Weird Trek Episodes - The Alternate aka "That One Where Odo Turned into a Goo Monster"

Mora: What does it say, Odo?
Odo: It says that you're one overbearing father figure. Apparently, my people had those too!

Why did I get away from doing these? Not only are they easy to write, but they can provide some nice Trek entertainment. I was planning on talking about the episode around Halloween since it's kind of a monster feature, but that didn't happen. "The Alternate" was from the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This was one of the few DS9 episodes I found recorded on a VHS along with some X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons from when I was younger. At this point, DS9 was still kind of in its learning phase, but they did have a better grasp of what they wanted to do with the show. Today, it's an Odo episode.

In the episode, Odo's "dad" comes to the station. Mora Pol, a Bajoran scientist, was the one who realized that Odo was a sentient life form and tried to foster him a bit. While Dr. Mora's come to visit Odo, he also comes with news that he may have found Odo's home world in the Gamma Quadrant. Even though their relationship is a bit fractured, Odo's curious, so he accompanies Dr. Mora, Commander Dax, and another scientist to the planet. All they find there is a statue, a lifeform similar to Odo, and volcanic gasses emanating from the ground.  The gas affects all of them except for Odo who's able to transport them outta there.

Tales from The Trade! - Star Trek: Godshock

During a trip to Nashville back in 2023, I decided to stop by my old comic stomping grounds, The Great Escape, off of Charlette Ave. Even though my comic buying has gone down in the last couple years, I still try to make time for the hobby. Making time to read said comics is another thing altogether. Anyway, I was perusing some of the new stuff, and a recent Star Trek trade popped out to me. The hardcover had a few Trek characters, most notably, Captain Benjamin LaFayette Sisko. You know I had to get this, man!!!

At the end of 2022, IDW started to release a new Star Trek comic that featured a lot of notable characters from the franchise with Captain Sisko being the lead. It even has a sister series called Star Trek: Defiant which features a few other popular characters. Since Trek continuity is pretty busy these days, they had it take place a couple of years after the end of DS9 and before Star Trek: Nemesis. “Godshock” contains the first 6 issues of the series. It’s being written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing who I don’t know too much about. The artwork is being done by a few like Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo. So, what happens when someone is killing “gods?”

 

Star Trek: Godshock

Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing

Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo

Colors: Lee Loughridge

Letters: Clayton Cowles

 

Favorites - Favorite Star Trek Episodes Involving Time Travel

Well, this didn’t take long to put together. As I said in my last list, Star Trek made time travel into a fine art. All of the series (even Discovery) have conducted in some time travel. While most of the episodes tend to be good, some of them tend to be the best the franchise ever produced. Trek has pretty much run the gamut with these stories, so finding 15 of them would be hard to do. I was going to try and rank them, but that ain’t happening. I will put my favorite up top though. If I leave one off, just know that it’s just my opinion.

1. TNG’s “All Good Things…”

I might as well start the list off with one of the best last episodes ever. It’s also a good time travel episode. In the episode, Captain Picard is somehow being transported between the past, present, and future. While the past sequence should be familiar to fans of the first season, the future is something else. It is the future, after all. I won’t spoil anything here but he does find out who caused it and why it’s happening. It ties into someone he met during the first season. It’s truly one of the best.

2. Star Trek: DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-lations”

It’s the meeting of two crews, sort of. The episode takes place during the fifth season of the show. In it, Someone uses an orb of the Prophets to send The USS Defiant to the 23rd century during TOS’s “The Trouble With Tribbles.” In order to find out who is behind it and keep the timeline safe, the crew has to integrate itself into the crew of the 23rd century. They literally go all out on this. The scenes where the DS9 crew interacts with the TOS crew are pretty cool and still hold up now. It’s an episode that honors both eras of Trek.

3. Star Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever”

This is considered to be one of the best episodes from franchise and it’s easy to see why. In the episode, the Enterprise finds the Guardian of Forever, a sentient time portal. When a crazed McCoy goes back in time and changes history, Kirk and Spock must go back and set things right. Things get a little complicated when they find out what they need to do, though. It’s an episode that has both Kirk and Spock at their best. It also has a nice but tragic romance. It’s definitely one of the best from the series and the franchise as a whole.

4. Star Trek: First Contact

This was the 8th movie from the franchise and the second one involving the TNG crew. In the movie, the Borg try to take over Earth by going back into the year 2063. The Enterprise-E follows them and does what it can to stop them. Not only does the crew have to stop the Borg, they need to help Earth achieve first contact with aliens. It’s part “Borg Shoot ‘Em Up” mixed with running into “great” men from history. It revamps the Borg in good ways and bad (The Borg Queen is okay). The crew itself and the folk from the past also make it a good watch.

Trek Novels - Star Trek: The Captain's Table Book 3 - The Mist

“Today’s post is the start at a look at an anthology series that was released throughout 1998 called 'The Captain’s Table.' The basic premise is that there is a special bar called The Captain’s Table and captains of all sorts come and relax for a bit. Six books looked at the different captains at that time… I’m going to try to look each book during the next few months…”

1 Year, a few months, and some days later…

So, I really lapsed on this one. If there’s anyone out there who was wondering about my opinion on the rest of the books, I’m sorry. This little series got away from me. I guess I needed a break from Trek books since I hadn’t read many for a while. After reading this one, I can kind of see why I needed that break.

Today’s book is the third one from the series and it features Captain Benjamin Sisko. I guess I needed to get another fictional hero in for Black History Month and Sisko perfectly fits that position. It was written by husband/wife duo Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Smith was one of the writers who came up with the concept of this extradimensional bar. While Sisko’s time in the bar took place sometime during Season 6, his story took place a few months before the Cardassians joined the Dominion. So, what would make a former Cardassian space station disappear into another dimension?

Star Trek: The Captain’s Table – The Mist
Writers: Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

BRIEF BLURB: Captain Sisko is forced to take a break from the Dominion War by Dr. Bashir. He heads to Bajor and finds the Captain’s Table. There, he tells a story about how his crew encountered a legendary species called The Mist.

Favorites - 10 Heroic Characters Gone Bad

“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.”

This quote from Batman: The Killing Joke says a lot about heroes or good people who go down a dark path. Sometimes, an event will happen in their lives that will irrevocably change them. Mostly, they can find the way to keep their wits and continue to fight the good fight. Heck, how has someone like Spider-Man not gone totally dark after what’s happened to him? Other times, they fall so far off the wagon, you wonder if they were even on the wagon to begin with. You’ll see this trope everywhere in movies, TV, books, and video games. So, here are some good characters that turned dark. They’re not necessarily in order either.

1. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

That’s right, folks. One of the best villains in movie history was once one of the good guys. It always has to start like that, don’t it? Even though the prequels weren’t perfect, they and Star Wars: Clone Wars showed how a “mostly good” Jedi would go evil. Because of Palpatine’s influence and Anakin’s own fears, he became Darth Vader and helped tighten the Empire’s grip for years. I’ll touch on his ultimate end next time, though.

25 Favorite Star Trek Characters

Now that I’ve gone through my favorite antagonists of Star Trek, it’s finally time to quickly talk about some of my favorite characters from the franchise. I’m sort of going all out on this one. I decided 25 was a nice number considering we’re in Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary. Of course, I’ll be listing my favorites from the main casts of all shows. I’ll also include some recurring characters that I thought were pretty cool. I won’t be including villains though. I already went through that.

25. Kes - Yes, Kes made it to the list. I did like her over some of the other characters on the show especially Neelix. I will say that her species kind of sucks in the evolutionary hierarchy. A 9-year life span? What’s up with that? Anyway, I liked her for a couple of reasons. She had a nice personality that made her easy to talk to anyone on the crew. I also liked that she had telepathic abilities and that she wasn’t always in control of them. It sucks that she got let go from the show. To me, her character had more potential on the show than a couple others.

24. Deanna Troi - Yeah, I got her on the list too. Even though Counsoler Troi’s role on the Enterprise-D was a little useless at times, I did like her. There were some episodes that revolved around her that I thought were nice. The one where she was surgically altered to be a Romulan (“Face of the Enemy”) was pretty cool. I also liked her rapport and relationship with Will Riker.

23. Jonathan Archer - While Archer was my least favorite captain, he did have some moments to shine for me. By the way, Archer was captain the NX-01 Enterprise. Most of those moments were in the third season during the Xindi arc. He also had some standout moments during the fourth season. Besides, it’s Dr. Sam Beckett in the role. That’ll automatically get me to like the guy somewhat!

22. Martok - Martok was a Klingon commander on DS9. While we got introduced to him in the fourth season, we didn’t get to really know him until the fifth season and afterwards. If there was a Klingon I would say was legitimately cool, it would be Martok. He even beats Worf in that aspect. He was probably also one of the more likable Klingons since he wasn’t too uptight in honor.

Favorite Star Trek Villains Part 2

Hey, all. Here is the rest of the list. As you can probably tell below, there's a reason I split this thing into two parts.

7. The Romulans

The Romulans have been major villains for the franchise since the beginning. They are descended from Vulcans who left the planet long ago to forge a different path. Instead of logic, their prime motive is maintaining their own set of order through any means. They definitely like to spark up trouble especially when it involves the Federation and its allies. Their technology is on even on par with Stafleet’s.

There have been some standout moments involving the Romulans. There was Kirk’s encounter with  a cloaked Romulan ship in “Balance of Terror.” We had the Romulans trying to interrupt the creation of the Federation on Star Trek: Enterprise. Then, there’s all the stuff they did on TNG with the Federation’s relationship with the Klingons. The most standout moment for the Romulans would have to be from the rebooted movies series where a group of them travels back in time and wreck some serious havoc on Starfleet and Vulcan. What Worf said about them is true: “They are without honor.”

Favorite Star Trek Villains Part 1

Next up on this Star Trek frenzy of mine is the topic of villains. With Trek, they tend to vary. You have some that are really good, you have some that are average, and then you have “hippies in space.” Guess what won’t be on this list, “brother!” Today’s list is going to center on 15 of my favorite villains from the franchise. I did something similar to this years ago and I actually included a couple of villains that’ll see today. You’ll probably see some of the regulars like Khan (not the Bennie Cumberbatch variety) and the Borg. You may also see some that don’t get mentioned on the top lists especially since most of those lists center on the movies. First, here are some honorable mentions:

• Garth of Izar – Yes, I kind of like this guy even though it’s literally being played to the nth degree of cheese. ‘Ole Garth was once a famous captain in Starfleet who was driven mad and sent to Elba II’s asylum for the criminally insane. He quarrelled with Kirk in the episode, "Whom Gods Destroy." While he’s not one of my favorites, I like him. I heard someone say that he’s basically a Batman villain from the 60’s TV show and I see it. What’s even funnier is that Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) is in the episode too! I would have rather had seen Cumberbatch play him than Khan as well.
• Soran – In Star Trek Generations, Soran was an El-Aurian scientist who wanted to go to a dimension called the Nexus aka “Red Ribbon in the Sky”. Unfortunately, he had to make a sun go nova and kill millions including the crashed Enterprise. Luckily, that dark future was erased because Picard decided to bring James T. Kirk (who then dies…) back from the Nexus at that exact moment and stop it even though he could have used the Nexus to take him to a better vantage point. Yeah, Generations wasn’t that good though it had its moments. Luckily, Malcolm McDowell was pretty good as Soran.
• T’Pring– That was one mean, logical…woman! T'Pring was Spock's arranged wife from "Amok Time." Unfortunately for "Hot and Bothered" Spock, T'Pring wanted to marry someone else. Now, I get she wanted to marry Ston instead of Spock. It was her right. What makes her a stone cold antagonist is that she picks Kirk to take Ston’s place in the… that battle which name I don’t remember. That’s cold-blooded in my dictionary!
• Shinzon – I know Star Trek: Nemesis gets a bad rep but I thought Shinzon was fine. It was cool that he was a clone of the Picard. Plus, the guy did some bad stuff like killing Romulan governing officials and ultimately killing Data (sort of). And that ship of his looked pretty cool. Too bad the movie couldn’t be that cool.
• The aliens from “Conspiracy”– During Seaosn 1 of TNG, these interesting aliens caused Picard and Starfleet quite a scare in a pretty entertaining episode. They had somehow taken control of the higher-ups at Starfleet and were making plans to take over more officers. They and their queen who had taken over an officer named Remmirick were eventually beaten but others like them were still out there waiting in another system. Unfortunately, they kept waiting since this episode was all we got of them. They were never brought back to the show and I heard that they were replaced by the Borg for being the Federation’s big threat.

And now, here's the first part of the list.

Love is in The Air... Sort of - Star Trek's Favorite/Least Favorite Relationships

When preparing my Latinum/Vole Awards posts, I came across one category: Romance in Star Trek. I mulled over it and really couldn’t make up my mind on what to say. So, guess what becomes its own separate post? Yes, Valentine’s Day is far from us, but love knows no season. Just imagine me saying that in a sultry, deep voice that brings the house down. While I’ll be listing five of my favorite romances from the franchise, I’ll also put five of my least favorite romances too.  I might as well balance it out with this one. Trek didn’t always do romance that great even when the couples were cool, so I‘ll mention that as well. They’re also not in any sort of order.

The Cardassian Vole Awards - Star Trek's Low Moments

Here on the Random Boat of Randomness, I try to look at the good stuff. Even when I talk about something that isn’t really good, there’s usually something in there that’s okay. Heck, I was able to find something good in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 and that mostly sucked. I even said the DVD would make a nice coaster. So, that’s where I’m going with the Vole Awards. For those who don’t know, voles are annoying ugly creatures from Cardassia that know how to muck up your standard space station. Gul Dukat must have left some over there when the Federation came to take over Terok Nor.

The things I’ll be looking at today are some of my least favorite aspects of the franchise. You’ll notice I didn’t say “worst” here. While some of these things are definitely bad, you may be able to find some good in them. There are things on here that I kind of like but they have aspects that I’m not really fond of. So, what will get a nice vole to put on their shelf at night? Find out below.

The Latinum Awards - The Best of Star Trek

Greetings to the first (and probably only) Latinum Awards. Since we’re in the franchise’s 50th year, I thought it was finally time to look at some of the good things it’s given us. After all, Star Trek has given us a lot of good things over the years. This is something that fans have probably debated for years on end and it’s time to throw my cards in on the subjects. I have 10 categories and I may have some surprises in there for y’all.  Yes, I did choose latinum for the award since it just looks good. Just don’t have any Ferengis around it or it might go missing. So, what will get a statue made of gold-pressed latinum for being pretty cool?

Favorites - My Random (though not perfect) Star Trek Crew

Since this is Star Trek’s 50 anniversary, it’s finally time to make this post. I have other posts planned for the next few months and this is one of them.

Over six shows, 13 movies (I’m counting Star Trek Beyond too), and a crapton of novels, we’ve been shown a lot of officers. We’ve had some good ones and a couple of okay ones. I doubt we’ve had any bad crew members unless you count Harry Kim. Personally, he’s alright but he’s definitely not on this list. Some have braved the vastness of space and have done some cool things. Others just did their job and they were good at that. I can say one thing about the many crews: they were at least good at their jobs. You can’t always say that in real life.

So, here is my ultimate Trek crew. I know that folk online have done this, so I’ll try to do my own spin on this. By the way, some of these may not be my favorite characters from the show. They may not even be the best at their certain job. I also wondered what team-ups or pairings would be interesting. I’m also not going to crowd it with just one crew. I could do that easily, but that wouldn’t be fair to the other shows. I do think each show has at least one character that would be on a list like this. So, if I was Admiral Williams of Starfleet (played by Tony Todd or Michael Dorn for cool reasons), who would I want to head a crew that’s heading into that final frontier we call space?

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! Star Trek: The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine Crossover

Well, it’s another May, so that means I get to talk about sci-fi stuff for a month... or maybe longer. First up is something I found some time ago. The Star Trek license has belonged to a lot of comic companies. The TOS and TNG licenses belonged to DC during most of the 80’s and 90’s. I’ve read only a couple of those. For some reason, Star Trek: DS9 got shipped to Malibu Comics. With both shows on at the time, a crossover of some sort was inevitable. It took me a while to find all four issues.

The crossover was split between the companies. DC did two issues and Malibu did two issues. The same creative team stuck on all four issues. Michael Jan Friedman and Mike W. Barr wrote and co-plotted all four issues. Gordon Purcell handles the pencils and Terry Pallot handles the inks for the whole mini. The colors and letters are split between the two companies. The crossover is supposed to take place in the early parts of DS9’s second season and TNG’s last season.

Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine crossover 
Writers/Co-plotters: Michael Jan Friedman and Mike W. Barr 
Pencils: Gordon Purcell 
Inks: Terry Pallot 
Colors: Rick Taylor (DC), Digital Chameleon (DC), Moose Baumann (Malibu), and Violent Hues with Janice Wismar (Malibu) 
Letters: Chris Elipoulos (DC), Bill Oakley (DC), and Patrick Owesley (Malibu) 
Editors: Mark Panicca and Margaret Clark 

Weird Star Trek Episodes – Move Along Home aka “ALAMARAINE... meh!"

It looks like they really want out of this episode, eh?

Well, it’s time to head to Season 1 of DS9. While I do think that DS9’s first season isn’t that bad when compared to most first seasons in the franchise, it’s definitely my least favorite season of the seven. It does have some good episodes though. Unfortunately, it also has some “meh” episodes in there as well. Guess where “Move Along Home” falls into.

The episode starts off as the crew does first contact with the Wadi, a race from the Gamma Quadrant. Instead of sitting down and negotiating stuff, the Wadi want to know where the games are. They end up heading to Quark’s bar and gamble a bit. When Quark gets caught cheating the new aliens out of winning, the main Wadi decides to play a game of his own with Quark. What Quark doesn’t know is that this ends up transporting Sisko, Bashir, Dax, and Kira to some playing field. While Quark plays the game, they have to figure out a few tricks set up for them to solve.

I bet these guys have some extreme version of "Pick-up Sticks" on their world.

Odo (who really puts Starfleet’s security to shame) finds out from Jake that his father’s gone. It takes a while, but he and Quark find out that Sisko and the others are part of the game. It also turns out that their lives may be in danger. Things go bad when the four almost end up dying in the game. Luckily, it is a game after all as the four end up in Quark’s bar unharmed. The Wadi leave and never actually return. Yay.

So, this was a pretty "bleh" episode. While it has a couple of okay moments, it’s not good and pretty forgettable. The Wadi themselves are pretty lackluster. I can see why they were never brought back to the show in any capacity (far as I know). The crew doesn’t really get to do much other than be bewildered and act a little silly. I zoned out towards the end on my re-watch especially since I knew that nothing was really going to happen.

Don't worry. I won't link this to YouTube. I don't want to hurt you that bad.

I did think Quark and Odo themselves make the episode a little better by having some funny moments. Other than those two having a couple of funny moments, the episode’s a dud. I’d say skip it since nothing really comes from it. Still, if you want to see it, go on ahead. Well, it’s time for me to “move along home.” Peace and God Bless.

Weird Star Trek Episodes - In the Pale Moonlight aka “That Was Cold-blooded!”

Captain's Log: Stardate... ugh. I am never drinking "Quark's Secret Surprise" again.

Yeah, I quoted Dave Chappelle/Rick James for the nickname of this episode. The nickname definitely fits, I’ll give it that. I doubt the actual song does. Anyway, “In The Pale Moonlight” takes place during Deep Space Nine’s sixth season. The show is deep in its “Dominion War” era that sort of started in the fifth season. It’s a war that’s not going so well on Starfleet’s side. So, why is this episode in this “weird” bucket? You’ll find out below.

The episode is narrated from Sisko’s point of view. It flash backs to a few days ago when he was getting reports on Starfleet’s casualties from this war. When word about the Romulan’s non-aggression treaty with the Dominion is talked about, Sisko gets an idea. He realizes that the Romulans need to join their side in order to beat the Dominion. He gets with Garak, a sometimes shifty Cardassian, in order to get info on their battle plans. Sisko knows that doing this may turn into a messy affair, but he’s determined to do it. Since Garak can’t find proof that the Dominion will turn against the Romulans, it’s decided that they’ll forge it in the order to fool the Romulans.

Garak has Sisko arraign a forger named Volar so the evidence can be manufactured. In order to make this happen, Sisko has to break some rules to keep him out of trouble.  He had to bribe folk like Quark and lie to Dr. Bashir about some weird chemicals. When the evidence is made, Sisko and Garak get a Romulan senator named Vreenak to secretly come to the station in order to view this evidence. Unfortunately, Vreenak and his guys find out that the evidence is fake (“It’s a faaaaaaaake!”) and they leave in a huff.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, your mileage may vary), Garak figured this might happen. During the testing, he planted a bomb (along with some Dominion evidence) on the Romulan ship. It blows up as Vreenak is heading back to Romulus. He also “took care” of Volar to keep all of this on the down low. Sisko is furious at Garak, but Garak predicts that his acts may get the Romulans into the war. His prediction is correct as the Romulans enter the war on Starfleet’s side. In the end, Sisko knows he did wrong, but realizes it was for the best.

So… is this a good episode? You’re dang right it is! Peace, God Bless, and go get your groove back or something.

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Wait, I already did this joke for the one of the worst Trek episodes ever. I might as well do it to a good one too.

Trek Novels - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Warped

Well, it’s time for me to finally look at a Trek book that features the crew of Deep Space Nine. I’ve only read a couple that involves this crew. I tend to gravitate towards the TOS crew and TNG crew when it comes to novels. Now, I actually found this hardcover novel at a big thrift store in West Tennessee called Top Dog. We were down with my dad’s family for the weekend back in 2010. My granddad had gotten all of the stuff we wanted. I had started to read the book sometime later, but I didn’t finish it until now. I’ll get to why later.

Warped was written by K.W. Jeter and released in 1995. I haven’t heard of the guy until this book. He’s written a lot of original novels as well as ones for this franchise and others. He’s done books in the Star Wars universe. He’s also written some sequels to Blade Runner. Now that was a shock to me. I still need to see Blade Runner. By the way, the book takes place after the events of “Battle Times” and before the beginning of the second season. So, we’re in Season 1 territory… yee haw. Anyway, I’ll get on to the synopsis.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Warped

Writer: K.W. Jeter

BRIEF BLURB: The crew of Deep Space Nine has to discover the cause behind a series of murders while Bajor’s government suffers a takeover from another group.

TV Talk - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I bet Uhura's thinking "Wow, the 24th century's looking pretty nice."

Well, it has come to this. I finally gather up the guts to talk this show. I’ve heard this show get praised by most and not praised by others.  I think it’s time to add my name to the list as I finally talk about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

My first memory of DS9 was actually on a church trip. I think we went to Louisville for the weekend and there was an episode (In the Hands of the Prophets) playing. At the time, we didn’t have cable at my house, so I didn’t know what this show was. I knew it was “Star Trek” and that’s it. I think my uncle may have even recorded a couple of episodes. When we finally got cable in ‘98, I got to watch the show on FOX 54 coming out of Huntsville. I have no clue how we got that channel, but I guess it had to do with the fact that we were so close to Alabama. While the channel showed current episodes of DS9, it also showed reruns early in the morning at about 5am. 

After DS9 ended its run, it was probably a few years until I saw the show again. I know Spike TV had it in reruns when I was in college. It didn’t stay on there long if I remember. I also remember this YouTube channel had all of the episodes on there. I think I watched the latter half of the show on that channel. Then came Netflix which has every Trek show on there. I’ve mostly been watching a lot of the early episodes on there as well as my favorites. I haven’t finished the show since I’ve seen the latter half a lot, but I’m getting there.