Star Trek Social Club

This episode sees the return of LTJG Sylvia Tilly, last seen in DIS: “Life, Itself”.

It’s Stardate 869372.1, which technically makes it May 3192, but it has progressed from the last known stardate from SFA: “Vox in Excelso”, which was 868943.8 (late 3191), the obvious mistake in SFA: “Come, Let’s Away” aside. So far, it’s consistent with moving the calendar from 3191 to 3192.

The Doctor recites the opening line of Thornton Wilder’s classic American play, Our Town: “The sky is beginning to show some streaks of light over in the East there, behind our mount'in.” Wilder described the theme of the play - which Tilly quotes later - as “the life of the village against the life of the stars,” from which we get the title of the episode.

Kelrec is referred to by Nahla as “Chancellor” now, as opposed to the title of Commander used in his first appearance in SFA: “Beta Test” (he’s wearing four pips like Nahla, which is a captain’s rank, in any case).

Pyroxene is not a mineral by itself, but the name of a group of minerals found in igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Tilly says she’s been on rotation in the Beta Quadrant with the “third years”. The Academy was officially reopened in DIS: “Kobayashi Maru”, the first episode of DIS’s 4th Season, and Tilly was instructing that batch in DIS: “All is Possible”. Since DIS 5 takes place in 3191, Season 4 would reasonably take place in 3190, which leaves us with a bit of a conundrum since a third year class would then make the current academic year 3192-3193, and in my view the evidence points towards Fall 3191 as the start of this batch.

However, if we squint a bit and say that the Academy opening at the start of DIS Season 4 took place in Fall of 3189 (which is still possible, since most of Season 3 takes place in 3189, with only a five month gap to account for between Seasons 3 and 4 as per “Kobayashi Maru”), then the timings work out for the first batch (Year One as 3189-3190, Year Two as 3190-3191 and Year Three - the current year - being 3191-3192). For the avoidance of doubt, we are now in 3192 as of SFA: “Ko’Zeine”.

But to be fair to the 3195 (or later than 3191) proponents, Tilly could of course be instructing another set of cadets than those in “All is Possible”. The dates work out either way if you just focus on this and ignore the stardates we’ve seen so far in SFA.

(But I digress. Sorry, chronologist’s mind at work.)

Tilly’s course is “Introduction to Theatre” - one of the screens shows “Frame of Mind”, a play where the protagonist, who may or may not be insane, is being tormented in a mental institution. Beverly Crusher staged the play with Riker as the lead in the TNG episode of the same name.

I am very, very intrigued by the idea of Klingon musical theatre and how it might differ from Klingon opera. We see later that Sam selects Our Town for the theatre class.

Despite her stay at the holographic “spa” in Denver in “Ko’Zeine”, Sam still seems to be glitching due to injuries inflicted by the Furies in SFA: “Come, Let’s Away”.

Léo Delibes’ “Dôme épais le jasmin”, or “The Flower Duet”, from the opera Lakme plays on Nahla’s phonograph as we come back from the titles.

Reno and Tilly are, of course, fellow time travellers from the 23rd century and were crewmates on Discovery. They have seen more than their fair share of trauma, not least of which is the sense of loss having had to jump 931 years into the future. Reno also lost nearly all her cremates when her ship Hiawatha crashed during the Klingon-Federation war.

Tilly received her commission in 2257. From her perspective, it’s only been about three years since she officially graduated from the Academy.

Jay-Den first made reference to warrior stew (suvwI’ tlhIq) in “Vox in Excelso”. The plot of the opera he describes bears some resemblance to the climax of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, where Titus grinds the bones of Demetrius and Chiron into powder and then bakes their heads into pies which he serves to their mother Tamora. Jay-Den also talks about “quadri-testicles”, implying that Klingons have four testicles instead of two. This is consistent with the idea that Klingons have redundant organs (TNG: “Ethics”), and a Klingon in DIS: “Despite Yourself” that showed him urinating with two distinct streams.

Jay-Den is “embattled” with jaqh-voD, which Caleb says is a cold. This is a new word as far as I can tell - jaqh in Klingon means “deep” and voD means "drill", so the word parts don’t really jibe with the definition.

Although its action takes place between 1901 and 1913, Our Town was written in 1938, when the world was on the brink of World War II.

The Doctor says the patch the holoengineers made to Sam has been failing for weeks, which shows that some time has elapsed between this episode and “Ko’Zeine”.

Darem’s analysis of George and Emily’s wedding is reflected through his own marital complications from “Ko’Zeine”, as is Caleb’s to do with the expectations that he should want to be in Starfleet.

5 years on Kasq equal 3 days on Earth. The Doctor refers to the planet from VOY: “Blink of an Eye”, a planet with a tachyon core where 58 days passed for every minute on Voyager. The Doctor also exaggerates slightly - he spent about 3 years on “Gotana” in those 18 minutes, not exactly a lifetime as we define it. The planet was actually not named in the episode, although a native astronaut was named “Gotana-Retz” and so it was named as “Gotana’s Planet” in The Star Trek Encyclopedia.

Another time dilated planet is Dilmer III from LD: “Fully Dilated”, where a week passed for every second on Cerritos. In The Orville episode, “Mad Idolatry”, 700 years passed on Kandar 1 for every 11-day period in our universe.

The Doctor claims he looked at Our Town, implying it is because Sam selected it that prompted him to do so. But he quotes its opening line at the start of the episode, which means at that point he knows it. The only way to make it make sense is if the opening of the episode takes place after the events of the episode, chronologically speaking.

Sam asks if the Doctor has ever been in love. He had a brief romance with Danara Pel (VOY: “Lifesigns”), a Viidian doctor for whom he created a holographic body. He also harboured romantic feelings towards his crewmate Seven of Nine (VOY: “Someone to Watch Over Me”) and created a holographic family, including a wife and children (VOY: “Real Life”).

The Kressari are an Alpha Quadrant species, who aided the Cardassians in supplying the Bajoran separatist faction known as the Circle with weapons (DS9: “The Circle”).

Wood actually does quite well in space, not decaying because space lacks water and oxygen. In 2024, Japan launched LignoSat 1, a 10 cm^3 satellite made from magnolia wood. A second LignoSat is planned to launch in 2026.

Excitotoxicity is when neutrons are damaged or killed due to high levels of neurotransmitters. It is linked to various neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and ALS.

The scene at the beginning where the Doctor quotes Our Town take place after the events of the episode, since he only picks up the play because Sam selects it.

The aria “E lucevan le stelle” (And the starts were shining), from Act III of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, is sung by the character Caravadossi, reflecting on his love for the titular Tosca as he awaits execution.

“It’s the mundane things… that mean everything,” reminds me of another Doctor. The Fifth Doctor retorts to the Cyberleader in Doctor Who: “Earthshock” that, “small, beautiful events are what life is all about.”

“What took us two centuries to build you killed in 209 days,” which is equivalent to almost 7 months - which assuming the Fall Semester started in early September 3191, brings us to the later part of March 3192, which tracks with “weeks” after “Ko’Zeine”, which took place at the start of 3192.

From another angle, it’s 112 days after SFA: “Series Acclimation Mil”, which takes place 97 days - 3 months - into the academic year, during midterm season. 97 days from the start of the Fall Semester (usually early September or late August) takes us into late November. The Miyazaki Incident takes place in early December, and one month later “Ko’Zeine” takes place in January 3192. 112 days from late November is about 3.5 months, which takes us into mid-March, probably before or after when Spring Break usually takes place. So both sets of calculations take us to about the same time, give or take a couple of weeks.

Belle was the Doctor’s holographic daughter from “Real Life”, who died in a more realistic simulation B’Elanna Torres set up from an injury sustained during a Parrises square match.

The Doctor asks to spend 17 years on Kasq, which will be about 10 days for Earth. Nahla says later it was 2 weeks.

The dialogue from Our Town recited by the cadets is out of sequence, but makes for better dramatic effect. Tarima adds, “loving that boy and a stupid, ugly pillow from the sweetest girl we ever knew,” which is not in the original play.

The episode ends with Nahla’s log stardated 869408.67.

Sorry Wash! Also, this was the crossover I didn't know I needed.

Just watched this. Highly recommend it. While it is about the making of a fan film, at large it more about George Takei’s contribution to Asian American representation and the representation of diversity as a whole. If I needed something to help explain why Star Trek has made such an impact on me, I would point people to this documentary.

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First time I complaing about graphics, but they also use like 6GB VRAM for game which looks from PS3 or Xbox 360. The characters looks like toys, why it looks ugly?

Plus, lacks of voice acting.

Not that I ever disliked her or anything like that; I just always heard some people being strong fans but I'd never watched Voyager, yet, and generally tried not to look too closely, for fear of spoilers. Funnily enough, I watched the first few episodes of Prodigy before I'd ever watched any Voyager.

But man; instantly liked her, right out the gate. Immediately engrossed by her character and her performance.

I…don't know that there's much of any real point to this post. I don't know a lot of people who watch Trek and wanted to share, I guess.

I had some time to fill yesterday, so I decided to check out The Star Trek Academy. It's a Trek podcast co-hosted by an ethics professor and a college professor. They cover Trek, both old and new, doing quick recaps, and then digging in to both what they thought of the episode's execution and its themes and messages.s execution and its themes and messages.

It's arguably a little dry, but engaging, and the episodes clock in at anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes.

AAnd hey, they can be found on Mastodon - always nice to see!

If you're looking for a slightly more academic take on Star Trek, they're worth a listen. They can be found on any podcast app - the Spotify link is just the one that they seem to promote.

Probably the most appealing recipe I’ve come across. However, the person speaking in the video is a slight bother with their pronunciation.

God damn this is awesome. Hero Within unfortunately has shutdown production due to the licensing for Star Trek. This was part of the last batch they made in January. The inner lining has a diagram of the NX-01 hull, the bridge and situation room.

Hero Within has sold out of most of their items. The NX-01 isn’t even listed on the website anymore, so I can’t even link to the product page.

Bonus selfie of me wearing it.

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown is out today, and might grab you if you love the license and can forgive some overfamiliar survival RPG systems.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen this movie. Someone just told me that it heavily parallels the episode “Shore Leave”. Can someone tell me if there is any merit here or if this is simply crazy? Please.