Trektember: The Sound of Her Voice
Star Trek doesn’t do ghost stories very often. In an intentionally pro-science, anti-supernatural universe, the unusual always has an explanation; gods are advanced shape-shifters, prophets are nonlinear aliens living inside a wormhole, and spirits do not haunt our heroes. This…
Trektember: In the Pale Moonlight
What makes for a moral dilemma? It cannot be as simple as a hero choosing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, nor can it be the courage of one’s convictions against overwhelming odds. No; while those are worthwhile stories,…
Trektember: Far Beyond the Stars
“You are the dreamer…And the dream.” So the street preacher tells Sisko/Benny in the back of the ambulance when he asks (understandably), “Who am I?” Dressed in Sisko’s Starfleet uniform, he still wears the watch, ring, and glasses of Benny…
Whose Playground Is This?: The Florida Project (2017) & The Beach Bum (2019)
Florida was a meme long before the internet. A vacation destination, a retirement home, a place where dreams came true—all the manufactured joy money can buy. For all of Florida’s appealing façade, it often seems that common sense gets trapped…
Trektember: The Dominion Invasion
The breadcrumb trail begun in the second season ends here: the Dominion Invasion. Its events span the fifth and sixth seasons, from Sisko’s loss of Deep Space Nine during the season 5 finale to his recapture of the station seven…
Trektember: Waltz
My four-year-old daughter only likes the shiny things in Star Trek. “Star Strike” as she calls it (the mispronunciation is too cute to correct) really only fascinates her when the ships are jumping to warp or firing photon torpedoes. The…
Reel World: Rewind #041 – Sunshine
On this episode of Reel World: Rewind… Reel World staff members Josh Crabb and Blake Collier are discussing Danny Boyle’s 2007 thought-provoking Sci-Fi movie, Sunshine. A portentous movie about a not-so-implausible future where the sun is dying, Boyle’s movie ponders transcendence,…
Trektember: Empok Nor
There isn’t any objective “up” or “down” in space. Which is why, objectively, it makes no sense that O’Brien and his salvage crew’s approach to Empok Nor feels so disquieting. The abandoned Cardassian station looks almost exactly like the familiar…
Trektember: For the Uniform
Think about the clothes you wear each day. Do they define you? Or are they just one part of you out of many? Unless you’re Derek Zoolander flashing blue steel at every passerby, I’m guessing you’d say the latter. Certainly,…
Trektember: Trials and Tribble-ations
The original Star Trek was sometimes over-dramatic, but it was always dramatic. It was aiming for a kind of weighty seriousness, a sense that things really mattered; except in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” Then they just had fun, even poking…