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STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

Alex Perry
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37
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

with Jim Moorhouse and Ken Reilly

The USS Cerritos teams up with the USS Vancouver to safely detonate one of the moons of Mixtus III in this week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks adventure, but like all Lower Decks episodes to date, the bridge crew occupy the ‘C’ story of an episode packed with personal intrigue, competition between ships… and secret alien girlfriends?

In a now familiar coupling, Ensign Mariner (Tawny Newsome) is shocked to discover that Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid) has a girlfriend aboard the Vancouver — so much so that she becomes obsessed with trying to determine what kind of agenda Boimler’s girlfriend is pursuing.

Is she an android? A Cardassian spy? A reptoid? A Suliban?! Mariner chases all these theories (and more!) in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow.”

Meanwhile, Ensigns Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi (Noel Wells) team up in their admiration for the much larger, newer, Parliament-class USS Vancouver and try and score themselves a couple of the latest T-88 diagnostic tools from one of the Vancouver’s senior officers, Lt. Commander Ron Docent (Matt Walsh). But when Docent tries to transfer the two officers to the Vancouver, they must figure out his real motive for the move.

Now five episodes in, I am coming to understand that my ideal Lower Decks episode is one that balances the references, nostalgia, and Trek tropes, with plenty of character development, some new thing or idea, and plenty of humor. “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” strikes that balance best for me of all the episodes thus far, and continues to show Lower Decks to be growing into its own. It is, at the same time, comfortable deploying Star Trek’s past with aplomb, while also doing its own thing.

Mariner’s quest to get to the bottom of why Lt. Barb Brinson (Gillian Jacobs) has decided to start a relationship with “Bradward” Boimler of all people, is hilarious. And while, for most of the episode, it seems a potentially a little mean spirited, not only are Mariner’s instincts ultimately correct — it is Boimler, not Brinson, who is infected with a brain parasite — it is also clearly due to how much Mariner cares for Bradward.

I don’t get the sense that the writers are planning to push Mariner and Boimler in a romantic direction, which I think is the right choice.

I also really like the idea of a Starfleet officer who just doesn’t think he’s cut out to serve on the ‘hero’ ships like the Enterprise or the Vancouver. “It’s so epic!,” Docent declares with despair, after trying to get Tendi and Rutherford transferred to the Vancouver in his place – and it certainly sounds like the Vancouver has many similar adventures to ships like the Enterprise. At the start of the episode, Brinson explains that on a recent mission she had to “reverse the polarity” and “reboot the timestream” to escape 1920s Chicago.

I cannot also in good conscience, not acknowledge up front, a major cameo from a legacy character in this episode. No, you didn’t miss the voice of a beloved actor from the Star Trek franchise. I’m referring to the blink and you miss it establishing shot of the USS Quito docked… at station Deep Space 9! And its crew wearing First Contact-style uniforms! I have nothing profound to say other than that was a really awesome aside.

It’s also worth noting in this episode, after several episodes in which Captain Freeman (Dawwn Lewis) has shown somewhat questionable judgement, that in this episode the Cerritos senior staff are extremely competent in the way you would want a Starfleet bridge crew to be.

Freeman successfully negotiates among the people of Mixtus III and its moons to secure the safe detonation of the satellite, even if she does have to deal with one hold out… and his wife. More like this would be great!

Trek Trope Tributes

  • Captain Freeman must negotiate in a conference room between competing factions of the planet of Mixtus III how to safely dispose of the threatening moon. These scenes reminded me of many a conference room negotiation between warring factions, such as “Loud as a Whisper” and “The Host.”
     
  • Mariner drops some important Star Trek wisdom that the franchise more than supports being true: “When a Starfleet relationship seems too good to be true, then red alert, man, it probably is.”
     
  • The idea of a character being controlled by an alien, or being an alien in disguise as a human, is a well-worn trope of the franchise.

Canon Connections

Plasma fire

Rutherford puts out a small plasma fire aboard the Cerritos. Geordi and Crusher had to vent an entire cargo bay in the ‘Next Generation’ episode “Disaster” to extinguish a similar blaze because the fire suppression systems were non-functional, and other green plasma fires have been seen in ‘Deep Space Nine,’ ‘Voyager,’ and ‘Enterprise.’

Alien Deceit

Mariner initially suspects Brinson may be a Romulan spy (TNG: “Data’s Day”), a salt succubus (“The Man Trap”), an android (various TOS & TNG episodes), a changeling (various DS9 stories) or “one of those sexy people in rompers that murders you just for going on the grass” (referring to “Justice”).

Who had the Edo on their bingo cards for a ‘Lower Decks’ shout out?

Olympic-class Starship

The USS Quito is the same class of starship as the USS Pasteur, a medical ship that appeared in an alternate future experienced by Captain Picard in “All Good Things…” According to the ship’s dedication plaque, it was an Olympic-class vessel, and you can check out great photos of the original filming model in our TNG galleries.

Deep Space 9

The Quito is docked at Deep Space 9. While it’s not specifically named in dialogue, how many other Cardassian space stations get Starfleet visitors (we doubt they’d be hanging out at Empok Nor!). Seeing that, and ‘First Contact’-era uniforms again, was a real treat.

“Descent”

In her flashback, Mariner’s fellow officer describes the plot of the ‘Next Generation’ episode “Descent.” “You hear what happened on the Enterprise? Apparently, Data’s got an evil twin brother who teamed up with THE BORG! Crazy, right?”

While the uniforms worn during the flashback are from several years after the events of “Descent,” we imagine it took some time for the stories of that Enterprise-D adventure to circulate around the fleet.

Isolinear Chips

As they are using T-88s to conduct diagnostics to prepare for the destruction of the moon, Tendi and Rutherford pass rows of isolinear chips. The chips even have the cut out corners of the ‘Voyager’ and ‘Next Generation’ movie-era chips.

Mariner’s Conspiracy Wall

Seen or referenced on Mariner’s conspiracy wall are a Romulan, an Allasomorph (“The Dauphin”), a Salt Vampire (“The Man Trap”), a Suliban (“Broken Bow,” et al), transporter duplicates (“Second Chances”), Bynars (“11001001), a humpback whale (‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’), a Xindi-Reptilian (“The Xindi,” et al), an androgynous Soong-type android (“The Offspring”), and a ‘surgically-altered’ Cardassian (referencing the events of “Second Skin”).

Breen Infiltrator

Turns out Brinson also had suspicions about Mariner’s motives, believing she was a rogue holodeck character or a Breen infiltrator. The environmental suit-wearing, mysterious Breen race were last seen aiding the Dominion during the final hours of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.’

[td_smart_list_end]

Other Observations

  • The USS Vancouver is a Parliament-class ship. Its shuttles — the Marpole, Fairview, and Kitsilano — are all neighborhoods in the Canadian city.
     
  • The teddy bear Boimler brings as a gift for Brinson wears has a VISOR and a gold Starfleet engineering uniform, just like the Enterprise-D‘s chief engineer.
     
  • Mariner requests ‘Computer, end program!’ to check whether she’s in a holodeck simulation when Boimler introduces Mariner to Brinson. (That’s not something I’ve tried in real life either. Not at all.) She also tries to solve a tough situation by citing Authorization: Mariner 8′ to execute her plan (the same way many Trek characters have done before her). Unfortunately, she got called out for using a made-up code.
     
  • Boimler insists that his girlfriend is “as real as a hopped-up Q on Captain Picard Day”… whatever that means.
     
  • Mariner references a Phylosian in tactical, a race of sentient plants introduced originally in “The Infinite Vulcan” in The Animated Series.

  • Boimler’s full first name is Bradward, which Mariner proceeds to call him frequently through the rest of the episode.
     
  • Boimler describes Cerritos crewmate Jet as “a Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles,” referencing two of the Star Trek franchise’s most famous heartthrobs.
     
  • The inhabitants of Mixtus III agree to relabel their sixth moon the fifth moon following the moon’s destruction, perhaps a wink to the confusion over which planet of the Ceti Alpha system the Reliant was investigating in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
     
  • In one of Lower Decks’ only major canon slip-ups so far, Mariner refers to the picture of the Allasomorph on her conspiracy wall as a “dauphin.” That was the name of the episode and not the race.
     
  • Lt. Commander Docent’s computer password is ‘RIKER.’
     
  • Recent missions of the USS Vancouver, in addition to the trip to 1920s Chicago, include towing a space station, calibrating a Dyson Sphere, and going back in time to “kill the guy who was worse than Hitler.”

This is probably the first episode of Lower Decks that entirely nails that original premise as described by series creator Mike McMahan in his earliest interviews.

Overall, “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” is probably my favorite episode of the season, for striking the right balance between a good character-driven story backed by Star Trek references galore all while the crew of the Cerritos work in the background to solve a major problem.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns on September 3 with the sixth episode of the season, on CBS All Access in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada. Additional international availability for the series has not yet been announced.

Klingon No More: Kenneth Mitchell Gets His Human Moment in STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 3

Jim Moorhouse
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27
Klingon No More: Kenneth Mitchell Gets His Human Moment in STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 3

Star Trek: Discovery actor Kenneth Mitchell, who transformed into three different Klingon characters in the series’ first two seasons — and revealed a deeply personal medical diagnosis earlier this year — will be back for Season 3!

The man behind Klingon warriors Kol and Kol-sha — as well as Tenavik, keeper of the time crystals at the Boreth monastery — will finally get to bear his human face when the series returns for its third season this fall, Mitchell revealed in the September 2020 issue of the official Star Trek Magazine.

Kenneth Mitchell in costume as ‘Tevanik,’ on set with Anson Mount during ‘Discovery’ Season 2.

“I’m playing a human character,” Mitchell told the official publication in the just-released issue, also noting that his role will be part of two late-season episodes. “It’s beautiful, and I’m excited for the fans to meet him.”

The popular character actor revealed earlier this year that he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 2018, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a condition that severely limits his ability to walk. Despite his medical issue — and his now-required use of a wheelchair — Mitchell made a Star Trek appearance earlier this spring on the official Star Trek Cruise in March, just days after his diagnosis became public.

He has continued to take on different roles since that diagnosis, including his Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 roles (filmed in 2018 before the public announcement, of course), playing Kol-Sha and Tenavik, and prior to that he became a Trek favorite villain, playing the treacherous Klingon Kol in five episodes of the show’s 2017-era first season.

“It’s beautiful, and I’m excited for the fans to meet him. I am also thankful for the continued support of Alex (Kurtzman), Michelle Paradise, Olatunde (Osunanmi), Jonathan Frakes and everyone at Secret Hideout, who made it happen for me.”

Star Trek: Discovery returns for its third season on October 15, exclusively on CBS All Access (USA), CTV Sci Fi Channel (Canada), and Netflix (other global regions).

New Faces Beam Aboard STAR TREK: DISCOVERY for Season 3; First Non-Binary, Transgender TREK Casting

Ken Reilly
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222
New Faces Beam Aboard STAR TREK: DISCOVERY for Season 3; First Non-Binary, Transgender TREK Casting

The Star Trek: Discovery cast added its first new member back in 2019 when it was announced that David Ajala will be playing Cleveland “Book” Booker in the upcoming run this October, but today CBS has announced two more additions to the series as we prepare to join the Discovery in the far future.

Spotted briefly in the Season 3 trailer that beamed down last October at New York Comic Con, two new actors are set to join the show when Star Trek: Discovery returns on October 15, expanding series’ already diverse cast with a pair of actors each bringing new representation to the Trek franchise.

Blu del Barrio as ‘Adira.’ (CBS All Access)

Blu del Barrio portrays Adira, a non-binary character from the 32nd century, who is described as “is highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years,” and who is set to “find a new home on the USS Discovery and form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz).”

Like their character, del Barrio identifies as non-binary, and they are making their television debut — and will earn their first professional acting credit — aboard Star Trek: Discovery.

Blu del Barrio is a non-binary actor who uses they/them pronouns. Del Barrio was in their final year of studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art when they auditioned for the role of Adira. Del Barrio has been acting in theater and short films since the age of 7, and they’re incredibly excited to make their television acting debut in season three of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY.

Adira floats in a symbiont pool on the Trill homeworld. (CBS All Access)

While there’s not much known about Adira’s background, they are seen visiting (and floating) in the Trill symbiont pools in the Caves of Mak’ala — introduced, of course, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — so it is likely that there may be some Trill in the character’s family tree.

Along with today’s announcement — first rumored over a year ago in a report from Discussing Film in June 2019 ahead of Season 3 production — advocacy group GLAAD has published a new interview with del Barrio where they talk about, among other topics, being cast in the role, the character of Adira, and coming out as non-binary.

I was just finishing my final year of drama school in the UK when my agent sent me the casting call for Adira. I loved the idea for the character, taped for it, and later during rehearsals for my last show, got the call that I’d booked the part.

A few weeks later, I flew directly to Toronto and walked onto the set. It all happened pretty quickly and felt very surreal. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this show.

 

Adira is a wonderfully complex character. Mainly because of this duality they have within them: they’re astonishingly intelligent and yet they’re still a kid. They experience their emotions at a heightened level, like most teenagers. That’s what makes them so fun to play. I like to describe them as cerebrally brilliant and emotionally a puppy.

Adira is an introvert, but they keep a few people close to the chest, which I definitely resonate with. I don’t want to say too much and get in trouble, but all in all, Adira is a uniquely strange and beautiful character.

del Barrio also describes Adira as suffering from “memory loss,” which will play into the characters experiences in Discovery Season 3:

When we meet Adira, they’re suffering from memory loss. They remember nothing from their past, and very little about themself. They know they’re non-binary, of course, but coming onto Discovery they’re cautious about sharing that information with anyone. T

hey’re a private person, so they aren’t going to divulge a lot about themselves to a ship full of strangers. It’s not until Adira has found a place of comfort with Stamets and Culber that they feel they can talk about who they are. When I got the call that I’d been cast as Adira, I hadn’t yet told the majority of my friends and family that I was non-binary.

I had only recently discovered the word and realized that it described how I’d felt for a long time. I knew I wanted to tell my friends and family, so when this happened, it felt like the universe saying “go ahead.” So in a way, Adira’s story ends up mirroring mine.

Just after I told people in my life, so did Adira. Definitely not the most common coming out story, but it was scary, special, and life changing (as they usually are).

Ian Alexander in 2019.

Ian Alexander joins Discovery as a Trill named Gray — as it’s been long known we’ll be revisiting the Trill homeworld this season — who is “is empathetic, warm and eager to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a Trill host,” but someone who must “adapt when his life takes an unexpected turn.”

The Trill species has always brought a variety of perspectives on gender, as members of the joined race experience lives as both male and female throughout their long legacies — and Alexander will bring his own point of view to the character as the first transgender actor to join the Star Trek franchise.

Ian Alexander is a 19-year-old actor who uses they/them and he/him pronouns. He is best known for his roles as Buck Vu on the Netflix series “The OA” and Lev in Naughty Dog’s video game “The Last of Us Part II.” They are the first out transgender Asian-American person to act on television. He is also an advocate for transgender equality, racial justice and mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.

Alexander discusses a little about his background in this interview filmed for Netflix’s The OA, a series which also starred Discovery alum Jason Isaacs (Captain Lorca).

While it’s not yet known how many episodes each actor will appear in this upcoming season today’s casting announcements continue to expand upon the wide horizons of inclusion and diversity which Star Trek has promoted since the Original Series in the 1960s.

Discovery co-showrunner Michelle Paradise released this statement along with the news today.

‘Star Trek’ has always made a mission of giving visibility to underrepresented communities because it believes in showing people that a future without division on the basis of race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation is entirely within our reach,” said Michelle Paradise, co-showrunner and executive producer.

“We take pride in working closely with Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander and Nick Adams at GLAAD to create the extraordinary characters of Adira and Gray, and bring their stories to life with empathy, understanding, empowerment and joy.

Star Trek: Discovery returns on October 15, exclusively on CBS All Access (USA), CTV Sci Fi Channel (Canada), and Netflix (other global regions).

Review: KELVIN TIMELINE — “More Beautiful Than Death”

Alex Perry
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15
Review: KELVIN TIMELINE — “More Beautiful Than Death”

This year’s second Kelvin Timeline Star Trek novel — David Mack’s More Beautiful Than Death — continues to explore Captain Kirk and the crew of the alternate USS Enterprise following the events of the 2009 film.

Like Alan Dean Foster’s The Unsettling Stars, released earlier this year, More Beautiful Than Death was originally written a decade ago, shelved, and has now finally seen the light of day.

This book is half classic adventure tale — in which the Enterprise is working to avoid a planetary disaster –and half a sly re-interpretation of a classic episode of the Original Series.

More Beautiful Than Death is a fun, light read. Originally intended for the mass market paperback format, the primary format in which Star Trek novels were published before 2019, it is also a bit shorter than other recent stories published in the trade paperback size.

Mack discusses in his acknowledgements that this story required some rewrites as the 2020 publication date approached, in order to bring it into line with canon established by the subsequent films (Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond).

But even with those updates, the book is still very firmly grounded in the Trek ’09 aesthetic – this is a new Kirk, a new crew, and they’re all still figuring out how to get along…. and Mack is extremely comfortable writing action adventure Star Trek stories, and so his style meshes particularly well with the Kelvin Timeline style.

As mentioned, the story is divided into two plots, which exist largely separate from one another. In the first, the Enterprise is responding to a distress call from the planet Akiron, which is under attack from malignant aliens from another dimension. As part of the diplomatic mission to Akiron, Ambassador Sarek is aboard. The second story revolves around the mystery of his Vulcan aide, L’Nel, and unraveling her own agenda that unfolds alongside the mission to Akiron.

Though More Beautiful than Death is a fun read, it did not properly grip me until the L’Nel storyline began to ramp up and her true motives were revealed. The storyline on Akiron, and the plight of the planet’s people, the Kathikar, ultimately feels a little under-developed.

Mack is clearly trying to balance the constraints of the novel he is writing — something pulpy, fast paced, and action-oriented — with examining some bigger questions around faith and destiny. The action is a lot of fun, but the bigger questions ultimately get shorter shrift than they could have.

For example, the ‘wights,’ a name given to the demon-like aliens who attack from another dimension, are largely unexplored. Who are they? What is their motive? The book has a section in which one of the native Kathikar hypnotizes Kirk to see his past lives and how he has run across the ‘wights’ a number of times…. but this very interesting and courageous idea of Mack’s, to explore elements of faith and the interaction of faith and science, ultimately just feels too underdeveloped.

The novel’s final conversation between Kirk and McCoy about faith and what Kirk believes lands just right, but this book would have benefited from being written from scratch today with the larger word-count afforded by the trade paperback sized Star Trek novels.

But where this book excels is not in the Akiron story, the but the Vulcan B-story that is threaded throughout the novel. The Kelvin Timeline movies do not significantly explore the implications of the destruction of Vulcan, and the loss of so much of the Vulcan people’s history and heritage. While that is not primarily what this book is about, what exploration we do get of the implications of Vulcan’s destruction are well received.

The first area where this comes through is in the relationship between Spock and Sarek. This novel sidesteps the somewhat absurd idea from the movie that the only Vulcans in the galaxy were on the planet itself — an ancient spacefaring race such as the Vulcans of course has colonies of its own — but the idea that so many people, alongside so much history, heritage and culture has been lost is one with profound implications. Sarek feels the weight of that, and the conflict between him and Spock in the novel is around Spock’s role in Vulcan society following the destruction of their homeworld.

But the best part of the novel, in my opinion, is the final reveal about L’Nel. Spoilers follow, so read no further if you haven’t finished the book yet!

L’Nel is in fact T’Pring, the Vulcan woman betrothed to Spock as a child. In the prime timeline, Spock is spurned by T’Pring in “Amok Time” in favor of her chosen partner, Stonn. In the Kelvin Timeline, Stonn is killed alongside his people, but not before T’Pring is able to rescue his katra and escape Vulcan. Planning to conduct the fal-tor-pan ritual on Spock, who T’Pring sees as unworthy because of his choice of a human partner, T’Pring hopes to restore the mind of Stonn within Spock.

More Beautiful Than Death is a great re-interpretation of “Amok Time.” The relationships are the same, but the circumstances of how those relationships resolve themselves are ultimately totally different in the Kelvin Timeline.

Mack’s handling of the return of T’Pring is vastly superior to how Khan is brought back in Star Trek Into Darkness. The writers of that movie could have learned a thing or two from this manuscript, which was sitting on a shelf at the time. I was impressed with this subplot by how it felt at once familiar to the characters we know, while also being appropriately unique to the Kelvin Timeline.

Overall, More Beautiful Than Death is both a fun action adventure story and a novel twist on a classic Star Trek episode. Though some of the ideas presented in the ‘wight’ storyline are too lightly explored, the action, adventure, and the Vulcan storyline hit all the right notes.

Given the unique circumstances behind the publication of this novel — written in 2010, shelved, and finally published in 2020 — it is unclear if there will be any more Kelvin Timeline novels coming. But there is a lot that these books could explore, and so hopefully this will not be an aberration but the start of a new Star Trek novel series to complement the existing lines.

We’re just glad to see that these two books finally made it into fans’ hands.

New LOWER DECKS 105 Images: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

TrekCore Staff
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9
New LOWER DECKS 105 Images: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

This week brings us to the fifth episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and we’ve got your next round of new photos from “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” today!

In this new episode, Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid) welcomes his girlfriend Barb (Gillian Jacobs, Community) onto the USS Cerritos, much to Ensign Mariner’s (Tawny Newsome) dismay — while Ensigns Ruthford (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi (Noel Wells) have starship envy when the Cerritos rendezvous with the more-advanced USS Vancouver.

Here are twelve new photos from this week’s episode, along with one previously-released images for “Cupid’s Errant Arrow.”

Finally, if you didn’t catch it at the end of “Moist Vessel,” here’s the preview for this coming week’s new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

CUPID’S ERRANT ARROW — Mariner is suspicious of Boimler’s new girlfriend. Tendi and Rutherford grow jealous of a bigger starship’s gear.

Written by Ben Joseph. Directed by Kim Arndt.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns Thursday, September 3 with “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” on CBS All Access and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. International distribution for the series has not yet been announced.

Inside Upcoming ART OF STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and ARTISTRY OF DAN CURRY Behind-the-Scenes Books

TrekCore Staff
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16
Inside Upcoming ART OF STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and ARTISTRY OF DAN CURRY Behind-the-Scenes Books

This fall will bring us a number of new Star Trek hardcovers, including the Voyager anniversary books we previewed last week — and today we have a look inside two of this year’s franchise art history publications, The Art of Star Trek: Discovery and The Artistry of Dan Curry!

November brings The Artistry of Dan Curry, a 204-page hardcover tome which will showcase some of the best work of longtime franchise contributor Dan Curry, who worked extensively on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager (along with a few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise), earning 19 Emmy Award nominations and wins along the way.

This hardback volume showcasing the diverse work of one of Star Trek’s most talented alumni, Dan Curry, whose contributions to the TV shows and movies include visual effects, practical effects, title design and weaponry.

With more than 50 years of history to its name, Star Trek is one of the world’s most treasured popular culture institutions, and seven-time Emmy award winner Dan Curry is one of its most enduring talents. His amazing contributions have ranged from directing, title design and concept art to practical on-set effects and weapon design. From The Next Generation to Enterprise, Dan’s incredibly diverse Star Trek work has resulted in some of the series’ most memorable moments.

Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry reveals the many and varied techniques used to produce some of the most spectacular visual effects used in the various series, while Dan also goes in-depth to divulge the secrets of some of his own personal favorite creations. This is a book for all Star Trek fans to treasure!

Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry will arrive on November 10 and can be preordered now.

Arriving in December is The Art of Star Trek: Discovery from longtime Trek behind-the-scenes authors Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, chronicling the art design and concept creations from the first two seasons of the CBS All Access series in a 192-page hardcover.

Star Trek: Discovery, the newest chapter in the Star Trek Universe, follows the exploits of Vulcan-raised science officer Michael Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery as they boldly go where no one has gone before.

The Art of Star Trek Discovery explores behind the scenes of CBS’s hit show, with cast and crew interviews, set photography, concept art and storyboards. With exclusive content from the first two seasons, this book is a must-have for every Star Trek fan.

Originally scheduled for a mid-2020 release, the book was shifted to a December 22 date due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic — but you can preorder it today so it drops to your door from the mycelial network for Christmas.

Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek publishing news!

DESTINATION STAR TREK Germany Convention Pushed to June 2021

TrekCore Staff
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1
DESTINATION STAR TREK Germany Convention Pushed to June 2021

Five months after it was first delayed, the Destination Star Trek convention planned for German fans has finally left the 2020 calendar as concerns over the Coronavirus pandemic continue to impact event scheduling.

After originally being pushed to October from its original May 2020 schedule, the Destination Star Trek Germany convention has been scrapped all together for the year, after event company Massive Events announced that the planned convention will not return until June 2021 due to pandemic safety concerns.

On August 19, the convention organizers made the announcement official:

Due to government restrictions it is with sadness we must postpone this October’s Destination Star Trek Germany event in Dortmund. We hope you understand that our most important consideration is your health and so at the moment the best way to keep you safe is to move DST to a time when we can all be together in a risk free environment and so enjoy the event.

The good news though is that we have a new date of 25th to 27th June 2021, where all the Covid-19 issues should be behind us and we can bring you the best Star Trek event Germany has ever seen! We still plan to centre it around Voyager’s anniversary, since it’s not fair that we were not all able to celebrate it properly this year and we know they are still really looking forward to seeing you, as you are them!

We will also be adding new guests from all corners of the Star Trek franchise, so maybe your favourite will be there, and we are always open to hearing suggestions!

Tickets already purchased will be automatically valid for the new date. In line with the governments policy, if you cannot make the new date then you can get a voucher from us that you can use for any Destination Star Trek event, in Germany or the UK, or on any DST product, up until December 2022.

If not used by then we will issue a straight refund to you. Please let us know at enquiries@destinationstartrek.com if you need to take a voucher.

The company’s other planned event — set to take place in London in mid-November — remains on schedule for the moment, but the team is currently evaluating its plans for that program, as noted on their Facebook page:

We are just reviewing and evaluating things at the moment and we will have an update on Destination Star Trek London in the next few weeks for you all. We really appreciate your patience in this turbulent time and hope that you have all managed to stay well and look after yourselves!

Should the November event be rescheduled or cancelled, we’ll let you know here.

Meanwhile, the December plans for Star Trek Las Vegas remain on the books from Creation Entertainment, though as the pandemic continues to blow through the United States, that Las Vegas-based event seems less and less appealing as the end of the year approaches.

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review: “Moist Vessel”

Alex Perry
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58
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review: “Moist Vessel”

with Jim Moorhouse

“Moist Vessel,” the latest very enjoyable episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ first season, returns to the last-minute twist from the series premiere, which revealed that Ensign Mariner (Tawny Newsome) is the daughter of Captain Freeman (Dawn Lewis).

The episode explores that relationship further, and it turns out that like a lot of Star Trek’s family relationships, it’s complicated. But perhaps in that complication – aided by a crisis aboard the Cerritos and its sister ship, the USS Merced – we learn a bit more about both characters and what drives them.

Since the premiere of Lower Decks, Mariner has been portrayed as relentlessly independent and individualistic. It’s her character’s defining feature, and we learn why in this episode: as a response to her mother’s overbearing parenting. It turns out that Freeman is an overly protective parent, and Mariner’s way of rebelling is to push too far in the other direction.

Boimler can’t believe that Mariner earned a promotion to Lieutenant. (CBS All Access)

While it’s clear by the end of the episode that both Mariner and Freeman understand each other a little better, it’s also apparent to Mariner that she’s not ready to work side-by-side with her mom as an “unstoppable mommy-daughter team.” So the rebellious ensign purposefully gets herself demoted again by making “fone” of a stuffy admiral who mispronounces words.

Meanwhile, Ensign Tendi (Noel Wells) is on her own journey of discovery; after disrupting an ascension ceremony for a fellow crewman, Tendi desperately attempts to make up for it and inadvertently helps that crewman complete his mission to ascend to a higher plane of existence. As someone who also doesn’t like knowing that someone doesn’t like me very much, the cringe factor of watching this storyline play out was extremely relatable!

Now that the show has mostly settled into a rhythm for its characters, it would be nice to see the character combinations begin to change up. While the key foursome of ensigns share several scenes together, the A and B stories from the last three episodes have mostly seen Boimler teaming up with Mariner and Tendi working with Rutherford.

I would enjoy seeing that mixed up in later episodes so each of the four ensigns get more of a chance to interact with each other.

Tendi observes a supposed ascension ceremony… before everything goes wrong. (CBS All Access)

Trek Trope Tributes

  • Tendi specifies the temperature of the “colorful sand” that she requests from the replicator, playing off all the times the computer asks an individual to specify temperature when ordering a beverage.
     
  • Senior officers get their own quarters, which are highly coveted by junior officers. And just like aboard the Enterprise -D, the Cerritos’s quarters are also decorated with space art.
     
  • We get a classic senior officers’ poker game, complete with a green visor for Doctor T’Ana… and just like we see so often in TNG, everyone is folding, much to Mariner’s dismay!
     
  • This episode includes several classic briefing room scenes (complete with PADDs for every officer), playing up the old criticism that TNG was always just people ‘sitting around and talking.’

Canon Connections

Tellarite

Captain Durango of the USS Merced is a Tellarite, the first appearance of the classic Federation-founding race in ‘Lower Decks.’ Tellarites were previously seen in the Original Series, in ‘The Animated Series,’ multiple classic ‘Trek’ films, in ‘Enterprise,’ and in both ‘Discovery’ and ‘Picard.’

Ascended Beings

Tendi explains to Rutherford the ascension ritual she has been invited to witness, to which he responds “Oh, like a Q… or a The Traveler!” name-checking a couple of the higher beings encountered by the Enterprise-D in’The Next Generation.’

Tamarians

Tendi mentions the Tamarian method of ascension, referencing the Children of Tama seen in the TNG episode “Darmok.”

Generational Ships

As previously seen in episodes like “The Disease,” the crew of the Cerritos works closely with a generational ship designed for long voyages. (And similar to the episode “Masks,” this generational ship tries to terraform the Cerritos in the way the cultural archive discovered by the Enterprise tried to transform it.)

Prime Directive

When entering the conference room, Mariner asks if “you guys debating the Prime Directive again?” referring to Starfleet’s General Order Number One and non-interference directive, which the Enterprise-D senior staff vigorously debated on multiple occasions (notably in “Pen Pals”).

Conference Room Décor

We get our first good look at the Cerritos’ conference room wall in this episode, which matches the design of the Enterprise-D’s observation lounge in its final season. (And we see the senior staff debating new conference room chairs and whether or not a strip of leather is “too ostentatious.”)

Emergency Force Fields

Chief engineer Andy Billups (Paul Scheer) calls for an emergency force field in Corridor 89 just in the nick of time, a move seen countless times across many iterations of the Star Trek franchise.

Moriarty

“That was the holodeck! Uh, Moriarty!” Boimler sheepishly exclaims into his combadge to cover his feeble attempt at breaking the rules to win promotion. Moriarty, of course, is the sentient holodeck program that matched wits with the Enterprise-D in “Elementary Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle,” who was also referenced in ‘Voyager’s’ “Alter Ego.”

Coffee on the Bridge

From the Original Series through ‘Voyager,’ coffee has always had a home on the bridge… and here, Boimler uses it with hilarious effect by intentionally spilling it on Ransom’s lap to prove he is a rulebreaker worthy of promotion.

[td_smart_list_end]

Other Observations

  • After several years of serialized Star Trek, it’s mildly jarring that a key character reveal from episode one went entirely unmentioned in the subsequent two episodes before being revisited… but that kind of ‘forgotten’ plot point is a Next Generation-era staple.
     
  • The USS Merced is named for another city in California, and ship has the blue striping –which Mike McMahan has said shows the ship has more of a science focus — while the Cerritos’ yellow striping shows it to be an engineering ship.
     
  • The goggles worn by the Cerritos cleanup crew are very similar to Spock’s visor worn in “Is There in Truth No Beauty.”
     
  • You’ll never look at the Vulcan salute the same way again after this episode.
     
  • This episode comes the closest since Deep Space Nine to acknowledging what we all know the holodeck gets used for. (“Oh, yeah. It’s mostly that.”)
     
  • Two of Mariner’s assignments after getting promoted include “auditing the audit” and reporting to Ops “for review of scheduled Ops.”
     
  • “Moist Vessel” is the second episode this season to have the ship saved by gas dispersed through the ventilation system.
     
  • Admiral Vassery speaks the word “sensors” in the Vulcan manner, favoring the pronunciation used by officers like Spock (both Nimoy and Peck) and Tuvok.
Mariner does whatever it takes to lose her lieutenant rank. (CBS All Access)

Lower Decks continues to serve up an extremely enjoyable 25 minutes of Star Trek each week, and “Moist Vessel” is a strong contender for best of the season (so far), on the back of strong character exploration for Mariner, Freeman and Tendi.

This episode proves the show’s real power is in the interpersonal dynamics of the crew, which should only continue to improve as those dynamics develop between more of the characters in future episodes.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns on September 3 with the fifth episode of the season, on CBS All Access in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada. Additional international availability for the series has not yet been announced.

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 1 Comes to CBS’s Broadcast Network Starting September 24

TrekCore Staff
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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 1 Comes to CBS’s Broadcast Network Starting September 24

Three years after the series premiere on CBS All Access in September 2017, Star Trek: Discovery is making its American broadcast television debut on the CBS broadcast network this fall for the very first time.

While the show’s first hour — “The Vulcan Hello” — did air on CBS’s broadcast channel back in 2017 when the series premiered, the remaining 14 episodes of Season 1 have remained exclusively aboard the CBS All Access streaming service for American viewers (and of course on Blu-ray and DVD), but today the network announced that the sixth live-action Star Trek series will beam to viewers over-the-air broadcast starting Thursday, September 24 at 10PM ET/PT.

While Discovery has been airing on the CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada since 2017 — and became available on the UK’s Channel 4 in December 2019 — this is the first time that the show has been released in a free-to-watch presentation to date.

CBS’s own announcement today hints heavily to the reason for Discovery’s broadcast debut: as the coronavirus pandemic has slowed or outright halted production on the fall’s expected slate of programming, Discovery makes an easy-to-repackage set of weekly content to fill that empty 10PM timeslot.

CBS announced today a slate of upcoming program premieres for September and October. The series include a mix of original news and alternative programming, and two scripted dramas and one comedy series making their broadcast network debuts.

“This is hardly a traditional fall season, but we are prepared with a strong slate of original content while our regular scripted series begin production,” said Kelly Kahl, President, CBS Entertainment. “Based on our current timeline, we hope to start rolling out our previously announced fall series as they become available in November.”

The show will air in weekly releases throughout the fall, beginning with “The Vulcan Hello” on September 24 and running through the final episode of the season, “Will You Take My Hand”. CBS tells us that at this time, there is not an expectation for Season 2 to follow.

As for edits to the original episodes, they are likely for both certain content and the running time. The same thing happened with The Good Fight when it aired on CBS’s broadcast network last year.

Meanwhile, the first-run airing of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is slated to begin on October 15, exclusively on CBS All Access (USA), CTV Sci Fi Channel (Canada), and Netflix (other global regions).

Star Trek: Discovery
Season 1 Blu-ray

Star Trek: Discovery
Season 2 Blu-ray

Star Trek: Discovery
Season 3 Blu-ray

New Images From LOWER DECKS 104: “Moist Vessel”

TrekCore Staff
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New Images From LOWER DECKS 104: “Moist Vessel”

This week brings us to the fourth episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and we’ve got your next round of new photos from “Moist Vessel” today!

In this new episode, Ensign Tendi (Noel Wells) spends her time trying to fix a colleague’s botched “spiritual ascension,” while Mariner (Tawny Newsome) finds herself assigned a series of menial and demeaning tasks aboard the Cerritos after disrespecting Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) — her mother — in front of the crew.

Here are nine new photos from this week’s episode, along with two previously-released images for “Moist Vessel.”

Finally, if you didn’t catch it at the end of “Temporal Edict,” here’s the preview for this coming week’s new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

MOIST VESSEL — Captain Freeman seeks the ultimate payback after Mariner blatantly disrespects her in front of the crew. A well-meaning Tendi accidentally messes up a Lieutenant’s attempt at spiritual ascension and tries to make it right.

Written by Ann Kim. Directed by Barry J. Kelly.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns Thursday, August 27 with “Moist Vessel” on CBS All Access and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. International distribution for the series has not yet been announced.

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