Star Trek First Contact

F is for Feelings, Fighting and Fear! Star Trek First Contact was directed by Johnathan Frakes in 1996 gaining him the nickname "Two-Takes Frakes" for his fast shooting style.

Captain Picard hunts the borg into the past to prevent them changing the course of Earths history. Meanwhile his crew is fighting and defending its ship from the resilient assimilating Borg. Its funny but all Earth's future hinges on Zefram Cochrane igniting his little warp rocketship in space.  Cochrane's part was offered to trekkie fan Tom Hanks, but he was too busy filming - 'That Thing You Do.'

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures and or CBS Studios.

Isn't it great when Lily Sloane tries to kill Commander Data with her Calico M960 submachine gun?

This movie has many classic moments like when Data is captured and tormented by the scheming Borg Queen played by Alice Krige. She finds Datas ultimate soft spot by activating the androids human sensations. Feelings! Now the Queen bee can control the poor devil. She's rigs Data's emotion chip so tin man can't turn it off, now thats pure evil! Isn't it?

 In truly epic style Data blurts out precisely what everyone else is thinking.

Data: Captain, I believe I am feeling... anxiety. It is an intriguing sensation. A most distracting... Picard: Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience, but perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now.

Who were you rooting for? the Borg, Eastern Coalition or the USS Enterprise-E?

Who said?  "The Enterprise-E is the most advanced starship in the fleet."

Elementary Dear Data

E is for Elementary Dear Data which begins with the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D hanging in space for the USS Victory. In this 28th episode of Star Trek TNG, Chief Engineer La Forge and Commander Data head off to the holodeck for some fun. La Forge suggests playing out a Sherlock Holmes mystery except theres a catch. Data cheats because he jumps to the end! The android accesses his vast memory banks and solves the mystery before it even plays out frustrating La Forge. So Dr Pulaski pipes in professing Data just isn't capable of deductive reasoning. He's a machine, a robot! Right? I mean look at how he talks, walks and computes. Datas got no instinct, so Geordi's determined to prove Pulaski wrong. The fun really begins when Geordi decides to create a new program with a unique mystery capable of defeating DATA!

(Lets think about that for a second. Data has an 800 quadrillion bits "positronic" brain capable of 60 trillion operations per second. Datas impressive positronic brain allows him to interface with other computer systems and process a large number of "thoughts" at once.)



So on the holodeck, Geordi instructs the Enterprise computer to create an adversary capable of defeating the fastest and brightest walking computer on two legs! This was enough to give Picard a meltdown. What this means is Geordi placed the entire Enterprise in peril by creating a super intelligent, sentient "lifeform" with total access to the main computer. Things get real interesting when "Moriarty" tries to leave the holodeck.

Is the definition of life "I think, therefore, I am" the only one that matters?

Will Moriarty cease to exist when the holodeck is turned off?

Trek long and Prosper, Trekkies and Trekkers

D is for Dax

D is for Dax but who is she? Dax is the mysterious Star Trek symbiont who joins with the lovely Deep-space Nine Jadzia, who's a Starfleet lieutenant. Theres no easy way to explain this so I'll blurt it out. We're discussing two separate species here. One is a beautiful 28 year old female humaniod with a series of intricate, freckle-like markings from her temples to her shoulders and the other is a large fat slimey worm aka as Dax the warrior.

The good news is the creature shares with the "Trill" (which is really a humanoid shell), a wealth of life experiences and knowledge. The bad news is "Dax" the symbiote is over 300 years old and has made a number of Klingon friends. When Kang, Koloth and Kor come looking for their ol' pal Curzon-Dax, (previous host and creature) they simply couldn't believe their eyes. I guess you might say Jadzia is the ideal fix for a new life in the "witness protection program." Apparently Jadzia studied all her life to become a brilliant scientist and have a slug stuck inside her. Its the greatest honor a trill can give.

Trill long and Prosper, trekinators.

Star Trek V The Final Frontier

Lights, Camera, Action!  C is for close call.

Some say Star Trek V directed by William Shatner nearly killed off the movie franchise, lucky for us trek survived. Granted "The Final Frontier" has continuity errors, Kirk spinning around on wires in his scraps with Sybok and 78 decks in the Enterprise-A instead of 23, which is totally illogical! Searching the universe for God wasn't the cleverest idea either. The bearded guy got very angry when Kirk tried to check out his credentials. It would appear even God has to pass a vetting test before commanding the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-A. Despite awful reviews, this movie isn't a complete flop considering it bagged $52 million bucks in 1989 clearing a $22 million profit.

The good news is William Shatner got his big moment in the Director's chair so five films in, how could it get any worse?

C is also for Connerys Crusades who you might say had a lucky escape. Uh ohh.... Apparently Sean Connery was filming Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at the time saving him from having to play the pointy eared Sybok, Mr Spock's brother in Star Trek V.



I bet Connery got down on his bended knees and thanked his lucky stars. Wasn't it lucky he was behind the camera? You decide. Who's the antagonist in Star Trek V 'The Final Frontier.' Is it the renegade Vulcan Sybok? Or the Klingon Korrd or the God entity?

Crusade long and Prosper, Trekinators.

Beam Me Up, Scotty.

B is for "Beam Me Up, Scotty" The transporter is one of the most exciting concepts in Star Trek. It gives our interstellar heroes speed and the element of surprise without taking up too much "story" time. The way it works is a real sweetie. Take the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 transporters which are entrusted daily to separate life form energy patterns, (thats us) by de-materializing and re-materializing humans into a perfectly stable matter stream.


Without air, trapped starfleet crew members will suffer from boiling blood, radiation poisoning, loss of consciousness and asphyxiation. Sounds lovely doesn't it? Well, try imaging what it was like for Decker being gobbled up by the "Doomsday Machine." So its a good idea The Transporter Chief, is on the ball when energizing.

Here are some top tips from Scotty!

1. Target Scan and Co-ordinate lock. Necessary to avoid beaming the Enterprise crew into solid rock formations or inhospitable environments.
2. Energize and De-materializing is a little tricky sometimes but transporting really is the safest way to travel. The trick is keeping the subjects molecular pattern image intact while the transporter "coils" convert "you," hehe. Fingers crossed.
3. Its reassuring to know there are several safety error checking systems to ensure you get from A to B. For instance each transporter has four molecular imaging scanners which act independently of each other. The next time you're on the Enterprise take it easy and relax with a romulan ale: This might be your big chance to get away from it all!



The burning question has to be did Captain James T. Kirk ever say "Beam me up, Scotty," on Star Trek the original series? He did say, "Two to beam up," and other variations but the best remembered bit of trek dialogue is boldly energizing the hearts of fans everywhere.

Beam Long and Prosper, Trekkies and Trekkers.