DC Fontana 1939 - 2019

One of the lights of the galaxy has faded.

News has broken today that Dorothy Catherine "DC" Fontana, one of the key members of the original Star Trek writing staff from The Original Series has passed aged 80 on December 2nd.

Meeting Gene Roddenberry while he was making The Lieutenant, Fontana would follow him across to Star Trek and act as story editor for the first two seasons and was involved with writing ten episodes in total - Charlie X, Tomorrow is Yesterday, This Side of Paradise, Friday's Child, Journey to Babel, By Any Other Name, The Ultimate Computer, The Enterprise Incident, That Which Survives and The Way to Eden. The latter two were written under her Michael Richards pseudonym as a freelancer.

But her association with Star Trek would not end there and Fontana would return not just to write the rather excellent Yesteryear for The Animated Series (acting also as associate producer and story editor) but later step onboard for The Next Generation when Roddenberry reunited some of the original team for a second stab at success. 

As associate producer Fontana oversaw story editing once again, penning the first version of Encounter at Farpoint as well as The Naked Now, Lonely Among Us, Too Short a Season and the first true Klingon story of the series, Heart of Glory before moving on due to disagreements and differences that were brewing during the early days of the show. In a sense, DC Fontana is also responsible for the very genesis of The Next Generation, taking it and scripting the pilot episode to launch the series and bring the delicious set of characters to life for the first time on paper.

Her final scripted episode of Star Trek however would be the Deep Space Nine courtroom episode, Dax from its initial season in 1993. She would also go on to write for the fan series New Voyages for their 2006 episode To Serve All My Days which would return Walter Koenig to the role of Pavel Chekov one more time. 

DC worked again in Star Trek on video games Bridge Commander, Tactical Assault and  Legacy but her work was not solely confined to the Star Trek universe seeing her writing for productions for series such as Babylon 5. 

Fontana's footprint on the Star Trek franchise is certainly far and wide, stretching from 1966 and the first season into computer games and fan series. She is responsible for some landmark events in the show such as the introduction of Spock's parents as well as the birth of one Leonard James Akaar (Friday's Child) who is still now used as a character in the ongoing Star Trek novel series as the head of Starfleet. Fontana also managed to create one of the more memorable (for the right reasons) episodes of Star Trek's third and final season with the return of the Romulans and the plot to steal a cloaking device. One more notable point that the Romulan commander would be another character reused later by Star Trek Continues. In that instance the actress' real life daughter would play the role. 

As for Yesteryear, it is regarded as one of the few animated episodes that strongly resonates even 40 plus years later and many regard as canon due to its insight into the early years of Spock's life on Vulcan. This episode works in much the same way that Dax does or Heart of Glory, in that Fontana has brought background and depth to important characters within the franchise and built believable and memorable facets that are turned to again and again, forming the backbone to many a performance across six decades.

Truly a sad loss to the Star Trek universe. 

To Trek With Love: The Finale of Continues

While Discovery temporarily halts its first season you might have been forgiven for missing out on the finale of Star Trek Continues. But not for too long.

Let me be so bold as to say you would be a fool if you had because, simple fact, this is a masterpiece, a well-made and brilliant conclusion to an 11 episode run that has been as innovative and exciting as The Original Series was in when first aired.

Now you'll note I am running the two parter as a single review here so be aware that there will be SPOILERS ahead especially if you've not seen the second part (and why the hell wouldn't you have by now?!).

Let's set the scene straight away. The Federation has been up to its old tricks of doing silly experiments away from the public eye and this time it involves attempting to replicate the "god powers" that we saw back in Where No Man Has Gone Before. To some extent these have been successful however Lana (played by one-time Doctor Who companion Nicola Bryant) wants to take it to the next level and get all of her ESPer colleagues powered up by visiting the Galactic Barrier. Bryant is excellent in this story playing an initially welcoming scientist before turning to something darker and more driven as the story twists and turns on the way to the edge of the Milky Way.

Of course Kirk and co take exception to this based on their rather destructive experiences with Gary Mitchell which nearly saw the captain dead (nice nod to Gary getting the "T" wrong on the gravestone by the way).

Behind Kirk's back however, Spock contacts Romulan commander Charvanek (an inspired piece of casting with her played by the original actress Joanne Linville's daughter Amy Rydell) whom we last saw in The Enterprise Incident from season three of the original show. He plans to have her aid them in recapturing the ESPer group and so the two unlikely allies join forces.

The ESPer group escape on an Antares Class freighter (another superb nod to continuity both in The Original Series remastered and The Animated Series) and rendezvous with the USS Kongo which they take control of (cliffhanger as the Kongo faces off against the Enterprise and the Romulans) while they are chased by the Enterprise accompanied by 

While Part I created a ton of set up and could, at times get a little over talky, Part II balances it out sublimely with 45 minutes of the best fan series episode I may have ever seen.

I won;t go into too much detail here but let's say that the ESPer story is neatly concluded. The thing is that there's a much bigger picture to appreciate with this finale that covers not just the second part but the first too. It's about a solid closure and a way to successfully link the original 79 episodes to The Motion Picture and for it to make absolute perfect sense.

Indeed, spot how many references there are throughout to the dwindling number of Constitution Class starships (Kongo, Potemkin, Exeter and Enterprise) and what the future holds for the fleet. It's much more encompassing an episode than that however. The feeling of bringing the show full circle back to the second pilot is firmly in keeping with the tradition of both All Good Things... and What You Leave Behind in that they refer back to their starting blocks to round out the story. It makes the show feel more complete and Vic Mignona and the whole of the Continues team should be applauded for what is just a mezmerising piece of work in this closing two part story.

While there is that sense of closure in the story, we also have some moments of tragedy with the loss of not just one but two of the crew we have come to know through the Continues saga. Both Lieutenant Smith (Kipleigh Brown) and McKenna die and are given exceptional ways to end their tenure on the webseries. With both characters the two parter definitely rounds out their arcs and the endings for both actresses are most fitting and suit the story perfectly. Particularly with McKenna from the very first scene (you appreciate it more on a rewatch) you can see where her story is going straight away. Their passings are poignant in every way and there are a lot of characters in the franchise who have departed in less appreciative ways.

Kirk is easily the most prominent of the regular crew through this story being the man of action as the Enterprise chases the Kongo back to Earth but Vic Mignogna gets to play much more with a Kirk deeply moved by the loss of two crew members, affected by the actions of his first officer to contact the Romulans and ultimately a Kirk who comes to realise its time to pass the torch once he brings the battle scarred Enterprise back to spacedock. The final transition to the blue/white admiral’s uniform from The Motion Picture truly completes the Continues story and the way in which the show has tied up loose ends dovetails effortlessly into the first of Star Trek’s big screen adventures.

The double-team alongside the Romulan Bird of Prey is a great touch to the episode and hints towards a more unified Galaxy post-Voyager although normal of the crew share Charvanek’s ideology.

Another brilliant move in this episode is the tactic deployed by Kirk to attack the Kongo. For the first - and likely the last - time we see the Constitution Class undergo a saucer separation. It’s not as smooth and seamless a process as the Galaxy Class but to see the saucer and drive sections working independently is an absolute cannot-miss moment from the two-parter. Having it be a little more hap-hazard a process emphasises how last-gasp this would be as a manoeuvre plus it’s a cool nod to past mentions in The Original Series about jettisoning nacelles and tech manual notes indicating that the Enterprise was capable of such a feat.

Both Spock and McCoy’s actions place then ready for their reappearances in The Motion Picture and in I way feel forced or fake. One admission is that while their stories get paid some sort of lip service Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and oddly Scotty seem to be left out of any kind of Continues send off. Now for me that’s a bit bizarre since both Smith and McKenna are given significant chunks of the episode to say farewell yet the regulars don’t have that opportunity. Not a complaint as such, more an observation and on that note could we have risked Scotty with a moustache....?!

While recognising the guest cast in the fantastic - and exceptionally English Nicola Bryant, it’s also more than worthy of talking about the appearance of Cas Anvar as Lana’s superbly duplicitous Romulan-cum-Vulcan second in command. Just slimy enough to be a great baddie of sorts, I loved seeing this guy on Continues after watching is awesome work on one of my favourite shows of the moment, The Expanse. In fact his performance here was so different to that role I didn’t recognise him at first which is a clear sign of a versatile actor. 

There is one searing issue with To Boldly Go which gnaws at me every second - that it’s the last one. This webseries has had some incredible high points including the Mirror Universe sequel, Lolani and the excellent Embracing the Wind (for example) and while it does go out on a euphoric high it is still a tragedy that circumstances have led to this series being cut short earlier than planned. 

The final speech from Mignogna’s Kirk hints at lots to come both in its words and the admiral’s body language as he realises that his trek to the stars may well be over and he is handing the keys to the next generation. It’s a heartfelt speech from both character and actor it appears and after such a great episode you kind of don’t want it to end. Fans will also love the nod to Discovery with the line of models in Nakamura's office which includes both the Crossfield Class starship from the latest show and, at the very end of the line, the refit Constitution Class we will see in the six original crew movies.

On that very note, To Boldly Go has everything - and I mean even the kitchen sink levels of everything that will make any Star Trek fan proud. It's a well-crafted ending to a brilliant show that has constantly exceeded expectations and gone that step further still with each new story. For me the second half of this is their finest hour with all the cast truly stepping up and forward to produce a stunning hour of drama that would fit perfectly at the end of the original show's three seasons. Seventy-nine episodes you say? I might have to insist there are now 90...

What was your favourite episode from Star Trek Continues? Read every one of our 11 episode reviews here

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So What Are Ships For? - Star Trek Continues Episode Nine

The latest Star Trek Continues installment packs a story written by cast member Kipleigh Brown (Lieutenant Smith) and two stellar guest stars. 

The Enterprise arrives at the isolated Hylenas where it is needed to help with a dangerous virus which is attacking the native populace and evolves rapidly causing death and thereby the extinction of the people.

Not only that but the planet is subjected to such a high dose of radiation from the Hyleni sun that means everything is monochrome. Yep, we're delving into the world of black and white with this story and its just like when I first saw The Original Series.

Perhaps more notable than the two-tone look of the episode is the guest cast which boasts classic Battlestar Galactica actress Anne Lockhart and for The Next Generation fans, Q himself, John De Lancie. It's great to see him as something other than Q but there are a few moments where the omnipotent being's personality shines through in his performance. Even the attire they choose to dress him in has glaring echoes to the Napoleonic era uniform Q sported in Hide and Q. De Lancie is a big draw and will get a lot of people talking about this episode. 

His role within the story is key from the perspective of the natives and it is his attitudes that drive the conclusion. Lockhart on the other hand feels underused and while she is a major element to the story I just couldn't get excited or really involved with her role as it seemed more to be a plot device than a character to be developed.

While the lead guest actor gets to shine, it's a fairly ABC plot for a Star Trek Continues  episode as we are introduced to a neighbouring planet with whom De Lancie's people have some beef and in true form for the franchise it comes down to Kirk to mediate on their differences.

It's a familiar line with Star Trek and most relevantly The Original Series which took great pleasure on many occasions at playing the race versus race card.  Let This Be Your Last Batrlefield, A Taste of Armageddon and Patterns of Force being just three that spring straight to mind in a flash. It's a fairly established trope of the show and here in What Ships Are For it's strongly forecast from the start and never lets up. That's not to say that Brown's teleplay isn't enjoyable but in comparison to the previous eight episodes of Continues this is just not as dynamic when it comes to the impact of the story or the umph that the superb guest cast pack into the hour. It feels as though we've trodden this path many times over.

It does, to some extreme, feel like a box ticking exercise with Kirk falling for Inner Council intern, Sekara, one of the inhabitants of the planet they are helping to save. But then there's a twist when she beams up to the Enterprise which you can probably see coming through your black and white tinted spectacles. In fact the whole monotone thing itself is a thinly veiled allegory for the story of you think about it.  

Elizabeth Maxwell goes all out as Sekara, playing the vulnerable victim, the frightened child and the lover. Certainly the part in What Ships Are For allows her the most flexibility of the guest cast and also the most screen time of the visitors to Continues. The role is very much in keeping with the female guests of the Kirk era even down to the foil-esque costume and that sweeping vulnerability.

For me What Ships Are For - exploration and the discovery of the new if you go by Kirk's speech at the end of the episode - is a bit disappointing. The main cast are utilised well with Mignogna, Haberkorn and Huber all taking the expected fair share of the episode. It is heavily Kirk-centric with the romance between himself and Sekara (Elizabeth Maxwell) being the mainstay of the time on the Enterprise and considering very little else. It does come across as a very singular episode because of this with there being nothing outside the main thread ti really comment on. Everything hinges around saving Sekara to build up to the big reveal and just who the neighbouring Obeshians are.

While De Lancie is captivating whenever he is on screen, Lockhart can at times be a little overhammy even for a retro webseries such as Star Trek Continues. She acts as De Lancie"s conscience for the most part and is then a major part of the big reveal towards the end of the show and a factor in the resolution but it still lacks any punch. It is for me the weakest of the 11 announced episodes so far released and plays on a race playing very dumb. I suppose in some sense that is keeping with a few of the races encounters in The Original Series and I have to say that the style of writing for the script is incredibly in keeping with the Kirk era episodes. It feels authentic to the 60's classic as does the usual Continues attention to costume detail that beds it in the original show.

As for the ensemble behind the lead characters, everyone is back in play and doing their bit for a low amount of screen time be it Kim Stinger's Uhura, a fleeting appearance by SKoST friend Kat Roberts as Lieutenant Palmer or Grant Imahara's very underused Sulu. I wish with Continues that they had been able to use some episodes to explore their secondary characters more than they have as there is a ton of potential in there. Even Kipleigh Brown is under the radar in her own penned episode.

So as you can see for quality and presentation Continues still shines brilliantly strong but What Ships Are For attempts a big hit in its story material but just slightly misses the mark. Every minute is still inspiring from a fan film angle due to the level that the Continues team go to in order to remain authentic to The Original Series. The choice of black and white in the episode might not be in keeping with the desire for everything to be in bright colour for the TV of the '60's (had an interesting Twitter discussion over whether it was appropriate) but the storytelling is still well in keeping with the ethos of the show so why the heck shouldn't this be allowed?

That being said, given current political climate in the US this episode may have more relevance than we can really assess - or want to more by chance than design. A rewatch in a few months with the benefit of hindsight might well be worth it.

You can check out What Ships Are For HERE

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Lessons from the Past in "Divided We Stand"

Continues is back!!!

It doesn't seem that long since we were watching and reviewing The White Iris (it was only May!) but here we are with Divided We Stand. Be warned, I guarantee there will be spoilers.

Opening straight into the heart of peril, we find the USS Enterprise at the mercy of a strange life-form which has invaded the computer systems from the Friendship Three probe and is scanning through all the ships records. Just when it looks like the situation is about to be resolved, a freak explosion plunges Kirk and McCoy seemingly back in time to the American Civil War and the eve of the Battle of Antietam Creek (aka Sharpsburg) in 1862.

From the end of the titles we effectively have two stories in play. First there's the Kirk/McCoy story as they become involved in the events leading up to the battle. Kirk takes the role of a Union corporal while Bones is a Confederate sergeant. The latter is "captured" by the northern army but quickly becomes useful thanks to his medical skills in the field. Then there's Enterprise crew's efforts to save their colleagues lives - as it turns out the whole civil war experience is just in their heads caused by some nanite-like creatures who are gradually killing them.

Divided We Stand is satisfyingly different from previous episodes as we've dealt with gods, Orions, the Mirror Universe and mental illness before dropping on a time travel/history episode.  I'd only recently watched Starship Farragut's For Want of a Nail which takes place during the War of Independence so I was well geared up for another taste of US history and this was a level above that 2007 effort with a great deal of outdoor location work and some truly great performances all round. 

While there is clearly an exploration of war, cowardice and bravery, we do have the more booming theme of freedom bearing down from the very start of the episode. It's "hinted" at from the name of the troublesome Earth probe the Enterprise encounters and in dealing with the topic of the American Civil War in which slavery was a decisive matter, there's going to be no escaping the discussion. OK, so there's immediate concerns from Kirk and McCoy about becoming too embroiled in events that may or may not be real and thereby changing history but with a brief bit of narrative exposition we're up and running onto the more important themes of the story/

Of the two regulars, Vic Mignogna as Kirk is given a lot more time since he is out on the front lines and is placed into a terrifying situation that McCoy (Chuck Huber) must resolve. It's one of the great moments of the episode I'm surprised that Mignogna didn't play the trauma of it a little greater than he did but there's only 42 minutes of episode so we have to get a move on I suppose! Huber is excellent as always as McCoy, having to deal with basic medical practices and the nightmares of the battlefield as well as saving the life of his commanding officer. Chuck has the southern doc down-pat and for me he's one of the shining lights of Continues adding a little more compassion and a little less grump to McCoy.

What they do play on with this story is the matter of oppression and segregation that in some respects still rages across the world today. It is most evident because of the source material and the nature of the war but we still manage to divert into points regarding honour and the weight of history in how people are remembered and for what.

On the ship Spock (Todd Haberkorn) is once more in command as the medical staff struggle to battle the infection taking over Kirk and McCoy. Why they were exactly reacting the same to stimulus is a little confusing since they weren't at exactly the precise same place all the time but I guess we can let it slide since they are technically in the same place. Fairest of Them All was much more Haberkorn's episode to chew out as the Mirror Spock and here his role is pretty straight-forward. Not having McCoy to bounce off when we have the captain incapacitated does mean that the emotionless Vulcan doesn't get challenged to any degree and while it's great to have a Kirk/McCoy episode, I think Spock could have done with being at least a little more on edge given the state of his two closest friends.

Aiding him though is Chris Doohan as Scotty whose engineering skills are called into action but he sadly doesn't have a great deal to do other than that this time round. Getting a lot more exposure in his first Continues outing is Dr M'Benga played by Martin Bradford.

M'Benga is the latest canon character to board the ship and just manages to swerve to the side of hamming it up although his "serious eyebrow" and furrowed brow do come into play a lot. That said I really enjoyed his performance all the way through and maybe his straight, almost logical performance was a calming influence on Spock. As for the other recurring cast they really are, sadly, sidelined. Grant Imahara is there and gone in a few seconds; Chekov and Uhura barely get a couple of sentences each while Kipleigh Brown's Lieutenant Smith might be there at the navigation station but she's again only given a fleeting few lines of dialogue to handle. Chekov however does help make a dangerously big leap of plot in the aid of the story, suggesting that Kirk and McCoy are trapped in some form of illusionary recreation of the Civil War after he discovers what was being examined by the nano-machines at the time of the explosion on the bridge.

Even Michelle Specht's Doctor McKennah has a fleeting appearance (boo) that feels forced just to give her a few lines and remind viewers that she's a part of the crew and that Spock may be having some emotional issues with the situation regarding his friends. 

To be fair Marc Cushman and Susan Osborn's script (from a story by Vic Mignogna) doesn't present a great deal of action or suspense and instead once more delves into what Continues seems to do best and use only a select couple of characters to tell a character-driven story. The dialogue is fairly brisk too, moving us swiftly from one point to another and I do believe that Vic is sounding like William Shatner even more everyday. There's certainly points within this story where the lines could easily be directly from a classic episode and that certainly resonated with me in relation to the captain. I wouldn't class it as hammy either and given what other Star Trek fan episodes and films have been around, I think this is one of the best jobs so far. I'm not saying it's gold-plated but there weren't any moments I truly cringed at and I think the writers produced something here that was thoughtful and avoided all the subtlety of a sledgehammer given the subject matter.

Martin Bradford, as I noted is a great addition and I hope to see him back but there's also Scotty Whitehurst as the young Billy Palmerson is key to the civil war encounter and does a very good job at pulling off the inexperienced and scared young man pitched into a bloodbath. Of all the characters within the episode he is the one who perhaps takes the longest journey from a timid "boy" sickened at the sight of McCoy pulling a bullet from the chest of his sergeant to a soldier leading a deadly charge to turn the tide of the battle. Palmerson might well be influenced by Kirk in his change of heart but Scotty Whitehurst manages not to jump from one extreme to another and certainly grows his character as the story progresses. There's a nice little parallel on the Enterprise with a personal sacrifice as well but it's nothing in comparison to that which young Billy makes.

As for the settings, well we don't get that new Engineering set just yet (!) and all of the ship scenes are effectively confined to the bridge and sickbay so there's nothing new in that respect. When it comes to the outdoor scenes, Continues has performed a master-stroke. I suspect it's fairly easy(ish) to get a recreation organisation to get together as your background cast but filming outside can't have been the easiest thing and for that the production must be commended. 

Vic's direction is steady and does the job more than adequately, sticking to basics since this is a very "talky" episode which relies on us, the viewer, being up close with the characters a lot of the time. Fortunately we aren't treated to some sort of bloodbath episode which is all about the glory of war or how the US was formed and I think it's a good call to steer clear of such matters instead resting the narrative on the more human aspects that all those involved encountered. There is, of course, a bit of action but only using that tool for a matter of a minute or two is all that's needed to remind us of the setting for our story. 

Divided We Stand is another solid episode from the Continues stable and means we're taking note of everything that comes from this production team. Only thing that did annoy me here was that we've had to revert to using deadly infection/computer attack to work out a story and this concept does feel very tired by this point. It might have worked in the '60's in original Star Trek but now it's been overplayed so many times you would expect more. Perhaps what is also missing except for a few lines in the pre-titles sequence is that spark between Kirk/Spock/McCoy that Continues has worked so well to maintain. Separating the trio is always a good tool but as I've said already, it does seem to work against the story in some ways.

Coming off the back of Fairest of them All and The White Iris, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, Divided We Stand is a bit of a let down. Why? Because of the calibre of episodes that Continues has been producing. Every one has been a magnificent effort, well acted, well thought out and crisply presented on schedule and well packaged for the Star Trek-hungry audience and maintaining that level has to be a near-impossible challenge. Here we do have something, again, different, a piece of history Star Trek has never visited and one I didn't expect to encounter. It's not the best one of the five but we can see how things are moving on, how stable the cast is and how much this series is a work by fans that means to deliver every time.

What did you think to Divided We Stand? A good episode? Or not?

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Continues to Discovery

Season one of Discovery seems to be in full flow now and a further five guest stars have been announced.   

Perhaps the most familiar will be Rekha Sharma. Formerly one of the Final Five on Battlestar Galactica and more recently (like this month recently) guest star on Star Trek Continues new episode Still Treads the Shadow, Sharma has signed on as the title ship's security chief Commander Landry. Whether this is going to be a continuous role or one that will be recurring throughout the show is unspecified but surely such a major position on the starship would be main cast? However, this could again be an example of the show steering away from the standard senior staff-centric attitude of all its predecessors. 

Next up there's Kenneth Mitchell from CBS' Jericho playing Klingon Commander Kol. Immediate note - this ain't a new character annoucement but more on that shortly. But let's be absolutely realistic here, the amount of Klingons we've now had announced for the show HAS to confirm that the event discussed but never seen has to be related to the warrior race. I mean, come on, we haven't had a single word on a Romulan a Tholian or a Xindi(?!) and this in turn does make me reconsider just why CBS and Paramount poked Axanar with such a big and pointy stick just around the time that Discovery went into full production. Coincidence....naaaaaaaah. 

Third and portraying Dennas, a female leader of the Klingon Empire, is Clare McConnell. I'm once again shocked by the response to this announcement from some parts of fandom who are spitting feathers over the part. Seriously?! Did you forget Azetbur in The Undiscovered Country? Do we not remember the Duras sisters leading their house in The Next Generation? Short memories indeed especially for something that might be spinning the Klingons as a little more progressive than we saw in The Original Series. Given that attitudes have changed in 50 years its wiser to be taking your tips from Enterprise on that front. 

Fourth on the lineup is another Klingon leader and the small-minded will be pleased to know its a bloke. Damon Runyan whose credits include Suits and Supernatural will be Ujilli. That is a lot of Klingons and Klingon leaders we have on the roster that I'm interpreting means we are going to be spending a lot of time either with some sort of fleet or possibly on Qo'noS with the High Council.   

Finally - and the one which really has got people talking - is the recasting of Shazad Latif. Formerly the Klingon Kol (now played by Kenneth Mitchell) hes transferred over to the Discovery and stripped back the makeup to play Starfleet officer Lieutenant Tyler. 

Could this cause some re-shooting of the first couple of episodes to account for the change in actor and what has led to the change in roles at this late stage? I'd suspect Latif wasn't working out as the Klingon and has been found a more suitable position on the Federation starship. Just a little strange its taken this long for the switch to take place.   

And another thing to note. How long has it been since we've had any news of crew for the Shenzhou? A while and as the series is now into full flow might we take the guess that the second named Federation starship of the series isn't going to last more than the pilot? Has to be a realistic thought given the show must be filming episode five or even six by this time. Could it be that the suggestion that Shenzhou and Discovery are the same ship or that one is sacrificed be true?

I'm staying positive and stepping away from all the negativity. Discovery might not be filling me with the level of excitement I felt when Deep Space Nine or Voyager were announced but any form or vision of Star Trek is going to be better than nothing...isn't it?

What have you found out about Discovery? What news might have slipped us by? Drop a comment below and let's talk!

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Retreading the Shadow? Star Trek Continues Unveils Episode Eight

The USS Defiant returns courtesy of writer Judy Burns in the eighth episode from Star Trek Continues. Beware there WILL be SPOILERS.

A sequel of sorts to the classic third season Star Trek episode The Tholian Web which i discussed only a week or so ago, Still Treads the Shadow starts off with a big question and a potential contradiction against a certain Enterprise two-parter but resolves that dilemma fairly quickly although it will make you think of a few other similar instances.

Y'see the immediate challenge with the story is that it does parallel at least a couple of existing Star Trek episodes, namely The Next Generation's Second Chances and to a minor extent Time Squared from the show's evolutionary second season.  Not to dwell too much on the story and save the enjoyment for your viewing but Still Treads the Shadow brings the crew of the Enterprise into contact with a Kirk who believes that he was abandoned when the Defiant phased out into another dimension. Suffice to say that's not precisely what occurred and leaves the universe with a second Kirk. Time has passed somewhat more quickly for the new arrival who is aged around 80 and has spent a good proportion of time - a good proportion of 300 years - in stasis. What transpires is that the Defiant computer has become sentient, gained the name of Tiberius and sought out a way to get Kirk home.

This Defiant is one that has undergone a severe number of modifications over the time it's been gone from the Prime Universe including the ability to hit Warp 15 and is intrinsically linked to two black holes which provide an additional danger to the USS Enterprise as we come to experience.

There's more than a little hint of 2001: A Space Odyssey in here as well as we experience a Kirk two way between the computer that was his only friend and company for decades and then a three-way James T fest as things begin to unravel. The friendship with the Defiant computer is not too far from the crumbling connection between Bowman and HAL in the classic sci-fi movie even down to the nature of their final meetings and the monotone rumble of Tiberius' voice. I dare you not to think about Daisy when the computer speaks or wonder about pod bay doors.

Mignogna is absolutely front and centre here playing Kirk in triplicate as both the older and younger versions plus putting in duty as the voice of the Defiant computer aka Tiberius.  In fact it's such a strong Kirk episode that while everyone gets their moments to play and their catch of dialogue they are all very much playing second fiddle to the lead actor.  That in no way is meant to be derogatory to the rest of the cast but the very nature of the script relies on Mignogna's strength as an actor to carry it off and carry it through to the end. He drives every interaction and every scene because of Kirk's prominence in the story which is, ironically exactly the opposite of The Tholian Web where Kirk is absent for the majority of the episode. 

Spock is almost completely relegated to a science role and the rest of the cast - Chekov, Sulu and Uhura especially - are left with little to do except man their stations and relate events taking place off-screen. For recurring cast Kipleigh Brown and Cat Roberts they get minimal screen-time but again good to see them returning for another round of Continues. 

McCoy fairs decently once again although Chuck Huber does seem to be summoning up his deepest inner DeForest a little more than usual in this story and it might just slip into hammy territory. I can let it slide because Huber's southern doctor is such a great take on the original and here he does play a strong part of the story.     

Michelle Specht's McKennah actually does some counselling this time allowing her to play off the on-screen-all-the-time Mignogna who doesn't even seem to take a breath. Specht gets to be involved with arguably the best scene of the show as we see the older, wearier version of Kirk open up about his experience on the Defiant and its effects on him; the pain of taking four months to remove all the bodies of the dead crew for instance. 

Cleverly the end of this scene flips onto the younger Kirk and allows McKennah a moment to make him realise what needs to be done to help his older, lonely self before allowing the two Kirk's the chance to talk. Here Mignogna delivers a sterling speech (as the older Kirk) about how his view on his role as a captain has changed. For me this is absolutely the pinnacle of the story as he changes into a truly tragic character now lost in the place he knew so well. 

It's the older Kirk's relationship with the guest starring Rekha Sharma (best known for her time on Battlestar Galactica as one of the "Final Five") that acts as one of the focal points for Still Treads the Shadow but not as much as the Kirk/Kirk/Tiberius triumvirate.

Sharma isn't as prominent as other guest stars of recent episodes (Gigi Edgley or Clare Kramer for example), more gelling into the cast and acting within that circle rather than being a stand-out character around which the story is etched. I believe this is a better way of handling the episode in that the true stars remain the established cast themselves without too much being overblown about the guest. Rekha Sharma is more than capable in the role but I did feel that the relationships with the two Kirk's was not explored as much as they could have been. It almost felt as though they were skated over and not looked into deeply enough, indeed it's a good way through the episode before we really understand the connection between the captain and the scientist.

The parallels between the Kirk/Avi Samara and Kirk/Tiberius relationships are interesting to watch as we see a lost friend versing a jealous companion who has conditioned the older captain for many years. It's a distinct case of examining what has been forced upon Kirk versus a friendship that was lost over time. 

Still Treads the Shadow is, for all intents and purposes, a solid episode of Star Trek Continues from start to finish. The plot is sound, the acting is faultless and the CG is perfect but the problem is that for the most part it's horribly unoriginal.

Not only do the repetition of plotlines from other Star Trek episodes nag at me but I even felt there was even a blatant link across to 90's sci-fi flick Event Horizon with note of multiple realities and the whole black hole as a power source spin. I half-expected that the Defiant had been to Hell and back with all the black hole action that was going on at one point and that might even have improved the episode.

I can't fault Continues for effort - not one bit - but I was expecting more than this considering the quality of their run to date and the fact that this comes from the pen of a classic Star Trek writer in Judy Burns. I really really want to love this story because of it's links to The Tholian Web but the niggles get the better of me every time. Round that off with the knowledge that older Kirk won't survive the episode - something which you can pretty much guess from the word "go" and you can see where I was left needing. Of course you could say that it's the journey to the sacrificial point which is what the episode is really about and I wouldn't argue with you but having him sacrifice himself and save the life of Avi was all just too cliched at the end. Likewise the reviewing of the captain's logs from the aging Kirk on the lost Defiant. I'd have thought a lot of those inner conflicts would have been dealt with in the first year or so not over such a long period of time but hey, dramatic effect an' all...

Still Treads the Shadow may well be my least favourite of the Continues episodes to date purely because of the "seen it before" factor. I love this show because it's kept The Original Series alive (god knows how under the new guidelines) but yet I just couldn't get excited here. I really was disappointed that such great promise gave out so little twist and vibrancy that I've come to love from the diverse range of stories that the show has explored thus far. With only a few episodes guaranteed (nine through eleven) I hope that the remaining few are more original and thought-provoking than this.

What did you think to Still Treads the Shadow? Good episode or an average offering?

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