipped your mind that Data was due to arrive for his poetry reading at seven, of which it was currently quarter to. Still oblivious, you continued your art, humming and singing as you focused. The bell to your quarters startled you, and you panicked, trying your best to hide your art.

Dressed in clothes not covered in paint, and the canvas hidden badly behind the drapes on the wall, you opened the door and greeted Data with a smile.

"Data, apologies for the wait, do come in." You gestured for him to enter and stepped aside.

"No need for apologies, Y/N, I thank you for allowing me to perform for you." He pulled a couple of sheets of paper out and set them on the table.

"Mind if I grab a drink before you begin?" You asked, receiving a shake of the head from the android.

Standing, you left towards the small kitchen area of your quarters. Data took his time to study your quarters; they were kept neat and tidy, and exactly what he'd expect from you. His curiosity peaked when he caught sight of the corner of a canvas peeking out from behind some drapes. He stepped forward and pulled them back, revealing your half finished painting.

"Data" you said, voice monotone. You made no effort to move or cover it up; he'd already seen it.

"This is remarkable, Y/N. I was not aware you were a painter." Data's words carried a fascination reminiscent of a child. You half smiled and spoke up.

"Not something I shared, really. My parents weren't the biggest fans of me not pursuing it as a career, so I chose to do it silently after I joined Starfleet."

Data turned to you. "Why would you hide such a talent?" He sounded very much confused, astounded even.

"I don't know, shame I guess. I could have been the child my parents always wanted, the art major who went on to be big in that world, and instead I chose science and a life in space. Whenever I do art, I think of my family, and I think of how much I must have disappointed them, Data. Every time I reach for a brush I feel guilty, like I should be back at home rather than here."

You stopped talking when you felt tears running down your face, not noticing at first that you started to cry. Never had you spoken of how you felt about all of this, and here you were, unexpectedly opening up. Data, unfamiliar with human emotions, did his best to try and alleviate what you were feeling in that moment. He walked to you, and placed his hands on your shoulders, to which you responded by wrapping your arms around him. It was a silent exchange of care, one you appreciated very much.

"I'm sorry, Data, you're here for your poetry, not my therapy session" you joked, pulling back from him to wipe your eyes, though Data was having non of it. He sat you down and knelt before you.

"My poetry does not matter whilst you are hurting this much. You should never have to feel shame over choosing a life for yourself that you wanted. It is not your parents life, and you should not feel guilty for having such a talent." Data spoke softly, knowing that you needed to hear what he had to say. He was looking you right in the eye, and you knew everything he was saying was true. You had no reason to feel like this, they would be proud of the person you were now, regardless, and they would just be happy you kept on doing art as a hobby.

"You're right, Data. Thank you." Your words were quiet, but he heard them loud and clear. "Shall we get to your poetry then?" You chuckled slightly, as he held out a hand to help you stand, ever a gentleman.

Data's head twitched, as he pulled two paintbrushes out from behind his back.

"No, tonight, we are painting." He had what you could only call a look of mischief on his face, and as began to set up two easels side by side, you knew you had found a true soulmate in Data.

[fyeahcompetentwomen]

Sister Beatrice vs. Seven of Nine

Remember: don't vote on "who would win in a fight", but on "who, when given a task that fits her skillset and talents, would do that task better: more comprehensively, faster, with more pizzazz, with less collateral, etc."

Endorsements! "What is she good at?"

Sister Beatrice, Warrior Nun: Oh my GOD what is she NOT? Mastery in various martial art forms, fluent in Lord knows how many languages, master strategist, BOMBS, and always has a kind word for those who need them.

Seven of Nine, Star Trek: severed from the Borg collective after spending most of her life with them (she was assimilated *as a child*), she found a way to reconcile her human and her Borg heritage, and helped her new "collective", the Voyager crew, overcome all the obstacles that the Delta Quadrant threw at them - including the Borg themselves. Never afraid to speak her mind, she impressed Kathryn Janeway into a relationship some see as friendly, some see as romantic. After Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, Seven joined the Fenris Rangers to do good in places that the Federation did not (want to) reach, and in the process saved the day for another Starfleet captain (and former Borg!), Jean-Luc Picard. Snarky, standoffish, with a heart as big as the galaxy behind a barrier just a tiny little bit more penetrable than the final frontier, she proved her humanity all over again - including serving as queen for a lone Borg cube and coming back from that! And then she gave us the first canon lesbian couple, with Raffi, and later was promoted to captain of the newest USS Enterprise - the first canon queer/wlw captain of the entire show! (okay I'll stop now)

[jaysterg5]

Star Trek: Crew #4

Writer, Artist & Cover - John Byrne

"Shadows of the Past"

Five years after the shakedown cruise of the USS Enterprise, our erstwhile cadet returns to the ship as a Lieutenant. Within hours of her arrival, she finds herself part of a landing party that encounters a warring race of human clones on a far-off planet.

Continuing the adventures of the future "Number One" of the Enterprise, this story also picks up threads left from one of Byrne's previous Star Trek miniseries, Assignment: Earth. That series followed some of Gary Seven's further adventures, but left a plot thread hanging about an army of clones. That's picked up here and moved forward. However, this story doesn't quite resolve things either, so there may be more stories about this "civilization" in the future. While I enjoyed this story for what it was, the connections backwards and forwards to other series was a bit annoying. While I'm a pretty major completist, it's still frustrating to feel you missed out on something, or don't know where to pick up further expansions on the story. This may very well frustrate casual fans.

The Lieutenant has decent participation in this story, but the real stand-out character for me was Sarah April, Chief Medical Officer and wife to Captain Robert April. She's got a great personality - which could rival Leonard McCoy, and doesn't hesitate to get in on the action when needed. She alone makes me want more stories set on April's Enterprise!

While I generally like John Byrne's art, this issue feels a bit lackluster - mostly due to the fact that April and Christopher Pike are drawn so similarly! I found I really needed to look closely in panels they were both in to tell the difference. I found that some of the other characters were pretty generic as well, and it gave the issue a rushed feel.

While still enjoyable, this was probably the weakest issue of the series so far. I'm hoping for a good wrap-up in the final issue.

[discotreque]

Disco 3.08: The Sanctuary

This week IRL was a real mixed bag for me: a lot of messy and barely-manageable anxiety about my health, my day job, and uhhhh *gestures outside*—but also I’ve recently fallen in love (from a responsible social distance)—so it’s been equal parts re-writing professional emails to edit the panic attack out of my tone and gazing dreamily at Discord notifications with cartoon hearts in my eyes. It feels like my life is going to hell in the cutest, coziest handbasket—which is to say that Michael Burnham could not possibly feel like a more relatable character to me right now.

I continue to have issues with the writing at a strange medium-level—somewhere between micro, where the dialogue and characters are really good, and macro, where I’m digging the pace of the overall season, it almost feels like something went wrong in the assembly process, and the script ended up a little bit less than the sum of its perfectly good parts. Again.

But that’s such vague criticism as to be nearly meaningless, and it’s hardly the most interesting level to spend time on anyway. If I zoom out, the parallel season arcs of “getting used to the future” and “the mystery of the Burn” are hanging together wayyyyy better than the Red Angel saga did last year.

And if I zoom in? This episode was funny as shit, wtf.

The discourse re: Tilly these past couple of weeks has been bullshit, and I have a whole angry thing to say about it—but honestly, if you can’t appreciate Doug Jones and Mary Wiseman as a comedic duo, I’m not really mad: mostly I pity the lack of joy in your heart.

Everyone on this show is so funny. Doug’s prissy little delivery absolutely slaughters me (“Execute!...?”), Mary will make a face sometimes that has me screaming laughter into my hands, and I’ve gone on before—and will again—about Sonequa Martin-Green’s egregiously underrated comedy chops.

They were obviously casting for folks w/ jokes in the new season too: David Ajada is no slouch in the dry-delivery or the goofy-face department; his energy and chemistry with Sonequa are as suited to comedy as they are to romance (i.e. extremely 🥵). Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz we knew about, but Blu del Barrio—a certified tiny baby!!!—holds their own and lands every smartass whiz-kid one-liner just on the right side of “too precious to stand.” (I almost always at least chuckle, and never roll my eyes, and for a “teen genius” character that’s literally as good as it gets.) And living legend Michelle Yeoh is clearly having the time of her life, omfg.

Disco’s not funny-funny like Lower Decks, but they do funny-on-purpose better than any live-action Trek except maybe DS9. They have such a deep comedic bench they don’t even need Tig Notaro—they have her on just to flex, I presume.

(I don’t know if I’m predicting, per se, that Strange New Worlds—with Rebecca Romjin’s deadpan, Anson Mount’s twinkly eyes, and Ethan Peck’s twinkly-eyed deadpan—is going to have a tone somewhere between Disco S3 and LwD—but I mean... it kinda has to, right? And you know they kept the number for Rainn Wilson’s agent.)

***

At the start of this episode, I was “sure, why the fuck not” about First Officer Tilly; by the end, I was completely on board. And to everyone who’s still wringing their hands about “the real military” this (always from people who have no idea how actual militaries work, lol) and “Lt. Nilsson” that (she... already has a job on the ship? And no character traits besides “stoic” and “furrows brow”? Oh, I get it—she’s skinny and blonde)—y’all are kind of embarrassing me.

“Rank” and “position” (and “seniority” and “day-to-day duties”...) aren’t the same thing, in Star Trek or any IRL military. Yes, the permanent first officers of normal-duty Starfleet ships we’ve seen have usually been command-division officers with the rank of Commander—but not always. Star Trek: Discovery-A, if you will, is a unique show about a unique ship in a unique situation: “B-b-but that’s not how they do it on Star Trek!!!” isn’t a legitimate criticism, not of this—it’s the mournful cry of an entitled pissbaby who isn’t having their hand held all the way to the fireworks factory.

Here’s what an argument supported by the text of the first 37 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery actually looks like: Sylvia Tilly is nervous and lacks self-confidence, but once she gets over herself—which she can do pretty much instantly in a crisis, even when hilariously intoxicated—she is competent as hell. In lower-stakes situations, without intense pressure to focus her attention, she sometimes gets sidetracked by her own insecurities; at her best, she channels that anxious energy into ambition, drive, and being scrupulously organized.

The only person Tilly doesn’t always get along with is Stamets, and even Stamets’s husband thinks he’s an asshole. Since Season 1, we’ve seen her easily socializing with the rest of the crew, who seem to universally adore her. And she’s also happy to leave her social comfort zone at a moment’s notice: she aligned herself with Ash Tyler (miss you, Shazad!) when no one else would, and she instantly befriended Po even when Po was in Weird Feral Alien Princess mode and Tilly had salad in her hair. She doesn’t like confrontation, but she’s brave enough to initiate it anyway if she needs to, and she’s compassionate with other people’s feelings while still setting firm boundaries. (Her graceful dodge of Rhys’s tipsy kiss at the party in 1.07 lives rent-free in my head to this day.)

No, Tilly didn’t finish the Command Training Program—but she started it, which is almost certainly more command training than any of the lieutenants whose names we know, all of whom are Ops or Science personnel with, presumably, specialized non-command training of their own. The same could be assumed for any unseen ranking officers on this science ship with an entirely volunteer skeleton crew.

And seriously, about Nilsson: she’s my #3 background bae after Octopus Head and the lady on Pike’s Enterprise with the spiky red face, but her job is Spore Drive Ops, not personnel. If she’s running after Saru with a holo-clipboard, who’s going to look serious and push holo-buttons when there’s a Black Alert? *drops holo-mic* Drumhead!

***

The stuff on Kwejian, though. Ooof. Ol’ Two-Takes Frakes directed this one, and between the kinetic energy he always adds to the camera and the scintillating performances he evokes, things stayed moving so briskly I almost didn’t notice Book’s entire “homeworld” was a rental house outside Vancouver, a couple acres of adjacent woods, and like six or seven people.

It’s a hot mess in retrospect, but in the moment it gave us the intensity of Book and Kyheem trying to hurt each other’s feelings by poking at 15-year-old wounds, which as a sibling with complicated sibling relationships I found both funny and devastating—not to mention Frakes directing “shaky bridge” explosion falls at an obvious intensity of “10” on an outdoor location shoot. It falls apart at the slightest scrutiny, but I can’t lie, on first viewing I was totally along for the ride.

***

I’m dying to see where this Georgiou thing goes. It doesn’t feel like a stretch to assume she got Cronenberg’d a couple weeks ago, probably to get her under the thumb of this century’s Section 31, and that her arc is going to take Michelle Yeoh off this show in a way that sets up the S31 show. But also, I don’t care so much whether I’m right, I just want to watch Michelle Yeoh—and Sonequa Martin-Green, and also David Cronenberg tbh, and bring back Shazad Latif while you’re at it—get wherever they’re going.

It’s also a fun and interesting direction to take the comically-evil comic relief character and show that her performative moustache-twirling is partly habit and partly a transparent emotional defence against very real fear and vulnerability. We’re all products of our circumstances, and a radical enough change in circumstances can afford almost anyone at least the opportunity to change. I can’t say Emperor Georgiou would have been my first choice of protagonist for that storyline, but it’s not like Michelle Yeoh’s not going to fuckin’ crush it.

***

Miscellany:

So the Burn had an origin point, and now that point is broadcasting a signal that’s somehow both a haunting melody that everyone seems to know—but no one can remember learning—and a Federation distress signal. What the fuck, y’all. I have full-body goosebumps just typing that.

Saru workshopping his own captainly catchphrase with the aid of Tilly’s extreme sincerity and organizational skills is probably the funniest thing that’s ever happened on this show—followed closely by the uncomfortably lingering reaction shots when he’s trying them out on the bridge 😂 (And omg please give Rhys and Bryce the dumbass buddy-comedy C-plots they deserve next season, I beg you.)

I would do a little “prop watch” entry on those Kwejianian(?) bolt-throwing rifles, but I’d have to stop drooling over them first. “Curvy polished hardwood” seems to be New Trek shorthand for “extra sleek and futuristic” (cf. the bridge of the USS Titan in the LwD finale), and I have to say: I am fully into it.

Restating my prediction that we will not see Detmer and Owosekun get together this season, because we will find out that they’ve been together for ages. Everyone knew—Pike even knew!—it just never came up in front of the audience before. That would be one of the cutest ways to do it imho, and one of the funniest too, especially as a meta-joke about how much character development didn’t happen in the first two seasons. (That said, if we get to see their first kiss, I will be screaming with incoherent joy for days, so this is a real win-win for me.)

Speaking of cute: IRL spouses Mary Wiseman and Noah Averbach-Katz, both Julliard-trained actors (it’s where they met!), can’t quite hide their chemistry in the scenes between Tilly and Ryn. I loved seeing Tilly be a hardass when Ryn was rude to the captain, but that sparkle in her eyes didn’t quite match the context <3

And speaking of people who are VERY OBVIOUSLY IN LOVE: that last scene with Book and Michael, and his nervous little “yeah, I said it” eyebrow lift, and her irrepressible giggle as she’s walking away... it was almost too much. Especially right after the queer-family scenes with Stamets and Culber and Adira. My poor heart is going through a lot lately, and I guess I’m just glad Season 3’s emotional intensity is melting it with soft sweet scenes like that instead of kicking it down repeated flights of stairs like Season 1.

***

Next week: everyone stops caring about the Burn and starts trying to solve an even more important mystery—why is this (holographic) dude wearing an early-2360s uniform with an early-2370s combadge?

[q-card]

With or Without You

I wrote this major self-indulgent fic back in February for Valentine’s day. You can read it on AO3 (x) but I thought I’d share it here as well. Hope yall enjoy! Note: listen to this while reading, it makes everything more intense hehe

The suns were setting over Makus III, and Jean-Luc Picard was watching them sink under the horizon. A light breeze ruffled the grass around him. Tapping his combadge, the captain of the USS Enterprise sighed, “Ready to beam up.”

Setting suns on Makus III – almost midnight by ship-time.

He kept his eyes on the orange sky as his vision blurred and a light tingling feeling numbed his body. As he was transported back up to his ship, he thought of the twin suns setting over the peaceful planet, and of the little house on the hill he had left behind – how the couple living there had thanked him, how happy they had seemed despite their differences, despite the slight impression of unevenness in the way they stood next to each other, like mismatched puzzle pieces.

He closed his eyes then, cursing himself. The tingling was fading, but the transporter’s chime still lingered in his ears. He’d been having such thoughts – such dangerous thoughts – for too long. And for too long, the person he’d been thinking of with such recklessness had refused to show himself.

After their last encounter, Jean-Luc thought things would change. The quivering of excitement in Q’s voice had seemed almost like a confession – the words had been a gentle warning, but the tone had told a different tale. For weeks afterwards it had echoed in Jean-Luc’s ears, that simple sentence that Q had spoken with such human passion; “See you… out there.” And then he’d disappeared, and he hadn’t come back.

Jean-Luc was left alone with the gut-wrenching words, not knowing if he’d ever see Q again. Not knowing if it had all been a lie, a ruse, a trick of his imagination – or if it truly meant something.

And then Q had begun invading his every thought. Everything was a painful reminder of him: every person, every situation, every forbidding dream. He’d started pondering things Q had said in the past, giving them different meanings, analysing everything. And sometimes… well, sometimes it ached and sometimes it soothed, but no matter what interpretation Jean-Luc pinned upon Q’s words, they always sent him reeling.

“You're not alone, you know. What you were, and what you are to become, will always be with you.”

“In any case, I'll be watching.”

“The Continuum didn't think you had it in you, Jean-Luc. But I knew you did.”

“Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you. You had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end.”

The transporter chime faded entirely, and Jean-Luc opened his eyes. He wasn’t in the transporter room, but in his own quarters. And standing in the very center of the room was Q, wearing a captain’s uniform – the twin to the one Jean-Luc wore.

It felt like being punched in the stomach.

“How cruel must you be?” Jean-Luc breathed. He dared not move – dared not speak above a whisper.

Q said nothing. He stood there with unnatural stillness; his eyes alight with an entirely alien gleam. A shiver snaked down Jean-Luc’s spine, but he straightened his back and swallowed hard. “Why are you here? You haven’t deigned a visit in ten months.”

A small, vicious smile slowly spread onto Q’s lips. “You’ve been counting,” he said. His first words in ten months – yes, dammit, he had been counting.

Jean-Luc could feel his hands tremble with rage. All this time and now he chose to appear, just when Jean-Luc was thinking of him. “Have you been mucking about in my head, Q? Planting thoughts into my mind?” he spat, his rage a white-hot wall of flame in his chest.

Q’s smile widened into a lazy grin. “Oh no, Jean-Luc,” he tilted his head back with inhuman grace, “I’ve made it a personal rule of sorts to never interfere with your tiny human brain. It ruins the fun. Whatever thoughts are bothering you, mon capitaine, are entirely your own.”

Jean-Luc’s cheeks burned with shame and anger and hurt, and although he tried, he couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice as he said, “Fun – this is all a game to you then, isn’t it? You know perfectly well what I mean. For once, Q, let me know the truth.”

And then those alien eyes darkened, and it felt as if a cold wind had swiped the room when the smile faded from Q’s face. “What truth are you looking for, Jean-Luc? The one that pleases you or the one that is hard to hear?”

A wave of panic gripped Jean-Luc so unexpectedly that he staggered. He reached out a trembling hand and held onto his desk. “I don’t understand,” he whispered.

Q closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. Such a human expression. “You never understood…” Q’s voice was strained.

The anger seeped back into Jean-Luc veins, making his blood boil. “Yes,” he nodded resentfully, “how could I possibly understand? What with my ‘tiny human brain’…”

Silence fell upon them, thick with anger and hurt and words left unsaid, unspoken. And then a sharp intake of breath, and Jean-Luc was calm again. So very calm as he asked, “What do you want from me? Why are you here?”

Q’s eyes flew open. “I don’t know. I told myself I had nothing more to do on this ship, but I keep coming back, and I thought that you would’ve understood by now…”

“Why must you make me crawl for an answer every damn time?” Jean-Luc shouted, his calmness and control snapping like a twig, “Just tell me, Q – you’ve made me beg before, I won’t do it again – tell me what you’re here for!”

Q’s eyebrows tilted upwards. “I can’t,” the entity breathed.

There was something desperate about the words – something desperate and pleading and so unlike Q… but, no, he would not relent.

“Then leave,” Jean-Luc said, seething with an anger he wasn’t sure he still felt.

Q straightened his back. His eyes were veiled, cold and barren. Unearthly, unknown: he was one of the Q, and the power of billions of years of existence coiled in his very being.

“I will,” he spoke with his human voice, nodded with his human body, but Jean-Luc had never been so utterly aware of how otherworldly the entity truly was. “A human lifetime is but a nanosecond to me, Picard. I will not be coming back.”

A flash of blinding white light – and he was gone.

Gone. Forever.

Jean-Luc, still gripping his desk, let out a gasp of disbelief. He pushed himself into the sleeping area of his chambers, a heavy weight on his chest, his entire body a brutal reminder of his own mortal misery. This, all this – it was but a nanosecond for Q.

But, damn it all to hell, it was everything for Jean-Luc Picard. The past ten months – the past seven years – he’d somehow known that this would mean everything to him. Something had pulled him towards that entity from the very start. The most annoying being in creation – devious and amoral and unreliable and irresponsible and definitely not to be trusted…

And now he was gone forever and Jean-Luc’s world was collapsing. He let himself fall onto his bed and buried his head into his open palms. The world was collapsing.

~

Q hovered above the Enterprise, invisible in his non-corporeal form. He could see right through the bulkhead of Starfleet’s flagship, right through walls and walls of primitive Federation technology. He could see Jean-Luc Picard, sitting on his bed with his face in his hands.

And Q ached. Not in the physical way he’d experienced when punished by the Continuum, when he’d been a hapless mortal on this very ship. No – this was an entirely different pain. Something was wrenching at his very being, triggered by the sight of the captain’s misery.

And Q longed. He knew the longing by now, it was familiar. He hated it, but it had been there for quite some time. How they had mocked him, in the Continuum. How they had sneered.

But Jean-Luc’s words had been haunting Q’s thoughts.

‘Thank you’, he’d said, with such unashamed gratitude, with such Human warmth. Jean-Luc Picard had thanked Q, after all that was done and said. Noble – he was noble and decent and honourable and everything that Q wasn’t.

Everything that Q was supposed to abhor.

Everything that Q loved.

Q loved this Human. Q loved this puny little Earthman who was mourning him on his puny little bed. Oh, but for his noble Human heart, for the grace in his unwavering goodness, Q could not fool himself into believing that Jean-Luc was puny. He may not have the all-powerful supremacy of the Q, but he had something stronger. Something brighter, and better – something Q cherished.

So, without warning, without light or sound or artifice, Q materialized back in Jean-Luc’s quarters in his human form. He stood there for a while in silence, watching Jean-Luc who simply sat on his bed, lost and broken. It hurt – oh how it hurt, to see the man he loved in such a state.

Just then, Jean-Luc turned.

Their eyes met. The silence was a living thing, spiralling around them and through them and suddenly Jean-Luc was on his feet, eyes wide, mouth open. “Q,” he whispered.

Q blinked. “Jean-Luc,” he answered.

And then they were running towards each other, desperately, like every second could tear them apart, like every moment was their last. They fell into each other’s arms. They looked into each other’s eyes. Jean-Luc’s hand was on Q’s neck, pulling him downwards.

“Your eyes… they look so human,” Jean-Luc said softly.

Q raised his eyebrows. He was about to give a sarcastic retort, but Jean-Luc silenced him with a kiss.

Jean-Luc Picard kissed Q.

Stars exploded and galaxies shattered. Q rattled the very core of creation as Jean-Luc kissed him harder, deeper; desperate and passionate and angry.  

He pulled away to breathe with such charming mortal vulnerability. “Don’t ever make me wait again,” he panted frantically, “every day without you, I could’ve died. Q, I could’ve died without you.”

And it shook Q so much that he let his human body lean into Jean-Luc, let their foreheads touch. “Can you live with me, though?”

Jean-Luc smiled. “I think it’s worth a try.”

And he kissed him again.