Suspicions

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46830.1: Dr. Crusher goes out on a limb by gathering some of the brightest minds in the galaxy aboard the Enterprise to listen to a proposal from Ferengi scientist Reyga for a powerful subspace shield. Skepticism and competition divide the scientists, but a demonstration is arranged, using an Enterprise shuttle. The pilot, who is also one of the scientists, dies when the experiment goes wrong. Beverly, already regretful for the failure of Reyga’s invention, suddenly finds herself in the middle of a murder investiagation when Reyga himself is found dead.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Menosky and Naren Shankar
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Tricia O’Neil (Kurak), Peter Slutsker (Dr. Reyga), James Horan (Jo’Bril), John S. Ragin (Dr. Christopher), Joan Stuart Morris (T’Pan), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rightful Heir

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46852.2: Worf journeys to Boreth, where devout Klingons meditate in hope of glimpsing a vision of Kahless, the legendary leader of all Klingons and the originator of their hereditary quest for honor and glory. Worf and many of the others are surprised when Kahless actually appears and announces his intention to return to the imperial throne and put the Klingon Empire back on a path toward honor. Worf is skeptical at first, but when Gowron, the Empire’s current leader, demands a genetic test which proves that the new arrival is indeed Kahless, a deep division separating skeptics and those who wish to follow Kahless seems imminent.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by James E. Brooks
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Robert O’Reilly (Gowron), Alan Oppenheimer (Koroth), Norman Snow (Torin), Charles Esten (Divok), Kevin Conway (Kahless), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Second Chances

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46915.2: Returning to a planet that a Starfleet research party hastily abandoned eight years ago, an away team finds Lt. Will Riker, a copy of Riker created by a transporter anomaly during his participation in the original evacuation. This Riker has never been assigned to the Enterprise, nor has he resolved his relationship with Troi as the “real” Riker, and his isolation has resulted in a very different personality from the Riker who has served on the Enterprise for six years. His motivations, discipline and judgment differ from his higher-ranking alter-ego, and the two Rikers must stop seeing each other’s perceived failings long enough to assist one another in a dangerous salvage mission.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Renè Echavarria
story by Michael A. Medlock
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Jonathan Frakes (Lt. Riker), Dr. Mae Jemison (Ensign Palmer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Timescape

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46944.2: Returning via runabout from a Starfleet conference, Picard, Troi, Geordi and Data encounter strange disturbances in time that seem to have limited physical range. Finally locating the Enterprise, they find her in some kind of exchange of fire with a Romulan warbird, in a zone of time that moves so slowly it appears to be still. Altering escape equipment to allow freedom of movement in the other areas of time, Picard and the others try to determine whether the Enterprise was invaded by Romulans, or if it was simply caught in a rescue attempt gone wrong – and whether or not they can restart the flow of time without bringing events to their inevitably disastrous end.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga
directed by Adam Nimoy
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michael Bofshever (Romulan), John DeMita (Romulan), Joel Fredericks (Engineer), Patricia Tallman (Romulan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Descent

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46982.1: The Enterprise arrives at the site of a recent attack on a Starfleet outpost, only to find the Borg in orbit in a new class of vessel much larger than their previously known forms of transport. The Borg have also changed, now possessing some form of individuality and emotion – and they have also developed a desire to simply kill organic life forms, not absorb them into the Borg collective consciousness. A squadron of Borg attack an away team from the Enterprise, and Data, in the process of fending off a Borg, experiences an inexplicable flash of ruthless anger and kills the Borg. The attacking party defeated, the away team returns to the Enterprise and Picard contacts Starfleet. The new Borg pose an unknown but likely more serious threat than ever before to the Federation. After determining the new Borg ship’s method of propulsion, the Enterprise follows and is attacked once again. Meanwhile, Data has yet to make any further progress in his analysis of his first emotion – but a captured Borg makes Data a seductive offer to experience more emotions…and it turns out to be an offer Data cannot resist.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Jeri Taylor
directed by Alexander Singer
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Professor Stephen Hawking (himself), John Neville (Isaac Newton), Jim Norton (Albert Einstein), Natalija Nogulich (Admiral Nechayev), Brian J. Cousins (Crosis), Brent Spiner (Lore), Richard Gilbert Hill (Bosus), Stephen James Carver (Tayar), Jonathan del Arco (Hugh)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Descent Part II

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47025.4: Taken prisoner by Lore and the Borg while trying to locate the missing Data, an away team consisting of Picard, Troi and Geordi is trapped while the Enterprise is attacked in orbit by the Borg ship. Left in command by Picard, Beverly beams aboard as many of the Enterprise search parties from the planet below as she can and is forced to retreat. Riker and Worf, left behind, discover that Hugh is in hiding on the planet and is biding his time to wrest control of the newly-individualized Borg from Lore, who appealed to the disoriented members of the former collective to follow him to a state of completely non-organic immortality. In the meantime, Data has distanced himself from his past, showing cruelty and sadism toward his captured former comrades. Riker offers to help Hugh in his fight against Lore while hoping to free Picard and the others, as Beverly decides to turn the Enterprise around to retrieve the rest of the crew – but if Data continues to obey the dictates of Lore, there may be no members of the crew to retrieve.

Season 7 Regular Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data)

Order the DVDswritten by Renè Echavarria
directed by Alexander Singer
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Brent Spiner (Lore), Jonathan del Arco (Hugh), Alex Datcher (Taitt), James Horan (Barnaby), Brian J. Cousins (Crosis), Benito Martinez (Salazar), Michael Reilly Burke (Goval), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Star Trek: Generations

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: Kirk, Scotty and Chekov are present for the christening of the newly constructed starship Enterprise NCC-1701-B, during which Kirk gives the first order to launch the ship. Shortly afterward, an emergency arises, and the new Enterprise is the only ship close enough to respond, despite the fact that it is untested and carries only a skeleton crew. The Enterprise is battered in an urgent mission to reach a smaller vessel and rescue her crew, and many of the doomed ship’s survivors are pleading to go back from where they came, though it is obvious that they are not referring to their destroyed vessel. One of the survivors, Soran, means to rediscover something amazing he found, something which caused the destruction of his ship. Another survivor, a mysterious woman named Guinan, will someday be aboard a ship called Enterprise again. As the Enterprise-B limps away from her first crisis, an energy remnant from the same phenomenon that destroyed the smaller ships strikes the Enterprise, and Kirk is killed – or at least it seems so to his colleagues…

Stardate 48650.1: A holodeck celebration of Worf’s promotion to lieutenant commander is cut short by a personal communique to Picard and a distress call from the Amargosa Solar Observatory. By the time the Enterprise reaches the observatory, attackers – apparently Romulans – have already left their mark. Back on the Enterprise, Data decides that the time has finally come for him to try Dr. Soong’s emotion chip for himself. Dr. Soran, a researcher from the observatory, insists on returning there so he can continue his work in spite of the recent attack. It is discovered that the Romulan attackers were searching for trilithium, a vital component in a new and highly destructive explosive device. Data and Geordi are scanning for trilithium on the observatory when Data is overcome with emotions; Dr. Soran appears and takes this opportunity to take them hostage. Aboard the Enterprise, Picard reveals to Troi that he received a message earlier informing him of the death of the only other living members of the Picard family, leaving him the sole survivor of his family line. When Soran launches a probe from the observatory into a nearby star, the star explodes, leaving only minutes before the stellar shock waves reach and destroy the Enterprise and the entire solar system. Worf and Riker beam to the observatory and rescue the fear-stricken Data, but Soran has captured Geordi and transports away to a Klingon Bird of Prey which, along with the Enterprise, barely escapes the star’s death throes in time. The Klingon ship is commanded by the Duras sisters.

On the Enterprise, the incident nearly 80 years ago involving the Enterprise-B is investigated when Soran and Guinan are both discovered to have been there. Guinan explains to Picard that Soran is trying to replicate the ribbon of immense energy that destroyed the ship they were on decades ago, since it was a doorway to an ethereal plane of eternal happiness, so he can return there. Picard and Data find out that Soran destroyed the star to divert the energy so he can once again reach the Nexus, but another star will have to be detonated before Soran can reach his goal – and that star’s solar system is heavily populated. The Enterprise tracks down the Duras sisters’ ship, and Picard agrees to exchange himself for Geordi as a hostage so he can try to stop Soran. Picard finds himself on one of the target star’s planets, where Soran is moments away from firing another probe that will finally allow him to reach the Nexus. Geordi is returned to the Enterprise with a nanite-like transmitter that sends his VISOR’s input to the Klingon sisters, who use information Geordi sees in engineering to launch a withering attack on the Enterprise. Worf discovers a weakness in the Bird of Prey’s defenses, and manages to destroy the Duras sisters at last, but the Enterprise has sustained more damage than can be contained, and the crew is evacuated to the saucer section so the warp drive section can be jettisoned before it goes critical.

Picard manages to attack Soran, but not before the scientist launches his probe into the star. The Enterprise’s drive section explodes, catapulting the saucer straight into the planet’s atmosphere, where it lands safely, though the Enterprise will never take to the stars again. When the Nexus opens up, Soran and Picard are sucked into it; moments later, the exploding star destroys the planet the Enterprise’s saucer has landed on.

In the Nexus, Picard encounters a fragment of Guinan that was left in the rift in the Enterprise-B incident. She informs him that he can go to whatever time he wishes, and Picard intends to use this ability to prevent Soran from launching the probe that destroys the star and its planets. Guinan also suggests that Picard seek the help of another starship captain who was captured in the Nexus when the Enteprise-B was struck by its energy discharge after rescuing Guinan. That individual happens to be James T. Kirk. Picard convinces Kirk to help him stop Soran, and they emerge at the point in time before Soran launched his final probe. The captains’ combined efforts thwart Soran’s plans and result in the mad scientist’s death at the hands of his own grounded probe, but Kirk has suffered mortal injuries in the course of the battle and dies just before a shuttle from the Enterprise arrives to retrieve Picard, while the Enterprise crew is evacuated to the starship Farragut, leaving the wreckage of Picard’s most legendary command on the planet surface.

Order this movie on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
story by Rick Berman & Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by David Carson
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Malcolm McDowall (Soran), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), James Doohan (Scotty), Walter Koenig (Chekov), William Shatner (Kirk), Barbara March (Lursa), Gwynyth Walsh (B’etor), Alan Ruck (Captain Harriman), Jacqueline Kim (Ensign Demora Sulu), Jenette Goldstein (Enterprise-B Science Officer), Glenn Morshower (Enterprise-B Helm), Tim Russ (Enterprise-B Lieutenant), Thomas Kopache (Enterprise-B Communications), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Christine Jansen (Journalist), John Putch (Journalist), Tommy Hinckley (Journalist), Michael Mack (Ensign Hayes), Dendrie Taylor (Lt. Farrell), Granville Ames (Transporter Chief), Henry Marshall (Security Officer), Brittany Parkyn (Girl with Teddy Bear), Rif Hutton (Klingon Guard), Brian Thompson (Klingon Helm), Marcy Goldman, Jim Krestaiuce, Judy Levitt, Kristopher Logan, Gwen van Dam (El-Aurian Survivors), Kim Braden (Picard’s Wife), Cristopher James Miller (Rene), Matthew Collins, Mimi Collins, Thomas Alexander Dekker, Madison P. Dinton, Olivia Hack (Picard’s Children), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 50869.3: The Borg are invading. As Starfleet masses to fight one of the gigantic Borg ships, Captain Picard and the new Enterprise-E are ordered to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone. Picard, who believes this is because of his experience of being assimilated six years ago, disobeys orders and joins the battle. One of the other ships taking part is the Defiant, commanded by Worf, who is beamed off the badly damaged but salvageable ship. The Borg ship is destroyed, but not before launching a smaller spherical vessel which the Enterprise chases into a temporal distortion. A glance at a Borg-assimilated Earth tells the crew what the Borg plan – to sabotage the past. The Enterprise finds itself orbiting Earth in the year 2063, on the day before the flight of the first warp-driven ship, built by Zefram Cochrane. History records that Earth’s first contact with aliens (the Vulcans) occured when the Vulcans noticed the warp signature of Cochrane’s ship. The Enterprise crew must stop the Borg from disrupting history, and at the same time must fight against Borg who have boarded the Enterprise and begun assimilating the crew.

Meanwhile, Data is captured and faces the predatory Borg Queen, and Riker, Geordi and Troi must convince the alcoholic Cochrane to keep his date with history. Another random element is Cochrane’s assistant, Lily, who has been transported to the Enterprise’s sickbay and escaped. Picard finds her and is able to convince her of the situation, as the Borg Queen tempts Data with the promise of giving him flesh, in return for handing over control of the ship. Picard offers himself in exchange for Data, as the equal the Queen seeks. It appears as though Data has agreed to betray his crewmates – at the Queen’s orders, he fires on Cochrane’s ship during its test flight…but the shots miss, and Data floods Engineering with a deadly plasma backwash. Picard climbs free, and the Queen is killed, her cybernetic implants unable to function without an organic component. Earth and the Federation are safe once more.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
story by Rick Berman & Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jerry Goldsmith & Joel Goldsmith

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloane), James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Alice Krige (Borg Queen), Michael Horton (Security Officer), Neal McDonough (Lt. Hawk), Marnie McPhail (Eiger), Robert Picardo (Holographic Doctor), Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay), Adam Scott (Defiant Conn Officer), Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes), Eric Steinberg (Porter), Scott Strozier (Security Officer), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Victor Bevine (Guard), David Cowgill (Guard), Scott Haven (Guard), Annette Helde (Guard), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice), C.J. Bau (Bartender), Hillary Hayes (Ruby), Julie Morgan (Singer in Nightclub), Ronald R. Rondell (Henchman), Don Stark (Nicky the Nose), Ethan Phillips (Holodeck Maitre’D), Cully Frederickson (Vulcan), Tamara Lee Krinsky (Townsperson), Don Fischer (Borg), J.R. Horsting (Borg), Heinrich James (Borg), Andrew Palmer (Borg), Jon David Weigand (Borg), Dan Koren (Borg), Robert L. Zachar (Borg)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: The Next GenerationOn the planet Ba’ku, a small ringed world tucked away into a dangerous expanse of gaseous clouds known as the Briar Patch, a team of Federation and Son’a scientists observe the seemingly simple Ba’ku people from the safety of a cloaked observation post. But Data, who has been assigned to the project, makes a discovery that changes his status from member of the research team to hunted fugitive. Data destroys the cloaking device, revealing the observers to the Ba’ku, and attacking the Son’a command ship. Starfleet Admiral Dougherty, at the urging of the Son’a leader Ru’afo, contacts the Enterprise and demands Data’s schematics. Captain Picard is alarmed by the news of Data’s behavior, and decides to set the Enterprise on a course for Ba’ku to investigate personally. Picard and Worf – visiting during a break in his duties aboard Deep Space Nine – manage to capture Data and bring him back to the Enterprise, but questioning him reveals more surprises. Hidden beneath a lake on Ba’ku, a Starfleet ship with a huge holodeck awaits to take the small populatuion of 600 Ba’ku away from their home, leaving the rings of their world to be mined by the Son’a for their unique restorative properties. The rings have made the Ba’ku nearly immortal, and they will die if removed from their planet. And, to Picard’s disgust, Ru’afo has the cooperation of Admiral Dougherty – and, the admiral claims, the entire Federation Council – in his venture to relocate the Ba’ku by force.

Having befriended the Ba’ku during his visits to the planet, Picard decides that it may be necessary to abandon his Starfleet career to save them. His crew joins him in his fight to preserve the Ba’ku, but Ru’afo has other ideas, and is quickly tiring of the Starfleet procedures that Admiral Dougherty insists upon following. Riker and Geordi take the Enterprise on a course out of the Briar Patch to contact the Federation without the interference of the nearby gases, with Son’a attack ships in hot pursuit with orders to shoot to kill. Meanwhile, Picard and the others try to lead the terrified Ba’ku to a safe haven, avoiding Ru’afo’s attempts to kidnap them via transporter. On the way, a critical discovery is made, revealing the real reason the Son’a are trying to conquer the Ba’ku – and revealing that Dougherty has gotten the Federation involved in a centuries-old struggle to the death…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by Michael Piller
story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly), Marina Sirtis (Troi), F. Murray Abraham (Ru’afo), Donna Murphy (Anij), Anthony Zerbe (Admiral Dougherty), Gregg Henry (Gallatin), Daniel Hugh Kelly (Sojef), Michael Welch (Artim), Lorella Cuccarini (Ensign Perim), Mark Deakins (Tournel), Breon Gorman (Lt. Curtis), Max Grodenchik (Security Officer), Stephanie Niznik (Ops Officer), D. Elliot Woods (Starfleet Officer #1)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 56844.9: On the eve of the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi (and their reassignment as Riker is scheduled to take command of the U.S.S. Titan), the Enterprise investigates sensor readings indicating positronic activity, and on a distant world the disassembled body of a Soong-type android is found. When Data assembles his newfound “brother,” it identifies itself as B-4, and it turns out to be very primitive indeed – perhaps even an original prototype constructed before Lore. Picard receives new orders from Starfleet Command: Admiral Janeway is sending the Enterprise to begin peace talks with what appears to be a new Romulan government. But when he arrives at Romulus, Picard finds a young human – almost a mirror image of himself – has installed himself as the Romulan Praetor after killing the entire Romulan Senate in a coup. Picard is given shocking proof that Shinzon, the new Praetor, is a young clone of himself. Shinzon claims to have been the remnant of an abandoned project to replace Picard and infiltrate the Federation, but now – with the same drive, ambition and charisma as Picard possesses – he claims to want peace. Picard is concerned by the blood spilled by Shinzon’s coup, especially when Shinzon commands a gigantic battleship called the Scimitar. Troi suffers a telepathic intrusion from Shinzon’s Reman Viceroy, and Dr. Crusher discovers something else – thalaron radiation, which, when used as a weapon, completely disrupts living matter at a submolecular level. B-4 also appears to be part of whatever plot Shinzon is hatching, though Geordi and Data discover this in time to prevent the android from passing any sensitive information along to Shinzon. Shinzon kidnaps Picard and beams B-4 aboard the Scimitar – though he doesn’t realize until later that he has brought Data aboard instead. Data helps Picard escape after the captain learns of Shinzon’s true agenda: to topple not just the Romulans, but the Federation as well. And unless someone makes a supreme sacrifice to destroy it, Shinzon has a weapon more than adequate to the task.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by John Logan
story by John Logan & Rick Berman & Brent Spiner
directed by Stuart Baird
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data / B-4), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Tom Hardy (Shinzon), Ron Perlman (Viceroy), Shannon Cochran (Senator Tal’aura), Dina Meyer (Commander Donatra), Jude Ciccolella (Commander Suran), Alan Dale (Praetor Hiren), John Berg (Senator), Michael Owen (Helm Officer Branson), Kate Mulgrew (Admiral Kathryn Janeway), Robertson Dean (Reman Officer), David Ralphe (Commander), J. Patrick McCormack (Commander), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Computer voice)

Notes: A scene introducing Commander Madden (played by Steven Culp), Riker’s replacement as the Enterprise’s first officer, was cut out of the film. Director Bryan Singer, Patrick Stewart’s boss in the X-Men films, plays an uncredited role as an Enterprise bridge officer. One of the Starfleet ships at sector 1045 is the U.S.S. Archer, according to the viewscreen display; this may or may not be a reference to Captain Archer of the 22nd century Enterprise. In a bit of a blooper, Picard looks at a photo of himself in a Kirk-era Starfleet cadet uniform, completely bald – though in the fifth season episode Violations, it was established that he had hair as recently as when he brought Jack Crusher’s body home.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Borderland

Star Trek: EnterpriseA Klingon Bird of Prey ensnares a smaller ship in its tractor beams, and the Klingons are unimpressed by the human crew – until they overpower the Klingons with superhuman speed and strength, killing the entire crew. Word of the incident reaches Starfleet Headquarters, and Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew are assigned to rein in the humans. Believed to be augments – genetically engineered super-humans left over from the Eugenics Wars – these humans are believed to have been born from frozen embryos stolen by an amoral geneticist, Dr. Arik Soong. Imprisoned after he refused to tell the authorities of the augments’ whereabouts, Soong is brought aboard the Enterprise under heavy security. En route to intercept the augments’ ship, the Enterprise is attacked by Orion slavers, who kidnap nine crew members to sell into slavery, including T’Pol. Archer and Soong beam down to the Orions’ nearest planet to recover the missing crew members, but Soong takes advantage of the opportunity to escape from Archer. His attempt to get away is short-lived, but once brought back aboard the Enterprise, he begins to transmit a homing signal, bringing the augments in their stolen Bird of Prey to rescue him. Leaving the Enterprise crippled in space, Soong joins his “children” and sets them on a course to recover more of their kind…

Order DVDswritten by Ken LaZebnik
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Brent Spiner (Arik Soong), Alec Newman (Malik), Abby Brammell (Persis), Joel West (Raakin), Big Show (Orion Slaver #1), David Power (Pierce), J.G. Hertzler (Klingon Captain), Dayo Ade (Klingon Tactical Officer), Gary Kasper (Orion Slaver #2), Bobbi Sue Luther (Orion Slave Woman), Thom Williams (Klingon Soldier #1)

Star Trek: EnterpriseNotes: Arik Soong is the father of Noonian Soong, the cyberneticist who invented the Enterprise-D’s Lt. Commander Data. As Arik obviously admires the augments of the Eugenics Wars, it’s not inconceivable that he could have named his son after one of the leaders of the augments, Khan Noonien Singh (Space Seed, Star Trek II). In reality, both characters, created by Gene Roddenberry, were named after an acquaintance of Roddenberry’s, and no direct link between the two was envisioned by him, though this neatly ties up the similarities in their names.) Guest star J.G. Hertzler portrays yet another Klingon, something he’s been doing since his recurring role as General Martok on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (he made an earlier appearance as another character in Judgement). Alec Newman made his genre mark as Paul Atreides in Sci-Fi Channel’s two miniseries based on Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novels.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Cold Station 12

Star Trek: EnterpriseCaptain Archer and his crew investigate Arik Soong’s original destination coordinates, finding a crude colony where he took his Augment children to escape from Earth authorities. There, they find that the Augments left one of their own to die – a young man whose powers didn’t quite measure up to theirs. Archer brings him aboard the Enterprise, and then sets the ship on a course for Cold Station 12. A Starfleet cold storage facility designed to keep isolated samples of various deadly pathogens away from any planetary biosphere, Cold Station 12 is also home to 1,800 frozen Augment embryos, the legacy of the Eugenics War. When humanity couldn’t decide how to deal with the embryos, they were set aside in stasis and treated as a disease. Soong and his Augments take the entire crew of the space station hostage, but find that the chief pathologist, Dr. Lucas, won’t give them access to the embryos when his life is threatened, or even that of his colleagues. Enterprise arrives and Archer leads a boarding party to Cold Station 12 to try to contain the situation, but they too become hostages – and Lucas’ old friend Dr. Phlox turns out to be the one person whose death he isn’t prepared to allow. With the codes to release the embryos, Soong and his “children” prepare to leave, but already Soong’s hold over them has begun to slip. Despite Soong’s insistence that human lives should be spared, the ambitious Augment Malik traps Archer and his landing party, with Lucas and his crew, on Cold Station 12 after programming the fields containing the station’s deadly diseases to shut down in four minutes…

Order DVDswritten by Michael Bryant
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Brent Spiner (Arik Soong), Alec Newman (Malik), Abby Brammell (Persis), Richard Riehle (Jeremy Lucas), Kaj-Erik Eriksen (Smike), Kris Iyer (Deputy Director), Adam Grimes (Lokesh), Amy Wieczorek (Female Pilot), Jordan Orr (Young Malik), Kevin Foster (Security Guard #1)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Augments

Star Trek: EnterpriseArcher has to take drastic measures to prevent the pathogen samples from contaminating Cold Station 12, relying on the Enterprise to beam him up after venting the station’s central core (and himself) to open space. Aboard the stolen Klingon ship, Malik tells Soong about his attempt to kill everyone aboard the station, and as a result Soong quietly resolves to eliminate the aggressive tendencies from the recovered Augment embryos before they are born. Soong also strongly objects to Malik’s plan to seed the atmosphere of a Klingon planet with more disease pathogens, a move which could spark a conflict between the Klingons and Starfleet, keeping both of them too busy to pursue the Augments. Malik sees both of these as Soong’s final betrayal of the Augments, and has the geneticist locked up in the brig. With the help of the sympathetic Persis, Soong escapes in a life pod to warn Captain Archer of Malik’s intentions, but finds that the Enterprise crew isn’t inclined to believe his warnings – and every second that he spends trying to convince them, Malik and the Augments are bearing down on the Klingon planet he has chosen as a target.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Sussman
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Brent Spiner (Arik Soong), Alec Newman (Malik), Abby Brammell (Persis), Adam Grimes (Lokesh), Richard Riehle (Jeremy Lucas), Mark Rolston (Captain Magh), Kristen Ariza (Augment #1)

Notes: When Malik mentions the S.S. Botany Bay and Khan Noonien Singh (Space Seed, Star Trek II), Soong dismisses the survival of Khan and his sleeper ship as a legend. The “Briar Patch” mentioned in this episode is also where Star Trek: Enterprisethe Enterprise-E fought a pitched battle with several Son’a starships in Star Trek: Insurrection. The episode is dated 2154, and it’s mentioned that augmentation was banned “150 years ago” – which would date that ban in the year 2004. The Deep Space Nine episode Doctor Bashir, I Presume, in which DS9’s own doctor is revealed to be an Augment of sorts, and the Voyager two-parter Future’s End (set partly in 1996 in a world with no mention of the Eugenics Wars) seemed to relocate the Eugenics Wars into the mid-to-late 21st century, rather than the 1990s (the date the original Star Trek established for the wars). As a result, one possible interpretation of this episode’s dialogue may be that modern-day (2004) bans on human cloning and stem cell research are being cited as the first instances of human augmentation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

These Are The Voyages…

Star Trek: EnterpriseCaptain Archer is nervously preparing his speech for the ceremony marking the ratification of a full alliance between Earth, Andoria, Vulcan, the Tellarites and many other worlds. It has now been ten years since the Enterprise originally left spacedock, and after the ceremony, the ship is headed for its own final frontier – decommissioning. But Archer and his crew unexpectedly heed one last call to adventure when their old ally Shran, an Andorian commander who everyone believes to have died three years ago, contacts them. His daughter has been abducted by some shady business associates he accumulated after falling out of favor with the Andorian Imperial Guard, and he’s calling in old favors to rescue her. Despite protests from his crew about everything from the timing of this mission to his own personal safety, Archer is confident that the Enterprise crew can rescue Shran’s daughter without incident. Unfortunately, Archer has miscalculated, and the entire future of the United Federation of Planets is in peril unless a member of his crew makes a supreme sacrifice to save his captain. And in the future, struggling with an ethical dilemma precipitated by the reappearance of his own first commanding officer, Commander William T. Riker watches these decisive moments play out on a future Enterprise’s holodeck.

Order DVDswritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Jonathan Schmock (Alien), Solomon Burke Jr. (Ensign), Jef Ayres (Med Tech), Jasmine Anthony (Talla), Brent Spiner (voice of Lt. Commander Data), Majel Barrett (Computer voice), Mike Fincke (Engineer), Terry Virts (Engineer)

Notes: The script for These Are The Voyages… was actually written by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga a year before the episode was produced and broadcast; in the event that the show had gotten cancelled before its fourth season, they considered it a fitting end for the series. The voices of William Shatner and Patrick Stewart were lifted from the introductions those actors recorded during the original broadcast run of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Two of the engineers working with Trip aboard the Enterprise were real-life astronauts: International Space Station veteran Mike Fincke and Terry Virts. Fincke reportedly kept up his Enterprise viewing habit even during his months in orbit.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rise Of The Old Masters

Star Wars: RebelsEzra’s Jedi training has finally begun, but Kanan, not exactly a Jedi Master himself, finds his student to be undisciplined and unfocused. When word reaches the Ghost that Jedi Master Luminara Unduli is still alive and being held captive by the Empire, Kanan sees an answer to his problems, and makes saving her the crew’s next mission. But even with Kanan utilizing the full measure of his Jedi training, the odds are against the Ghost’s crew, and they discover that a trap has been laid for them with a Jedi’s remains. The Grand Inquisitor, having followed Kanan’s prior exploits with interest, appears with his own lightsaber…and takes an interest in luring Ezra to the dark side.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy
directed by Steward Lee
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / Stormtrooper 1), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steven Blum (Zeb / Alton Kastle / Stormtrooper Commander), Brent Spiner (Gall Trayvis), Greg Weisman (Stormtrooper 3), Jason Isaacs (The Inquisitor)

Notes: The Inquisitor remarks that Kanan’s reliance on Form III lightsaber combat means he was an Rebelsapprentice of Jedi Master Depa Bilaba, a fact confirmed both by the Rebels prequel novel A New Dawn and future episodes of the series. Luminara Unduli’s death in Imperial captivity contradicts some earlier accounts of the Jedi Master’s death; those earlier reports of her death on Kashyyyk have been relegated to the “Legends” timeline, along with much of the Expanded Universe predating the Lucasfilm sale to Disney. Guest star Brent Spiner played Lt. Commander Data in every season and movie spinoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation; this is his first role in a Star Wars production.

LogBook entry by Earl Green