DS9 S01E01

In this installment:
(viewed Wednesday, May 28th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S01E01 - "Emissary"  (Parts 1 & 2)

---

"Emissary" (Parts 1 & 2) 

• At last we come to it, the premiere episode of my personal favorite Star Trek series.  No, it's not perfect.  Yes, it has rough spots (especially in the early seasons).  Yes, Avery Brooks is bat-crap insane and a scenery-chewer extraordinaire.  I don't care, I love it.
• Fun fact that I just learned when visiting his IMDb page to link it in the comment above:  Avery Brooks is from Evansville, Indiana.  I guess we just breed crazy in this state (see also: Michael Jackson, Axl Rose).
• The series opens on a cool flashback to the year 2366.  At the Battle of Wolf 359, Picard-as-Locutus leads a Borg attack against the Federation and is resisted by a hopelessly-outmatched and hastily-assembled Starfleet task force. 
  
  Benjamin Sisko, then a lieutenant commander and first officer of the Miranda-class USS Saratoga (NCC-31991), loses his wife and shortly thereafter he and his son Jake are forced to abandon the Saratoga on board one of its weirdly-roomy escape pods.
  
  So if you want to know why he's so cranky all the time, that's why :P
• USS Saratoga shares its name with another, much older Miranda-class starship.  NCC-1887 was one of the ships impacted by the alien probe in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
  
  It's also the Saratoga that I have sitting on top of the pile of hard drives that sits on top of my computer :)
  
  
  
  (I just wish I could Photoshop out the dust back there.
  And yeah, I realize the registry is wrong; blame Hot Wheels.)
  
  Sisko's Saratoga is obviously a newer uprate to the design, and it lacks the class' signature "rollbar".
• Three years later, Sisko (now promoted to full commander) reluctantly takes an assignment as the Federation commander of the joint Federation-Bajoran space station Deep Space 9 (formerly the Cardassian station Terok Nor).
  
  
  
  
  
  Originally built by the Cardassian military (using Bajoran slave labor) as an ore-processing facility during its brutal occupation of Bajor, it was handed over to the Bajoran Provisional Government when the Cardassian Union withdrew its forces from Bajor.
• In an appropriate hand-off from one series to the next, the USS Enterprise-D delivers the first contingent of Starfleet officers to Deep Space 9.  Among them is Chief O'Brien, who will serve as the station's Chief of Operations for the duration of the series.  They later poach Lt. Cmdr. Worf as well, but we have to get by without him for a few seasons.
• Although I've already seen them in my re-watch of the TNG films (in Generations), this premiere was technically the first time we saw the re-designed Starfleet uniforms.  These intermediate uniforms (in between the late-TNG tunics and the First Contact and later grey jumpsuits) feature a black jumpsuit with the officer's department colors across the shoulder and chest, with a grey turtleneck underneath. 
  
  
  
  
  
  Although it's never explicitly stated, the usage of the new uniform toward the beginning of DS9's run indicates that it's issued to space station personnel, and that starship personnel continue to wear the standard late-TNG tunics.
  
  
  That all changes, of course, when we see them used on board a starship in Generations and then later see them as the standard-issue uniform on VOY.
  
  A relatively short-lived design, these uniforms will be used for the first couple (three?) seasons of DS9, will be mixed in with the standard TNG uniforms for Generations and will appear for the entirety of VOY's run. 
  
  Note that at the time of the DS9 premiere, the new commbadge (using the updated Starfleet insignia for the 2370s) has not yet appeared (because it's not yet the 2370s, of course).
• Nobody else likes emergency rations as much as you do, O'Brien.
• "Sir, have you ever served with any Bajoran women."
  
  "No.  Why?"
  
  "I was just wondering, sir."
• Major Kira Nerys:  Former resistance fighter (or terrorist, depending upon your perspective), and one of my favorite Trek characters.
• For Constable Odo's first act, he'll start by letting alien nunchuks pass through his head, then he'll ask the new Starfleet commander of the station "Who the hell are you?"
  
  
  
• Oh, and he doesn't like phasers.
• And Sisko's first move is to bribe Quark to stay on the station by agreeing to let Nog go.  These are not your typical Star Trek characters.
• Captain Picard is clearly taken aback when Commander Sisko mentions Wolf 359.  And yet, being the consummate professional officer, he has no problem issuing orders to Sisko over his objections.
• "I have a son that I'm raising alone.  This isn't an ideal environment."
  
  "Unfortunately, as Starfleet officers, we don't always have the luxury of serving in an ideal environment."
• "We need a community leader...and it's going to be you, Quark!"
  
  
  
• Kai Opaka:  Space Pope!
• I never cared for the Bajoran religion and all of its accoutrements, which is kind of odd given how central a theme they were and how much I otherwise love the series. 
  
  Call me crazy; I just prefer the geopolitical and military drama that's also heavy in the show over the spiritual mumbo-jumbo of the silly Bajorans and their Pah and orbs and Emissaries.
  
  Of course, at least their gods turn out to be real (just aliens).
• I don't know if they were looking for an actress to play Jennifer that could match Avery Brooks for awkward delivery, but if that was their goal they definitely succeeded with Felicia Bell.  I've never seen her in anything else, so for all I know she's awesome and it's just this performance.  But somehow I doubt it.
• I would totally party at Quark's.  One of my great regrets in life is never having made it to the version of Quark's at the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton before it was shut down.
• "Never trust ale from a god-fearing people...or a Starfleet commander who has one of your relatives in jail."
• Overly-eager and boyish Dr. Bashir is pretty annoying at first.  He becomes much more tolerable as the series progresses and he gets some seasoning.  I guess war knocks the boyish charm out of a guy :P
• I remember being fairly intrigued by the Dax character when the show premiered, and not just because Terry Farrell is pretty.  The Trill were first introduced in the TNG episode "The Host", but never mentioned again.  A symbiotic species (where both components are sentient) was a pretty novel idea, even for Star Trek.
• "Major, I had my choice of any job in the fleet."
  
  "Did you?"
  
  "I didn't want some cushy job or a research grant.  I wanted this!  The farthest reaches of the galaxy--one of the most remote outposts available.  This is where the adventure is.  This is where heroes are made.  Right here, in the wilderness."
  
  "This wilderness is my home."
  
  "Oh, well, I, uh..."
  
  "The Cardassians left behind a lot of injured people, Doctor.  You make make yourself useful by bringing your Federation medicine to the natives.  Oh, you'll find them a friendly, simple folk."
  
  See, dude?  This is why no one likes you for like three seasons.
• One does wonder how the Trill symbiosis developed before modern surgical techniques were available to transfer the symbiont from one host to the next.
• Chief O'Brien's wistful goodbye to the Enterprise-D is a nice touch :)
• Cardassian Galor-class warship shows up in your back yard without an invitation?  That's not going to be good news.
• Hey kids, it's Gul Dukat!
  
  No joking, he's probably my second-favorite Trek villain (after the original Khan and just above General Chang).
• "Your Cardassian neighbors will be quick to respond to any problems you might have."
  
  "We'll try to keep the dog off your lawn."
• I don't think it's ever established exactly how far from Bajor the Denorios Belt is located, although it's definitely within the Bajoran System (and close enough to Bajor that Deep Space 9 can maneuver to the location of the soon-to-be-discovered wormhole in a reasonable amount of time using some combination of slower-than-light propulsion).
• And for my next trick, I will be a duffel bag!
• This is the second appearance of the Danube-class runabout, which was first seen in the TNG episode "Timescape" but will be the way that our crew on DS9 get "out and about" for adventures away from the station (until they get something with more...teeth).
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  In this case, it's the Rio Grande.  All Danube-class runabouts are named for rivers on Earth.
• O'Brien Engineering:  Kick it 'til it works.
• OH HAI WORMHOLE.
  
  
  
• So we establish (more or less) the location of both ends of the soon-to-be-famous Bajoran Wormhole:  One end is in the Alpha Quadrant lies in the Donorias Belt within the Bajoran System.  Its other end is in the Gamma Quadrant, but not within a star system (but a "little under five light years") from the Idran System.
  
  It covers a distance between those two points (well, "covers" is the wrong word...but you get what I mean) that would take a conventional starship traveling at high warp speeds something like 60-70 years to traverse.
• Some part of Starfleet training must include a course in "Screw it, I'm going out there!"  Consistently, our adventurous Starfleet crews beam down to dangerous planets, exit their shuttlecraft on an unknown world, etc.  This episode does not disappoint, as Cmdr. Sisko and Lt. Dax exit the Rio Grande onto an inexplicable patch of earth with a breathable atmosphere that miraculously appears within the wormhole.
• "We're seeing different planets?  That's probably fine.  No need to be concerned."
• Yes, I understand that the Prophets and their relationship with Sisko is one of the core themes of the series.  Yes, I understand that this is my favorite show and I shouldn't hate it so much.
  
  But every single sequence on DS9 wherein Sisko interacts with the Prophets makes me positively somnolent.
• The concept of beings that exist without corporeal form and outside of linear time is a little far-fetched (even for Star Trek), given that anything that exists within our universe must adhere to the properties of time and space that exist within our universe.
  
  That being said, I'm ultimately un-bothered and even a little intrigued at this one aspect of the Prophets (if not their tedious lectures), for two reasons:
  
  
  1. Who's to say that they exist primarily within our universe?  It's possible that they're extra-dimensional; from a different universe than ours and the wormhole is a crossing point between the two.  Compared to other concepts that are extremely hypothetical in our known physics today that Star Trek then takes and fleshes out into established phenomenon, the concept of alternate dimensions and/or the multiverse is pretty tame.
  2. Even if it's scientifically dubious, it's a cool concept.  It's just a shame that the beings themselves are so dull.
• Oh, so I guess it's not "just" thrusters or whatever that they use to get the station to the Donorias Belt.  I forgot that Dax and O'Brien work up some deflector shield mojo to get them there faster.  It's still clearly sub-light.
• Odo's origins (found in the Donorias Belt) and his draw to the wormhole (and thus the Gamma Quadrant) is established early on.
• Chief O'Brien arguing with the station's computer is pretty awesome.  I like that they establish him as an engineering badass in his own right in the first episode :)
• "Doctor, in my experience most people wouldn't know reason if it walked up and shook their hand.  You can count Gul Dukat among them."
• ...in which Benjamin Sisko explains linear time to non-linear aliens using baseball as an analogy.
• Gul Jasad:  Otherwise known as "that Cardassian that we'll never see again".
• "Red alert!  Shields up!"
  
  "What shields?"
  
  O_o
• ...in which Chief O'Brien explains to wet-behind-the-ears Dr. Bashir that the Cardassians are not nice people by referencing the massacre on Setlik III.
• Dude.  Major Kira totally gave these guys the George Rogers Clark.
• How was Bashir not already in the Infirmary?
• BLOODY CARDASSIANS!
• "Good luck, Mr. Sisko."
  
  And thus begins the new series :)

Video Update: TNG finish, DS9 launch

Greetings!  As you may have noticed, I've finished watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and the films featuring that cast.  I'm already starting my re-watch of Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine (look for a post about the series premiere, "Emissary", sometime in the next day or two), but I wanted to ramble for a few minutes about the latter era of TNG and its accompanying films.

Thanks for reading/watching!

'Star Trek: Nemesis'

Star Trek: Nemesis

(viewed Tuesday, May 27th)

• The events depicted in this film take place in 2379, four years after the events of Insurrection.
• One of this films few bright spots is its stunning visual of the Romulan capital (first seen in TNG, but not in this much detail) and the Romulan Senate chambers.  I've always been a fan of the Romulans, so anything that adds detail to that species is always welcome.
  
  
  
  
  In fact, that's probably my biggest peeve about this entire movie.  I'd wanted a Romulan-centric film for a long time, and the trailers for Nemesis made me think I was going to get it.  Instead, I get a poorly-executed remake of The Wrath Of Khan with a little Romulan flavor thrown in.
• Wipe out the Romulan Senate?  That's one way to do it, I suppose.
• I guess they really did know that this was going to be the last film with the TNG cast, because they made Riker finally get off his butt and to two things:  Marry Troi, and accept command if his own starship.
  
  That starship is the USS Titan. While there's no on-screen information presented about it, non-canon sources describe it as a Luna-class starship.  There was even a fan contest to design the thing prior to some of the Pocket Books novels about Riker's adventures as her captain.
  
  
  
  
  What I didn't realize until this re-watch, and reading the Memory-Alpha article on the Titan, is that the ship's name appears as part of the fictional history of Riker in the episode "Future Imperfect".
• Although the scenes were deleted (as were most of them), Wesley Crusher--before he was cruelly reduced to a background cameo--is said to have been assigned to the Titan under Riker's command.  I guess he got everything he could get out of the Traveler and went back to Starfleet Academy ;)
• With Riker's promotion, Lt. Cmdr. Data is to be promoted to the first officer of the Enterprise-E.  I guess Starfleet decided that it was time to only slightly under-utilize their hyper-intelligent, hyper-strong, hyper-capable, nigh-indestructible, nigh-immortal android after all :P
• "Mr. Data?  Shut up."
• Worf is suffering an apparent hangover from drinking too much Romulan ale (I'm presuming this was at a bachelor party the night before, as none of the beverages being served at the wedding have the ale's characteristic blue appearance).
  
  "Romulan ale should be illegal."
  
  "It is."
  
  This suggests that sometime in between the legalization of the beverage during the Romulans' participation in the Federation Alliance and the events of this film, it's be outlawed once again.
  
  Or, you know, the writers of this movie didn't check with the DS9 writers.  Either way.
•  "And now we need dancing.  And get Brent to sing something!"
• There were some very minor tweaks made to the filming model of the Enterprise-E in between Insurrection and Nemesis.  None of them are drastic enough to qualify the newer iteration of the ship as a "refit" or denote any serious functional changes, however.
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
• We have to assume that Shinzon did something to boost the positronic signature coming from B-4's dissembled body on Kolarus III.  Otherwise it's a little ridiculous to think that even the mighty Enterprise-E's sensors would just automatically pick up a positronic signature from a planet that's at least several light years away (we don't know how much distance the Enterprise-E had covered between Earth and Betazed, but we know that Kolarus III is fairly close to the Romulan Neutral Zone...so it's not exactly in the neighborhood).
• And now we need some more toys:  Let's give them a silly new shuttlecraft (Why? What role does this shuttlecraft fill that a standard Type 11 shuttlecraft or the Cousteau could not?) and a friggin' dune buggy!
• "You have the bridge, Mr. Troi."
  
  :trollface:
• This film introduces an entirely new Starfleet tricorder, much slimmer and with a large touchscreen.  It still has a little flip-top, though.  I guess you can only change things so much :)
  
  
  
  Nope, that's not an early iPhone prototype.
• So, we drop our dune buggy onto this planet.  The indigenous, pre-warp society sends some of their own dune buggies to check you out.  They start shooting, and you start shooting back.  Apparently the big phaser cannon on your dune buggy doesn't have a stun setting, either.
  
  Prime Directive, Shrime Shirective.
• "I am...B-4."
  
  
  
• Admiral Janeway?  This movie just loves piling insult on top of injury :P
• "The Son'a, the Borg...now the Romulans.  You seem to get all the easy assignments."
  
  "Just lucky, Admiral."
• Remus had been established as a planet associated with the Romulan Star Empire as early as the TOS episode "Balance Of Terror" (one of my favorites).
  
  However, Nemesis gives us much more information about the planet and its inhabitants.  A tidally locked planet, Remus always presents one face to its star and the other is eternally dark.  It's a major source of dilithium for the Empire, and its native population of Remans (either a totally separate species, or a related-but-divergent species from the Romulans/Vulcans) was conquered and enslaved by the Romulans some time prior to the emergence of the Romulan Empire as a major galactic power.
  
  Remans, known for their toughness, were used as expendable ground forces by the Empire during the Dominion War.  Remus, in addition to being a major mining center, is also one of the major weapons foundries for the Romulans--housing manufacturing facilities and shipyards.
  
  This is exactly the kind of "flavor text" (to use a gaming term) that I love, and I wish they'd explored more of this in the movie instead of using it as a backdrop for the soup-thin plot that they filmed instead.
• An experimental procedure on an android of unknown provenance when you're on the verge of a potentially dangerous and certainly historic mission involving one of your government's greatest rivals?
  
  Yeah, seems like nothing could go wrong with that.
• The Scimitar is a good example of everything that I came to dislike in ship design during VOY and the latter TNG films.  There's a lot of emphasis on making the ship look menacing, without caring if its design makes much sense.
  
  
  
  (image from Star Trek Fact Files, by way of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  Gone are the sleek lines of the Trek ships we've come to know and love--both Starfleet and alien.  It's all protrusions and points without clear function.  The overall effect is to make the ship look silly, and not like it belongs in the Trek universe.  I realize that the ship is supposed to stand out from existing Romulan designs...but it needn't do so by looking like a bad Hot Wheels car with some greeblies and wings glued onto it.
  
  Much of the Reman aesthetic--including their make-up, uniforms and weapons--comes across this way to me.  Maybe some people liked it and thought it made them especially menacing, but I thought it made them look like off-the-shelf, movie-of-the-week alien bad guys instead of a distinctive race and culture.
  
  The Narada in 2009's Star Trek was an even more extreme example of this trend, and one of my major aesthetic problems with that film.
• "Tactical analysis, Mr. Worf!"
  
  "52 disruptor banks, 27 photo torpedo bays, primary and secondary shields."
  
  That does seem like a lot.
• Hey kids, it's Ron Perlman!
• After he was PFC Janovec on Band Of Brothers, but before he played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy did a Star Trek flick.  The more you know.
  
  
  
• "May I touch your hair?"
  
  Easy, fella.
• Romulan Commander Donatra is played by Dina Meyer, who I better remember as playing Dizzy Flores in the film adaptation of Starship Troopers.  If I may express my baser opinions for a moment, I think she's remarkably attractive in this movie.
  
  
  
• The story that Shinzon tells is fairly compelling, and his conversation with Picard is one of the highlights of the movie.  Like the core story of Insurrection, the story of a Romulan plot to put a clone of Picard at the highest levels of power in Starfleet isn't a bad story.  It's just stretched and manipulated into a thin film with a bad case of Star Trek II envy.
• They love to put weapons of mass destruction into Trek movies, and Nemesis' "thalaron radiation" is this movie's Big Scary™.
• Ugh.  That word.  They used that word again.
• And yeah, let's make Shinzon a psychic rapist too.  Gotta dial up the creep factor as high as we can.
• "Tea, hot."
  
  Romulus has no bergamot groves, apparently.
• And then when Counselor Troi--very clearly traumatized by Shinzon's assault--asks to be relieved of duty, Picard flat-out refuses her request.  Okay, I get it.  You're in hostile territory and an empath (even an annoying one) is almost as valuable a resource as a Klingon or an android.  But the woman was just raped.  You're not even going to give her a "Of course you may take all the time that you need...but I could really use your help"?  It's just "Nope, permission denied.  I need you."
  
  It's a little callous, and downplays what could've been one of the more dramatic (and horrifying) aspects of the antagonist in this film.
  
  At least Deanna gets some revenge in the end :)
• "I'm afraid you won't survive to witness the victory of the echo over the voice."
  
  Well, the wrote one good line for this piece of garbage.
• Apparently Data mastered the Vulcan nerve pinch at some point.  And had a secret compartment built into his forearm.
• The Scimitar's little Scorpion-class "attack flyer" is actually pretty decent design--definitely not-Romulan, but not completely random.  This would have been a good basis for a distinct Reman aesthetic.
  
  
  
• Oh, now we have a force field around the warp core? ; )
• At a serious material disadvantage, fleeing a wounded enemy with an insatiable thirst for vengeance against their captain, the Enterprise engages in a desperate struggle within a particle cloud in deep space where her communications and sensors are severely limited.
  
  What?  No, I'm not talking about Khan, the original Enterprise or the Mutara Nebula.  How dare you suggest a comparison!
• Once you set aside your contempt for the blatant TWoK rip-off, the Battle in the Bassen Rift is a fairly exciting sequence in its own right.  It's one of the highlights of the movie, if you can turn of your brain and just enjoy the starships shooting at each other.
• The single best part of this entire movie for me was the introduction of another capital ship class for the TNG-era Romulans:  The "Valdore"-type warbird.
  
  
  
• "Into the chute, flyboy Viceroy!"
• The Enterprise-E has handrails, but still no seatbelts.
• I know they didn't have time to warn everyone, but you have to feel a little bad for the crew who were in the forward sections of the primary hull when they went head-first into the Scimitar.
  
  "Ho hum, just manning my post.  We don't see much action down here in {Whatever the Enterprise-E's equivalent is of Ten Forward}."
  
  And then...BLAMMO.
• Frakes:  "So this is our last movie?"
  Berman:  "Probably."
  Frakes:  "Can I fight a guy?"
  Berman:  "Maybe.  Will you whine if I hire a Trek-ignorant hack to direct this instead of letting you do it?"
  Frakes:  "Probably not."
  Berman:  "Okay then, you can fight a guy."
• "Deploy the weapon" is never, ever a good phrase.
• As the dying madman prepares to detonate his doomsday weapon, the senior non-human member of the crew prepares to sacrifice himself to save his shipmates.
  
  What?  No, I'm not talking about the Genesis Device or Spock.  How dare you suggest a comparison!
• Shinzon like, really loves knives.
• Star Trek:  Nemesis -- the only Trek movie where the bad guy dies the same way as both a bad guy from Commando and a bad guy from The Fellowship Of The Ring.
• Well, at least Spock got bagpipes.  Data gets a glass of wine in the ready room.  And then Riker tells that story about Data trying to whistle.
• At the end of the film, the Enterprise-E is shown in drydock around Earth being repaired.
• We also see now-Captain Riker depart for his first mission as commander of the Titan, heading up negotiations with the Romulans.
• Sadly, your non-human friend who helped you understand what it meant to be human is dead.  Fortunately, he transferred the essence of himself into another being.  So there's a glimmer of hope that he can be revived at some point down the line.
  
  Huh?  No, of course I mean Data's memory engrams imprinted on B-4.  What did you think I meant?

'Star Trek: Insurrection'

Star Trek:  Insurrection

(viewed Sunday & Monday, May 25th-26th)

• The events of Insurrection take place in the year 2375, only two years after the events of First Contact. 
  
  However, in that two years the entirety of the Dominion War was fought by the Federation and its allies (not counting pre-war tensions).  So a lot has changed for Starfleet in between the two films. 
  
  Boy, that would've been a great backdrop for a movie...
  
  Instead?  We got this one.
  
  
  
• It always amused me a little bit that while the Prime Directive forbade interference with pre-warp cultures, it didn't also forbid rather unscrupulous spying upon them.  I mean...if a species has attained sentience, do they not have the same right to privacy that every other sentient being seems to be afforded under Federation law?
  
  It's not like you're observing non-sentient animal life.  And sure, sentience is more of a grey area of "we know it when we see it" and you might err and spy on some moss that you thought wasn't sentient but was actually an ancient race of thinkers.
  
  But a people like the Ba'ku?  These are clearly sentient beings.  Spying on them from a "duck blind" in the name of studying them seems kind of...creepy.
• And if you're on some kind super-sketchy covert mission, why would you include the android with the hard-coded ethical programming?  Why not just get a regular person, whose ethics can be bent with bribes and whatnot?
• "Stop him!"
  
  Yeah, in addition to being almost unalterably ethical, Lt. Cmdr. Data is also faster, stronger and more skilled than any of your little minions.  Good luck with that.
• This is the first film where we see the dress uniforms that go with the new grey duty uniforms that debuted in First Contact.
  
  
  
  Whereas I rather like the duty uniforms (they're probably my second-favorite Trek uniforms, after the maroon movie-era ones), I think the dress uniforms make the officers all look like catering staff at a Trek-themed charity event.
• There are a few off-hand references to the Dominion War.
  
  • Cmdr. Riker mentions that the Federation Diplomatic Corps is "busy with Dominion negotiations", requiring the Enterprise-E to "put out another brush fire" (as Capt. Picard puts it).
  • Capt. Picard states that the Evora were made a Federation Protectorate so quickly despite their relatively recent development of warp drive because of the losses the Federation had suffered to the Borg and the Dominion.
  • Riker mentions that the Son'a produced ketracel-white for the Dominion (prompting a "WTF?!?" reaction from Counselor Troi).
  Still, it's paltry compared to what could've been done with a (relatively) big-budget Trek movie set after (or--gasp!--during) the most destructive conflict ever fought by the Federation.  
• "Worf!  What the hell are you doing here?"
  
  "Yeah, like I'm going to let you people make a movie with me."
• We could be knee-deep in Jem'Hadar blood at this point in the film.  Instead?  Picard gets a funny hat.
  
  
  
• The Briar Patch, wherein the Ba'ku planet is located, was also the site of a famous battle between the Klingons and the Romulans.
• "So, we're not letting that admiral dude telling us not to go...stop us from going, right?"
  
  "No, yeah.  Totally not."
• "How do you guys think we can best make the Son'a seem sinister?  Pointy-looking ships?  Questionable ethics?  Bad plastic surgery?"
  
  "All of the above?"
  
  "Yeah, that works."
• The "mission scoutship" that Data uses to attack the Son'a flagship is hardly larger than a shuttlecraft, but packs a decent punch for its size--it is armed with both phasers and (presumably micro-) photon torpedoes.
  
  
  
• That crazy Lt. Worf, always late for duty.
• "Straighten your baldric, commander!"
• The shiny new Sovereign-class starship came with some shiny new Type 11 shuttlecraft.  The Type 11 looks a lot like the Type 9 (seen extensively on VOY), but slightly elongated and with a roomier interior.
• TACHYONS!
• "Sing Worf, sing!"
  
  
  
• Let's face it.  This whole scene is just an excuse to let Stewart and Spiner sing.  I'm not sure how they talked Dorn into it.
• Tom Morello, a not-so-closeted Trekkie, makes a brief appearance in this movie as an uncredited Son'a officer.  He appears again as a member of the crew on VOY.
• "My people have a strict policy of non-interference in other cultures.  It's our Prime Directive."
  
  "Your directive apparently doesn't include spying on other cultures."
  
  RIGHT?!?  That's what I'm saying.  I forgot they had Anij voice that particular objection.  Score one (and only one) for the writers.
• "Our technological abilities are not apparent because we have chosen not to employ them in our daily lives. We believe that when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man."
  
  Oh, great.  Space Amish.
• For a ship with less internal volume than its predecessor, the Enterprise-E has a huuuuuuuuge engineering section.
• I could have gone my entire life without the Riker/Troi bath-and-shave orgy.  Yuck.
• Data's Underwater Adventure and the subsequent "floatation device" scene are among the dumbest things ever recorded in Trek history.
• I'm not sure why they felt the need to construct an entire holoship.  They could've simply beamed the Ba'ku onboard a standard starship's holodeck while they were sleeping, and transported them to a new world--just like the crew of the Enterprise-D did (under duress) in the episode "Homeward".
• The list of symptoms that the crew exhibits as they're exposed to the metaphasic radiation from the Ba'ku homeworld is pretty much a non-stop convoy of stupid.
• Geordi's eyes start to grow back.
• Riker and Troi get horny for each other.
• Worf gets a Gorch.
• Riker shaves and then makes a butt joke.  A butt joke, in Star Trek. 
• Picard dances the mambo.
• Troi and Crusher's breasts get perky.  A boob joke, in Star Trek.
I mean, listen...I'm not saying there shouldn't be humor.  All of the best Trek movies have humor in them.  Some of them have a lot of humor.  But super-juvenile humor?  Meh.  It has its place (I'm not above laughing at a good fart joke), but Trek isn't that place.

• I've never been so angry that my forehead split open...but I've been close.
• "You will return my men, or this alliance will end with the destruction of your ship."
  
  This movie is a steaming pile, and the Son'a themselves are pretty underwhelming as an adversary...but F. Murray Abraham does his best as Ru'afo.
• Admiral Doughterty says that "Warp drive transformed a bunch of Romulan thugs into an empire", which fuels fan speculation about exactly when, where and how the Romulan Star Empire obtained warp capabilities (and other technologies).
  
  I won't go into the topic at length for the sake of one throw-away line in one of the lesser Trek movies, but as always Ex Astris Scientia can scratch that itch, if you have it.
• The Enterprise-E's captain's yacht is called the Cousteau.  And apparently it can hold "seven metric tons of ultritium explosives".
  
  
  
• "Saddle up...lock and load."
  
  :rolleyes:
• For all of its other flaws, this is the only Trek movie where the director could tell an actor "Hey, and go get that phaser rifle off of that llama."
• "Definitely feeling aggressive tendencies, sir!"
  
  :rolleyes:
• Apparently subspace weapons were banned as part of the Khitomer Accords.  I hope someone told the Klingons.
• I think this movie and pretty much every other episode of VOY are the only times the warp core ejection system has actually worked.  I'm not counting 2009's Star Trek, because I refuse to accept that they had like...50 damned warp cores to eject.
• Geordi comments afterward that they are "fresh out of warp cores".  Apparently the Sovereign class, unlike its smaller Intrepid-class sister, does not have a secondary warp assembly.
• There's a joke in here about the "Riker Maneuver" involving hot gas and playing with your joystick, but I don't have the energy to make it.
• Careful, Worf's got a bazooka.
• While I'm being all turbo-nerd about Trek weaponry, there is a subtle change in the size and shape of the main "Type 2" hand phaser in between the latter seasons of TNG and the TNG-era films (they actually first appeared in First Contact along with many other aesthetic changes, but I'm just now noticing them now).
  
  
  
  (images from Star Trek Fact Files, courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  As you can see, the overall shape is very similar.  But the front of the unit is slightly smaller and with smoother edges, and the handle is curved instead of being straight.  We'll see this same design on DS9.  Curiously, the redesigned hand phaser (along with other devices that received slight updates, like the tricorder) will be seen in service aboard USS Voyager, even though the uniforms won't be updated to the new grey-top jumpsuits.
• Got people trapped underneath/behind a bunch of rock?  Good thing you brought your android!
• Oh, good.  We're going to get to revisit that "perfect moment" clap-trap.  I was really worried that we wouldn't get back to that.
• The Son'a and the Ba'ku are the same race?  I NEVER SAW THAT COMING.
• Goodbye, Admiral Douchebag Dougherty.
• Also, I demand to know who approved this special effects shot.  I mean...even a bad Trek movie should have awesome special effects.  Do you know what happens when you have Trek movie with crappy special effects?  Star Trek V, that's what happens.  And this movie, apparently.
  
  
  
• "...trying not to see what bitterness has done to the Son'a.  How it's turned Ru'afo into a madman, and you--turned you into a coward.  A man who denies his own conscience."
  
  "Get in."
  
  "A coward without the moral courage to prevent an atrocity.  You offend me."
  
  "Is this how a Federation officer pleads for his life?"
  
  "I'm not pleading for my life.  I'm pleading for yours."
  
  There's at least one good bit of dialog in this steamer.
• I like how the bridge on the bridge on the Son'a flagship has a couch instead of a captain's chair.  That's a nice touch.
• "Set a collision course."
  
  It's a little early in the fight for that, don't you think?
• "He wouldn't!"
  
  "Yes, he would."
  
  Okay, that's a little funny :)
• The Enterprise-E sweeping along the ventral side of the rapidly-exploding collector ship and beaming Picard out is a fairly exciting sequence.  I'll give 'em that one.
• "Captain, the Son'a crew would like to negotiate a cease-fire.  It may have something to do with the fact that we have three minutes of air left."
• "Your feelings about her have not changed since the day I met you, Commander.  This place just...let them out for a little fresh air."
  
  So...I guess Worf is over his little fling with Troi, then?
• "Data, don't forget.  You have to have a little fun, every day."
  
  "...so definitely don't buy the farm in the next movie or anything."

'Star Trek: First Contact'

Star Trek:  First Contact

(viewed Saturday & Sunday, May 24-25)

 

• Although I was surprised to remember that Generations had such a nice soundtrack, the excellent soundtrack of First Contact is no surprise at all.  I generally consider it to be the best soundtrack among the TNG-era films, largely due to the return of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith (which is no slight against Dennis McCarthy).  After James Horner (The Wrath of Khan), Jerry Goldsmith has probably composed most of my favorite Trek music.
• Got a little PTSD there, Jean-Luc?  Just a little bit?
• This film marks the debut of a lot of new aesthetics for Star Trek.  And although they're not the biggest change, the first one we see is the new Starfleet uniform.  It features a black jumpsuit with a grey top and a turtleneck-esque undershirt bearing the wearer's department colors.
  
  
  
  (members of the Enterprise-E crew wearing the post-2373 uniform)
  
  

  These uniforms will become the standard for the next two TNG-era films, as well as the later seasons of DS9.  VOY will retain the "early-DS9"-style uniforms, arguably because they were in a slightly different quadrant when the new uniform was introduced.
• Admiral Hayes is apparently a high-ranking Starfleet flag officer, who appears one more time after First Contact (in a couple of episodes of VOY).
• And of course the biggest "new thing" introduced in this movie is the brand new Enterprise.
  
  
  
  
  USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), the sixth Starfleet vessel to bear the name, is a Sovereign-class starship.  She's longer than her Galaxy-class predecessor (685m vs. 642m), but actually smaller in overall volume. 
  
  More compact and very reminiscent of the Excelsior class (to my eyes, at least), the Sovereign certainly retains the Galaxy's exploratory and diplomatic capabilities while clearly possessing a much more combat-oriented design (owing, no doubt, to conflict with the Borg and concern over new threats like the Dominion).
• "We're not going."
  
  "What do you mean 'We're not going'?"
• Also?  I already used the "Geordi got new eyes!" joke when I did "All Good Things...", but hey--GEORDI GOT NEW EYES!
• There far too many starships involved in the Battle of Sector 001 to mention them all by name, but First Contact is where we see a whole new family of starship designs--most of them, like the Sovereign class, designed with threats from powers like the Borg in mind.
  
  
  • Akira class
  • Norway class
  • Saber class
  • Steamrunner class
  
  And although the Defiant, Intrepid and Nova classes are introduced elsewhere (DS9 and VOY, specifically), I consider them part of this same crop of "First Contact" ship classes--the "new school" of Starfleet ship design.
  
• "I'm about to commit a direct violation of our orders.  Any of you who wish to object should do so now.  It will be noted in my log."
  
  "Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here sir when I say 'To hell with our orders.'"
• I enjoy that they play a few strains of the "Klingon Battle" theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture when Worf is battling the Borg aboard the Defiant and preparing to ram the Borg Cube :)
• I can't recall if they appear on DS9 or VOY earlier than this, but the Battle of Sector 001 is the first time during my re-watch of "All the Trek" that I'm seeing the photon torpedo's bigger brother, the quantum torpedo.
• The ill-fated Lt. Hawk is played by Neal McDonough, better-known to most of us has having portrayed 1st Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton in HBO's Band Of Brothers.
• "The Defiant?"
  
  "Adrift, but salvagable."
  
  "Tough little ship."
  
  "Little?"
  
  "Uh, yeah.  We're nearly 700m long, and it's about 120m long.  So yes.  Little."
• "You do remember how to fire phasers?"
  
  :trollface:
• First Contact takes another stab at writing the history of Earth in between the present day and the events that take place in Star Trek.  According to the "history", as told in this film, our planet experiences a Third World War that lasts until approximately 2053 and claims the lives of at least 600 million people.
  
  About a decade after this, in 2063, Dr. Zefram Cochrane makes his first warp flight aboard the Phoenix and shortly thereafter makes First Contact with the Vulcans.
• The Star Trek Encyclopedia states that the launch vehicle for the Phoenix was a "Titan V nuclear missile".  However, the Titan V was a proposed (but not produced) civilian launch vehicle derived from the overall Titan rocket program--it would have launched from a launchpad, not a missile silo.  The actual launch vehicle for the Phoenix appears to have been an LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile.  Such missiles wouldn't have been in service anywhere close to the events of the fictionalized WW3 of Star Trek however, as they were all taken out of service by the late 1980s and replaced with variants of the LGM-30 Minuteman missile.
• "Yeah, what you have here is a pretty severe Borg infestation.  You'll want to spray right away."
• So what does a ship without an android do if they need to encrypt their computer in a hurry? :P
• Hey kids, it's the Doctor (sort of)!
• "Timeline?!?  This is no time to argue about time!  We don't have the time!"
  
  Drunk Troi is my favorite Troi.
• This movie was Jonathan Frakes' directorial debut (at least for a feature film).  He also directed the much-maligned Insurrection, but we can't blame him for Nemesis--that movie was the fault of a Star Trek-hating human turd named Stuart Baird.
  
  
  
• "Captain, I believe I am feeling...anxiety.  It is an intriguing sensation, a most distracting..."
  
  "Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience.  But perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now."
  
  "Good idea sir...done."
  
  "Data, there are times that I envy you."
• It's official.  Data's gettin' pretty good at headbutting breaking Borg necks.
  
  
  
  
• Again, sometimes the props on Trek do look like they came straight from a Spencer Gifts.  None more so than the signature Borg "place where they put your head" thingie.
  
  
  
• "And you people--you're all astronauts on some kind of...star trek?"
• I never liked the concept of the Borg Queen.  Sure, individuality within the context of the Borg has been explored before--notably with Locutus and then with Hugh and the separatist cell under Lore's leadership.  But the Borg Collective itself having a singular representative, while very useful for narrative purposes, dulls their sinister edge just a bit.  A faceless, relentless enemy is ever-so-slighly more menacing, in my opinion.
  
  This "nerfing of the Borg", as I've sometimes called it, continues in VOY.  It doesn't really diminish my enjoyment of this movie (I consider it my favorite among the TNG-era films), but it is a minor irk.
• Also?  The sexual innuendo in the scenes between Data and the Borg Queen makes me...uncomfortable.
• Picard tells Lily that there are 150 planets in the Federation, spread over 8,000 light years.  This is probably the most definitive statement we have in Trek as to the size of the UFP, and along with other clues it allows us to make a fairly accurate (although logically flawed; see below) guess as to the size and location of the Federation and its position relative to the other galactic powers.
  
  As usual, Ex Astris Scientia has a pretty fascinating piece about this (well, fascinating if you're into that sort of thing) as well as a conjectural map. 
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  The one serious issue with a Federation of that size is the time it would take to travel to its various corners, which doesn't jive at all with the time it takes the Enterprise-D and other ships to criss-cross Federation space.  A figure of a few hundred light years in diameter is much more reasonable, although this is directly contradicted by what's said on-screen.
  
  Ultimately, this is one of those things that is just "wrong" about Star Trek wherein we just have to sort of suspend disbelief and/or ignore the inconsistencies.  Much like we (or at least I) ignore the ridiculous 700m size of the Enterprise in the new Abramsverse films, I ignore the "8,000 light years across" remark by Picard.  Who knows, maybe he's referring to the limits of human exploration (contrary to what the context of that sentence would have us believe)?
• "Borg?  Sounds Swedish."
  
  The television series Vikings (worth checking out, if you like fictionalized historic drama) features a character named Jarl Borg, and I think of this line every time he shows up :)
• "You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th Century."
  
  What he means, of course, is that for a small minority of the galaxy's intelligent creatures lucky enough to live in the Federation, their basic needs are taken care of and there is no need for currency in order to purchase goods and services--allowing its citizens to pursue art, exploration, science, etc.
  
  Of course, there's absolutely still money in the 24th Century.  Outside of the Federation, gold-pressed latinum seems to be a common form of exchange.  Even Federation citzens (or at least Starfleet officers) receive credits that can be spent on luxury items.
• I'm convinced that the entirety of the holodeck sequence was contrived just to give Captain Picard a chance to mow down Borg drones with a tommy gun.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, the host of the club in the holodeck program is played by Ethan Phillips, more familiar to most Trekkies and Neelix on VOY.
• Nicky the Nose is played by actor Don Stark, who I know better as Bob Pinciotti on That '70s Show.  He also played a Yridian on DS9.  But then again, who didn't play a Yridian on DS9?
• Lt. Reginald Barclay:  Awkward in any century.
• "I gotta take a leak."
  
  "Leak?  I'm not detecting any leak."
  
  "Don't you people from the 24th Century ever pee?"
  
  "Oh...leak.  I get it.  That's pretty funny!"
• The sequence in which Capt. Picard, Lt. Cmdr. Worf and Lt. Hawk venture onto the hull of the Enterprise-E to stop the Borg from completing their inter-plexing beacon is, much like the crash sequence in Generations, a nice reminder of just how gigantic these ships are.  You don't see them to scale with every day objects (or people, as the case may be) very often.
• EW.  DON'T DO IT.  DON'T RIP THE SKIN OFF, DATA.
• Data and the Borg Queen = moistest kiss in the Alpha Quadrant :ick:
• "You told him about the statue?"
• Sure, Worf always packs his mek'leth when he's going for a stroll in zero gravity.  Don't you?
• Poor Lt. Hawk :(
• "ASSIMILATE THIS."
  
  WORF ANGRY.  WORF SMASH.
• "I didn't build this ship to usher in a new era for humanity.  You think I want to go to the stars?  I don't even like to fly.  I take trains!"
• "You're afraid.  You want to destroy the ship and run away.  You coward."
  
  "If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand."
  
  Woops.  That's going to be an awkward exchange to take back later.
• "Come on, Captain.  You're not the first person to get a thrill out of murdering someone!"
• "I will not sacrifice the Enterprise.  We make too many compromises already; too many retreats.  They invade our space, and we fall back.  They assimilate entire worlds, and well fall back.  Not again.  The line must me drawn here!  This far, no farther!  And I will make them pay for what they've done!"
• "You broke your little ships."
• This is one of the first times that we actually see the escape pods being boarded and leaving a starship.  I believe the only other time is in the DS9 series premiere.
• "So much for the Enterprise-E."
  
  "We barely knew her."
  
  "Think they'll build another one?"
  
  "Plenty of letters left in the alphabet."
• The Enterprise-E's escape pods are all locked in for a course to Gravett Island, a fictional location in the South Pacific named after screenwriter Ron Moore's assistant.
• "Magic Carpet Ride" for a lift-off song?  Sure, I like Steppenwolf too.  I'd probably go with "Rocket Man", though.
• The Phoenix sports fairly recognizable warp nacelles, although we don't know much else for certain about her warp engine.  I've always assumed that--in the same vein as other non-canon, early Earth starships--she used a comparatively primitive fusion reactor to generate the power necessary for warp flight, as opposed to the matter/anti-matter reactors used on later starships.
  
  
  
  
  

  Although it's all non-canon, the Starfleet Museum has a neat piece about the development of M/AM drives and the transition to those from fusion-powered drives.  It's a fun read, if you're a turbo nerd like me.
• The Borg Queen explicitly states that she was present during Picard's assimilation and his brief existence as Locutus, even though we don't see her in "Best Of Both Worlds".
• The plasma that evaporates all of the other organic material in engineering spares Data's uniform, so I guess we can assume that the new uniforms are all-synthetic.  And plasma-safe.
  
  
  
• The Vulcan survey ship that makes contact after Dr. Cochrane's warp flight is the T'Plana-Hath.  The name is an homage to a Vulcan "matron of philosophy" briefly mentioned by Spock during his "re-training" on Vulcan after his refusion (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).
• They make a pretty clean get away at the end of this movie.  Heavy damage in their engineering section, no functioning deflector dish, and they can just generate some chronometric particles an get out of dodge without a problem?  Seems legit.