Vic

The pinnacle of Romulan starship evolution in the late 24th Century, the Romulan Warbird Valdore was a sleek, powerful and intimidating hunter that would keep their already-mighty fleet a force to be reckoned with. Ironically, who would figure that two of these ships would help save the Romulan Star Empire, as well as one of their most hated enemies, the Federation?

The Valdore Namesake

The Valdore can trace its history all the way back to the 2150’s. In a plot to engulf the quadrant in war, Admiral Valdore was the mastermind behind another Romulan warship. Converting two contemporary warbirds into drone ships, he used multispectral holographic emitters and triphasic disruptors to give the ships the ability to disguise themselves as other vessels. With the flip of a switch, the tiny drone was suddenly a Tellarite cruiser, an Andorian Kumari class, or even the Starfleet’s Enterprise NX-01. The Romulans used this deception to cause chaos amongst the other powers by provoking old rivalries and attempting to start new ones. Admiral Valdore used an Aenar, a blind Andorian with extraordinary mental powers, to control the drone ships from the safety of a facility on Romulus. (ENT: “Babel One,” “United,” and “The Aenar.”)

The drones had extraordinary maneuverability and firepower for ships of their size. Despite this, they were eventually defeated by a combined alliance led by the Enterprise NX-01. Ironically, the chaos and war the Romulans hoped to start helped pave the way for the Federation. Admiral Valdore failed in his gambit. Nevertheless, he was still remembered in the Romulan Empire with the namesake of this 24th-century warbird.

24th-Century Romulan Innovation

At 603 meters in length, the Valdore was not a small vessel. Its sleek design carried familiar characteristics that were a staple of Romulan design. The feather-like patterns that adorned the hull could trace their lineage back to the 22nd-century Romulan Bird of Prey, as well as the 23rd. The previous warbird, the D’deridex Class, featured a similar outstretched neck with large wings containing warp nacelles at their edge. The D’deridex however, featured a bottom wing span with a large open space in between the two halves. The Valdore streamlined that design into a much leaner and sharper swooping bird.

The ship sported disruptor cannons and torpedoes for weapons with implacements all over the hull. It also featured a cloaking device, which had been a key piece of technology for the Romulans for more than 100 years. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Algeron prevented the Federation from using or even researching cloaking technology. This would leave them at a significant disadvantage for many years. But, of course, there are always those who ignore the rules.

The Valdore was a dark green color, typical of Romulan vessels. However, a brown version also exists. Whether that is a base materials difference, another type/mission-specific ship, or is simply an aesthetic choice by the shipyard or designer is unknown at this time. Nevertheless, it is worth noting.

In a glass, darkly...

The Valdore, along with another ship of its type, took part in a battle that could have led to the end of both the Romulan Empire and the Federation. Shinzon of Remus instigated a takeover of the Senate by eliminating those who opposed him with the use of a thalaron radiation device. Thalaron radiation destroys all organic matter within seconds, and he would choose to make this technology the basis for his flagship, the Reman warbird Scimitar.

Shinzon was a human, a clone of Federation Captain Jean-Luc Picard, that the Romulans created in the hopes of replacing the real Picard with their agent clone. Ultimately, the plan was cancelled and he was sent to the slave mines on Remus. The Remans took him in as one of their own, identifying with him as another being cast away by the Romulan Star Empire, forced against his will to mine for the Romulans.

Shinzon somehow managed to gain considerable power, despite his rough youth. The Scimitar was constructed at a secret base without the knowledge of the Romulans. He plotted his revenge carefully, also setting his sights on Captain Picard, wanting to make his own mark on the face of the galaxy. He lured the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E to Romulus under the guise of peace talks, only to spring his trap shortly thereafter. The Enterprise narrowly escaped and attempted to rendezvous with a fleet that could stop Shinzon and the Scimitar from laying waste to the Federation. The Enterprise would never reach them.

The enemy of my enemy…

Fortunately for the Romulans and Federation, one of Shinzon’s co-conspirators had second thoughts. Commander Donatra, who had originally supported Shinzon’s coup, turned when she learned of the thalaron weapon and the devastation it could cause.

Shinzon followed the Enterprise and found the perfect spot for an ambush inside a nebula. This cut off all contact with the waiting Federation fleet and the Enterprise was nearly crippled. Commander Donatra, commanding the Valdore, caught up. They were joined with another Valdore-type ship and the odds seemed more in the Enterprise’s favor.

Another key component of the Scimitar was its ability to fire with its perfect cloak. The only way for the Enterprise or Valdore to find the Scimitar was to fire blindly and hope the weapons fire would make contact. The group managed to get a few hits on the Scimitar before it nearly obliterated the other Valdore-type ship, blasting off one of its wings. The fierce battle continued and it looked like the Enterprise and Valdore had damaged the Scimitar. Unfortunately for them, Shinzon feigned a cloak failure in order to lure in the Valdore and hit them in their vulnerable ventral section. The Valdore was out for the count, but Commander Donatra and some of her crew survived.

The Enterprise continued the fight to an old-fashioned showdown. Picard gambled that Shinzon would predict how he would react and Shinzon failed to consider ramming speed.” Shinzon panicked, but it was too late. The Enterprise collided with the Scimitar, locking the two ships together. In the end, only with the heroic self-sacrifice of humanoid android Lt. Commander Data, was Shinzon and his twisted plot for revenge finally stopped.

Commander Donatra and the crew of the Valdore rendered aid and assistance via shuttlecraft to the very crippled Enterprise, giving hope to real peace one day. (Star Trek Nemesis)

The Great Bird of the Empire

The Valdore only appeared on screen one time, in Star Trek Nemesis. Its outstanding design and look are the work of Trek veteran John Eaves. Hopefully, sometime in the future, the Valdore will return as friend or foe to fight for the Romulan Star Empire once again.

Ian Kisluk is an avid Star Trek fan and collector. Trek model and prop building as well as stage acting are his most prolific passions. Follow him @Starchwreck on Twitter and check out Starchwreck Props and Models on Facebook.

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It'll be Christmas with the Captains as William Shatner and Anson Mount are set to beam down to Star Trek The Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, on December 7 and 8. According to James Cawley, creator of the set tour, Shatner will be available for autographs, photo ops and, by popular demand, will host several Captain on The Bridge intimate Q&A chats, while Mount, set to portray Captain Christopher Pike on Star Trek: Discovery during its upcoming second season, will also be available for autographs and photo ops, and will be doing a Pike on The Bridge event.

Tickets are on sale now. Go to www.StarTrekTour.com for additional details and to purchase tickets.

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Destination Star Trek Birmingham will host the world premiere of the documentary, What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The premiere will take place on Saturday, October 20, during Destination Star Trek Birmingham, which will be held at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, England, from October 19-21.

Among those who'll be in attendance at the premiere are Ira Steven Behr and David Zappone, the documentary's director and producer, respectively, as well as many of the Deep Space Nine cast who participated in the documentary and will be at DSTB as celebrity guests. Among them are Nana Visitor, Armin Shimerman, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Terry Farrell, Michael Dorn, Cirroc Lofton, Vaughn Armstrong, Chase Masterson, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, Andrew Robinson, Max Grodenchik, Aron Eisenberg Robert O'Reilly and Nicole de Boer.

Further, Destination Star Trek Birmingham announced additional programming for the weekend, including two parties. Friday night, October 19, fans can get their Kirk on during the Being William Shatner Party, while Saturday evening, the 20th, DSTB welcomes everyone to head to the dark side at the Mirror Mirror Party, featuring the Enterprise Blues Band.

Tickets for Destination Star Trek Birmingham are available at www.DestinationStarTrek.com. Keep an eye on StarTrek.com for additional news about Destination Star Trek guests and programming.

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Sonequa Martin-Green plopped down into a chair in a quiet green room at Star Trek Las Vegas, and she smiled. “Whoooo!” she exclaimed. “This has been great, but I’m exhausted. Let’s talk. What would you like to know?” Now, let’s put this in some perspective. Martin-Green had spent a full two days at STLV in August, wowing attendees with her energy and passion for Star Trek, its fans, Star Trek: Discovery and Michael Burnham. During her panels, she laughed and cried – she cries a lot; she’ll be the first to admit that. And Martin-Green gave every single fan his or her moment of personal attention during photo ops and autograph sessions, making those moments special for all involved. Now, the end of her time in Vegas was nigh. In fact, she’d just done a VIP meet and greet and was about to beam out of the Rio in order to trek back to Toronto and return to work on Discovery’s upcoming second season. But she’d agreed to a quick interview with StarTrek.com. Trouper that she is, even as a team waited to spirit her into a car and head off to the airport, Martin-Green honored her promise and squeezed in a few minutes of talk time with us. Here’s what she had to say in this, the first in a series of StarTrek.com interviews building toward the November 13 of Star Trek: Discovery: Season One on Blu-ray and DVD...

How full a meal was season one of Discovery for you?

Oh, goodness. It was Thanksgiving dinner, basically. It was the appetizer, the entrée, the dessert. It was all of that.

What was the biggest surprise for you in terms of making the show, and playing Michael?

The biggest surprise... I would say I think what was surprising to me was just how much it continued to unfold, I think. And how deep it went, and how inclusive this entire experience and community was going to be. And also just how closely we as a company, with Discovery, became a family. That was also very surprising.

And character-wise?

Character-wise, I think I wouldn't say that anything was surprising in the sense that it shocked me or I disagreed with it, or I thought, "Ooh, why is this happening this way?" Everything definitely made sense and tracked, and I think it was an organic progression. But it was definitely thrilling to go through the ups and downs and twists and turns.

If we met her at point A in the pilot, where did season one end? Where in her journey is she right now?

I would say that if Z is the goal, that I'm around M.

Really? Already?

Yeah, I would guess, because I think that the fall from grace was absolutely necessary in my journey, in my development as a human being and definitely as a Starfleet officer. And I will say again, as a human being, not someone who is trying to be something that they essentially are not, and finding a way to integrate my training and my upbringing with my true self, I think that the fall from grace forced me into that place of contemplation and that place of exploration.

You arrived at Discovery from The Walking Dead, which is another massive show with a huge fan base. How would you compare/contrast the fans? Are they the same types of people? Are they different? Is there overlap?

Well, I think that we are all connected by these grand fantastic stories, right? These stories that are in these alternate realities that allow us to suspend our disbelief in a very real and exciting way. And I think sci-fi does that, and so, in a sense, sci-fi is very unifying and does draw the same intellectual crowd. There are certainly differences, because each person is different, but I find that it is the sci-fi genre that is the common denominator.

It’s way too soon to talk in any detail about season two of Discovery, but give us some sort of sense of what fans can expect in terms of the show’s direction, Michael’s path…

Well, I think people expect the fallout from everything that happened last year. There's so many things that happened. So many decisions were made. So many changes happened. There was evolution in season one, but we weren't able to dig into it because we were at war. So, you will see all of that. You will see people dealing with what's left. Dealing with the residual, dealing with, "OK, what do I have now? What have I done? What does that mean? Who am I? Who are we?" You'll see people asking those questions and seeking to answer them in season two. And there is a lot more…. there's a little more joy just because we aren't at war. We're able to smile a little bit more. There's a sense of levity that's there simply because we're not fighting for our lives.

And Michael will be part of that? Be a bit lighter?

Oh yeah, for sure. There's certainly a heaviness that is present with me as Burnham, just because of everything that is driving me and because there are deep-seated problems there. So, those are still at play, for sure. But yes, you see the smile, and you see the chuckles that we allow ourselves to have, including Burnham, because we're not fighting.

How will the presence of Captain Pike affect Michael?

In that big way that a captain affects a ship and a crew. A crew is almost defined by the essence of the captain. We went through the ringer with Lorca, and so there's a little bit of PTSD there. There's a little bit of distrust there because of what we've gone through and because we had someone who manipulated us and sought to kill us for his own gain. And so, Pike being the deeply rooted good guy he is, he is going to have an effect on us. He's soothing in that way. He's comforting in that way. And hopefully you will see us sort of galvanize because of that.

How are you enjoying working with Anson Mount?

Oh, I love him.

Fans here at STLV could even see the chemistry between the two of you on stage during your panel…

I just think he's awesome, and he's such an amazing actor. I feel like we really lose ourselves in the story together, which is amazing. And chemistry is something that… it's hard to know as an actor when you're in the middle of it. It's hard to say, "Do we have chemistry?" I can feel what I feel, but other people are the ones to tell you if there's chemistry there. And so, we were very delighted to hear that people see chemistry between us, and I think that it's a great relationship because he's a great guy and we love having him.

Did you work at all during your off season, or was it family time?

Yeah, it was family time. It was family time for a long while. It was the holidays. We hosted Christmas for the first time, so there was a lot of preparation with that. We bought our home, so there was a lot going on with that. January and February were pretty full with that and family, and then it was time to gear up to go back.

Last question: How did you enjoy this experience at STLV?

It was amazing, meeting the fans, being out there. I've done conventions for years (because of The Walking Dead). I've done San Diego Comic-Con for four years. This is different. This is different. It's just a different experience. It is so beautiful and pure, and respectful and uplifting, and I can hardly wait for next year. God willing.

Star Trek: Discovery on Blu-ray

Star Trek: Discovery: Season One will arrive on Blu-ray and DVD on November 13 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution. The four-disc Blu-ray and DVD collections, available to U.S. and Canadian fans, will feature all 15 first-season episodes of the CBS All Access series, as well as featurettes and other special features that will include cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and deleted and extended scenes.

Fans in the U.S. and Canada can pre-order on Amazon.com now.

Star Trek: Discovery's first season is available on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Space Channel in Canada. It's available on Netflix in the rest of the world.

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Your starship is getting some serious upgrades. Version 6.0 of Star Trek Timelines is live -- and with it comes new ship abilities, a brand-new Starbase room, more ways to earn rewards, and other improvements to the player experience.

Across your fleet, you’ll notice many of your ships will have one of four new abilities. When timed correctly, these new technologies could make or break a close battle.

• Interrupt Shield Modulation temporarily drops your enemy’s shields to 0. 
• Overcharge reduces all of your ship’s cooldowns.
• New Electroplating temporarily reduces hull damage.
• When activated, the Damage Reflection ability will deal a portion of damage to an opponent based on damage taken from an opponent (this does not include boarding damage.

These abilities will change the way battles take place across the single-player story, PvP Battle Arena and the competitive Skirmish events. To that end, we’ve added in new tutorials for the Battle Arena and Skirmish events to walk you through the basics of space battles.

After hearing feedback from our industrious fleets, we’ve added a brand-new room to Starbases: the Reclamator. This new room allows fleet members to spend their excess starbase components to receive valuable replicator rations and unlock daily donation rewards.

If you search the galaxy, you may also find a mysterious new planet. Who knows what discoveries await you there? For now, there are more crew to find on your Voyages including Ensign Picard and Dr. Leonard McCoy.

There are also new ways to earn additional rewards across the game, from the Dabo Wheel to the farthest Away Missions. When playing on Android/iOS devices, look for special ad buttons on your journeys to claim extra loot.

Available now on the App Store, Google Play, Steam, Facebook Games and Facebook Gameroom, Star Trek Timelines merges the characters, stories and settings from Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery and their related films. Gather your favorite heroes -- or villains -- to build your dream crew, explore the galaxy and lead Starfleet through a crisis threatening the very fabric of time and space. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or join our Bridge Crew email list for the latest updates.

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Star Trek received the Governors Award on Saturday night at the Creative Arts Emmys, and members of the Star Trek family past and present were on hand to celebrate the occasion. William Shatner, the franchise's legendary Captain Kirk, took to the stage with Star Trek: Discovery's Sonequa Martin-Green. Shatner and Martin-Green were far from alone, as they were joined by representatives from each of the live-action series from across Trek's illustrious 52-year-long history: Walter Koenig, LeVar Burton, Terry Farrell, Jeri Ryan, Linda Park and Alex Kurtzman, as well as a Klingon and a Kelpien.

Shatner accepted the award on behalf of CBS Television Studios, noting to the audience that Star Trek “represents an idea that is greater than all of its parts. I accept this award for all the artists who have worked to make this show a success.”

Each year, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Science, at the Annual Emmy Awards Presentation, grants a Governors Award to an individual, company, organization or project for outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences or management of television which is either of a cumulative nature or so extraordinary and universal in nature as to go beyond the scope of the Emmy Awards presented in the categories and areas of the competition.

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"The Xindi" episode of Star Trek: Enterprise first aired on September 10, 2003... or 15 years ago today. While you wrap your mind around that fact, StarTrek.com will mark the occasion by sharing 6 Things to Know About "The Xindi."

One of Three

"The Xindi" was the first episode of Enterprise's third season. Allan Kroeker, a veteran Trek helmer, directed the installment, which was witten by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.

We Can Hardly Breathe

Our favorite line here is a simple one. Down on the mining planet, Captain Archer advises Malcolm Reed... "Try not to breathe." Scott Bakula delivered it perfectly.

Smart Recycling

Do those Xindi-Reptilian uniforms seem familiar to you? If so, that's because the Enterprise costume department tweaked some old Reman costumes from Star Trek Nemesis by introducing some metal coils to the shoulders.

T'Pol, New & Different

Jolene Blalock's Vulcan character got a bit of an update when season three kicked off. Her eyebrows now arc upward. And she's suddenly wearing civvies. T'Pol leaving the Vulcan High Command explains the costume change, but we're still not sure about those eyebrows.

Getting Expansive

The J.M. Dillard novel The Expanse was released on October 7, 2003. It was actually a novelization of the season-two finale, "The Expanse," and "The Xindi."

Meet the MACOs

Enterprise fans made the acquaintance of several Military Assault Command Operations soldiers, or MACOs -- and the recurring actors who portrayed them. And several of those actors had played or went on to play assorted characters in other Trek projects. Daniel Dae Kim, who portrayed Corporal D. Chang, was Gotana-Retz in the Voyager hour, "Blink of an Eye." Marco Sanchez was Corporal M. Romero in "The Xindi" and a torpedo security officer in Star Trek Into Darkness. Then there's Nathan Anderson, who made the leap from guest starring as Namon in the Voyager entry, "Nemesis" to recurring as MACO Sergeant N. Kemper. And, lastly, Steven Culp had his scenes from Star Trek Nemesis cut, but he made the grade as Major Hayes in "The Xindi" and four other Enterprise episodes.

And what do YOU remember most about "The Xindi"?

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The unexpected twist ending of IDW Publishing’s Through the Mirror comic-book miniseries continues to affect the Trek universe in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita #3, one of two new Trek titles out on Wednesday, September 12. Written by Scott Tipton & David Tipton, with Angel Hernandez creating the art and Tony Shasteen on cover duty, Terra Incognita #3 tells the untold tales of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. In it, with a high-ranking Federation official’s life hanging in the balance, Doctor Selar faces a difficult decision when she must choose between her responsibility as a physician and her adherence to Vulcan philosophy.

Terra Incognita #3 runs 32 pages and costs $3.99. Fans should be on the lookout for the variant photo covers, plus covers by J.K. Woodward and Elizabeth Beals.

And, speaking of Through the Mirror, IDW’s other title arriving on Wednesday is the 128-page trade paperback edition of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through the Mirror, which gathers together the entire Through the Mirror series and features the talents of writers Scott Tipton and David Tipton, and artists Chris Johnson, Marcus To, Josh Hood, Carlos Nieto and Debora Carita. The cover boasts the handiwork of J.K. Woodward.

In Through the Mirror, The Mirror Universe Next Generation crew is looking for new worlds to conquer, and they're crossing over to the Prime Star Trek Universe to find them. When the Enterprise-D discovers a burned-out, pillaged Andorian vessel, the search for the culprits behind it leads to some startlingly familiar faces. But, how did the Mirror Universe crew find their way to ours, and what does Emperor Spock have to do with it? Plus, it's interstellar espionage aboard the Enterprise-D when the Mirror Universe crew infiltrates Captain Picard's ship. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through the Mirror costs $17.99.

For additional details, contact your local comic book retailer or visit www.comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you. And keep an eye on StarTrek.com for additional details about the IDW's upcoming Star Trek adventures, as well as exclusive First Looks at covers and preview pages.

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What Starfleet crew position would be most interesting? That's the question StarTrek.com asked for our latest weekly poll. Fans who participated could select from Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Security Officer, Communications Officer, First Officer or Science Officer. Several thousand of you got in on the fun, and here are the results:

First Officer (34%)
 

Science Officer (33%)
 

Chief Engineer (15%)
 

Chief Security Officer (7%)
 

Chief Medical Officer (6% - 458 Votes)
 

Communications Officer (5% - 438 Votes)

And how did YOUR position of choice fare?

Be sure to vote in this week's poll...

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William Shatner, the man, the myth… the machine. At 87 years old, Star Trek’s first and forever Kirk remains a guy in perpetual motion. He’s riding horses, raising money for charity, starring in films, recording albums, spending time with his family, and traversing the world for convention appearances and his one-man show. He’s also been making the publicity rounds for his latest project, Live Long And… What I Learned Along the Way, his latest book. Written with David Fisher and available now from Thomas Dunne Books, Live Long And… is part memoir and part primer on how to live your best life. StarTrek.com caught up with the ever-energetic Shatner earlier this week, covering a wide variety of topics during our chat. Here’s what he had to say:

What made now the time for another memoir?

Oh, I'm running out of time to write memoirs.

I know you’re joking, but that's part of the theme of the book, you keeping yourself too booked with commitments to die, like George Burns. How acutely are you feeling the sand sifting through the hourglass?

Well, given the age I am, I'm seeing more fervency of people asking for autographs, as though they're anticipating my immediate death. I, on the other hand, have no concept of time, and I feel perfectly healthy. In fact, next week, I'm in competition, riding these extreme horses. So, I don't intend to die very soon, but certainly the odds keep getting better… or worse, depending on your point of view.

Of all the wisdom you offer in Live Long And…, what's the one pearl that you wish you would've told yourself 40 or 50 years ago?

That there's not much you can do about the flow of history, so just go with the flow.

You exhort people with the question, "Why not?" So, what have you still not done yet?

I haven't spoken to you in a while. By speaking to you, we’re sharing an experience over my writing a new book, a new book with some thought behind it. Everything is a fresh “Why not?” And so, my anticipation is that I'll write another book and ride another horse and I'll do another acting job.

Is there anything that James Kirk did that you simply could not or would not have done?

Kirk? He kissed an awful lot of ladies. I'm not sure, in the #MeToo generation, that would be allowed.

That's a very good point, actually.

And it's true.

You write, "The absence of love has been the major force of my life." Did you go to a therapist for many years to figure that out, or was that something you discovered on your own? And what's it like to share something so deeply personal with so many people?

No, I've never been to a therapist. You know, writing these books has a certain therapeutic value. By sharing personal information… We all share personal information, advertently or inadvertently. By the slightest nod of the head, the tick of an eye, or a verbal vomiting, we give ourselves away all the time. There's a universality about all of us. Lack of love is universal, and the search for love is everybody's mission. So, I really have joined you and the rest of humanity in that.

Taking what you just said into account, what's it been like for you, for so long, to play and be associated with a character like Kirk, who doesn't seem to want or need love? The Enterprise is his greatest love...

That is love. It’s a kind of love. I'm speaking on my feet, I guess, but love isn’t always something that need be romantic or physical, or a partner that's human. So many people find love in various ways… the love of their job, the love of what they're doing, the love of a pet, the love of an animal, the love of nature. How about celibate priests who love their God with fervor? So, love takes many forms, and part of the book refers to the fact that we're all different vessels. We interpret things completely differently, and if I say the word love to you, it can have, and probably does have, an entirely different meaning to you than it does to me. So, we need to define what we're talking about over a period of a conversation like this one.

You, in your book, Leonard, detailed the situation that occurred with Leonard Nimoy, with him not speaking to you at the end of his life. Now, in Live Long And…, you touch on it, note that you didn’t feel welcome at his funeral and you say that as long as you live, you will never understand what you did wrong that led his silence toward you. If there is a heaven, when you get there and you see Nimoy, will your first questions be, "What the hell happened? What did I do?" -- or do you think it'll be something else?

Well, those sound like good questions. Maybe I should say, "Oh, you're here too."

Funny. But will you ever get that answer?

I'll never get the answer.

That must be a very strange position, after all those years of friendship, right?

Isn't it, though? I've heard from a lot of people who've said that same thing has happened to them. (Friends) disappear.

You don’t go into a ton of detail about Star Trek V in Live Long And…, but you make a point of saying that you regret making compromises on the film. If you had it to do again, what would you have done differently? Would you have not made the film? Would you have fought harder for your initial idea?

That's a really good question. It's something I hadn't thought of. Now that I realize I compromised, and then I write a great deal about the art of compromise, I don't know. I think that, given my nature, I would have compromised, but at least I would have known that I had done it consciously and maybe been able to rescue elements of the story that I lost, as a result of the original compromise.

There’s at least one positive from Star Trek V that I’d like to point out. If you ask fans for their favorite lines from the Trek features, people will, high up on the list, reply, “What does God need with a starship?”

Right, which is the beginnings of the element of doubt. I'll incorporate that into my comments, into things to answer about Star Trek V.

How's your Christmas album coming along?

The Christmas album is really wonderful. People who've heard it, love it, and so is the country music album I’m working on, Why Not Me? The book is doing well and getting great reviews. I'm on tour with the film, Wrath of Khan, so please tell people to go to my website, WilliamShatner.com. They'll find out the dates of when I'm near them for a fun evening of the film, and then me coming out afterwards and expounding on whatever.

I’m fascinated by the Christmas album. What songs did you get a kick out of doing?

I did many of the regular songs, but with a little bit of a bent in them. I’ve anchored the whole album on two major pieces, one being a poem by a (war) veteran who's traumatized. He's a wonderful guy who can't write anything else but about battle, and the hardship. I got him to write a Christmas song, which has the same elements in it, and then I did "The Christmas Story" to music, and that's great fun. So, there are two large pieces in the album, and then they’re surrounded with the flowers of these standard Christmas songs, done with a little bent, as I say. I'm being asked to do a blues album, and I'm doing research on that.

Where's the Hanukkah album from the nice Jewish boy from Canada?

That's very funny. I was intending to put "Dreidel, Dreidel" in the Christmas album. Maybe my next album.

When we saw you in Germany a few months ago, you joked on stage about using VR to return to Star Trek. Elsewhere, you’ve said you’re open to playing Kirk again if someone could develop a good story. And we just saw an article where you wished Patrick Stewart well on his imminent return, but noted that you are done. So, let me put it to you directly: If somebody came along with a good role for you as Kirk, how open or not would you be to doing it?

Right. If you ask me my favorite line, one that I invented, it’s, as I said to Leonard about his appearance in one of those films, "You know you're old when you go back in time and you're still old." So, his appearance was not central to the story. If I were to be asked to be back on Star Trek, the key of whether I would be on it or not is whether or not it’d be central to the story.

So, to clarify, you wouldn't rule it out, but you're not chasing it, is what it boils down to?

Exactly.

What's happening with Senior Moment, the movie you shot with Christopher Lloyd?

It's in editing. I'm told it's really good and they're getting ready to release it.

You mentioned upcoming albums. Any other shows or documentaries on the way?

I'm in the process of selling many, many shows, things that I've invented or that this team of people that I've assembled, called Shatner's Universe, that we're in the process of selling documentaries and animated shows and live shows. There are many, many things on the horizon. The anticipation of my dying soon is misrepresented.

One of the single best sentences in Live Long And… is this: "I've seen the toys of Star Trek become the tools of life.” What's that been like for you, to have starred in this decades-spanning science-fiction franchise that's spawned science fact?

The mystery of what's out there is so profound that anything you say in science fiction might very well be true, and we're not going disprove anything you say. We're certainly not going disprove it in the near future. What’s it been like for me? I don't know, but there is awe and wonder mixed with everything.

Live Long And… What I Learned Along the Way is out now. Go to www.amazon.com to purchase it as a hardcover, Kindle or Audio CD.

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And so, it began. Star Trek: The Original Series officially premiered on September 8, 1966, as NBC aired the episode, “The Man Trap.” Star Trek has, since then, lived long and prospered. StarTrek.com, knowing the franchise’s 52nd anniversary loomed on the horizon, has spent the past several months asking everyone we’ve spoken to – from series regulars and guest stars to directors and makeup gurus – to do the following:

Finish this sentence without using the word "prosper." Live long and _______.

And how would YOU answer the question?

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Among all of the Federation crews that audiences have come to know, none showed an aversion to violence as consistently as Captain Picard and his subordinates in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Whether the Romulans, Ferengi or Borg, Picard’s dogged insistence on finding areas of common ground between antagonists saved his ship -- and the entire Federation -- on more than one occasion. His crew upheld this standard in kind, and seemed to operate on a credo of, “What would Jean-Luc do?” when faced with moments that could turn toward conflict just as easily as discussion.

Still, even the most-persistent diplomat requires willing opposition. So, what’s a crew to do when facing a foe who is uninterested in negotiation of any kind -- or that can’t communicate with humans at all?

The Crystalline Entity

Before the Borg, the Crystalline Entity was TNG’s premier example of a foe so inhuman that discussion seemed impossible. While not biological, the Crystalline Entity was undeniably “alive” in the sense of having will, motivation and the ability to make self-determining decisions.

Still, nothing in previous contact reports or the Enterprise crew’s initial meeting with the Entity in “Datalore” revealed any intelligence more advanced than that of a virus. By all appearances, the Entity was simply a self-organizing collection of crystalline molecules whose very physical structure drove it to react to stimuli in automatic ways -- much as a virus, while not “alive,” can still detect and infiltrate a living cell.

The Entity first appeared in Federation records in 2338 after annihilating all life on Omicron Theta, including the colony where Dr. Noonien Soong and his wife Juliana had lived while creating Data and his brother, Lore. Though it was unknown by Picard and crew at the time, this first contact was itself evidence of the Entity’s intelligence, as it had been called to the planet as a result of ongoing subspace conversations with Lore, whose jealousy and anger had driven the android to destroy his fellow colonists.

Even after the Entity destroyed a new colony on Melona IV four years later, Picard and crew continued to view it as a dangerous force of nature -- something to be studied or avoided, not attacked and destroyed. Their restraint was justified when they seemed moments away from establishing open communications via graviton pulses before Dr. Marr -- an embittered survivor of the Melona IV attack -- sabotaged the experiment and used the graviton beam to destroy the Crystalline Entity, instead.

Stunned and saddened, Picard ordered the Doctor confined to quarters to await charges -- as the murderer of an intelligent mind, not a hero.

Junior

In “Galaxy's Child,” the Enterprise encountered a new, completely space-borne life form in the Alpha Omicron system. While analyzing the life form, the Enterprise sensors triggered an attack, forcing Picard to attempt to stun or dissuade it with a minimal power phaser strike.

Instead, the creature was killed, leaving the Captain horrified at having inadvertently ended a life and destroyed the opportunity to establish peaceful contact.

Soon after, the bridge crew realized that lingering energy readings in the creature were in fact its child, which soon entered the universe with a phaser-assisted delivery after Picard determined that killing its mother gave them responsibility for its well-being. Unfortunately, the newborn -- dubbed Junior by the crew -- recognized the Enterprise’s energy signature as its mother and immediately latched onto the rear hull. Shortly afterward, it began “feeding” off the energy of the ship, putting the crew in danger all over again.

Rather than harming the creature, Picard assembled his senior staff to find a solution, and the crew eventually determined that the mother had been on its way to a nearby asteroid field replete with mineral “food” for the creatures. Upon arrival, Junior began broadcasting communications, soon revealing others of its species had come to greet the new baby.

After failing to knock Junior loose with a decompression blast from a shuttle bay, Geordi La Forge and Dr. Leah Brahms (a visiting scientist) decided to “poison the milk” by manipulating the Enterprise energy signature. The effort was a success, freeing the creature and allowing Picard to resume their journey, safe in the knowledge that Junior would survive even despite its mother’s death.

Conspiracy Parasites

In “Conspiracy,” Picard faced one of the few foes that presented no feasible solution, except armed defense. After being summoned to a secret meeting on Dytallix B by Captain Walker Keel, an old academy acquaintance, Picard learned of a potential conspiracy on Earth that may have already begun overtaking Starfleet Command.

Those fears were confirmed shortly after the meeting when they discovered the debris field left by Captain Keel’s ship, now destroyed with all hands lost.

Upon returning to Earth, the Enterprise was hailed by Admirals at Starfleet Command, who explained that all was well and requested a meeting aboard the ship. However, Admiral Quinn’s behavior during a “tour” of the Enterprise was noticeably abnormal, and before long he had attacked Riker in an attempt to insert a creature into his body -- a “superior form of life” that Quinn said had been recently discovered.

Dr. Crusher soon revealed that a similar creature had taken control of Quinn by latching onto his brain stem, leaving only a telltale protrusion from the back of the neck as external evidence. Riker was soon sent to the surface, where Picard was already present for a planned meal with the Admiralty. Unbeknownst to Picard, Dr. Crusher had implanted a fake protrusion on Riker’s neck to mask his uninfected status, allowing him to save the Captain from implantation during the meal.

It was quickly revealed that the parasites were already well-positioned to commence an immediate takeover of Starfleet -- and eventually all of Earth. Facing attack from the parasite Admirals, Picard and Riker fought back with phasers, eventually destroying the “mother parasite” in Lt. Commander Remmick’s body and ending the invasion.

To learn more about this subject, please visit www.LearningForASmallWorld.com. The course "Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology” provides greater depth on this and many more aspects of the history and impact of Star Trek.

Stephen Ashley is a freelance writer currently taking a break from Brooklyn in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. He credits the syndicated TNG reruns of his youth for launching his love affair with Star Trek and all things science fiction.

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Star Trek Online, the online roleplaying game that continues the future of the Prime Timeline, is under attack by the Voth. This evolved dinosaur race, first seen in Star Trek: Voyager, has built a giant city ship -- and the only way to stop it is to fly your craft through the inside, dodging enemy attacks and sabotaging their inner systems.

From now until September 27th at 10:00AM PST, Captains between levels 50-65 can queue up for our 5-captain “Breach Event” to defeat the Voth City Ship and earn one Voth Operative Transmission every 20 hours. After collecting 14 Voth Operative Transmissions, players can complete a new Event Reputation project to be rewarded with 50,000 Dilithium Ore, 500 Fleet Marks, 250 Marks of their choice, and a Bio-Engineered Furiadon Combat pet. Completing this project on any character will unlock this new Combat Pet for all characters across your account. Your other characters can also complete the project to receive the Marks and Dilithium Ore.

The Bio-Engineered Furiadon Combat Pet can be summoned to briefly assist you in heated battle. Equipped with head-mounted twin anti-proton lasers and capable of a vicious bite, the Bio-Engineered Furiadon is an excellent ally to have in nearly any combat situation.

Gather your friends to journey once more unto the Breach, and we'll see you in-game.

Star Trek Online is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game that allows players to explore the Star Trek universe from within. Players can forge their own destiny as Captain of a Federation starship, champion the Empire through the far reaches of the galaxy as a Klingon Warrior, rebuild the Romulan legacy as the commander of a Romulan Republic Warbird or carry out daring missions on behalf of the Dominion as a Jem’Hadar soldier. Captains can also explore iconic locations from the Star Trek universe, make contact with new alien species and battle alongside other players in customizable starships. Star Trek Online is currently available on PC, PlayStation4 and Xbox One.

To download and play Star Trek Online today for free, visit www.playstartrekonline.com.

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The New Zealand Mint has just released the third and fourth silver coin notes in their limited-edition Star Trek: The Next Generation Silver Coin Note Collection, and the notes capture the essence of the TNG episodes “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” and “Redemption, Part I” via art by Juan Ortiz.

“The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” was the cliffhanger final episode of TNG’s third season. “Redemption, Part I” was season four’s 26th episode, which saw the Enterprise travel to the Klingon Empire and attempt to thwart an impeding civil war. The notes are mini replicas of the poster artwork designed by Juan Ortiz for each episode; the use of color and engraving reflect the spirit of each.

The notes are made from 5g pure silver, which is used to good effect in the design. The unique number in the mintage is printed on each and they are packaged inside a protective sleeve. Details of the coin note’s authenticity are printed on the reverse of the sleeve.

The obverse of each silver note has the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is legal tender in Niue. Both releases are part of a seven-note Star Trek: The Next Generation Silver Coin Note Collection. A hardcover Star Trek: The Next Generation Collector’s Album, which is included with the purchase of the “Encounter at Farpoint, Part I” Coin Note, features a page for each note.

Only 50,000 of each note will be produced. Be sure to visit www.nzmint.com to order your Star Trek: The Next Generation Silver Coin Notes.

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My company and I have created every shape and size of pop-culture toys and sports figures -- inspired by hit movies, television shows and video games, as well as by world-class athletes -- that this M-class planet has to offer. I’m excited to take my toy company, McFarlane Toys, into the final frontier with our new line of Star Trek collectible action figures (that just hit stores).

The line, which was first announced when I presented at Star Trek Las Vegas 2017, was created to give all of you Star Trek fans a cool, curated assortment of figures at the level of detail for which we’re known.

Making figures for such a culturally important brand is truly an honor. I hope that fans will see that we’ve made something with them in mind -- and that we did it right. Including all the little things that Trek fans are passionate about.

I followed along at the announcements from this year’s STLV (and I’m sad that I couldn’t be there… Spawn movie duty calls), and the reveal that Captain Pike will be in Discovery’s second season. So, the gears are turning at McFarlane Toys as to what will come next. But first…

Let’s get to the new figures: Captain Kirk comes in his Command Yellow Starfleet uniform and includes a Type II Phaser, a Communicator and a Phaser Rifle. Get a closer look of the figure below.

Captain Picard is shown in his Command Red Starfleet (Type B) uniform and comes with a Type II Phaser and the Ressikan Flute, from the episode “The Inner Light.” Each figure stands seven inches tall and comes complete with multiple articulation points and a stylized, brand-specific base. Get a closer look at the figure below.

Captain Kirk and Captain Picard Figures are available now on Amazon and will be in specialty stores for MSRP $19.99.

Fans should stay tuned to McFarlane.com and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for behind the scenes, giveaways, reveals and more.

Todd McFarlane
Founder and CEO of McFarlane Toys

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The Federation's relationship with the Klingon Empire shifted dramatically from Star Trek: Discovery's war to the Star Trek: The Next Generation era, which included Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's tumultuous storylines involving the species. However, numerous parallels exist between key Klingon characters from Discovery's first season and the species’ leading figures from the 24th century. The two sets of Klingons can be subdivided into four categories that offer astounding connections between the time periods.

The Messiahs: T'Kuvma & Kahless (Clone)

T'Kuvma invoked the original Kahless's successful unification of the empire as his rallying cry and went so far as to claim that he led as a reborn Kahless. Unsurprisingly, the Kahless clone revealed on Boreth also initially believed himself to be a reincarnated Kahless. Societal hierarchies mattered little to these prophets. T'Kuvma bonded with Voq and appointed him Torchbearer. Kahless's clone admired Worf and wanted the Starfleet officer to stand at his side during his quest. While the two maintained vastly different attitudes about the Federation, both messiahs sought an honorable empire acting as a single entity.

Neither Klingon proved exempt from fallibility, as even L'Rell admitted to Admiral Cornwell that T'Kuvma's opinion that humans lacked courage was incorrect. Similarly, the cloning procedure left gaps in the new Kahless's memory and proved unable to perfectly recreate the original Kahless. In the end, the two behaved as symbols for their people rather than genuine leaders. T'Kuvma perished in the Federation-Klingon War's first battle, but his mission lived on in Voq and L'Rell. Kahless's clone became a figurehead as Emperor, with Gowron holding the true power in the government.

The Outcast Believers: Voq & Worf

Voq's skin color and Worf's human upbringing made them outsiders to Klingon society, yet their belief in Kahless and their culture's traditions continued to thrive. Voq described himself as a son of none, whereas Worf found himself without a house after he refused to back Gowron's war against Cardassia and consented to altering his brother Kurn's memories and identity. Their interpretations of duty differed, but the outcasts valued the concepts as facets vital to their personas.

Though unique, each warrior's story retains striking coincidences. These outcast believers maintained special bonds with L'Rell and Martok, two commoners who ascended to prominence. Voq and L'Rell fell in love and stood as T'Kuvma's most loyal followers. Worf gained Martok's respect and earned a place in the House of Martok. In an odd twist, Voq and Worf also found a home and familial friendships as security officers in Starfleet, although Voq's affinity for Burnham and the Discovery's crew stemmed from Ash Tyler's personality.

The Opportunists: Kol & Duras/Gowron

Kol's desire for power superseded all else, including acting with honor. Seeing the Ship of the Dead's cloaking technology as a means to entice other Klingon houses to pledge their loyalty to him, Kol showed no hesitation or regret when he decided to steal the vessel from Voq. L'Rell learned that Kol murdered many of her friends, despite the fact that they acquiesced to his command. The devious leader even intended to use Burnham's capture in the Discovery episode "Into the Forest I Go" to bring T'Kuvma's remaining followers into line under his rule.

Duras displayed his own ruthless behavior by covering up his father's treachery during the Khitomer massacre, sending assassins after Kurn and Picard, sullying Worf and the House of Mogh, dishonorably poisoning Chancellor K'mpec, colluding to kill Gowron with Romulan explosives, and murdering Ambassador K'Ehleyr. While less obvious, Gowron's affinity for control manifested in various ways. Gowron downplayed the Federation assistance he received during the Klingon Civil War in order to bolster to his legacy, perceived the Kahless clone as a threat to his position, exhibited jealousy over General Martok's victories in the Dominion War, and intentionally sent Martok's forces against impossible odds to ruin the general's favorable standing in the empire.

Kol, Duras, and Gowron valued their political standings to the point that they employed disreputable methods to retain their personal influence. Interestingly, the outcast believers Voq and Worf stood firmly against these three leaders. Voq willingly succumbed to L'Rell's species alteration procedure in order to counter Kol's corruption. Disguised as Ash Tyler, Voq's mission to place sensors on the Ship of the Dead with Burnham ultimately led to Kol's death from the U.S.S. Discovery's barrage. Worf's role proved more direct, as he challenged Duras and Gowron on separate occasions and dealt fatal blows to the opportunists.

The Commoners: L'Rell & Martok

When confronted with the prospect of leading the Klingon Empire after Mirror Georgiou planted a bomb inside Qo'noS, L'Rell described herself as a nobody. Tyler reminded her that she never desired to rule, yet encouraged her to accept the proposal. General Martok hesitated to challenge Gowron, believing that the High Council would never accept a commoner from the Ketha lowlands as their chancellor. Worf intervened, defeating Gowron on the House of Martok's behalf and relinquishing the powerful position to the general. With the assistance of outcast believers, L'Rell and Martok reluctantly accepted the burden to guide the empire.

While less significant, it is interesting to note that L'Rell and Martok both bore facial scars and were at one point captured by their respective foes. In another fascinating parallel, neither of them held any affinity for the House of Kor. Kol betrayed Voq, felt no allegiance to T'Kuvma's vision, and planned to execute L'Rell. Meanwhile, Kor's disdain for houses without noble blood caused him to prevent a young Martok from receiving an officer's commission. Martok's resentment lasted well into the Dominion War, when an aging Kor sacrificed his life to halt Jem'Hadar ships from pursuing the general's forces. No such reconciliation occurred between L'Rell and Kol, as the two despised one another until Kol's death.

Jay Stobie is a freelance science fiction writer who contributes articles to the official Star Trek website and Star Trek Magazine. He can be found on Twitter at @CaptStobie.

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Which Captain would make the best academy roommate? That's the question that StarTrek.com asked for our latest weekly poll question, offering fans Archer, Janeway, Kirk, Kirk (Kelvin timeline version), Lorca, Picard and Sisko as option from which to choose. Thousands of fans voted, and here are the results:

Picard (22%)
 

Kirk (17%, 1,129 votes)
 

Janeway (17%, 1,117 votes)
 

Kirk (Kelvin timeline) (16%)
 

Sisko (14%)
 

Archer (12%)
 

Lorca (2%)

Be sure to vote in this week's poll...

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Hello, StarTrek.com readers:

I’ve been doing a play in Scotland, so this month’s Planetary Post is guest hosted by MaryLiz Bender, sharing spectacular footage of recent launches she witnessed on the Florida Space Coast. Also, feel free to thrill to my spot-on impression of the fastest object anyone has ever created: The Parker Solar Probe.

So, please check it out -- and just tell them The Doctor sent you. And to learn more about the Planetary Society, go to planetary.org.

Robert Picardo

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Star Trek Online, the online RPG that continues the story of Star Trek’s prime timeline, has over 600 ships from all over the Star Trek universe for you to command. And this weekend, we’re having a sale on those ships on PC and Playstation 4. Head in game to get a 20% discount from now to September 4th at 10am PT.

Enjoy not just a discount on our ships, but fleet modules, dry dock slots and ship upgrade tokens as well. Have you been eyeing a new ship or ship bundle in the C-store? Now is the time to grab the ship you've always dreamed of commanding.

•  All ships and dry dock slots in the C-Store are 20% off.
  • This includes bundles which are comprised only of ships.
  •  This does not include bundles that have items other than ships in them.
• The ship upgrade token, ship upgrade token bundle, and the fleet module are all 20% off as well.
• Each time a player buys a Tier 5 ship, they will receive a free ship upgrade token.
  
  • This only occurs when the Tier 5 ship is bought for the first time on an account.
  • The Claim for this token will appear in the Promotions tab of the C-Store.
  • When the player clicks claim, they will receive a bound to account ship upgrade token in their inventory and the product will disappear from the promotions tab.
  • These tokens stack so if a player buys 3 Tier 5 ships at once, they will be able to claim the promotion 3 times.
  • Tier 5 Ship bundles will have the equivalent amount of tokens as the number of ships in the bundle.
    
    • Example: Buying the Dyson Mega Bundle will give players 9 tokens.

Star Trek Online is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game that allows players to explore the Trek universe from within. Players can forge their own destiny as Captain of a Federation starship, champion the Empire through the far reaches of the galaxy as a Klingon Warrior, rebuild the Romulan legacy as the commander of a Romulan Republic Warbird or carry out daring missions on behalf of the Dominion as a Jem’Hadar soldier. Captains can also explore iconic locations from the Trek universe, make contact with new alien species and battle alongside other players in customizable starships. Star Trek Online is available on PC, PlayStation4 and Xbox One.

To download and play Star Trek Online today for free, visit www.playstartrekonline.com.

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Star Trek, in many ways, is a celebration of life… its diversity, adventure and exploration. Two inescapable parts of life are loss and grief. Star Trek has explored these themes and delved the depths of this integral aspect of the human condition. What do we make of life’s finitude and what is the connection between our limitations and our quest for a life full of meaning?

Most famously, Star Trek explored what happens with the unexpected loss of a friend in the death of Spock at the conclusion of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Spock’s death was rooted in the friendship he had with his shipmates; those with whom he had grown and experienced the wonders of the galaxy. When faced with their impending destruction and the inability to gain a safe distance from the overloading Genesis device, Spock sacrificed himself to save those closest to him. The experience of his friends at losing him changes them. Most notably, their allegiances shift from duty to the ideals of Starfleet to the personal connection at the mere chance of saving their friend in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. They risk their careers and their lives for the chance to recover what was lost. It is then fascinating to watch the characters adjust to Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when the friend they recovered is oddly foreign to them. The must grieve the loss of the old Spock and grow in acceptance of the new.

The Stoic philosopher Seneca, in the opening to his treatise on the shortness of life, writes: “Most human beings… complain about the meanness of nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, and because this spell of time that has been given to us rushes by so swiftly and rapidly that with very few exceptions life ceases for the rest of us just when we are getting ready for it.” Seneca argues that this perception is not entirely true. In fact, many of us have enough life, but we waste what life we have. We do not live to the fullest and so when it is lost, life appears short-changed. He writes, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” While it cannot be said that Spock wasted much of his life, the sense that his life was cut short too early was felt acutely by Kirk, Bones, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov. They grieved not what was, but what could no longer be.

Loss and grief on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were seen in the death of Jadzia Dax and Worf’s mourning in the aftermath. Despite having many lifetimes, we get a sense that Jadzia’s life had not reached completion. While both Worf and Dax lived with vigor, Worf’s sense of grief at his own reticence to show the affections he harbored for Jadzia and the commitment he had for her are palpably felt. Worf grieves not only what can no longer be, but what was not in the expression of his relationship with Dax. He initially responds by retreating further into his cloak of honor so as not to show his vulnerability. This is particularly true with his initial interactions with Ezri Dax, which are not filled with the opportunity of friendship, but rather the pain of loss.

Seneca argues that to gain tranquility, life must be lived authentically as one’s true self. He notes that we get caught up in trivialities, in the pursuit of material wealth, or in pursuing the next item that we think will give us pleasure. He speaks of the futility of seeking recognition from others, or being angry with others, when what is needed is equanimity. Time is a precious commodity that we must make the most of. We must explore the richness of life in connections with others and the pursuit of our truest self in order to have a full life that cannot be cut short regardless of its length. Time, in this sense, is more about quality than quantity.

Something of this Stoic insight is captured in the loss experienced by Dr. Hugh Culber and Lt. Paul Stamets in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. The fullness of their life together is explored in the comparison of their professional and personal lives. This is particularly true of Stamets. He is curt with his colleagues and engrossed in his work. He is obsessed with accuracy, precision and scientific progress. This approach is juxtaposed with the sensitivity and tenderness exhibited toward his partner, Dr. Culber, whose profession is that of healer and caregiver. The authenticity and acceptance experienced in their shared life accentuate the sudden and violent loss of Culber, but also sooth the sense of loss that comes with grief.

When Stamets meets Culber in the mycelial network (or at least a mental projection of Culber), the Lieutenant does not want to leave. They share a lingering moment where Stamets listens to Kasseelian opera; a favorite of Culber’s, though despised by the engineer. This tenderness is a memory of the seemingly mundane – a quarrel over music – but is revealed as the material for life’s richness. Life is lived in the everyday and it is in the everyday that meaning arises. Here, loss brings about change, and when Stamets leaves the network he takes on Culber’s profession in a sense. He needs to heal the network in order to preserve life in the multiverse. It does not remove the sting of loss, but the profundity that is found in the vulnerability of sharing a life provides Stamets the equanimity to carry on and restore life – both his and others.

Timothy Harvie is Associate Professor of philosophy and ethics at St. Mary's University in Calgary, Canada. His interests lie primarily in philosophical theology, political philosophy, environmental and animal philosophies, and ideas of the role of hope in society. He is a lifelong Star Trek fan. http://www.stmu.ca/dr-timothy-harvie/

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The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced that the Star Trek franchise and CBS Television Studios are this year’s recipient of the Governors Award for its contribution to society and media for 50-plus years.

"Star Trek is the first television program I can remember watching as a child, and has always been ahead of its time," said Governors Award Committee chair Mark Spatny. "Not only have all the franchises promoted inclusiveness and acceptance of all people, and inspired creative thought about space exploration and our future, but the technical innovations sparked by the franchise are incredibly significant to the evolution of television production, and also to the communication and computer tools we use in our daily life. We are honored to present this award to a franchise that has made such a lasting contribution to both television and our society."

Each year, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Science, at the Annual Emmy Awards Presentation, grants a Governors Award to an individual, company, organization or project for outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences or management of television which is either of a cumulative nature or so extraordinary and universal in nature as to go beyond the scope of the Emmy Awards presented in the categories and areas of the competition.

The Governors Award will be presented to the Star Trek franchise and CBS Television Studios during the 2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, to be held on Saturday, September 8.

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Star Trek: Discovery: The Official Companion will arrive in stores and online outlets on September 4. Published by Titan, The Official Companion delves into the making of Discovery’s first season. More than just the tale of the U.S.S. Discovery and her crew, the story of Discovery season one is also the tale of a massive creative collaboration – of how hundreds of actors, producers, writers, designers, costumers, makeup artists and visual effects creators came together to bring Star Trek back to the small screen. Episode by episode, the Companion tells that story, from both behind and in front of the camera, with insights and commentary from, among others, Mary Wiseman, Mary Chieffo, Tamara Deverell, Gersha Phillips, and Glenn Hetrick.

Check out our exclusive preview below:

Go www.TitanMagazine.com to purchase the Companion magazine.

Fans can also subscribe to Star Trek Magazine and get 5 issues for $39.99 and receive a TITANS Captain Kirk figure. Head to www.TitanMagazine.com to subscribe.

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We receive emails periodically from people with questions about things they’ve seen (or not seen) in various episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. Most of the time, these queries are from deeply immersed fans who’ve watched each of the episodes multiple times, so the questions that are asked are often detailed, insightful and, to be honest, sometimes ones that force us to run to our libraries and spend time doing research.

The 50th anniversary of the next first-run episode of TOS isn’t until September 20, 2018, which is the birthday of everyone’s favorite… “Spock's Brain.” So, for this article, we thought we’d fill the hiatal space by sharing a few interesting questions we’ve gotten concerning items important to the stories of some of the episodes.

Oh, and we’ll also provide our answers to those questions, too.

Past Tents

Question: Mr. Sulu (George Takei) and his landing party get stranded on Alfa 177 when the transporter malfunctions in “The Enemy Within.” At night, when the planet’s temperature drops below zero, Sulu and the other crewmembers wrap themselves in colored blankets and huddle around heated rocks to keep warm. Where, exactly, did these crewmen get their cold-weather gear since they weren’t planning on staying overnight?

Answer: The resourceful and highly trained officers of the Enterprise used the top of the canopy that was erected to shelter the plant specimens that had been gathered. Initially, and very briefly, the canopy fabric was used uncut, but later it was sliced into three pieces.

Dash Usage

Question: In Act IV of “Balance of Terror,” the Enterprise runs silent in order to contact/find an elusive Romulan bird-of-prey. While everyone on the ship is being hush-hush, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who’s just finished repairing a transfer coil under the dash of his station, accidentally pushes a button on his console which lets out a loud sound and alerts the Romulans to their presence. What is this sound and where is it from?

Answer: According to the script, Mr. Spock actually pushes the playback button for the tape slot that holds the recording of the intercepted Romulan transmission:

INSERT – LIBRARY COMPUTER PANEL

Showing the slim tape card of the alien recording still in its slot. Spock’s hand inadvertently activates the tape playback button as he pushes himself up. Immediately lights start to flicker on his panel and the weird noise of the Romulan transmission emanates from the speaker.

For whatever reason, the sound-effects editor chose to make this sound different from that of the Romulan transmission recorded previously. Nevertheless, if you carefully watch the scenes where Uhura makes the tape recording and then moves it around, you can easily see that that tape eventually ends up in Spock’s library computer slot and that he pushes a button below it. By the way, it’s implied in production memos and script drafts that the playback rebroadcasts the recording which is picked up by the scanners on the Romulan ship.

Fəˈnedik Spelling

Question: In “Journey to Babel,” Sarek (Mark Lenard) becomes critically ill while being transported on the Enterprise and, according to Mr. Spock, needs a “serogenic” surgical procedure on his heart to repair it. What’s a serogenic surgical procedure?

Answer: That’s a good question. Checking the script, it appears that the word “cryogenic” – which relates to very low temperatures – was mispronounced as serogenic by Nimoy. Here’s the dialogue from the script:

SPOCK

I’d say a cryogenic open-heart
procedure is the logical approach.

As further proof that the word cryogenic was intended, the surgery that McCoy (DeForest Kelley) later performs on Sarek makes use of a “cryosurgical frame” that generates fog from condensed atmospheric water caused by the very cold temperature. (The effect was likely created by the effects team using smoke or dry ice).

Headnote

Question: Vaal, the horned serpent machine in the episode “The Apple,” must be fed at regular intervals so that it can maintain its energy. What does it eat, fruit?

Answer: No, it eats the explosive rocks that are laying around on the planet. This is why they make such a big deal out of Mallory (Jay Jones) getting blown up when he steps on one. There are actually a couple of scenes in the broadcast version that show the People of Vaal feeding their God, but the editing choices don’t make it clear what that God eats. The script, however, leaves no doubt:

ANGLE ON VAAL

as the Villagers pick up rocks from the stockpile, carry them to the mouth, enter, dispose of them and come out again. The red eyes are flashing…

Trim

Question: If the Scalosians in “Wink of an Eye” move much faster than “normal,” what do they do when they encounter closed doors on the Enterprise? Wait several days for them to open?

Answer: No. If you notice, there are virtually no closed doors on the Enterprise. Shortly after the Scalosian's take over the ship, they lock the doors open so that they can get through them. Spock originally noted this in dialogue towards the end of Act I, shortly before Kirk (William Shatner) drank his contaminated coffee, but it was cut as the episode was being assembled:

INT. BRIDGE

A short while later, on Kirk, Spock, Scott at Spock’s console. The computer is operative. Elevator doors open.

SPOCK

Key systems have been crossed
or fused over the entire ship,
Captain. All doors now jammed open.

And with that question and answer, we’ve emptied our inbox, at least for now. Until next time.

Biographical Information

David Tilotta is a professor at North Carolina State University and can be contacted at david.tilotta@frontier.com. Curt McAloney — an accomplished graphic artist — resides in Minnesota and can be reached at curt@curtsmedia.com. Together, Curt and David work on startrekhistory.com. Their book, Star Trek: Lost Scenes, was released on August 21 2018 by Titan Books. It’s filled with hundreds of carefully curated, never-before-seen color photos that are used to chronicle the making of TOS, reassemble deleted scenes left on the cutting-room floor, and showcase bloopers from the first pilot through the last episode.

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Over the course of StarTrek.com’s weekly interviews with actors-turned-directors, we’ve been talking to series regulars who settled into the director’s chair: Roxann Dawson, Jonathan Frakes, Rene Auberjonois, Tim Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill, etc. Today, we chat with Andrew Robinson, who parlayed his recurring role as Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine into the opportunity to direct the DS9 hour, “Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places,” and a pair of Voyager episodes, “Blood Fever” and “Unforgettable.” We sat down with Robinson over breakfast during the recent Star Trek Las Vegas event, and here’s what he had to say…

You’d directed theater before you were on DS9. When did it pop into your head that you wanted to direct DS9, and how did you approach Rick Berman?

Well, it's a funny story. I wasn't a regular on DS9, but they paid me well enough so that I could pay bills, which gave me the opportunity to start directing theater, which I did with my company. Right off the bat, I won two L.A. Drama Critics Awards for Beckett's Endgame and Harold Pinter's Homecoming. I was the first double winner in one year for two plays, and I knew that the L.A. Times was going to do a big feature on me, so, the morning the Times article came out, I called Rick. I said, "Check the L.A. Times, Rick. And also, can I direct an episode?"

To which he replied?

"Come in. Let's talk." And he agreed to let me direct.

The actors-turned-directors went through the unofficial directors’ program. Take us through your memories of doing that.

It was like going to school. Directors like Les Landau, they just let me come in. I went through the entire process, from the initial meetings through the editing process. It was great. I’d done some of that before, because I had been flirting with this. I had a friend who was a director, and I sat in with him. But this was thorough. Les loved teaching. He'd sit down and say, "OK, this and this and this and this." Very knowledgeable. He had a lot of experience. It was invaluable, working with him.

What was your reaction when you got the script for “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places”?

It was a great script. I believe it was Ron Moore's. It scared the hell out of me, because suddenly, it was real. This was going to happen. I did all my due diligence. I broke the script down and got my shot lists. That all went well. It was the first day of shooting which was one of the worst days of my life.

How so?

There was this set they had, this huge Klingon hall. I don't know what the hell it was. But it was a huge set that cost them a lot of money, and they had to use it, I guess to get their money’s worth, or something. It was this cavernous goddam place. I decided, “OK, I'm going to do this long shot, in which we dolly in.” Jonathan West says, "OK." They spent the entire morning lighting it. This was my inexperience, of course, but to light a huge space takes an enormous amount of time, especially in one shot, if you want to start wide and then come into a sword fight. It was horrible. On the first day, I was half a day behind. Then, I panicked. Literally, I panicked and froze. I also lost my sense of angles, because it was a fight. I lost more time with that.

It came out fine. So, how did you recover?

It did come out fine. It did come out fine. I wanted to quit, though. I was so traumatized by that day, but I had everyone’s support and we got through it. Then, the other thing that happened that was traumatic is that there was this love story between Worf and Jadzia. They have this testy relationship. Ira (Behr) told me, "Let's get them to kiss, because love scenes, people kiss at the end.” I said, "Oh, absolutely." Well, they wouldn't kiss. The actors would not kiss. I'd do take after take. I'd say, "OK, please, now, will you goddam kiss?" They wouldn't kiss.

They didn't think that their arc warranted it just yet?

I guess because I was a newbie, they thought, "Yeah, well, let's try something new. Let's not kiss, and let's..." Ira was so pissed at me. "Why? Why didn't you get them to kiss? Goddam it. They're supposed to kiss." I said, "I know, Ira. But… What am I supposed to do, hold a gun to them? Kiss!” But it worked that they didn't kiss. It did. It did. Part of my education was, at the end, when the episode was done, went through the editing process, Ira and Rick brought me up to the office, sat me down. Because I had a contract to do a couple more episodes, Voyager, actually, with (producer) Jeri (Taylor), they said, "OK. This is what you did wrong…” I'm sitting there, and I'm feeling like five years old, going through this, "Oh, Jesus." If I didn't have that experience, learning what I did wrong and right, getting through the problems, and – possibly – if I didn’t have a contract, it would've been one and done for Robinson.

Before we move on to your Voyager episodes, “Looking for par’Mach” had some other interesting elements…

It did. It did. It had the Miles-Kira storyline, and Colm and Nana were great to work with. Then, we had the comedy and the Cyrano de Bergerac thread. There was a lot going on, but I had a great cast, our regulars plus Joe Ruskin, Phil Morris and Mary Kay Adams. Wonderful actors.

After your horrible time on the first day, how pleased were you with the completed episode?

I like the episode. When I saw it, I thought, "Oh, you know? This holds together." It's an odd story. There's weird stuff that happens, but that's OK. It's fitting in this universe. I liked it until I got in the room with Ira and Rick. Then, I'm thinking, "Oh, oh, oh." Then later, I went away and I thought, "OK, maybe there was stuff I missed, pickups or angles or things I’d have done if I had been more experienced.” But still, it was a story told pretty well, and I liked it.

Your first Voyager was “Blood Fever.” What do you recall of that experience?

“Blood Fever,” of the episodes I directed, was the best one. There was an underpinning to that whole thing about lust and this whole thing about obsession. I guess it appealed to my prurience.

How tricky was it to show pon farr without going, pardon the pun, too far?

Well, we went as far as we could, and then I was told, "OK, no more." It's repressed emotion coming out. It's the thing that happens to us when we’re in lust. All rationality just goes out the window, and you'll do anything to satisfy it.

How impressed were you with the performances? You had Alexander Enberg as your main guest, and then Dawson and McNeill...

I loved the DS9 guys. I’ll go to war with them. And the Voyager cast, they’d lie in front of a truck for you. They showed me a lot of respect. They were younger, and they were just incredibly helpful solving problems. I'm not surprised that Roxann and Robbie and Tim (Russ) later become directors. I love those actors who, you're working with them, and they say, "You know, I've got an idea for this." They're smart, so it's a good idea. It makes your life easier, and it makes you look a lot better. Tim suggested that great shot with the profile, to get the ears.

Then there was “Unforgettable”…

Virginia Madsen. I hope she's well and prospering. I haven't seen her in a long time. She was so sweet, vulnerable and open. Robert (Beltran) truly appreciated that. He was so lucky to have her as a partner in the episode. He's a good actor. I don't know why they didn't use him more. He worked hard on this. He had an opportunity to do something here and he did it. That’s what I remember most about that one, Virginia and Robert. I was pretty happy with the episode.

You went on to become a staff director on Judging Amy, but didn’t pursue directing thereafter. Why not?

I hated sitting at monitors and having writers and producers whispering in my ear, "You're going to... Are you going to...? Are you going to let her play it that way? Wait, no. That line. That line should be funnier." The best shows are not done by committee. They're done by one person's vision, one person making directorial choices. If you start waffling, and you start getting inside the process… As much as the money was fabulous, I said, "Screw that." I went, "If I'm going to direct, I'll just direct theater now." I directed and I taught at USC for 14 years. I just retired from that and now I’m acting again. I actually just did a short film and a play.

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StarTrek.com's latest poll was no laughing matter. We asked readers, Which character makes you laugh the most? And they could choose from Data, Dr. McCoy, Dr. Phlox, Lwaxana Troi, Quark, Seven of Nine, The Doctor and Tilly. Thousands of fans voted, and here are the results:
 

 Data (27%)

Dr. McCoy (19%)
 

The Doctor (18%)
 

Quark (17%)
 

Lwaxana Troi (9%)
 

Tilly (4%)
 

Dr. Phlox (3%)
 

Seven of Nine (2%)

Be sure to vote in this week's poll...

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