Space — the final frontier...

An iconic, long-running science-fiction franchise with eight live action series, three animated ones, and thirteen movies spanning generations of characters, decades of television and multiple realities in the Multiverse .

The setting in every series is about an Earth-based interstellar government called the United Federation of Planets and their fleet of starships, which form Starfleet . Every series dealt with a particular crew, mostly of various ships named Enterprise . As originally envisioned by its creator, Gene Roddenberry , the science fiction nature of the series was just a method to address many social issues of the time that could not have been done in a normal drama. As such, it was not above being Anvilicious or engaging in thinly-veiled social satire, but considering its origin during the 60's, some anvils needed to be dropped .

It was, for the most part, way on the happy end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism , at least partially because of its solid allegiance to the Enlightened side of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment . But it still found some sort of balance between a Dystopia and a Crystal Spires and Togas future. In general, it is a future you hope will come true, albeit after Humanity endured terrible troubles like a third world war and the Eugenics Wars led by the genetically enhanced conqueror, Khan Noonien Singh, and rose above them. All series have sought to show that while you may think the world is falling apart and there is no chance of global unity, all this crap will eventually work itself out.

The series has also had a profound impact on modern culture and media. Everyone with any exposure to Western pop culture has heard of the Starship Enterprise , and the series predicted (and possibly inspired) the PC, tablet, automatic doors, cell phones, natural-language AI and more, decades before their invention. Not so incidentally, the first African-American woman in space was inspired to become an astronaut because of Nichelle Nichols ' pioneering role. Also not so incidentally, the space shuttle Enterprise was named after the iconic starship, as is the first commercial spacecraft.

And finally, Star Trek also gave rise to Fandom as we know it: when Star Trek: The Original Series began to pick up steam in syndication, fans organized conventions, wrote fanfic, dressed in costume, and generally made enough noise to keep the franchise going for forty years and counting. Every fandom since has grown from that original outpouring of fannish activity and devotion.

Television Series in the franchise include:

Star Trek: The Original Series ("TOS", 1966-1969) Set from 2265-2269 — The one everyone has heard of (at the time, of course, it was just called Star Trek ). It suffered in the Ratings , but gained a devoted fanbase. Uncanceled after the second season, and then Cancelled again at the end of the third. It really picked up steam in syndication, which was about the time demographics came into play - and the Real Life moon landing happened a week after its last episode aired. Nowadays, it looks incredibly cheesy and dated, but the show's writing was good, the cast had great chemistry and the characters themselves were very memorable, to the point of creating three new archetypes: The Kirk , The Spock , and The McCoy . In fact, this series created so many new tropes that it has left an unmistakable mark on both television and pop culture ever since. Not to mention inspired a lot of mostly affectionate parodies .
Star Trek: The Animated Series ("TAS", 1973-1974) Set from 2269-2270 — Used most of the original cast (and a few additions) to provide voices for the animated versions of their characters. The quality of the show was hit and miss, with some being mediocre cartoon fare while others were excellent, and the series got the franchise's first Emmy award. 22 episodes were produced. The official canonicity of this series has gone back and forth, but at least some elements have bled over into the rest of the franchise (most notably, identifying the "T" in James T. Kirk to stand for "Tiberius" ) and the addition of the cat-like Caitians to the mythos (see Star Trek 2).
Star Trek: The Next Generation ("TNG", 1987-1994) Set from 2364-2370 — The other one everyone has heard of. Takes place in the 24th century on the Enterprise - D , with the same mission of exploration as the original. Introduced the holodeck (although a version of it appeared first in the Canon /noncanon "TAS"), defined the Klingons as being a society of honor and war , and really hit it home with creating the cybernetic alien race, the Borg. Also, there was Q .
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("DS9", 1993-1999) Set from 2369-2375 — Takes place concurrently with the end of Next Generation and the lion's share of Voyager , and conceived as a Spin-Off of TNG. Set on a former Cardassian space station (formerly Terok Nor, renamed Deep Space Nine) in a politically unstable part of space near the planet Bajor, with exclusive access to a rare stable wormhole that leads from the Alpha to the Gamma Quadrant. From the fourth season onwards, former TNG character Worf joined the cast and the whole series got much darker with a massive interstellar war between the Federation, Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans and the Dominion. Was also the first Trek series to use Story Arcs extensively, rather than persisting with a strictly episodic format. Generally considered the Oddball in the Series as far as the television shows go.
Star Trek: Voyager ("VOY", 1995-2001) Set from 2371-2378 — Another Spin-Off of Next Generation , conceived as its successor. While searching for a group of rogue Starfleet people called the Maquis, both the title ship and a Maquis ship are flung across the galaxy and stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years and seventy-five years' travel from home ( Lost in Space a la Star Trek ). Had the first main character female captain in the franchise. In the mainstream, this show is best — perhaps only — known for its Ms. Fanservice character, Seven of Nine . Among fans, it's infamous for the Villain Decay of the Borg, the obscene levels of Techno Babble , and mashing the Reset Button after roughly every other episode, but it is also notable for tackling controversial topics even other Trek series wouldn't touch.
Star Trek: Enterprise ("ENT", 2001-2005) Set from 2151-2155 — Prequel to the original series. Set a hundred years or so before Kirk and the Federation, when humans are just getting their space legs (and the Applied Phlebotinum is not nearly as reliable), aboard Earth's first, experimental Warp 5-capable starship, the Enterprise NX-01. It began with a Myth Arc involving the Enterprise crew getting caught up in a "Temporal Cold War" being fought by several rival Time Travel factions, though it gradually fell victim to the The Chris Carter Effect . The series was then Retooled twice: first with the third season introducing an ambitious season-spanning Story Arc centering around the sudden appearance of a mysterious new aggressor called the Xindi, and then with the fourth and final season consisting of several two-to-three-episode-long "mini-arcs" that laid the groundwork for the Federation in earnest. Sadly, just as it began to pick up steam, it was abruptly cancelled. Infamous for the pop song in the opening credits, and for being the first Trek series since the original to be canceled before the usual seven seasons.
Star Trek: Discovery ("DIS", 2017-) Set in 2256, ten years before the original series, it focuses on the USS Discovery , an experimental science vessel, caught in the midst of the latest Federation-Klingon war. Its second season, focused on the crew hunting down mysterious signals across the galaxy, leading to a confrontation for the fate of the galaxy. Its third season brought a major Retool , sending the crew to the 32nd century and finding a much changed galaxy.
Star Trek: Picard ("PIC", 2020-2023) Set in 2399, twenty years after the TNG era ended, a long-since retired Picard gets dragged out of retirement by a mysterious young woman who needs his help, setting him on a quest to discover an eons old secret with Data right at the centre. More of a character study than anything else, it followed Picard closing the book on his life and looking back on the legacy he's left behind on the galaxy, finding that the past, however fast you run or however well you hide, will always catch up to you.
Star Trek: Lower Decks ("LD", 2020-) Set in 2380, Lower Decks follows four of the lowest ranking ensigns in Starfleet, posted on one of the least important ships in the fleet, the USS Cerritos , as they try and move up in the world. Trek Template:'s second animated series and its first comedy, every episode of Lower Decks bursts with Continuity Porn .
Star Trek: Prodigy ("PRO", 2021-) Set in 2383 in the Delta Quadrant, the show follows a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits seeking to escape a slave camp. Discovering the beached USS Protostar , the group claims it as an escape ship, taking with them the daughter of their captor, the Diviner. Aided by a hologram of Kathryn Janeway, the group soon discovers that their little Protostar is much more important than previously believed.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("SNW", 2022-) A Spin-Off to Star Trek: Discovery Template:'s second season, Strange New Worlds is another Prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series , focusing on Pike's tenure as captain of the Enterprise . Essentially what the original show was originally meant to be, it's much Lighter and Softer than its contemporaries, opting for a Revisiting the Roots approach to Star Trek by being episodic rather than having a Myth Arc .

In addition to these, Star Trek: Phase II was a series concept designed as the cornerstone of a Paramount Pictures -based network in 1976. A continuation of the original series and featuring a second five-year mission, it would have introduced a number of new characters in conjunction with the original crew. When the network project died and the insane success of Star Wars made sci-fi films profitable again, Paramount elaborated the series pilot into The Movie , which ultimately led to a whole new line of movies:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (c. 2273) — Kirk rallies the old crew to intercept a technological Eldritch Abomination heading towards Earth. Said to be a padded out Phase II episode script, and bears resemblance to a couple original series episodes.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) (2285) — Khan from The Original Series returns intending to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge .
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984) (2285) — The crew find that for Vulcans, Death Is Cheap . Kirk and crew risk everything to get Spock back.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (2286/1986) — To save Earth from a destructive, silent alien probe, Kirk and crew Time Travel to The Eighties and save the whales . Also, they need nuclear wessels.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) (2287) — After a botched attempt to rescue hostages, the Enterprise is commandeered by a radical Vulcan who intends to find God.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) (2293) — Klingons sue for peace in a near perfect recreation of the Cold War finale. Quite blatantly a rip on the Cold War and its concurrent real-life end, precipitated by a lunar equivalent to the Chernobyl explosion. (In)Famously establishes Klingon blood to be a lovely lilac colour, but only for this installment.
Star Trek Generations (1994) (2293, then 2371) — A Mad Scientist seeks to destroy billions to reach a Negative Space Wedgie that allows Kirk to meet Picard. The first movie featured the TNG cast and intended as a torch-passing moment rather than a final farewell to the original cast that Star Trek VI was.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (2373/2063) — The Borg attempt to assimilate Earth in the past, with Picard slowly becoming Captain Ahab against them.
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) (2375) — Finding that The Federation intends to pillage a Shangri-La planet , Picard actively rebels to save them.
Star Trek Nemesis (2002) (2379) — The forever secretive Romulans make a surprising effort for peace, but their leader has much more devious intentions. The last film of the prime Star Trek universe and one that nearly mortally wounded the entire franchise, being the only one not to make its money back at the box office.

Many of the concepts from Phase II made their way into Star Trek: The Next Generation and the series itself is considered deuterocanon - not "true" canon, because it never made it to the screen, but allowed in Broad Strokes to fill a gap in Trek chronology (notice the fictional length of time between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan ).

After the cancellation of Enterprise , 2006 was the first year with no new Star Trek stories on film or TV since 1985 . Then, when all seemed lost, Star Trek was revived with a Film Of The Series which promises to kick off a whole new series of movies:

Star Trek (2009) (2233 — 2258) — A mixture of Continuity Reboot and Broad Strokes with new actors showing that the The Original Series characters will always end up together on the Enterprise , no matter the universe.
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) (2259 — 2260) — Set a year later, the crew discovers a militarization conspiracy within Starfleet with them as the Sacrificial Lambs .
Star Trek: Beyond (2016) (2263) — In the third year of their five-year mission, the Enterprise crew find themselves trapped on an alien planet with a ruthless warlord who aims to destroy the Federation. Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

In total, to watch every minute of "canon" Star Trek (series and movies) would require over 23 days. Of Science Fiction franchises, only Doctor Who and its various canon spinoffs are even within a week.

Star Trek Expanded Universe [ ]

The Star Trek Expanded Universe consists of the expected novels, comics and videogames; these are somewhat infamous in many circles (compared to the Star Wars counterparts) for the casual disregard the producers of the shows often hold for them. Though starting from Star Trek: Discovery Template:'s second season, some of the Expanded Universe had been upgraded to Loose Canon and/or Broad Strokes , featuring adaptations of some novel storylines.

See also the Trek Verse - a discussion of internal Trek history as viewed from a real-world perspective as well as how it affected modern culture.

Tropes common across all series: [ ]

Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit : Most societies hover around the Type I mark, though some Type III and above existed in the galaxy at one time. And a handful of extra-galactic races have shown up, seeming to be at least Type IIIs.
AI Is a Crapshoot : Self-aware computers are Always Chaotic Evil in TOS. Later series had more nuanced explorations of the concept. By the 32nd century, the Federation was outright banned Ridiculously-Human Robots because they keep turning out evil and destroying things. Though Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard suggests that this might be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy , the AIs fighting back against the organics' desire to destroy synthetic life once it gets too powerful.
Alien Non-Interference Clause : Trope Codifier via General Order Number 1, the Prime Directive, that generator of so many plot devices.
Almighty Janitor : Boothby, the groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy.
Alternate History : In Star Trek , the late 80s and early 90s were a genetic renaissance, and superhuman products of genetic manipulation. After the Eugenics Wars , humanity made a push to the stars in the early 21st century, reaching to the point that they could send manned missions to Jupiter's moons in 2024, but this diverted resources away from the very real Earth-bound problems, resulting in World War III erupting in 2026 and ending in 2053. In 2063, humanity discovered Faster-Than-Light Travel and the Vulcans arrived to help them rebuild their world.
Alternative Number System : According to The Klingon Dictionary , the Klingons used to count in a ternary (base-three) system, but have since switched over to decimal.
Always Chaotic Evil : The Borg, Romulans, and Cardassians. The original series and Enterprise also portray Klingons this way, and The Next Generation does likewise with the Ferengi.
Always on Duty : The main characters are always on the bridge whenever something interesting is happening. The only time across the entire franchise that we see evidence of any kind of shift system is in a few TNG episodes where Data is shown commanding the night shift, and once when Captain Sulu of the Excelsior in The Undiscovered Country gets woken up by Christian Slater.
Arc Number : 47, from the middle of Next Generation on.
Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving
Artificial Gravity : Rarely mentioned, but always present whenever the action takes place aboard a starship or space station.
The Assimilator : The Borg.
Author Appeal : Rick Berman has admitted that he is the one mostly responsible for so much Time Travel in the various shows. He just loves the time paradox of "this is the reason this happened but that is the origin of that event and here is where we have to make a choice as to whether this or that occurs..."
Badass Army : The Klingons wish they were these but they are more of a subversion. Starfleet qualifies, at least in space--they tend to be somewhat underprepared for extended ground combat.
Beleaguered Bureaucrat : Starfleet Command sometimes give the impression of being between this and Obstructive Bureaucrat .
Big Damn Movies : The movies feature far more action than you're likely to find in a typical season of the original series or Next Generation . While episodes of the series typically involve stories about exploration and dealing with touchy political issues, the movies are much more likely to involve clashes with full-on Card Carrying Villains .
Boarding Party : Beaming aboard the enemy ship.
Blunt Metaphors Trauma : Data, Spock, and most Vulcans.
The Chains of Commanding
Chekhov's Gun
Classically-Trained Extra : Patrick Stewart, most famously. He even said that he considered it training for his role as Picard. But the franchise is famous for casting many stage actors over regular TV guest actors.
Cleavage Window : Female Klingon uniforms.
Clothes Make the Legend : The black and primary color uniform scheme. Only the first six films and Enterprise didn't follow this... though the uniforms with Wrath of Khan ' s emblematic red-vest-division-turtleneck-and-black-pants is also very popular.
The colors were shuffled around a bit on TNG , with red (formerly Security and Engineering) and gold (Command) trading places. Blue still stands for Science and Medical.
The Federation is a rich blue (on star charts, on their seal, in their warp plasma) supplemented by other light pastel shades and grey (for ship bulkheads).
The Klingons are red (on star charts, on their banner, their graphic displays and ship controls, their warp plasma, their transporter effect). They also prefer red lighting aboard their ships and in their buildings.
Romulans are deep green (on star charts, on banners and display graphics, their warp plasma, their transporter effect). Their ships also have a deep green hull colour.
Cardassians are usually yellow-ochre or pink (both colours were used for their weapons - pink in their first few appearances, later yellow, their transporter is yellow-ochre, on star charts they're either yellow or pink). Their ship hulls are ochre. Their graphics and display panels use orange/beige and green, colours that sometimes appear on their cultural emblem.
The Dominion is purple (their warp plasma, on star charts; their graphics are purple and green).
Ferengi warp plasma and ship hulls are orange.
Andorians, to no-one's surprise, like white and blue, along with a pale beige.
The Borg favours black and a sickly green.
Bajorans uses gold-tan and dark red.
Cool Starship : Every series has one.
Collectible Card Game
Command Roster : Star Trek is likely the Trope Maker or at least set the standard of how this trope is used.
Communications Officer : Every series has one except DS9 (though in TNG , Worf gets shuffled out of the position pretty quickly and nobody really replaces him).
Deadly Training Area : The holodecks were intended to be used for training, but they're one of the most hazardous areas on the ship thanks to Holodeck Malfunctions .
Death Wail : The standard practice when a Klingon dies is for his/her comrades to hold their eyes open while screaming loudly to the sky to warn those in the afterlife that a great warrior is on his/her way to join them.
Deflector Shields
Destructo-Nookie : Klingons.
Development Gag : Quite a few. Jeffries Tubes were named after the visual designer of the original series (and designer of the original Enterprise) Matt Jeffries. Various shuttlecraft, such as the Justman, were also named after notable production crew. A section of Stage 16 at Paramount Pictures used to portray alien planets had the nickname of "Planet Hell," which was used as a description of an appropriate planet in Star Trek Voyager .
Dress Up Episode : most common in the Original Series ("A Piece of the Action", "Return of the Archons", "Assignment: Earth"), but happens in the Next Generation a fair amount too ("The Big Goodbye").
Doctor's Orders : The medical personnel can remove the captain from command.
Due to the Dead : A good number of funeral customs, at that.
Dying Alone
Emotion Suppression : The Vulcan culture has Emotion Suppression at its core.
Emotions vs. Stoicism : Romulans vs. Vulcans.
The Empire : The Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire and Cardassian Alliance. The Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe.
Epic Tracking Shot : It's an interesting thing to note as the next generation of shows progressed in special effects.
Everything Sensor : EVERY scanner is like this.
Evil Is Not Well Lit : Of all the species, only the Borg and Cardassians have an excuse for this - the Borg's minimalism, and the latter's sensitivity to light. Incidentally, this is the excuse for Deep Space Nine being so dimly-lit, since it was designed by the Cardassians.
Evil Is Visceral : Species 8472, also known as the Undine, are introduced as the only threat to the hitherto biggest threat (the Borg). Their ships are organic and the (CGI) aliens themselves look "more organic" than the usual Rubber Forehead Alien because they don't wear clothes, have extra limbs and strange eyes with complicated irides. Also, they hail from something called fluidic space. To top it all off, the crew of the Voyager are willing to team up with the Borg to fight against them.
Exotic Eye Designs : Betazoids have black irises.
Exposition Beam : Vulcan Mind Melds are essentially this, along with a host of other Applied Phlebotinum uses.
Expositron 9000 : The ship/station computers.
Fan of the Past : Too many to name.
Fantastic Racism : There will always be at least a few members of each species that has issues with humans, other species, or vice versa.
Some Expanded Universe sources imply that biogenic is the equivalent of weapon of mass destruction in current parlance. That is, this is a weapon you had DAMN well better not get caught actually using.
The Vulcans use "Red Matter" to create pocket black holes . Nero got the bright idea of using it to eat a planet (specifically Vulcan ).
Fantastic Rank System : Everyone except the Federation has a different one. See the trope page for more details.
Starfleet - The United States Navy (Both the Earth & Federation versions of Starfleet have individual ranks & systems of hierarchy that correspond with the USN's. The color of Starfleet personnel's uniforms are based on the specifics of their job, just as its done with the flight crews aboard USN aircraft carriers. Also, during the Dominion War, "Deep Space Nine" has Starfleet deployed in the numbered fleet configurations used by the USN, with the 3rd Fleet referenced as protecting Earth & the 7th Fleet all but destroyed in a failed offensive.)
Vulcans- Great Britain (Not a perfect match-up, but Enterprise depicted them as a regional superpower who eventually lose much of their realm of control as Earth increases theirs.)
Klingons also had some similarity to post-Soviet Russia in The Next Generation in terms of politics. But as part of Gene Roddenberry 's plan to not make them evil and a race of "black hats", they turned into... vikings. They also had no analogue to the KGB, where the Romulans have the Tal'Shiar (Ministry of State Security), and the Cardassians have the Obsidian Order (The Gestapo).
Starting in The Next Generation , the Romulans also started to become a bit like Iran, for similar reasons.
Cardassians as generic colonial powers works just as well as the obligatory Nazi comparison, since Bajor is always called a colony and is run along those lines: occupy and obtain resources (with local slave labor), rather than being a matter of living space or an ideology.
Cardassians as a version of undefeated (pre-WWII) Japan is a popular alternative, especially among those who look at details like what food they eat and many of the cultural notes in Deep Space 9.
Bajorans as generic colonized people. (Would support the Cardassians as generic colonial powers interpretation.)
Bajorans as the Irish, especially in the Circle (IRA) plot-arc.
Bajorans actually work as a variation of the Jews and the Israelis as well. The episode "Ensign Ro" suggests this with its tale about the Bajorans losing their homeland, treated as pariahs and then resorting to terrorism (Irgun, etc) to try to regain their homeland.
Orions- The Mafia/ Criminal Underground
Nausicaans- Gang Leaders
Ferengi- The East India Companies (most closely)
Faster-Than-Light Travel : Rather hard to imagine the series without it.
Fiction Science : The series have produced a large number of Technical Manuals , many of them official. These fill in many details of life in the Trekkian future, especially the inner workings of the Enterprises and other starships.
Forgot the Call
Genericist Government
Generican Empire : The United Federation of Planets, the Dominion.
God-Emperor : The Klingon treatment of Kahless the Unforgettable.
Cardassians (and, by extension, the crew of DS9 ) have yellow transporter beams.
Good Old Ways
Government Drug Enforcement : Used a couple of times in TNG and Deep Space Nine , also used in the movie Insurrection .
Graying Morality : From series to series, at least for a while. TNG is grayer than the original series, and Deep Space Nine is even grayer than that.
Gunboat Diplomacy : The Federation definitely believes in "carrying a big ship " to negotiations. They don't usually push their self-interest too hard with this show of force, but it still makes three things clear. "We are strong." "We are rich." "You don't start fights when we're trying to negotiate."
Half-Human Hybrid : Spock, Deanna Troi, B'Elanna Torres, Sisko .
Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today? : Klingons tend to do this a lot; Worf is only the most prominent example.
Hero of Another Story : It is implied through the various Star Trek shows that the sort of adventures the Enterprise and her crew get in is just the far side of typical. Lampshaded by Captain Janeway when she stated in Star Trek: Voyager that "Weird is part of the job."
Humans Are Diplomats : Especially during TOS and early TNG. Gene Roddenberry opposed the idea of a military Starfleet.
Highly-Conspicuous Uniform
Hollywood Tactics : Went up and down depending on the series and the point in the series, but pretty much everybody is woefully under-equipped and fights very poorly in land combat.
Human Outside, Alien Inside : While most of the species that are encountered look fairly humanoid, many of them turn out to have truly bizarre biological differences .
This is a bit of Fridge Brilliance . Humor is usually about the incongruity between logic and reality. So, basically, Vulcans have spent hundreds of years watching every other race act like clowns, and they get the joke. They may not guffaw, but their sense of humor is finely honed.
Sulu tells a young Tuvok once, "Don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor, because I know better." True enough!
If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him
Inertial Dampening : Occasionally mentioned by the characters, Inertial Dampeners allow an Impulse-drive-powered starship to accelerate from a dead stop to a substantial fraction of the speed of light in under a minute, without turning the crew into crepes. The technology isn't quick enough to compensate for random, unexpected impacts, however, which can result in the Star Trek Shake .
Inexplicable Cultural Ties : In Roddenberry's Star Trek pitch, he explains how culturally (and biologically ) familiar aliens would make Science Fiction feasible for TV. Star Trek has since been true to what he called the Parallel Worlds concept that prescribes that alien civilizations will usually be very much like humans culturally and therefore not too foreign to the audience.
Interdimensional Travel Device : Transporters can act this way under certain circumstances (which occur accidentally in the original series, and then are intentionally reproduced in Deep Space Nine ).
Jabba Table Manners : The Klingons universally gulp and slurp down food like slobs. In their case, it is to show how tough and free of pretentious "good manners" and straightforward and honest their society is, not to show how "evil" they are.
Law of Chromatic Superiority : The gold uniform worn by Kirk (and also Archer).
Life Imitates Art : Take the sliding doors, for one thing.
Letter Motif
Memory Alpha calls the full-on 'cause the computer to shut down' version induced self destruction , and counts five cases (one inadvertent), all of them by Kirk.
Long Runners : The second longest running sci-fi show in the world, beaten only by Doctor Who - and Star Trek has more total hours (as stated earlier).
Love Is in the Air : Several episodes in the different series.
Ludd Was Right : By means of Space Amish .
Ludicrous Precision : The Vulcans are prone to this, as is Commander Data.
Made of Explodium : When a computer blows up in Star Trek, it BLOWS UP. This extends to either independent computer equipment or even the consoles on the bridge. Sometimes characters even die from the exploding bridge consoles.
Made of Phlebotinum
Taken to its logical extreme in Voyager , where the ship recorded all of the crew's brainwaves.
Magnetic Plot Device : The various starships. The Holodeck. The Bajoran wormhole in Deep Space Nine . The Temporal Cold War in Enterprise .
The Man Behind the Monsters
Not unintentional, as Roddenberry reportedly based the Starfleet hull-numbering system after the US civil aircraft registration system deliberately referencing the "N" or "NC" numbers used on US aircraft.)
Considering that the original concept for the series was Hornblower in deep space, and that ship captains during the Wooden Ships and Iron Men era usually were their respective country's highest representative in any area where they were stationed...
Janeway in Star Trek Voyager once made a comment about how strongly she had to hold onto Starfleet regulations so far from home, but also admired the gung-ho attitude of earlier Starfleet captains ("I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that!").
The Milky Way Is the Only Way : Other galaxies are inhabited, and their inhabitants show up from time to time, but given that most races are Type I on the Kardashev scale, actual travel to them is uncommon. The overwhelming majority of Star Trek media sticks to the Milky Way.
Monumental View : Every iteration puts Starfleet academy on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco (and directly across from Starfleet headquarters.) There's a bit of a problem with that as the land there is almost exclusively deep, steep, hills.
More Hero Than Thou
Narrating the Present : the Captain's Log .
National Weapon : The Klingon bat'leth.
Negative Space Wedgie : From a well-known parody.
Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer
No Poverty : A central part of the setting, humanity solved this problem after meeting the Vulcans. Though DS9 notes that this only really applies on Earth.
They would arguably be the most deadpan of snarkers, ever.
Novelty Decay : The Borg start out in Next Generation as a mysterious, frighteningly advanced and implacable species from beyond known space. Then Enterprise has them show up about 300 years before that, while their Villain Decay on Voyager makes them seem distinctly nonthreatening.
Now Do It Again Backwards
Referring back to the handrail, it came to a head in Enterprise when a crewman actually calls something a handrail, then when its pointed out that where it's placed on a lift would actually sever fingers, is clearly confused and asks why anyone would put their hand there. Considering its Trip of all people , who's asking the crewman this, its even more baffling?
No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture : Occasionally subverted or averted, it's still the rule rather than the exception. Notably, Klingons have opera and something like heavy metal.
No Such Thing as HR : A common point of confusion in the otherwise enlightened future of Star Trek is Mc Coy's humorously treated Fantastic Racism towards Spock, along with the number of physical altercations the crew get into without really getting into trouble. Justifiable in the original series since the ship's on the edge of known space; by the time the franchise moved closer to Earth with Star Trek: The Next Generation , a more established bureaucracy seemed to be in place (though occasionally characters like Worf seem to be allowed a huge amount of leeway as a Proud Warrior Race Guy ).
Officer and a Gentleman and/or Cultured Warrior : To some degree, almost all Starfleet personnel are one or the other of these. Even the Closer to Earth types have scientific and literary interests. Many enemies are Wicked Cultured as well.
The Omnipotent : Q is a lower version of this; while he claims omnipotence, other Q can still hurt him or take away his powers.
The Omniscient : Q.
Our Doors Are Different : Sliding doors everywhere. Everywhere .
Palette-Swapped Alien Food : Romulan and Andorian Ale is blue.
Perfect Pacifist People : Several species in the various works exhibit this trope.
Photoprotoneutron Torpedo : Photon torpedoes are the Trope Maker . There are also quantum, plasma, and polaron torpedoes, just to name a few.
Planet of Hats
Planet Terra : Used a few times (the Mirror Universe has the Terran empire; the original series occasionally contrasts "Terrans" with "Vulcans").
Precursor Killers : The ancient Type III races of the galaxy are generally thought to have been wiped out by La Résistance , overwhelmed by the lesser races or simply fled the galaxy. Picard suggests that the Higher Synthetics may have cleansed the galaxy of organic life whenever a Robot War began turning in the organics' favour.
Proud Warrior Race Guy : The original series had the Klingons as being mostly warlike with few redeeming traits. Gene Roddenberry didn't like them being the "Black Hats" of the saga so in The Next Generation he made a Klingon a regular cast member and quickly established the "honor" aspect to their society.
Ray Gun : Phasers and disruptors.
Raygun Gothic : The Original Series solidly fits this trope. By the Next Generation era the Federation is in transition between Raygun Gothic and Crystal Spires and Togas .
The Rez : Whole planets of it.
Even the slower-than-light Impulse Engines appear to be some kind of reactionless drive. Although they glow an ominous red color while in operation, there's no apparent ejection of matter, and no mention is ever made of the need for propellant storage. (The top speed under impulse drive is supposed to be 0.25 c , which even for antimatter-powered Newtonian engines would require a substantial amount of propellant mass to be expelled.)
The Reptilians : Some of the most prominent examples include the Gorn, the Cardassians, and the reptile Xindi.
Sapient Cetaceans : A frequent theme in the series.
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale : Zig-zagged. The franchise is generally very good with astrological terms (no one ever speaks about travelling to a different galaxy unless the plot very much means so) but when it comes to power generation figures, the franchise often just throws terms around arbitrarily.
Screens Are Cameras : The viewscreens behave like this, in all the show's incarnations.
Screen Shake
Shout-Out/To Shakespeare
Sighted Guns Are Low Tech
Slow Electricity : The console displays always go on/off in sequence around the bridge. If there's a ship-wide outage, expect an outside shot of windows lighting up/going out one at a time.
Smart House : The ships behave much like this from TNG onward.
Space Fighter : Fighters are rare, but did turn up now and then — especially in Deep Space Nine . Later Trek series started having a stronger military influence and ships like the Defiant and the Delta Flyer are surprisingly battle-hearted fighters.
Space Navy : Starfleet
Standard Sci-Fi Army : Codified the use Security personnel. Follows the visual media model of focusing mostly on Infantry.
Standard Sci Fi History : Earth's history follows this.
Standard Sci Fi Setting : One of the most famous Trope Codifiers .
Standard Starship Scuffle : A likely Trope Codifier .
Standard Time Units : Stardates.
Starfish Aliens : While the series is often mocked for excessive use of Rubber Forehead Aliens , special mention must be made of the Tholians that appeared in the original series episode "The Tholian Web", who were so strange, while visible only partly through the main viewscreen during negotiations, that the writers themselves (like anyone else) couldn't figure out what they actually were implied to be for the better part of 30 years, even while being passingly mentioned once or twice in different series. Only toward the end of Enterprise did they finally settle on the head being a carapace, and the Tholians as a race of advanced arachnids.
State Sec : Romulans and Cardassians both got their own little versions in the form of the Tal'Shiar and Obsidian Order respectively. Arguably Starfleet's Section 31. The Ferengi's FCA might also qualify given their cultural bias.
Stealth in Space : The Romulans developed a Cloaking Device in the timeframe of TOS, which was soon stolen by the Federation; subsequently, the Treaty of Algeron prohibited the Federation from using or developing any cloaking technology of its own.
Subspace Ansible : Except when the plot demands its absence.
Super Doc : Any Sickbay doctor.
Type 0: Jake Sisko, Kes, Neelix, the Ferengi
Type 1: Most regulars who are Starfleet officers, Barclay, Klingons, Romulans
Type 2: Spock, other Vulcans, Khan Noonien Singh , Deanna Troi , Julian Bashir , Seven of Nine, Holograms, Jem'Hadar
Type 3: Data, the Borg, Species 8472, Changelings, Benjamin Sisko at the end of Deep Space Nine
Type 4: Kes after her ascension, Armus
Type 5: The Caretaker, Sphere Builders, The Prophets/Pah-Wraiths, the planet killer, the Whale Probe, Nagilum
Type 6: The Q Continuum, The Guardian of Forever, The Douwd ( Kevin Uxbridge )
Talking Animal : Lt. M'Ress, the felinoid alien from the Animated Series ; the Gorn, basically Lizard Folk .
Techno Babble : More or less the Trope Codifier . In the script it would be labeled as [TECH] and they had a separate writer to put in whatever seemed appropriate.
Technology Porn
Teleporter Accident
Teleport Interdiction : Since the transporters are such an integral part of the Star Trek franchise, it has a lot of this. For example, it's not possible to transport through a ship's deflector shields. Usually this is used as a way to add drama — with the ship having to drop its shields briefly in the middle of battle in order to beam back an away team — but it also means transporter-enabled boarding parties aren't a major part of battle tactics.
Pre- Nemesis , authors had a standing order not to kill any character that had appeared on-screen. Afterwards, because Nemesis is likely the last time the original timeline will be seen on-screen, all bets are off. (Still non-canon, however.)
Janeway is described as casually flaunting the timeline so frequently it actually managed to drive Captain Braxton insane . He comes up with something called "The Janeway Factor," meaning that you can fully expect her to blunder into any time-sensitive activities going on.
Also, the time police hate Kirk; when Sisko gives his report about "Trials and Tribble-ations," and first mentions Kirk, the two operatives look at each other and say something along the lines of "we all hate the Kirk cases."
Time to Step Up Commander
Translator Microbes : The Universal Translator.
Ungovernable Galaxy : The Federation manages its portion of the galaxy quite well. Trouble is, by the mid-24th century, it's only 11% of the galaxy. Even the quadrant it operates in, the Alpha Quadrant, is divided into several states. The Delta Quadrant is a Crapsack World full of pirates, scavengers, tribalists, and the Borg.
Values Dissonance : There is some of this between the Star Trek shows, spanning decades, and the audiences of various generations, but this trope really comes into its own in universe, with the majority of plots being about or involving inter-species and inter-cultural values dissonance.
Verb This : In First Contact :

Worf : Assimilate this. *cue Borgsplosion*

The Verse : Widely recognized as quite possibly the most coherent, internally consistent fictional universe ever created .
We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future
What the Hell, Hero? : Every Captain. In every series. And not infrequently either. Either them at the crew for their crap, or the crew to themselves for their own crap.
Will Not Tell a Lie : Vulcans, allegedly - something of an Informed Attribute . Of course, it's a good idea to pay attention to how the Vulcan said their sentence .
Worthy Opponent : The Romulan captain in Balance of Terror most notably. Used on other occasions.
X Meets Y : Hidden by the influence of Trek on later productions, but the original premise was then novel at least for television, and could easily be described as " Horatio Hornblower meets The Outer Limits ".
Zeerust : A given for the original series because of general budget restrictions of the time. Caused no shortage of Fan Dumb with Enterprise and the 2009 Star Trek movie because of an attempt to update. Next Generation mostly averts this even though it is over 20 years old now, mostly due to having an excellent--and Genre Savvy --visual designer in Michael Okuda.

Cast & crew
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Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek (1966)

In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

Gene Roddenberry
William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
DeForest Kelley
277 User reviews
99 Critic reviews
16 wins & 31 nominations total

Episodes 80

Photos 1999

Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk …

Mister Spock …

Lieutenant Leslie …

Nurse Chapel …

Ensign Freeman …

Yeoman Rand …

Announcer …

Beta 5 Computer …
Security Guard …
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Stellar Photos From the "Star Trek" TV Universe

Nichelle Nichols and Sonequa Martin-Green at an event for Star Trek: Discovery (2017)

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Trivia In the hallways of the Enterprise there are tubes marked "GNDN." These initials stand for "goes nowhere does nothing."
Goofs The deck locations for Kirk's Quarters, Sickbay and Transporter Room vary (usually between decks 4-7) throughout the series.

Dr. McCoy : "He's dead, Jim."

Crazy credits On some episodes, the closing credits show a still that is actually from the Star Trek blooper reel. It is a close-up of stunt man Bill Blackburn who played an android in Return to Tomorrow (1968) , removing his latex make up. In the reel, He is shown taking it off, while an off-screen voice says "You wanted show business, you got it!"
Alternate versions In 2006, CBS went back to the archives and created HD prints of every episode of the show. In addition to the new video transfer, they re-did all of the model shots and some matte paintings using CGI effects, and re-recorded the original theme song to clean it up. These "Enhanced" versions of the episodes aired on syndication and have been released on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Connections Edited into Ben 10: Secrets (2006)
Soundtracks Star Trek Music by Alexander Courage

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May 17, 2006
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September 8, 1966 (United States)
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Star Trek: The Original Series
Backlot, Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
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Runtime 50 minutes

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10 best classic star trek tropes in strange new worlds.

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Fire Country Season 2 Finale Confirmed To End With Major Wedding

One of robert downey jr's best performances in years is being completely ignored, 8 villain reveals that ruined their shows forever.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was met with a bit of trepidation when it was announced. After all, did audiences really need to be put back on the Enterprise again ? Weren't there more stories to tell in the Star Trek universe? Did Trek fans want another show like Discovery and Picard , which featured season-long story arcs and (in the minds of some) played fast and loose with established canon?

Instead, Strange New Worlds has been a breath of fresh air for Trekkies. Fans and critics alike are raving about how effective and entertaining SNW is. The show leans heavily into nostalgia, using classic Star Trek tropes and themes to bring it a more familiar feel.

Captain Falls In Love With An Alien

Episode Six, titled "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," re-introduces Captain Pike to Alora, a Majalan woman he met years prior as a young officer. Pike and Alora rekindle their romance, but it comes to a sudden end when Pike uncovers disturbing details about Majalan society.

Related: 10 Unpopular Opinions About Strange New Worlds, According To Reddit

Pike's successor, Captain Kirk was notorious for drawing the attention of ladies, whether they be 23rd-century aliens or human women from centuries past. Captain Picard was less of a lothario, but even he couldn't escape the affections of the roguish Vash. Sisko, Archer, and Janeway all dabbled to some degree with galactic romance, proving once again that it's good to be the captain.

Obsession With Spock's Love Life

One of the recurring guest roles on SNW is T'Pring, Spock's fiance. The show goes to great lengths to explore the couple's relationship, using several episodes to fill in details about one of Spock's best romances. The subject of Spock's love life is one Trek just can't seem to get away from.

Original Series episodes like "Amok Time," "All Our Yesterdays," and more dealt with Spock's love life to some degree. A deleted scene from Star Trek: The Voyage Home would have established that Saavik was pregnant with Spock's child. The character who is supposed to feel the fewest emotions is constantly being thrust into situations fraught with emotion, a dichotomy Trek writers are apparently still fascinated with.

Body Swapping

In one of the show's latest attempts to explore Spock's romantic side, SNW decided to fall back on another classic Star Trek gag: the swapping of bodies between characters. In this case, Spock switches bodies with T'Pring, which brings both of them a greater understanding of each other's professional roles.

Thankfully in this episode, the body-switching is a light-hearted mistake. In many episodes of TOS and Voyager , it took on a more sinister tone, with aliens attempting to use the bodies of Starfleet crewmembers for their own dark purposes. The most famous instance comes from Star Trek III, which famously used body-swapping to bring Spock back from the dead.

Conflicts With The Prime Directive

This one is such a classic that it ends up in the first episode of SNW. The episode follows the Enterprise crew as they debate whether or not to intervene in a conflict that could tear apart a developing civilization.

One of the most well-known rules in the Trek universe is that Starfleet officers are forbidden from interfering with the internal developments of non-warp-capable species, a rule known as General Order 1 (later the Prime Directive). The reason it's so well-known is that it's almost exclusively brought up when it's about to be broken, and it happens repeatedly in every Trek series. Mostly it works out, but some violations of the Prime Directive end pretty messily.

Landing Parties With Multiple Bridge Officers

One of the best small details about SNW is that Starfleet vernacular is a bit different than on shows set later in the timeline. "Away teams" are referred to as "landing parties" to pay homage to TOS , but no matter the name they share one characteristic across every era: they're always full of extremely important bridge officers.

Obviously, from a production point of view, this is necessary to ensure that the audience cares about the characters being beamed into a dangerous or thrilling situation. Still, from an in-universe perspective, it's rather impractical to risk the lives of so many high-ranking officers ( and some of SNW' s most likable characters) by sending them into an unknown environment. It is, nevertheless, perfectly in keeping with some of the oldest Trek traditions.

Aliens With A New Form Of Communication

Ever since she was confirmed to appear on SNW , it was fair to assume Uhura and her talent for communication would play a big role in the show. Episode 2, "The Children of the Comet," thrusts the cadet into the spotlight, forcing her to use her skills to communicate with a living comet that's on course to collide with an inhabited planet.

Alien species that use music, mathematics, or flamboyant gestures have all been used on Trek in the past, and usually to impart a similar lesson. Such interactions serve to teach the characters (and the audience) that it doesn't take much to open their mind to possibilities they'd never considered, and doing so can build rewarding bridges.

Situations That Require Outlandish Costumes

In "The Elysian Kingdom," the crew of the Enterprise is unwittingly forced to play out a children's story by a powerful alien living inside a nebula they came to study. All of them inhabit characters from the book, and each gets a full medieval costume to complete the transformation.

Since SNW is set in a time without holodecks, the writers had to get a bit more creative, but previous Trek shows loved putting their cast into wacky situations that required elaborate costumes. Such hijinks have their roots in the original Trek , and the willingness to fall back on TOS is one of the things Trek fans love most about Strange New Worlds.

Mystery Illness Incapacitates The Crew

In "The Ghosts of Illyria," the crew investigates an alien colony that has seemingly been annihilated, only to contract whatever illness afflicted the colonists. They must race against time to discover a cure before they too are wiped out.

Related: 10 Reasons Why Even Non-Star Trek Fans Will Love Strange New Worlds

That description could be used to summarize about a dozen Trek episodes from years past, and it's a trope the writers return to for good reason. It underlines that space exploration is dangerous and that the crew hasn't seen all the dangers the galaxy has to offer. Because the characters on the show are highly skilled, they have to be confronted with challenges they've never seen to keep the show believable and entertaining.

Social/Political References To Its Time

The conflict with the Prime Directive that drives the plot of episode 1 culminates in Captain Pike showing the aliens of a non-warp-capable species scenes from Earth's violent past in order to convince them to change. The footage includes real scenes from recent political turmoil in the United States and other places around the globe.

Though it was an unpopular move with some fans, the inclusion of commentary on real-life political and social issues is one of Star Trek's oldest traditions. Several TOS episodes dealt with themes of race and fascism, TNG explored LGBT issues, and DS9 's two-part episode "Past Tense" was a stark commentary on issues of poverty and class.

Planet Of The Week

One of the most striking features of SNW is its return to a less serialized storytelling format. The Enterprise finds itself on a new adventure every week, which allows more room for the creative storytelling that Trek is well-known for.

One of the biggest criticisms of Discovery and Picard was a departure from what every Trek show up until then had featured: storytelling that included some longer story/character arcs but was largely episodic. Instead of becoming bogged down in one large plot, SNW can introduce fans to more characters and new aliens, as well as bring back familiar ones. In short, this format is the ideal one for showing audiences more and more strange, new worlds.

Next: The 10 Best Star Trek References And Easter Eggs In Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)

Star Trek: 10 Most Overused Plot Tropes

Let's take a look at some recurring plots that've come to define Star Trek!

Star Trek Generations Enterprise B Only Ship In Range

Star Trek has been around for so long that it's forgivable for it to slightly reuse plots from time to time, such as the Voyager episode Author, Author that plays out very similar to the Next Generation episode The Measure Of A Man, both episodes featuring an artificial lifeform (Data and The Doctor) fighting for their freedom as sentient beings, not the property of Starfleet. In Star Trek: Picard we see the continuation of this story with other synthetic lifeforms.

However, there are certain plot ideas that have been reused so much that they have become tropes. Moments that define Star Trek, and can be found across nearly all shows of the franchise.

From things that prevent their technology from easily saving the day, to rehashed ideas for conflicts, to repeated filler moments, this list will be counting down ten of the most egregious examples of Star Trek plot tropes throughout the franchise's history.

10. Characters Meeting Alternate Versions Of Themselves

Most fans are familiar with the mirror universe. This alternate reality where humanity rules the galaxy with an iron fist and subjugates all alien life has appeared on Star Trek: Enterprise, The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, and Discovery, and shows audiences a darker, more sinister reality devoid of Starfleet's morals.

There are also many other alternate versions of characters that pop up throughout the franchise. In the Next Generation episode, Second Chances, we learn that Riker was inadvertently duplicated through a transporter glitch. His duplicate was left alone on the planet as the ship warped away carrying the other Riker and was forced to survive on his own for eight years. Another example is the clone of Picard, Shinzon, created by the Romulans, who assassinated the Romulan senate and made a plan to annihilate Starfleet.

Other notable copies include Admiral Janeway from the alternate future in the last episode of Voyager, all of the characters from the reboot movie timeline, and many more. This trope appears constantly in Trek and gives us insight into how the characters we know and love would've been different if they'd had different lives.

Marcia Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.

How Liam Shaw Challenges War Veteran Tropes in Star Trek: Picard Season 3

Todd Stashwick played the Romulan Talok in Star Trek: Enterprise, but how does he meaningfully represent veterans as Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard?

Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard took fans on an emotional rollercoaster ride that ended with his death.
The careful depiction of Captain Shaw as a capable leader and traumatized war veteran is incredibly rare in fiction.
Movies and TV shows often depict war veterans with psychological trauma as "broken," and Star Trek helps to break that trope.

Fans of Star Trek: Picard extoll the virtues of its third and final season largely because of the return of so many beloved legacy characters. Yet, any nearly 60-year-old storytelling universe needs to add new characters and stories if it is to keep going. Thus, Picard Season 3 gave Star Trek fans Captain Liam Shaw, one of the franchise's best fictional characters that smashed harmful tropes about war veterans living with trauma. Shaw is played by Todd Stashwick and continues the Star Trek legacy of positive representation through its stories.

When Gene Roddenberry pitched his " Wagon Train to the stars…" series to Desilu studios in 1964, he had an ulterior motive. The Great Bird of the Galaxy realized the power television had to advance social morality and political understanding. At the time, network censors prevented him from doing so on his first show, The Lieutenant , so he realized Star Trek would allow him to couch these messages in science fictional allegory. Shaw is a white, cis-gendered and (presumably) straight man. However, he was shaped by the Borg attack at Wolf 359 in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Season 3 and 4 two-part episode, " The Best of Both Worlds ." He was clearly traumatized by it, suffering from survivor's guilt and, possibly post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet, Captain Shaw is very different from other fictional veterans with similar experiences.

The 'Broken War Veteran' Trope Is All Over Fiction

Do star trek and star wars have different philosophies about war.

Psychological trauma is different from other forms of mental illness in that the trauma one experiences is inflicted on them from external factors rather than internal ones. Throughout history, the traumatic experience of war has been a focus of fiction from shows like Star Trek: Picard to Homer's The Odyssey in Ancient Greece. Well-intentioned storytellers try to shed light to this history through their fiction, but all too often they fall into the trap of the " Broken Soldier " trope. In trying to depict the toll that untreated psychological trauma takes on war veterans, they present characters as emotionally unstable or violent toward others, even though that doesn't match reality.

Prestige TV dramas and comedies are often extolled guilty of this shortsighted depiction . From early seasons of Showtime's Homeland to Bill Hader's Barry , the "broken" veteran is driven to violence instead of being haunted by it. Classic films like Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter also present characters so damaged and haunted by their war experiences they are either presented as self-destructive or as actual villains. This continued into the era of the "War on Terror," such as the 2009 film Brothers that turns the story of a veteran suffering from PTSD into a murder thriller. Such stories turn veterans' suffering into harmful entertainment.

Gene Roddenberry was right about Star Trek , TV and film's ability to change audiences' perceptions. "By using the media to raise positive awareness about PTSD, various channels of media are able to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves, [as opposed to creating harsh stigmas that punish] veterans," Dominican Scholar Francesca C. Katafias wrote in a study done for the Dominican University of California. Katafias' study further underscores how reckless and harmful the traditional Hollywood portrayal of such psychological trauma can be. Meanwhile, Star Trek has taken the opposite approach with characters like Shaw and Deep Space Nine's Nog.

How Star Trek Approached War Stories With Heart and Compassion

Strange new worlds gets up close to starfleet at war.

A veteran of World War II, Gene Roddenberry was adamant the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation not delve too deeply into war stories. However, after his passing, the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine dared to look into darkness to see if Roddenberry's brand of hope could illuminate it, and it did. With the Dominion War storyline, Ira Steven Behr and his writers' room questioned the very principles that make up the Federation and Starfleet, while not ignoring the personal cost. Nog, played by the late Aron Eisenberg, lost a leg in a battle, and Deep Space Nine devoted an entire episode to his trauma . Only instead of breaking bad or ending up dead, he healed.

Ironically, it was Deep Space Nine's Vic Fontaine , a holographic lounge singer, who helped Nog address his psychological trauma. After this episode, Nog not only returns to service in Starfleet, but he earns a promotion and remains a vital, capable officer. He's not a villain or even a hindrance, but rises up to meet the challenges thrown at him by the storytellers and becomes a true Star Trek hero. It is not hyperbole to say the episode focused on his injuries; Season 7's "It's Only a Paper Moon" saved lives.

In What We Left Behind , a documentary about the series, there is a montage of Star Trek fans who are also veterans talking about how this series spoke to them in a way the war-averse shows didn't. "I can't tell you how many times a veteran has come to me [at conventions] and they…say, 'That show helped me. It helped me when I came back ," Eisenberg recounted , his voice cracking with emotion. That's how fiction can both raise awareness for civilians and let the veterans in the audience know they still have a future worth fighting for.

Todd Stashwick Did the Work to Make Liam Shaw Feel Authentic

Shaw's survivor's guilt scene evokes todd stashwick's best 12 monkeys moment.

Todd Stashwick is a gifted actor and certified nerd, and he took his opportunity to join the Star Trek universe seriously. During a panel discussion recorded by The Inglorious Treksperts podcast, a trauma therapist in the audience asked him about his research for Shaw's big speech about surviving Wolf 359 . Stashwick said he did research complex trauma, "specifically veterans' experiences. Everybody's different…I basically stuck with the world they built…. When someone is triggered they are re-experiencing [their trauma] in real time…to keep the scene truthful."

Star Trek actors rarely get Emmy nods , but the monologue in which Shaw describes his trauma should've been up for both writing and performance. It lays bare the survivor's guilt he feels and the rage he still felt about what happened to those who didn't make it. It's one of the single most authentic portrayals of what veterans can experience ever put to film. Yet, Shaw isn't broken. Sure, he's gruff and unimpressed by the Star Trek heroes he's with, but he's not a bad guy. In fact, the by-the-book Starfleet captain is one of the universe's greatest. He's committed to protecting the lives of his crew while still fulfilling the duties expected of him to preserve life.

When the Borg reveal themselves in the final two episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Shaw doesn't devolve . Instead, he heroically faces them down without hatred or recklessness. Unfortunately for Stashwick fans, Shaw is killed defending his ship and his comrades. Yet, it's neither a tragic nor pointless death. In Shaw's final moments, viewers can assume he finally understands the circumstances that led to his survival during Wolf 359. It's not "fate" or anything like that, but rather how in impossible circumstances, every life saved is a victory.

Why Captain Liam Shaw Is an Example of Positive Veteran Representation

Picard's captain shaw could return in a future star trek spinoff.

What makes Captain Shaw such a unique and powerful character is that his trauma doesn't define him . Rather, it's simply a part of the mélange of emotions and experiences that make a fictional character seem as real as the actor who plays them. Through Shaw's interaction with Seven of Nine, his traumatic experiences are shown to be something he's still working to fully overcome. Yet, he's not helpless because of it. He's not cruel nor cowardly, and he is as averse to combat and violence like the best of Starfleet should be.

Viewers with trauma in their pasts, war-related or otherwise, can look to characters like Shaw or Nog and see themselves . That's all representation is really about, after all. Allowing those watching at home to feel "seen," and -- if everyone is really lucky -- draw inspiration from their own lives. Instead of offering up yet another character who says traumatic war experiences leave one hopelessly broken, Stashwick was successful in making Shaw truthful. The character is a fictional example that trauma and mental injury aren't the end. Instead, Shaw is a lovely, heroic example of what it means to be "stronger in the broken places."

Star Trek: Picard is streaming on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Picard

Taking place 20 years after we last saw Captain Jean-Luc Picard command the U.S.S. Enterprise , Star Trek: Picard picks up his story and finds him in a very different place in both his personal life and career.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
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They've stared at V'Ger , defeated Khan , found Spock and saved the whales . But can the Enterprise crew survive their greatest challenge yet? William Shatner ! ... In! ... Thedirectorseat .

With a brand-new Enterprise , Kirk and crew set out to resolve a hostage situation only to discover that they've been suckered as part of a grander scheme. Who's behind it? Why Spock's long-lost half-brother Sybok , of course! Sybok commandeers the Enterprise , winning over most of the crew by using his telepathic Epiphany Therapy on them. Failing to realize that there is No Such Thing as Space Jesus , Sybok makes them set a course for the center of the galaxy , where he believes God is waiting. With the bulk of his crew now working against him, Kirk must John McClane his way up the Enterprise armed with his wits, a pair of rocket boots... and Trek's very first fart joke.

Now it should be noted the movie's failings aren't all Shatner's fault . We can also thank Executive Meddling for all the forced "humor" and the 1988 WGA strike for short-circuiting the screenwriting, and the infamous Special Effect Failure was due to ILM being too busy with other projects to work on the film.

Still, the concept was Shatner's idea, and he knew about the studio's humor requirements before he even began work. Gene Roddenberry himself had expressed strong reservations about the pitch - he had good reason to be concerned, as he had previously written his own story about the crew meeting God and hated the result. But Shatner persisted with the idea of Kirk coming up against God and winning . Star Trek and religious topics have always been uneasy bedfellows; Deep Space Nine is the only series to pull it off, and Trekkies are divided on even that. (Of course, considering that Roddenberry's counterproposal was, as usual, having the Enterprise crew go back to 1963 so Spock could be the second gunman on the grassy knoll, Shatner's idea was still probably the better one.)

This movie isn't a total write-off, though: Star Trek V also features plenty of Character Development scenes between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (the Book Ends with the three camping are quite enjoyable), an absolutely brilliant backstory scene involving McCoy and his father, and has a collection of well imagined individual sequences such as Coming in Hot with a shuttlecraft.

Agent Mulder and Agent Scully : Sybok and Kirk, respectively. McCoy goes from Scully to Mulder when they meet "God" and back to Scully when "God" starts being a dick.
The Alcatraz : That brig was, or so we were told .
All There in the Manual : The Novelization by J.M. Dillard does a lot to redeem the movie's Idiot Plot , adding considerable backstory to Sybok and his mother, and explaining that "God" had telepathically sent Sybok a formula for configuring a starship's deflector shields to penetrate the Barrier. After Sybok orders Scotty to set up the Enterprise' s shields in this way, Klaa's Bird-of-Prey copies the same shield configuration in order to follow the Enterprise .
Amazonian Beauty : Vixis. As Chekov put it: "She has wonderful muscles" (by which he meant gluteus maximus ).
Armor-Piercing Question : 'What does God need with a starship?' Easily one of the most famous examples of this trope.
Artists Are Not Architects : In one scene, the Enterprise is shown to have about twice as many decks as it could possibly contain, and they are numbered in reverse order for some reason.
Ass in Ambassador : Inverted, unusually for Star Trek . St. John Talbot and Korrd are not unreasonable people (just incredibly jaded), and Caithlin Dar is downright nice (a rarity for Romulans, actually...).
Attack Pattern Alpha : Played with.
Behind the Black : Scotty, after claiming to know the ship like the back of his hand, concusses himself on a bit of bulkhead that sticks out from the wall. Whilst unseen by the audience before impact, Scotty was walking towards the bulkhead and, in fact, was looking right at it when he hit it.
Big Damn Gunship : Spock, commanding a Klingon Bird of Prey, opens fire on "God" in order to rescue Kirk.
Big Ego, Hidden Depths : Sybok. Cruelly invoked by "God", who takes the form of Sybok and mocks, "What's the matter? Don't you like this face? I have so many, but this one suits you best."
Big No : SHOOT HIM!!!!
Book Ends : Camping with the Power Trio .
Call Back : Kirk states in the opening men like himself, Bones and Spock had no families. He later admits he was wrong.
Can Not Tell a Lie : What Spock claims as proof that Kirk was not aboard the Enterprise . He was lying about not being able to lie, though he was telling the truth about where Kirk was at.
The novels, which are now vetted more thoroughly than they used to be, have featured Sybok exactly twice, both of them in the Myriad Universe novels, which take place entirely in alternate universes.
The novels have also mentioned the God-like creature at the center of the Great Barrier; in the Q Continuum trilogy of novels, He referred to Himself as "The One", and was a contemporary of Big Bad , the Beta XIII-A entity, and Gorgon. The four of them were responsible for the destruction of the Tkon Empire. It is mentioned that pretending to be God and then using the resulting influence to drive civilizations to self-destruction is his entire schtick.
Card-Carrying Villain : All of Klaa's actions are because...he's bored.
Catch a Falling Star
Catfolk / Catgirl : With three breasts. Defeated by Kirk when he throws her into a literal pool table .
Cerebus Syndrome : The "comedy" disappears and the movie becomes much more serious once they begin their trip to the Great Barrier.
Kirk most likely is referring to George, in that he's consoling Spock, who just lost a brother himself, and "how I got him back" isn't literal. This is hit home when McCoy pipes in.
Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb : In the rock-climbing scene.
Coming in Hot : " Plan B ... as in Barricade "
Creator Cameo : Harve Bennett sends Kirk off to investigate.
Custom Uniform : Each of the Power Trio is given an alternative uniform, which looks not unlike a grey pullover/sweatshirt. Captain Kirk is also seen in a "Captain's Jacket" at one point, underneath which he wears a white t-shirt bearing the slogan "Go Climb A Rock".
Shatner was also (reportedly) never thrilled with Roddenberry's idea of a perfect future, so he had those elements to show a more "realistic" future.
Death From Above : Kirk calls down some Close Air Support from the Enterprise in order to try and cover his escape from "God". While a photon torpedo should have been quite a bit more powerful than shown, it was still cool.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? : Or, in this case, shoot God with a torpedo and then a disruptor cannon.
Epiphany Therapy
Everyone Knows Morse
To expand further, after the success of The Voyage Home and its lighter, more comedic tone, the studio demanded similarly comedic delivery and just as many dramatic moments and effects... but at a fraction of the budget. Shatner was left scrambling trying to pick bits and pieces of his (overly) grand story out of the shambles the studio had left for him.
Fake Static : Done twice, once for laughs when Chekov pretends that there is a blizzard to avoid admitting he's lost, and once for drama when the Enterprise broadcasts static to delay talking to Sybok.
False Innocence Trick : The Enterprise passes through the barrier around the heart of the galaxy and finds the legendary planet Sha Ka Ree, believed to be the home of God. When the protagonists find God he's apparently imprisoned there, and tries to trick them into helping him escape. A subversion, because Kirk figures out there's something funny going on and manages to get "God" to reveal his true evil nature before he gets away.
Freudian Trio : Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, obviously. Notable as, while an important part of all of the movies and the show, this movie focuses on them as a trio more than any of the other movies.
Getting Crap Past the Radar : Literally, and proving that the Enterprise DOES have toilets. Just before Scotty's jailbreak, look at the stencil on the "chair" Kirk is sitting on. "WARNING: DO NOT USE WHILE IN SPACEDOCK".
Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul : Sybok's telepathy, which makes everyone he "treats" euphoric and immediately ready to join his cause.
Glowing Eyes of Doom
A God Am I : "One voice, many faces."
Heroic Sacrifice : Sybok, when he tries to mind meld with "God" so the others can escape.
Hollywood Tone Deaf : Of the three schlubs failing to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in sync, Kelley's singing got him into acting, Nimoy recorded a few albums , and... oh . Well, okay, one of them has an excuse. At least Spock is in tune.
Horse With A Plastic Horn Glued To Its Face
Hurricane of Puns : "I do not believe you realize the gravity of your situation," "I've always wanted to play to a captive audience," etc.
I Have Many Names : As the alien claims "One voice, many faces". The planet is supposedly a location common to all mythologies as well.
Inventional Wisdom : The "System Failure" light on Kirk's logbook.
Kick the Dog : Klaa shoots down Earth's first deep space satellite.
Kill Him Already : Kirk pulls this on Spock with Sybok, until he finds out that the two are half-brothers.
Long-Lost Relative : Sybok.
More Than Mind Control : Anyone who is "helped" by Sybok tends to follow him around like a puppet.
Multi Boobage : The Cat Dancer .
No One Gets Left Behind : Kirk orders McCoy and Spock to beam out first when the transporter conveniently can only beam up two at a time.
No Such Thing as Space Jesus
Nobody Poops : Averted, at very least whenever the Enterprise is not in spacedock.
The Nose Knows : In the turbolift as Kirk and crew return from their camping trip.
Not the Fall That Kills You : Kirk falls several thousand feet down El Capitan only to be caught by Spock about a foot away from the ground.
The Only One : A twofer. As well as Kirk being supposedly the best person to send in for hostage negotiations, the Enterprise is apparently the only ship available to take him to Paradise. That's despite Kirk starting on Earth, home of one of Star Fleet's largest bases, and Enterprise' s construction not actually being finished.
Path of Inspiration : Sybok's offer of internal peace.
Pillar of Light : How "God" first appears.
Plot Induced Stupidity : Sending a barely functioning, untested ship into a hostage situation when it doesn't even have functioning transporters. A Hand Wave was attempted by saying there were other ships around, but only Kirk had the experience. By that logic, they could have just sent a working ship to meet Kirk. Even Kirk thinks the reasoning is bullshit. Then again, it's just a hostage negotiation .
The Pollyanna : You just get that vibe from Caithlin Dar.
The Power of Friendship : (or The Power of Love if you so desire ) Refusing to desert Kirk is what keeps Spock and McCoy from being brainwashed by Sybok.
Precision F-Strike :
Reassigned to Antarctica : The three ambassadors on Nimbus III (the reasons are noted in the novelization).
Redemption Equals Death : Sybok 's remaining lifespan goes down to about 15 seconds once he realizes the error of his ways .
Not really. Kirk is actually surprised that Spock even has a brother.
Not necessarily an example of the trope. Ships were a lot faster in the original series and other movies set in the same time frame than they were in later material. They could travel to the edge of the galaxy and back in a very small amount of time or map every gas anomaly in the Beta Quadrant in a few months.
Also, the Pioneer probe blown up by the Klingons had been traveling at only a tiny fraction of lightspeed from Earth for 300 years, meaning the Klingons would have to be pretty deep within Federation space to encounter it. Of course, these Klingons were explicitly looking for a fight, so it's not unreasonable that they were deep in Federation space.
Sealed Evil in a Can : "God"
It's also a Development Gag (see What Could Have Been ).
Show Some Leg : Uhura doing a nude fan dance.
Space Marine : A squad is seen on the shuttle. They do nothing and say nothing.
Stock Footage : See above.
Stuff Blowing Up : A real-life example, not just in the movie. Because they were filming during a union strike, one of the production's trucks "mysteriously" blew up.
Sufficiently Advanced Alien : The being they meet on the other side of the barrier.
That Was Not a Dream : "I dreamt that a madman had taken over the Enterprise !"
" They Don't Make Them Like They Used To ," Scotty says of Enterprise -A.
Time for Plan B
Understatement : "The Klingons will not be happy." Pointed out as such by Sybok.
Unresolved Sexual Tension : Implied to be between Uhura and Scotty.
Villainous Breakdown : After having been blasted with a photon torpedo, "God" come out of it as this rather goofy distorted face exclaiming " YOOOOOUUUUU! while floating after Kirk.
Well-Intentioned Extremist : Probably the saddest thing about Sybok is that he's sincere. He honestly wants to help people, he honestly wants to do good, and he actually stands up to what he believes is God to demand to know why his "friends" are being hurt.
What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? : The film's rather mundane opening scene.
Wretched Hive : Nimbus III is a godawful hellhole.
You're Insane! : Kirk tells this to Sybok, who replies "Am I?", apparently genuinely considering it.

REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Episode 6

I ’ve been quite critical of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 for its tendency to lean heavily on past Trek lore rather than carving out its own narrative path. Many episodes seemed to echo themes and storylines from earlier series without showcasing what sets this crew apart. For a final season , you would hope for more. However, it seems the series has found its footing again with the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6, “ Whistlespeak. “

In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 , the crew ventures into uncharted territory, both thematically and narratively, as they grapple with the secrets of the progenitors. After weeks of episodes that seemed to tread familiar ground, this episode marks a refreshing return to form, showcasing the crew’s unique capabilities in handling the challenges of the unknown.

Now that the series has finished its attempt to get us to care about Commander Reyner, it’s time to shift the spotlight onto other beloved characters like Tilly ( Mary Wiseman ), Dr. Culber ( Wilson Cruz ), and Adira Tal ( Blu del Barrio ). These characters, whom fans have invested so much time in throughout five seasons, deserve their moment to shine. As Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 pivots towards exploring their arcs and relationships, we can anticipate deeper character development and richer storytelling that comes with years of layers.

During their investigation, they encounter a seemingly utopian society with no apparent signs of discrimination or conflict. However, a stark contrast emerges when they discover the community’s practice of ritual sacrifice, stemming from interactions with advanced technology long ago. As the crew becomes entangled in a pilgrimage related to the Progenitor secrets, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 delves into the complex interplay between the species’ religion and the Prime Directive—a theme familiar to fans of various Star Trek series.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 tackles the themes of religion versus technology with nuance, unlike previous Trek series like Deep Space Nine , which directly challenged Gene Roddenberry’s views on religion. Through Captain Burnham’s ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) poignant statement—”I am not a god, but maybe I was sent here by one”—the episode explores the blurred lines between spirituality and scientific intervention, honoring Star Trek’s tradition of thought-provoking discourse.

Furthermore, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 delves into Dr. Culber’s introspective journey. This sheds light on his unresolved existential crisis and the notion of finding purpose beyond scientific explanation. Through his conversations, the narrative underscores the inherent interplay between spirituality and science, enriching the discourse surrounding the human condition. Science is not ruled out, but whatever helps Dr. Culber through this difficult time is the priority.

As the series delves deeper into Dr. Culber’s storyline, there is hope it will also give the same attention to characters like Adira Tal . Like the rest of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6, Adira’s screentime shows a slight return to form. The series has picked up the pace, but risks tainting character arcs this late into the season if the narrative doesn’t delve deeper into their journey soon.

While Adira is still grappling with the aftermath of the time bug incident, it’s been some time since that event unfolded within the context of the season. With only four episodes remaining, there are growing concerns that Adira might not receive the full character arc they deserve.

As the climax unfolds in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 , Captain Burnham faces a pivotal decision that encapsulates the essence of the Prime Directive’s purpose. Should she uphold it at the risk of sacrificing a crew member or defy it in light of past interference in the planet’s development? This moral quandary not only tests the crew’s resolve but also highlights their evolution in grappling with the responsibilities of wielding Progenitor technology. If there were any Captain to see their crew through this challenge, it would be Michael Burham.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 is streaming exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes every Thursday.

The post REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Episode 6 appeared first on But Why Tho? .

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 6 goes old school and benefits because of it

Why do unevolved, pre-warp civilizations always have such strange and often lethal customs?

a group of people in very plain, grey clothing stand outside under trees

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 6

Here we are then, the other side of the halfway mark of the very last season of " Star Trek: Discovery ." Will the plot actually advance any further? Or does the chase across the galaxy for the Progenitors MacGuffin continue, offering another chance to insert a stand-alone, episode-length adventure along the way? Interestingly, a look at the IMDb top 10 rated episodes of "Discovery" there isn't one single entry beyond the second season.

This week's curiously named installment is entitled "Whistlespeak" and it's almost a throwback to old school-style of sci-fi storytelling, more typically found in something like "Stargate SG1." And a 10 episode-long chase for an alien artifact would be just fine in that show, because each season was typically 22 episodes long. Sadly, that's one reason why "Discovery" has been deteriorating, rather than improving, because each season — and it's far more obvious in seasons 3, 4 and 5 — seems to follow a very cookie-cutter formulaic approach.

Related: Star Trek streaming guide: Where to watch the Star Trek movies and TV shows online

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There's always a threat facing all life in the universe (killer AI, exploding dilithium, gravity waves, Progenitor tech), there's always a series of clues-of-sorts that have to followed and that usually entails a set of standalone adventures before finally everything concludes in a disappointing payoff. Tragically, "Discovery" never really found its identity and it struggled from the outset when the original concept was not to focus on the captain of a particular starship, but rather the first officer.

two characters in dingy brown clothing sit and have a conversation among stone walls

That combined with the fact that big-budget TV sci-fi has shifted to shorter seasons with more expensive episodes over longer seasons and more expansive storylines. Just remind yourself what other sci-fi shows have managed to achieve in five seasons; "Stargate: Atlantis" and " Babylon 5 " both had five seasons, "Battlestar Galactica" only had four and "Stargate: SG1" had 10. (Although the less said about the whole Ori storyline, the better.)

All that aside, this particular episode was a quirky little number that was actually quite enjoyable. So, that's nice. Yes, there are one or two enormous small plot holes and the super-convenient tech has somewhat taken a turn for the ridiculous. This is not swallowing a pill to genetically alter you temporarily, these are easy-install "optical tricorders" — yes, indeed, you need never have the burden of having to actually carry a tricorder anymore, because now they can be worn like contact lenses.

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This week, Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) beam incognito down to the surface of a pre-warp, pre-industrial world much like the Planet Vancouver that we often saw in just about every incarnation of "Stargate." And why-oh-why do these primitive, unevolved civilizations always have traditions that seem harmless at first, but upon further examination almost certainly seem to involve decapitation, disembowelment or any one of a hundred different, excruciating ways of dying, all in the name of glorious sacrifice to some god or another. Was the human race ever like tha...oh wait, hang on. Damn .

Mmm, fire indeed hot. These primitive folk do know that fire needs air to burn, right? Just checkin' like.

In this particular instance it's simply suffocating. Of course if you blew the fires out that also happen to be burning in the room, you know, using up all the precious air that's left, you might last a teeny-tiny bit longer. But that's probably not covered in standard Starfleet training, rather undergraduates are instead taught how to rebuild an illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator using only a discarded toothbrush, a clothes peg, an empty washing up liquid bottle and sticky-back plastic.

You also have to wonder how the local population had such an in-depth knowledge of the sacrificial chamber if no one ever survived, but we'll look past that, just like the writers did. And boy-oh-boy, there's along time to kill before you get killed. On the up side, the dialogue is pretty sharp this week and despite all its flaws, this is a well-paced installment. Still, a cliffhanger might be nice at some point before the show wraps permanently. All things considered though, given the low bar "Discovery" has sadly set itself, this one isn't terrible.

In other, somewhat related news, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has stepped down and it's rumored that the entertainment giant is going to create an "office of the CEO" and have a team making the important decisions rather than a rich, white man who doesn't seem to have much of a clue. Sounds like a plan, right? Well, wait for it... Instead, three rich, white men will be making all the important decisions. George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Paramount Media Networks and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures.

Needless to say, Paramount's share value has taken a nosedive this week. Now while most of this is related to Paramount Global, it will of course affect the future of Paramount Plus, including programming choices, budget and just about everything else that determines whether or not we'll get to see any "Star Trek" going forward, let alone quality "Star Trek." Let's face facts, the only reason we're getting a Section 31 TV series TV movie is because of contractual obligations.

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery," and every other episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US, while "Prodigy" has found a new home on Netflix.

Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

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COMMENTS

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Film)
The One With… the Cold War IN SPACE! Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1991. It is a grand finale for the classic Trek crew ( as played by the original actors, at least) which resolves the previously ongoing conflict between the Federation and the Klingons with a Tom Clancy ...
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country / Characters
Classy Cane: He uses the thigh bone of an animal he'd hunted as his walking stick.; Due to the Dead: Star Trek: The Next Generation reveals that Starfleet named an Excelsior-class ship in his honor.; Honor Before Reason: Many of his fellow Klingons were against his decision to present an olive branch to the Federation.It cost him his life. The Idealist: According to Azetbur, his countrymen saw ...
Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E10 "Chain of Command"
Original air date: December 14, 1992. Jean-Luc Picard, Worf, and Beverly Crusher are assigned by Starfleet on a covert mission to seek and destroy a Cardassian biological weapons installation on their border world, Celtris III. In Picard's place, Starfleet assigns Captain Edward Jellico, who has a vastly different style of command and decorum ...
The Complete Star Trek Timeline Explained
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Star Trek The Next Generation S 6 E 7 Rascals / Recap
Captain Picard, Ensign Ro, Guinan and Keiko O'Brien are on their way back from a botany and archaeology conference when their shuttlecraft passes through a Negative Space Wedgie. When O'Brien beams them aboard just before their shuttlecraft explodes, they arrive as children. Crusher analyses the four kids and finds that their faculties are ...
Star Trek
The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Star Trek franchise. For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages. ... (creator of the franchise) from the late-'80s/early-'90s, only live-action Star Trek TV episodes and films are considered canon. This has been hotly debated by fans, and ...
10 Best Sci-Fi Tropes Star Trek Popularized
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Star Trek: The Original Series
The first show in the Star Trek franchise. The origin of the show came when Gene Roddenberry was looking to write hard-hitting political and moral commentary and could not do so with the regular dramas of the time. He deduced that by creating a science fiction show borrowing heavily from the film Forbidden Planet, he could slip in such commentary disguised as metaphors for the various current ...
Star Trek/Characters
Beware the Nice Ones. Boldly Coming. Humans Are Diplomats. Humans Are Special. The Kirk. The McCoy. Most Writers Are Human: Which is why all Star Trek series to date have centered around a human captain. Planet of Hats: Averted; we're the only planet that doesn't have a hat.
What are your favorite Trek episode tropes? : r/startrek
Star Trek 6, Geordi and the Romulan in The Enemy, The Andorians (particularly Shran) in Enterprise, even silly times like Day of the Dove. One of my favorite moments is in The Chase, when the Romulan captain contacts Picard privately at the end. The one thing I really liked in Nemesis was how it ended with the hope of reconciliation with the ...
Star Trek (TV Series 1966-1969)
Star Trek: Created by Gene Roddenberry. With Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.
History for Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS5E06Whistlespeak
Added line(s) 6 (click to see context) : * EurekaMoment: Ravah shows Tilly an ancient numbering system inside the High Summit, used to indicate the five towers (they're presently in #3). Tilly recognizes the fifth symbol as being the same scratches on the water vial from the previous clue, indicating that they've been searching the wrong tower.
10 Best Classic Star Trek Tropes In Strange New Worlds
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How Bill Clinton Helped Shape Star Trek: Voyager Season 1
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'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 6 goes old school and benefits
Get all the Star Trek content you can possibly handle with this free trial of Paramount Plus. Watch new shows like Star Trek: Discovery and all the classic Trek movies and TV shows too. Plans ...