Saturday 31 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Bonus Round!


As promised, here's my little added extra to round out October.

I'll keep it simple today because I'm actually handing over control to you guys today, the readers!

So first off, thanks to everyone who has even attempted a single question over the last month and to those of you that have managed to keep up with all 30, well done and thanks for coming along. I hope you've enjoyed it and maybe found out a couple of things about Star Trek too. I thought I was insane for attempting this but somehow it's worked.

Which brings us to this Ask Me Anything. Here's how we're going to work this. In the comments section just post up your question and I'll answer it. I'm also opening this up to everyone who has followed the #30daysoftrek to answer the questions posted so you might get some interesting answers.

Normal service on Some Kind of Star Trek will be resumed this week. I have a chunk of reviews and other assorted bits coming up which I hope you will enjoy.

Check back on all the previous questions HERE.

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Friday 30 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Thirty


...But alas all good things must come to an end.


Sniff, sniff. It's the last day and our final question for #30daysoftrek. Has it really been a month? Was I really stupid enough to attempt a question a day? Yes to both of those questions.



Which is why I wanted us to end on a high, a nice, easy question to end the challenge. We started with favourite episode so let's end on favourite series.

From the last month it might have become apparent that my favourite show is Deep Space Nine. Saying that, it wasn't until the third season that I finally "got" it. The first two years were decidedly average and, running as they were, alongside The Next Generation's sixth and seventh seasons, I didn't see it as major competition for my Star Trek affections.

The announcement of a new starship and that the Dominion would have an increased presence in the series certainly piqued my interest. For a brief period between the end of The Next Generation and Voyager, Deep Space Nine held its own and made massive improvements. It retained its darker overtones, the conflict that Voyager steered away from and embraced an incredibly character-driven story focus. That namely came from the stationary nature of Deep Space Nine itself and instead of providing a hindrance it meant that events could continue, there were consequences and genuine character development not only specific to themselves but in relation to each other and even recurring guests.

The arrival of Worf and the Klingons breaking from the Khitomer Accords were unexpected moments and I even thought it was a last gasp attempt to keep the show alive, potentially even doing it more harm than good. Instead it just added even more to the show and Deep Space Nine went from strength to strength giving us utter classics such as The VisitorTrials and Tribble-ations, Children of Time, Call to ArmsFar Beyond the Stars, In the Pale Moonlight and Tacking into the Wind; episodes I would easily place in any "best of" listing. 

Through the inclusion of the three classic Klingons, those tribbles and the Mirror Universe, Deep Space Nine also became the series to draw the most (I felt) on its roots to The Original Series and acknowledge its history.

The final years may have been dominated by the Dominion War but it was much more than just a series of space battles. There were brilliantly written stories that explored the issues of war as well as expanding on the roles of the Bajorans, the influence of Gul Dukat, the exploration of the Klingons in more detail with the inclusion of Martok as well as Worf and a whole host of other twists and turns along the way. 

I'll always have a love for the franchise as a whole but for me Deep Space Nine was as good as it got; superb stories, layered and well-acted characters and ongoing developments that made it the most believable of Star Trek's incarnations.

So to you for the final time - what was your favourite show?


Check back on all the previous questions HERE. Remember that TOMORROW, October 31st, there will be an Ask Me Anything opportunity to end the challenge!

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Thursday 29 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Nine


Choices, choices, choices....

To be fair there are three seasons of The Original Series you can mine with pleasure for this and I have to admit that my selection is straight from those classic vaults - but not necessarily one you might immediately think about.

As we head through The Next Generation there aren't any that spring to mind since Picard was a stickler for regulation. The less said about Sisko's decisions in the final couple of years of Deep Space Nine the better but Janeway was again one for sticking to the rules as best as possible. Archer? Well he didn't have to worry about the Prime Directive - it hadn't been invented although there were a couple of occasions it should have been in use.

So to my choice and it could strike up a few comments. How about Kirk's decision to incite Mirror Spock to turn against the principles of the Terran Empire in Mirror, Mirror? Talk about non-interference, the captain manages to change the future irreparably as we see in Deep Space Nine thanks to goatee-toting Spock's rise to head of the Empire and disarmament of the fleet.

With only a few lines Kirk alters an entire timeline and effectively places humanity into slavery for nearly a century. Great move and a prime example of Kirk disobeying the Prime Directive because he thinks he knows better. Sadly it just provided the chance for another equally violent faction to seize power and carry on the "good work". I would expect this to be one place Captain Kirk is not the reverred hero! 

OK his heart is in the right place but there's no long term thought here - it's all about what is happening in front of his eyes on one ship at one point in the galaxy spanning Empire. I actually think this may be Kirk's Greatest Mistake Ever (second place not checking on Khan) and he even does what he does best which is stroll away to the next mission without a care. Bravo, captain, bravo. It is a bleak future but it does mean we get to see Intendent Kira lay waste to a whole series of episodes which many would suggest was actually well worth ignoring the Directive point blank.

So what was your favourite disregard for the Prime Directive and by who? Was it Kirk every time or did another character do it with more panache?

Check back on all the previous questions HERE and join me for OUR FINAL QUESTION tomorrow. Remember that on October 31st there will be an Ask Me Anything opportunity to end the challenge!

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Wednesday 28 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Eight


Let's go theoretical for our next challenge.

We've all got those favourite episodes, the ones we dislike and potentially some that just don't sit quite right with us.

So that's what today is all about - those episodes that faded to black and you thought "Hey, I would have done that another way..."

For this one I did have to cycle through a few options to find an episode that suited the question but there was no doubt when I did.

I went for The 37's from the first/second season of Voyager. Multiple times I've mentioned this story I've said how it fits much better at the end of that first year but one point still niggles. At the end of the episode Janeway and Chakotay find that no-one has decided to stay behind with the human colony they found. It's a gloriously positive end to the season (if you watch it in production order) showing how the Maquis and Starfleet crews have come together and committed to finding their way home.

But y'know I would have had a few of both crews stay behind. Why? Because one of the things that was evident early on was the chance to bring some conflict to Voyager between the two factions. That was quickly forgotten (grrr) but having a few decide that life on the starship wasn't for them would have kept that element alive and made things less than settling. 

Having everyone willing to follow Janeway after just a few months never sat easy with me and I think that mixing it up a little bit at the end of the season might have added in a pinch of spice for the second season and maybe added some weight behind the Jonas/Kazon story.

What change would you make and to which episode?

Check back on all the previous questions HERE and join me for question twenty-nine tomorrow. Remember that on October 31st there will be an Ask Me Anything opportunity to end the challenge!

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Tuesday 27 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Seven




























This one got me thinking for a while I can tell you.

Off-screen there have probably been as many, if not more events surrounding the franchise than we know of. A tricky question as we come close to the end of our 30 day challenge.

What could I select here? The unveiling of the space shuttle Enterprise? The press conference that announced the return of Star Trek in the form of The Next Generation? What about the launching of Gene Roddenberry's ashes into space? Perhaps if you've attended an event it might be meeting a favourite cast member.

I did consider the decision by Desilu Studios to produce Star Trek to be the most memorable but then I wasn't alive in 1964 so that doesn't seem right. If I restrict my thoughts to my own lifetime then I have to say that the announcement of All Good Things... has to be high on that list.

I did find this difficult to pick but I chose this because The Next Generation had achieved something The Original Series didn't - choosing to end rather than being unceremoniously cancelled. The ending of the show after seven years with a feature-length episode also showed faith in the franchise since it would be continuing on only a few months later with Generations. The show had been a huge hit and number one in syndication in the US so the choice to end it actually seemed to me a bit of a shocker - it was doing well, fans loved it but ultimately the decision was made.

I was very excited by the prospect of a dedicated series finale and also saddened by the fact that after seven years the series would be coming to a close. While I hadn't been that involved with Star Trek when The Next Generation was first announced, it was during its lifetime that my affection for the show had truly come about. Knowing there would be no more new adventures of Captain Picard and the crew of the NCC-1701-D became a big thing.

Check back on all the previous questions HERE and join me for question twenty-eight tomorrow. Remember that on October 31st there will be an Ask Me Anything opportunity to end the challenge!

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Monday 26 October 2015

The Good, the Borg and the Opinion: The Official Starships Collection Issues 58 and 59


I'm getting London bus syndrome this month.

Y'know you wait for one ship delivery and three turn up within the space of 24 hours. Saturday morning (and early, thanks Mr Postman) brought issues 58 and 59 plus the fifth special, the USS Kelvin and on Friday a total shock when after nearly two years of waiting, the issue nine (yes, honestly) USS Defiant arrived.

Atrociously this second wave edition did not have the decal correction on the port engine that I was expecting and is still wrong. Why they can get the errors on the USS Enterprise-D decals amended but not this is puzzling me - and if you have got one that has a corrected decal I have a thought that I've got a wave one version...

Right, to business. We'll leave the Kelvin for a separate review since it's the special which leaves me to introduce the second of our geometric ships and the by default the first Borg ship since issue ten; Unimatrix Zero's Tactical Borg Cube. First thing's first, this is 100% plastic so don't be expecting the armour to be a metal overskin. I suspect that would have driven the price up again and that extra £1 per issue is already getting flak.

What I can say is that the detail on this is stunning. Well, OK, on three sides it's stunning because as you look closer you realise that this is three panels duplicated to create the cube. The surface detail is very clear and even slightly weathered in metallic grey with the grey/blue patch-painted armour seemingly slipped over the top as a second coat to the deadly starship. The armour looks great saying that, receiving that two-tone paint scheme and clear plating lines across the board and making it look that bit better than the sphere.

Visually comparing it to the sphere, it does eclipse the earlier ship even though that one was one straight surface with varied detail and those green glowing Borg highlights dropped in for effect. Sadly the cube doesn't replicate this and while it does have some superb finishing work, it doesn't quite "come to life" as much as it's rounded counterpart although not to its detriment as the workmanship is certainly higher.

The stand too is a new design and rather than clipping onto the cube, your new Borg acquisition just sits on a little plinth - watch a few of these go sliding around (but being plastic there might not be too much damage) and there are four little raised pieces to help locate it centrally but there's not a lot of resistance.

This is particularly hard to review as a model since it's totally plastic and repeats in it's 3D format. On a good note the joins are near-perfect and the end result is great to look at if a little plain. It certainly eclipses that freebie light-up cube subscribers received. A couple of the projectile weapons are missing from the sides when you compare it to the magazine images but that doesn't take away from the product. Odd thing is that while it's not as plain as the Romulan Bird-of-Prey it's nowhere near as exciting, maybe due to that repetitiveness or maybe because it's not quite as classic. I know for the new, slightly increased price this might seem like an expensive model due to its lack of metal construction but I can understand that a lot of work will have gone into the process to create such a finely detailed ship surface.

This time's magazine runs through the events of the two-part Unimatrix Zero and Tactical Cube 138's only screen appearance (guess the story that's discussed in the Appearances section) which was key to some of the events plus there's some nice shots from the story plus the standard views which do highlight some small weapons position omissions from the model and also how well the surface detail has been reproduced. However, the main pull here is to read into the design process that took the regular cube into its more bad-ass state. 

Certainly a cube wasn't the only shape considered nor was just whacking on some armour so this does make for a good diversion as does the evolution of the Borg themselves which is also covered in this magazine. It does seem to focus on the inclusion of the Borg Queen for First Contact a bit more than I might have wanted but there's also information on how the race were "kept interesting" through the later years of Voyager which you may or may not have agreed with!

Moving swiftly on to issue 59 we have the, again, once-seen-in-Voyager USS Relativity. Immediately my mind screamed out that we haven't heard a glimmer about whether we'll see the USS Aeon which appeared in two episodes of season three but the later and larger Wells Class vessel clearly had priority.

Taken from the season five story, Relativity, the 29th Century ship is a marked departure from the standard saucer/hull/engines design of the 23rd and 24th Century Federation craft. It's also a bit of a departure for Eaglemoss with the ship sporting a rather fetching pearlescent paint job. Oooooh - sparkles.

Thing is, this ship has already raised a few grumbles from the collectors' community for a couple of inconsistencies so we'll come to those shortly but let's stay positive for the moment.

The Relativity is a very streamlined design with a very thin profile and does look really great when docked on the rear-grip stand. The colour scheme looks a little less purple than she did on screen but on the flipside the Eaglemoss team have managed to bring out some of the tones and hues that were not very evident in the episode. It also seems that there was more of a colour change from fore to aft than we get on the model but is shown in virtually every image. Probably a hard to reproduce technique for the cost and scale and I would imagine that getting the balance between CG model and actual onscreen appearance is, as usual, a pain to get right for everyone's approval.


Sadly there aren't any translucent sections either to make the temporal field generators or the temporal warp core stand out against the hull. That does seem a shame although I can tell that the intricate framework around the core would have been lost if that had been chosen instead. One missed point for a purple translucent section could have been that underside intake but again it's just painted in.  To the rear is the central temporal impeller which I guess is one big time turbine if you will and finishes off the unique design with a very different piece of technology. 

The big issue I have with the Relativity though is the total absence of any decals. According to the images in the magazine there should be two which run down the sides of the hull and bear the ship name and registry. Now I'm not convinced this is a production problem since we've seen some very, very small decals on Thunderchild and recently the Yeager. Seeing as these would be the 29th Century symbols it would have been great to have them on an unusual Federation ship and why we haven't is a bit of a mystery. If we take it in a slightly bigger context, this month's two ships actually have zero decals and zero translucent elements - probably a first.


Given that there's no images available of the underside of the Relativity and none I could see from a scan of the wonderful internet, I'll have to take the design we have here with a pinch of salt. The underbelly is a single piece of plastic locked into the top, metallic hull. It's a very good fit. As with the top the ship is pretty well streamlined and Eaglemoss have managed to pull some detail onto her with panel lines, windows and added sections of the temporal drive shown.

As a product the Relativity is nicely produced. There's no gaps, a crisp paint job, some nice texturing effects on the grey wings and some very well defined hull features such as the drive elements. Yet because of those missing decals it's a little subdued and certainly falls mid-range. A nice one to include but it does make this month's delivery 100% Voyager heavy.


The magazine addresses the fifth season episode as well as some of the key features of the Relativity which were shown on screen. Trouble here is that the CG work is markedly better than the model showing a lot more surface texture and variations. It just seems this is one of those that almost got there but didn't quite make the grade as expected. 

We also get a character overview on Captain Braxton who appeared (played by two different people) in Future's End and Relativity. There are no big reveals here since it's all direct episodic info that most fans will be at the least aware of. What I can't understand is why they didn't ditch the Braxton feature in favour of a longer section to discuss Voyager's best special effects. This is easily the best article of the month covering - briefly - everything from Timeless' crash-sequence to the Borg Queen and Species 8472. I know the Braxton piece keeps the magazine linked to the shop but the effects piece is a mere taster to something that a lot of readers would want to know more about - a second part in the future perhaps Eaglemoss?

As with the Tactical Cube the issue appearance page is dedicated to the lone episode in which the ship appeared; again no surprises and a shame that such a big chunk of magazine is taken up with repeating the same details of Relativity/Braxton's back story.

Next month (end of November) we have two issues that will keep a lot of people happy. A rare visit to The Original Series and a true classic with the Botany Bay (oh no...we have to get out of here...!) and the final entry for your First Contact fleet with the Norway Class USS Budapest.

Keep checking back as this week we'll also have the full review for the fifth special, the USS Kelvin from the 2009 reboot movie. Later in November you can also expect the full review of the Shuttle Pack.

What's your opinion on this time's starships? Hit or miss?

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30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Six


Whaaaaaaaaat?

Let's just get stuck in to this one. Star Trek has brought us a lot of great stuff, influential technology, superb characters, diverse storylines but occasionally there's a slip. Something that shouldn't have happened or shouldn't have been there. We've noted characters who should have been erased from history but what is the one thing, a story, an idea, that wrong-footed the franchise? What was truly pointless in it's nature?

Now while I did come up with this list some time back I only look at the question on the day I post it up but with this one there was only one true contender I could even consider. I believe there are more but I have to look no further than The Next Generation's Force of Nature.

In fact I could just end today's post right there because we all know where I'm going. The most pointless thing in Star Trek has to be the warp five speed limit. One of those good-idea-at-the-time concepts it managed to handicap the final season of The Next Generation to the extreme that whenever there was an urgent mission, Picard had to be given permission to take the speed limiter off and proceed with caution (best example is The Pegasus). In fact such a good idea that turned bad it was neatly forgotten about before the start of Deep Space Nine's third season and all thereafter.

The idea that high warp was damaging the universe was a pretty cool story to attempt but for the sake of storytelling it almost completely trashed the franchise, maybe even more so than that brilliant warp ten story in Voyager. In-universe it was solved thanks to some neat new off-screen warp theory experiments and something to do with those variable geometry pylons we saw on the Intrepid Class and further improvements on ships built and upgraded after that. In any way it was never, fortunately, mentioned ever again....

Check back on all the previous questions HERE and join me for question twenty-seven tomorrow. The review of the latest issues from the Official Starships Collection will be available from 4pm TODAY.

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Sunday 25 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Five


Back to the tech for Day Twenty-Five but with a real world consideration.

We've touched on most impressive tech on Day Nine but what about when Star Trek created something as part of the universe that (in some way) became a reality four hundred-ish years before the writers thought it would?

While transporters may seem like a fair way off/nigh on impossibility, the potential to fly faster than light may not be however there are some more practical examples that we may take for granted today.

I'd go for the mobile phone, or more specifically the flip phone if we go back a few years. The Next Generation and its spin-offs chose to go with the combadge design but the 1960's brought us the flip communicator 30 years before it made its way onto the mass market. Heck, in the '60's the idea of being able to talk to whoever you wanted virtually wherever you wanted on such a small piece of equipment was an amazing thing. Even in the '80s and '90s I can remember the mobile phone being something not much smaller than a suitcase...

The thing is that the modern cellphone now does far more than the communicator ever did in Star Trek perhaps with the exception of being able to talk to spaceships parked in orbit. Equally bizarre is the notion that you can now buy a replica of the Star Trek communicator which doubles as a phone via the wonders of bluetooth.

The flip-phone certainly made an impression and although phones have trended towards touchscreen and also gone from big to small to big again, it's always blown me away that such a cool, pocket-sized communication device from the "future" would only be a realistic few decades away from being created and usable. Maybe one further note is the recent movement into the watch-style wearable tech that both Apple and Samsung have ventured into - again we saw those back in The Motion Picture - maybe one day these global companies will think of something new...

Question twenty-six will be with you tomorrow!

AND - we'll be having a special BONUS round on October 31st with a twist - I'm inviting you, my readers, to pose your own challenge in the comments section of the day's question blog. If you ask, I'll try and answer it! If you've been following this month's series then I'd invite you to have a stab at what each other posts.

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Saturday 24 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Four


Here's a flipside to yesterday's question about why we should accept the JJ movies as canon.

Star Trek is full of great characters but even then there have been the odd one or two who might have rubbed us all up the wrong way. I think this is very much a personal choice and no doubt there will be a varied range of answers. I did originally consider Vedek Bareil and the "outrageous" Okona but then I realised that there was a character I disliked even more than the drippy Bajoran priest or the annoyingly un-outrageous one. That would be Tuvix. 

Yes, the mix-up of Tuvok and Neelix has to be at the bottom of my list, even below the Talaxian chef himself. Starting out with one more transporter accident and ending in a moral dilemma about the right of existence, the second season Voyager episode itself isn't that bad. The trouble is the character of Tuvix himself. By the end you should be thinking whether it's right or not to separate him back into his original parts but it was one of the things about the show I was never more certain of, period.

Think about it another way, his erasure from the Star Trek universe would not have a massive effect on events in the franchise but it might make me rest a bit easier at night(!). Tuvix just never sat with me as a character and the genuine concern that was supposed to be there turned into annoyance and a countdown to when Tuvok and Neelix would be restored.

Who else might you choose for today? How about Isabella from Imaginary Friend or the Wadi from Move Along Home? What's your reason for wanting them removed from the history of Star Trek?

Question twenty-five will be with you tomorrow!

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Friday 23 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Three


OK. Neck on the line for Day Twenty-Three.

When I put this list together I wanted to make sure it wasn't all just "Best" and "Favourite" but some stuff that might be a little different and this is, most likely, one of those additions.

The JJ movies have caused more than a little controversy and a few comments on Some Kind of Star Trek that I won't repeat and are less than positive. It seems this has become a love/hate polarising debate encompassing everything from casting and plot to marketing and gross profit.

Now I'm not saying that I totally agree with the reboot and some of the elements within in (seriously - Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan when it could have been Benicio Del Toro?!) but there are redeeming features and that's what our next challenge is all about. Even if you think that the re-imagining of the Star Trek franchise at the hands of Abrams and Orci is horrific there must be a reason why it should be allowed to be considered canon. I have thought a lot about this one so I'm not expecting a lot of fast answers - take your time!

I think that the reboots should be allowed to exist within canon not just because of the inclusion of Prime Spock but because they represent another possible version of the universe we came to know since 1966. The franchise would always have to move into different eras and different hands as it evolved and this has become just one more iteration of that possibility. I'm a fan of calling it IDIC - the Vulcan concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Surely Star Trek is just that? The new imagining is perhaps more action and effects orientated than we might recognise from The Original Series but at its core there is still that notion that conflict within humanity has ended. Sadly not everyone in the galaxy bears the same ideal which leads to the events we have witnessed so far.

Maybe the rumours that Star Trek Beyond will adhere even more to the original Roddenberry vision and beliefs will come true if we are to accept the word of co-writer Simon Pegg. I hope he's right in which case then the latest screen adventures should rightfully remain as part of official - if alternative - canon. As fans we should be willing to embrace the different and y'know you can't please everyone all the time. There are multiple Prime Universe episodes I think are utter pap (we've already discussed those on Day Ten) but that doesn't mean I've struck them from Star Trek continuity. Surely encouraging new fans through the modern films who may in turn discover the wonders of Kirk, Picard and the rest is a good thing and maintains momentum? Worst of all is that once Enterprise ended the franchise may never have been seen again had neither of the divergent movie concepts come to pass.

Now the JJ vision isn't perfect, there's many an hour that we could debate it's worst and most abusive points but would I rather watch the '09 movie instead of Once Upon a Time? Yes. Absolutely. Totally.

Question twenty-four will be with you tomorrow!

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Thursday 22 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-Two


We're into the final days - just eight questions left in the 30 day challenge!

So to most resonating death - and note I haven't said death scene here for a reason. Thre have been a lot of deaths in Star Trek be it main cast or guest cast and while the moment they passed is a monumental moment for the franchise, what about the aftermath and the effect it had on the universe? Which one resonated with you the most?

Was it indeed the death of a guest character such as Vedek Bareil? Maybe it was Trip's shock exit in These are the Voyages, the passing of Picard's brother and nephew in Generations or did the death of Tora Ziyal in Sacrifice of Angels drive you to tears? Let's find out today.

I decided on the demise of Jadzia Dax in Tears of the Prophets but not for the moment in which Dukat, possessed by the Pah-Wraiths, kills her. Instead it's for the magnificent scene in which Sisko watches over her torpedo tube coffin (marked identically to Spock's in The Wrath of Khan) in which he mulls over his actions - what has happened and what he intends to do. He only just manages to lay his hands on the coffin as the scene ends but the effect of that death carries through to his leave of absence returning to Earth and taking the symbolic baseball with him. This scene is Brooks at his most impressive - not in a raging fire of anger but contemplative and almost apologetic for what has happened even though he was nowhere near at the time. It was even covered in the great Star Trek Action! book which is well worth picking up.

The death of Jadzia also brings in a new host for the symbiont and throws up a whole new set of variables in the final season especially between Worf, Bashir and the arriving Ezri. Even though there was a single season left to run, Deep Space Nine continued to take chances and dare to be different. Dax had been a key figure in the first six years and things seemed to be moving in a new and unexpected way for her as the season progressed with first her marriage into the House of Martok in You are Cordially Invited and then in the finale, the possibility of starting a family. In the final year we get the opposite, an inexperienced counsellor with a mind full of eight lifetimes of experiences and barely able to comprehend what she has inherited. Truly a big turnaround from her predecessor and made for some great stories in the last year.

So what's your pick? I suspect I can guess a couple that might come up but I'm ready for some surprises!

Question twenty-three will be with you tomorrow!

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Wednesday 21 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty-One


Professor X or Gurney Halleck? TJ Hooker? Robert Duncan McNeill in Masters of the Universe? Or was seeing Nana Visitor guest star in Knight Rider your favourite (yes that did happen)?


Day twenty-one offers a little bit of leeway but I would ask to keep this to MAIN CAST only or we're going to just be naming just about every actor of the last 50 years.Of course even the main cast of the five series have done a lot of work away from their franchise roles but which is the one that might well have been as good if not better than their role in Star Trek?



With today being the 21st October 2015 it would only be fitting to direct my attention to something related to time travel. For note, John de Lancie appeared in Time Trax and I'd be remiss to tip the hat to Christopher Lloyd in The Search for Spock, particularly given today's temporal significance.



However, there's one even better example that does mean I keep to my guidelines of the main cast (which clearly I didn't do there) - Mr Scott Bakula in five seasons of Quantum Leap. I was a little young to watch it on the first run but to this day I think it demonstrates some of the most versatile acting I've ever seen as Bakula literally had to change who he was each week. Rather than an alien world it was a different person and a different situation all in one with just Dean Stockwell to keep him sane. Oh - and there was a damn fine theme tune too which I've been whistling all day (not the last season one).


Quantum Leap was a show with a difference and a great sci-fi/fantasy experience. For reference the two-part The Leap Home and The Leap Back were a couple of my favourites. As a character Doctor Sam Beckett was very different to Jonathan Archer and that does show just how broad a range of roles - and either gender - that Scott Bakula could adapt to. Each week was unique, a random place, a new challenge with a solid message, some of the best TV I watched in my younger years and when I discovered who would play Archer I was very excited to see what he would do. Whether or not he succeeded 100% I would debate!

As a second place I'd have to go with a guilty pleasure and Leonard Nimoy in two voice roles within the Transformers universe. Now without looking do you know what they were...?

Question twenty-two will be with you tomorrow!

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Tuesday 20 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Twenty


A rather fitting question considering that I'm currently writing up the review of the Star Trek Costumes book!

Over 50 years many different designers from William Ware Theiss through to Bob Blackman have dipped their talents into the Star Trek universe to bring some incredible visions to life. Every generation has brought us - literally - out of this world designs now more than often seen in the aisles and stands at your nearest convention thanks to the explosion of cosplay. Sometimes I wonder if I should get out that Spock costume and rock on down to Tesco for an hour or so. There have been hippies, exposed Riker nipples, cross-dressed Ferengi, skants, bell-bottoms, furs, armour and Romulan shoulderpads galore over the years; some good some bad, some eternally burned in your mind.

It's also a difficult category to pin a favourite on. We covered the shockingly bad last week as well as the horribly uncomfortable and those which may have gone against the very fabric of Star Trek's moral compass and played on the more glamourous assets of certain actresses in what should be a universe of equality not sex-ploitation.

So to the best costume, the one that blew us away - and I could be really predictable and say the movie monster maroon uniforms but I'm not. Oh no that's too damn obvious and I've already chosen some "easy ones" as my answers so I need to push the boat out for this one. What else did I consider? Well, the Jem'Hadar uniforms got some attention as did the Borg and even Q's ego-tripping judge costume from Encounter at Farpoint passed my mind. but y'know I'm actually going Klingon as I think General Chang's getup from The Undiscovered Country is superb.

It's all about the differences that were played in against Gorkon's chancellor outfit as well as the intricacies that were included such as the symbols on the screwed-on eyepatch and the embossing on the heavy-looking sash that completes the warrior ensemble. It's solidly warrior all over but with its own edge and colouring marking the general out as much more important than your average Klingon. Add in veteran actor Christopher Plummer and you have a complete package like no other. Chang's outfit is as unique as his ship and his outlook on the quadrant which play such a huge part of the sixth movie.

Liking your Klingon? A fan of the skant? Rocked by Ru'Afo's ensemble? What's your thoughts?

Question twenty-one will be with you tomorrow at 1pm!

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