parallel universes Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Remember Me”

– June 19, 2014 8:00 amPosted in: Featured, TNG Re-Watch

“Remember Me”
Written by Lee Sheldon
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 3, Episode 5
Original air date: October 22, 1990
Star date: 44161.2

Mission summary

Dr. Dalen Quaice, an old friend and mentor of Dr. Crusher’s, arrives on Enterprise. Still mourning the recent death of his wife, the elderly man mulls over the worst part of growing old — losing the people you love. This cheery conversation drives Dr. Crusher to visit her son, Wesley, at work in Engineering. The young ensign is messing around with Dr. Kosinsky’s warp field equations. His attempt to create a new field fails, with an unexpected flash of light. On the upside, it seems like his mom didn’t stick around to watch, and all systems are back to normal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: computers, dr. crusher has a crush, energy vortex, fun with warp bubbles, handwaving mumblemumble, illusions, logic, loneliness, mysteries, parallel universes, the traveler, warp drive, Wesley is a smartypants, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “We’ll Always Have Paris”

Torie Atkinson

– May 3, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“We’ll Always Have Paris”
Written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Robert Becker

Season 1, Episode 24
Original air date: May 2, 1988
Star date: 41697.9

Mission summary

The Enterprise is headed to Sarona VIII for some shore leave, but Picard has gotten a headstart by fencing with a lieutenant. Though he loses the first point he wins the second–twice, as time seems to repeat itself in an eerie deja vu effect. The bridge confirms the temporal anomaly, and they pick up a distress signal from a Paul Manheim, reknowned wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey tinkerer who left Earth fifteen years ago to experiment with multiple dimensions and nonlinear time.

Picard reacts strongly to news of Manheim. Because he’s got a few hours to kill before the ship reaches Manheim, Picard goes to the holodeck to recreate Paris twenty-two years earlier. There he runs into a woman waiting for a man who never shows. She asks Picard why her beau did not come, and Picard tells her it was because ~~of Nazis~~ he was afraid. He then chastises himself for indulging in such fantasies and goes back to the bridge.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: benign doubles, casablanca, data the expendable, emotion, handwaving mumblemumble, loneliness, lost love, love stories, parallel universes, Picard acts weird, picard is french, science!, star-crossed lovers, time travel, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Where No One Has Gone Before”

Torie Atkinson

– December 29, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Featured, TNG Re-Watch

“Where No One Has Gone Before”
Written by Diane Duane and Michael Reaves
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 6
Original air date: October 26, 1987
Star date: 41263.1

Mission summary

The Enterprise accepts the assistance of a Mr. Kosinski, a propulsion specialist who claims he (along with his nameless alien assistant) can improve the efficiency of the ship’s engines. Data and Riker are not convinced–they’ve run the models, and the models indicate no improvement in speed or performance. Moreover, Kosinski is an arrogant, self-satisfied schmuck (and yet strangely not a commodore!), and both Riker and one of the chief engineers, Argyle, hesitate to allow Kosinski access to their engines at all. They eventually decide that if his calculations are gibberish no harm can come to the ship anyway, and allow Kosinski to go through with his experiment.

Beginning at warp 1.5, the Enterprise steadily accelerates–but something goes wrong. Suddenly the ship is zipping past galaxies at incalculable speeds. Picard orders an emergency reverse of the engines, and when the ship comes to a full stop they realize they are (improbably) in the galaxy M33: 2.7 million light years from home. It will take over 300 years for them to return their own galaxy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: curiosity, godlike powers, not a space douche, parallel universes, picard is french, sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic, the boy, the traveler, wesley saves the day

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Counter-Clock Incident”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– August 9, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“The Counter-Clock Incident”
Written by John Culver
Directed by Bill Reed

Season 2, Episode 6
Production episode: 22023
Original air date: October 12, 1974
Star date: 6770.3

Mission summary

Enterprise is heading back to the planet of the diplomats, Babel, with another very special guest: her first captain, Commodore Robert April.

APRIL: No matter where I’ve traveled in the galaxy, Jim, this bridge is more like home than anywhere else.
KIRK: Yes, Commodore, I know the feeling.
APRIL: To me she was always like my child. I was there in the San Francisco Navy Yards when her unit components were built.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: backwards speak, death, ending on a good note, finale, flowers, handwaving mumblemumble, metaphor, negativity, parallel universes, rebirth, reverse aging, supernova, transporters solve everything

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Time Trap”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– June 30, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“The Time Trap”
Written by Joyce Perry
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 12
Production episode: 22010
Original air date: November 24, 1973
Star date: 5267.2

Mission summary

Enterprise is investigating the “Delta Triangle,” a region of space where starships have been disappearing for centuries. It’s almost as if the suits back at Starfleet are trying to get rid of them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bermuda triangle, emotional Spock, godlike powers, handwaving mumblemumble, immortality sucks, klingons, mind meld, Orion slave women, parallel universes, pink, romulans, science!, ship graveyard, spock the magic vulcan, vertigo

Star Trek: The Animated Series Re-Watch: “Yesteryear”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 26, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“Yesteryear”
Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 2
Production episode: 22003
Original air date: September 15, 1973
Star date: 5373.4

Mission summary

The Enterprise crew is assigned to help a bird creature and a woman historian with their survey of Federation history via Harlan Ellison’s^TM Guardian of Forever, but they somehow end up altering the timeline. Again. Whoops!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: andorians, emotion, emotional Spock, handwaving mumblemumble, parallel universes, silhouettes, time travel, vulcan

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Tholian Web”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– December 2, 2010 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Tholian Web”
Written by Judy Burns and Chet Richards
Directed by Herb Wallerstein and Ralph Senensky (uncredited)

Season 3, Episode 9
Production episode: 3×09
Original air date: November 15, 1968
Star date:5693.2

Mission summary

On the Enterprise bridge, Chekov and Sulu look like they regret whatever they had for lunch, but it turns out that space itself is disagreeing with them–Spock reports that it’s “literally breaking up.” Kirk is used to bad breakups, but this is causing all sorts of wonky sensor readings and the warp engines are inexplicably losing power. Then Chekov notices a ghostly ship ahead on the main viewscreen: the U.S.S. Defiant, a Constitution-class Federation ship which has been missing for three weeks. In this case they can only trust what they see with their own eyes, because sensors indicate their sister ship isn’t actually there. There’s no response to hails, so there’s only one thing to do–beam aboard to check things out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: big heads, dead crews, emmy award, fisheye camera, fully clothed man-wrestling, ghosts, handwaving mumblemumble, interphase, mad russian, parallel universes, space madness, Spock-blocking, tholians, tractor beam, transporter malfunction, web

Star Trek 2 Villain Rumors: It’s Probably Not General Zod

Eugene Myers

– October 26, 2010 2:20 pmPosted in: Uncategorized

As development ramps up on the untitled sequel to the 2009 Star Trek reboot film, plot and casting rumors are as inevitable as Vulcan ponn farr. J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof are still working on the script, but people are already conjecturing about the possible storylines and characters we’ll see as early as June 2012.

The latest revelations, according to Trekmovie.com and Badass News, dangle the possibility of a classic Trek antagonist challenging the crew of the Enterprise. It seems many fans would happily go where we’ve gone before with a modern take on “Space Seed” and the return of a pre-wrathful Khan Noonien Singh. I think that would be a mistake given the iconic nature of Ricardo Montalban’s performance and the fact that the original Star Trek II has pretty big boots to fill. Come to think of it, “Space Seed” itself is a tough act to follow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: big heads, illusions, parallel universes, rumors, space douches, star trek films, talosians, the cage, the squire of gothos, Vulcan sex

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Mirror, Mirror”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– September 25, 2009 8:45 pmPosted in: Favorites, TOS Re-Watch

“Mirror, Mirror”
Written by Jerome Bixby
Directed by Marc Daniels

Season 2, Episode 4
Production episode: 2×10
Original air date: September 29, 1967
Star date: Unknown (dun dun dun)

Mission summary
Captain Kirk, Mr. Scott, Dr. McCoy, and Uhura are on the homeworld of the Halkans, attempting to negotiate an agreement to mine dilithium from the planet’s surface. The Halkans, however, are a race that believes in total and absolute peace, and their leader Tharn refuses to grant Starfleet these rights; while the Federation is currently benevolent, “the future is always in question.” Disappointed but hopeful for a change of heart, Kirk asks Spock to beam up the landing party.

A powerful magnetic storm disrupts their transportation, however, and their forms flicker in and out of the transporter room. The Enterprise reverses in orbit, flashing, and then the landing party finally materializes. But something is rotten in the state of Denmark…

They appear and are wearing modified uniforms, with gold sashes around their waists. Uhura’s midriff is bare. Spock and the other transporter room officers greet the Captain with a quasi-Heil Hitler salute.

But worst of all…Spock has a beard.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: barbarism, evil spock, fully clothed man-wrestling, goatees, kirk outthinks a computer/vulcan, mind melds, mirror universes, parallel universes

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Alternative Factor”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– July 8, 2009 7:40 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Alternative Factor”
Written by Don Ingalls
Directed by Gerd Oswald

Season 1, Episode 27
Production episode: 1×20
Original air date: March 30, 1967
Star date: 3087.6

Mission summary
The Enterprise is orbiting an “iron-silica” planet: uncharted, lifeless, arid. Just as they are about to complete their survey they get a case of the wooglies—cue shaky-cam and a film overlay of a nebula. Once things return to normal Spock explains that the universe just “blinked” briefly out of existence. But before he can explain (or maybe just because he can’t), he finds that a human is on the surface of the planet, where moments ago there was no one.

Kirk, Spock, and four redshirts beam down to the surface. They come across a tiny little spaceship pod, complete with bulbous dome-shaped cockpit.* But no one’s inside. Suddenly, a crazy man with an even crazier beard appears on top of a cliff face and shouts at them: “You came! Thank the heavens. There’s still time. It’s not too late. We can still stop him. But I, but I, need, need your help.” He then stumbles and falls down the rocky cliff face.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: crazy beards, distinct lack of half-naked man-wrestling, incomprehensible plotting, parallel universes, were they drunk when they threw this one together?