Tag: Romulans

Categories
Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Minefield

Star Trek: EnterpriseMalcolm gets a breakfast invitation from Captain Archer, but the security chief finds himself nervous the whole time. A call from the bridge saves Malcolm from the awkward situation, and then plunges him into a deadly one – the Enterprise strikes a mine which has somehow been cloaked, remaining invisible until it’s too late, causing major damage to the ship. A second mine adheres to the hull, giving the crew an opportunity to study it and learn how to detect other cloaked mines, but this one is still live and could blow at any moment, destroying the Enterprise. Archer orders the ship brought to a halt and Malcolm insists on going out on the hull to defuse the mine. When he tries, however, it springs an additional attachment to fasten itself even more tightly to the Enterprise and lances through Malcolm’s leg in the process. Archer suits up to help him, but while the captain is outside the ship, T’Pol has to deal with a new problem – the minelayers have returned, identifying themselves as Romulans and insisting that the Enterprise withdraw from their territory immediately or be destroyed.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by John Shiban
directed by James Contner
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Timothy Glenn (Med Tech), Elizabeth Magness (Injured crewmember)

MinefieldNotes: Minefield actually adheres quite closely to established Star Trek continuity. It was mentioned in Balance Of Terror (1966) that no one in Starfleet had seen the face of a Romulan prior to that incident involving Kirk’s Enterprise, but no one mentioned whether or not the Romulans’ ships had been seen before.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Star Trek The Movies The Next Generation

Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 56844.9: On the eve of the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi (and their reassignment as Riker is scheduled to take command of the U.S.S. Titan), the Enterprise investigates sensor readings indicating positronic activity, and on a distant world the disassembled body of a Soong-type android is found. When Data assembles his newfound “brother,” it identifies itself as B-4, and it turns out to be very primitive indeed – perhaps even an original prototype constructed before Lore. Picard receives new orders from Starfleet Command: Admiral Janeway is sending the Enterprise to begin peace talks with what appears to be a new Romulan government. But when he arrives at Romulus, Picard finds a young human – almost a mirror image of himself – has installed himself as the Romulan Praetor after killing the entire Romulan Senate in a coup. Picard is given shocking proof that Shinzon, the new Praetor, is a young clone of himself. Shinzon claims to have been the remnant of an abandoned project to replace Picard and infiltrate the Federation, but now – with the same drive, ambition and charisma as Picard possesses – he claims to want peace. Picard is concerned by the blood spilled by Shinzon’s coup, especially when Shinzon commands a gigantic battleship called the Scimitar. Troi suffers a telepathic intrusion from Shinzon’s Reman Viceroy, and Dr. Crusher discovers something else – thalaron radiation, which, when used as a weapon, completely disrupts living matter at a submolecular level. B-4 also appears to be part of whatever plot Shinzon is hatching, though Geordi and Data discover this in time to prevent the android from passing any sensitive information along to Shinzon. Shinzon kidnaps Picard and beams B-4 aboard the Scimitar – though he doesn’t realize until later that he has brought Data aboard instead. Data helps Picard escape after the captain learns of Shinzon’s true agenda: to topple not just the Romulans, but the Federation as well. And unless someone makes a supreme sacrifice to destroy it, Shinzon has a weapon more than adequate to the task.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by John Logan
story by John Logan & Rick Berman & Brent Spiner
directed by Stuart Baird
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data / B-4), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Tom Hardy (Shinzon), Ron Perlman (Viceroy), Shannon Cochran (Senator Tal’aura), Dina Meyer (Commander Donatra), Jude Ciccolella (Commander Suran), Alan Dale (Praetor Hiren), John Berg (Senator), Michael Owen (Helm Officer Branson), Kate Mulgrew (Admiral Kathryn Janeway), Robertson Dean (Reman Officer), David Ralphe (Commander), J. Patrick McCormack (Commander), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Computer voice)

Notes: A scene introducing Commander Madden (played by Steven Culp), Riker’s replacement as the Enterprise’s first officer, was cut out of the film. Director Bryan Singer, Patrick Stewart’s boss in the X-Men films, plays an uncredited role as an Enterprise bridge officer. One of the Starfleet ships at sector 1045 is the U.S.S. Archer, according to the viewscreen display; this may or may not be a reference to Captain Archer of the 22nd century Enterprise. In a bit of a blooper, Picard looks at a photo of himself in a Kirk-era Starfleet cadet uniform, completely bald – though in the fifth season episode Violations, it was established that he had hair as recently as when he brought Jack Crusher’s body home.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Babel One

Star Trek: EnterpriseCaptain Archer puts a polish on his worst manners to welcome aboard a delegation of Tellarites. The Enterprise is ferrying the Tellarite ambassador and his staff to a peace conference with the Andorians on the planet Babel. En route to the summit, however, the Enterprise receives a distress call from an Andorian ship and responds as quickly as possible. When the Enterprise gets there, the ship has been destroyed, and only a few life pods remain. Captain Shran, Archer’s occasional ally, was commanding the doomed vessel, and claims that a powerful Tellarite ship was behind the attack. He’s also incensed to discover that there is a Tellarite delegation aboard the Enterprise, and the Andorian captain makes is clear that he’s out for blood. The Enterprise itself is soon attacked by an Andorian ship, but T’Pol spots something unusual in the sensor readings – this Andorian attacker’s energy profile matches the readings given off by the Tellarite warship that destroyed Shran’s ship. The Enterprise puts up a fight and eventually the Andorian ship breaks off and falls back. Archer doubles back to confirm his growing suspicions, and the ship that the Enterprise eventually finds is neither Andorian nor Tellarite – and it seems to have no life support or crew. Trip, Reed, and a small squadron of MACOs board the damaged ship in environment suits, but when it appears that the ship is undergoing repairs and beginning the move again, the MACOs are beamed back to the Enterprise – and Trip and Reed are stranded with only the breathable air in their suits.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Sussman & Andre Bormanis
directed by David Straiton
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Lee Arenberg (Gral), Brian Thompson (Valdore), J. Michael Flynn (Nijil), Molly Brink (Talas), Kevin Brief (Naarg), Jermaine Soto (MACO Crewmember)

Note: Mere days after this episode aired, UPN announced the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

United

Star Trek: EnterpriseTrip and Reed find their way to the bridge of the unidentified ship, where find no one else aboard. The ship changes course violently, and they realize it’s being remotely controlled to engage in another attack. This time, the target is a Rigellian scout ship – and the attacker takes on the guise of the Enterprise, creating another potential incident. On the real Enterprise, Archer tries to force a compromise between the Andorians and Tellarites, but the death of Shran’s mate at the hands of the Tellarite ambassador complicates matters. While the Tellarites and Andorians agree in principle to let Archer lead a coordinated, multi-species effort to find the alien ship, Shran vows to coordinate with no one until he can fight a duel with his wife’s killer. Archer finds a loophole in the rules of an Andorian blood fued and replaces the Tellarite as Shran’s opponent – but even that won’t stop Shran from carrying out his vendetta and endangering the already fragile alliance. And aboard the alien ship, Trip and Reed become the first humans to communicate with an enigmatic species known as the Romulans.

Order DVDsteleplay by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
story by Manny Coto
directed by David Livingston
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Brian Thompson (Valdore), Lee Arenberg (Gral), Molly Brink (Talas), J. Michael Flynn (Nijil), Kevin Brief (Naarg), Geno Silva (Vrax), Scott Allen Rinker (Pilot)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

The Aenar

Star Trek: EnterpriseWith Trip and Reed safely recovered, along with their tricorder readings from the remote-controlled attack ship, Captain Archer decides to continue following the leads on the attackers that nearly drove a wedge between the major species in the Alpha Quadrant. One such lead is the brain wave pattern of the telepathic pilot who was controlling the attack ship: Phlox believes the ship’s controller was at least related to the Andorians. Shran, who elects to stay about the Enterprise to help Archer investigate, consults with his government and learns that the brain waves are that of an Aenar – an elusive, pacifist Andorian subspecies that few living Andorians have seen. The Enterprise travels to Andoria, where Archer and Shran beam down to seek the Aenar. Shran is injured in the treacherous ice caves, but struggles onward, until he and Archer are found by the Aenar – albino, blind Andorians with strong telepathic abilities. The Aenar provide little help, though a young Aenar girl reveals that her brother is missing. She offers to go search for him with Archer and Shran, breaking the Aenar code of non-involvement. Reports come in that more attacks have been carried out by a ship similar to the one that nearly sent the Andorians and Tellarites to war. On the Enterprise, Phlox, T’Pol and Trip are readying a telepathic piloting device of their own, though at best they can only hope to use the unit to disrupt the control signal controlling the attack drone. But this time, the mysterious Romulans have dispatched two of the drones – and the Enterprise crew, even with the help of an Aenar, can only hope to disrupt control to one of them.

Order DVDsteleplay by Andre Bormanis
story by Manny Coto
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Alexandra Lydon (Jhamel), Brian Thompson (Valdore), Geno Silva (Vrax), Alicia Adams (Lissan), Scott Allen Rinker (Gareb)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Phase II / New Voyages Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films

World Enough And Time

Star Trek: Phase II

This is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 6283.4: A distress call takes the Enterprise into the Neutral Zone, where they see a helpless cargo ship destroyed by Romulan Birds of Prey using a new weapon not seen before by the Federation. After it destroys that ship, however, the weapon backfires, enveloping everything nearby in an energy field, including the Enterprise. Sulu and exo-tech expert Lt. Chandris take a shuttlecraft to the wreckage of the lead Romulan ship to learn more about the weapon, but waves of instability wreak havoc with the ship’s structure, tearing it apart and leaving only seconds before the warp core breaches. Sulu and Chandris run back to find their shuttle has been lost, and when Sulu calls the Enterprise for an emergency transport, he’s literally a different man when he returns: he has aged over 30 years, and Chandris doesn’t rematerialize at all. Sulu explains that a rift led them to safety on a habitable world in another dimension, and they spent that time settling down and starting a family. Sulu introduces his crewmates to his daughter, Alana, whose transporter pattern Scotty can barely lock onto. The only way to keep her molecules from scattering is to create a field that stabilizes her pattern. Every time Kirk orders the Enterprise to try to break away from the distortion generated by the Romulans’ weapon, Alana starts to fade out of existence. With mere hours before the distortion destabilizes the space within it enough to destroy the Enterprise, Sulu must try to recover his memory of how to navigate a ship through the distortion – with the full knowledge that escape may condemn his daughter to death.

Watch Itwritten by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree
directed by Marc Scott Zicree
music by Alan Derian

Cast: James Cawley (Captain Kirk), Jeffery Scott (Mr. Spock), John Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (Sulu), Grace Lee Whitney (Commander Janice Rand), Christina Moses (Alana), John Lim (Lt. Cmdr. Sulu), Andy Bray (Lt. Chekov), Julienne Irons (Lt. Uhura), Charles Root (Scotty), Ron Boyd (DeSalle), Lia Johnson (Dr. Chandris), Mimi Chong (Demora Sulu), Natasha Soudek (Lt. Soudek), Mallory Reaves (Ensign Mallory), Kaley Pusateri (Sulu Granddaughter), Kurt Carley (Stunt Guard #1), Brian Holloway (Stunt Guard #2), Cali Ross (Ensign Juvenia), Cynthia Wilber (Lt. Wyndham), Kitty Kavey (Lt. Turkel), Katrina Kernodle (Yeoman), Katia Mangani (Dead Romulan #1), R.M. Martin (Dead Romulan #2), Don Balderamos (Dead Romulan #3), Steve Perry (voice of Pilot), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Computer Voice)

Notes: The costumes for Sulu and his daughter were designed by Star Wars prequel art director Iain McCaig, along with his own daughter, Mishi McCaig. Fencing coach Tom Morga is also a stuntman who has featured in past Star Trek adventures, including Star Trek VI, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. Michael Okuda is credited with “graphics” for this episode.

Review: The second New Voyages episode in a row to feature a crew member’s miraculous aging and the return of the original actor, World Enough And Time thrills me and bugs me in equal measure. It’s actually a much more effective story, in many places, than To Serve All My Days (the installment which brough back Walter Koenig as Chekov) – there’s some real emotional resonance here, rather than an odd conversation between the character’s old and young incarnations. It certainly doesn’t hurt that George Takei is simply magnificent as Sulu, giving the character more depth than his appearances in the original series and all of the original movies ever allowed. Helping matters considerably is that he’s not the only one – Christina Moses, as Sulu’s daughter from another dimension, is outstanding. Between these two, everyone else has to bring their “A” game to the table, especially James Cawley. If nothing else, these “special guest” episodes have helped to raise the acting bar on New Voyages.

Categories
Reboot (Abrams) Movies Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek MoviesStardate 2233.04: An immensely powerful vessel of unknown origin appears in the path of the Federation starship U.S.S. Kelvin. The vessel’s commander summons the captain of the Kelvin to negotiate a cease-fire in person, and he acceeds to this demand, having little choice and even less backup. He leaves Commander George Kirk in charge of the Kelvin. The captain is questioned about a Vulcan ambassador named Spock whom he has never met, and is killed in cold blood by his hosts. George Kirk orders the Kelvin to beat a hasty retreat, but the early-23rd-century Starfleet ship is simply no match for its attacker. Kirk orders an evacuation and prepares to leave with his wife, who is in labor. When it becomes apparent that the Kelvin’s autopilot is incapable of defending the evacuation shuttles, Kirk remains on the bridge and sets the Kelvin on a collision course with its unknown assailant. Seconds before he dies, Kirk hears the sound of his son being born and tells his wife to name the child Jim.

Although he possesses exceptional intelligence and instincts, James Tiberius Kirk has a troubled childhood and a police record before he even reaches his 20s. After a bar dust-up with a group of Starfleet cadets that doesn’t quite go his way, Kirk comes to the attention of Captain Christopher Pike, who wrote his Starfleet dissertation on the U.S.S. Kelvin mission and is more than familiar with Kirk’s background. Pike challenges Kirk to challenge himself – to enlist in Starfleet. Kirk declines the invitation, but then Pike makes it a dare that Kirk can’t back down from: prove that he’s at least the leader of men that George Kirk was. Kirk joins Starfleet, promising that he’ll complete the four-year academy program in three.

Stardate 2258.42: Rising Starfleet cadet James T. Kirk is brought before a Starfleet Academy board of inquiry on accusations that he aced the dreaded unwinnable Kobayashi Maru simulation by reprogramming it to allow him to win. The Academy graduate responsible for the simulation’s programming, Commander Spock, is less than impressed with Kirk. But before judgement can be passed, a planet-wide distress signal from Vulcan mobilizes Starfleet. Though he’s intended to stay on Earth pending the outcome of his hearing, Kirk is smuggled aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise by his Academy friend, Dr. Leonard McCoy, under the pretenses of a medical emergency. When he hears details of what’s happening at Vulcan, Kirk breaks his cover and alerts Captain Pike to the danger: whatever is attacking Vulcan is the same unknown ship that destroyed the Kelvin. Over Spock’s protests, Pike enters the fray with caution – and the Enterprise is the only Starfleet ship to survive the initial engagement. As with the Kelvin, Pike is summoned to the ship to meet Captain Nero, who questions him about Earth’s defenses – but on the way to Nero’s ship, Pike drops Kirk, Sulu and another crewman with hand-to-hand combat experience off to sabotage the drilling platform Nero has aimed at Vulcan. Kirk and Sulu are the only crew members who survive the trip to the drilling platform and make quick work of the Romulans manning it, but they’re unable to prevent it from firing. By firing red matter into the planet’s core, the platform creates a small black hole, and Vulcan is destroyed. Spock is able to rescue several members of the Vulcan Science Council, including his father Sarek, but his human mother is lost.

In the wake of this disaster, Kirk insists that the Enterprise should intercept Nero’s ship rather than wasting time rendezvousing with the rest of Starfleet, but Spock will brook no disagreement with his commands and eventually has Kirk put off the ship in a life pod which lands on remote Federation outpost Delta Vega. After a close encounter – almost too close to survive – with the local fauna, Kirk finds himself in the company of an elderly Vulcan who says that he is Spock – from a future that Nero’s actions have changed permanently. The elder Spock convinces Kirk that his best chance for victory against Nero is to join forces with the younger Spock, however unlikely such a prospect seems given their current relationship. They discover a Federation base where a Starfleet engineer named Montgomery Scott is languishing in obscurity, but thanks to Spock, Scott is about to make a momentous breakthrough that will rather handily put Kirk back aboard the Enterprise.

Once he’s back on the Enterprise, Kirk must single-handedly convince Spock that the destruction of Vulcan has caused enough emotional upset – even in a Vulcan – that Spock is unfit for duty. When Spock declares himself unfit to serve as captain, that leaves Pike’s choice for acting first officer – Kirk – to take command. His mission is to save Earth from Nero, and the odds are against him. On the other hand, James T. Kirk has the U.S.S. Enterprise at his command, along with a crew that, regardless of the changes to the timeline, is destined to help him make history.

Order this movie on DVDscreenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
directed by J.J. Abrams
music by Michael Giacchino

Cast: Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), Eric Bana (Nero), Bruce Greenwood (Captain Christopher Pike), Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Ben Cross (Sarek), Winona Ryder (Amanda), Chris Hemsworth (George Kirk), Jennifer Morrison (Winona Kirk), Rachel Nichols (Gaila), Faran Tahir (Captain Robau), Clifton Collins Jr. (Ayel), Antonio Elias (Officer Pitts), Sean Gerace (Tactical Officer), Randy Pausch (Kelvin Crew Member), Tim Griffin (Kelvin Engineer), Freda Foh Shen (Kelvin Helmsman), Kasia Kowalczyk (Kelvin Alien), Jason Brooks (Romulan Helmsman), Sonita Henry (Kelvin Doctor), Kelvin Yu (Medical Technician #1), Marta Martin (Medical Technician #2), Tavarus Conley (Kelvin Crew Member), Jeff Castle (Kelvin Crew Member #2), Billy Brown (Med Evac Pilot), Jimmy Bennett (young Kirk), Greg Grunberg (Kirk’s Stepdad), Spencer Daniels (Johnny), Jeremy Fitzgerald (Iowa Cop), Zoe Chernov (Vulcan Student), Max Chernov (Vulcan Student), Jacob Kogan (Young Spock), James Henrie (Vulcan Bully #1), Colby Paul (Vulcan Bully #2), Cody Klop (Vulcan Bully #3), Akiva Goldsman (Vulcan Council Member #1), Anna Katarina (Vulcan Council Member #2), Douglas Tait (Long Face Bar Alien), Tony Guma (Lew the Bartender), Gerald W. Abrams (Barfly #1), James McGrath Jr. (Barfly #2), Jason Matthew Smith (Burly Cadet #1), Marcus Young (Burly Cadet #2), Bob Clendenin (Shipyard Worker), Darlena Tejeiro (Flight Officer), Reggie Lee (Test Administrator #1), Jeffrey Byron (Test Administrator #2), Jonathan Dixon (Simulator Tactical Officer), Tyler Perry (Admiral Barnett), Ben Binswagner (Admiral Komack), Margot Farley (College Council Stenographer), Paul McGillion (Barracks Officer), Lisa Vidal (Barracks Officer), Alex Nevil (Shuttle Officer), Kimberly Arland (Cadet Alien #1), Sufe M. Bradshaw (Cadet Alien #2), Jeff Chase (Cadet Alien #3), Charlie Haugk (Enterprise Crew Member #1), Nana Hill (Enterprise Crew Member #2), Michael Saglimbeni (Enterprise Crew Member #3), John Blackman (Enterprise Crew Member #4), Jack Millard (Enterprise Crew Member #5), Shaela Luter (Enterprise Crew Member #6), Sabrina Morris (Enterprise Crew Member #7), Michelle Parylak (Enterprise Crew Member #8), Oz Perkins (Enterprise Communiations Officer), Amanda Foreman (Hannity), Michael Berry Jr. (Romulan Tactical Officer), Lucia Rijker (Romulan Communications Officer), Pasha Lychnikoff (Romulan Commander), Matthew Beisner (Romulan Crew Member #1), Neville Page (Romulan Crew Member), Jesper Inglis (Romulan Crew Member #3), Greg Ellis (Chief Engineer Olson), Marlene Forte (Transport Chief), Leonard O. Turner (Vulcan Elder #1), Mark Bramhall (Vulcan Elder #2), Ronald F. Hoiseck (Vulcan Elder #3), Irene Roseen (Vulcan Elder #4), Jeff O’Haco (Vulcan Elder #5), Scottie Thompson (Nero’s Wife), Deep Roy (Keenser), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Starfleet Computer Voice), William Morgan Sheppard (Vulcan Science Minister)

Notes: Star Trek effectively sets up an entirely new timeline for future installments of the movie franchise to follow. The existing timeline – the original 1960s series, its TV spinoffs and the first ten films – are now a separate timeline unaffected by the new adventures of the Enterprise that carry forward from the end of this movie. Intriguingly, it’s possible that this was a separate timeline even prior to Nero’s intervention, given some of the technology seen aboard the early-23rd-century U.S.S. Kelvin. This film was the last acting role for the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who provided the Federation computer voice as she had done since the original Star Trek series. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-him “Barracks Officer” Paul McGillion – whom Kirk asks about his berth on the Enterprise – was formerly a regular cast member on Stargate Atlantis, and auditioned for the part of Scotty. Deep Roy, who plays Scotty’s unusual alien sidekick, is a performer well-known on both sides of the Atlantic; he has appeared in Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who, among many other UK series. The story of Nero’s origins, and Spock’s mission, begins in the original timeline’s 24th century and is chronicled in the graphic novel “Star Trek: Countdown”.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
Star Trek Star Trek Continues Star Trek Fan Films

To Boldly Go – Part I

Star Trek ContinuesThis is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 6988.4: The Enterprise is en route back to Earth. Her mission is complete, and the venerable decades-old starship is due for a major refit. But a communication from Starfleet changes the Enterprise‘s orders one last time: a distress call from a far-flung Federation colony has been received, and naturally the Enterprise is the only ship even remotely close enough to render aid. Arriving at the colony, Kirk and Spock have to defeat an automated defense system before they even set eyes on any living people. A human woman named Lana and her Vulcan husband, Sentek, claim to be the sole survivors of a disaster, but their story doesn’t quite add up. They are revealed to be uplifted Espers – humanoids with powerful psionic potential elevated by exposure to an energy barrier that surrounds the galaxy. They need a ship to rejoin their fellow Espers in a plan to conquer the entire Federation…and they have decided the Enterprise meets their needs nicely.

Watch Itteleplay by Robert J. Sawyer
story by Vic Mignogna & James Kerwin and Robert J. Sawyer
directed by James Kerwin
additional music by Vic Mignogna and Andy Farber

Cast: Vic Mignogna (Captain Kirk), Todd Haberkorn (Mr. Spock), Chuck Huber (Dr. McCoy), Chris Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nicola Bryant (Lana), Cas Anvar (Sentek), Amy Rydell (Romulan Commander), Mark Meer (Tal), April Hebert (Rear Admiral Thesp), Marina Sirtis (Computer Voice), Grant Imahara (Sulu), Kim Stinger (Uhura), Wyatt Lenhart Star Trek Continues(Chekov), Michele Specht (McKennah), Steven Dengler (Drake), Martin Bradford (Dr. M’Benga), Kipleigh Brown (Smith), Reuben Langdon (Dickerson), Cat Roberts (Palmer), Liz Wagner (Nurse Burke), Adam Dykstra (Relief Helmsman), Emie Morissette (Relief Navigator), Michael Parker (Romulan Lieutenant), Jessie Rusu (Transporter Chief), E. Patrick Hanavan III (Esper), Ed Obarowski (Esper), John Cerabino (Enterprise Crew), Sean Davis (Enterprise Crew), Amanda Denkler (Enterprise Crew), Savannah DePew (Enterprise Crew), Ashley Despot (Enterprise Crew), Natalie George (Enterprise Crew), Scott Grainger (Enterprise Crew), Ginger Holley (Enterprise Crew), Peter Lickteig (Enterprise Crew), B.J. Savage (Enterprise Crew), Thomas E. Surprenant (Enterprise Crew), Cassandra Tuten (Enterprise Crew), Kyle Warner (Enterprise Crew)

Star Trek ContinuesNotes: The Espers were first encountered in the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, when the Enterprise‘s original first officer, Gary Mitchell, and ship’s psychologist Elizabeth Dehner were uplifted during a brief encounter with the galactic barrier (which, for the record, is a fictional construct existing only in Star Trek mythology). The Romulan Commander was first encountered in The Enterprise Incident in the original series’ third season, and is here played by the daughter of the original actress, Joanna Linville. Nicola Bryant has decades of genre cred, stemming mostly from a single character, Perugilliam “Peri” Brown, companion of Doctor Who‘s sixth incarnation, a role she originated in 1984 and continues to play in Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio plays. Canadian actor Cas Anvar has appeared in everything from Are You Afraid Of The Dark? to a 2002 adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Lathe Of Star Trek ContinuesHeaven, to appearances in Lost, Argo, voice roles in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and the regular role of Alex Kamal in The Expanse. Nebula Award-winning novelist Robert J. Sawyer is a lifelong Star Trek fan whose past TV credits include the series based on his novel, Flashforward. He also wrote for, and co-edited, the essay anthology Boarding The Enterprise with David Gerrold, a book which also counts theLogBook.com head writer Earl Green as one of its fact checkers and copy editors.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Star Trek Star Trek Continues Star Trek Fan Films

To Boldly Go – Part II

Star Trek ContinuesThis is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 6995.1: Lana and Sentek are nearly successful in their takeover of the Enterprise bridge, stopped only by Lt. Smith, who reveals that she also has uplift powers – long dormant since her first exposure to the barrier five years ago – activated by the ship’s proximity to the barrier. Though Lana and Sentek abandon their takeover attempt and beam back to the Kongo, Kirk is wary enough of Smith’s revelation to confine her to sick bay. Spock hallucinates an encounter with the Romulan commander, trying to tempt him to leave Starfleet and return to Romulus with her, before realizing that the uplifted espers are capable of powerful mental manipulation from afar. Among this and other distractions, the Kongo attacks the Enterprise and does critical damage. Kirk devises a plan to separate the Enterprise‘s primary hull from its stardrive section, allowing for a triple-pronged attack on the Kongo in concert with the Romulans. Sentek contacts Spock and offers to hand over the surviving crew of the Kongo; Dr. McKennah agrees to trade herself as a hostage so she can try to reason with Lana. Only after McKennah has beamed over to the Kongo are the life signs of the Kongo crew revealed to be yet another deception, giving Sentek a live hostage and leaving Kirk and Spock empty-handed. Starfleet scrambles the U.S.S. Farragut and U.S.S. Potemkin – the last two remaining Constitution-class ships other than Enterprise and the Kongo – to engage the espers before they can reach Earth, but the crews of those two ships are tricked into firing upon one another. The Romulan commander’s second-in-command, suspecting that his commander’s continued presence on the Enterprise is a sign of further Federation treachery, fires on the Enterprise at point-blank range before his commander wrests control of the ship from him via remote access codes. A last-ditch plan is set into motion: Lt. Smith is beamed into the Kongo‘s engineering deck, where she begins sabotaging the ship’s power grid. When she is detected and attacked, Smith steps up her attack to a suicide mission, overloading the Kongo’s warp core at the cost of her own life. Scotty tries to beam McKennah over as the Kongo explodes, but as the destroyed ship leaves her nowhere to return, and the Enterprise‘s own systems have suffered massive damage, her transporter signal is lost, leaving Spock wracked with guilt for allowing her to beam to the Kongo while he was in command. Considering this a failure of his ability to rely on his human half’s gut feelings, Spock vows to return to Vulcan to undergo the Kolinahr, a final ritual purge of all emotion. McCoy elects to retire from Starfleet, having witnessed more death than he cares to. Kirk, upon returning to Earth, is offered a promotion to Admiral, which he accepts, giving up the command chair for a desk job as Chief of Starfleet Operations. The Enterprise limps back to spacedock to begin undergoing refits, ending Kirk’s five-year mission.

Watch Itteleplay by Robert J. Sawyer
story by Vic Mignogna & James Kerwin and Robert J. Sawyer
directed by James Kerwin
additional music by Vic Mignogna, Craig Huxley and Andy Farber

Star Trek ContinuesCast: Vic Mignogna (Captain Kirk), Todd Haberkorn (Mr. Spock), Chuck Huber (Dr. McCoy), Chris Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nicola Bryant (Lana), Cas Anvar (Sentek), Amy Rydell (Romulan Commander), Mark Meer (Tal), April Hebert (Rear Admiral Thesp), Marina Sirtis (Computer Voice), Grant Imahara (Sulu), Kim Stinger (Uhura), Wyatt Lenhart (Chekov), Michele Specht (McKennah), Steven Dengler (Drake), Martin Bradford (Dr. M’Benga), Kipleigh Brown (Smith), Reuben Langdon (Dickerson), Cat Roberts (Palmer), Liz Wagner (Nurse Burke), Adam Dykstra (Relief Helmsman), Emie Morissette (Relief Navigator), Michael Parker (Romulan Lieutenant), Star Trek ContinuesJessie Rusu (Transporter Chief), E. Patrick Hanavan III (Esper), Ed Obarowski (Esper), John Cerabino (Enterprise Crew), Sean Davis (Enterprise Crew), Amanda Denkler (Enterprise Crew), Savannah DePew (Enterprise Crew), Ashley Despot (Enterprise Crew), Natalie George (Enterprise Crew), Scott Grainger (Enterprise Crew), Ginger Holley (Enterprise Crew), Peter Lickteig (Enterprise Crew), B.J. Savage (Enterprise Crew), Thomas E. Surprenant (Enterprise Crew), Cassandra Tuten (Enterprise Crew), Kyle Warner (Enterprise Crew)

Star Trek ContinuesNotes: This final episode of Star Trek Continues effectively provides a series finale for the original series, leaving characters and situations in much the same state we find them in at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In addition to Motion Picture-era uniforms appearing prominently, there are even musical nods toward the first Star Trek movie in the form of musical contributions from electronic music pioneer Craig Huxley playing the Blaster Beam, the unearthly instrument heard prominently in the scores of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

Remembrance

Star Trek: PicardStardate not given: A rising AI specialist, Dahj, is celebrating her acceptance as a research fellow at the Daystrom Institute on Earth, when a group of armed and armored men beam into her apartment. Her boyfriend is murdered, and somehow she survives the encounter, calling on self-defense skills in which she has never trained, overcoming all of her opponents. She has a momentary vision of a man’s face before she flees, and sets out to find him.

The man whose face she sees is hardly an unknown: retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard is being interviewed on the anniversary of his attempt to evacuate the population of Romulus before its sun went supernova. When a surprise attack on Mars by rogue synthetic life forms caused Starfleet to abandon the massive rescue attempt, Picard felt that the Federation was no longer living up to its ideals and resigned his Starfleet commission in protest. In the years since, he has retreated to his family’s vineyards in France, a quiet existence that is disturbed a little by an intrusive interviewer, and disturbed more when Dahj shows up unannounced. She has never met Picard, but somehow knows he will be able to help her. When hints begin to point toward Dahj being a sentient synthetic life form, and possibly even a true descendant of Data, Picard grows more protective of her. But a second attempt on Dahj’s life proves to be deadlier than the first – she is destroyed before Picard’s eyes, but not before her assassins are unmasked as Romulans.

Picard goes to visit Dr. Agnes Jurati, one of the Federation’s foremost experts on synthetic life forms and a protege of cyberneticist Bruce Maddox, even though her research is now entirely theoretical since actual development of synthetics has been banned in the wake of the Mars attack. Jurati has B4 – the last known Soong-type android – in storage, disassembled – and theorizes that someone like Dahj would have to have been created by, or from, Data…and she also reveals that synthetics were previously produced in twinned pairs. Picard decides he must find Dajh’s twin before she suffers the same fate.

Order DVDsteleplay by Akiva Goldsman and James Duff
story by Akiva Goldsman & Michael Chabon
and Kirsten Beyer & Alex Kurtzman and James Duff
directed by Hanelle L. Culpepper
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dahj / Dr. Soji Asha), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Orla Brady (Laris), David Carzell (Dahj’s Boyfriend), Merrin Dungey (Interviewer), Jamie McShane (Zhaban), Sumalee Montano (Dahj’s Mother), Maya Eshet (Index), Douglas Tait (Tellarite)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: Picking up plot threads from both Star Trek: Nemesis (the death of Data) and the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie (the supernova destruction of Romulus, which drove Nero to go back in time to change events), the first episode of Star Trek: Picard also references episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including The Measure Of A Man (the only prior appearance of Bruce Maddox) and The Offspring (Data’s first attempt to create a daughter). In Picard’s imagined encounters with Data, the android wears both an original Next Generation uniform and the somewhat less colorful uniforms worn in Nemesis. The synthetics’ attack on Mars was shown in the Short Treks episode Children Of Mars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

Maps And Legends

Star Trek: Picard2385: As a fleet of passenger vessels commanded by Admiral Jean-Luc Picard gathers in orbit of the planet Mars to continue the ongoing emergency evacuation of the entire population of Romulus, whose star is about to go supernova, synthetic life forms performing labor at Utopia Planitia receive a signal from an outside source, overriding their programming and causing them to turn Mars’ own defenses against it in an unexpected attack. The resulting catastrophic loss of life causes Starfleet to reconsider the Romulan evacuation plot.

2399: Picard, now retired, enlists the help of his Romulan housekeepers, Laris and Zhaban, in piecing together the level of Romulan involvement in the recent murder of Dahj, a young woman who may well have been a synthetic life form and the closest anyone has come to replicating an android like Data. Picard suspects the Tal Shiar, a Romulan secret police organization may be involved, but Laris believes it may be an even older Romulan organization, the Zhat Vash, of which the Tal Shiar has always been a very small part. When they beam into Dahj’s apartment in Boston to look for signs of Romulan involvement, they discover that the would-be assassins covered their tracks very carefully. Picard decides to go to Starfleet Headquarters with his concerns, and requests a ship and crew to be assigned to him so he can find Dahj’s twin sister before she too is killed. This request is met with the fury of Starfleet’s commander in chief, still outraged over Picard’s comments in a recent interview that Starfleet abdicated its duty when the Romulan evacuation was abandoned. Turned away, Picard decides to enlist the help of his second-in-command in the evacuation effort, Rafi Musiker, to find and hire a private ship to undertake his mission.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman
directed by Hanelle L. Culpepper
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Michelle Hurd (Rafi Musiker), Harry Treadaway (Narek), David Paymer (Dr. Moritz Benayoun), Jamie McShane (Zhaban), Tamlyn Tomita (Commodore Oh), Orla Brady (Laris), David Carzell (Dahj’s Boyfriend), Wendy Davis (Dr. Kabath), Chelsea Harris (Dr. Naáshala Kunamadéstifee), Peyton List (Lt. Rizzo), Ann Magnuson (Admiral Kirsten Clancy), Marti Matulis (Checkpoint Supervisor), Chaka DeSilva (Burley Fuelie), Alex Diehl (F8), Kate Fugeli (Kvetchy Fuelie), Harrison Grant (Ensign), Anthony R. Jones (Pincus), Paul Keeley (Philosophical Fuelie), Jason Liles (Noiro), Meghan Lewis (Picard Computer / Utopia Planitia Computer Voice), Brit Manor (Tough Fuelie), Zachary James Rukavina (XB/Nameless), Douglas Tait (Tellarite)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

The End Is The Beginning

Star Trek: Picard2385: In the wake of the synthetic life forms’ sneak attack on Mars, Admiral Picard and his second-in-command in the Romulan evacuation effort, Lt. Commander Rafi Musiker, push Starfleet Command hard to continue the evacuation effort. But the Federation seems to be more interested in immediately banning all synthetic life forms and leaving the Romulans to their fate. Picard offers to tender his resignation if the evacuation is halted; not only is his resignation accepted, but Rafi is discharged from Starfleet as well.

2399: In the absence of her Starfleet career, Rafi Musiker has turned to isolation, bitterness, and a variety of vices – at least until Picard shows up, hoping she knows of a ship for hire. But this is the first time in fourteen years that Picard has bothered to make contact, and her help is given only reluctantly, introducing Picard to ex-Starfleet privateer Captain Rios. On the Artifact – the Romulans’ name for the captured Borg cube – Soji Asha is granted a meeting with Ramdha, one of the very few Romulans ever to have been assimilated by the Borg. Scarred by her experiences, Ramdha is not exactly stable, and worse yet, Soji brings information to the conversation that she really shouldn’t have, without knowing why. She seeks the comfort of the Romulan named Narek, unaware that he is in league with a Romulan who has infiltrated the ranks of Starfleet, and they are trying to discover what other hidden knowledge Soji has without “activating” her as the assault on her sister activated Dahj. Romulan assassins make an attempt on Picard’s life at his chateau, only to be bested by Laris and Zhaban, with an unlikely assist from Dr. Agnes Jurati, who was coming to pay Picard a visit to ask to join him in his search for missing cyberneticist Bruce Maddox.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Chabon & James Duff
directed by Hanelle L. Culpepper
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Michelle Hurd (Rafi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), Peyton List (Narissa), Jamie McShane (Zhaban), Tamlyn Tomita (Commodore Oh), Rebecca Wisocky (Ramdha), Orla Brady (Laris), Sumalee Montano (Soji’s Mother), Graham Shiels (Tal Shiar Operative), Son Of Lee (Guard)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: This is Hugh’s first appearance since the 1993 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Descent Part II; he first appeared – and was infected with a trojan horse designed to dissolve at least part of the Borg collective – in 1992‘s I, Borg. In his prior appearances, as well as this episode, he was played by Jonathan Del Arco. Tamlyn Tomita was part of the cast of the 1993 pilot movie that launched competing sci-fi franchise Babylon 5; neither she nor her character, the space station’s Star Trek: Picardoriginal first officer, continued past that pilot. At the time of Star Trek: Picard’s premiere, Rebecca Wisocky had also recently guest starred in several episodes of the Apple TV+ streaming series For All Mankind, co-created by former Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Ronald D. Moore. Vasquez Rocks has been a staple of previous Star Trek series, appearing as various alien worlds in such episodes as the 1967 episode Arena and 1989‘s Next Generation episode Who Watches The Watchers?, but this is its first appearance as Vasquez Rocks.(

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

Absolute Candor

Star Trek: Picard2385: Admiral Picard’s convoy of transports delivers the latest round of Romulan refugees to the desert planet Vashti, a quarter of a million Romulans who immediately find the aid of the Qowat Milat sisterhood of Romulan warrior nuns. A young Romulan boy, Elnor, lives among the nuns, eagerly awaiting Picard’s next visit, though both Picard and the nuns know that a more suitable home will have to be found for Elnor soon. While he is on the surface, Picard receives word of the sneak attack on Mars, and must beam up immediately to find out how the event will impact the Romulan evacuation effort.

2399: En route to Freecloud, a lawless outpost where Bruce Maddox is believed to be hiding, Picard wants La Sirena to make a stop at the Romulan refugee world Vashti, where he hopes to convince one of the warrior nuns – if their order still exists – to join him on his mission as security. He’s disturbed to find that, without Federation aid, the Romulan colony has descended into poverty and disorder, with a new and violent form of Romulan nationalism gaining ground among the locals. The Qowat Milat order is still acting as a force for good on Vashti, and Elnor – now older and a wielder of his own sword – still lives among them. But like Rafi before him, Elnor is upset that Picard suddenly stopped coming to Vashti, and that the Federation’s rescue efforts ceased shortly thereafter. No longer confident that he can find a protector here, Picard prepares to leave Vashti, but he has been recognized by the locals, some of whom would be happy to make sure he doesn’t leave Vashti alive – at least until Elnor intervenes, having decided to help Picard after all. But they are no safer aboard La Sirena, which is under attack by a 23rd century Romulan Bird of Prey flown by the local warlord. Even in space, though, help comes from an unlikely source.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Chabon
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Michelle Hurd (Rafi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Peyton List (Narissa), Amirah Vann (Zani), Rebecca Wisocky (Ramdha), Ian Nunney (young Elnor), Evan Parke (Tenqem Adrev), Erik Alvarez (Refugee #1), Willow Geer (Kibitzer #2), Djamel Hamdad (Refugee #2), Ken Lyle (Fruit Vendor), Linda Nile (Kibitzer #3), Ciro Suarez (Kibitzer #1), Heather Wynters (Shai)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: This is the first appearance of Seven of Nine since the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, Endgame (2001), though very little of what has happened to her between Endgame and this episode is known. (Though a series of novels expanded on the crew of Voyager after their return to Earth, the Star Trek novels are notorious for being invalidated by later TV and film projects.) During writing and pre-production of the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), Paramount Pictures executives wanted Seven written into that movie’s storyline, though ultimately, Jeri Ryan was uninterested in reprising the role at that time, so the character was dropped from the story. It’s unknown what role she would have played in Nemesis, or if it would have precluded how the character of Seven is utilized in this series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

The Impossible Box

Star Trek: Picard2399: Maddox has died in La Sirena‘s sick bay; though Agnes Jurati was with him at the time, she says his injuries were too severe. But he still had time to reveal Soji’s location – on the Borg cube in Romulan space known as the Artifact – to Picard. Rafi calls in a favor from an old friend to get Picard permission to visit the Artifact, but Rafi then returns to her quarters (and the bottle), still stung by her son’s rejection of her on Freecloud. Aboard the Artifact, Picard is haunted by memories of his own time as part of the Borg collective, but is brought back to the present by Hugh, a fellow reclaimed Borg who found his individuality aboard the Enterprise. Soji investigates her own personal belongings, finding out that photos, scrapbooks, and other personal effects are no more than three years old: her life has been a lie. Narek offers to share a Romulan ritual with Soji that would uncover the meaning of a series of disturbing dreams she has had – dreams that, in the end, reveal to her that she is constructed, not human. Once her dream/memory uncovers a clue to a possible location, Narek is done with Soji, sealing her in a room with a Romulan radioactive weapon and leaving her to her fate. Her strength as a synthetic life form now fully activated by the life-or-death situation, she tears through the floor of the room to escape, finding Picard and Hugh; Hugh reveals that the Borg long ago assimilated a Delta Quadrant technology that could allow Picard and Soji to escape, and Picard knows where Soji was constructed…but so do the Romulans.

Order DVDswritten by Nick Zayas
directed by Maja Vrvilo
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Michelle Hurd (Rafi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), Peyton List (Narissa), Barbara Harris (Emmy), Sumalee Montano (Marisol Asha), Marti Matulis (XB Worker), Ella McKenzie (young Soji), Rico McClincton (Older XB), Charlie Newhart (Romulan Guard)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: Hugh reveals that the entirety of the series to this point has happened in a two-week period. Romulan scientists and doctors aboard the Artifact have devised a way to reverse much of the physical remnants of Borg assimilation, though not the psychological effects. Soji has an “Adventures Of Flotter” lunchbox, hearkening back to a character from a 1998 episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Once Upon A Time, of which Naomi Wildman was also a fan. Narek’s radiation-based weapon bears a strong similarity to the Thaleron radiation bomb deployed to eliminate the Romulan senate in the opening scenes of 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. The Borg acquired the spatial trajector technology from the same race that Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew met in Prime Factors (1995). Picard was assimilated by the Borg in part one of The Best Of Both Worlds (1990), an event that continued to haunt him, especially during later encounters with the Borg such as Star Trek: First Contact (1996), brief flashes of which are shown as part of Picard’s traumatic flashbacks.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

Nepenthe

Star Trek: Picard2399: Picard and Soji escape to the planet Nepenthe – not the planet where Soji was constructed, but rather a planet where Picard knows he can find refuge in the home of Will Riker and Deanna Troi, how former Enterprise shipmates. He introduces them – and their daughter Kestra – to Soji, who is still unsure she can trust anyone in her life. On the Artifact, where Elnor stayed behind to cover Picard’s escape, the young Romulan now turns his sword to the task of defending Hugh from the Romulans. Whatever benefits the Romulans brought to the former Borg, Hugh now knows it wasn’t out of altruism, and plans to take the Borg cube away from the Romulans – an ambition that costs him his life, leaving Elnor alone with only one chance to ask for help. On Nepenthe, Picard has to gain Soji’s trust and try to elicit from her the same clues to her place of origin that the Romulans already have.

Order DVDswritten by Samantha Humphrey & Michael Chabon
directed by Doug Aarniokosky
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dr. Soji Asha), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Michelle Hurd (Rafi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), Peyton List (Narissa), Tamlyn Tomita (Commodore Oh), Lulu Wilson (Kestra Riker), Kay Bess (La Sirena Computer)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: Will Riker’s home defense system is in place due to recent problems with Kzinti, a cat-like race created by Larry Niven and “imported” into the Star Trek universe in Niven’s sole animated Star Trek episode The Slaver Weapon (1973). Kestra Riker is named after Deanna’s sister, who died when Deanna was a baby (Dark Page, 1993). Deanna apparently never rose higher in rank than commander, a rank she achieved during her tour of duty on the Enterprise (Thine Own Self, 1994). Kestra’s older brother, Thaddeus, was born around 2381, but died young due to a disease whose known cure would have to have been cultured in a synth’s positronic matrix, meaning that Thad died as a result of the synth ban; Riker and his family moved to Nepenthe, a planet with natural healing qualities, in the hope of restoring him to health. Thad was named after an ancestor of Riker’s who fought in the American Civil War (Death Wish, 1996).

LogBook entry by Earl Green