Welcome to This Week in Trek

| June 26, 2011

Good day, Trek fans. I’d like to welcome you to “This Week in Trek”, a podcast and web site about one of the most prolific franchises in television and movie history – Star Trek. Each show, Darrell and I will talk about why Trek is so important to us, analyses of episodes, what it was like growing up Trek, news, and topics related to Star Trek.

However, we can’t do the show without feedback from you. What we’d like to hear from you is what makes Star Trek important to you. Are you a new fan? Were you old enough to watch the shows on NBC or on reruns in the 70’s and 80’s? What’s your favorite episode and how did Star Trek inspire you?

We hope to hear from all you Trek fans out there around the world. Send us feedback at thisweekintrek@gmail.com and let us know what Trek means to you.

Live long and prosper

Tags: , , ,

Category: Featured, Site News

About the Author ()

Comments (4)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Davey says:

    hey guys,

    Ok… on the DS9 episode “trials and tribble-ations”… The discrepancy between the Klingons of TOS and TNG, etc. is explained in Star Trek Enterprise- the Wikipedia article follows:

    “A canonical explanation for the change was given in a two-part storyline on Star Trek: Enterprise. The two episodes, “Affliction” and “Divergence”, aired in February 2005. An earlier story arc featured the Augments, genetically-engineered humans left over from the Eugenics Wars of the late 20th century, and who were defeated by Captain Jonathan Archer and the Enterprise in Klingon space. The Klingon High Council fears that Starfleet was developing armies of Augments; after gaining access to genetic material from the Augments, the Klingons perform experiments to increase their own intellect and strength. The experiments turn disastrous when a flu strain mutates and becomes a deadly plague that spreads across the Empire, causing physical changes resulting in the afflicted bearing a TOS-era appearance. Dr. Phlox of the Enterprise formulates a cure for the virus, but the physical alterations remain in the populace and are inherited by offspring. Phlox indicated that “someday” the physical alterations could be reversed.[26][27]

    Okay? The explanation is that the Klingons used human eugenics to augment their warriors. The result was that the Klingons who were infected with this gene-changing virus were imbued with superior strength, endurance and intellect, as well as the original Eugenics Wars offspring’s lack of empathy, but were cursed with the side effect of having their appearance become more human-like. Eventually, those afflicted sought cosmetic surgery to reverse the effect, while scientists tried to discover a way to eliminate the retrovirus.

    It is all well explained in this episode, which I thought of as a brilliant way to justify the change in Klingon appearance.

    Also, after my first viewing of this episode, which occurred after watching several Enterprise episodes, I developed this explanation for the evident reversion of technology from Enterprise to TOS- the fact that in many situations, the more modern systems on the enterprise were apt to fail when undergoing different spacial anomalies. This caused Starfleet to revert to mechanical devices such as the digital clocks and readouts aboard the TOS Enterprise, so that the ships were less vulnerable to magnetic fluctuations, etc. in space.

    To illustrate- imagine what an electrical storm in space might do to touchscreeens- now imagine how much more durable old-style keyboards and physical switches would be to such electrical surges. Thus the more advanced TOS enterprise was outfitted with systems relying solely on more primitive tech, while the TNG enterprise was shielded better, and thus bore more modern interfaces. The original ship in Enterprise was seen as a failure in this respect, and ships were designed differently in the next generation.

    I like your podcast a lot for its investigation of the themes involved in certain episodes, but I have to be a typical Trekkie in that I try to respect the explanations the canon provides for discrepancies in the pantheon.

    btw- there was at least one Halloween episode on Voyager that I recall: the episode involving Neelix telling ghost story to the children in the crew. I do not remember the name of the episode, tho I have seen it several times.

    Sincerely,
    -Davey

  2. Kat J says:

    Hey Michael and Darrell! I have just discovered your podcast and it makes my day! There is so much Trek out there, but it is so scattered, and often, inconsistent, that it is tough to find good sources of info. Thanks for simplifying this by bringing it all together. You guys rock! Keep it up! (No- seriously! Keep it up- you know how many podcasts fade away. Don’t you dare!)

  3. Darrell says:

    Thanks for the kind words!

    We trekkers are known for our well-functioning brains. As an original Roddenberry style trekker, I prefer to pick & choose which aspects of Trek I accept as canon. If it doesn’t sound right to me, I don’t accept it. If it does, I take it in and absorb it into my being.

    This doesn’t mean I take everything Gene wrote as law, nor does it mean I dismiss everything Rick Berman ever penned.

    Each of us should use our brains, and pick and choose what has meaning to us, embrace it, and make it our own. All aspects of Star Trek are all things to all people – and that’s the way it should be.

    🙂
    Darrell

  4. Peter says:

    Hi,

    YOU HAVE THE GREATEST STAR TREK PODCAST EVER!!!!!! I love your show and keep it going. Please.

    I loved Star Trek from the first show that i saw which was THE CLOUD MINERS way back in 1968.

    i just found your podcast and starting listing from your first show just last week. Sorry life got in the way.

    One of your podcast talked about Mythbusters where they tried to duplicate Kirks cannon from the show ARENA. WEll after nearly breaking my TV I have some serious issues with the Mythbusters cannon.

    1) Kirks bamboo cannon was no longer then 24-26 inches long (just past his arm length). You see this in 2 shots where he first picks up the bamboo, and the next scene where he finds the Potassium nitrate. The Mythbusters cannon was almost 30 to 36 inches long. The lady holds the bamboo to her side and you can see the difference in length Because of the length difference you would need more gunpowder to expel the diamonds out of the cannon.

    2) I think Kirks cannon diamater was not was large as the one in Mythbusters but i don’t think this would make a big difference.

    3) Kirks cannon had the rope on the front of the cannon about 2 to 3 inches in. Mythbusters cannon rope was in the back of the cannon in the ground. This is what caused the Mythbusters cannon to fail because nothing held in the front where the blast is going to be the strongest. I know Kirks cannon also exploded, but because the rope was in the front of cannon it would hold together slightly longer, allowing some of the diamonds to be expelled before the cannon burst open like a banana.

    4) Because of the rope difference the Mythbusters dummy was badly injured. Kirks cannon only knocked him to one side because the final explosion was contained was slighly contained.

    I know if they do this over again with the the exact same way as they did in Arena the result would be the same and it would not be busted.

    Right thinking is quickly rewarded

    Pete