The events being TNG's portrayal of Klingon culture being at odds with the way it was depicted in the novel, with its language, klingonaase, customs, ranks, social structure and so on.

But until that came along, a lot of it was taken as if not official canon, then fan headcanon, like the existence of human-Klingon fusions to explain the ridgeless Klingons, the history of Klingon-Federation relations and so forth. Ford wrote material expanding on the novel for the FASA role playing game and it became part of the fan lore for quite a while.

It was okay, but no great shakes for me.

Aside from the B&W gimmick, this was probably the least SF Trek has been for a while - it's basically someone wanting to do a WW2 Nazi/Resistance movie and selling it with the film noir scheme. I wish it had leaned more into the crime aspects of noir.

I did wonder about the obvious plot holes: why the D7 never detected the shuttle, how they managed to get an ID card for Uhura despite her making up her alias apparently on the spot, or how the EMP didn't fry the shuttle's systems, too. Also, why Kor's makeup reminded me of Tuvix, and why he didn't press harder knowing she was lying about not knowing about colour or not recognising the Starfleet symbol. He had pretty much all he needed to know. Some of these you can handwave away, some of these you can squint it through, some ask for at least some explanation.

I've never liked the idea of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development, and I like the doppelgänger equivalent less. The coincidence of Una looking like Nevette is bad enough, but that Nevette happens to be the head of the resistance and the collaborators and a double agent best placed to move the plot along? Too much for the "you should get the audience to only buy into one implausible thing" plot rule.

Annotations for 4x04 up at: https://startrek.website/post/43372189

“Now don’t worry, I’m sending a hologram of myself that only you can see and hear, and T’Pol says there’s a 92% chance if you do as we say you’ll get sent home.”

“You seem awf’ly calm about this, Cap.”

“I may have had some experience. I find saying Oh Boy every now and then helps.”

T’Lyn was such a wild woman this week. Admiring Nya’al’s appearance, telling Tendi that what matters is being a loyal friend, saying she was alarmed by D’Erika’s combat abilities and then tossing that report out of the ship with a flimsy justification. Even Mariner said so. OUT OF CONTROL I TELL YOU!

It’s a replicator. The transporter waveguides at the back are common in Intrepid-class replicators. You can see a smaller one in Janeway’s quarters.

Under the replicator is supposed to be an equipment storage locker (according to the Star Trek Fact Files and the USS Voyager Illustrated Handbook), so it’s likely for creating extra away team equipment. It may also be for food - we see a food dispensing slot in the USS Enterprise transporter room in TOS: “Tomorrow is Yesterday”.

Aha! I just noticed that the lead writer on this episode is Kathryn Lyn, who also wrote the best episode of Lower Decks to date: the incredible “wej Duj”.

No wonder I thought that Ortegas’ line about “Notice how I move my eyebrow but no other muscles in my face,” sounded like something Mariner would say.

The back pain due to injury is true, but the reason he sat down that way isn’t because of that. Frakes confirmed in an interview that he did it because he thought that would showcase Riker’s cockiness. Nobody stopped him from doing it, so it stuck.

The back injury, however, is the reason behind the “Riker Lean”.

Annotations up at https://startrek.website/post/282663.

This was a very TOS episode yet in terms of feel.

The dialogue could easily have come from the mouths of the TOS cast, and the situation on the planet reminiscent of officers violating the Prime Directive like in TOS: “The Omega Glory” or “Bread and Circuses”. Even Mount's delivery when on the planet was Shatner-esque.

I can readily imagine Kirk, McCoy and a random redshirt or Chekov on the planet in Pike, M’Benga and La’An’s place, and Sulu pulling it together like Ortegas.

The way Illyrians were segregated into Illyrian and non-Illyrian cities except for people who could pass echoes the Jim Crow era of US history, with black people being segregated and some of them trying to pass for white.

The refusal of service to those who were found to be Illyrian is like antisemitic attitudes in pre-war Nazi Germany, or the refusal of service to homosexuals. Most of what happened can be compared to any persecuted minority, racial or sexual.

That’s the beauty of a good metaphor. And the ugly universality of bigotry.

Oh, where do I start?

It’s a really, really tight script, for one, with little or no filler. Unlike TMP, it moves swiftly from scene to scene, from setup to setup, establishing its themes of mortality, aging, the inability to let go of the past, the tragedy and joy of moving forward, of rebirth right off the bat, in so subtle ways that most don’t catch it until later or a rewatch.

For fanservice, it makes good use of a loose end from TOS continuity which is simple enough for non-fans to get without much exposition, and memorable enough that old viewers will remember it. The relationship between the Big Three is no longer as broken as it was throughout most of TMP, and the banter naturalistic and enjoyable, even among the supporting crew.

Nick Meyer adds all these little touches in the background that make it ripe for literary analysis. A Tale of Two Cities and its themes of sacrifice, Kirk’s fondness for antiques, never really established before, echoing his nostalgia for times past. In Khan’s cargo carrier, you see on the shelf as Chekov discovers the SS Botany Bay tag: Dante’s Inferno, stacked on top of Milton’s Paradise Lost/Paradise Regained, stacked on top of Moby Dick, showing the progression of Khan’s experiences on Ceti Alpha V, echoing his hope in reference to Milton at the end of “Space Seed” - to rule in Hell, build his own Paradise - now replaced by obsessive revenge.

ST II also sets up TNG, in its way, by introducing Peter Preston, David Marcus and Saavik - essentially Scotty, Kirk and Spock’s offspring - the next generation of voyagers that the old guard are trying to give way to, but the past just won’t let them and indeed threatens that legacy.

And then of course there’s the space battles - never really as well executed due to SFX limitations in TOS - but yet leaning so completely into the nautical and submarine metaphor established by Roddenberry and “Balance of Terror”. It was a risky move in an era dominated by adrenaline-fueled Star Wars dogfight-like starship combat, but Meyers’ direction made it work. There’s never a time you don’t know exactly what’s going on in that battle, or what tactics the two sides are employing.

You’re right in the sense that it’s not traditionally what one expects of Star Trek, leaning more into the pulp adventure mold rather than the aliens and exploration mold. But to a degree it’s still an optimistic future. Kirk’s son and Spock’s daughter ready to take the reins, the Genesis Planet representing the potential for new life, Kirk himself experiencing a rebirth of sorts as he finds his youth restored as his best friends told him it would be - on the bridge of a starship. But who says the final frontier can’t be inside us, too? (Archer said as much)

And in the end, it’s a complete movie. The forced-on-Meyer shot of Spock’s torpedo casing notwithstanding, it’s a complete story from start to finish, with no “The Human Adventure Is Just Beginning” tease or the sequelitist tones of the next two movies. All the information you need to know is in here. You could watch it without tying it to a larger universe and be completely satisfied with the experience. All you really need to know beforehand is that it’s connected to this TV show from the 60s.

As I note in my annotations, I got very emotional whenever I heard them refer to Scotty as “Mr Scott”. Not sure why, it just sounded so right. When they said, “Thank you, Mr Scott,” I mentally added: “That’s something he’s going to get used to hearing over the years.”

The moment I heard Pike say he missed Batel and then praise Ortegas I immediately knew they were going to be placed in jeopardy and sure enough…

It was also immediately obvious when the Gorn youngling left Batel alone why it did so, so glad they didn’t string that out as some big mystery.

The colony design meant that filming exteriors was cheaper, I suppose. It’s the equivalent of building a gated community as a Ren Faire, though there’d definitely be a demand for it.

Wish they’d have given some hints to why that Gorn was on the Cayuga saucer, though. Why was it trying to access command level functions? Intel or something else? And how did it get there without Enterprise noticing or was it there before they arrived? Questions, questions…

At least Martin Quinn, who plays Scotty, is a Paisley boy like David Tennant and Steven Moffat, which means using his natural accent will be easier to make out, as the Paisley accent is less harsh than, say, a Glaswegian one. He’s a bit young for Scotty though, at 28. I’d always assumed Scotty was at least five to ten years older than Kirk.

Nice, fast moving action finale - but I echo the frustration at having this be a cliffhanger.

Now I want to know how T’Lyn knows what Borg smell like.

Allowing the rotational periods of the planet to continue and liquid dihydrogen monooxide to immobilize me. Allowing the rotational periods of the planet to continue and liquid dihydrogen monoxide traversing subterranean layers. Into the azure colored atmosphere once more, when the currency has been expended. A single moment in the years that consist of a lifespan and liquid dihydrogen monooxide traversing subterranean layers.

I thought that the way they came to understanding what was going on was a little rushed and a bit too speculative, not being based on actual evidence and it was just convenient that they happened to be right that Batel was the Beholder. That entire bit of exposition sounded like it was out of Doctor Who rather than Star Trek: rapid fire vaguely plausible assertions that you just gloss over to get along with the plot and treating concepts like evil not as abstract but actual entities. There was none of the tension of putting things together from actual clues.

Are we meant to believe then that there is a degree of time travel or simultaneity going on? Because aside from the glib “effect before cause” thing which is the equivalent of “shut up, just run with it”, how precisely does Batel become the Beholder? How does three sets of DNA in her - Gorn, Human and Illyrian - translate to having all the abilities of all races that have faced evil?

It would have made more sense to have her go back in time after defeating Gamble (which is what I was expecting) or to say that the prison existed in non-linear time or something. As it is, it’s left pretty much up in the air and we are asked to accept it.

Are we also meant to believe that she was the one who left the messages for M’Benga and La’An, and why leave them in Swahili and Chinese respectively? Why not just put them in English? And how did Batel learn those langauges?

There were good bits, and heartfelt bits, but mostly it was kind of meh for me as finales go.

Yes.

Kirk was aware of David’s existence prior, but David wasn’t aware that Kirk was his father. He is surprised when David identifies himself as Dr Marcus in ST II but asks Carol when she appears, “Is that David?”

Later, he says:

KIRK: I did what you wanted. I stayed away. Why didn't you tell him?

CAROL: How can you ask me that? Were we together? Were we going to be? You had your world, and I had mine. And I wanted him in mine, not chasing through the universe with his father.

The Kherkovians remind me of my worst customer service experiences. I bet Yellow and Blue aren’t even their real names, just aliases to mask the rep of the day.

I’m also convinced they have to be connected to the Bajoran Prophets somehow. A transport tunnel? An interdimensional liminal space? Come on!

The Vulcan comedy of manners was hilarious, especially the Awareness ritual, which is basically every thing your in-laws hate about you but told to your face with no pretense. Pike trying to get them to play charades was a little too on the nose, I think, right up there with “You’re astronauts on some kind of Star Trek.”

I was half convinced the mind meld would turn out to be a TAS: “Yesteryear” reference. Not gonna lie, felt a bit let down. They’re also really teasing us with this Korby stuff.

I also thought the reason Spock didn’t tell T’Pring was because he thought there was a risk T’Pril might pick it up during the meld.

While I enjoy them, I do hope the zany episodes don’t always revolve around Vulcans. As funny as they are (and teaching Spock how to talk like a Vulcan was gasping for breath funny) I don’t always want them to be the butt of the joke.

The Last Unicorn Games Star Trek RPG Sourcebook The Way of Kolinahr posited that Vulcan food is more delicately flavoured than human food because of the species' enhanced sense of taste. That's why Tuvok found Neelix's spiced up version of plomeek soup (VOY: "Faces") not to his liking.

I've often thought that foods from tropical climes on Earth tend to be spicy because chili peppers are anti-microbial and so it keeps food edible for longer. Similarly, salt serves a preservation function in more temperate climes. But if neither of these options are available to Vulcans because they would find the flavour too intense, then Vulcan kitchens (and pantries) might be designed to be cooler rooms just to keep food fresher for longer.

Speaking of freshness, it seems to be a necessary part of Vulcan foods. In ENT: "Home" we are told that gespar, a Vulcan fruit, may not taste good if it isn't fresh, and in this episode T'Pril complains the halak is not fresh (and salted). The emphasis on freshness may be borne out of a climate in which food spoils quicker.

It can still kind of work. Montalban was about 45 when he was Khan, so let’s say Khan was around that age when he was exiled. The young Khan we see seems to be about 10 years old, maybe a bit younger.

So say baby Khan was born in 2012 if we want to take Sera’s 30 years literally rather than as an approximation. World War III (according to ENT: “In a Mirror Darkly” but the years may have slipped) starts in 2026 and lasts until 2053 (ST: FC, SNW: “Strange New Worlds”). Khan could easily have fought in the war and took power in the end days of the war - he’d only be 41 in 2053.

Even in the old timeline Khan only ruled one quarter of Earth for about 4-5 years between 1992 and 1996. So it’s not implausible that the Eugenics Wars happen around 2048-2053 (Khan would be in his mid-thirties, and augmented) and Khan escaped after his reign was toppled during the Last Day in 2053 on a non-warp powered sleeper ship, because Cochrane only managed warp 10 years later.

In fact, having the Eugenics Wars take place around 2050 works better because Archer said his great-grandfather fought in them (in North Africa). Since ENT takes place in the 2150s, that only makes about a century between their births, which is certainly reasonable, whereas if Archer-great-grand-pére fought in the 1990s then it'd be stretching his longevity just a tad.

They handled that subtly - I was wondering why they didn't raise shields against the radiation, but the shimmering impact of the debris field seen when Ortegas was in her quarters showed that shields were indeed up, so that mean the radiation could get through shields. Then it was mentioned that Spock tweaked the shield harmonics at the end - I guess he didn't earlier because he was already affected.