Sela was a WOAT character - Head of the Romulan military at 23...

While I really like "Yesterday's Enterprise", the alternate timeline it created spawned the Sela stupidity.

They could've used the alternate timeline to have saved Tasha instead of unceremoniously killing her again. I LOLed in Redemption when Sela talked about how Tasha was raped and killed in that monologue of hers. A worse death than the one from the sludge puddle.

They should've done something like have Tasha be brainwashed and integrated into the Romulan empire as a military officer so it would be Tasha herself who faces off against Picard and co, and not her half breed progeny. Then they could have even had a story line where she gets saved and brought back to the federation. The alternate Tasha would've been 20 years older but I'm sure they could've figured it out with makeup or some hand-wavey science explanation. She then could have made standard guest appearances like Wes Crusher, Barclay, Q, etc.

Hah that never occurred to me, that Sela was 23-ish and commander of a warbird. It's absurd, but so was Chris Pine's Kirk being captain at 25 in JJ's universe, and I wasn't phased by that. :shrug:

JJ's Enterprise bridge crew are all under 30 though, it's about marketing as much as casting.

Sela was just bad everything - concept, casting, writing - although Crosby seemed to enjoy and be more comfortable in that role more than she was with Yar.

As you may have heard, the actor who played Sulu, Grant Imahara, died last week of a brain aneurysm at the age of 49. Vic Mignogna (Capt. Kirk as well as exec. producer of Star Trek Continues) uploaded a nice tribute to him on Sunday.

OMG I didn't put that together, but when I saw the story I did think 'that guy looks like Sulu from Star Trek Continues'

Star Trek Continues Episode 4: The White Iris

Didn't dig this one much. It was very touchy-feely with Kirk exploring his guilt and pain at the various women he'd loved and lost over the mission. Edith Keeler ('City on the Edge of Forever') and Miramanee ('The Paradise Syndrome') to name two (there are more, as this is Kirk, after all).

It's all forgiveness and saccharine, and not my cup of tea at all. I did like the final scene though, even though it was the height of saccharine.

Guest appearance by Colin Baker (the 6th Dr Who) as a slightly hysterical alien leader whose planet might be doomed cos Kirk's issues means he forgot the password for an planetary shield (oh brother).

Judge for yourself:

Star Trek Continues Episode 5: Divided we stand

Not bad, by some scifi hokum (read: Wizards did it) Kirk and McCoy find themselves in the American Civil War, on opposing sides, and they are concerned they may affect history (an indirect callback to City on the Edge of Forever, I think), and get to explore what we do and how it can echo through history.

Solid original Star Trek stuff, in essence.

Judge for yourself:

Yes, but the episode has more of an Inner Light from TNG feel to me.

Here's a piece of trivia you might find interesting:

Beginning at the 8:20 mark, the dialogue goes as follows:

Union sergeant: Who Are you?
"Corporal" Kirk: Kirk. James.
Union sergeant: Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves?
"Corporal" Kirk: That's right.
Union sergeant: I thought you was a Lieutenant Colonel.

The reason he says that is that there actually was a James Kirk who was a Lt. Colonel with the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves who fought during the Civil War, albeit not at Antietam. And more specifically, his name was James T. Kirk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...Union_officer)

Wow, nice Easter egg! I wondered why the dude said that, I thought it was from Kirk's natural authority

Star Trek Continues Episode 6: Come Not Between The Dragons

Very ST:TOS in its premise, where a very odd alien life-form is affecting the behaviour of the crew quite drastically. A kind of amalgam of Devil in the Dark and The Naked Time. I quite enjoyed it, particularly a fist fight between two female members of the crew. quite good effects too.

Judge for yourself:

They finally released some info about the Tarantino trek: The crew of the Enterprise visits a 1920s-esque gangster planet, like from the TOS episode "A Piece of the Action." Previous speculation was that it would be based on "Yesterday's Enterprise."

The other ideas for Star Trek movies in development were the sequel to Star Trek Beyond which would've brought back Chris Hemsworth as Kirk Sr. and Noah Hawley's Star Trek idea which would've concerned a viral outbreak (bad timing on that one).

Though with the recession and change in leadership at Paramount, it looks unlikely that any of these will be made anytime soon. Star Trek never became the billion dollar grossing franchise that they wanted it to be. Maybe they should go the opposite route and go with a low budget drama for the next one. Find a Nick Meyer/Harve Bennett who can work well on a tight budget.

Star Trek Continues Episode7: Embracing the Winds

Ok this one deals with institutional sexism and what to do about it, so we're much more in ST:TNG territory and relatively dull, dramatically speaking. There was a bit of drama around a ship blowing up and a rescue on borrowed time, and some stuff involving Chekov. I really like Chekov's characterisation in this series anyway, but this is a particular standout.

The title makes me think of the Spinal Tap album 'Break Like The Wind' though

Judge for yourself:

The first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is on youtube.



I had really low expectations but actually enjoyed it. It's silly but feels like classic Trek, as long as you don't mind that it doesn't take itself seriously.

Rich and Mike do a top TNG picks. Some great content, surprising picks and a really terrific analysis of TBoBW.

Will watch lower decks and Mike and Rich tonight!

I skimmed the Red Letter Media top 5 video and I guess they are right that "The Best of Both Worlds" refers to Riker being both captain and staying on the Enterprise, and not the Borg. Did they basically give up on the whole "Riker is an ambitious officer who wants to be captain" arc after that episode? Seems like one of those vestigial things left over from season 1.

Mignogna definitely has Shatner's mannerisms down pat.

He passed up a command in Season 2 too, the episode with his dad. The beard changed him lol.

Star Trek Continues Episode 8: Still Treads the Shadow
A little dull and worthy, but still has its moments. It turns out there's 3 different versions of Kirk in this one, each with their own issues and motivations, and it does feel very old school in how it's handled.

Not great, but okay.

Judge for yourself:

I finally finished season 5 and this seems like peak TNG. The quality of the show is so consistently good at this point. They nailed down the formula of "a character based drama in a scifi setting with an ensemble cast." You can randomly pick virtually any episode of the show at this point and it will be at least solid. I guess the one negative change is that they stopped attempting some of the more ambitious concepts from previous seasons like Yesterday's Enterprise or Best of Both Worlds.

Compare that to the first few seasons, even season 3 was still inconsistent. Season 4 was the first consistently good season but season 5 upped the ante. The variety of stories, the quality of the acting, the directing and editing are all the highest they've ever been.

I remember wishing a while ago the show would be more serialized, but now I am more than glad they are doing the episodic format. Troi is getting used well, they stopped doing a million "Data learns to be human" episodes and when they finally do a Data episode, "Time's Arrow," it's exciting and original. Haven't seen part 2 yet though.

It seems like they can never stick the landing with the two parters. The first part of Time's Arrow has all this great stuff about Data and the crew dealing with his impending death and then we get to see Data integrate himself into 19th century San Francisco and also learn about these creepy snake aliens who eat people's energy. Young Guinan is fun too.

At the end of part 1, the Enterprise crew heads back in time to solve all these mysteries. When part 2 starts, an indeterminate amount of time has already passed and the crew is wearing 19th century clothes and settled in an apartment. Rent is due so maybe a week or a month has passed? They skipped all the good stuff. The theme about dealing with death is completely ignored as they sew his head back on and forget about the whole thing. And they never expand on the aliens, they're just evil I guess? They defeat them with technobabble and move on.

At least Troi is able to give the whole "We're more evolved and don't have racism, poverty, war, etc. anymore" speech wtihout sounding too condescending.

Star Trek Continues Episode 9: What Ships Are For
An interesting one, where a planet has radiation that makes you see in black and white only - and which turns out to be central to the plot! I really enjoyed this, and it features John De Lancie (Q) and a lady called Anne Lockhart who was in the original Battlestar Galactica, and both actors really give it their all, and what they give are outstanding performances. I can't remember De Lancie any better than in this, it's that good.

It's also a story about immigrants and what they bring to a society, and all that.

Pretty good.

Judge for yourself: