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…
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…
Trektember: The Way of the Warrior
“Some things are worth waiting for…” Benjamin Sisko’s remark at the beginning of season four is in reference to his paramour, Kasidy Yates, but for me it resonated with the episode itself and the whole series. This wasn’t just a…
Trektember: Little Green Men
I’m a little tired of seeing first contact stories told from the humans’ perspective. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t hold it against anyone. Every author I’ve ever heard a story by has been from Earth, after all (at least…
Trektember: The Visitor
I used to think my parents were weird. They would often tell me how impossible it was to explain a parent’s love for their child, so they would simply say “you’ll understand one day.” Yeah sure, I thought before brushing…
Trektember: Explorers
In the Trektember Season 4 preview, I mentioned that “Explorers” is the first episode of any Star Trek that I remember watching live as it aired; and I also said that I felt like the climax of the episode’s character…
Trektember: Civil Defense
Our situation is already pretty bad, but it gets even worse. Therefore we try harder, but it only ever increases our need for help. But in our lowest moment, instead of comfort, our greatest enemy shows up to taunt us.…
Trektember: Profit and Loss
It doesn’t take much imagination to find the trappings of the 1942 classic Casablanca in the story of “Profit and Loss.” Oh, sure, some of the roles are switched, and instead of transit papers it’s a cloaking device that everyone’s…