Star Trek trivia

Posted in TV on 2017-08-02

Many thanks to Memory Alpha, the excellent Star Trek reference wiki which provided a source for many of these interesting facts, and Memory Beta, the wiki for Star Trek extended universe.

Extended universe shenanigans

I need to clarify that these are not parody. All of these things happen at some point in one of the Star Trek novels or other apocrypha.

• Barclay is Captain Picard’s bodyguard in the mirror universe. His genius and paranoia make him perfect for the job.
• Starfleet founds a secret black ops team named Active Four, consisting of Nog, Tuvok, and Thomas Riker.
• In the year 12,265, the Mega-Federation starship USS Über-Enterprise (NCC-1701-∞) sets off on a million year mission to explore new galaxies. The ship is a sphere of liquid-metal capable of travelling at Warp 1000, and it is jointly commanded by James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard. The crew turns out to consist entirely of holograms, except for Data, who eventually becomes human.
• Chakotay has a relationship with Janeway. When he later learns that Janeway was assimilated by the Borg, became their Queen, and was killed after a failed rescue attempt by Seven of Nine, Chakotay starts making poor command decisions and resigns from Starfleet. He later returns to Starfleet and is given command of the USS Voyager again. Janeway is restored to life by Kes and Q.
• A time-travelling Riker once found himself appearing on the Holodeck during one of Barclay’s holodeck programs. Riker claimed to be a hologram programmed to tell Barclay off for using the holodeck too much. Barclay never used the holodeck again.
• Bashir is court-martialed and dishonourably discharged from Starfleet for fighting Section 31. It is commuted to an honourable discharge because he saved the entire Andorian race from extinction.
• In the original script for Nemesis, Geordi is in a relationship with Leah Brahms (the real Leah Brahms, not a hologram). It was cut when the actress wasn’t available.
• Picard and Beverly Crusher marry and have a son, Rene Jacques Robert Francois Picard, who grows up and marries Riker and Troi’s daughter, Natasha Riker-Troi.
• Grand Nagus Rom declared Quark’s Bar the official Ferengi embassy to Bajor and made Quark an official Ferengi ambassador.
• Janeway, the holographic Doctor, Admiral Seven of Nine and the borg Hugh strike an alliance with the Borg to stop the Pah-wraiths from destroying the universe, by going back in time with the Guardian of Forever to destroy Bajor. They fail, but Sisko resets the timeline.
• The holographic Doctor accepts a commission in Starfleet with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
• Kes fights B’Elanna Torres in a round of Anbo-Jutsu.

It’s a small universe

• As a lieutenant, Picard attended Spock’s wedding. There he met Leonard McCoy.
• Geordi LaForge left Starfleet to become a ship designer, then designed the ship Spock uses in the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie.
• The captain of the ship rescued from a time loop in the TNG episode “Cause and Effect”, played by Kelsey Grammer, was given the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-E.
• Doctor Pulaski studied at a medical institute named after Doctor Phlox.
• Q saved the life of an ancestor of William T. Riker.
• Picard tried to hire Janeway for his crew on the Enterprise, but she wasn’t available.
• Julian Bashir removed a Borg implant from Kirk’s brain, assisted by Leonard McCoy.
• Julian Bashir and Beverly Crusher once studied Doctor Phlox’s notes to cure a virus.
• Nog served under Captain Picard in an alternate timeline. In another, he and Geordi LaForge served under Captain Montgomery Scott.
• Curzon Dax once met Hikaru Sulu, studied under Sarek, was appointed ambassador to the Klingon empire by Spock, wrote part of the Khitomer Accords, and recommended Sisko to Admiral Uhura.
• Audrid Dax, fourth host of the Dax symbiont, once served under Fleet Captain Christopher Pike.
• Tobin Dax worked on warp core design with Spock’s grandfather.
• Torias Dax once met Nurse Chapel.
• Demora Sulu sponsored Chakotay’s application to Starfleet Academy.
• Demora Sulu was a classmate of Iron Mike Paris, Tom Paris’ grandfather.
• Tom Paris’ uncle, Cole Paris, served with Picard on the Stargazer.
• Tom Paris was classmates with Ro Laren.
• Tuvok briefly served aboard the Stargazer under Picard.
• Tuvok served aboard the USS Titan with Wesley Crusher and Captain Riker.
• As a lieutenant, Janeway participated in an archaeological expedition led by Captain Picard.
• Chakotay was Ro Laren’s instructor at Starfleet Academy.
• Jonathan Archer was present at the launch of the Constitution-class USS Enterprise NCC-1701. He was 133 years old and died the next day.
• Doctor Phlox once worked with McCoy and Nurse Chapel to cure a virus.
• Hoshi Sato was one of the 4,000 people killed by Governor Kodos on Tarsus 4, the colony where James T. Kirk once lived.
• Malcolm Reed was commanding officer of Samuel Kirk, James T. Kirk’s great grandfather. They once took aboard Tobin Dax.
• Travis Mayweather served aboard Malcolm Reed’s ship with Samuel Kirk.
• Trip, who is alive in the novels having faked his own death to work for Section 31, was teacher to the boy who would grow up to design the Constitution-class starships. He once visited Starfleet War Memorial on the same day as a young James T. Kirk.

We have plenty of captains

Serving with Kirk, Picard, Sisko or Janeway turns out to be really good for your career.

• Chekov became captain of the USS Potemkin and USS Cydonia before eventually becoming Fleet Admiral.
• Scotty, as established in a TNG episode, became Captain.
• Uhura became an admiral and head of Starfleet Intelligence.
• Hikaru Sulu, after becoming captain of the Excelsior, eventually becomes Commander in Chief of Starfleet.
• Demora Sulu, daughter of Hikaru Sulu, became captain of the Enterprise-B.
• Bones was promoted to Admiral and became head of Starfleet Medical.
• Data becomes captain of the Enterprise-E. After it is destroyed, he retires from Starfleet to teach at Oxford.
• Riker becomes captain of the Enterprise-F in an alternate timeline, in which Picard finally becomes Admiral. In the regular timeline, Riker becomes captain of the USS Titan, and gets to keep his command when he becomes Admiral. In another timeline he captains the USS Sugihara.
• Geordi LaForge becomes captain of the USS Challenger in Star Trek Online.
• Wesley Crusher becomes captain of the USS Hood.
• Beverly Crusher becomes captain of the USS Pasteur in an alternate timeline where she married Picard, thus making her Captain Picard.
• Ro Laren becomes captain of the USS Defiant.
• Nog becomes a captain after serving as chief engineer of the Enterprise-E.
• Ezri Dax goes on to become the captain of the USS Aventine.
• Major Kira became a Starfleet captain after Bajor was admitted to the Federation.
• Tom Paris becomes becomes an admiral, but in true Tom Paris style is demoted, and becomes captain of the USS Mercury.
• B’Elanna Torres recreates the quantum slipstream drive from memory and is promoted to Fleet Chief Engineer.
• Chakotay becomes captain of the USS Voyager after Janeway is promoted to Vice Admiral. Harry Kim is his chief of security. Chakotay later becomes Admiral.
• Harry Kim becomes captain of the USS Rhode Island in Star Trek Online.
• Tuvok becomes Rear Admiral. He then resigns from Starfleet for the second time, rejoins, and is given command of the USS Voyager.
• Seven of Nine becomes a Starfleet Admiral in an alternate timeline.
• T’Pol became captain on the USS Endeavour.
• Malcolm Reed became captain of the USS Pioneer.

The cancelled Star Trek: Federation

After Star Trek: Enterprise, there was a brief proposal for a sequel set in the year 3000 called Star Trek: Federation. It was quickly abandoned in favour of J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot movie, but it was absolutely nuts. Here are my favourite parts:

• The main character is Lieutenant Commander Alexander Kirk, a descendant of James T. Kirk. He takes command of the new Enterprise after the captain and first officer are killed.
• The Federation has gotten corrupt and rubbish. A mysterious new alien destroys a Federation ship and new Kirk is the new survivor. Vulcan, Bajor and Betazed are so mad at Kirk’s terrible description of the event that they immediately quit the Federation for some reason.
• The chief engineer is one of those gaseous species the Enterprise-D used to discover in nebulae and gas giants by accident, named The 76th Distillation of Blue.
• The doctor is a borg who can heal people with nanoprobes.
• There’s a genetically advanced human officer, because apparently after a few centuries the Federation decided genetic manipulation is not a moral problem any more.
• The new Enterprise is powered by a micro-singularity like Romulan ships, and has a cloaking device like Romulan ships.
• The Romulans have finally re-unified with the Vulcans.
• The Cardassians have gone back to their spiritualist roots.
• The Klingons are wise warrior mystics, which I guess means they still fight but have stopped murdering their superiors to rise in ranks.
• The Ferengi now run the galaxy. Now that the Federation only have like twenty planets instead of 150+, capitalism is big again.

Hachidan kiritsu, it’s illegal!

There was a lot of overlap in the late eighties and early nineties between science fiction fans and anime fans.

• The Anbo-Jutsu ring, where Riker fights his dad blindfolded with a padded stick, is covered in Japanese text, mostly anime references. This is easier to see in the remastered Blu-Ray release:
  • The main symbol in the middle means star, as in Star Trek.
  • Barely visible but on either side of ‘star’ are Lum and Ataru, the names of the main characters of Urusei Yatsura, an anime which ran from 1981 to 1986. The kanji for ‘star’, pronounced ‘sei’, appears in the series title of Urusei Yatsura as a pun.
  • The scroll on the right wall says urusai yatsura, the same reference. ‘Urusai’ means noisy or bothersome, with ‘urusei’ an alternate pronunciation of the same.
  • The word on the front right of the ring is Yuri, likely a reference to the the character Yuri from the anime Dirty Pair (1985). It’s like that another side of the ring which cannot be seen says Kei, the other character.
• Hoshi, the name of the translator in Enterprise, also means ‘star’.
• An on-screen reference is made to Keiyurium in the TNG episode “Rascals”. Another reference to Dirty Pair.
• A reference is made to dolphins aboard the Enterprise-D in the TNG episode “The Perfect Mate”. It references Gunbuster (1988), a science fiction anime where the ship is piloted by dolphins.
• The Nausicaans, the race that stabbed Picard in the past, reference Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a 1984 anime.

The Beta Quadrant Problem

A webpage titled Star Trek Cartography charted the route Voyager took through the Delta Quadrant and predicted (correctly) that it would end in Season 7 with a jump home because they’d never reach the Beta Quadrant.

A big reason for this is that mention of the Beta Quadrant was taboo during Deep Space Nine. As the Dominion were of the Gamme Quadrant, the Federation and all its allies were referred to as the Alpha Quadrant races, even though several are Beta Quadrant races (Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans). Earth is the dividing line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

But it sounds good to call the good guys the “alpha”, much as Earth is referred to as Sector 001, so they ran with it. In order to avoid shining a light on this mess, Voyager had to avoid bringing up the topic of the Beta Quadrant as much as possible.

Another reason is that that Voyager is the show about exploring the Delta Quadrant, not the Beta Quadrant. It’s about the new and unknown. When you hit Beta Quadrant, it’s about meeting the Romulans and Klingons again, which isn’t the point of Voyager.

Plus, as you get closer to Earth, you eventually reach the edges of Federation space, or at least somewhere Starfleet has already explored. Then you either declare “we’re home” upon reaching some obscure border planet that isn’t Earth, or spend the rest of the series coasting through Federation space being greeted as heroes. It would have been very anti-climactic.