Star Trek Magazine March 2018 by Star Trek Discovery

CELEBRATING DISCOVERY’S SEASON 1 FINALE! ®

DOUG JONES interview

“ SARU DOES HAVE A FIERCE STREAK... “ EXCLUSIVE interview

WALTER KOENIG ON CHEKOV’S LEGACY

FUTURE HISTORIES

THE STORY OF THE FEDERATION KLINGONS: THE NEXT GENERATION VOYAGER‘S VOYAGE REVISITED

DISCOVERY ’S SAM VARTHOLOMEOS LEGENDARY PRODUCER ROBERT JUSTMAN

C APTAIN’S LOG

EDITORIAL Editor: Nick Jones Senior Editor: Martin Eden Designers: Amazing15 Contributors: Michael Clark, Christopher Cooper, Chris Dows, Doug Drexler, Chris Gardner, Rich Matthews, Larry Nemecek, Mark Newbold, Mark Phillips, Ian Spelling, Jay Stobie, Bunny Summers, Derek Tyler Attico, and Jonathan Wilkins Special Thanks: Bill Burke Bad Robot: J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, David Baronoff CBS Consumer Products: John Van Citters and Marian Cordry Copyright Promotions Ltd.: Anna Hatjoullis Paramount Home Entertainment: Kate Addy, Jiella Esmat, Liz Hadley, and John Robson Simon & Schuster US: Ed Schlesinger TITAN MAGAZINES Editorial Assistant: Jake Devine Senior Production Controller: Jackie Flook Production Supervisor: Maria Pearson Production Controller: Peter James Art Director: Oz Browne Senior Sales Manager: Steve Tothill Direct Sales & Marketing Manager: Ricky Claydon Subscriptions Executive: Tony Ho US Advertising Manager: Jeni Smith Brand Manager: Lucy Ripper Commercial Manager: Michelle Fairlamb Publishing Manager: Darryl Tothill Publishing Director: Chris Teather Operations Director: Leigh Baulch Executive Director: Vivian Cheung Publisher: Nick Landau

DISTRIBUTION

an you remember what you were doing 15 years ago? Personally I struggle to recall what I was doing last week let alone a decade and a half ago, but in this particular instance I have a unique aid to memory. Because around this time, 15 years ago, I was writing my final editorial for Star Trek Magazine. In bidding farewell to the magazine that I’d edited for 25 issues and two years – signing off with a distinctly underwhelming “Thank you, and goodnight” – I had no reason to think I’d ever sit in the captain’s chair again. And yet here I am, 15 years older and not especially wiser, settling into the seat only recently vacated by the brilliant Christopher Cooper (thanks for keeping it warm, Chris – possibly a bit too warm). Which begs the question, why? Simple: Money. No, wait, that’s not true. (Well, not entirely; I do have mouths to feed, y’know – in fact one more than I had 15 years ago, in the shape of my daughter.) The real reason I’ve once more taken command of STM is that right now, Star Trek is arguably the most exciting it’s been in ages. Don’t get me wrong: J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) and its two sequels were thrilling events, and my passion for all three films remains undimmed – as does my fervor for every prior incarnation of Trek. But to have brand new Star Trek back on the small screen for the first time in a dozen years – and for it to be so dizzyingly, exhilaratingly fresh and unpredictable – well… when the opportunity arose to play some small part in chronicling this bold new era of Star Trek, and how it ties into previous eras, I couldn’t resist. And best of all, Discovery Season 1 – for me the strongest first season of Trek since the original series – is just the start. As Captain Gabriel Lorca would say: Go!

Nick Jones Editor

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WWW.TITANMAGAZINES.COM STAR TREK: THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE VOL #1, ISSUE #66 (UK #193) Published by Titan Magazines, a division of Titan Publishing Group Limited, 144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP. TM ® & © 2018 CBS Studios Inc. © 2018 Paramount Pictures. STAR TREK and Related Marks are Trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Titan Authorised User. CBS, the CBS Eye logo and related marks are trademarks of CBS Broadcasting Inc. TM & © 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. For sale in the US, UK, Eire, Australia and New Zealand. Printed in the US by Quad/Graphics. ISSN 1357-3888 TMN 13791

INTERVIEW: DOUG JONES

“Saru sang to me. When he was described to me, I could see he had an emotional life that is very human.”

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CONTENTS

MAGAZINE P.14

Issue #66 March–April 2018

NEWS & EVENTS TEN FORWARD

Star Trek news from this galaxy to the next.

ANALYSIS THE FEDERATION

INTERVIEW SAM VARTHOLOMEOS

STAR TREK: VOYAGER VOYAGER’S WAKE

REAL SCIENCE TREKNOLOGY

Starﬂeet’s least ﬁnest on another sorry mission!

DOUG DREXLER’S A BRIEF HISTORY OF…

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS BEAM ME UP

FUTURE HISTORY THE KLINGON EMPIRE Our chronicle of the Klingons reaches The Next Generation.

Producer Robert Justman’s contribution to Trek.

U.S.S. Prometheus novels, comic book reviews, and a retro TNG toy.

INTERVIEW WALTER KOENIG

Exclusive Edition

On his early life, Russian heritage, and Chekov.

MERCH & REVIEWS TRICORDER

T H E CARTOON STARSHIP TREKKERS

Real life examples of Discovery’s Klingon cloaking tech.

The Shenzhou’s Ensign Connor on his Discovery experience.

How Janeway’s ship changed the Delta Quadrant.

Exploring the founding principles of the Federation.

Newsstand Edition

ANALYSIS YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE Investigating sexism in Star Trek via “Mudd’s Women.”

QUIZ TREK KNOWLEDGE Star Trek trivia quizzing and archive image captioning.

Christopher McDonald, alias Lt. Castillo in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

H O L O D E C K

LARRY NEMECEK’S A FISTFUL OF DATA Seven-year missions and Sovereign-class ships.

BIG QUESTIONS IN THE NEUTRAL ZONE Was Q right to prematurely introduce Starﬂeet to the Borg?

TALENTED TREKKERS BOB OLSEN How Star Trek inspired a champion pole vaulter.

STAR TREK

TEN FORWARD STAR TREK NE W S FROM E V ERY QUA DR A N T

A GRAND FINALE! Discovery denouement caps spectacular maiden voyage As Star Trek: Discovery’s intense Season 1 ﬁnale makes it debut on CBS All Access and Netﬂix, work on Season 2 of the smash hit show is continuing apace.

Kicking off on January 7 with the shocking events of the Jonathan Frakes-directed “Despite Yourself” – in which the U.S.S. Discovery crew found themselves in the Mirror Universe – the second chapter of Discovery’s inaugural season climaxed on February 11 with the action-packed “Will You Take My Hand?” The finale caps a run of six episodes that have left fans reeling and critics applauding, with USA Today naming Discovery one of the 10 best new shows of 2017 and Variety naming Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham) as one of the year’s breakout stars. In addition, Netflix revealed that Discovery placed at number four in their top 10 of shows that families watched together in 2017. Building on the success of the first season, Executive Producers Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg and their team of writers have been hard at work on scripts for Season 2, promising new planets, more away missions, and more in the way of Trek allegory. Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 will begin filming later this year. Meanwhile, Discovery’s Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz – alias iconic lovers Lieutenant Paul Stamets and Doctor Hugh Culber, whose eventful Season 1 voyage has captured viewers’ imaginations – were the cover stars of both The Advocate and Attitude at the beginning of 2018. “It’s an honor to be on one [cover],” said Cruz, speaking exclusively to Star Trek Magazine, “but to be on two at the same time… We’re really proud to be able to speak directly to the LGBT community on both sides of the pond and share in their excitement at these two characters and the story.” Added Cruz of Season 1 and beyond: “…it’s been really challenging and a lot of fun to create this doctor and this love story, and I’m really looking forward to continuing to see how it unfolds and to bring it to the audience.” See the next issue of STM for the full interview.

JON PAUL STEUER, 1984 –2018 01 Captain Lorca strikes a pose in a poster for the second chapter of Season 1. 02 Tyler (Shazad Latif) and Burnham (Sonequa MartinGreen) share a moment in “Despite Yourself.”

As Star Trek Magazine was going to press, news broke of the passing at the age of 33 of actor Jon Paul Steuer. Best known to Trek fans as Worf ’s son Alexander Rozhenko in the TNG episode “Reunion,” Steuer later played Quentin Kelly in Grace Under Fire, before embarking on a music career and latterly opening a vegan restaurant. Steuer passed away on New Year’s Day from undisclosed causes.

STAR TREK

NEWS

KELVIN KOLLECTIBLES!

Star Trek movie props auction action A remarkable offering of unique props and costumes from the first two Kelvin Timeline films went under the hammer at the tail end of 2017, with many items achieving multiple their estimates. Taking place on December 2 and run by the Prop Store in association with Paramount Pictures, the auction comprised 400 lots of original props and costumes from the J.J. Abramsdirected Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness. Bidding took place online, on the phone, and in person from the Prop Store’s Valencia, California base. The two biggest sales were Captain Kirk’s Enterprise command uniform from Into Darkness – as worn by Chris Pine – which went for $25,000, three times its estimate, and Mr. Spock’s uniform from the same film – as worn by Zachary Quinto – which fetched an even more impressive $27,500, almost

four times its estimate, although it did come with a phaser, holster belt, and communicator. But there were plenty more big ticket items besides. The uniform worn by Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) on Qo’noS fetched $15,000, three times its estimate, while the Enterprise operations uniform worn by Uhura (Zoe Saldana) went for $14,000, more than twice its estimate. Other Into Darkness uniforms of note included another of Kirk’s command uniforms ($12,000, twice its estimate); Kirk’s Starfleet dress uniform ($10,000, again twice its estimate); uniforms worn by McCoy (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), and Sulu (John Cho) ($8,000 apiece); Khan’s London costume ($7,500, three times its estimate) and trash barge fight costume ($7,000, twice its estimate); Kirk’s Qo’noS disguise ($7,000), and Admiral Marcus’ dress uniform ($7,000).

TEN FORWARD

MUSIC TO MAKE THE SANEST MAN GO MAD

Discovery soundtrack set for vinyl and CD

Away from the costumes, a full-length electronic phaser went for $13,000, while handheld ones fetched $9,500 and $7,500. The cold fusion device used by Spock at the start of Into Darkness achieved $6,000; the Nibiran scroll stolen by Kirk went for $4,250; a Starfleet snapcase bearing the legend “Enterprise NCC-1701” fetched $2,750, and Admiral Pike’s Starfleet ring and Thomas Harewood’s exploding one – and accompanying glass – both went for $2,250.

03 Kirk’s Enterprise command uniform. 04 Admiral Marcus’ dress uniform. 05 Khan’s Qo’noS costume. 06 Khan’s trash barge fight costume. 07 Admiral Marcus’ Vengeance uniform.

As Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery reaches its conclusion, Jeff Russo’s original score for the show is heading for a CD and vinyl release early in 2018. Released as a download at the end of 2017 by Lakeshore Records, the soundtrack comprises 21 tracks, among them “First Officer’s Log,” “Torchbearer,” “Captain Mudd,” and two versions of “Main Title,” with the music performed by a 60-piece orchestra. “The producers and I talked a lot about telling this story from an emotional point of view,” said Russo, whose previous work includes an Emmy-Award winning score for the TV series Fargo. “Relationships play a big role in this incarnation of the series, so trying to be true to that and create themes that connect characters is important.” Added Discovery co-creator Alex Kurtzman: “Jeff manages to hold each note in beautiful balance, evoking the nostalgia of Alexander Courage’s original theme while scoring Discovery with his own unique ear and heart. We’re lucky to have him, and we hope you’ll love his music as much as we do.” The official Star Trek writers’ room Twitter account echoed the sentiment, exclaiming: “Guess what we’ll be listening to when we write those Season 2 scripts?”

08 Spock’s cold fusion device. 09 Benedict Cumberbatch (Khan) in costume. 10 Klingon guard greatcoat uniform. 11 Klingon guard uniform.

STAR TREK

IN PRINT

NEW BOOKS AND COMICS

SECRETS OF STAMETS Anthony Rapp celebrates comic book debut Lieutenant Paul Stamets, the U.S.S. Discovery’s science officer, is set to make his comic book debut in March, in the first Star Trek: Discovery Annual. Written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, with art by Angel Hernandez, the annual promises to explore who Stamets is and how he and his research partner, Straal, came to discover the mycelial network, and thus develop Discovery’s spore drive. In addition, the comic will reveal how Stamets met his significant other, Dr. Hugh Culber, played on the show by Wilson Cruz. Upon seeing the cover of the annual, Stamets actor Anthony Rapp tweeted: “You don’t even understand. I’ve been a comic book geek since I was a child and now I AM ON THE COVER OF A COMIC BOOK AND GHDJDKSNHEBEKsbbdvFfcCzghsjdndbxzb!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! That is all.” To which Wilson Cruz added succinctly: “So cool!” As well as announcing the Star Trek: Discovery Annual, publisher IDW has revealed that the ongoing Star Trek: Boldly Go series will end in March, wrapping up with the final part of the “I.D.I.C.” saga. However, fans of the Kelvin Timeline comics need not despair; writer Mike Johnson has noted that “you have not seen the end of the Kelvin cast by a long shot.”

NOTHING TO FEAR Saru to star in next Discovery novel The title of the third Star Trek: Discovery tie-in novel has been announced, along with details of its Sarufocused plot. Written by New York Times bestselling author – and Star Trek Magazine alumnus – James Swallow, Star Trek: Discovery: Fear Itself centers on Saru’s time aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou, detailing an episode when, according to the ofﬁcial synopsis, the Kelpien “breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crewmates” during “a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress.” The synopsis continues: “Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and the conﬂicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races. To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold…” Published on June 5 by Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, Fear Itself follows on from David Mack’s Desperate Hours and Dayton Ward’s Drastic Measures, both of which similarly deal with episodes from the Discovery crew’s past. Noting that he had “never had this level of access or collaboration while working on a tie-in project before,” James Swallow declared that “it’s great to be able to develop some backstory for one of Discovery’s key characters and I’m excited to return to the Star Trek universe once again!” 10

STAR TREK

TEN FORWARD

THE FELINE GENERATION

Quirky Trek cats book gets follow-up One of 2017’s more unusual Star Trek books gains a sequel this year, as The Next Generation is given the feline treatment. The brainchild of scientific illustrator, cat lover, and self-confessed nerd Jenny Parks, Star Trek: The Next Generation Cats is published by Chronicle on March 27, and adopts the same approach as Parks’ bestselling first book, Star Trek Cats, reimagining classic Trek characters and scenes with a moggy twist. Described as a “faithfully feline homage to the hit series,” the new book promises encounters with the Borg and adventures on the holodeck, as Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D “are reimagined as cats with lovingly detailed and eyebrow-raising scenes from throughout the award-winning series, perfect for Star Trek fans across the galaxy.” In addition to her books, a variety of Trek cats merchandise is available through Parks’ website, including T-shirts and pins: http://www.jennyparks.com/startrekcats/.

STAR TREK

EVENT HORIZON THINGS TO DO ON SHORE LEAVE

DESTINATION STARDOM Shatner and Isaacs topline Star Trek cons Destination Star Trek Birmingham and Germany have both added big name guests to their lineups, with stars from both classic Trek and the most recent iteration joining already stellar arrays of talent. The original Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, will be beaming down to Destination Star Trek Birmingham at the NEC in the UK from October 19–21. He joins Jason Isaacs, alias Discovery’s Gabriel Lorca, this issue’s interviewee Walter Koenig (the original series’ Chekov), Jonathan Frakes (TNG’s Riker, and more recently director of a Star Trek: Discovery episode), Marina Sirtis (TNG’s Troi), Michael Dorn (TNG and DS9’s Worf ), Terry Farrell (DS9’s Jadzia Dax), Nicole de Boer (DS9’s Ezri Dax), and Mary Chieffo and Kenneth Mitchell (Discovery’s L’Rell and Kol). Jason Isaacs has also been confirmed for Destination Star Trek Germany in Dortmund from 27–29 April. He will appear alongside his fellow Discovery actors Chieffo and Mitchell, as well as the aforementioned Messrs Shatner and Koenig, and Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), among others. Ticket info for the two shows can be found at www.destinationstartrek.com/ tickets and www.destinationstartrekgermany.com/tickets.

DISCOVER LAS VEGAS Cruz and Klingons confirmed for US con The stars of Star Trek: Discovery will be out in force in August, as four actors from the show join the bill of Star Trek Las Vegas 2018. Wilson Cruz, Discovery’s Dr. Hugh Culber, will be joined at the convention by Mary Chieffo and Kenneth Mitchell, alias Klingons L’Rell and Kol. In addition, none other than the father of Spock himself, Sarek, will be present, in the shape of British actor James Frain. Also recently conﬁrmed for the convention are a gaggle of Next Generation stars, including Brent Spiner (Data), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Michael Dorn (Worf), John de Lancie (Q), and Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar). They join a lineup that already boasts William Shatner (Kirk), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Kate Mulgrew (Voyager’s Janeway), and Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine). Ticket info at www.creationent.com/cal/st_lasvegas_tickets.html.

STAR TREK

MERCH ROUNDUP THE E LATEST TREK TREATS IN STORE

THE INNER LIGHT Enterprise bridges become lamps Readers of Star Trek Magazine will be able to enjoy their favorite publication in fine style of an evening in future, thanks to two new Star Trek lamps from ThinkGeek. The US retailer has both an original series Bridge Set Lamp on offer and a Next Generation one. Both boast a remarkable level of detail, their bases faithfully recreating in miniature the Enterprise and Enterprise-D bridges, right down to the switches and displays on the consoles. Not only that, but the bridge-bases are the perfect size for Lego minifigures, meaning miniature custom Kirks and Picards can take their places in their respective captains’ chairs. Helpfully, ThinkGeek has offered some directions for adding extra fun to the lamps, from using yellow and red bulbs for yellow and red alert, to providing your own “shoop-shoop whisper sound of the bridge doors.” Measuring 18 inches high by 8 inches wide, the lamps are available now.

GET READY FOR ACTION McFarlane Trek figures set for summer Captains Kirk and Picard are spearheading a new wave of Star Trek action figures from McFarlane Toys, with Discovery figures slated to follow soon after. Arriving in stores in June, the James T. Kirk and JeanLuc Picard figures both stand seven inches tall, and have 16 points of articulation, allowing them to stand, sit, or kneel. Captain Kirk’s accessories number a phaser, communicator, and phaser rifle, while Captain Picard comes complete with a type 2 phaser and a Ressikan flute, as seen in the Next Generation episode “The Inner Light.” Brand-specific bases are included with both figures. Later in the year, McFarlane have a number of Star Trek: Discovery collectibles planned. Tentatively scheduled for Fall 2018, McFarlane’s Michael Burnham and T’Kuvma action figures will have a similar spec to the Kirk and Picard ones, while a screen-accurate 1:1 scale Discovery phaser will have various play action features. Also in the Fall there’ll be a deluxe 10-inch original series Kirk figure in his command green uniform.

STAR TREK

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INTERVIEW

STAR TREK

DOUG JONES

S T A N D I N G

T A L L …

NOT RUNNING SCARED

Even in a crew where self-doubt and traumatic life stories are commonplace, Star Trek: Discovery’s Saru stands out – and not merely by dint of his extreme height and striking appearance. By his very nature, the towering Kelpien must deal daily with his instinctual fear – something that the actor who plays Saru, acclaimed creature specialist Doug Jones, finds refreshing… even though it once again means being plastered daily with prosthetics. Words: Ian Spelling

STAR TREK

INTERVIEW

t’s no coincidence that Doug Jones landed the role of the Kelpien alien, Saru, on Star Trek: Discovery. The 57-year-old’s Hollywood calling card typically involves morphing into bizarre creatures, strange extraterrestrials, and supernatural fiends. His impressive film credits include The Bye Bye Man (2017), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2009), and a gaggle of Guillermo del Toro movies, among them The Shape of Water (2017), Crimson Peak (2015), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Hellboy (2004). The elaborate transformations required for those films necessitated hours and hours of being slathered in make-up, latex, and prosthetics. At a Discovery press event in Toronto, Jones makes note of his growing desire to cut down on those cosmetic-heavy and time-consuming 18

STAR TREK

parts. At least, that was how he felt before Star Trek came knocking at his door; Jones deemed the opportunity to become a part of the iconic sci-fi franchise as “special.” “To be honest, I was working on The Shape of Water, which is a creature movie, right before this started filming last summer here in Toronto,” he recalls. “That was a head-to-toe

creature transformation. I was getting weary. That was a three-month job and I’m thinking, ‘I wonder how much more of this I want to do?’ Then I got offered this. I was like, ‘Well, it could be six years.’ We’ll see when Star Trek: Discovery is done how much rubberwearing I continue to do. I don’t know. Never say never. I’m glad this is happening and I’m glad that The Shape of Water happened, too. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, so I don’t want to pooh-pooh that. “Again, it’s all about those layers and personality,” he continues. “I’ve played so many otherworldly characters in my 30-year career so far. Saru has heart and soul. That’s what will sell me on a creature now. If it’s just a guy chasing you down a hallway in a horror movie, I’ve played those. But, they don’t

DOUG JONES

“We really respect each other and would take a bullet for each other, but, gosh, Michael Burnham annoys me.” sing to me anymore. I’m 57 now and I’m getting a bit pickier. Saru sang to me. When he was described to me, I could see he had an emotional life that is very human. I can explore a lot of humanity through this alien character. That means a lot to me.” It certainly didn’t hurt that Jones skipped the whole audition process. Instead, Discovery’s Executive Producers

TREK THROUGH LIFE 01 Saru and Burnham begin to build bridges, in “Choose Your Pain.” 02 Side by side in “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry.” 03 Saru to the bridge, in “Into the Forest I Go.”

tar Trek is more than a franchise: it’s a cultural phenomenon. Millions and millions of people worldwide have tuned into the show, shelled out money for the movies, bought the merchandise, or attended Trek-centric conventions. For Doug Jones, his admiration for Star Trek extends far beyond its current incarnation. In fact, he doesn’t remember a time when it didn’t invade his household. “I was born in 1960, so I’m old,” Jones says. “But, that also means when the original series was on network television for the ﬁrst time, I was watching it. I’ve grown up all my life having Star Trek be a part of every phase of that life. There’s always something on TV that is Star Trek-ish, whether it’s The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise. And, I’ve enjoyed all of it.”

STAR TREK

INTERVIEW

directly approached Jones about the role of Saru. Jones was “flabbergasted.” But, it turns out make-up and creature designers Neville Page and Glenn Hetrick brought up Jones’ name as they tinkered and toiled over the character. “The Executive Producers happened to be fans of mine, thank heaven,” notes Jones. “I went and met with them. Executive Producers Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg were in the room. We had a great meeting and fell in love with each other, so it was decided in that day. The gravity of what was happening was not lost on me. It just landed in my lap – and that does not just happen.”

SUPERMODEL SPECIES Over the past five decades, the various Star Trek TV series and feature films have introduced numerous compelling and memorable alien species. The Klingons fit prominently into Discovery’s first season, as do the Vulcans. However, Jones is tickled pink that Saru allows him to embody a new race of aliens rather than flesh out an already established species. “It’s very exciting, especially in such a huge franchise, with such a huge 20

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legacy as Star Trek,” he explains. “So many species have been birthed in this universe. To be one of them, and to be at the birthing of it, is a responsibility. I’m glad that I don’t have to take on another [alien species] that has already been established because there’s the chance of getting it wrong somehow. And, if I do anything wrong, the fans will be right on it. I don’t blame them for that. This is good fun for me. “The look was taken care of by Neville [Discovery’s Creature Designer] and Glenn at Alchemy Studios,” Jones adds. “They did a brilliant job of creating this look as unique and warm and friendly. The physicality of him – what his quirks are – and the costuming came into play with my hoof-feet. I’m on the balls of my feet in a high-heel position with no heel underneath it. So, I’m balancing on the balls of my feet, like walking on a gazelle hoof. Well, that informed a lot of my physicality. It pushed my hips forward to keep my balance. I guess I got his walk down because I can’t walk any other way in these boots. But, it actually works. There’s a supermodel quotient to him. He walks with a certain sashay. It is with the grace of a gazelle.”

VOICE OF REASON 04 Recovering in sickbay after the events of “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.” 05 Saru and Burnham in “Choose Your Pain.” 06 The striking Saru. 07 (Overleaf) Doug Jones at Comic-Con.

On Saru’s home planet, a predatory race prey on the weaker Kelpiens. Driven by fear, Saru’s people developed heightened survival instincts, an acute “spidersense” that warns them of impending danger. Saru is the first of his kind to breakaway from that life and make something of himself that’s different than merely being a hunted breed. “That’s remarkable for a Kelpien to do,” Jones says. “What I bring to the bridge as an officer is I’m the voice of reason. I’m the brakes. ‘If you want to make a silly decision that might be dangerous,’ I’m the first one to say that.

DOUG JONES

SA U WHO?

member of a prey species, Saru is naturally averse to risk – an aversion aided by the threat ganglia at the back of his head, which give him an almost sixth sense for danger or imminent death. The first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru served as lieutenant in the science division aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou before being promoted to lieutenant commander as the ship’s chief science officer. He worked alongside first officer Michael Burnham, with whom he developed a friendly, almost brotherly/sisterly rivalry. After the Battle at the Binary Stars and the death of the Shenzhou’s Captain Georgiou, Saru joined the U.S.S. Discovery, becoming first officer under Captain Lorca. The arrival of Michael Burnham on the Discovery has been difficult for Saru, who views her as brilliant but dangerous.

STAR TREK

INTERVIEW

DOUG JONES FILM Batman Returns (1992, dir. Tim Burton) – as Thin Clown Hocus Pocus (1993, dir. Kenny Ortega) – as Billy Butcherson Mimic (1997, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as Long John #2 Warriors of Virtue (1997, dir. Ronny Yu) – as Yee Mystery Men (1999, dir. Kinka Usher) – as Pencilhead The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000, dir. Des McAnuff) as FBI Agent Carrot Monkeybone (2001, dir. Henry Selick) – as Yeti Adaptation (2002, dir. Spike Jonze) – as Augustus Margaray Men in Black II (2002, dir. Barry Sonnenfeld) – as Joey The Time Machine (2002, dir. Simon Wells) – as Spy Morlock Hellboy (2004, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as Abe Sapien The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005, dir. David Lee Fisher) – as Cesare Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as the Faun/the Pale Man Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007, dir. Tim Story) – as Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as Abe Sapien/Angel of Death/the Chamberlain Legion (2010, dir. Scott Stewart) – as Ice Cream Man Crimson Peak (2015, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as Edith’s Mother/Lady Beatrice Sharpe Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016, dir. Mike Flanagan) – as Marcus The Bye Bye Man (2017, dir. Stacy Title) – as the Bye Bye Man The Shape of Water (2017, dir. Guillermo del Toro) – as the Creature TELEVISION The Outer Limits (1998, 3 episodes) – as Elder Alien/Alien #1/Alien/Alien Doctor) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999, 1 episode: “Hush”) – as Lead Gentleman The Neighbors (2012–2013, 6 episodes) – as Dominique Wilkins Falling Skies (2013–2015, 27 episodes) – as Cochise The Strain (2014–2016, 6 episodes) – as the Ancient/the Master Arrow/The Flash (2015, 2 episodes: ‘Broken Arrow”/“Rogue Air”) – as Jake Simmons/ Deathbolt Star Trek: Discovery (2017–) – as Saru

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SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

I also have a threat ganglia that comes out from behind my ears. They only deploy when a threat can’t be seen, but I can sense it. “If something is coming at me with a weapon, I can see that and [the ganglia] don’t deploy because I’m ready for it,” he continues. “But, if someone is behind a closed door and they are waiting to pounce on me, then I know something is not right. That’s going to be the signature trait for Saru, is those threat ganglia. But, also as a prey species, when pushed into a corner, he can fight back. I do have a fierce streak in me if pushed to it. “My threat ganglia goes off a couple of times when I’m not expecting it,” he adds. “It’s foretelling some kind of threat. I am also one who will say, ‘Are we sure we should be making this decision?’ And, if they go ahead with that decision, and it was a bad one, I have the ‘I told you so.’ It’s also played in a humor element. The writers have been really lovely at incorporating humor for Saru, in a dry, Spock-ish or Data kind of way. It’s been charming and refreshing.”

PIONEERING PREY The first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru served on board the U.S.S. Shenzhou before joining the U.S.S. Discovery. His upbringing informs his judgment and decision-making. It also leads him to

butt heads with fellow crew member Michael Burnham. He’s cautious; she takes risks. Saru comes across as more lighthearted, while Burnham is super-serious. Their competitive nature provides an entertaining dichotomy and a “healthy rivalry.” “When you meet us right off the bat in episode one on the Starship Shenzhou, Michael Burnham is first officer,” reports Jones. “I’m third in command, right on her tail. We are kind of like brother and sister, with Captain Georgiou as the mom figure. We have a family dynamic already. She and I are elbowing each other. We both want the captain’s chair one day. We’ve been doing the rivalry thing all the way up to the positions we now have. There is a competition. We annoy each other, but we also revere each other. She’s the smartest person I’ve ever known, and vice versa. We really respect each other and would take a bullet for each other, but, gosh, she annoys me.” As for what’s in store for Saru, Jones prefers that audiences wait and see. Even with the Klingons plaguing the Federation, he promises plenty of room for development. “Every character is like an onion with many layers,” he notes. “Each episode peels something back. You show a new color, and a new smell, that you didn’t have before. Things are not always what they seem. It’s a theme for the show with every character.”

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S TA R T R E K : V O YA G E R

Voyager’s Wake Flung 70,000 light-years from Earth, the U.S.S. Voyager’s long journey home was always going to leave its mark on Captain Kathryn Janeway and crew, as they encountered unfamiliar species, explored unimagined vistas, and faced unforeseen perils. What was less predictable was the impact Voyager’s passing would have on the denizens of the Delta Quadrant… Wo r d s : J a y S t o b i e 24

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espite aspirations of adhering to the Prime Directive, Star Trek: Voyager’s namesake hero vessel was bound to influence the Delta Quadrant cultures along its path to Earth. While every starship leaves a warp trail, the foreign nature of the U.S.S. Voyager and its crew to the region meant there was an inevitable impact on native civilizations and the local balance of power. Captain Kathryn Janeway led her subordinates with courage and conviction, providing assistance to numerous worlds and fellow spacefarers. Nevertheless, not all left in the craft’s wake felt as fortunate. The Intrepid-class explorer’s multitude of successes and failures undoubtedly created waves of repercussions in the Delta Quadrant that rippled long after it returned home.

Kazon Disorder

Conflict with the Kazon Order’s sects plagued the wayward travelers during the first two years of their tenure in the Delta Quadrant. Aggression came naturally to the divisive Kazon, but heightened tensions resulted from their perception of Voyager as a new threat and a wonder of technology whose power they sought. Pursuit of the Federation ship provoked significant upheavals to the Kazon’s society and leadership, ranging from attempts at unification to increased hostilities between factions. Two First Majes, or Kazon sect leaders, died as a direct consequence of dealing with the Voyager

team. Razik of the Kazon-Ogla expired at the hands of Kar after an encounter with Chakotay in “Initiations,” and the Kazon-Relora lost Haron to First Maje Culluh’s deadly use of stolen Starfleet transporter technology. The Kazon’s ability to temporarily acquire Starfleet replicator and transporter hardware sprung from the duplicity of Seska, the undercover Cardassian spy who posed as a Bajoran officer and later defected to Culluh’s side. Seska’s willingness to meddle in Kazon affairs reflected poorly on the explorers from the Alpha Quadrant, despite the crew’s attempts to foil the Cardassian’s efforts. On the other hand, the most notable rift in FederationKazon relations evolved from Captain Janeway’s well-intentioned mistake of seeking an alliance with the Trabe, the Kazon’s former masters. Trabe leader Mabus convinced the captain to gather several First Majes for a peace conference in which the Trabe betrayed all involved and sought to murder the delegates. The Kazon’s final appearance in the episode “Basics, Part II” burned another bridge, as Seska’s death sent First Maje Culluh into the depths of grief. Starfleet’s dealings with the Kazon altered the interaction between the sects, heightened tensions with the Trabe, inadvertently caused the deaths of two First Majes, and sent Culluh into a tailspin of despair. Kazon space clearly did not fare well in its experiences with Voyager. STAR TREK

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Origin of the Species

A more subtle situation developed when Professor Gegen, a respected Voth paleontologist, sought out Voyager as a means to substantiate his Distant Origin Theory. A Saurian species whose doctrine heralded them as the first race to evolve in the Delta Quadrant, the Voth drew pride from the notion that the region of space they inhabited remained their birthright. Gegen’s theory, that the Voth developed on a faraway planet and traveled to their new home, seemed to be supported by genetic markers his people shared with humans and other Terran creatures. Research and analysis conducted by Janeway, the Doctor, and Commander Chakotay spurred on their agreement with Gegen’s hypothesis. Gegen believed this to be a critical discovery, but the ruling Ministry of Elders felt a refugee from the past undermined their doctrine and authority. The Ministry’s threats to the Federation ship prompted Gegen to unwillingly end his research. In spite of that, Gegen’s work on his theory took place for over a decade, and news about his evidence spread as Gegen began closing in on the truth. Turning the Voth’s history on its axis before having the revelation suppressed remains difficult to classify as positive or negative, but the Distant Origin Theory’s ability to spark staggering changes in Voth society is impossible to ignore. In yet another inadvertent infringement upon the Prime Directive, the Intrepid-class explorer’s dealings

with the Vaskans and Kyrians in “Living Witness” became a misunderstood piece of history for the two native groups. A museum’s inaccurate exhibit depicted Starfleet as a vicious entity that helped the Vaskans conquer the Kyrians, leading to hundreds of years of oppression. Fortunately, the Emergency Medical Hologram’s backup module had been left on the planet, allowing the Doctor to unmask the true story of Kyrian aggression in their Great War. Riots ensued, but the EMH’s revelation opened a Vaskan-Kyrian dialogue that led to peaceful reconciliation.

Interestingly, the damage induced by Voyager’s visit only receded after the Doctor chose to turn a blind eye to the Prime Directive.

No Silver Lining

A more tragic series of events unfolded following Voyager’s visit to a Class Y planet during a search for deuterium in the episode “Demon.” A primitive life form referred to as silver blood achieved sentience and took human form after touching Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim. The majority of the starship’s complement allowed the silver blood

Kazon Raiders

While less technologically advanced than their Federation counterparts, the Kazon sects patrolled their space with armadas of starships, ranging from diminutive fighters and raiders to immense carriers. Stolen from the Trabe, Kazon vessels mercilessly harassed the U.S.S. Voyager via impromptu strikes and coordinated attacks. Interestingly, only two Kazon carriers and less than 10 smaller ships were destroyed during onscreen conflicts with Voyager. The hierarchy of the Kazon Order may have been worse for wear following their entanglements with the visitors from the Alpha Quadrant, but the majority of their fleet remained active and intact. 26

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For once, Starfleet’s presence served a constructive cause, as the Hirogen received a fighting chance to regain their intellectual achievements. to sample their DNA, creating a new species endowed with the memories and features of their progenitors. Spawning new life proved satisfactory, but things became bleak in “Course: Oblivion.” The silver blood entities gradually forgot their status as copies, eventually building their own U.S.S. Voyager and setting course for Earth. However, warp core emanations deemed innocuous to humans destabilized the silver blood organisms; all hands perished during the journey back to their homeworld. Even a time-capsule beacon filled with their logs and experiences never properly deployed. Captain Janeway’s choice precipitated the awakening of a doomed race. Was the decision to approve the silver blood’s request to mimic her subordinates worth their ultimate fate? Unfortunately, none of the deuterium-

01 Professor Gegen in “Distant Origin.” 02 The duplicitous Seska in “Basics.” 03 Karden of the KazonOgla in “Initiations.” 04 Maje Jabin of the KazonOgla.

based facsimiles survived to express their views on the outcome. Perhaps the greatest effect on an individual society perpetrated (accidentally, of course!) by Captain Janeway and her cohorts occurred in the episode “Blink of an Eye.” Trapped in orbit around a planet where time passed more rapidly on the surface than in the rest of the galaxy, Voyager became ingrained in the development of the primitive local population. The starship’s arrival generated severe earthquakes and represented a mythological symbol to the inhabitants, earning Voyager the nickname “Sky Ship.” Following a lengthier-than-expected excursion, the Doctor stated that their “presence has encouraged invention, religion, science, art… even children’s toys.” In short order, the civilization achieved the capability of sending

scientists to greet the craft. Gotana-Retz, a local astronaut, explained that seeing the Sky Ship gave citizens something to strive toward. As seems to be the pattern with Federation encounters, the entry into the planet’s orbit presented a mixed bag of ground-shaking destruction and advancement in the sciences and arts. Regardless, the ensuing society chose to assist in the Federation delegation’s quest to depart and, judging by the smile on Gotana-Retz’s face as Voyager vanished from the heavens, held no ill will for the object their ancestors once worshipped.

Hunters and Assimilators

Janeway’s team demonstrated an adeptness for making impressions along their path, but Voyager’s interactions with Hirogen hunters and the Borg Collective stood above all. The nomadic STAR TREK

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Hirogen perceived other life forms as prey to be hunted. Spread across the quadrant, the Hirogen terrorized countless beings and existed in fairly isolated groups. Karr, a Hirogen who took control of the Intrepid-class explorer in “The Killing Game,” explained to the captain that their lifestyle produced a stagnant society. Karr predicted the inevitability of Hirogen extinction, barring significant changes to their way of life. During Karr’s tenure as commandant of Voyager, he familiarized himself with Federation holotechnology and began to believe engaging in holographic hunts provided a perfect way to prevent the Hirogen from dying off. Karr was killed by his own second-in-command Turanj during an uprising by the Federation prisoners, yet his words resonated with Janeway and the surviving hunters. Voyager’s captain breached protocol by giving an optronic datacore integral to holodeck development to their former captors, while the new Hirogen Alpha broke his own etiquette by negotiating with those he perceived as lesser lifeforms. Within several years, the Hirogen started establishing holofacilities in which to orchestrate hunts. A severe learning curve involving cruelty against their photonic prey and an insurrection mounted by holograms ensued in the two-parter “Flesh and Blood,” but Hirogen scientist Donik and the Cardassian holoprogram Kejal vowed to collaborate and find an amicable solution. For once, Starfleet’s presence served a constructive cause, as the

Hirogen Hunters

Compact, monotanium-armored starships functioned as the primary mode of transportation for the Hirogen on their hunts. Traveling alone or in packs, these hardy vessels maintained trophy rooms and special stealth technology to mask their approach to unsuspecting prey. The same features most likely also remained integrated into the Hirogen’s colossal Venatic-class cruisers. During an excursion aboard a hunter’s ship, Tuvok and Seven of Nine discovered evidence that led them to hypothesize that the Hirogen did, in fact, eat the people they pursued. 28

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Captain Janeway set out toward an impossible goal when she strove to hold the vessel’s complement to the Federation ideals reflected in the Prime Directive. Hirogen received a fighting chance to regain their intellectual achievements. In addition, the uplifting outcome also benefited other beings formerly utilized as prey. The potential for a stable Hirogen civilization pursuing non-sentient holograms meant peace of mind for other races and planets who knew the hunters no longer roamed in the shadows. Similarly, relations between Voyager and the Borg Collective impacted numerous worlds throughout the quadrant and beyond. The alliance with the Borg forged to defeat Species 8472 appeared necessary, but saving the collective from destruction ultimately allowed them to assimilate more people, including Arturis and Species 116 in “Hope and Fear.” Seven of Nine’s utilization of Unimatrix Zero to organize a resistance among drones disconnected from the hive mind also unsettled the Borg Queen. The decisive blows were struck in the series finale “Endgame,” as the time–traveling Admiral Janeway from the year 2404 infected the queen

and collective with a neurolytic pathogen, destroyed a sizable section of the primary Borg Unicomplex, and neutralized one of only six Borg transwarp hubs in the galaxy. The events of “Endgame” disconnected an unknown number of drones and cubes from the collective, but bad news for the Borg meant a sigh of relief for societies throughout the Milky Way. While five transwarp hubs remained, the loss of one prevented the Borg from reaching certain sectors

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and assimilating the locals. The extent of the damage brought on by the pathogen remains unclear, but the loss of the queen and a unicomplex surely hampered the Borg’s offensive capabilities for an unprecedented amount of time. The lives taken by the Borg in the aftermath of the war with Species 8472 stained the hands of the Starfleet crew, but the havoc Voyager wrought against the Borg in their final years in the Delta Quadrant surely spared many from assimilation.

While interactions with the Hirogen and Borg allowed for the greatest capacity to affect multiple societies, the balance of power in a post-Voyager Delta Quadrant probably shifted in Kazon and Voth space as well. A lust for Federation technology inspired attempts at Kazon unification, yet distrust and infighting always won out. The Kazon poured considerable resources into tracking Janeway’s merry band, which diverted their attention from more familiar foes. The Haakonian Order reigned over Talax, and Captain Ransom of the U.S.S. Equinox described an equally hostile Krowtonan Guard near Kazon territory. The notion of those two governments seizing Kazon sectors or fighting between themselves

The havoc Voyager wrought against the Borg in their final years in the Delta Quadrant surely spared many from assimilation.

Mixed Results

05 Trabe governor Mabus in “Alliances.” 06 The Borg Queen in “Unimatrix Zero.” 07 Vaskan ambassador Daleth in “Living Witness.” 08 Seska and First Maje Culluh of the KazonNistrim.

rifts with species near the Hirogen’s new home turf. Skirmishes or open warfare could occur, sacrificing peace for territorial disputes. Similarly, the weakening of the Borg Collective via clashes with the Borg resistance and the effects of the debilitating pathogen might prompt systems to slip from its grasp. Powers such as the Devore, Lokirrim, Annari, and Vaadwaur may see a reprieve from the Borg as an opportunity for expansion. Nonetheless, the Borg Queen stated the collective had assimilated the pathogen and Admiral Janeway’s advanced armor, curtailing any hopes for the permanent incapacitation of the Borg. Upgraded technology increases the likelihood of an emboldened Borg Collective returning to prominence, regaining lost sectors, and defeating the resistance movement.

for regional gains seems plausible and capable of weakening Kazon authority even further. The Voth kept to themselves in interstellar matters, so if the evidence supporting the Distant Origin Theory discovered by Professor Gegen took hold among the general populace, the consequences would likely be an internal matter. Rebellion against the Ministry of Elders remains a possibility, as is the concept that many Voth might search for their warm-blooded Terran cousins. In fact, learning of their relation to non-saurians opens the door for the Voth to be less stingy about mingling with their celestial neighbors. A centralized Hirogen society would surely spawn a rebirth of their arts and humanities. However, transitioning from a nomadic race to a localized one leaves potential for

Captain Janeway set out toward an impossible goal when she strove to hold the vessel’s complement to the Federation ideals reflected in the Prime Directive. Starfleet captains shed the restraints of that general order often enough in the Alpha Quadrant, so how could a solitary ship far from home avoid the same pitfall? To the contingent’s credit, a sizable portion of their influence began unintentionally through accidents or hostilities initiated by locals. Mixed results transpired for many of the cultures most affected by Voyager’s travels, although handing numerous defeats to the Borg benefitted the quadrant as a whole. No captain leads infallibly, no crew performs perfectly, and no expedition embarks without making mistakes. From a macro perspective, Captain Kathryn Janeway worked miracles by taking courses of action that she believed best served the interests of both her subordinates and the Delta Quadrant. STAR TREK

INTERVIEW

The

Russian Revolutionary When Ensign Pavel Chekov debuted in “Amok Time,” the second season premiere of Star Trek, in 1967, it was a life-changing moment for the man who played him. Over 50 years later, in an exclusive interview with Star Trek Magazine, Walter Koenig reflects on both his and his character’s Russian heritage, on the audition that secured him the role of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s navigator, and on the enduring appeal of Chekov and Star Trek. Words: Chris Gardner

ore than 50 years after the fact, it’s easy to overlook the significance of the addition of Russian navigator Pavel Andreievich Chekov to the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701. But back in 1967, Gene Roddenberry’s casting of the then-31-year-old Walter Koenig was not lost on the actor. In 1949, when he was 13, Koenig’s family received hate mail because his parents had immigrated to New York, in the United States of America, from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, now known simply as Russia. As a result, the actor’s father, Isadore, and his family were investigated by America’s nationwide security organization. “As a matter of fact, the FBI did come to the apartment building we lived in and questioned the 60-odd families that lived there about us,” Koenig recalls when Star Trek Magazine talks to him at Armageddon: The Entertainment Expo in Auckland, New Zealand. “My father was a communist and he brought that sense of philosophy with him when he came to the States. That didn’t mean he was trying to overturn the government. He was hoping for a better society and he had this very idealistic, romantic view that communism was the answer. 30

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“It was impossible for [my father] to lay low,” Koenig adds. “He was a born proselytiser. So, we would sit down in a restaurant and start telling about the joys and the beauty of communism with anybody and everybody. I literally thought there would come a time when we would be picked up and sent away.” Koenig, 81, pauses for a few seconds as he remembers his father. “He didn’t live long enough to discover what we all knew about Stalin, what a monster he was.” Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was once quoted as saying: “Death is the solution to all problems. No man – no problem.” He ran the USSR with that philosophy at the forefront of his mind. Koenig’s father died in 1956, about 11 years before the actor was cast as Ensign Chekov in Star Trek’s second season. By then it had become evident that Roddenberry was using Star Trek to celebrate the differences that at the time divided the world. Decades into the Cold War between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, the future for humankind looked grim.

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INTERVIEW

“But my feeling was, god I would have loved to have him [my father] see me play a Russian,” Koenig says. “That was something I took great pride in and I think he would too.”

Chekov to the Bridge

According to Herb Solow, Vice President of Production on the original series, “Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, had criticized Star Trek as being ‘typically capitalistic’ and questioned why there was no Russian crewman aboard the Enterprise. After all, the Soviets were doing quite well in the race for outer space.” However, William Shatner later dismissed Solow’s claim, saying: “This long-established, widely believed bit of Star Trek history is false, and was simply the product of an overzealous public relations department.” “I knew why they hired me,” Koenig says now. “They were trying to fill a demographic, eight to 12-year-olds, and they had in mind somebody that had the appeal of Davy Jones. So that’s what it was all about.” The world was in the midst of its love affair with the pop group The Monkees – of which Jones was a member – which had its own television show. Koenig was 31 years old when he was cast to play the 22-year-old Chekov,

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“My father was hoping for a better society and he had this very idealistic, romantic view that communism was the answer.” and had no qualms about being hired to attract what he calls the bubblegum set. “It was terrific. My job is to act… to do the best I can, that’s first and foremost. It’s not a philanthropy. It’s my means of expression. So, my first thought is doing the best job that I can and the chips fall where they may. Whether it’s accepted, appreciated, or it isn’t, I have a responsibility to be – I’m embarrassed

to say an artist because I’m not sure what actors are – the best actor I can be.” Despite his Russian heritage, Koenig reveals: “I am embarrassed to say that I do not [speak Russian]. It was not taught to me. It was not encouraged. The ’40s were a very stressful period with HUAC [the House Un-American Activities Committee] and Joseph McCarthy. We were really supposed to lay low…” As a consequence, Koenig had to be taught Chekov’s Russian line in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock: “Ya ne soomisyechi, nu vot!” (“I’m not crazy, it’s right there!”) Chekov has a deep pride in his Russian heritage. Combined with his endearing good humor, this led to many great claims by the young ensign – such as that the Garden of Eden was situated just outside of Moscow, or that Scotch whisky was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad. “I didn’t write any of the lines,” Koenig notes explaining that it was always down to the show’s writers. “When I auditioned for the part they gave me some very intense dialogue about the ship blowing up. I studied it before I went in to read and I realised that this was a scene of great jeopardy and Chekov was relatively inexperienced as an ensign. That manifested in my

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performance and the reaction I got was absolute silence. At first, I thought they were blown away by my extraordinary talent, but then they said, ‘Do it again and make it funny!’ Now there is no way that you can justify reading those lines in a funny manner. I did it though. What they were looking for was to see whether I had a sense of humor when called upon, and whether I’d be able to express that in the character. So, they had that in mind from the beginning. There would be small moments to lighten the character to make him appeal to the younger generation.”

Moral of the Story

Gene Roddenberry claimed that he created Star Trek to tell morality tales, a bit like Aesop’s Fables. He also wanted to smuggle social commentary past the censors, who he felt wouldn’t be clever enough to spot what he was doing. “I think he was quite successful,” Koenig says. “I think the fact that the show has continued to live beyond those three years is a tribute to his idealism, his romanticism about what humanity can be, what it should be, and where we could possibly go in the future. Unfortunately, he was talking about the 23rd Century and we have to live in this dreadful century with the government we have in the United States at the current time.”

01 (previous pages) Chekov in The Motion Picture. 02 Koenig’s second appearance as Chekov, in ”Who Mourns for Adonais?” 03 With Uhura in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” 04 At the mercy of Khan. 05 The memorable Ceti eel scene in The Wrath of Khan. 06 With Sulu in The Search for Spock.

So, does Koenig feel that humanity hasn’t come far since the Cold War? “It hardly seems like an auspicious beginning to a better world and a more benevolent humanity. The wheel’s fallen off, but you know that this is recurring. This is history repeating itself. Time and again through history we see periods where there’s been progress and there’s been affirmation of good character and belief and philosophy. We’ve also had these terrible setbacks where we’ve regressed to a more atavistic cultural personality. “I’ve lived long enough now to have experienced different evolutions of the way we behave. We went through a period in the ’40s where we, being the Americans, were very aware of the need to help stabilize the world and get rid of some terrible people. Then we got

involved in a dreadful war in Vietnam where we never should have been and thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives on both sides of the trench. “Then, in 2008, I thought I really had reason to be proud to be an American. We made that extraordinary step forward and elected an AfricanAmerican as President of the United States. I was just so proud of that and thought I can now pass on with knowing that. But the situation has changed again. We take 1,000 steps forward, and we take 999 back. One hopes that, ultimately, we will be taking more than just one step forward at a time and then really, firmly, establish a world where we are all brothers and we all respect each other - care for each other and look after each other. It’s very frustrating to live this long and see that we’re back where we were decades ago.” Koenig admits to being a cynic. “I’m sort of a grumpy old man now,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m least impressed by the gadgetry. Everybody talks about how we wouldn’t have had cell phones if it wasn’t for Star Trek. But if it hadn’t have been Star Trek, something else would have inspired that. I am not very conversant with that kind of engineering, it’s never thrilled me and it’s not terribly significant to me. I do appreciate people feel we were

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responsible, or we were thee initiators of the electronic world that we live in today. But I’m more inteerested in the idea that we were a group g of heterogeneous people – miixed race, mixed culture, mixed philoosophies – and we found a time when n we could cooperate. We could live toogether. Those differences were not the source of animosity but the source of companionship and friendship and compassion!” Despite that, Koenig confesses c his favorite Star Trek memoory related to the launch of the space shuttle s Enterprise, an event that hee and most of his fellow cast members attended on September 17, 1976. “That was an amazingg moment,” Koenig recalls. “Up until th hen I just considered us part of a teleevision show – entertainment, that was our purpose. Although I enjoyed being part p of something fans were enthu usiastic about, I had a very strong sense of detachment from being any kind of infl fluence. “I heard Jimmy [Dooh han] talking about people wanting to be engineers, DeForest [Kelley] doctors, and all that, but to me it didn’t come in nto focus… I met one young woman who w was inspired by Chekov to learn Russian. She took Russian in school and became very proficient, evidently. She S went to 34

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work for the SState Department, and became a spy. So, when I asked her what she did she wasn’t at liberty to tell me!” Picturingg the space shuttle launch in his mind’s eye, Koenig remembers there being “aa great number of people dia, photographers and from the med nd then the Air Force Band journalists, an leader waved his baton and they started playing musicc from Star Trek. That was quite remarkaable. The armed forces band, some of whom had fought for our country, shouldered weapons, suffered injury, were playing the Star Trekk theme music. m “To undeerscore that, at that very moment the sshuttlecraft came around the corner intto view, and drove past U.S.S. Enterprise us with the words w on the nose of the ship. That was extraordinary. All of a sudden, I felt mply entertainment. this is not sim We are truly aan influence, however small it mightt be, and I really had not thought of us in those terms. We were pretending too be something that was not part of reality, then, all of a sudden in a small wayy, we were part of reality, and I’ve neverr lost that feeling. It’s made it more palataable to be identified with one project foor 50 years. We were part of something that was meaningful, that related to the world and what was

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“At that very moment the shuttlecraft came around the corner into view, and drove past us with the words U.S.S. Enterprise on the nose of the ship. That was extraordinary.” transpiring. It’s become more real to me as the time has passed.”

Curtain Call

In the mind of the actor who played him, original U.S.S. Enterprise navigator Pavel Andreievich Chekov has been laid to rest. As far back as August 1978, when Walter Koenig stepped back onto the sets of the refitted Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, he felt as if he was exhuming a ghost. After all, the original series had ceased filming nearly a decade earlier on January 9, 1969, when it was cancelled by NBC. Today, it’s been 24 years since Koenig last played Chekov on the big screen, when he bid farewell to Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek Generations in 1994. “I got it out of my system,” Koenig reveals. “I put him to rest.” So, what’s Pavel Andreievich Chekov’s epitaph? “On his gravestone? He screamed good!” Koenig was directed to scream many times in the original series and the movies, as he encountered countless alien nasties. The most indelible of Chekov’s screams is in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when a Ceti eel crawls into his ear canal. However, Star Trek’s 25th anniversary film, Star Trek VI: The

Undiscovered Country (1991), was the last time Koenig appeared as the original Chekov alongside all the original series cast. “When we did Star Trek VI I was sure there would be moments for all the supporting actors,” he says as he frowns. “I was sure we would all get to do our curtain speech in some way, but they weren’t there! It could have been any episode of Star Trek and I was furious. It really played on my mind and I came to work every day angry… I was just pissed that we didn’t have these moments. After all these years this was going to be the last film, and I had still not been able to develop this character the way that I felt he should be developed. I felt there were things that he could express and feel and he was never given an opportunity to do so.” However, Star Trek fans were lucky to see Koenig return to the role for one last big screen appearance in the prologue of Star Trek Generations. So, what made the actor return? “When the first Star Trek: The Next Generation movie came along they were back and forth about whether they were going to use us,” Koenig recollects. Produced by Rick Berman and co-producer Peter Lauritson, the

07 Koenig and George Takei in The Final Frontier. 08 Koenig had to be taught his Russian dialogue in The Search for Spock. 09 Koenig joins Gene Roddenberry and his fellow cast members at the launch of the space shuttle Enterprise.

Generations screenplay was written by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga based on a story they had written with Berman. “They decided to use Jimmy [Doohan as Scotty], myself, and Bill [Shatner as Kirk]. I turned them down. I said, ‘There’s nothing here that I haven’t already done…’ That was a sizeable amount of money. I said I didn’t want to go back and do something nominal, something that was superficial.” Directed by David Carson, Generations was in production around the same time television producer J. Michael Straczynski launched his five-year space opera Babylon 5. Koenig played Psi Corps agent Alfred Bester from the show’s sixth episode onward, appearing in 12 episodes over the show’s five seasons. “So, the producer [of Generations] called me into his office with the writers and said, ‘What would you like to happen?’ I said, ‘OK, without undermining the story [or] in any way creating a digression which changes the plot, this is what we could do…’ I told him that there’s a moment when Kirk is blown out of the ship that Scotty and Chekov could stand together and talk about what they had just lost and how meaningful it was to us, and he said, ‘Right, OK.’ The writer STAR TREK

INTERVIEW

“We were saying something that was meaningful, that related to the world and what was transpiring. It’s become more real to me as the time has passed.”

Headline Act

took notes, I got the script, I said yes, and it was in the script.” The 53-second scene was set on the Enterprise-B bridge immediately after the apparent death of Captain James T. Kirk. “I’ve checked the entire ship and the surrounding space,” Enterprise-B helmswoman Demora Sulu says from her station. “There’s no sign of him.” Chekov can’t believe Kirk is dead: “Captain! It’s not possible. It can’t be. I never thought it would end like this.” Scotty responds: “All things must end, lad.” Captain John Harriman interrupts the mood with a command to take the new ship home to Earth. “We got on the soundstage, it was there, they shot it, everything went very well, and there were people with tears in their eyes,” Koenig says. “And then they cut it out.” Although the deleted scene has been omitted from DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film, but can be found on YouTube.

10 The entire original series main cast appearing together for the last time in The Undiscovered Country. 11 Koenig with Star Trek Magazine’s Chris Gardner.

Twenty-four years after his last appearance, Chekov’s appeal endures – so much so that Koenig is the headliner at Armageddon: The Entertainment Expo. He’s accompanied at the convention by his wife, Judy Levitt, who appeared alongside him in three of the Star Trek feature films. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Levitt played one of the doctors about to operate on the unconscious Chekov; in The Undiscovered Country she was a military aide at Starfleet Command; and in Generations Levitt was one of the El-Aurian survivors rescued by Captain Harriman and the Enterprise-B. How did all that come about? “I called them and asked them,” Koenig says. “She’s a good actress. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t use her, and she also appeared in a couple of Babylon 5 episodes.” How do Koenig’s many hours of Star Trek compare to his experience on Babylon 5? “Each time Bester appeared he was part of the plot, he was there for a reason,” Koenig muses. “He wasn’t an expository character as Chekov had been on Star Trek. On Star Trek he was a character who set up a situation but didn’t actually become involved in situations in any significant way.” An expository character perhaps, but one that over time has propelled Walter Koenig to top billing at conventions – a testament both to Koenig the actor and to Chekov, the iconic Enterprise crewman he helped create.

A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

Matters of Honor

A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE Continuing our future history of the Klingon Empire, here we chart some of the more significant Klingon episodes that occurred during the era of Captain Picard and the Enterprise-D, as the Federation found itself increasingly embroiled in the internal affairs of a species that was now its (somewhat temperamental) ally. Words: Chris Gardner

he previously far-fetched notion of the Klingon Empire forming a friendship with the United Federation of Planets had become a living reality by 2361, when Worf, son of Mogh, became the first Klingon warrior to graduate from the Federation’s Starfleet Academy on Earth. Whereas a century before, a Klingon on the bridge of a Federation starship would have signified war – the only reason for his or her presence being as a member of an invading boarding party – Worf ’s service in Starfleet signified a lasting peace between the Empire and Federation. When Starfleet launched its flagship, the Galaxy-class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, in 2364, Lieutenant (junior grade) Worf was onboard, serving as its flight control officer.

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Heart of Glory” Season 1, Episode 20

The Klingon Commander K’Nera of the Klingon Defense Force was impressed with Worf’s handling of an internal Klingon security matter in the first year of the voyages of the Enterprise-D. The Federation flagship beamed three Klingon criminals aboard from the damaged Talarian freighter Batris, believing them to be victims of an attack. Commander K’Nera informed the Enterprise-D’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard that Korris, Konmel, and Kunivas had hijacked the freighter and destroyed a Klingon vessel using deadly merculite rockets. After Kunivas succumbed to injuries sustained in the battle, Korris and Konmel were imprisoned in the Enterprise brig. Konmel died in an escape attempt, but Korris made it to engineering, where he threatened to fire a phaser into the starship’s dilithium crystal chamber. The ship would be destroyed, killing more than 1,000 crew and their families, unless Picard allowed Korris to separate from the starship’s saucer section and escape in the powerful warp-capable stardrive section. Pulling the trigger would have destroyed the starship. K’Nera offered Worf a place on his Klingon ship after Worf distracted and defeated Korris. Worf thanked the Klingon commander, before reassuring Picard that he had no intention of leaving the Enterprise. 38

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“The true test of a warrior is not without, it is within.” WORF

Trek Trivia

Vaughn Armstrong, who played Korris in this episode, went on to portray 11 other characters across the various Star Trek series (including multiple appearances as Admiral Forrest in Enterprise) – more than any other actor.

KLINGONS

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A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

Trek Trivia

Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Emissary”

K’Ehleyr actor Suzie Plakson previously played Doctor Selar in “The Schizoid Man”; she would return as K’Ehleyr in “Reunion.”

Season 2, Episode 20

The Klingon Empire and Federation members found themselves working together again in 2365. Their mission was to intercept the T’Ong, a ship full of Klingons in suspended animation, who were unaware of the peace treaty which the Enterprise-A’s crew had had such a huge hand in. Federation outposts were at such risk that the Klingon Empire sent half-Klingon/half-human special envoy K’Ehleyr in an especially adapted probe to the Enterprise-D to assist them on their mission. Devastation was averted thanks to the Enterprise-D crew’s work with the Klingon ambassador.

Star Trek: The Next Generation “A Matter of Honor” Season 2, Episode 8

The Klingon Bird-of-Prey Pagh, commanded by Captain Kargan, became the first Klingon vessel aboard which a human had served with a Klingon crew. (Lord Kruge’s Bird-of-Prey was commandeered by Admiral James T. Kirk and his bridge crew a century earlier at Genesis in the Mutara sector.) Commander William T. Riker, first officer of the Enterprise-D, joined the Pagh on temporary assignment This episode marked during an officer exchange the first appearance programme in which the Empire and of Klingon Federation partook. bloodwine.

Trek Trivia

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“One does not patronize a Klingon warrior.” RIKER

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Sins of the Father” Season 3, Episode 17

The ambitious Klingon House of Duras locked bony forehead was killed in the attack, had transmitted the Khitomer Outpost’s ridges with the Klingon House of Mogh, which the Enterprise-D’s deflector shield access codes to its Romulan attackers. They security chief, Worf, was believed to have been the only surviving lowered its shields and destroyed the outpost because of his member of. treachery. Worf had been raised on Qo’noS, the Klingon homeworld, Picard proved to the entire Klingon Empire that he was the as well as the Khitomer Outpost near the Klingon Empire’s consummate diplomat when he stood by Worf as his cha’DIch, border with the Romulan Star Empire. Worf’s entire family or ritual second, before the Klingon High Council. Starfleet was thought to have been among the 4,000 Klingons Academy’s first Klingon graduate appeared before who had died defending their home from attack the leaders of the Empire to challenge the assertion in 2346. The Romulan starships mysteriously got made by Duras. The evidence against Worf’s father, This episode saw the past Khitomer’s planetary defense shield and supposedly found in the logs of a captured Romulan first depiction of the bombarded the Klingon outpost from orbit, leaving vessel, was faked. Worf’s revelation was supported Klingon homeworld, very few survivors. by his childhood nurse, Kahlest, but Chancellor Qo’noS. When the U.S.S. Intrepid of the Federation K’mpec refused to allow her to give testimony in the Starfleet answered Khitomer’s distress call, one of Klingon High Council chamber. her crew, Chief Petty Officer Sergey Rozhenko, found the In private, K’mpec revealed the truth to Worf and juvenile Worf in the Romulan-blasted rubble of the outpost. The Picard. The Klingon High Council knew that it was Duras’ father, young Klingon was in his sixth year when his family, home, and all Ja’rod, who had transmitted the shield’s codes to the Romulan that he had known and loved were taken from him by the ships attackers of the Khitomer Outpost. The captured Romulan of the neighboring Romulan Star Empire. Rozhenko and his wife, vessel’s logs contained the evidence. But, K’mpec insisted, Helena, adopted Worf and raised him as if he were their very revealing the truth would have split the Klingon Empire and own son. The family lived on the farm world of Gault for a while, started a civil war. Rather than allow the Empire to descend into before returning to their native Russia on Earth. Worf eventually anarchy, Worf volunteered to withdraw his challenge. Instead, he enrolled at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco before being accepted discommendation. This selfless act would see Worf, posted to the Enterprise. His adoptive parents were very proud and the house of Mogh, shunned for seven generations by all of his accomplishments. other Klingons. Worf would return to the Federation and his post According to Duras, Worf’s biological father Mogh, who on the Enterprise.

Trek Trivia

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“Not even a bite on the cheek for old times’ sake?” K’EHLEYR

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Reunion” Season 4, Episode 7

Upon the murder of its longest-serving chancellor in 2367, the of Planets. That would not end well for the Empire or the future of the Klingon Empire lay not in the hands of a Klingon Federation. warrior, but in those of a human starship captain and diplomat. In K’mpec’s dying eyes, Picard had done the right thing The mortally ill Chancellor K’mpec set his ship on a by the Empire in 2366, when he had helped K’mpec avert course for the Gamma Arigulon star system, where the a Klingon civil war. Now, the arbiter responsible for U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D was on a scientific administering the Klingon Rite of Succession would mission. K’mpec left it to Klingon Ambassador be a human rather than a Klingon – something no Featuring the deaths K’Ehleyr to beam aboard the Federation flagship one in the Empire expected. of K’mpec, K’Ehleyr, with news of his poisoning. Duras and Gowron arrived at Gamma and Duras, this episode In the moments before his death of Veridium Arigulon after K’mpec’s death. Soon, Picard also marked the debut Six poisoning, K’mpec chose Captain Jeanconducted the Sonchi ceremony, the first of Gowron, as well Luc Picard as the Klingon Empire’s Arbiter of part of the Right of Succession, aboard the as Worf’s son, Succession. late chancellor’s ship. The ceremony involved Alexander. The chancellor chose Picard because he couldn’t confirming K’mpec’s death by shocking his body be sure whether political rivals Duras or Gowron were with Klingon pain sticks. However, before Picard could behind his slow and gradual poisoning. Whoever it was, pick K’mpec’s successor, Ambassador K’Ehleyr was murdered K’mpec told Picard aboard his Vor’cha-class attack cruiser by Duras. She had begun to investigate the Khitomer shortly before his death, his poisoner could never be allowed Massacre, so many years ago, and thus earned Duras’ wrath. to lead the Empire. Any Klingon willing to resort to as In response, Worf challenged Duras to a duel, and killed dishonorable a tactic as poisoning an enemy, without having the wannabe chancellor. Gowron, another larger than life the stomach to show his face, could be capable of almost Klingon, would become the Klingon Empire’s new leader, anything, including an all-out war with the United Federation as chosen by Picard.

Trek Trivia

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KLINGONS

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Redemption, Parts I & II” Season 4, Episode 26/Season 5, Episode 1

The Klingon Empire descended into civil war in 2367 before Gowron could be inaugurated as chancellor. Gowron faced a challenge from Toral, the illegitimate son of the late Duras. Duras’ scheming sisters, Lursa and B’Etor, were behind the challenge, and would have made Toral their puppet had his challenge succeeded. Picard, as Arbiter of Succession, rejected Toral’s claim and oversaw the inauguration of Gowron, but not before the outbreak of a full scale civil war. Worf, full of righteous indignation, resigned his Starfleet commission in order to fight for the glory of the Empire on the side he believed in – against the rebel faction led by the dishonorable House of Duras. While Picard was careful not to involve the Federation in the civil war, he led a blockade to the Klingon Empire’s border with the Romulan Star Empire. The Romulans were suspected of supporting the rebel faction. The Duras sisters were forced to show their hand when, under advisement from Picard, Gowron attacked them and left them clawing for Romulan help. Once discovered trying to run the Federation blockade with material for the rebel Klingons, the Romulans proved they had no stomach for a fight, and withdrew.

Trek Trivia

“Honor will soon have no meaning.” GOWRON

Trek Trivia

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Ethics”

In this episode, it is revealed that not only do Klingons have ridges on their foreheads, but on their spines and feet too.

Season 5, Episode 16

Klingon culture proved to be incompatible with Federation ways of life in 2368, when Worf suffered a paralyzing accident. A cargo container fell onto the Klingon in cargo bay 3 on the Enterprise-D when he and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge investigated strange readings there. Klingon tradition required Worf, unable to face an enemy with his paralysis, to initiate the Hegh’bat ritual, or suicide. While the ritual required a family member, preferably the oldest son, to hand the victim the knife to plunge into his own heart, Worf could not bring himself to ask for his son Alexander’s help. Instead, Worf asked for the help of the Enterprise-D’s first officer, Commander William Riker, who refused. Ultimately, Worf bravely faced a risky operation which returned his mobility.

Former United States President Ronald Reagan visited the set during the ﬁlming of these episodes, remarking of the actors in Klingon warrior garb: “They remind me of Congress.”

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Past Prologue” Season 1, Episode 3

The Duras sisters resorted to a life of crime to fund the activities of their disgraced house. They were observed at the Federation protectorate space station Deep Space 9, in the Bajoran sector, in 2369. There they sold an explosive device to the Bajoran terrorist Tahna Los, who had plans to blow This was the Duras up the newly sisters’ only appearance discovered on Deep Space Nine – wormhole to and the ﬁrst appearance the Gamma of Klingons in the Quadrant. series.

Trek Trivia

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A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

Trek Trivia

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Birthright, Parts I & II” Season 6, Episodes 16 & 17

Worf uncovered a very unusual plot involving Klingons and Romulans in 2369, after receiving intelligence at Deep Space 9 in the Bajoran sector. Acting on the intelligence gathered, Worf traveled to the jungle planet of Carraya IV on the Romulan frontier. There, his source had told him, he would discover that his father had not died at the Khitomer Outpost after all, but been taken prisoner by the Romulans. Instead of ﬁnding his long-dead father, Worf found a colony of Klingons, former prisoners of the Romulan Star Empire, living in peace with their Romulan captors. When he left, some of the young Klingons who he had mentored came with him, but Worf swore not to tell of the others living in harmony.

Later assigned to the station, Worf was ﬁrst seen onboard Deep Space 9 in these episodes.

“A Klingon would never allow himself to be captured. A warrior fights to the death!” WORF

Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Chase” Season 6, Episode 20

Trek Trivia

In this episode, for the ﬁrst time, humans, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians all appear together.

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Captain Nu’Daq of the Klingon attack cruiser Maht-H’a discovered his species shared a genetic root with Cardassians, humans, and Romulans in 2369. Nu’Daq believed DNA fragments he collected at the planet Indri VIII included the design of an ancient and powerful weapon. Consequently, Nu’Daq destroyed the atmosphere of the world to make it impossible for other galactic powers to acquire their own samples. Nu’Daq and his crew temporarily joined the Enterprise-D after their vessel was damaged in a Cardassian attack. The Enterprise-D was on a similar mission, trying to solve an archaeological puzzle being investigated by prominent archaeologist Richard Galen. At Vilmor II, the combined Imperial Klingon and United Federation of Planets crews made a startling discovery. Joined by Cardassians and Romulans, who had followed their own trails, the four major powers of the Alpha Quadrant learned that they were all descended from the same ancient race. Their combined quest had triggered an ancient holographic recording of a humanoid female, billions of years old. She confessed that their race had been alone in the galaxy and all life had descended from them.

KLINGONS

Star Trek Generations

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Rightful Heir” Season 6, Episode 23

Before he died in the 9th Century, the legendary founder of the Klingon Empire, Kahless the Unforgettable, promised to return. By the 24th Century, the Klingon Empire’s most devout had established a monastery at Boreth, where they sought Kahless in meditation. Kahless appeared to Worf at Boreth when the Enterprise-D security chief was on sabbatical, and was confirmed as being the real deal when he was beamed aboard the Enterprise-D – his blood matched that found on the sacred Knife of Kirom. But Klingon Chancellor Gowron, who had also boarded the Enterprise-D, doubted Kahless’ claim, and easily defeated the legendary warrior. Kahless’ escort, Boreth High Priest Koroth, revealed that his community had created a clone to unite the Klingon Empire, informed by the sacred Klingon texts. Gowron agreed Kahless’ clone could be installed as Emperor and spiritual leader of the Empire, while Gowron would continue as Chancellor.

The Duras sisters would get their revenge on Worf and Picard in 2371, when a mimic of their father’s treachery led to the destruction of the Enterprise-D. The pair learned the frequency of the starship’s shield harmonics by planting a transmitter in the visor of the ship’s captured chief engineer, Geordi La Forge. When La Forge returned to his ship, the sisters were able see the frequency displayed on an engineering readout. Their Birdof-Prey’s attack on the Enterprise-D caused the warp core breach that led to the explosion of the stardrive section at Veridian III. The saucer section escaped the blast, but was propelled into a crash landing on the planet. While most of the Enterprise crew survived, the Duras sisters and their ship were destroyed in the battle. Worf returned to Boreth after the loss of his ship, but his solitude would be interrupted when Starfleet called upon him to become Klingon liaison officer as part of the Starfleet contingent on Deep Space 9…

“He must be the only engineer in Starfleet who doesn’t go to engineering!” B’ETOR

Trek Trivia

Despite playing significant roles in the film, only one of the Duras sisters, Lursa, was mentioned by name; B’Etor had to wait to the closing credits to be identified.

Trek Trivia

This was Gowron’s ﬁnal appearance on The Next Generation, although he would go on to appear in Deep Space Nine.

“I am Kahless… and I have returned.” KAHLESS STAR TREK

UNITED

EDE

ON OF P

UNITED

C H A R T I N G T H E A L U E S B E H I N D T H E U N E D F E D E R A T I O N O F P L T S The United Federation of Planets: an unprecedented alliance of worlds and cultures, working together to create a galaxy that is at peace with itself. The story of how the Federation came together and ďŹ&#x201A;ourished, surviving internal disputes and difďŹ cult choices, is a testament to those most basic of values: compassion and understanding. W o r d s : D e r e k Ty l e r A t t i c o

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A FUTURE UNITED

n the 24th Century, an alliance founded in uncertain times, between just four civilizations, has grown to over 150 member worlds, spanning 8,000 light-years. When planets are besieged by disease, war, or threats from outside forces, the United Federation of Planets is the glue that holds the Alpha Quadrant together. But what does it take to create such a vast and formidable organization? Some would say that the Federation owes its creation and fruition to advanced technology – that without mighty starships, warp drive, or the marvels of transporters and replicators there would be no Federation. This is simply not true. For all of the Federation’s power, it would be nothing without its core principles – ones that date right back to its inception.

In the Beginning

On April 5, 2063, Zefram Cochrane took humanity’s first warppowered flight. It was 10 years after World War III; humanity had pulled itself out of the darkness that claimed 600 million lives and took

the species the closest it had ever been to extinction. A ship descended through the clouds over Montana; the humans who witnessed its landing were filled with awe and wonder. Zefram Cochrane did not greet these people from another planet with a universal translator, but with a simple outstretched hand. This historic first meeting with the Vulcans was the seminal moment that laid the foundation for the United Federation of Planets. It was also a moment that over time flourished into friendship – not because of technology, but due to something far more vital to building trust: the principles of compassion and mutual understanding. Barely two generations from that day, poverty, racism, and an obsession with the acquisition of wealth would be eliminated on Earth. This happened not because of what humanity gained after meeting the Vulcans, but because the realization that their world was part of a much larger community enabled humans to let go of the prejudices and narrow-minded views that had previously plagued them. It could have been so different, however. Elsewhere, in a parallel STAR TREK

U N I T E D F E D E R AT I O N O F P L A N E T S

universe, a mirror event played out, but when the Vulcans attempted to make first contact, they were greeted by humans bereft of compassion and understanding. The Vulcans were murdered, their technology stolen, and because this version of humanity never learned the lessons of their World Wars, they formed the first interstellar Terran Empire, ruled by force and terror. Viewing that first contact through the skewed lens of the Mirror Universe, we can see the importance of the principles that guided humanity in the Prime Timeline. Nearly 100 years later, those very same principles provided the impetus that enabled humanity to take a nobler place amongst the stars.

One Small Step

In a quadrant teeming with diverse species, creating a spirit of understanding can be difficult. For example, when an injured Klingon was found on Earth, the Vulcan Ambassador insisted that he be allowed to die a warrior’s death before his body was returned to Qo’noS. Unaware of Klingon rituals, Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise NX-01 pragmatically suggested that the Klingons would rather have a live courier returned to them than a dead one. This single act of compassion showed the Klingons that humanity was an honorable species, and a crisis was averted – at least for the time being. Archer’s contribution to the formation of the Federation cannot be underestimated. A compassionate man, he also recognized that understanding sometimes requires tough love. When 48

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The historic first meeting with the Vulcans was the seminal moment that laid the foundation for the United Federation of Planets. the Romulans attempted to destabilize the quadrant by attacking the Andorians and Tellarites with a disguised ship, Archer was able to get the hostile races to agree a truce. Petty bickering between the two soon threatened to break that peace, until the Starfleet captain admonished the rivals, telling them that they were playing into the hands of whoever was trying to instigate a war between them. Would they continue quarreling until their mutual destruction, or do something about what was going on? The squabbling stopped, and the Romulan ship was found and destroyed. An endeavor born out of mutual interest and protection became the first jointspecies venture, and led directly to the creation of the Federation.

Matter and Antimatter

If compassion and understanding are truly what binds the Federation together and gives it strength, then it begs the question: what would the Federation be like without those principles? The answer to that is the Terran Empire.

01 Zefram Cochrane – and humanity – meets the Vulcans, in First Contact. 02 Klaang, the Klingon returned by Archer in the Enterprise episode “Broken Bow.” 03 Things could have been very different for the Federation. (“Mirror, Mirror”) 04 The Enterprise-D ensnared by the Borg in “Q Who.”

After an unsuccessful negotiation with a race of pacifists over a supply of dilithium crystals, Captain James T. Kirk and his landing party were accidentally transported into the Mirror Universe of the Terran Empire, and onto an alternate Enterprise – one crewed by authoritarian versions of their colleagues in the Prime Timeline. Despite the Kirk doppelgänger’s orders from Starfleet to force the pacifists to capitulate or be destroyed, our Kirk showed them compassion. But the senior officers from this other Enterprise saw it as a sign of weakness, and attempted to assassinate Kirk. Even in the face of such hostility and a nihilistic worldview, the Kirk of our reality didn’t waiver, holding fast to the principles that formed the United Federation of Planets. Before returning to this universe, Kirk went even further with the mirror Spock, using logic to argue the benefits of the Federation’s compassion and understanding in contrast to the illogic of the force and terror of the Terran Empire. “The illogic of waste, Mr. Spock,” Kirk told the bearded version of his

A FUTURE UNITED

longtime friend. “A waste of lives, potential, resources, time. I submit to you that your Empire is illogical because it cannot endure. I submit that you are illogical to be a willing part of it.” The mirror Spock agreed with Kirk, and the Vulcan found a way to steer the Empire toward reform, disarmament, and peace. Unlike the Federation, the Terran Empire was not founded on compassion and understanding, but even reformed there was no way such an organization could be respected. Humans had kept their boot on the neck of the parallel Alpha Quadrant for over two centuries, and when it finally slipped off, humanity was enslaved. In this universe, there was no compassionate species to come to the aid of the Empire. As Captain Kirk had predicted, without the guiding principles and ideals of the Federation, the Terran Empire was destined to fail, and the reformation left the Empire ripe for conquest by a Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.

The True Enemy

Nothing has a greater chance of destroying a society’s morality than fear. Fear is a poison that can erode our sensibilities, our beliefs, and turn who we are into what we are afraid of. The Federation has faced terrible dangers throughout its history, but nothing has instilled greater terror into the psyche of its members than the Borg – a collective more than a species, one that assimilates culture, difference, history, and even

diversity, and reduces them all to dispassionate algorithms. The threat of assimilation is far worse than death. To have the essence of who you are erased while you still live is unimaginable for a society that has risen above the pettiness of selfishness and oppression, and celebrates the journey of self-expression, compassion, and understanding. The Federation’s first encounter with the Borg came when the entity known as Q hurled the Enterprise-D into an unexplored section of the galaxy. After an initial and brutal encounter with a Borg cube, Q explained to Captain Jean-Luc Picard exactly what he and the Enterprise were facing. “The Borg is the ultimate user. They’re unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced,” Q revealed. “They’re not interested in political conquest, wealth or power as you know it. They’re simply interested in your ship. Its technology. They’ve identified it as something they can consume.” STAR TREK

U N I T E D F E D E R AT I O N O F P L A N E T S

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FEDERATION

KEY EVENTS IN THE FORMATION OF THE MOST STABLE UNION IN INTERPLANETARY HISTORY. 2053

WORLD WAR III 600 million human lives are lost as Earth’s ﬁnal global war ends in a nuclear holocaust.

2063 FIRST CONTACT A Vulcan research ship detects the signature of Zefram Cochrane’s Phoenix test ﬂight, and initiates ﬁrst contact with the human race.

2150 EARTH UNITES The nation-states of Earth unite under one World Government. Humanity thrives, free from war, poverty, disease, and hunger.

2151 TO BOLDLY GO The Enterprise NX-01 launches. During its operational lifetime, the ship and her crew initiate ﬁrst contact with numerous extraterrestrial civilizations.

2155 THE BIRTH OF A UNITY The Coalition of Planets is formed, with the Vulcans, humans, Andorians, and Tellarites being the founder members.

2161 FORWARD THE FEDERATION Following a four-year war against the Romulan Empire, Earth, Vulcan, Tellar, and Andoria found the United Federation of Planets.

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In the end, the Federation’s technology proved ineffectual against the Borg Collective, and Q had to save the Enterprise from certain destruction. It was this incident that set the Federation on edge as never before, not because of an encounter with an adversarial species with superior technology, but because the security and complacency that the Federation’s principles afforded them were shaken by a species that could not be reasoned with. The second time the Federation engaged the Borg, the Collective abducted Picard and transformed him into their spokesperson, Locutus of Borg. Transmitting across all channels, Locutus proclaimed: “Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us.” In essence, the assimilated Starfleet captain was telling the Federation that their principles and ideals of compassion and understanding were irrelevant. Shortly thereafter, Locutus delivered a devastating blow to Starfleet at Wolf 359, destroying 40 ships and killing over 11,000 crew members. With the assimilation of Earth imminent, newly-promoted Captain William Riker launched an unorthodox counteroffensive against the Collective, with a plan that, rather than abandoning the principles of the Federation, embraced them. Riker understood that capturing Locutus (and in the process retrieving Picard) made the Enterprise stronger, turning

The security and complacency that the Federation’s principles afforded them were shaken by a species that could not be reasoned with: the Borg. the asset that the Borg abducted into their weakness. It was due to his desire to rescue Picard that Riker’s gamble succeeded – not because of the tactical advantage he gained, but because he found a way to defeat the monsters without becoming one. 05 The Enterprise-D crew found compassion for Hugh, the lone Borg drone, in “I Borg.” 06 To uphold the principles of the Federation, Janeway destroyed the Caretaker array. (“Caretaker”) 07 Janeway faced a tough decision in “Caretaker.”

The Wood for the Trees

The Alpha Quadrant has shown us societies that have changed out of necessity, such as the once warlike Vulcans or the impoverished Cardassians, but sometimes the spirit of a society can change while the body appears the same. This is true even of a union as confident in its values as the Federation. Over a year and a half after the trauma of Wolf 359, an Enterprise away team consisting of Commander Riker, Lieutenant Worf, and Doctor Crusher, encountered a lone Borg adolescent, injured in a crashed vessel.

A FUTURE UNITED

Picard ordered the away team to return to the ship immediately, to which Riker agreed. Picard, abducted and stripped of his humanity by the soulless automatons, now had none to give, while Riker, who once had compassion for Picard as a Borg, showed none to this random drone. Worf even suggested that they kill the drone and make it appear as if it died in the crash. Only Doctor Crusher pushed past her fear and prejudice, and immediately began to treat the hurt drone. Picard decided to bring the drone aboard, and later to use it as a delivery system for an act of genocide against the Borg. When the Enterprise’s senior officers discussed this plan, again it was only Crusher who was disturbed by the idea. The others all agreed with Picard that the Federation must do whatever was necessary to survive. Clearly, fear alone could suffocate compassion. Only after the Enterprise officers spent time with the drone (whom they

named Hugh) and subconsciously helped him to regain his individuality did they see through the blindness of their own prejudice. Their uncharacteristic plan to wipe out the Borg was shelved, and their compassion and understanding emancipated them from the chains of fear. If the Federation had turned away from its principles with the excuse of self-preservation, it might not have been long before it would have been securing worlds and entire star systems for the same reason – and becoming something not a million light years away from the Terran Empire.

Where No One Has Gone Before

The Alpha Quadrant has many powerful civilizations, but no other cooperative societies like the Federation. Beyond its principles, the Federation’s most powerful asset is its size. The age-old adage is true – there is strength in numbers. But without those numbers, are the tenets of the Federation enough in times of adversity? When an alien transported the U.S.S. Voyager to the Delta Quadrant in the blink of an eye, the ship’s crew found themselves on the other side of the galaxy, cut off from Starfleet and the Federation. Shortly thereafter, Captain Kathryn Janeway was presented with an opportunity to get her crew back to the Alpha Quadrant, but to do so would have left advanced technology in the hands

of the Kazon. Despite the personal stakes, Janeway stood by the principles of the Federation and destroyed the technology, stranding Voyager 70,000 light years from home. It didn’t take long for the Voyager crew to learn that many species in the Delta Quadrant were opportunistic, oppressive bullies that preyed upon the weak and defenseless. In one instance, Voyager was sucked into a starless, barren region of space, where other stranded ships preyed upon one another for energy and food. As soon as Voyager arrived, it was attacked, and its food and resources stolen. With reserves low, and other ships out for blood, the crew learned there was little room for morality in the Void. Janeway disagreed. When the opportunity arose to retrieve their stolen resources and procure more, Janeway gave the order to take only what belonged to Voyager. Unable to escape, Chakotay and Tuvok approached the captain and proposed putting aside Federation principles while in the Void. Janeway repudiated the suggestion, telling her first and second officer: “I’m betting that our principles are going to keep us alive.” Harkening back to those early days of the Federation, Janeway proposed an alliance to ships stuck in the Void: that each vessel pool their resources and technology instead of hoarding them, and defend each other and new arrivals instead of pillaging one another. Not everyone agreed, seeing violence as an easier solution, but eventually an alliance did form. Individually, each ship lacked the sufficient power and technology to escape the Void, but together the alliance ships were able to formulate a strategy to escape the darkness and return to the stars. Since its infancy, the Federation has endured many conflicts from friend and foe that have threatened to subjugate it, change it, or destroy it. Each time the Federation has endured and persevered. This is not because of the newest starship, or the latest phaser upgrades; it is because of people. People from different places that look and sound different, with different customs. People that work, live, fight, and die together because they all believe in the same principles of compassion and understanding. This is what it takes to create the United Federation of Planets. STAR TREK

TREKNOLOGY T O M O R R O W ’ S FA N TA S Y / T O D AY ’ S T E C H N O L O G Y

BEHIND THE SHROUD DISCOVERY’S KLINGON CLOAKING TECHNOLOGY

Long a feature of Star Trek, shipboard cloaking technology has ﬁgured prominently in its latest incarnation too, providing a tangible link to the show’s past (or rather, its future). But just how feasible is the kind of cloaking tech used by the Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery? Words: Chris Dows

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KLINGON CLOAKS

01 Concept schematic for the Klingon Sarcophagus ship.

tar Trek: Discovery may have raised a few eyebrows in a Spock/McCoy fashion with its startling new look and radical characters and storyline, but there is one aspect that firmly links it to what has come before: the Klingons are using cloaking devices on their ships. It’s true the first season hasn’t revealed the history of this classic bit of Treknology; it’s assumed rather than stated the invisibility screen was built for T’Kuvma’s father when the Sarcophagus ship was first constructed, and there’s quite a bit of intrigue yet to be revealed concerning the Torchbearer from the “House of None.” This lack of explanation shouldn’t pose a problem to even the most die-hard Trekkers; let’s face it, the whole issue of how the Klingons got the technology from the Romulans in the original series doesn’t stand close scrutiny. The green shimmering effect created by the cloak when it activates and deactivates is also a departure from the classic “swimming into sight” signature visual, but striking similarities exist to previous incarnations of the device – and to what scientists are attempting to develop across the world today. Although they didn’t immediately realize it, Starfleet first encountered this reimagined Klingon stealth technology in 2256, when the U.S.S. Shenzhou investigated damage to a Starfleet communications relay. Initially detecting an undefined object, science officer Saru’s investigative scans were deflected by a scattering field that interfered with communications and transporters – all typical side effects seen in previous series’ encounters. As a Kelpien, Saru felt the object was “lurking,” assumed hostile intent, and urged withdrawal. His unease only increased following the discovery of the Klingon Beacon of Kahless by first officer Michael Burnham.

After Burnham’s disastrous first contact with the Torchbearer Rejac and her return, badly injured, to the Shenzhou, something unseen began to scan the Starfleet vessel – and the Sarcophagus ship deactivated its cloak to reveal itself in spectacular – and chilling – fashion. Speculation as to how the technology worked was put to one side as the Battle at the Binary Stars commenced, although it was suspected that the Sarcophagus ship was, at that time, the only Klingon vessel equipped with an invisibility screen. Even so, the tactical advantage it held was enormous, and only became greater when Kol of House Kor took the ship from the slain T’Kuvma’s protégé, Voq. Within six months, Kol had shared the cloaking technology with those who would swear fealty to him – and the very existence of the Federation was at stake. STAR TREK

TREKNOLOGY

BLENDING IN INSECT UNLOCKS SECRET OF CLOAKING Saru may have devised an algorithm to calculate the cloaking signature for Kol’s ﬂagship, but the sensors placed by Burnham and Tyler provided no data on what exotic materials allowed the Sarcophagus ship to disappear. Creating a “passive” cloaking material that does not need enormous amounts of energy to work is the goal of the US Penn State University’s team of engineers, who have recently announced their synthetic microsphere approach to rendering an object invisible. Their studies are based on the leafhopper, which secretes a solution containing microparticles known as brochosomes, and wipes this natural anti-reﬂective coating over its body. In addition to keeping the insect’s wings dry in wet conditions, the team discovered the brochosomes also allow the leafhopper and its eggs to blend in with their backgrounds at the same wavelengths of light visible to their predators. Basing their lab-produced microspheres on the insect’s biology, Penn State’s material incorporates holes at the nanoscale level capable of absorbing 99 percent of light, from ultraviolet through the visible spectrum into the infrared end of the scale. Early uses might include energy harvesting and battery technologies, and while it’s not quite an invisibility screen yet, the potential is there.

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“Starfleet is tired of fighting the Klingon cloaking devices and losing. So am I. We have just under three hours to find a solution.” C A P TA I N G A B R I E L L O R C A , “ S I V I S PA C E M , PA R A B E L L U M ”

Of Starships and Stealth

Stealth technology can, until it is matched or undermined, give a warwinning advantage to a military force. Unsurprisingly, many scientists and engineers across the globe have made this staple of Star Trek their goal. One of the biggest problems with invisibility cloaks concerns the materials used to cover an object. The top-secret coating on the US Air Force’s latest B21 Stealth Bomber (ironically named “Raider” – another Klingon connection?) is radar- and light-reflective. While its specifications are classified, it is likely similar to the flexible membrane recently developed by engineers at Iowa State University. They have developed a liquid-metal “meta-skin” that, when stretched over a surface, can be “tuned” to absorb specific radar frequencies and make the object radar-invisible. This is a practical, working example of a “metamaterial,” a crucial element of any attempt to bend, absorb, deflect, or scatter light or sound waves across

the breadth of electromagnetic frequencies. Unfortunately, more often than not, contemporary cloaking concepts rely on metamaterials with mathematically sound but often unmanufacturable properties. However, it’s not all theory. Take the work currently underway at the UK’s Queen Mary University of London. In 2016 they succeeded in making an object “disappear” by creating a composite material that fools electromagnetic waves into thinking curved surfaces are flat. Instead of scattering high-frequency waves, it allows them to pass through – perfect for the future development of antennae in electronically sensitive devices. Admittedly the effect wasn’t apparent in the visible spectrum; you get a lot of that with “real science” invisibility screens, whereby objects “disappear” off one frequency or another but you can still see them. However, QMU’s science is based on transformation optics, which is the foundation of all cloaking theory. Furthermore, as modern warfare

KLINGON CLOAKS

OUT OF SIGHT HOW TO CREATE AN INVISIBILITY SCREEN In the frantic hours Discovery had available to crack Klingon cloaking technology and save the Pahvans from annihilation, Saru and Burnham collated all available data Starfleet had on the mysterious device. They concluded the cloak created a massive gravitational field that bent light and other electromagnetic waves around the ship, effectively rendering it undetectable to Starfleet sensors. This concept is similar to the work out of TU Wien University in Vienna, Austria, which proposes combining a powerful energy source with an “optically active” metamaterial to create an invisibility screen. By creating a completely opaque coating with deliberately engineered structural irregularities, an irradiated beam of light corresponding to these flaws can, mathematically speaking, mask the object covered by this substance. However, the approach differs in one crucial way to the Klingon method: instead of bending visible frequencies of light around an object, TU Wien’s concept allows light to pass through the coating. Computer simulations suggest this technology could, unlike many impossible-to-produce metamaterials, be realized – and by calculating the correct irradiating pattern for any light-scattering medium, potentially be applied to a variety of objects. Whether this includes spacecraft remains to be seen. Or not, as the case may be.

relies so much on broadband detection, any practical screen would have to interfere with more than what is visible to make it truly effective. An example of this can be found in the orchestrated attacks on the U.S.S. Gagarin, U.S.S. Hoover, and U.S.S. Muroc by Kol’s fleet. In addition to being invisible, the Klingon cloaks messed with Starfleet sensors across the electromagnetic spectrum. Captain Lorca’s attempt to save the Gagarin was thwarted by the U.S.S. Discovery being unable to isolate individual cloaked vessels, despite detecting off-the-scale power signatures. However, it did lead to him realizing Klingon ships cannot fire when cloaked. Only General Chang’s Bird-of-Prey in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country could do that; had Kol managed to develop the 03

cloaking system further, his tactical advantage would have been total and the war over very quickly.

The Shimmer Effect

Finding new approaches and materials puts contemporary stealth science at the cutting edge of materials technology. In March 2017, researchers at the USA’s Northwestern University unveiled the most complex nanoparticle crystal ever created. Based on the chemistry of DNA, because the crystals are similar in size to light waves, they have the potential to manipulate light – materials could change their color or pattern when instructed, or even block certain wavelengths. When activated, such a field might even generate the shimmering effect seen on the Klingon ships when they cloak and decloak,

02 The Shenzhou faces the Klingon fleet. 02 In The Undiscovered Country, Chang’s ship was briefly visible when it fired.

the surface coating realigning to reflect the environment or project surroundings onto the exterior of the vessel. As Klingon torpedoes and energy weapons are also green, it could be the power supply that gives the field its distinctive hue – and while it was subsequently discovered that Kol’s ships were vulnerable to beaming in or out a split second after the screen was deactivated, the Klingons maintained a devastating advantage thanks to the screens for much of the war. The continued losses suffered by Starfleet due to the Klingon cloaking technology – 462 souls alone in the Klingons’ concerted attack of stardate 1308.9 – made combatting the screens a top priority. When Captain Lorca’s mission to adapt the naturally occurring frequencies of the planet Pahvo for use as a modified cloak-detecting sonar failed, the Discovery was recalled to help find an alternative solution. Unwilling to leave the harmony-loving Pahvans open to Klingon attack, Burnham and Saru devised a cunning, if not suicidal, plan. By placing sensors on the Sarcophagus ship and forcing it to cloak and decloak in reaction to Discovery’s rapid, multiple spore drive jumps, they hoped to determine the exact relationship between the nearimperceptible shifts in EM radiation previously recorded in Starfleet’s battles with Kol’s fleet and the cloak’s massive gravitational field. This proved to be successful, with Starfleet subsequently refining the cloak-breaking algorithm devised by First Officer Saru and distributing it to the fleet. Kol’s flagship might have been destroyed by the U.S.S. Discovery, but the technology lives on across most of the 24 Klingon houses – and it is only a matter of time until the balance of power tips, perhaps invisibly, once again.

Further Viewing z Star Trek: Discovery “The Vulcan Hello” (Season 1, Episode 1); “Battle at the Binary Stars” (Season 1, Episode 2); “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” (Season 1, Episode 8); “Into the Forest I Go” (Season 1, Episode 9) z Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF…

Doug Drexler s A BRIEF HISTORY OF…

Robert H. Justman In the second installment of his new regular column for Star Trek Magazine, Doug Drexler shares some personal recollections of legendary Star Trek producer Robert “Bob” Harris Justman.

he way I see it, you have your birth family, and then you have family you meet as your life spools along. Family that is not an accident of birth, but that grows from the mystery of your life tour. When you grow up reading about your real world heroes, they are larger than life, and as far away and untouchable as fictional characters. There was about as much chance of me sitting comfortably watching TV with Bob Justman as there was of me having a cup of coffee with Superman… Right…?

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ROBERT H. JUSTMAN

worst fears have been realized. I look at him sadly… speechless… Until he slowly closes the door on us, locking it, underscored by the sound of our uproarious, relieved laughter. Wotta guy! I shake my head, grinning; he did it to me again! Bob opens the door back up, this time wearing a small satisfied smile as we all embrace. It’s a very sweet moment for all of us.

1986

2008 I remember my wife, Dorothy Duder, telling me that Denise Okuda called saying that Bob had asked for us, and that I had this overwhelming sense of dread. Yes, I was delighted that we would finally get a chance to see him again, but I sensed an urgency that made me afraid. Bob’s health had been fluctuating, and it seemed that every time we visited him, he was more frail.

1966 When I was 13 years old, my heroes were not ball players, rock ’n’ roll stars, or actors. My heroes were TV producers, art directors, and make-up artists. I’m a kid and I’m reading film budgets, production call sheets, and script memos. “Madam? Do you know what your son is reading? Do you think that is normal?” It’s this book – one of the most powerful “smart bombs” I’d ever been hit with, and it changed the course of my life. The Making of Star Trek by Steven E. Whitfield. That book was like throwing gasoline on a fire. Like Popeye downing a can of spinach. Like Johnny Storm yelling “Flame ON!” There is this one superstar guy in there, Robert H. Justman, and I’d sooner read his production memos than chase girls.

2008 Mike Okuda, Denise, Dorth, and I stand at the door to the Justman home. It’s a beautiful Raymond Loewy/Frank Lloyd Wright-ish style house. It’s a style

We love this man. We see him as family – a beloved uncle. A hero from childhood. A hero from adulthood. A hero who turns out to be everything that you imagined… better than you imagined. I happen to love, but not as much as the man the home contains. The four of us are quiet. We’re nervous. We’re afraid. We look silently at one another. We love this man. We see him as family – a beloved uncle. A hero from childhood. A hero from adulthood. A hero who turns out to be everything that you imagined… Better than you imagined… A dear, dear friend… And a doll of a human being. I take a deep breath and ring the doorbell. The doorknob turns, and there is a cracking sound as the door is pulled free from its weather-stripping holster, and slowly opens. All eyes turn to it in trepidation, expecting to see Jackie Justman, but it isn’t Jackie, it’s Bob! But, oh no… something is wrong. He looks at us with a blank stare, and there is no recognition in his eyes. My

01 The 13-year-old Doug (right) in his bedroom, circa 1967. 02 Bob Justman (far right) with Gene Roddenberry, director Robert Butler, and actress Susan Oliver on the set of “The Cage.” 03 Reger in “The Return of the Archons.” 04 A Bob Justman memo.

“Since you are a professional…” Bob reaches inside a file drawer, stops, and looks up at me wryly. “You are a professional?” “Yes sir, I think so,” I reply. Bob takes a small box from the cabinet and sets it on his desk. I watch him remove something from it with the same sense of awe I had when I watched Reger uncover a self-powered lighting panel in “The Return of the Archons.” From the cardboard box he withdraws a fiveinch hand-modeled prototype of the Enterprise-D with pencil-drawn windows on it. Bob smiles at my slack-jawed reaction. “Greg Jein built it for us – not a straight line on it,” he says proudly. I smile, because I know that in producer-speak, that means “expensive.” Is it possible for me to work on Star Trek in any way shape or form? The trouble, Bob says, is a union issue. There is a West Coast make-up union, and an East Coast union. They aren’t interchangeable. Getting into the West Coast union is a whole can of worms. Bob stops for a second, weighing out what he just said with experience. “Well,” he says, “there is more than one way to skin a cat… Our graphic

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF…

you win your well-deserved Academy Award.” Oh man! I am on cloud nine, and Stage 9, and all at the same time.

1986

designer is coming all the way from Hawaii.” I remember thinking what a lucky dog this guy is. Little could I have imagined who this lucky guy was, and how lucky I would be to know him later. Ultimately it turned out there really was only one way to skin a cat, and my admittance to the West Coast union would be later ushered by Warren Beatty, thereby opening the door for me to Star Trek.

1992 Down onstage they’re getting ready to shoot Scotty’s return to Star Trek on The Next Generation. A nice pieshaped piece of the original bridge has been conjured on Stage 9, and Mike and I have spent some time in the DS9 art department recreating the various blinky panels. “Doug!” shouts Mike. “Bob Justman is downstairs to see our bridge! Hurry!” I stand straight up. Bob Justman! I haven’t seen him since 1986. I wonder if he’ll remember me? I swallow hard, and dash down the art department steps after Mike. I’m nervous! After more than 10 years in the business (33 years now!) there 58

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Bob Justman! I haven’t seen him since 1986. I wonder if he’ll remember me? are still things that make me nervous. When we get down to the set, Ronald D. Moore is standing there, checking out our handiwork. It’s obvious this is a dream come true for him as well. Mike taps me on the shoulder. “Bob,” he whispers. I look up and see Robert H. Justman enter the stage. OK… this is what The Twilight Zone feels like. Mike enthusiastically shakes Bob’s hand as Denise gives him a hug, but Bob doesn’t recognize me at all. Sigh. We inspect the bridge set with him, and he tells us to change the carpet. Still the producer. Across the street we had just completed the DS9 sets; as we head for the stage door, Bob turns to me and says: “Thought I forgot you, huh?” My jaw goes slack. “I’m very proud of you,” says Bob. “I saw

05 Bob Justman's letter to Doug. 06 Gene Roddenberry and Bob Justman during TNG. 07 Bob Justman in the shuttle named after him. 08 The last time Doug saw Bob Justman (Mike Okuda on the right). 09 At Image G during “Trials and Tribbleations.” Left to right: Gary Hutzel, Denise Okuda, Bob Justman, Doug Drexler, Mike Okuda.

The first production episode of TNG has not gone before the lens yet, and you can almost feel the electricity and the tension in the air. It’s a big gamble. The studio is taking a chance. This new series is with the old-school guys who created the original Star Trek, and not the current breed who had made the movie series a success. What makes anyone think they can do it again? In fact, when they did it last time, it wasn’t such a hit. As Bob and I walk across the lot from a meeting I sat in on with ILM, he confirms the fear. They have to compete with the motion pictures. I tell him that I think Trek is better served as a series, and that every movie must be a car chase. I prefer the template which allows for a varied exploitation of ideas – I feel that format works best for science fiction. He smiles in his Bob way. “Well,” he says, “we’ll know in September if it’s all down the tubes.” I pat him on the shoulder reassuringly, feeling slightly unstuck in time, like Slaughterhouse-Five’s Billy Pilgrim.

2008 Seeing Bob that day, full of wit and charm, was one of the best moments of my life. He was warm, wonderful, and fully brilliant. His movements

ROBERT H. JUSTMAN

were measured, and he was more frail than we had ever seen him, but he was our Bob, and we lavished him with attention. In the past he had seemed uncomfortable with our adulation of him, but this time around was different. I was not mistaken; he was basking in it and soaking it up, and we were thrilled to pile it on. Look at the pictures of us visiting him that day. I was beside myself. Can’t you see the love and admiration? We had a wonderful evening. Jackie Justman was the perfect hostess, and had a magnificent spread of different wines and cheese set out for us. We reminisced with Bob, and told him the stories of how he had affected our lives and the way we looked at the world.

There was one moment that I will never forget, a magic moment that Bob and I shared that night. I told him how much I loved his show that followed Star Trek, a show called Then Came Bronson, and that I tuned in at first simply because he was producing it. Now, I’ve heard of people following an actor from show to show… but a producer? I think that was the biggest Bob smiled that night. But the best was yet to come for me. While discussing Bronson, I mentioned the parallels between that show and Star Trek. The main characters are both explorers. One explores the universe on a spaceship, and thereby himself; the other explores the country on a motorcycle, and thereby himself. I pointed out that both shows begin with

a monologue, or dialogue which sets the stage: “Space, the final frontier…” At that moment, Bob looked me directly in the eye and said, “Takin’ a trip?” I smiled and squinted at him. “What’s that?” I said. Without missing a beat he repeated, “Takin’ a trip?” I smiled, hardly able to contain myself, as I realized that we were running the lines of the Bronson dialogue. “Yeah,” I volleyed back. Bob looked at me with liquid eyes. “Where to?” he asked with conviction. I shook my head in disbelief. “I dunno… wherever I end up, I guess.” Now Bob looked at me more intent than ever. “Man, I wish I were you,” he said… I was blown away. “Really? Well, hang in there!” And then I lost it, laughing like a little kid – probably that same kid from 1966 who, while reading The Making of Star Trek, knew what he wanted to do, and loved a gentleman by the name of Bob Justman from afar.

DOUG DREXLER is an Academy Award-winning make-up artist, designer, illustrator, and VFX artist whose involvement with Star Trek encompasses four incarnations of the show and three movies. Away from Trek, Doug’s résumé includes work on Dick Tracy, Starship Troopers, and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.

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YESTERDAY’S YESTERDAY’ ENTERPRISE R E V I S I T I N G S TA R T R E K’S PA ST

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MUDD’S WOMEN

STUCK IN THE MUDD? Rightly praised for its progressive attitudes, it’s fair to say Star Trek has had its blind spots too, especially in its early days – not least its depiction of women. So was the original series sexist or simply a product of its time? Yesterday’s Enterprise examines the classic “Mudd’s Women” to look at both sides… Words: Rich Matthews

indsight is 20/20, goes the saying. Yet with entertainment we love, that’s not always the case. We’re all very proud of Star Trek’s progressive credentials, particularly its unabashed tackling of race and gender, where the original series killed two hot-topic birds with one allegorical stone thanks to Uhura, the AfricanAmerican (network first), female (network first) communications officer (network first). But with equality – economic and cultural – so prevalent in the news cycle at present, it feels the apposite time to redress some perceptions and assumptions about Kirk, his crew, and the social mores that the late-1960s Star Trek perpetuated, even under the protective guise of allegory. These “tendencies” can be dismissed on the basis of the time in our history that the series was made, but equally, as we travel with the U.S.S. Discovery and its African-American, Vulcan-raised, strong female lead, it’s worth considering that even Star Trek (and by default its illustrious creator) weren’t perfect. And thanks to Discovery, we also have a convenient point of intersection: Harcourt Fenton Mudd.

“There’s only one kind of woman.”

“Mudd’s Women” dates right back to the inception of the wagon train to the stars, holding prime position in Gene Roddenberry’s 1964 complete series outline – albeit missing Mudd

himself, so entitled simply “The Women” – and carrying the somewhat revealingly questionable synopsis: “Duplicating a page from the Old West; hanky-panky aboard with a cargo of women for a far-off colony.” What’s even more amazing is that this decidedly dodgy pitch was even considered for the pilot – both times! Imagine if Star Trek had eschewed the cerebral sci-fi of “The Cage” or the derring-do of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” to instead launch with what NBC execs themselves referred to as a “tale of an intergalactic pimp and three space hookers”! In fact, NBC Program Manager Jerry Stanley has since commented that the main problem with the initial episode was persuading Roddenberry to remove some of the more extreme sexual fantasies, with many of the scenes being deemed “totally unacceptable” for television by the network. What we finally got to see in Season 1 was watered down! It may be worth noting that the Great Bird of the Galaxy was a canny operator, so it’s highly likely that Roddenberry deliberately included material that he knew wouldn’t pass muster, just to make the rest of the episode seem milder by comparison, and thus allowing the real content to pass through without comment. Still, it was hardly boldly going anywhere but back to the depths of objectification and misogyny our Earthbound world was already mired in during the 1960s. STAR TREK

Y E S T E R D AY ’ S E N T E R P R I S E

SHIP’S MANIFEST

“MUDD’S WOMEN”

Star Trek, Season 1, Episode 3 Written by: Stephen Kandel from a story by Gene Roddenberry Directed by: Harvey Hart First aired: October 13, 1966 The Enterprise rescues the passengers of a cargo ship, introducing the crew to interstellar con man Harcourt Fenton Mudd, who is smuggling and trading female humans… The episode contains a few “factual” (i.e. canon) errors: Uhura wears a gold uniform instead of her standard operations red; the warp engine crystals are referred to as lithium (an existing real-life battery power chemical) rather than the famous dilithium; and Mudd refers to Spock as Vulcanian, which has been written off as idiosyncratic of him but is most likely because such terms had yet to settle into their permanent lexicon at this early stage of the original series.

More overtly, Star Trek novelist and consumer licensing editor Paula M. Block cites “Mudd’s Women” as one of the most prominent examples of sexism exhibited in the Kirk era. Yes, the show was deliberately tackling slavery, sex trafficking, and the exploitation of women in this episode, but it still depicted the three women at the heart of its story as being emotionally and psychologically slave to securing themselves a good man. As Block puts it: “Eve [the most cogent and expressive of the three women] can’t foresee a future that doesn’t involve snaring a man. The thought of serving aboard a starship never occurs to her – except perhaps as the captain’s wife. So she consigns herself to life on barren Rigel XII, cleaning up for another unappreciative male!” Even William Shatner has gone on record to say that it was a “minor miracle” that NBC ever allowed the episode to go into production, let alone make it onto the air. So how did we look back at this episode with such fondness (and rose-tinted, patriarchal eyes) for so long? 62

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“Men will be men no matter where they are…”

Charisma and humor go a long way. Mention “Mudd’s Women,” and most will immediately think of the ebullient, larger-than-life Roger C. Carmel’s central, over-the-top turn as Harry. He’s iconic. He’s funny, charming, and occasionally threatening – the perfect mustachioed conman dressed like an 18th Century high seas dilettante. His popularity across his three appearances – also including Harry’s turn as monarch of an android-populated planet, “I, Mudd,” and the animated series’ rampant love potion episode, “Mudd’s Passion” – is such that he has been reborn for a new generation as The Office’s Rainn Wilson for two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery: the Captain Lorca-centric “Choose Your Pain,” and the fun, time-tricksy yarn “Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad.” Mudd was originally created by writer Stephen Kandel as an antidote to the icy Talosian antagonists in “The Cage”: “I originally had the idea of a kind of a traveling salesman and

con man – the medicine salesman in The Wizard of Oz, that ends up as the Wizard, an interstellar con man hustling whatever he can hustle; a lighthearted, cheerful, song-and-dance man version of a pimp.” The final draft of the screenplay made it very clear: “HARCOURT FENTON MUDD… Harry Mudd… scoundrel… delight… conniver… hustler… and much, much more… half the classic Scaramouche… half the classic almost everything else. Harry Mudd, in a word, is style… and all his own kind. His instinct is to scratch, scramble and con… his nature is precisely what he says it is and nobody believes.” Kandel, rightfully, and reflecting the general perception of the episode, was very proud of his creation. “Harry Mudd was a marvelous character because of the highly recognizable Human quality set against the alienin-time or alien-in-space activity that evolved,” he said. “That’s what made it amusing, and it’s also hard to do because you had stern-jawed Kirk who would meet an eight-foot intelligent reptile

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and deal with him as any astronaut would. Then, the reptile would meet Harry Mudd, whose first impulse would be to run and hide, and second impulse would be to sell it scale enhancer.” A fascinating distinction between the 1960s Carmel Mudd and the new Wilson Mudd is that his original incarnation felt very much like an anachronism, in appearance, behavior, and vernacular – and even more so because he’s human. On Discovery, he may be a cad, a scoundrel, and a grifter, but he looks and feels like an entirely plausible non-Starfleet product of his time. In addition, it turns out that his actions are a result of him being a slave to his betrothed – surely a nod to “Mudd’s Women” and an attempt if not to redress then at least acknowledge the awry sexual politics that these days sit less well in the wider Trek canon.

“You’ll find out that ships’ captains are already married, girl – to their vessels!”

What this undeniably marvelous character created, however, was a smokescreen that obfuscated the questionable representations of women clearly on display in the background behind Carmel’s infectious cackle and bluster. This is also reflective of an even bigger veil that we tend to draw across the entire original series, preferring to concentrate instead

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE BECHDEL HAS GONE BEFORE… DOES STAR TREK PASS ALISON BECHDEL’S BASE-LEVEL FEMINISM TEST?

e already know that Discovery passes the famous test for minimum feminist content in entertainment formats (just in Episode 1 alone!), but was the rest of Trek only truly going where no MAN has gone before...?

THE RULES: • AT LEAST TWO NAMED FEMALE CHARACTERS MUST FEATURE • THEY MUST TALK TO EACH OTHER… • …ABOUT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A MAN/MEN Equality, the ﬁnal frontier… and the results?

01 (previous pages) The women of “Mudd’s Women.” 02 A smitten McCoy. 03 The magnificent Harcourt Fenton Mudd. 04 Lacking emotions, Spock is immune to Mudd’s women. 05 Carmel cutting a flamboyant figure.

STAR TREK (1966–1969): .................................................................. 7.5% THE NEXT GENERATION (1987–1994):.......................................... 44.9% DEEP SPACE NINE (1993–1999):.................................................... 57.8% VOYAGER (1995–2001):.................................................................. 86.9% ENTERPRISE (2001–2005):................................................................. 39% Way to go to Janeway! It really shouldn’t surprise that a show with a female captain topped the poll, but thanks to characters like Torres, Kes, and, of course, Seven of Nine, Voyager trounced the rest of its franchise bedfellows. It even achieved the distinction of having a whole season where every episode passed (Season 5), with two more (Seasons 2 and 4) breaking 90% as well. The worst performer? Time for Harry Mudd and the Orion slave girls to pay the piper: the ﬁrst season of the original series saw no episodes pass the test, demonstrating that if Chapel, Uhura, and Rand did talk to each other, it was most likely about a dude... Fortunately, with Discovery, the future is as bold as Star Trek has ever promised. Onward, Michael Burnham!

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Y E S T E R D AY ’ S E N T E R P R I S E

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GENDER FIRSTS IN SPACE… 06

Uhura was one of the first female African-American characters on US TV; definitely the first professional woman. A woman in space when NASA didn’t allow female astronaut candidates until 1978. First interracial kiss, betwixt Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner (although it is barely a peck in terms of onscreen visibility). The Next Generation famously changed the opening monologue from “where no man has gone before” to “where no one has gone before.” Next Generation episode “The Outcast” examined homosexuality and gender identity, albeit through Riker’s lusty appetites. TNG’s Tasha Yar was the first female head of security. Both men and women on the 24th Century Enterprise-D were seen wearing uniform dresses (the infamous “skants”) while on duty. Deep Space Nine continued the exploration of gender identity, thanks to the Dax symbiont going through different gender hosts. The U.S.S. Voyager’s Captain Janeway was the first female starship captain lead in the franchise. Enterprise meanwhile retconned the Orion slave girls backstory, turning them from sex slaves into the slavers themselves, using their pheromones to enslave and exploit men.

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on the groundbreaking positives of Uhura, Sulu, Chapel, and all the brilliantly perceptive studies of racism and injustice. Accordingly, we chuckle at and ignore the miniskirts, and turn a blind eye to all the revealing outfits barely draped over the guest actresses on the show (by the time of The Next Generation, both genders had the dubious honor of wearing the same skimpy gear), let alone the now shamefully sexist behaviors foisted on these supposedly enlightened and empowered 23rd-Century women. Just look at the prime example of Madlyn Rhue as Lieutenant Marla McGivers, the Enterprise’s resident historian, in “Space Seed” – she was portrayed as a woman obsessed with the “strong men” of history, drawn to the crude alpha male of past times. When Ricardo Montalban’s franchise-fave Khan Noonien Singh is thawed out of cryogenic freeze and seizes the ship, she is immediately smitten, falling at his feet, only redeeming herself at all by saving Kirk from death. At episode’s end she throws away her career to be marooned with Khan and his eugenic despots because of her infatuation. Meanwhile, Nurse Chapel – played by big Gene’s future wife, Majel Barrett – ended up as an infatuated foil to facilitate exploration of Spock’s internal struggle between his logical Vulcan and emotional human sides. In short, she had a crush. Still, at least she got promoted to MD in The Motion Picture. The men don’t fare much better with Mudd around. For such a highly

06 The trailblazing Nichelle Nichols/ Uhura. 07 Pucker up, Captain. 08 Kirk witnesses the intoxicating effect of Eve. 09 The real Ruth... 10 ...and Magda.

evolved utopia, this episode makes it appear that the Enterprise is crewed by men who can barely control their sweaty-lipped lust around the admittedly pharmacologically enhanced cargo, with Scotty and McCoy coming off worst in their clownish, hot-underthe-collar reactions. Never have we been more thankful that Spock doesn’t have human emotions – although he doesn’t intercede as much as one would expect in this scenario, because that would have cut the narrative short. But perhaps it’s also because Kirk – normally the most libidinous human in the Alpha Quadrant – actually controls himself better than the rest of his crew. This would admittedly suggest that his judgement is more acute than the lower ranks, but it also goes against most of his prior (and subsequent) peacocking. It would be more in keeping for Kirk to bed Eve then have his crisis of conscience, but you get the sense that to allow that would have been a betrayal of any liberal credentials the show had already built up. Plus, there’s no sign of Ensign Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) and Nurse Chapel, while Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) is also conveniently sidelined – three strong, capable, alluring women who would have made the crew’s infatuation with Mudd’s trio and the power of Mudd’s appearancechanging Venus drug even more ridiculous. Mind you, who wouldn’t like a pill that styled your hair and did your makeup, regardless of gender? Sadly, the Venus drug gives rise to the episode’s hugely misguided moral,

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as voiced by Kirk (“You either believe in yourself or you don’t”) when Eve is given a placebo Venus pill in the final act, only to physically transform herself without the aid of the real drug. It may have seemed like a good message at the time, but ultimately the representation implies that if you believe in yourself, you too can be beautiful, which is what matters. It’s likely they intended that to mean that you are beautiful if you believe in yourself, but that’s not what’s communicated by a woman inexplicably transforming her appearance by will alone because she thought she’d popped one of Mudd’s wonder drugs. Not only is this newfound ability baffling – even amid some technobabble about residual chemicals – it’s also pretty insulting. If this is the glass-half-empty interpretation, the half-full view is eloquently expressed by Patricia Vettel-Becker in her 2014 article “Space and the Single Girl: Star Trek, Aesthetics, and 1960s Femininity,” published in Frontiers: A Journal Of Women Studies. Vettel-Becker charts the representation of women in Star Trek from the extreme reaction by test audiences to Majel Barrett’s Number One character in “The Cage” (“Not only did men hate the character, but women hated her as well, calling her ‘pushy’ and ‘annoying’ and criticizing her for ‘trying so hard to fit in with the men’”) through to how Roddenberry and his staff were instructed to remove masculine qualities from their female characters to get the show on air. Out went the more unisex uniforms

in favor of the curves-highlighting short, tight minidresses, apparently to counter any social anxieties triggered by their existing in the show at all! They “soothed anxiety over the possibility of de-feminization by appearing and acting ultra-feminine,” explains VettelBecker, “overcompensating for their relinquishing of domesticity and their adopting of scientific or technological career fields.” She goes on to state that the women of Starfleet did constitute strong role models for women of the 1960s, as professional woman who “don’t cook, clean, raise offspring or get married. Despite the visual objectification of Rand and Uhura, they are competent professionals.” Moreover, she posits that this representation allowed 1960s women to identify more readily with the characters, contextualizing them in such a way that they could see themselves on the bridge, commanding a starship while still getting to enjoy fashion and sexual companionship – on their own terms. Vettel-Becker concludes that “although critics have tended to regard the women in Star Trek as little more than sex objects on display for the pleasure of men… I would argue that in Star Trek, beauty functions as a metaphor for humanity, and therefore it is beauty that humanizes outer space, that soothes anxiety over the terrifying unknown.” For our enlightened 21st Century audience, perhaps the last word is best left in this instance to Spock: “I’m happy the affair’s over – a most annoying, emotional episode.”

CREW COMPLEMENTS NUMBER OF FEMALE CHARACTERS: Star Trek: ﬁve, if you count Saavik in the movies The Next Generation: eight, including Doctor Pulaski and Guinan Deep Space Nine: ﬁve, counting both female hosts of the Dax symbiont Voyager: six, factoring in Seska the spy and the Astrometric Delaney sisters Enterprise: two, but with a lot more women seen on the ship in general Discovery: four prominent, and counting…

NUMBER OF FEMALE WRITERS: Star Trek: six The Next Generation: nineteen Deep Space Nine: seven Voyager: six Enterprise: two Discovery: three and counting…

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INTERVIEW

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY His appearances on the show may have been brief, but Sam Vartholomeos’ life has already been changed by Star Trek: Discovery. The actor behind the U.S.S. Shenzhou’s Ensign Danby Connor is fully cognizant of how appearing on the show has impacted his day-to-day existence, with fans welcoming him with open arms into the Star Trek family and eager to see him at conventions for years to come. He even found the infamous “technobabble” instructive – after a fashion. Words: Ian Spelling

tar Trek actors long before Sam Vartholomeos and long after Sam Vartholomeos have bemoaned and will bemoan what Star Trek actors call “technobabble” – that nearly impenetrable, hard-to-remember, even-harder-todeliver scientific and/or medical dialogue that’s fairly unique to the franchise. So, what’s the most ridiculous thing Vartholomeos has had to say as Ensign Danby Connor on Star Trek: Discovery, and how badly did that scene go? A smile crosses the young actor’s face as he contemplates the question. The answer, he notes, wasn’t a line that he uttered, but rather it was spoken to Ensign Connor by Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou. “Well, one thing I’ll say is there was a line that Michelle had where she was telling me to do something,” Vartholomeos recalls. “And she said, ‘Not an attosecond later.’” A what second later? “Exactly,” Vartholomeos says, nodding. “An attosecond.” A-T-O? “An A-T-T-O second.” OK, then. “Do you know what an attosecond is?” Vartholomeos asks aloud. Not a darn clue. “An attosecond is one quintillionth of a second,” he explains. “I think it is, if I’m saying this correctly, what a second is to 37 million years, or something like that.” Wow. 66

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“Yeah, so Michelle said that to me and I was looking at the script,” Vartholomeos continues. “I said, ‘What is an attosecond?’ I looked it up and that helps with making it real, actually. There was this other line too... Oh, I can’t remember it now, but I swear I’m going to take it with me to the grave.” Actually, no, he won’t. “I can’t even remember it, I know!” Vartholomeos admits, laughing. “I’m a liar. I was caught red-handed. Oh, if I remember it, I’ll tell you.”

IN IT FOR LIFE Vartholomeos, at the time of this interview, is at Star Trek Las Vegas. It’s his first-ever Trek convention, following a quick appearance at San Diego Comic-Con a few weeks earlier, and during it he meets countless fans, immerses himself in the world of Trek, and shakes hands with actors from earlier Trek shows and movies. Among the many useful takeaways from his time at Star Trek Las Vegas is a lesson in what it means to become a part of the Star Trek universe. That’s to say, once you’re in one episode... “You’re in it for life,” Vartholomeos notes, finishing the sentence. “I already have fans telling me now, ‘Come back next year, and come back the year after…’ “I think it will be a part of my life from now on, and being a 22-year-old guy, I have the rest of my life to be part of Star Trek, and that means a lot to me,” he says. “I have a great responsibility now,

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“We have an infinite amount of possibilities for where this show can go while upholding the history of Star Trek.”

The Lives of Danby Connor

As operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou, Ensign Danby Connor was an integral part of the ship’s crew, forging a friendly comradeship with fellow bridge officers Michael Burnham, Saru, and Keyla Detmer. When Burnham went on an EVA to investigate an unknown object in an uninhabited binary star system, it was Connor who was her point of contact back on the bridge, and who kept an eye on her radiation levels. (“The Vulcan Hello”) After Burnham was relieved of duty and sent to the brig, Connor was injured when, during the Klingon attack on the Shenzhou and the Federation fleet, his console exploded. Asked by Captain Georgiou if he could make it to sickbay unaided, he responded that he could, but en route became confused and wound up in the brig, where, before a horrified Burnham’s eyes, he was sucked into space when the bulkhead exploded. (“Battle at the Binary Stars”) Later, when the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery found themselves in the Mirror Universe, Burnham came face to face with a malevolent Mirror Danby Connor, who had risen to captain of the Shenzhou. Burnham was forced to kill the Mirror Connor when he attacked her in a turbolift. (“Despite Yourself”)

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we all do, to continue this legacy, so that one day my kids can be Star Trek fans and their kids can be Star Trek fans.” Vartholomeos goes on to emphasize that Discovery pays tribute to the Star Trek shows and films that came before it. Further, he notes, it builds on what we’ve seen previously and then sets out on its own path. “It does absolutely pay tribute to what came before, and it’s funny that it’s a prequel, but with this new platform we have an infinite amount of possibilities for where this show can go while upholding the history of Star Trek. “And, and one thing I can say, is that this is Star Trek to the core. We don’t want to upset fans. We want to pay tribute to the fans of the original series and The Next Generation, and all those other Star Trek series, while creating a show that is appealing to new fans, to keep it alive.” The actor’s character, Ensign Danby Connor, is the U.S.S. Shenzhou’s ops officer. Vartholomeos describes Connor as “Star Trek and Starfleet through and through,” adding: “That is one thing

I really like about him. Nothing really conflicts with him. He is all about the Prime Directive, and there’s a captain and there’s a lieutenant commander – and everyone follows a code. When that code, and when the Prime Directive, all get crossed, his wires get crossed. He kind of uses Captain Georgiou as his North Star, and he wants to learn from her. I really wanted to make that clear about Connor: he wants to learn and move up.”

MAKING IT REAL Vartholomeos jokes that he’s seen all of the Discovery sets, but not worked on each and every one, and he’s not beamed anywhere. Turning more serious, he points out that performing on such finely detailed sets enables him to more easily slip into character and pretend to be a young man in space earning his stripes amidst a Federation/ Klingon war and alongside far more experienced senior officers. “All the sets, including the Klingon sets, they’re just so amazing,” Vartholomeos says. “I can’t imagine

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“I haven’t worked with the Klingons, but I’ve worked with people on different ships as well, and that is really cool, because when you’re on each ship you’re in the world,” Vartholomeos says. “You’re on the ship with this one crew for however many months, however many years, and you become a family. And a family has problems, and a family has their really happy moments, and I’m really, really excited to say that it’s been nothing but happy moments with the Shenzhou crew.” what it’s like getting to work on the Klingon sets. But, the Shenzhou set is amazing. The costumes are amazing. The transporter room and the brig, everything is... It’s really groovy. “It helps so much, just the complexity and just how specific everything is,” he continues. “You look down in the transporter room and there’s glass on the floor and you see pipes and lights and all these things that just... you’re probably not even going to see on camera, but it just helps so much in making it real for us. That is one thing I wanted to do in this series, that I want to do in this series, is make it real, as real as possible, for myself, because that just helps. It’s easy to think of, ‘What? A transporter room? What is this?’ But if you make it real, it will shine through.” Vartholomeos is happy to heap praise on his Discovery costars. He describes it as a “pleasure to work with everyone” in the cast, which is comprised of experienced actors such as Yeoh, Doug Jones, and Sonequa Martin-Green.

I’M GONNA LIVE FOREVER?

01 Fight to the death: the Mirror Universe Danby Connor attacks Michael Burnham. (“Despite Yourself”) 02 Beaming aboard the I.S.S. Shenzhou, Lorca, Burnham, and Tyler are met by its captain, Danby Connor. (“Despite Yourself”)

Vartholomeos arrived at Discovery with just two other major television credits to his name. He was a lead guest star in an episode of Bull that aired around the same time as the Discovery premiere, and, a few years ago, he spoke a couple of lines of dialogue in an installment of the Kevin Baconstarring series The Following. So, some background would seem to be in order. Born in Queens, New York, he attended LaGuardia High School, known by many as the “Fame” school, home to many an aspiring performer and also the inspiration for both the movie Fame and the television show of the same name. Right now, Vartholomeos explains, picking up the story, “I go to City College in Washington Heights [in New York City] and I’m studying psychology there, obviously while keeping up with acting. I have a coach who I work with regularly, but I wanted to study something else. I didn’t want to be immersed in theater or acting. I wanted

“Danby Connor is all about the Prime Directive.” to explore different areas of myself, which I think helped with what I’m doing. But, having said that, I also like to keep myself away from the business as much as I can.” Realizing that last sentence requires a bit of clarification, Vartholomeos adds: “So, this is funny. While I was auditioning for Discovery, I was going to school and working from 10pm to 6am every night at the garage my dad works at. So, I was a bit of a mechanic there, and that I think helped make Sam Vartholomeos the young man he is today, not always focusing on the business – because it can really eat you alive. So, I give the business the respect it deserves, because it does deserve respect, but, at the end of the day, the scene is done, the work is done, and you can’t focus on it. When the audition is done, it’s done, and you did everything you could. “And that is the most important thing, doing everything you can in the moment, especially on Discovery,” he says. “I think every actor can say this, where you think, ‘You know, I could have done more. I think I could have done more.’ As soon as I got this job, even before, even in the audition, I said, ‘I will never say that on the set. I will never, ever say that.’ Every day is played like your last, and that has helped me tremendously.” STAR TREK

TRICORDER BOOKS / COMICS / COLLECTIBLES

S TA R T R E K P R O M E T H E U S

PROMETHEUS UNBOUND!

Making its debut in the 1998 Star Trek: Voyager episode “Message in a Bottle,” the U.S.S. Prometheus was at the time the most advanced vessel in Starfleet, an experimental prototype capable of warp 9.99 and possessed of the ability to split into three warp-capable parts. Twenty years later, the ship and her crew, commanded by Captain Richard Adams, are starring in a new trilogy of novels – and there are some familiar faces and names among the books’ casts, as authors Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg reveal. Interview: Nick Jones

Star Trek Magazine: Could you tell us a bit about yourselves? Is it correct you created a series of children’s books together? And what are your histories with Star Trek, both as fans and as writers? Christian Humberg: Several children’s book series, to be precise. They’re quite popular in Germany. Some of them were adapted into stage plays, and translated editions have even surfaced in Eastern Europe. I have been a Trekkie for decades. One of my first memories revolves around hiding behind my father’s seat, whenever the Klingons appeared onscreen in the original series – the series came to Germany in 1972,

which was a little bit before my time, so we must have been watching reruns. When TNG started, I was hooked for good. I started writing for fanzines and even had my own Star Trek column in our local school paper. As a trained journalist, I later freelanced for genre magazines and websites – including the official Star Trek mag – and even wrote for startrek.com. All of this led to me quitting my day job back in 2006 and becoming a full-time freelance author. Since then I have written numerous articles, columns, nonfiction books, and novels. Bernd Perplies: I learned about Star Trek during TNG’s run. I have always been fascinated by starships, aliens,

01 Cover art for the third book in the series, In the Heart of Chaos. 02 Bernd Perplies (left) and Christian Humberg.

and strange worlds, and Star Trek offered all this plus a galaxy in which science and diplomacy were more important than the daily laser fight. I mean, I was 13 years old back then – of course I liked the occasional laser fight. But I was also very much into science, so Star Trek really appealed to me. I came to write about Star Trek during my time at university. I did an internship with a publisher of genre magazines. For those I began writing articles about movies and TV shows like Star Wars, Farscape, and, well, Star Trek. A short time later I also started translating nonfiction and fiction books. Then a friend of mine, STAR TREK

editor Markus Rohde, moved to the publisher Cross Cult to bring Star Trek novels back to Germany and he invited me to translate some novels for him. At the same time I tried being as a literary author – not without success, if I may say so. All this – being a fan, working as a translator and as an author – led to the job of creating Star Trek Prometheus. Is it correct that the Prometheus novels are the first German original Trek novels? How did they come about? CH: That is correct. When Star Trek Into Darkness was approaching, Cross Cult was invited to a business meeting with other German franchise licensors. Since Cross Cult had been thinking about doing a trilogy of original Trek novels for the 50th birthday, they used this meeting to try and ask the license owners for permission. Parallel to that, the publisher contacted Bernd and myself, since we had done a ton of literary translations for them – I alone have translated more than 30 72

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“Despite being a fan favorite due to its cool feature of splitting the ship in three smaller warships, the Prometheus has only been name-dropped in US novels so far.” Trek novels, several nonfiction books, magazines, and even board games into German – so far. And after almost 18 months of transatlantic deliberations, Hollywood finally agreed to it. We were officially given the green light and started writing. Why did you decide to focus on the U.S.S. Prometheus? Why that ship? BP: We needed a ship the fans know about without creating conflict with the

novels of the Pocket Books lit-verse. Since we did not know what US authors like David Mack or Dayton Ward were doing with ships like the Enterprise-E or the Titan, we looked for something new, our own small part of this great universe. We realized that the U.S.S. Prometheus had never been used much by US authors. Despite being a fan favorite due to its cool feature of splitting the ship in three smaller warships, the Prometheus has only been name-dropped in US novels so far. So we had a winner. Tell us a little about the captain of the Prometheus, Richard Adams. CH: Adams is tired of war. He joined Starfleet to see what’s out there, to learn, to help, to grow. Yet for the past couple of years he was forced to fight. Against the Dominion, the Borg, the Typhon Pact… That’s not what he signed up for. Instead of helping others, he kept losing himself – and his wife, who fell victim to one of the conflicts I mentioned. When we meet him in Fire with Fire he is a tired old

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man who just wants to get back to his old ideals. And then the Renao, alien inhabitants of the mysterious Lembatta Cluster, attack! You seem to have taken pains to tie the novels into and acknowledge prior Trek novels (as well as TV/film Trek) – there are references to a Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, and the Typhon Pact. For those who perhaps aren’t as familiar with the Trek of the novels, could you set the scene for us – what state the Federation is in, for example? BP: The time is 2385, so it’s six years after the movie Star Trek Nemesis. The Federation has been through rough years. It has seen the Dominion War as depicted in the TV show DS9; it has fought against the Borg multiple times – during the movie First Contact and afterwards leading up to David Mack’s Borg invasion in his bestselling trilogy Destiny; then the Typhon Pact – an alliance of the enemies of the Federation – was formed in an attempt to undermine the Federation. All this forced the Federation and Starfleet to become more militant and abandon great endeavors like the deep space exploration missions. Now it seems as if things could be getting better. A new president of the UFP has been elected and ships like the Enterprise-E are resuming their mission of peaceful exploration. This is where our story sets in. The prologue of the first book in the trilogy, Fire with Fire, is set in the Kirk era, with a cameo by the man himself. Why was it important for you to feature Kirk in that way?

BP: From the very beginning, Star Trek Prometheus was conceived as a 50th anniversary trilogy, a birthday present from Cross Cult to all the German fans – and now the fans worldwide. Therefore, it was important for us to start at the beginning of Star Trek. If you look closely, you will notice that our first stardate is 1966.9 – that is the year 2266, but of course it is also September 1966, when the original series aired for the first time. We also decided to feature important characters and locations from throughout the franchise. This trilogy is not only about Prometheus and its adventures; it is about everything we love about Star Trek: James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard,

Quark, DS9, the starship Aventine and Ezri Dax, rude Klingons, wily Ferengi, action, drama, humor, and a sense of wonder.

03 The bridge of the Prometheus, as seen in “Message in a Bottle” (with Romulan interlopers). 04 Original German cover of the first novel, Fire with Fire. 05 Cover art for book two, The Root of All Rage.

The rebuilt Deep Space 9 features in Fire with Fire – what made you decide to set part of the novel on DS9, and how does it differ from its predecessor? CH: We love how our US colleagues have been continuing the Trek story in their novels beyond what was shown on screen. With Prometheus, we wanted to respect that and tell a story that wouldn’t contradict anything they had already told, and also wouldn’t force them to change their plans for any future novels. We wanted to supplement their great work, so to speak. STAR TREK

TRICORDER

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an extremist group of fear-mongers and ruthless terrorists challenging the peace in Prometheus, was taken directly from the front pages of our newspapers.

Using the new Deep Space 9 is one more way of doing that. The old station got destroyed in one of David R. George III’s books, which I was happy to translate into German, so our characters pay a visit to the new one. This visit takes place at the beginning of the novel. We meet our new characters there, in a familiar and beloved environment. And then our new journey starts. There are some familiar faces on DS9 – Quark, Chief O’Brien, a few others – but it’s now commanded by Ro Laren. What’s DS9’s function now? CH: The function hasn’t really changed that much. It’s a beacon, a home away from home – and for us as novelists and fans, it is also a very welcome way of turning our nostalgia into new art. Another link to DS9 is that Sarita Carson, formerly of the Defiant, is now commander in charge of ops on Prometheus. Why did you choose to include her in the crew? BP: The crew of the Prometheus is a mix of new characters and supporting characters from several TV shows. We tried to come up with some new ideas like a Caitian first officer and an Andorian chief of security. Since it was an anniversary trilogy we wanted to incorporate personnel from various TV shows: Sarita Carson, DS9; Chell, Voyager; and T’Shanik, TNG. There’s also a Kirk on the Prometheus – a female one. What can you tell us about her?

There’s one guest star in particular in the novels that might pique people’s curiosity; who is he, and why did you include him in the books? BP: You mean Wesley Crusher. No? Ah, Mr. Spock! Yes, we invited Spock to join the Prometheus’ crew for their adventure inside the Lembatta Cluster. Why? Because we just had to! He is the only member of the original Enterprise crew still alive during the 2380s. And he is the only Star Trek character who not only shaped the fate of the galaxy from the very first original series pilot up to the Kelvin Timeline movies, but also the fate of the franchise from 1966 to 2016. We couldn’t write an anniversary trilogy without Spock. His presence in the novels has meaning, of course. His struggle during his early years, being half human and half Vulcan, mirrors the problems experienced by our young Renao protagonist, Jassat ak Namur, who doesn’t know how to reconcile his upbringing with his vocation as a Starfleet officer. Also, Spock is quite important in solving the Lembatta Cluster mystery. It was an honor and a delight for us to send the famous Vulcan on one of his last adventures before he leaves the Prime Universe.

“I think Star Trek always works best when it takes inspiration from current affairs or from problems that our modern-day society is still struggling with.” BP: Yes, Jenna Winona Kirk! She is not a direct descendant of James T. Kirk, of course. We all know Kirk’s only son David was killed by the Klingons in Star Trek III. Yet she is part of the Kirk family tree. In fact she is a descendant of Kirk’s brother, George Samuel Kirk. As the original series episode “Operation – Annihilate!” tells us, George had a son called Peter James Kirk. We speculated that he might have had a family – and that Jenna is his granddaughter. Even a hundred years after James T. Kirk, she suffers from the enormous shadow this hero of the Federation casts on anyone bearing the name Kirk. Who are the Purifying Flame, and what was your inspiration for them? CH: I think Star Trek always works best when it takes inspiration from current affairs or from problems that our modern-day society is still struggling with; when it works as a parable just as much as a sci-fi adventure. The Purifying Flame,

What can we expect from the second and third books in the trilogy, The Root of All Rage and In the Heart of Chaos? CH: We’ll continue our journey into the Lembatta Cluster. Captains Adams and Kromm will be forced to work together in order to survive, and we’ll shed light on the mysterious reason behind the Renao’s actions.

06 Guest star Ambassador Spock. 07 The Prometheus separates...

Star Trek Prometheus: Fire with Fire is out now, published by Titan Books. The Root of All Rage and In the Heart of Chaos will be published in May and November 2018 respectively.

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TRICORDER: REVIEWS

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

“Mirror Broken” Part 5

Written by David Tipton & Scott Tipton Art by J.K. Woodward & Charlie Kirchoff IDW Comics Previous issues of IDW’s Next Generation leap into the Mirror Universe have teased long-standing feuds, betrayal, and a thirst for power, but the fifth and penultimate episode puts all that aside in favor of a deep space battle, pitching the Enterprise against a vast fleet of Klingon and Cardassian ships. On first reading, that feels like something of a shame, because the strength of this miniseries so far has been the stab-you-in-the-back character interplay that is missing from this installment. On first reading, that is… 76

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Ensign Wesley Crusher comes up with a typically clever battle tactic, for which Data calculates some odds, while Riker scores a passionate kiss with Troi, and Guinan shows up to offer sage advice to Jean-Luc. It’s all so very… Prime Timeline! And perhaps that’s the point. Our antiheroes get to kick Cardassian/Klingon butt, win the respect of an admiral, and come together for a decidedly Mirror Universe celebration to round things off. Suddenly these backbiters are a cohesive unit, just like the nice versions we know and love. That can’t be right, surely? Of course it isn’t; as Barclay points out in the final panel, “How long can this possibly last?” Let’s make a stab at one more issue, which is all set to be a delicious, duplicitous finale. Christopher Cooper

COMICS

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The New Adventures Volume 4

Written by Mike Johnson Art by Tony Shasteen, Cat Staggs & Rachael Stott IDW Comics The fourth volume of IDW’s 300-page omnibus editions of their Kelvin Timeline Star Trek series collects 13 issues (#35–47), bringing together four stories of uniformly strong art but variable plotlines. By far the strongest is the first, “The Q Gambit,” which opens in unexpected (but not unwelcome) fashion in Captain Picard’s ready room on the Prime Timeline Enterprise-E. However, this is but a feint; the arrival of Q with a dire warning propels the tale in another direction entirely, as the action switches to the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise and the first (predictably antagonistic) meeting between Q and Captain James T. Kirk.

Thereafter the surprises keep on coming, as Q shunts the Enterprise to a future where the Dominion has conquered the Alpha Quadrant and Deep Space 9 – or rather Terek Nor – is once more under the command of Gul Dukat. The thrill of getting to see Kirk, Bones, and Scotty interact with Sisko, Bashir, and O’Brien is matched by a plot that packs in the twists and turns, but in the context of this collection, “The Q Gambit” rather overpowers the subsequent stories. Not that there’s anything wrong with “Behemoth,” “Eurydice,” and the original series-riffing “The Tholian Webs”; there are intriguing elements in all – especially “Eurydice,” which sees the Enterprise deposited in the Delta Quadrant, decades from home and drained of dilithium – but it’s fair to say they do suffer by comparison. Nick Jones

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TRICORDER: REVIEWS

STAR TREK PROMETHEUS:

Fire with Fire By Bernd Perplies & Christian Humberg Titan Books You wait over a decade for a new Star Trek crew to learn to love, then two come along at once! If, for whatever reason, Star Trek: Discovery hasn’t rocked your captain’s yacht, and you long for a postNemesis continuation of Trek’s Prime Timeline, then Prometheus could be just what you’re looking for.

The Prometheus faces a foe who regards the Federation (and their Klingon allies, in this instance) as a conquering force. Originally published in Germany in 2016, Fire with Fire – book one of an English-language translation of the trilogy – was issued by Titan Books at the tail end of 2017, and the storyline features some coincidental thematic links with the new CBS TV series. Like the U.S.S. Discovery, the Prometheus faces a foe who regards the Federation (and their Klingon allies, in this instance) as a conquering force rather than a benign and friendly galactic partner. Inevitably, conflict ensues, but we appear to be in safe hands with the Prometheus crew, which even includes a Kirk on its roster (and yes, she is related to James T., exhibiting more than a few of his character traits). In fact, there are cameos aplenty throughout, with Ambassador Spock playing a pivotal role. Fire with Fire was always intended as a celebration of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, with the novel hitting many fan-pleasing notes, and it’s certainly worth the time of anyone looking for a fresh but familiar take on the Trek universe. Christopher Cooper

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RETRO REVIEW

Playmates’ Next Generation Transporter Ask anyone which superhero superpower they’d most like to have, and more often than not they’ll choose Superman’s ability to fly (or at least to leap tall buildings in a single bound). Ask them which sci-fi gadget they’d most like to try, and the answer will most likely be to beam up in Star Trek’s transporter. I don’t think we’re spoiling anyone’s dreams here by admitting that, with 21st Century technology at least, you’d stand a better chance of aping the spandex-clad Kryptonian – all you’d need is a red parachute and the guts to throw yourself out of a plane. Yet back in the 1990s, Playmates offered fans of The Next Generation a chance to pretend, with their “working” transporter. Exactly the right size for beaming a single Next Generation action figure from ship to shore, the pad was accessed via a little hinged door at the back – just like the TV series set wasn’t. A tap on the LCARS control panel engaged a thrilling combination of light and sound effects, resulting in said action figure disappearing before your

very eyes. More or less. If you didn’t look too closely. It was all done with mirrors, of course, employing an effect used by stage magicians for decades to trick audiences into believing they’d witnessed the impossible. On a practical level, the toy was anything but. With its one-at-a-time formation, any self-respecting away team would have been irritated to beam off on a mission in, essentially, single file. And while the exterior was a perfectly serviceable recreation of an Enterprise-D corridor, its chunky, cylindrical shape rendered the transporter useless as a display diorama – unless you really wanted half your crew to be facing the wall. Ultimately, The Next Generation Transporter found a higher purpose that, ironically, perfectly suited its name. With only a little bit of force, you could fit a half-dozen action figures inside, turning the transporter into a handy action figure carry case. A “transporter,” if you will… Christopher Cooper STAR TREK

BEAM ME UP

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH STAR TREK 01

CHRISTOPHER MCDONALD LT. RICHARD CASTILLO, “YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE” An actor for 40 years, Christopher McDonald has delighted audiences on stage, TV, and on the big screen, in both dramas and comedies. Remember him as Big Chuck in Kyle Newman’s Fanboys? Or maybe the mean-spirited Wilson Croft in Flubber? Or you might recall his voice from a number of DC Comics animated shows – Jor-El in Superman: The Animated Series, Superman in Batman Beyond – or perhaps his role as Harry Daugherty on Boardwalk Empire. For Star Trek fans, though, it’s surely for his performance as Lieutenant Richard Castillo in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” – one of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s ﬁnest moments – that he’ll always be remembered. Wo r d s : M a r k N e w b o l d 80

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CHRISTOPHER MCDONALD

Star Trek Magazine: Do you prefer playing good guys or having a meaty bad guy to get your teeth into? Or do you like both? Christopher McDonald: I like both, but at the same time there’s nothing more fun than getting carte blanche to do a bad guy. Keep it real, keep it honest, keep it truthful, but at the same time have the time of your life. It’s kind of like a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s great fun, I’ve done both and I love being the lead, but the bad guys are more fun, I must say. Your character in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” couldn’t have been more of a good guy. Looking back, when you were offered that role and looked at the script, what were your first impressions of the character? It’s very funny you ask that because the character’s original name was Manuel Castillo, and I said, “There’s no way they’re going to cast me, I’m Irish!” I said, “I’m going anyway because I love, love, love Star Trek,” so I went in. I was doing a play in downtown Los Angeles, the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman, and I had a brilliant time. Philip Seymour Hoffman played Willie and I played the hell out of Biff. When the audition came up for Star Trek: The Next Generation I said yes. So I go and

going to say goodbye to you right now but in another world wouldn’t it be great, if we could, someday each other.” And then she comes onboard and makes her death worthwhile rather than waste it, like Guinan says. It was a great opportunity and I’m so glad and so honored that it’s one of the most popular episodes of TNG.

meet the director, David Carson, and he says, “The most important thing in this whole show is to bring back Tasha Yar and for her to have a significant death.” I had such chemistry with her [Tasha Yar actress Denise Crosby], I think that’s what really sold it. That relationship was the cornerstone of the episode. Had you two known each other beforehand? We knew each other socially, but she’d had a big influence on that show for years. It was the first time she’d been back in a long time. And by the way, we laughed and loved. That’s the great thing about being an actor, an actor can leave his own personal life and go into the world of fantasy, which we all love, and as a character I fell in love with her. She’s a doll, and that’s what helps – chemistry. When you saw the script, and the way it was going for your character – who was very much the fulcrum of everything that happened, in his willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice and go through the rift – how did you feel about that? There aren’t many more heroic endings than that. Well, you just nailed it. It’s the most heroic thing in the world, to say, “I know I’m going to my death, and I’m

Absolutely – whenever there’s a fan poll, and given the episode is a while ago, 27 years… Shush, don’t say it out loud!

01 Richard Castillo and Tasha Yar. 02 Castillo ponders a bleak future.

…There are a handful of Next Generation episodes that always come up, and “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is one of those. That must make you feel pretty good. It does. It was David Carson’s first episode as well. We were on the same slippery slope, as it were. We really hit it off, and the fact that I was in Death of a Salesman at the time, I think that really helped me connect and lift the storyline to a higher level. There was a great camaraderie between me and Tasha Yar, but wow, to sacrifice your life, knowing you could change the next 20 years… That’s pretty cool.

“What was great about the episode was the whole timeline changed, and that’s big stakes.” Stepping back to your casting in the role, Castillo was a very different character on the page compared to what we saw on screen. They brought me in as a Hispanic character. I said, “OK, alright, I’m still going, but I’m not Hispanic. I’ll try to do my thing.” Kudos to David Carson for that, for saying, “No, he’s perfect, he’s great. We need a guy who has that kind of connection [with Tasha Yar].” In the moment, you see it. Attraction. That is universal. We finished the timeline, fixed the past, as it were. What was great about the episode was the whole timeline changed, and that’s big stakes. I love the fact that there’s a lot invested on both sides. I’m going to my death, but I’m STAR TREK

BEAM ME UP

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS WITH STAR TREK 04

“I had such chemistry with Denise Crosby, I think that’s what really sold it.” doing it for the right reasons. As actors we have to sell that, and that’s why it’s a popular episode. What was it like being on the set and working with the Next Generation cast? Here’s the thing, as a fan of the show, I watched Michael Dorn get his face put on. That was huge! I watched Whoopi Goldberg get in the hat. And I embraced the fact that I had to get little pointy sideburns. I watched a lot of artistry going on, which was a blast, and in the very studio I got started on in Grease 2 back in the day. It took me a few years to come back, but wow. Most of the time, actors really kibbutz, they share stories, tell jokes, they make light. It’s real fun and a rare and wonderful experience. I knew Brent [Spiner] and a couple of the other guys, it was all very friendly. The Next Generation was known for working long and hard hours. You must have put in a shift and a half on that show. You bring up a very sore point. So, I’m doing Death of a Salesman and I’m playing Biff, the son. It’s the quintessential American drama. One night we went into extra hours, it was probably a Friday. I couldn’t make the curtain at 8pm. I got there at 9.20pm, and my understudy went on. You’re giving up one of the greatest, richest 82

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parts in American theater and that hurt me a little bit to do that. It was a great experience to do the episode, but it was a heartbreaking experience because I wanted to play that part [on the stage] again for the Friday night crowd. We’ve had the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and the 30th anniversary of The Next Generation. Does it surprise you that Trek has survived so long? Honestly, it is loved because it’s real in a fantasy world. In a fantasy world, that stuff happens. It’s Patrick Stewart, it’s Jonathan Frakes, it’s Data, Whoopi Goldberg, they make this thing live. And you care. I’m a fan and I think it’s going to go on forever. By the way, I’d love to be in the new one. We were going to ask if you’d be interested in coming back to Star

03 Christopher McDonald in 2017. 04 The chemistry between Castillo and Yar is undeniable. 05 Guinan gazes on.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise”

Trek and doing something in Discovery if the opportunity arose… Absolutely, it’s one of the great stories. It’s generations now, 50 years. The greatest moment for me was to sit in the Enterprise-C chair. The captain’s dead, now I’m in charge, and I say, “Full warp speed.” Come on – that is a gift.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 15 First aired: February 19, 1990 When the U.S.S. Enterprise-C emerges from a temporal rift, creating a new reality where the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war, the only person on the Enterprise-D who knows something is awry is Guinan. In order for the timeline to be restored, the Enterprise-C must return to the past – even though it means everyone onboard will die. With the ship’s captain dead, it’s down to the Enterprise-C’s helmsman, Lieutenant Richard Castillo, to guide the ship and its crew back through the rift – accompanied by the Enterprise-D’s Lieutenant Tasha Yar, determined that this time, her death should have meaning.

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THE HOLODECK STAR TREK FA NS, F UN, & FACT S

Computer, start program... Welcome to the Holodeck, where fans make their voices heard. Among this issue’s offerings, Larry Nemecek addresses a succession of vexatious continuity conundrums, Trek Trivia concocts some navigational posers in honor of Pavel Chekov, and Captions Logged wonders what on earth Commander Riker is up to. The Holodeck is an open forum for you, our readers, to get involved with your canon queries, artwork, letters, and thoughts on all things Trek – so get writing!

MEMORY ALPHA STAR TREK’S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Facebook: @StarTrekMagazine Twitter: @StarTrekMag Email: startrekmagazine@ titanemail.com Mail: (US readers) Star Trek Magazine, Titan Magazines, 2819 Rosehall Lane, Aurora, IL 60503; (UK readers) Star Trek Magazine, 144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP.

contents 86 A FISTFUL OF DATA Larry gets to grips with a “Conspiracy” theory and the veracity of Bajoran lightships.

92 THE NEUTRAL ZONE Our opposing fans debate the actions of Q in TNG’s “Q Who.”

94 TALENTED TREKKERS How champion pole vaulter Bob Olsen was inspired by devils and tribbles.

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“Captain of the Enterprise, huh?” S TA R T R E K G E N E R AT I O N S “Don’t let them promote you… don’t let them transfer you… don’t let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you’re there… you can make a difference.” Captain James T. Kirk imparts some sage advice to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, before joining him on a date with destiny. Moment chosen by Nick Jones, Lewes, UK. (Hey, it’s my first issue back in the captain’s chair; indulge me.)

STARSHIP TREKKERS THEYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE THE WORST CREW IN STARFLEET

LARRY NEMECEK’S

A FISTFUL OF DATA MAKING SENSE OF THE FUTURE

There we go! As incredible as it seems, we’ve now unspooled the first new season of Star Trek in 13 years. Discovery has brought on a host of internal questions about production insights, as well as how it fits back into the rest of Trek lore. Week to week, I’ll bet you found plenty of quick answers to what you needed to know. But even with today’s media at spore-driven speeds, there are some questions too complex for the web, or whose roots reach too far back for the answer (or even a clue) to even be online. So whether you’re a veteran Trek fan or a newbie drawn in by both Discovery and this novelty of ink-on-paper communication, I hope you’ll send your questions and puzzlers – in-canon and in-production alike – here to us at Fistful. We have a lot of canon-smoothing and gap-filling still to do… Larry Nemecek

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THE HOLODECK

SEVENYEAR ITCH

With the recent renewal of Discovery, I’ve been thinking about the other Trek shows. The original series’ history with cancellations is legendary, but how secure were TNG, DS9, and Voyager during their seven-year runs? Daniel Adams, via Twitter Nottingham, UK As amazing as it sounds today, Daniel, the answer is: Very. That’s because TNG (and DS9 after it) was set up in 1987 as a pioneering off-network series by Paramount Television and Gene Roddenberry, still haunted by the original series being canceled not for low ratings (the stated reason) as much as for GR’s bristle, from running clashes over story, budget, promotion, and censorship from afar. The self-started juggernaut that became Paramount’s independent syndicate of local TV stations on which to show its new Trek was really sparked because in 1987, no other network – not even the then-new upstart Fox – would guarantee the series time to find its audience. Amazingly, Gene and his occasional nemesis studio found common ground here. He did not want to revisit those hassles again, and Paramount realized its own long-term value in a series with merchandise and future syndication and VHS tapes/rentals (update your media here). Paramount had far more stake in protecting the series and its “crown jewels” franchise than a third-party network would, even if it did have to invent the vehicle. In fact, that vaunted seven-season cycle of startup episode budgets of $1.5 million per was the equation derived by accountants as the max outlay and duration for the longest-term profit. That’s why – and I doublechecked my memory with folks who’d been in the offices back then – TNG and DS9 were never really what we now call “on the bubble” of cancellation. There was never any stress around Voyager, either; even as a “network show,” the series was always the top ratings draw of infant

TNG (and DS9 after it) was set up in 1987 as a pioneering offnetwork series. UPN and the “golden child” of the series. It was not until UPN’s lack of a solid footing after eight years that co-parent CBS took the entire network under its wing and demanded ratings that performed the same as anywhere else. I noticed you skipped right over the case of Enterprise, Daniel, because you likely know that its case history is almost as “legendary” as the original series when it comes to ratings. That’s sad, because it was not so much a case of the ratings for Enterprise collapsing, as it was the little startup network that carried it. The adrenaline-driven Season 3 was a last-ditch effort to break through

01 Michael Burnham in “Music to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.” 02 The TNG crew. 03 The Voyager crew.

wider ratings, and the journey would have ended there had not the studio ponied up more monies for a Season 4 that edged closer to 100 episodes. It’s a drama that makes the journey of the first three spinoff series – averaging about 26 episodes a season for seven years – all the more amazing, no matter what era of show business you compare them to. STAR TREK

A F I S T F U L O F D ATA

MAKING SENSE OF THE FUTURE 06

A CLASS OF ITS OWN How come we never saw any Sovereign-class vessels (like the Enterprise-E) outside of the TNG movies? Surely they would have been used in the Dominion War? James Patrik, via Twitter It’s simple, James – for the same reason, after the initial Big E visit in the premiere episode, that you never saw any Galaxy-class vessels on Deep Space Nine until its Season 2 finale: branding, and confusion. Or the perceived risk of it. You might disagree (and many since then have), but the worry in 1992 was that the distinctive design of the hero ship beloved after seven years of TNG was so identified with Picard and co. that its appearance elsewhere would sow too much confusion for all but the most ardent background fans. Of course, in the spring of 1994 we did see the U.S.S. Odyssey in “The Jem’Hadar” – but the decision had already been made, per the Generations movie script underway in that past

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year, to crash the Enterprise-D in dramatic fashion and, thus, lose its status as “starring ship.” Even then, the DS9 writers had to push to use the Galaxy-class ship in that finale. Which is why it comes along with plenty of interior scenes and characters like Captain Keogh that fully inform the audience that it’s hardly the ship with the android and the Klingon. So, even with the Sovereign-class starring in “only” a movie every two years or so, you can understand why producer Rick Berman wanted the gleaming Enterprise-E identified only with the TNG crew – even though, as you note, it only makes “real world” sense for Starfleet to have one of its most advanced designs out in the fight against the Dominion, from the U.S.S. Sovereign on up. Tying the biannual movies into the TV continuity was tricky enough in 1996 and 1998 (it was a moot issue by the prequel Enterprise production era of 2002’s Star Trek Nemesis).

Rick Berman wanted the gleaming Enterprise-E identified only with the TNG crew. You’ll note, of course, after the transfer of “lead ship” from the “D” to the “E,” the older ship is “freed up” to make other appearances. There’s a flood of CGI-built but unidentified Galaxy-class starships seen fighting alongside the Defiant and all of Starfleet all through the biggest battles of the Dominion War, and often referenced in dialogue. Of course, you’re hardly the first fan who’s had this question. If you want to read the offscreen yet noncanon log of the Enterprise-E, check out the Dominion-era tales in print, led by the comic book “The Gorn Crisis” and the Pocket Books novel The Battle of Betazed.

THE HOLODECK

CONSPIRACY THEORIES Why did TNG’s “Conspiracy” never get a follow-up? Nate Alexander, via Twitter Sydney, Australia Nate, this is a chestnut that never gets old, as it reveals why sometimes story decisions are not so much about, well, story, as they are about practical matters and human reactions. It’s a two-part answer, really. TNG’s early emerging head writer Maurice Hurley had actually considered bringing the little beasties from “Conspiracy” back in Season 2 as the new, overarching, unstoppable alien threat he wanted to introduce. But in the pre-digital era of visual effects, the small stop-motion alien critters pushed the VFX envelope just about as far as it could go on TV dollars and time in 1988. And yet no one was quite happy with them – they did look a bit comical and jerky – and Hurley was persuaded to consider other options. That idea grew from the parasites to insectoids and, finally, the cybernetic drones of the Borg. Even more to the point, this late-Season 1 episode suffered from internal dissent on the writing staff during a famously tumultuous period of TNG. New staff writer Tracy Tormé took the script over from freelancer Robert Sabaroff but was overruled by Hurley over its violence

and dark tone – until Tormé got Gene Roddenberry behind it. It was not exactly the kind of work memory Hurley wanted to revisit if he took the aliens to the next level. And if that wasn’t enough, the all-out team effort behind creating the mother creature’s phasered climactic destruction while in Remmick’s body went from proud production moment to the bane of much negative parental protest mail. So, when the dust settled, the alien parasitic invaders were deemed too jerky and gory – and had left a bad vibe behind throughout the writers’ room. Never mind that technology would soon allow much better animation, or that the “gore threshold” would soon likely rise as the popularity of video games pushed that envelope, as well as newer TV and films. And never mind that within a year, the writers’ room would completely transform once Michael Piller took the head writer reins for good in Season 3, and no one personally involved would even be around from that contentious script. It’s just the way Hollywood works. At least, in the era before digital effects and the great fan-to-pro writer migration. Still, you might find some answers in the universe of noncanon but licensed Trek works. The parasitic invaders lived on in Pocket Books novels – a prequel among The

Lives of Dax short stories, through the Mission: Gamma series, and finally in Trill: Unjoined, all of which postulate the tiny aliens are genetically modified Trill symbionts, a faction of whom are fighting a long secret war against unmodified symbionts. Separately, they were also featured in an early DC TNG comic, and more recently in a Star Trek Online plot that postulated they were bio-engineered by the Iconians to control the Vaadwaur.

DATACORE LARRY NEMECEK

04 The Sovereignclass Enterprise-E in First Contact. 05 One of the parasitic nasties from “Conspiracy.” 06 The alieninfested Remmick meets a grisly end in “Conspiracy.”

Coming from a background in news and theater, Larry Nemecek hosts The Trek Files weekly on the Roddenberry Podcast Network, and blogs, vidchats, and leads the Portal 47 boutique fan experience from larrynemecek. com, all based on his longtime career as Star Trek author, editor, consultant, interviewer, host, and archivist – and now producer of The Con of Wrath documentary and his Trekland: On Speaker remastered interview archives.

Send your canon conundrums to A Fistful of Data at:

startrekmagazine@titanemail.com, via larrynemecek.com, or @larrynemecek on twitter. STAR TREK

A F I S T F U L O F D ATA

MAKING SENSE OF THE FUTURE

CANON FODDER PUTTING CONTINUITY IN THE FIRING LINE 07

LIGHT UP THE SKY

or our latest look into Trek lore that requires a longer take, how about a question I’d never considered – and nor, apparently, has anyone else…? Mike Mann of New Hampshire tweeted a good one that literally made me stop in my Starfleet boots: “How did the ancient Bajorans get their wooden lightships into orbit in the first place?” Mike’s right, of course: a planet is a planet, and especially if it’s a Class M variety like Bajor (or Earth), which we know even better. It has both atmosphere and gravity, two factors in the equation that mean a spacecraft can’t just float into space from the ground. But from what we’ve seen of the Bajoran lightship in the beloved DS9 episode “Explorers,” the primitive pre-powered spherical craft, propelled only by a solar sail, can definitely move into either normal drift or even a hyperlight situation without formal action/ reaction rocket engines.

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Think of it: the craft is said to be “ancient,” or at least a few hundred years prior to powered devices. Everything aboard Sisko’s replica is hand-cranked or explosive-bolted, except the grav-plating he adds for convenience, to avoid having to tie everything down. In short, the lightship comes from a time that does not reflect the capacity to develop a booster launch rocket. Likewise, the craft was certainly not assembled in orbit. So, how to overcome those limits on the ground? We know from gap-filling the holes in Trek canon that oft times there’s an unused or unseen script reference, or a backstage creative moment that lends a lot of insight to the mystery at hand. But there’s none of that here that I’ve come across. If you poke around online, you might find as many as 15 different ways to get into space with booster rockets – but these are supposedly “ancient” Bajorans. What now?

07 The Bajoran lightship in “Explorers.”

So I asked DS9 illustrator Jim Martin, designer of the Bajoran lightship, and he was just like all the rest of us: it had never come up during the short research and development for the episode, and neither he nor anyone had ever stopped to think about it, even for his own subtext or “head canon.” So we started to talk about it. “We’re going to go deep into some ancient Bajoran catapult tech, and of course they had poly-phosphorous celebratory bursters (i.e., fireworks),” he opined. “Catapult tech, with excellent Bajoran-style seat belts and parachutes!” Perhaps, we joked, proven by some recently discovered Bajoran scrolls from an unearthed ancient temple. The Bajorans’ lightship did get itself into space somehow. And if we can navigate canon to get the Klingons from head-ridges to flatheads and back again, we can figure this one out. There’s a stab at it.

THE NEUTRAL ZONE

WHERE OPINIONS COLLIDE

PRECIPITOUS CONTACT? Welcome to The Neutral Zone, where our expert team of Star Trek fans is given an aspect of Trek lore to debate... and then pick sides! This issue, we asked our duo of deliberating Trek fans the following question:

“In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ’Q Who,’ the eponymous omnipotent entity propelled the Enterprise-D 7,000 light-years into uncharted space, and an encounter with the Borg, instigating a ﬁrst contact with the rampant assimilators some time before humanity would otherwise have met them. Given everything that followed, was Q right to do so?” Cheerleading for Q: MICHAEL CLARK Somewhat cross with Q: BUNNY SUMMERS

Bunny Summers: After the disappointment of the Ferengi in Season 1, The Next Generation needed to up the ante with the next “big bad,” so they introduced the Borg. But really at this time the Borg were way too advanced for the Enterprise to deal with. Michael Clark: The Borg were unlike anything the Federation had ever encountered before, but thanks to Q for introducing them, the Federation were better able to prepare for potential future encounters. BS: Were they though? Let’s take a minute to recall all of the destruction the Borg were responsible for – I mean, we even lost a captain. All hail Locutus! MC: But just remember that the main adversaries so far in TNG were the 92

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Romulans and Ferengi, neither of whom were problematic to the Federation. As a consequence, the Federation had become slightly complacent and overconfident, hence Picard’s reaction to Q’s offer as a guide through the universe.

been, that he accelerated their meeting. In many ways, Q did the right thing by showing the crew of the Enterprise just how relentless other species could be, and that the Federation needed to act now to protect themselves.

BS: Looking at this from a technological perspective, the Enterprise was outmanned, outgunned, and even outteched in every way possible. The Borg were so far advanced that at this time the Federation stood absolutely no hope of surviving an all-out attack.

BS: Q just likes to play with humanity; it’s just another game to him and a chance for him to go off on a massive power trip. Humans are no match for this great omnipotent being. He threw the Enterprise out there just because he wanted too. I know you think Q might have some kind of obsession and attachment to humanity, but really, if he did care, he wouldn’t have put Picard and his crew in harm’s way, would he?

MC: While I concede that, I don’t think Q would have allowed the Enterprise to be destroyed during that first encounter. I think it’s because of Q’s fascination with humanity and the fact that he didn’t want humanity to be enslaved by the Borg, as so many other species have

MC: Well, maybe the Q fear the Borg and believe that humanity are the only ones that can stop them.

THE HOLODECK

He can see everything in a non-linear way. He knows precisely what things humans are capable of, and that also includes the use of time travel – something we also know that the Borg and several other species are capable of utilizing; just look at First Contact. If Q’s seen through space and time, he knows how humanity will at some point triumph over the Borg. But we all know that the trial of humanity will continue.

MC: As we saw with the Xindi and the attack on Earth, the timeline is susceptible to tampering, and all it takes is one incursion to alter everything we know. This may be the Q’s biggest fear, and why they took the risk of bringing forward humanity’s encounter with the Borg.

Throwing humanity at the Borg was basically like dangling a raktajino in front of Major Kira – they were always going to take the bait. BS: Maybe we’re looking way too much at the Borg in this and not paying Q enough attention. What was Q’s real motive here? And was he really introducing the Borg to the Enterprise? Maybe he was introducing the Federation to the Borg? Thus making them aware of the existence of humans and endangering humanity as a whole, not just one

ship like we take at face value while watching the episode. MC: If Q wanted to, he could find easier ways to endanger humanity than exposing them to the Borg. For me, this was another test to see how Picard, humanity, and the Federation would react to, cope with, and overcome the Borg threat. BS: But the Borg are relentless in their quest to assimilate for perfection. Throwing humanity at them was basically like dangling a raktajino in front of Major Kira – they were always going to take the bait. He knew exactly what he was doing, and this first encounter with the Enterprise set in motion the entire series of events that we’ve seen through the show. Q is omnipotent.

01 Q meddles with Picard – and mankind – for the first time. 02 Q with Picard, Riker, and Worf. 03 Wesley Crusher looks on as Q wields his power. 04 The Enterprise-D engages the Borg.

BS: You keep suggesting that this encounter was due to Q’s fear in one way or another – fear of the Borg, fear of the timeline changing… But there’s no evidence that the Q as a race fear anything at all, let alone a single mortal species, or for that matter any changes in a linear timeline that they may not even be bound by. This all just points again to the TNG Q’s selfishness and childishness, not some clever or charitable plan being enacted. I’m just not buying that it was the right thing to do.

#STMTheNeutralZone Head to The Neutral Zone to add your opinion to the debate. Follow @StarTrekMag on Twitter, @StarTrekMagazine on Facebook, or email startrekmagazine@titanemail.com

STAR TREK

T R E K K E R S

THE STARS INSPIRED BY STAR TREK

THE HOLODECK

BOB OLSEN

C H A M P I O N P O L E VA U LT E R For more than 50 years, Star Trek has been inspiring fans to embark on their own continuing missions of creativity, whether it be as scientists, writers, rock stars, artists, or athletes. Talented Trekkers tracks down the public faces whose lives have been energized by the ﬁnal frontier. Words: Mark Phillips

oe Namath claimed that he and some of his New York Jets football players watched Star Trek a couple of days before they won the historic Super Bowl on January 12, 1969. Whether or not that episode (“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”) proved the impetus for their surprising win, future championship pole vaulter Bob Olsen had a far different reaction to Star Trek as a boy, as he witnessed miners being burned to a crisp by a shaggy monster in “Devil in the Dark.” “That was a very scary show for a 10-year-old,” Olsen recalls. “I was not able to get to sleep after seeing it because I kept looking under my bed for a Horta!” But his exhilaration for space travel overcame his fear of monsters. “I wanted to be an astronaut. I watched the rocket launches on TV and had my head in a telescope all the time. I think I was raised to recognize the values and inspirational concepts in Star Trek and the ideas behind it. Captain Kirk was a no-nonsense but compassionate man. He was quite different from the captain, say, on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, who was just a superficial cut-out, killing the bad guys without any real conflict or depth. Kirk had feelings for his crew and mourned the loss of each one during a mission. But Spock was my favorite, with his extraordinary abilities.” Olsen attended many Star Trek conventions in the 1970s, and the series impacted his professional life too. “When I was an elementary school physical education specialist, I’d show ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’ as a reward for good class behavior. I also had a couple of tribbles handy and would

“I was raised to recognize the values and inspirational concepts in Star Trek and the ideas behind it. Captain Kirk was a no-nonsense but compassionate man.” 02

01 As an elementary school specialist, Bob Olsen would screen “The Trouble with Tribbles” as a treat. 02 Bob with Nichelle Nichols (Uhura). 03 Bob Olsen in action.

manipulate them to entertain the kids and introduce them to basic anatomy and reproduction when I taught that subject. I convinced them that they were real creatures. To this day I’ll run into students who remember the school lessons with the tribbles.” In early 1978, the late Richard DeLap, editor of Fantasy and SF Review, shocked fans by grimly announcing that Star Trek was officially dead. Olsen never believed such naysayers. “A few acquaintances would tell me Star Trek would never come back and that I was wasting my time writing letters and collecting film clips. I just knew there was something special about being a fan. My parents once hosted a pool party and over 30 people showed up. They all watched a Star Trek blooper reel that one of my fellow fans had acquired on 16mm. Now that was an event!” He also recalls an annoying classmate who never watched Star Trek but enjoyed razzing him. “He called me Spock throughout the entire ninth grade and I didn’t like that at all! I saw him years later at our high school reunion and he said that he now liked Star Trek. And his favorite character was Mr. Spock! We had a good laugh about that.” Today, Olsen is a teacher, coach, and pole vaulter. “I was a National Class pole vaulter for many years, including being a runner-up in World Championship pole vaulting in 2011. As a coach, I had three athletes in the US Olympic trials of pole vaulting.” He also owns an extensive collection of original Star Trek props and rare print collectibles. STAR TREK

Q U I Z

The navigators serving aboard Federation ships put the “Trek” into “Star Trek.” Without these of cers, we’d never see strange new worlds, or be able to seek out any new civilizations. Take our test to see how much you know about them… and the planets they take us to!

F L I G H T O F T H E N AV I G AT O R S

10.

8. Romulus

3. Hanon IV

Vulcan”

2. Genesis

3. B. “The In nite

1. Excalbia

2. B. Andreievich

SET COURSE FOR…

1. B. Arex

ANSWERS:

7. Risa 6. Quarra

Score 1 point for every correct answer. If you scored 15 points: Truly, your navigational skills rival those of even the legendary Pavel Chekov! If you scored 7 points or more: You are the Dave Bailey of navigators – talented, but awed. If you scored 6 points or less: Like Tom Nellis, evidently your mind is being controlled by Charlie Evans.

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9. Sarpeidon

10. Vulcan

5. Jean Hajar was the team navigator of which Star eet Academy squadron? A. Delta B. Alpha C. Nova D. Beta

4. Nibiru

4. The Tardigrade that served as navigator aboard the U.S.S. Discovery was nicknamed: A. Flipper B. Skipper C. Dipper D. Ripper

5. Nimbus III

3. Actor Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, did not feature in Star Trek: The Animated Series, though he did write an episode named… A. “Yesteryear” B. “The In nite Vulcan” C. “The Slaver Weapon” D. “The Practical Joker”

A good navigator knows their way around the galaxy. Can you identify the following worlds?

4. D. Ripper

2. What was Pavel Chekov’s middle name? A. Sergi B. Andreievich C. Dimitri D. Vladimir

SET COURSE FOR...

5. C. Nova

1. What was the name of the Edosian Star eet of cer who served as Enterprise navigator between 2269 and 2270? A. M’Ress B. Arex C. T’Pau D. Worf

CAPTIONS LOGGED ARCHIVE IMAGES LOST AND FOUND Wo r d s : L a r r y N e m e c e k

TREK TRIVIA Portrayed by Earl Boen in “Where Silence Has Lease,” Nagilum was named after the actor Richard Mulligan (“Nagilum” being “Mulligan” backwards – near enough), who was originally to have played the immortal antagonist.

Last Time, in

Captions Logged...

he Enterprise-D crew is known far and wide as the best there is. So, what in the world is going on here as the stalwart starship faces off against the maddening conundrum of Nagilum. Is Riker paying no attention, or a very special kind of attention? It is a crucial moment (aren’t they all?). On paper, the crew has just outlasted the 1988 writers’ strike and is only two episodes into their second season – here at work on Wednesday October 5, 1988, the third day of filming “Where Silence Has Lease.” It’s an episode that, maddeningly, saw five of the seven filming days all on the bridge – a real challenge for director Rick Kolbe to make interesting. Maybe that is what’s pushing Riker to the limit! Or is it that simple…? What’s really the situation here, and can it be said with a straight face?

Send your Trek caption to startrekmagazine@titanemail.com, and we’ll print our favorite in the next issue.

NO! KELLIN!

NO KILLIN’?! HONEY I’M DYIN’ HERE! Caption Logged by:

Michael Berry HERTS, UK

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