Star Trek As We Know It Blogfest

Science Officer Garrett is hosting this voyage of the Starship Blogfest, its mission:

To explore strange character choices, to seek out favourite episodes and incredible films, to boldly go where no blogger has gone before . . .

As a long time Star Trek fan, it is my great pleasure to share my top 5 favorite characters and top five episode/movies, and then read about all of yours and kick myself for forgetting the gems I am sure you will remind me of!

My Top Five Characters

I know I'm supposed to limit myself to the top five, but I couldn't help these three bonuses that slipped in:

8. Sisko
7. Riker
6. Worf

5.  Jadzia Dax - I'm a sucker for dual personalities, and I loved that Jadzia was a 20-something science officer (with cool spots!) symbiotically joined with Dax, who is hundreds of years old and has had 6 previous hosts. This allows for all sorts of fascinating tidbits of her past "lives" to come back and haunt her. Bonus: she marries Worf, the conflicted Klingon. Sadness: she died a tragic death in the series in order to jump ship to another TV series.

4. B'Elanna Torres - another example of my fascination with the dual personalities - half human, half Klingon. One of my favorite episodes of Voyager is when a Vidiian scientist extracts the Klingon DNA from Torres, splicing her into two separate people: one human, one Klingon. The concept of being split into two separate persons - but still the same person - is the classic example of mind-bending SF that makes me love Star Trek.

3. Q - how could one not love a smart-ass omnipotent being who just begs to be put in his place?

Q: I know human beings. They're all sopping over with compassion and forgiveness. They can't wait to absolve almost any offense. It's an inherent weakness of the breed.

Picard: On the contrary, it is a strength.

Q. You call it what you will. But I think you'll protect me, even though I've tormented you now and again.

Riker: Fighting off all the species which you've insulted would be a full-time mission. That's not the one I signed up for.

2. Spock
The original was great. The new guy: wow.

Spock:  Captain, what are you doing?

Kirk: showing them compassion might go a long way to promoting peace between us and the Romulans. It's logic, I thought you'd like that

Spock: No, not really. Not this time.


1. Picard
Classy. So classy. Not that I don't love Kirk with his rebellious streak, but Picard is a great leader and humble at the same time. "...the heart of an explorer, and the soul of a poet." Tasha Yar speaking of Picard.

 Love this holodeck picture of him as Dixon Hill.





My Top Five movies/episodes

5. The Voyage Home. I was a little too young to fully appreciate the original Star Trek series, but this film definitely won me over. I loved the time travel, and I liked the break from the Enterprise to a Klingon Warbird. An interesting fact: it was the first Star Trek film shown in the Soviet Union. Attending the screening with Nimoy, co-director Bennett was amazed the film proved as entertaining to the Russians as it did with American audiences; he said "the single most rewarding moment of my Star Trek life" was when the Moscow audience applauded at McCoy's line, "The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We'll get a freighter." Bennett believed it was a clear "messenger of what was to come."

4. Indiscretion (Deep Space Nine season 4). I'll be thrilled if anyone else loved this one too, because it's one of the more obscure episodes. It's where Gul Dukat (aka Cardassian crime king) plans to find and kill his half-Bajoran daughter in order to save his reputation. Instead, he ends up saving the girl. A great example of an antagonist showing a compassionate side, marking him as a truly memorable antogonist.

3. Déjà Q.   The 61st episode of The Next Generation, in which Q gets what's coming to him - he's stripped of his powers and turned into a human. There are so many good quotes from this episode!

Data: "An irony. It means that you have achieved in disgrace what I have always aspired to be."

And

Q: "Oh, very clever, Worf. Eat any good books lately?"

And

Riker: "I don't need your fantasy women."
Q (peevishly): "Oh, you're so stolid! You weren't like that before the beard."

2. Generations
This was the first really hi-tech Star Trek movies, (by 1994 standards!) and I was especially impressed by the crash-landing scene, the Enterprise mowing down what felt like half a planet's worth of forest.

Starfleet uniforms get a little bland after a while, so I was also very much impressed with Picard and Riker in sea-captain attire (and the whole Beverly Crusher gets dunked scene).

But my favorite part: the wickedly fun Klingon Duras sisters, first tricking everyone on the Enterprise, and then getting themselves most excellently tricked back.

1. Star Trek 2009
As I mentioned earlier, I was a little too young to appreciate the original Star Trek series, but I knew enough about the characters to be immediately impressed by the new cast of characters for James Kirk, Spock, Uhura (go Zoe!), McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov.

A good time-travel-twister always hooks me, and this movie also packed a big emotional punch with Spock and the Vulcan disaster, and George Kirk's new fate. (By the way, the guy who played George Kirk? Kind of hard to believe he also played Thor).

Another very quotable show. Spock's comment to Kirk: "I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it."

And when the new Spock met the old Spock, who tells his young self:  "Since my customary farewell [live long and prosper] would appear oddly self-serving, I shall simply say... [Shows Vulcan hand salute] Good luck.

This movie left me breathless for the next installment, due out in 2012.

And a bit of news: sign-up for Rachael Harrie's Platform Campaigners (new name for the Crusaders) starts today.  I met the greatest group of bloggers in the last round, most of whom I still correspond with weekly. This is a great opportunity - I highly recommend it!