The Last Outpost TNG

In the fifth episode of Star Treks TNG, "the last outpost," the crew of USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D chases after a Ferengi marauder which has looted a T-9 Energy converter from a federation Outpost on Gamma Tauri IV. Captain Picard's mission establishes contact with Ferengi outlaws in orbit of a desserted planet which once thrived as a powerful space federation before its star went supernova. An electromagnetic power surge fires upon the Enterprise so Picard decides to fallback. Curiously both ships are seized by a powerful energy forcefield which drains their power systems and lifesupport paralysing them in the Delphi Ardu star system. The Ferengi's impressive spaceship design makes them appear technologically savvy to the Federation but all is not what it seems. Is it possible the Ferengi have immobilized the Starfleet's flagship with a vastly powerful weapon?

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Worf " I say fight sir, theres nothing shameful falling before a superior enemy."
Picard "And nothing shameful in a strategic retreat either."

This episode is loaded with heroic metaphors. Riker "He will triumph who knows when to fight and when not to fight." Sun Tzu. Geordi Laforge shines briefly in Main Engineering as Chief Engineer when he rolls out a proficient plan which should have broken the Enterprise free from the forcefield trap at high warp. Fortunately, Deannas Betazoid instincts saves the day when she redirects everyones attention away from the Ferengi ship focusing instead on the Tkon planet. But time is running out and with the powerdrain constantly sapping the Enterprise's warp engines, Worf and Yar suggest going out in a blaze of glory.

Captain Picard nearly surrenders the USS Enterprise-D until Daimon Taar contacts him asking to be spared offering the lives of his first officers in return. A plan is eventually hatched when the Enterprise teams up with the Ferengi "traders" who value commerce above all else. The first Ferengi is played by Armin Shimerman who also plays a regular character, Quark, in Deep Space Nine. Away teams beams down to investigate the planet amidst the remains of a seemingly lifeless outpost some 600,000 years old.

Data reports tricorders are useless and dead communicator contact with the Enterprise means they're on their own. Fortunately a sleeping portal reawakens just in the nick of time materializing after the Ferengi surprise attack on the Enterprise away team. Portal is disappointed with the Ferengi's closed and warlike wisecracks accusing the "human criminals" of treachery and deceit. "and they shamelessly clothe their females...... inviting others to unclothe them, the very depth of perversion!!" Tasha Yar fends off Mardocks advances as he closes in on her. "Paws off Ferengi!"

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"Speak Barbarians Speak, who makes the Challenge? who will it be?" Portal63 transforms himself into a humanoid biped and challenges Riker to enter the Tkon Empire. Riker passes Portals test of courage by conquering his fear in the face of certain death with complete composure. Riker "Fear is the true enemy, the only enemy." Sun Tzu. The guardian of the Tkon empire is satisfied Riker has met his challenge with civilized common sense and releases their starships with full power restored to the engines. Something to write home about eh, trekkies?
Live Long and prosper!

Code of Honor TNG

The USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D is on a mission to acquire a miracle vaccine needed to combat the deadly Anchilles Fever ravaging planet Styris IV. The crew enter Ligon II's orbit and finally get to meet its proud leader, Lutan who beams aboard with his delegates. Tasha Yar floors Lutan's right hand man, Hagon when he ignores the Chief of Security inspection procedures. I like how Yar easily disarms Lutan's secondary snatching the sample medicine out of his hands before the guy even gets near Picard. This makes a distinct impression on the Ligonian leader who has been watching "the strange aliens things" very closely. The captain arranges some friendly entertainment for the Enterprise's guests and presents Lutan with a 13th century horse from China's Song Dinasty which hopefully was replicated.

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"We of Ligon have been apprehensive about strangers. We're not as technologically advanced as you but we possess something you do not. A vaccine which has been found to be an effective antidote to your Anchilles fever. If you respect our custom and we see that respect, we will be friends and we'll make the antidote available to all who need it." A round of applause follows but its interesting to note how unconvinced Deanna Troy is by Lutans grand speech. This is when the councillor should have chimed in with "he's hiding something" but she mysteriously opted to stay quiet instead! Why? In a surprising move, Lutan's springs into action and deliberately kidnaps the Chief of Security from the Enterprise flagship.

Captain Picard's startled crew need to act fast in order to guarantee mission success but instead are paralysed with shock. Tasha has vanished to the surface without a trace. Picard faces a tough test but is weirded out by Lutans beserk behaviour and fires stupidly at the planet... A review of Ligonian tradition reveals Lutan has acted honourably but all is not what it seems. Heroism, tradition and strict codes of honor similar to Native American "counting coup" need to be observed if Picard is to obtain the vaccine, who beams down to the planet.

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Tasha Yar reluctantly fights a death duel with Yareena, Lutan's wealthy wife for her position as "First One." In a greedy plot to swipe his wifes lands, Lutan declares he cannot part with Yar and pits the two women against each other with deadly hand spikes. The battle for power begins. Glee is written all over Lutans face who is secretly rooting for Yar. "The rules are known. Let combat continue until there is victory. It will not be interrupted." Fortunately for Yar, Yareena's weapon flys off her left hand striking a ligonian guard in the belly killing him.

Honor is eventually restored when Tasha strikes Yareena with a calculated killer blow poisoning her. Lutan in delighted and agrees to allow the transfer of the vaccine to the Enterprise. In a surprise maneuver, the Enterprise beams up Yareena, right at the point when she dies giving the Chief Medical Officer, Beverly Crusher, a chance to save Lutan's First One. Lutan is furious. Ligonian law dissolves their mating agreement instantaneously at the time of death. Yareena returns to life ruining Lutan's greedy plans. She ejects him from power and makes Lutan's right hand man Hagon her "First One" and leader of Ligon II with control over all her wealth and land.


Code of Honor is the fourth episode of Star Trek The next Generation written by Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron directed by Russ Mayberry.

Live long and prosper, trekkers.

Scotty's Laws of Physics

1. Call me Scotty. I may be captain by rank... but I never wanted to be anything else but an engineer.
2. Never let Mr Spock know exactly what your thinking... Vulcans are greedy for knowledge and want to read your mind.
3. Don't react when Klingons call Captain James T. Kirk a tin plated over bearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of Godhood. Keep your cool, sit down and finish your drink. Its simply not worth fighting about.
4. Don't be fooled by Shapeshifters. When in doubt speak in code and defeat your enemies with puzzles they cannot answer.
5. "Starship captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. The secret is to give them what they need, not what they want.
6. A fused dilithium crystal converter defies the laws of physics when trying to repel Klingon warships. The warp engines will not restore power to the phasers and shields without additional dilithium. Fortunately raw crystal necklaces are just as powerful as the Dohlman of Elas's tears.
7. Never make fun of Scotty's Excelsior, insult something he cares about instead like the Enterprise.
8. Never confuse the emergency bypass control valve for the matter/antimatter reaction chamber with emergency transporter bypass circuits.
9. No woman has been known to win Scotty away from his beloved ships. Lt Carolyn Palamas, a pretty young officer serving in the Enterprise's Archeology and Anthropology department came close but the Greek God Apollo stole her affections.
10. Always stand up to Klingons who insult the USS Enterprise NCC 1701. Shes not a Garbage Scow and will never be hauled away as garbage. We're big enough to take a few insults but the Enterprise is a matter of pride worth defending. Stick to your phasers on this!
11. Picard's Aldebaran whisky packs quite a punch. The 24th century has synthetic commanders and synthetic scotch. Scotty is not impressed. In Relics, Data offers Scotty a real drink. Strong and alcoholic, Dr. Leonard H. McCoy would approve. A bottle of the green stuff will help solve complex engineering problems every time.
12. Mr Scott has said "You 'cannae beat the finest scotch in all the Galaxy." Montgomery's scotch whiskey.


13. Prewarp cultures are the forbidden fruit in the Universe. The Prime Directive forbids interference with their development. Contact with the natives is forbidden except for Captain Kirk....of course!
14. Never tell the captain how long it really takes to run a diagnostic or fix the dilithium crystal converter if you value your reputation as a miracle worker.
15. Wise up on the latest Engineering technologies in your Starfleet Technical Manual and forget about shoreleave unless ordered by the Captain.
16. A good engineer will always understate how much pressure a starship engine can take in his engineering log.
17. "Condition Green" is covert Starfleet code telling you that Captain Kirk is in trouble with the natives again.
18. Make sure to thank your Captain when ordered "Confined to quarters until further notice." This is a rewarding experience just for you. Hes giving you a chance to read up on your technical journals.
19. When the ship is in danger of blowing up, ignore Scotty's design specifications including the pressure variances in regulation 42/15. Mr Scott wrote it. "A good engineer is always conservative on paper."
20. Be prepared to brave the unknown and take risks with minutes to spare. A good engineer is capable of bypassing errant computers and jury-rigging malfunctioning warpdrives which will place you in peril close to high voltage currents, odd power surges, radiation, coolant leaks, exploding consoles and warpcore breaches.
21. A master engineer can tell how fast a starship is travelling by the feel of the deck plates.
22. Its the Chief Engineers job to know his starships engines inside out, so use your wits to chill the Captain and save the Enterprise in your own sweet time.
23. Deep down everyone knows Scotty.


Live Long and Prosper, trekkies and trekkers..

Time travel concepts

In H.G. Wells Time Machine, the time traveller shares his wondrous and terrifying voyages which interprets the nature of time in worlds the traveller visits. He projects himself far into a future where man has evolved into two distinct species rooted in time proving that the space time continuum is fixed and can't be changed. Looking at this phenomenon, time travel can be achieved in so many different ways.


1. The Time Machine was introduced in 1895.
2. The Guardian of Forever was a sentient arch pulsating with power that created a new beginning for entire civilisations just by stepping through its time portal.
3. A slingshot around the sun did the trick in Star Trek IV.
4. Suspended animation is another way for the time traveller to visit the future. He awakens from his deep freeze cryogenic sleep and experiences the culture shock.
5. Back to the Future features Marty McFy going back through time in his beefed up DeLorean time-machine in 1985.

What is your favorite time travel theory? H.G. Wells Time Machine, where the constant flow of history is fixed in time or Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe where time travel can radically alter the evolution of the timeline?

Live Long and Prosper, Time travellers.

The Naked Now TNG

The Naked Now is the second episode of Star Trek The Next Generation written by John D.F Black and J. Michael Bingham, directed by Paul Lynch. This story borders on the classic episode "The Naked Time." In 2364, the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D encounter the distressed science ship S.S. Tsiolkovsky which has been routinely monitoring the collapse of an unstable red giant. A mystery plagues the Tsiolkovsky ship with the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D responding to a series of strange messages confirming something has gone amiss aboard the research vessel.

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The happy Tsiolkovsky crew are determined to have a wild party with frenzied enthusiasm but blow themselves into space when an emergency hatch is blown..... Captain Picard gives the signal for Riker's away team to beam over and establish the facts however, the Tsiolkovsky enigma grows even deeper when Commander Riker reports the entire ship's crew is dead and blown out the airlocks. Captain Picard is shocked to discover eighty people are dead apparently by their very own hands. The science vessel's bridge is open to space and a variant of the Psi 2000 virus has contaminated the Tsiolkovsky which infects the U.S.S. Enterprise-D crew.

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On their return to the U.S.S. Enterprise-D crew members start behaving very strangely. Geordi La Forge is the first to be confined to Sickbay suffering from unusual behaviour and profuse sweating. Picard and Beverly find themselves at the mercy of a virulent virus which spreads like wildfire throughout the flagship USS Enterprise-D. The ship's Chief of Security Tasha Yar abandons her post and seduces the android Mr. Data who informs her he is fully functional and capable of multiple techniques. Data words bring joy and happiness to Tasha ears and a huge smile to her face. Its Datas lucky day!

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The mind twister here is how did the virus get past the Enterprise transporter "maximum decontamination" filtering systems? Commander Riker and Data launch an investigation into the old U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 historical records and discover a reference that can cause water molecules to mutate into an alcohol substance. Picard's crew are acting weird because they're drunk!



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The Enterprise NCC 1701-D crew are spreading the intoxication virus throughout their Federation starship through human contact with each other. Mr. Data retrieves a cure from the ships computer records but when Chief Medical Officer, Dr Beverly Crusher replicates the Psi 2000 medicine, it has no effect. To make matters even worse a drunk Wesley is playing captain in Main Engineering and has sabotaged bridge control of the engines placing the U.S.S. Enterprise in grave danger....

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The U.S.S.Enterprise-D's plight deepens when we learn the ship is paralysed and in the direct line of fire from an expanding red giant star which collapses into a white dwarf spewing stellar core matter towards it. Meanwhile Riker deactivates Wesley's repulser beam blocking the door to Engineering and reports to the bridge. Someones pulled out all the Isolinear Chips that control the ships propulsion systems.



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Why did Commander Riker expend so much time bypassing Wesleys repulser contraption? Logic dictated he should have just beamed into Engineering with Mr Data in tow.....*except* It was Wesley's idea to use Data to replace the isolinear chips which saved the entire ship from disaster! Actually I was surprised how natural the crusher boy performs in this episode. Data's knowledge of the Enterprise systems allows Wesley to use his "repulser beam" instead of engaging the ships tractor beam which was offline.


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The U.S.S. Enterprise-D is launched away from the Tsiolkovsky in time for viewers to see the stellar core matter pulverize the oberth class starship and blow it to smithereens with a huge KABOOM! The Enterprise-D gains enough velocity and time to escape because Data reactivated the engines isolinear chips. Data played by Brent Spiner is the top man in this episode. It was fun watching the "android" smiling too and his conversation with Captain Picard on the bridge added a nice human touch all round, considering Data was drunk too from the strange water molecules!"




"If you prick me do I not bleek?"

"There was a woman from Venus whose body was shaped like a........"

"Thankyou Mr Data!"

Live Long and Prosper, Trekkers and Trekkies

Encounter at Farpoint TNG

Encounter at Farpoint is the two hour premiere of Star Trek The Next Generation written by Gene Roddenberry and Dorothy Fontana. The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D swings by Deneb IV to collect reinforcements on its way to the mysterious Farpoint Station. But all is not what it seems when humanity is placed on trial by the Omnipotent Q entity who baits Captain Picard to answer for the multiple and grievous savagery of humanity. The bridge crew find themselves fighting for their lives in a chamber of horrors with Q as Judge, Jury and Executioner! Picard challenges Q to test the Enterprise crew and judge how far humans have evolved.

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Picard's mission is twofold. Satisfy Q humans are no longer savages and establish what is behind the mystery of Farpoint. The mind twister here is where did the undisciplined leader "Groppler" get the technological tools and skill to build such a fascinating station? Captain Picard orders Riker to investigate the Bandi on the planet below who are negotiating admission to the Federation. The Farpoint's enigma deepens when counsellor Troi senses deep emotional distress within the walls of the new city with intense anger from a strange spaceship creature in outerspace.

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Picard and Troi realise just in the nick of time whats happening. The Enterprise places itself between the spaceship creature to quell its angry emotional outbursts directed at the old Bandi city. But why is this interstellar alien so cheesed off? We soon learn that the outerspace lifeform was in fact rushing to the aid of the "Farpoint Station" making Riker suspicious. Meanwhile Q is strutting around taunting Picard, doing his level best to bait him into making mistakes with ambitions of exposing the savage impulses of humans, except Q's masterplan backfires. The captain doesn't buckle under pressure who instead tells Security Chief Tasha Yar to direct an energy beam at the "Farpoint Station."

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All is revealed when viewers witness the Farpoint Station transforming itself into an alien creature capable of spaceflight. The thing lifts off! Freed from captivity and re-energized, the creature achieves higher orbit and reunites with its twin reducing the lovely Counsellor Troi to weepy tears of joy!

Its fun watching Q swallow his Omnipotent pride and admit defeat in the face of a victorious Picard, who secretly must have enjoyed having the final word.  "Get off my bridge". yells Picard triumphantly.
"I do so only because it pleases it me, Picard" admits a deeply wounded Q who gets his butt kicked off the bridge.

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The space creatures are extremely grateful and wave goodbye to the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D and their crew. You've got to admit, Troi and Riker communicating telepathically is a bit weird but this is vintage Star Trek TNG. Its hilarious seeing Counsellor "Commander" Deana Troi in her cheerleader's costume but doesn't she look great?

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Star Trek's TNG pilot has its moments with Deanna changing many times later on in the series and the Crusher boy taking a dip into a stream on the Holodeck and surviving. It must be strangely satisfying for "Wesley Haters" seeing him looking like a drowned rat.... To be fair the geekster has his moments.




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Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy cameo appearance from Star Trek TOS was kept a really big secret during the shoot as a special treat for trek fans. His characters name isn't even mentioned in the script or dialogue! Good ol' Bones, The Admiral makes a special trip out to the middle of the sticks aboard the U.S.S. Hood but for a very good reason. He chats briefly with Data giving fans a nostalgic "McCoy flashback" with our good ol' Enterprise Chief Medical Officer, putting the brand new USS Enterprise-D through her paces obviously for personal reasons. Admiral "Bones" gives the Enterprise his best and official send off expediting the starship into the great unexplored mass of the galaxy.




"Well it's a new ship - but she's got the right name. Now you remember that, you hear?"

Live Long and Prosper, Trekkies, Niners and Trekkers.

Star Trek Wallpapers

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

I enjoy looking at Tobias Richter's Star Trek wallpapers from "Light Works." The galaxies greatest starships have been transformed into hyper comic 3d visuals bursting with creative imagination. I just wish I could be there! These Star Trek starships are an amazing feat of engineering in high resolution wallpapers. You've done Scotty proud, Tobias. Sciencefictionstuff put me wise to these stunning Federation battle cruisers seeking out new life forms and commanding a peaceful military presence along the Federation Neutral Zone. Federation Officers do look mighty fine in their Starfleet uniforms aboard their spaceships, but the word peace just doesn't sit well with the Klingons and Romulans..... or does it?
Thanks Tobias!




Scotty: "Captain, we're doing it. We're pulling away!"
Captain Kirk:" What happened?"
Scotty: "It's no good, sir. Only a few systems responding. Captain, we pulled away a little, we gained ... maybe an hour ... but we blew almost every system in the ship doing it. There's nothing left to try again. I guess you'll have to fire me, sir."
Captain Kirk: "Scotty, You're fired. 400 people ..."
Dr McCoy: "Jim ..."
Captain Kirk: "They'll die because I couldn't see a warning sign. I had to follow orders, always orders."




U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 and U.S.S. Reliant NCC-1864. Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Khan: "Aah, Kirk my old friend... Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold, in space..."




U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-E. Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Captain Picard: "No! No! I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!"




U.S.S. Reliant NCC 1864. Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Khan: "I'll chase him around the Antares maelstrom and round Nibia and round Perdition's Flame before I give him up!"




U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-A and Klingon Bird of Prey.
Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Klingon Kruge:"We may have dealt him a more serious blow than I thought."

Klingon Torg: "How can you tell that?"

Klingon Kruge: "I trust my instincts."

Klingon Kruge: "Admiral Kirk. This is your opponent speaking. Do not lecture me about treaty violations. The Federation, in creating an ultimate weapon, has become a gang of Intergalactic criminals. It is not I who will surrender, it is you. On the planet below, I have three prisoners from the team who developed your doomsday weapon. If you do not surrender immediately, I will execute them, one at a time, as enemies of galactic peace."



U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D. Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Captain Jean Luc Picard: "Oh, fascinating. Twenty particles of space dust per cubic meter, 52 ultraviolet radiation spikes, and a class-2 comet. Well, this is certainly worthy of our attention.

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth... whether its the scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth. It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based."



U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656. Image Owner/Creator: Tobias Richter

Captain Kathryn Janeway: Oh, you're wrong Tuvoc. It's much more than that. This ship has been our home. It's kept us together. It's been part of our family. As illogical as this might sound, I feel as close to Voyager as I do to any other member of my crew. It's carried us, Tuvok - even nurtured us. And right now, it needs one of us.

Tuvoc: I respect your decision.


Live Long and Prosper! Trekkies.

Classic TOS Starships

Here is a Classic list of Star Trek's TOS Starship's that have rocked us to the edge of our seats in awe and wonder. The Enterprise crew have been our guides, our protectors and our friends on our adventures through the vast unknown. Starfleets mission in the Galaxy has always been one primarily concerned with Deep Space exploration, Peace, Scientific research, diplomatically seeking out new life forms and defending the United Federation of Planets. In 2161 Starfleet was chartered by the Federation going boldly where no-man or no-one has gone before.

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In Star Trek The Original Series, its fleet of starships have been met with armed conflict, doomsday machines, madmen, interstellar mayhem, mysticism, encounters with alien life forms and firefights to the death. Enforcing the peace in the far flung reaches of the universe often comes at a high-human cost. Starfleet's family of officers and crew hands are a close knit community who rely on each other especially in times of crisis. When a crew member has fallen honourably during battle defending the constitution of the United Federation of Planets its a challenge to continue but we must serve, protect and be ready to die at our posts like true Klingons.


In 2254, James Kirk and Ben Finney served aboard the U.S.S. Republic NCC-1371 while Ensign Kirk was a cadet at the Academy. Kirk discovers an open circuit to the atomic matter piles and logs the error which sends Ben Finney to the bottom of the promotion list. Finney plots his revenge which temporarily jeopardizes Captain Kirk's career on stardate 2947.3.

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In 2257, the U.S.S. Farragut NCC-1647 is commanded by Captain Garrovick with Lieutenant James T.Kirk on his first assignment since leaving Starfleet Academy. Unfortunately the Farragut falls victim to a Dikironium Cloud Creature discovered on Tycho IV which descends on the crew. The vampire cloud creature is merciless and feeds off the haemoglobin iron in 200 Starfleet officers rendering them totally lifeless within seconds. Kirk never forgets and is determined to capture the creature before it returns to space and finds another planet of humans to feed on.

In 2267, Commodore Matt Decker's entire crew of the U.S.S. Constellation NCC-1017 are consumed by the planet killer in "The Doomsday Machine" episode while on a planet. Meanwhile a horrified commodore survives the fatal attack on his ship but wished he had gone down with his crew. The Captain is always the last man to leave a starship in crisis. Decker vows to avenge his crew mates and gets his chance.

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In 2268, the U.S.S. Exeter NCC-1672 captained by Ronald Tracey is found orbiting planet Omega IV in "The Omega Glory." Its entire crew is reduced to dehydrated crystals by an ancient bacterialogical warfare virus. The Exeter crew led by Tracey accidentally contract the Omega IV disease and beam it up to the ship. Tracey soon realises Omega IV holds the key for natural immunity against the killer virus with the secret to extended life beckoning him to the planet surface below. The Exeter captain violates Starfleet's Prime directive which Kirk and Spock must somehow repair before its too late.

In 2268 the USS Excalibur NCC-1664 commanded by Captain Harris is destroyed by Dr Richard Daystrom's maniac multitronic computer. M-5 fires full phasers during a friendly war game involving five starships, killing the entire crew of the starship Excalibur in "the Ultimate Computer." The U.S.S. Potemkin NCC-1657 and the U.S.S. Hood NCC-1703 make lucky escapes. The U.S.S. Lexington NCC-1709, commanded by Commodore Robert Wesley is severely damaged with M-5 killing 53 crew hands on that ship. M-5's logic is flawed and like its creator the computer was prone to emotionally erratic behaviour which affected the battle strategy of its decisions. M-5 soon realised the error of its way and felt the urgent need to atone for its sins.

In 2268, the U.S.S. Intrepid NCC-1631 manned by vulcans, encounters a massive single celled space borne amoeba near the Gamma 7A System in "The Immunity Syndrome." This interstellar creature is 18,000 kilometers long and 3,000 kilometers wide surrounded by a large energy field which is big! The creature's energy "zone of darkness"
nearly cripples the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 on its approach solving the mystery about how the crew of the U.S.S. Intrepid were destroyed.

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In 2268, the U.S.S. Yorktown NCC-1717 was scheduled to rendezvous with the U.S.S. Enterprise to transfer critical vaccine supplies for planet Theta VII. The rendezvous was temporarily cancelled in favour of hunting down the Vampire Cloud Creature before it escaped without a trace.

In 2269 the U.S.S. Defiant NCC-1764 disappeared into an alien Tholian interdimensional trap which was designed to capture enemy starships in the "Tholian Web" before finally crushing them.



Live Long and Prosper, Trekkies.

AMT Model Enterprise NCC 1701-A

Here she is the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-A. As you can see for yourselves, she took one heck of a battering from the Klingons. It was touch and go there for a while with the warp nacelle pylons nearly losing their structural integrity, believe me. I know what it means when Captain Kirk yells "Red Alert!!! All hands man your Battle stations."

This detailed model enterprise 1701-A came equipped with sound effects and 12 light emitting diodes which required a steady hand to be sure.

The secondary hull which you see here, houses the bulk of the fibre optic cabling but despite there being a whole ton of wiring over flowing the plumbing of the ship, you may recall what Montgomery Scott said in Star Treks TOS episode of Naked Time.

"I cannot change the laws of physics! I've got to have thirty minutes."

and sure enough Worf's words of anguish...

"I am not a Merry man."

sprung to mind..... Yes, that was definitely me, so therefore, I applied Spock's vulcan logic.....

"Quite simply, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at."

I marked out each wire clearly identifying its final destination. It wasn't easy looking into the beating heart of Scotty's poor bairns and trying to figure out how to spark life into the USS Enterprise or call it quits. It has to be stated, you need stick-ability to complete a WIP like this. Open starship surgery is never easy but my Dad, may his soul rest in peace, suggested using fiber glass for reinforcing the structural integrity of the ship which saved the entire operation!

 I used Dad's fiber glass idea to bond the warp pylons to the secondary hull. The trouble is fiberglass dries very fast, so I knew this was going to be a very precise operation. Commander Riker knew it too, when he was ordered to reconnect the USS Enterprise -D's Saucer module to the Stardrive section.

"Give the word Admiral!"

By Borgus Frat it worked! Ten years later this USS AMT Model Enterprise is still standing tall with a working power source linked to LED's, phaser fire and photon torpedoes sound effects still operating within normal parameters. This model ship is a tribute to Captain Kirk's heroic crew of the USS Enterprise 1701-A and my ol' man.



Live Long and Prosper.

Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner