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🎩 Exploring the World of Oz – Books, Movies & Future Adaptations 🌪️ In this episode, I’m joined by special guest Paeter Frandsen of Spirit Blade Productions, who has just released a brand-new audiobook recording of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum**. Together, we take a deep dive into the magical land of Oz—past, present, and future! We chat about: ✨ Our experiences reading the original Wizard of Oz books 🎬 The iconic 1939 Wizard of Oz movie 🌀 Return to Oz and its darker take on Baum’s world 💚 Oz the Great and Powerful 🎭 Wicked, and how its popularity has reshaped modern Oz fandom 🎶 The excitement around the upcoming adaptation Wicked: Part One (Wicked for Good) We also share our hopes and ideas for future adaptations of Baum’s novels and discuss how renewed interest in the Oz franchise could open the door to new faithful retellings. Whether you're a lifelong Oz fan, love the classic movie, are obsessed with Wicked, or curious about untapped corners of the Baum universe, this conversation is for you! 🔊 Check out Paeter Frandsen’s audiobook of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNC7Qz41mx8 or download it from https://www.patreon.com/posts/44479037 Find Paeter at https://Christiangeekcentral.com 💬 Join the conversation! What’s YOUR favorite Oz book or movie? What story would YOU love to see adapted next?

Join me for a full breakdown and character-focused analysis of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home — the hilarious, heartfelt time-travel classic that wraps up the three-part Spock resurrection arc. From whales and alien mysteries to Spock’s evolving relationship with his father, this is more than just a sci-fi comedy. We explore: 🖖 Why the tonal shift shouldn’t have worked — but did 🖖 The probe's mystery and how it deepens the Star Trek mythos 🖖 The completion of Spock’s emotional arc (and how Star Trek: Discovery enriches it) 🖖 Kirk’s final "punishment" and why it’s so satisfying 🖖 The quiet emotional weight behind key moments like Sarek’s confession   Whether you're a long-time Trekkie or just diving into the films, this is your place for thoughtful commentary, nostalgic appreciation, and character storytelling.   👉 Next up: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier — and I’ve got thoughts.   📘 Love Star Trek? You’ll probably enjoy my own space opera series, Jewel of The Stars. Grab book one for less than a dollar at: https://books2read.com/jewel   🖖 Subscribe for more deep dives on Star Trek movies and series.

In this episode of Nerd Heaven, Adam David Collings takes you on a passionate and thoughtful journey through Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Often overshadowed by its predecessor and successor, this film is far more than a bridge—it’s a deeply emotional exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and what makes Star Trek so enduring. We break down pivotal scenes like the death of David Marcus, the Klingon confrontation with Kruge, and the climactic resurrection ceremony on Vulcan. From James Horner’s unforgettable score to Leonard Nimoy’s directorial choices and Spock’s spiritual rebirth, this episode offers insightful commentary that will resonate with fans of Star Trek lore, character arcs, and sci-fi storytelling. You'll hear: 🖖 Why Kirk's sacrifice defines his character 🖖 The surprising emotional growth of Sarek and McCoy 🖖 How Genesis represents both hope and destruction 🖖 Thoughts on the “even vs odd movie” theory 🖖 A tribute to James Horner’s legacy in Star Trek music Whether you're a longtime Trekkie or revisiting the films with fresh eyes, this episode will help you appreciate The Search for Spock as a beautifully crafted chapter in Star Trek’s cinematic saga. 👉 Subscribe for more Star Trek analysis, sci-fi reviews & geek culture deep dives. 🖖 Live long and prosper.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan—the film saved Star Trek, as it could be argued. This movie embraced the aging of its characters, leading to a very meaingful character arc for Kirk, which only means more to me as I get older. Let's geek out over the Star Trek movie that many still hold up as their favourite.

Today we start a new series looking at the original series Star Trek movies, starting with Star Trek The Motion Picture. This is a film with very clear weaknesses, but also some strengths. Let's take an honest look at what I like, and what I don't like about this movie.

This is an author's commentary for the first book in my Jewel of The Stars series. Think of it like the director's commentary on a DVD.

In this episode, I discuss the Babylon 5 animated movie The Road Home. How does it stack up as a Babylon 5 story? Let's dig in and find out.

Blood of the Stars is an epic fantasy novel, the first of a series by debut author Karyne Norton. Learn more about the book at https://www.karynenorton.com/ And check out my books at https://adamdavidcollings.com/books   

Bonus Episode - My thoughts on Indianna Jones and The Dial of Destiny.

Today, we're looking at the final episode of Star Trek Continues. "To Boldly Go. Part 2." So how does this episode hold up against other series finales such as "All Good Things" and "What You Leave Behind". And how well does this episode tie together Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There's a lot to talk about, including some cool stories shared with me by director James Kerwin. Audio Player control at bottom of page. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars. And I am a Nerd. This is episode 107 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Star Trek Continues. “To Boldly Go, Part 2.” bringing our coverage of this show to a close.   The description on IMDB reads The iconic mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to an end, as Kirk and his crew battle the ultimate adversary.   This teleplay was written by Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin. With story by Vic Mignogna, Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin. It was directed by James Kerwin And it first aired on the 13th of November 2017.   We pick up in a very tense situation from last episode’s great cliffhanger. Kirk is unwilling to relinquish his bridge. He, Spock, and Uhura all try to fight back. To no avail. Even the security officer’s phasers are useless against Lana’s powers.   And then the big surprise twist happens. Smith’s eyes go silver. She is uplifted as well. This was nicely foreshadowed in the last episode where they mentioned that she was holding Garry’s hand when they passed through the barrier. I felt then, that she was holding something back. She uses the same lightning force powers that Lana was using. We saw Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Denher use them in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. She forces Lana and Sentek to retreat to the Kongo.   So … it seems Smith wasn’t quite so unaffected as she claimed. I think this is a very cool development. But it raises a lot of questions. Where does Smith sit in the esper scale? Has she always been affected, but has been hiding it, or have her powers only just now manifested. And if so, why?   Kirk asks security to escort her to sickbay. At first, she’s taken aback. After all, she’s one of the good guys right. She helped them against Lana. But after a moment of thought, she relents. It’s probably a good idea. She understands the potential threat she represents. She sees things from Kirk’s point of view. Maybe she’d even do the same thing in his place. She voluntarily goes with security.   The big question is, why are they just sitting there. Why have they not destroyed the Enterprise and her crew? McCoy has the answer. It takes time for uplifted  espers to grow in their powers. Perhaps they’re biding their time until they all reach full strength.   Bones has a medical defence that might help with the illusions. Scotty recommends keeping their distance as the espers don’t have unlimited range with their powers. The Kongo’s engines are offline. The crew must have shut it off before they were overpowered. Maybe the espers don’t know how to get them going again.   Kirk hasn’t slept for two days. McCoy doesn’t argue. Usually Kirk would be wrong, but not this time. He needs to keep going. I’m not sure McCoy is right, actually. As Riker says in Best of Both Worlds, you can’t fight the enemy at the same time you’re fighting your own fatigue. Lack of sleep impairs human decision making. I know my mind is absolutely useless after putting in a day of work, and Kirk has been going much longer than that. Yes, the situation is critical, but for the moment, it’s quiet, This might be the perfect time for Kirk to catch 30 minutes of sleep while the enemy regroups. Of course, there’s a lot to accomplish while they have this time. Coming up with defences, a plan of some sort. There are no good or easy answers, which is probably why McCoy is not arguing with him.   In five years, 73 people have died under Kirk’s command. He remembers the exact number. Of course he would.   McCoy says “we’ll stop them” but that’s not the point. “At what cost, Doctor?” Kirk asks. That’s what’s really on his mind. It’s fitting for Kirk to reflect back on the cost of his five year mission as it’s nearing its end. Especially at a moment like this, when it looks like that cost is about to skyrocket. But there’s more to it, as we’ll soon discover.   McKenna goes to see Smith. Everyone is afraid of her. Understandably. Contact with Gary, at the time of his uplifting left some residual energy in her. She didn’t uplift at the time, probably because she doesn’t have the psi rating necessary. But her proximity to the barrier now has reactivated that residual energy enough to uplift her.   Smith has developed telepathy. She can read McKenna’s mind. She can feel the power flowing through her, but she claims to not be dangerous. She would never hurt anybody.   But McKenna can’t know that for sure. Gary shows early signs of megalomania quite quickly. Denher much less so. She still retained her humanity despite temptation to the contrary. Why?   Was it that Denher was intrinsically a better person? What is because Denher had a lower psi rating than Gary? If that’s the case, it looks good for Smith as she seems to have a lower rating still.   So far, it’s looking like Smith has a good chance of keeping her humanity long term. But there are no guarantees here. We just just don’t know.   Charvanek comes to see Spock. It seems she is still trying to pursue a relationship with him. A relationship he was tempted to enter into in the past, but resisted.   She asks Spock to come with her when her ship departs. The mission of the Enterprise is almost over. His job is complete. It’s a logical time to make a change in his life. She tempts him with the promise of unification between Romulans and Vulcans. A promise that will consume him a century from now. But why would a Romulan commander want reunification? She is as he would want her to be, not as she truly is. This is not Charvanek. When Spock resists the illusion, it disappears.   Other illusions are being used against the crew. An order to Checkov to lower shields and head into the barrier. Even Kirk’s preoccupation with the deaths of crew under his command.   I’m glad these moments were included. The greatest weapon Lana’s espers have is their mental abilities. Their ability to confuse and manipulate the crew of the Enterprise. They should be using it every change they get. Probably a lot more than we see on screen. With that many espers, and so many on board the Enterprise susceptible to them, it’s actually a miracle they don’t blow up their own ship.   This is one weakness I see in Deep Space Nine, actually. Now DS9 is my favourite of all the Star Trek shows, and I love everything to do with the Dominion War and the changelings. But their greatest strength was not the military might of their ships, or the fighting acumen of the Jem Hadar. Their greatest weapon was the ability to infiltrate the Federation. We saw a little hint of the potential they possessed in Homefront and Paradise Lost. And that was only 4 changelings. They should have used these infiltration tactics a lot more during the war. We know the blood screenings were not entirely effective. The Federation wouldn’t have stood a chance.   The reason I bring all this up is just to praise this episode for including these scenes.   The battle begins. The Kongo fires on the Enterprise. The starboard nacelle is damaged. The Romulans join the fight but then move off.   The espers might need a minute to recharge their powers.   The nacelle needs 30 minutes to repair. Kirk orders a risky cold restart. The esper’s powers cannot deflect multiple simultaneous strikes. But two vectors will not be enough. Three would do the job, but they don’t have a third ship….or do they?   Kirk orders the crew to prepare for a risky procedure. One they have never before attempted. Scotty will re-start the engines. They will separate the saucer from the Stardrive. Spock will command the saucer. Kirk, the secondary hull.   Obviously, this is something that TNG did, but TOS never did.  I was already aware that Gene Roddenberry had intended that the TOS Enterprise be able to separate. They didn’t really have the budget to make it a reality until Encounter at Farpoint. What I didn’t realise, until it was pointed out by James Kerwin, is that Kirk referred to the process, which they called “Jettisoning”, not “Separating” in two different TOS episodes. “The Apple” and “Savage Curtain”.   Spock points out that it will be very difficult to re-integrate the ship after this. But not impossible I like this approach. It shows that while yes, the original Enterprise COULD separate the two sections, it wasn’t a routine operation like on the Enterprise D. It’s a last resort. Not necessarily indeed to be undone. Kirk describes it as “jettisoning the stardrive section.” So it’s not the same as in TNG.  I like this a lot.   This gives the final episode of Star Trek Continues quite an epic feel. Now they can conduct a three-pronged attack on the Kingo.   And it’s working. The Kongo’s power is decreasing.   Kirk is commanding the stardrive section from Auxilary control, which was seen from time to time in the original series. The set was built for episode 3 “Fairest of Them All”.  Director James Kerwin shared a story with me. The Auxilary control set was re-assembled for the finale, not having been used in a couple of years. But the buttons and lights on the helm console had deteriorated due to humidity and dust. They no longer worked, and they had to film in two days.   Kermin checked the tr

Today, we're looking at "To Boldly Go Part 1", the first half of the Star Trek Continues grant finale. See how this episode ties back to the Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", how it sets up everything for the exciting conclusion, and hear some fascinating new insights into the episode from director James Kerwin. Player at bottom of page http://AdamDavidCollings.com/books ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars. And I am a nerd   This is episode 106 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the first part of the Star Trek Continues grand finale, “To Boldly Go, Part 1”.   I got an email a few weeks ago. It was from James Kerwin. Yes, that James Kerin. Writer, producer and director for Star Trek Continues, including director of today’s episode.   He reached out to me to say he’d been listening to the podcast and enjoying it. This was a huge thrill. It’s very humbling to find that one of the creators of the show has been listening to the podcast, so I want to give a big shout out and thank you to him, not only for his work on the show, but for his encouragement.   And he pointed out a few fascinating things that I’d missed. Remember in episode three, I talked about how good the shuttlecraft exterior looked. It turns out, they didn’t build that from scratch that was the real shuttlecraft Galileo from Star Trek The Original Series. How awesome is that?   I’ve made mention of Nurse Chapel a couple of times, but that wasn’t actually Chapel. They made a conscious decision not to have Chapel appear on screen in this show because she should be off at Starfleet Medical getting her doctorate at this point in time, which makes a lot of sense. So it was always Nurse Burke, a character who had appeared in Star Trek comics and novels.   And Lieutenant Smith has not actually been on the Enterprise the whole time. But we’ll learn more about that in the next episode.   But here’s a big one I missed. The actress who plays her, Kipleigh Brown, was the writer of episode 9 “What Ships are For” I didn’t put that together, but I think that’s really cool.   The description on IMDB for today’s episode reads To solve the utmost mystery, the Enterprise must return to where Kirk's five-year mission began. The teleplay was by Roberty J. Sawyer based on a story by Vic Mignongna, James Kerwin, and Robert J. Sawyer. It was directed by James Kerwin, And it first aired on the 18th of October 2017.   Robert J. Sawyer was the primary writer of this two-parter. He is a very famous Canadian author who wrote FlashForward, which was adapted for TV by Star Trek’s Branon Braga, and Man of Steel’s David S. Goyer.   When Star Trek The Next Generation was preparing to wrap and move to the big screen, they gave it a two-hour finale. This idea was pretty unheard of at the time. Lots of shows in the 90s had movie-length pilots, but not finales. TV shows tended to pitter out and end with a bit of a whimper. TNG changed all that.   But the original Star Trek never got a proper finale, like TNG, DS9, and Voyager.  Even Enterprise got a finale of sorts, which I will partially defend, though not the feature length extravaganza that others got. But things were different in the 60s. TOS had no ending. It was cancelled. Turnabout Intruder wasn’t intended to be the end of the story, it was just an episode.   One of the greatest things about Star Trek Continues is that it rectifies this. It gives TOS the ending it always deserved. And it’s done so well.   Much like “All Good Things”, it calls back to a lot of things from the past, but it specifically links us back to the very first episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Even the titles relate, each is part of Kirk’s iconic phrase. The symmetry is beautiful.   But hold on, I hear you say. “What about the Cage? Isn’t that the pilot of TOS?” Well, yes it is. Star Trek had an unprecedented  two pilots. But The Cage never actually aired in its original form during the run of the show. These days, I tend to think of The Cage as the pilot for Strange New Worlds. So in my mind, it makes a lot of sense for this episode to tie in with “Where No Man has Gone Before.”   Director James Kerwin gave me some interesting insight into the production of these episodes. They actually filmed this two-parter before they filmed the last episode “What Ships are For.” CBS/Paramount had implemented their fan-film guidelines, guidelines.    Now a show like this would have needed some substantial changes to fit with these guidelines. They were required to be less than 15 minutes or no more than 2 30 minute parts in total with no additional seasons, episodes or sequels.   CBS didn’t require the show to shut down, but with these guidelines in place, and Discovery about to release, out of respect, they decided to wind down Star Trek Continues. They did a final fundraiser to complete episodes 8, 10 and 11, but there was no money to make episode 9.   But at the last minute, a generous donor gave them the money for episode 9. They shot the finale first to get it out of the way, and went back several months later to film “What Ships are For.” I’m glad that generous donor made it possible, because that last episode was pretty amazing.   The episode opens with Spock & McKenna meditating together. This is normally a very private affair, but Spock considers it an honour to teach a willing student.    Meditation is the one time that Vulcans truly acknowledge their emotions. You can see why it’s so private.   McKenna’s inclusion in this moment shows the level of intimacy that has grown between these two.   They will both miss these sessions when the mission is over.   We learn here about a vulcan discipline, the Dulhutnar, an alternative to the Kolinahr.  Rather than the purging of emotions, the Dulhutna is about accepting the wisdom of vestigial emotions. Spock considers there to be No chance of him pursuing either. Of course, we know that shortly after this finale, he will return to Vulcan and pursue the Kolinahr.   Spock and McKenna’s relationship is special. They share private things they wouldn’t share with others. Time with humans has taught Spock to value his human side. And then they hold hands. That’s a huge deal. Vulcans are not comfortable with physical contact. And even for humans, holding hands is a sign of affection and physical intimacy.   The Enterprise is scheduled to return home soon. Their 5 year mission is coming to an end. The loss of The Hood crew still weighs on him. You’ll remember that back in “Embracing the Winds” a mysterious life support failure cost the lives of the entire crew. A failure that Scotty was unable to explain.    I remember commenting at the time that I hoped the show would follow up on that. I couldn’t remember if it did. We’ll see in this episode that it is definitely followed up.   The Yorktown and the Republic were both damaged while investigating The Hood’s loss. The Enterprise is being sent to the Federation colony on Aldebran III which went completely silent shortly afterward.   Admiral Thesp, a very cool looking Andorian, admits that the Federation had a secret laboratory on the planet. A supply vessel sent to investigate never returned. They detected anti-proton residue. That means Romulans.   The colony has been destroyed. The central reactor suffered a containment failure. Scotty thinks that should be impossible. He installed the safeguards himself 5 years ago, which, I suppose, gives us a glimpse of what Scotty’s job was before the Enterprise’s 5 year mission began.   Interestingly, Vic pronounces the word Sabotage the same way Shatner does. Sabotage. I don’t know how common that is in America, or Canada for that matter, but here in Australia, we definitely say Sabotage. Anyway, I love these little bits of attention to detail. It’s really cool.   The underground pandora research lab is intact but it has a scattering field so Scotty will have to beam them down outside.   The set for the planet looks very reminiscent of what we might have seen on The Original Series, and yet, kind of better, in my opinion. It’s a real work of art.   I like the little elevator shaft to gain entrance to the lab. The only sign of habitation nearby. Presumably, the colony was elsewhere on the planet.   A drone appears and attacks them. The effects here are a good match for the original series. Again, better quality, but recognisable.   There’s a good sense of danger to this action scene.   After they’ve dealt with it, a human woman, Lana, appears out of the turbolift. She’s surprised to see a Vulcan. The sensors detected him as Romulan.   Lana is played by actress Nichola Bryant who famously portrayed the Doctor Who companion Peri, a character I’ve been known to refer to as “the whinging yank”. But in fairness to her, Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor was a bit of a prickly guy to be around.   James Kerwin was a big Doctor Who fan growing up. Colin Baker and Nichola Bryant were the doctor/companion pairing that he most remembered as a child. It was a big honour for him to work with both of them on Star Trek Continues. Colin Baker appeared in Episode 4, The White Iris, as Amphidamas. And Nichola Bryant appeared in this two-parter.  How cool is it that he got to work with them both on this show?    Lana is wearing a visor. To me, it looks similar to the one that Spock and Miranda Jones had to wear when viewing the Medusans back in “Is There No Truth in Beauty.”   But as she removes the visor, we see her eyes. The same metallic colour we saw in Gary Mitchell after he was uplifted by passage through the galactic barrier, back in the pilot episode.   Ever since this phenomenon was

We're taking a brief side-quest from our regular coverage of Star Trek Continues, to look at an episode of Star Trek New Voyages, because it sets up the back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus's relationship, and I just like to throw it in there when I'm doing a re-watch of Star Trek Continues. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars And I am a nerd.   This is episode 105 of the podcast.   Today, we’re talking about an episode of a different fan series - Star Trek New Voyages. “The Holiest Thing”   Why? I just like to throw this one in when I do a re-watch of Star Trek Continues, because it does a similar thing to Continues, that is, to help develop the story filling in the gaps between TOS and the Star Trek movies. This one introduces Kirk to a much younger Carol Marcus, for the very first time. So I figured, let’s have a look at this one. Next time, we’ll be back with part 1 of the finale of Star Trek Continues.   The description on IMDB reads Captain Kirk and the Enterprise investigate the devastation of Lappa III, apparently by the terraforming efforts of Dr. Carol Marcus.   This episode was written by Rick Chambers It was directed by Daren Dochterman   And it first aired on the 15th of January 2016   We start this episode in a very unexpected place. A shuttle flies past the camera. But it’s not a TOS shuttle. It’s an Enterprise D shuttle. We cut to the inside where we see a woman in TNG era uniform and an older Scotty. So, clearly this is set some time after the TNG episode “Relics” where a retired Scotty finds himself in the 24th century. I have to say, they cast a pretty decent look-alike for older scotty. A guy named Carl Sheldon. He hasn’t done a lot of acting.   Watching this scene, I’m again reminded just how professional the acting and writing are in Star Trek Continues. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Star Trek New Voyages. They did some amazing stuff long before Star Trek Continues was a thing. But the acting, and the dialog here just isn’t at the same standard as Continues.   But I want to give this show credit for set design and visual effects. What we see in this episode is great. And not all the acting feels as amateur as this first scene.   The ensign has been doing some training with Captain Scott. They’re approaching the Lappa system. She asks Scotty if he’s ever been there. He recalls a time in his past, when the world was still very much on the frontier. It was un-inhabited back then. At least, that’s what they thought.   We then cut to the TOS present day. A scientist, who we’ll shortly learn is Dr. Carol Marcus, is working to terraform this planet. Scotty is there, and in this show, he has a moustache. Another little nod to closing the gap between TOS and TMP.   Marcus says “we have Enterprise and her chief Engineer watching over our shoulder.” This is something that bugs me. That she says “Enterprise” rather than “The Enterprise.” Voyager was the first Star Trek show to drop the word “The” when referring to the ship. And I was okay with that because “The Voyager” somehow sounded wrong. In contrast to “The Enterprise” and “The Defant” which both sounded completely natural and right.   Then we got Enterprise, and on that show, they did the same thing. They called the ship “Enterprise”, not “The Enterprise” That annoyed me a little, but I got over it.   But nowadays, in Strange New Worlds, they are referring to the original starship Enterprise, the one commanded by Pike and eventually Kirk, as “Enterprise.” I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong. That ship was always “The Enterprise” so that annoys me quite a bit. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. Here, in New Voyages, we have the same problem. Carol is referring to Kirk’s ship. It should be “The Enterprise”   Marcus told the science council she could terraform Lappa III in less than a decade. But with recent problems with the equipment, it’s going to take twice that long. Both Marcus AND the council seem to be very inpatient about that, even though, as Scotty points out, it’s a whole century faster than anybody else has done it before. It amuses me to see her pacing impatiently when we’re talking timeframes of decades and centuries.    And centuries sounds about right for terraforming, something that, if it is actually possible, is not going to be quick.   Apparently, they’re using transporter technology in a whole new way. Scotty wants to see what it’s all about. Something goes terribly wrong and the lab explodes. Scotty and Marcus barely escape in their shuttle. But they crash. This was a pretty spectacular sequence.   The Enterprise crew have recovered Scotty and Marcus. Scotty is pretty banged up. Marcus is unconscious but should be out of here soon. But Kirk is very impatient to speak with her. He needs to know what happened on the outpost.   Jacy King plays Carol Marcus. Married to Brian Gross who plays Kirk. She’s a good choice. She definitely looks the part, a lot more than Alice Eve did in Star Trek Into Darkness. And, of course, she doesn’t have the inexplicable British accent.   I didn’t see Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn at the cinema. I don’t know if it even showed here in Tasmania. But I was only 4 years old. I saw the first half of it on TV, and then watched the whole thing on VHS many years later. When I watched it, it had been quite some time since I’d seen the original TV series. So I had assumed, from the way she was introduced, that we’d seen the character of Carol Marcus at some point in the past. Of course, that wasn’t the case. The back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus always seemed like this big glaring hole that demanded to be filled. So I liked that Star Trek New Voyages chose to fill that hole.   Carol is shocked and horrified to learn all her team is dead. There’s no evidence of alien contact. Kirk is going to begin the investigation assuming it was an accident. Carol wants to be a part of it. She will work with Spock.   But McCoy thinks she needs to work with someone more sensitive to her current emotional needs, given her great loss. So Kirk volunteers.   Carol’s terraforming technology uses transporters to re-arrange matter. Seems like a pre-cursor to the Genesis device she’ll eventually create.   Scotty thought he saw a ship on sensors, but now they can’t detect anything.   Spock wants to run background checks on Carol’s staff, considering the possibility of sabotage. She doesn’t react to this well. There is now clear tension between her and Spock. He’s not sure she should accompany him to the surface, given her “emotional outbursts.”   This episode actually gives a character arc to both Marcus and Spock. Marcus, of course, is trying to figure out how to deal with the painful emotions of having lost her crew, and feeling responsible. Spock, on the other hand, has to learn how to relate to a human who is experiencing very understandable strong emotions. It’s a learning experience for both.   A quick zoom out shows us that there is indeed a ship hiding in the system. It’s not cloaked. It seems to be hiding in a gas cloud. It’s not a familiar design. At least, it wasn’t to me, in this shot, but we’ll come back to that.   Kirk goes to see Marcus. He apologises for Spock. Marcus has come to agree that Spock asked the right question, she just didn’t like it.   We get some insight into why Marcus is so passionate about terraforming. She talks of a famine that happened on a world. People suffered. She wanted to help. Terraforming dead worlds is an answer, but it’s far too slow to be of any practical help. She is driven by compassion for people.   She sees herself becoming a mother of worlds   It’s a good conversation. There’s no flirting or inappropriate behaviour, as you often get from Kirk the minute he meets a pretty girl, Just 2 people getting to know each other.  They’re both people with authority. They understand each other   Kir acts s little sheepish as he starts to realise his attraction to her. Maybe he’s sensing that he feels more than just sexual attraction. Something deeper.   She’s feeling it too   Spock and Carol beam down to investigate destruction site. We see Xon at transporter console. He is the Vulcan character created to replace Spock in the original Star Trek Phase 2 series that was cancelled in favour of Star Trek the Motion picture, because Nimoy wasn’t going to be involved in that show. When it became a movie instead of a series, Nimoy agreed to return.   Star Trek New Voyages chose to bring Xon onto the Enterprise as a new character alongside Spock.   Spock and Marcus are learning to appreciate each other. Marcus seems to be a little envious of Spock’s ability to suppress emotion as a Vulcan. They’ve found something on the planet. Not something belonging to the team. It doesn’t belong there. They’re bringing it aboard for analysis.   Kirk is seeking counsel from bones on how to help Dr. Marcus through what she’s going through. He claims he has no romantic interest in her. That would be wrong. Interesting to see Kirk say that when nothing usually stops him. But Carol is going through a great deal of emotional pain at the loss of her friends.   Sometimes in older fiction, like Star Trek, you’ll see characters who are trying to comfort someone through grief, and suddenly it becomes romantic. Like they’re taking advantage of the other person. Even Star Trek 2009 did this with Uhura and Spock, but reversing the expected gender roles. It felt really odd. I’m glad to see Kirk not doing that here. His relationship with Carol Marcus is one that is important to us as fans, so it’s nice to see them doing it right.

In this episode of Star Trek Continues, we are treated to the return of John De Lancie is a new role. But just because he's not playing Q, doesn't mean he isn't awesome. "What Ships Are For" explores an issue that has been topical in our world in recent years - immigration and refugees. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars And I am a nerd.   This is episode 104 of the podcast. (Yes, I’m counting the chat about DC comics from last time) Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “What Ships are For”.   The description on IMDB reads Kirk struggles with aiding a society whose inhabitants view their isolated world in a very unique way.   This teleplay was written by Kipleigh Brown With story by Vic Mignogna, James Kerwin, and Kipleigh Brown,  It was directed by Vic Mignogna   And it first aired on the 30th of July 2017   When I first heard that Star Trek Continues was bringing in the legendary John DeLancie, but that he’d be playing a character that wasn’t Q, my initial reaction was “What a waste of John De Lancie.”   My thinking went something like this. The idea of having Q visit Kirk’s Enterprise would be fun. Something that could certainly happen in-universe because Q can travel through time with the click of a finger. But it couldn’t have ever been done in TOS because The Next Generation didn’t exist yet. It’s the similar problem to having Kirk and Spock make references to Archer and T’Pol. While Enterprise took place before TOS, it was created more than 30 years later. These kinds of references and interactions can only be done by fan productions (or maybe Strange New Worlds). But as fun as it would be having Q show up in a TOS episode, it’s unlikely a fan production would be able to get John DeLancie.   But Star Trek Continues managed to get him. But they didn’t use him for Q. They cast him as another character. Added to the disappointment of him not being Q, was the fact that De Lancie is a very recognisable guy, so seeing him as a different character would be odd to say the least.   After watching the episode the first time, I had to back-pedal my thoughts on this because of De Lancie’s great performance. He did a fantastic job with this character, and now it’s hard to imagine this episode without him.   The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from an inhabited asteroid with a limited warp capable society.   I like that it’s an inhabited asteroid. We always see people living on planets, but I think we need more inhibited moons and asteroids, not only in sci-fi, but in fantasy as well. If I ever write a fantasy book, the world I set it on will be a moon, rather than a planet.   And a nice bit of ongoing continuity, we learn that two Federation starships have been dispatched to investigate what happened to the hood. Both have suffered unexplainable damage. We also learn that Nurse Chapel is already at Starfleet medical, studying to become a doctor. We know that by the time of Star Trek The Motion Picture, Chapen is a doctor. This is the first really big sign that Star Trek Continues is on a trajectory toward that movie, starting to set up some of the big changes that occurred off-screen between season 3 and the movie.   You sometimes see nurses who decide to become doctors in both fiction and real life. It can be almost viewed as a promotion, which, I suspect it technically is, if you look at the hierarchy of authority in a hospital. But nursing certainly needn't be seen as a stepping stone to medicine. Nursing is a respected profession of highly intelligent people. And interestingly, my wife works with a nurse who used to be a doctor, but decided she’d rather be a nurse. You don’t often see it go that direction.   The other hint of the motion picture you see is the white medical uniform the doctor at Starfleet is wearing. Kirk jokes that you’ll never get him in one of those things.   The Hyalini have refused outside contact for centuries. We know little about them.   We get a little TOS style womp-womp humour, which I don’t really care for, but it’s very authentic.   When the landing party beam down to the asteroid, they are surprised to be seeing everything in black and white. When I heard that the creative team behind this show were looking for ways to do a black and white episode, I wasn’t convinced. But the conceit they come up with works nicely for me as a science fiction concept, and also allows them to approach a topical issue in a very unique way. So good on ‘em.   While they puzzle over what might be affecting their eyes, they are met by Galisti, leader of the inner council, played by De Lanci, and Thaius, their newly appointed ambassador to the Federation.   Galisti is surprised that the human visitors look so much like Hyanoid bipeds. He was expecting a tentacle or two. Thaius is the first to notice that Spock is different from the others. I laughed out loud when she asked with all sincerity,  if he was an Earth female. McCoy managed to get by with a stifled chuckle.   She is also fascinated and delighted by Spock’s kindness and gallantry revealed by pure calculated reason.   She notes that in all her excitement at meeting aliens, she didn’t see anything other than his ears. “How often we look but forget to see.” This is an important line, not only because of what it says, but because of who says it. As we’ll see at the end of the episode.   We also learn that Galisti and Thaius are married. Galisti says “How fortunate I am to call my friend, my wife.” And I totally get behind that. I believe that romantic love is best born out of friendship.That’s why I don’t understand this whole “friend zone” thing that “the kids” talk about these days.   Kirk struggles to find the words to ask the aliens about the lack of colour. How do you describe colour to someone who has no concept of it? It would be a bit like describing colour to a blind person. There is simply no common frame of reference.   Gaisti and Thaius don’t really know what Kirk is getting at, but they assure him the way their world looks is the same as it has always been.   They launch right into an explanation of their situation. Their isolation was never meant to end now. Hundreds of years ago, they united in a goal of becoming worthy to one day join the galactic community (clearly they knew, or believed, that alien life existed). They wanted to become a utopian society, somewhat like what Earth has become.   Spock explains the black-and-white as the property of an unusual form of radiation from their sun, which impairs the cone cells in humanoid eyes. So far, this is just a strange quirk of this world. And Star Trek is all about discovering strange new worlds. But this will come into play in an important thematic way later in the episode.   I love the establishing shot we see of the town. Feels reminiscent of the planet where Pike fought the warrior on Rigel in The Cage. I wonder where they shot it. Might even just be stock footage.   When Kirk is introduced to Thaius’s most promising student, Sekara, Kirk goes all … Kirk. When he meets an attractive woman, he can’t help but flirt with her.   Things get awkward when Tomiat, one of the council, points a gun to his head and yells that Galisti shouldn’t have brought the aliens here. They are all ruined. His perspective seems to be that making contact with aliens, before they themselves are perfect, will destroy them. I can kind of understand why a group of people would want to perfect themselves before joining the larger community, but this guy’s ideas seem odd and extreme. Evidently, the others of his people do not share the extremity of his view. He refers to himself as a “true believer”. But a believer in what? Their plan to perfect themselves? What leads him to take the mental jump from “This would be a good strategy” to “if it doesn’t go as we planned, we’re doomed”? It seems a bit of an absurd leap. I don’t know what he’s basing it on.   Spock brings things to a peaceful end with a well-placed neck pinch.   That’s when Galisti explains that Sekara had a disease. She’ll be dead before the year is out. This is why they broke their isolation with the distress signal. They don’t know what it is, only what it isn’t. These people seem to have medical knowledge at least in line with ours.   McCoy is confident the disease is related to the same radiation that makes everything look black and white. Not sure how he concludes this.   He wants to bring Sekara on board the Enterprise to examine her in sickbay, but Kirk sees a potential issue. On the Enterprise, she’ll be shielded from the radiation. Spock isn’t certain whether she’ll see colour or not, but if she does, it could be traumatic. I can totally get that. Kirk tries to prepare her for what she might see. He does a good job of it. He warns her that it will be unusual, it might frighten her, but it will be safe. She accepts this.   When she arrives in the transporter room, we get the reveal that her skin and hair colouring are not what you’d expect from a human. Greenish skin and purple hair. Cleverly concealed by the black-and-white nature of her asteroid home.   She still sees in black and white for a moment. But then it happens. And as you can imagine, it’s pretty overwhelming.She goes into a panic attack. She asks “is it alive?” Again, Kirk does a good job of calming and reassuring her.   This was nicely done.   It's taken millennia for the radiotoxins to induce acute radiation syndrome. Mccoy has started sekaras treatment   Now that she’s gotten used to it, Sekara has a real sense of wonder about colour. It’s like nothing she’s ever experienced before. I like how something th

In this episode, I talk about some of the DC Comics that I've read in recent time. I cover * Batman: The Killing Joke * Green Lantern Emerald Twilight * Zero Hour: Crisis in Time * Superman: Dead Again   This is a bonus as my next Star Trek Continues podcast is not yet ready. Next fortnight, we'll return to our regularly scheduled program.  

This episode of Star Trek Continues takes an alternative look at what might have happened to the USS Defiant after The Tholian Web, making use of a divergence field so as not to contradict In a Mirror Darkly. It also features a guest appearance of Rekha Sharma, before her role in Star Trek Discovery. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars And I am a nerd.   This is episode 102 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Still Treads The Shadows”.   The description on IMDB reads The Enterprise becomes trapped on the edge of a rift in space where alternate universes meet and Kirk finds himself having to contend with a ghost from his past and danger in the present.   This episode was written by Judy Burns It was directed by Julian Higgins And it first aired on the 1st of April 2017   And this one guest stars Rekha Sharma of Battlestar Galactica fame, and she actually appeared here long before she appeared in Star Trek Discovery.    The Enterprise is investigating a nascent singularity. A gravitational wave engineer has been sent along to help them. This makes sense to me, while one of Starfleet’s primary missions is scientific, and they have their own scientists, if there is no expert on a given field on board, a guest may be sent with them. And if the leading expert on a field is a civilian, it makes sense that a civilian would go along to work with the crew.   There’s a stronger than anticipated gravitational wave. It has consumed planets 3 through 8 in ten days and is about to destroy a moon.   It seems our guest, Avi Samara, is on a first name basis with Kirk. She calls him Jim, then corrects herself.   They’re detecting an interdimensional rift, like the one Kirk was nearly lost in back in The Tholian Web.   They’ve detected a lifeform, it’s not on the moon as they first think, but on a ship. The USS Defiant.   Well that’s interesting. Especially since we know what happened to the Defiant after The Tholian Web. It ended up in the 22 century of the mirror universe. (and that episode aired long before this series was thought of)   Also when The Defiant vanished, there was nobody alive on board.   Samara wants to go aboard to investigate, but Kirk denies her request without explanation.   All the dead crewmen Kirk saw last time are gone. The bridge is empty.   Bones has found the lifesign. It’s a much older looking Kirk. Cryonically preserved.   A DNA scan suggests he’s not a clone because there’s no genetic drift. He’s literally Kirk.   Samara’s research suggests that rogue singularities can move from universe to universe. The Defiant is stuck, halfway between two universes. Her engines have been modified over a long period of time to reach warp 15.   Old Kirk arrives in the briefing lounge. All this time he thought they’d left him behind. Now he finds his old crew, still young, and …. Himself.   Even old Kirk knows Samara, so they’ve known each other prior to this mission. Given their embrace it seems they were close.   Old Kirk remembers the attempt to beam him back to the Enterprise, but he found himself back on the Defient. Samara suggests a divergence field. Two Kirks. Two Defiants. They don’t know where our Defiant went, (but we do) but this is the duplicate. The other defiant has been in another universe for 217 years. The big question is, who put Kirk in cryo?   The old-age makeup isn’t bad. Along similar lines to what was done in the original series. But not at the level of what could be done today with a professional budget. And Vic does a good job of altering his performance, his voice, to help sell it. It would have been interesting if they’d been able to get William Shatner for this episode to play older Kirk. It would be a good way to bring him back, something he’s sometimes said he’d like to do if the role was more than a cameo. Fan productions have had original series actors appear in the past, and Continues is one of the most professional.   Part of me wonders if they actually approached him.   Before we can get an answer, a Klingon ship appears. They claim salvage rights over the Defiant but they’re struck with phaser fire from an unknown source and pulled into the anomaly   The only other ship here is the defiant but there’s nobody on board. That’s when old Kirk appears and orders Uhura to open a channel to the defiant.   Kirk speaks to someone called Tiberius. It appears to be an artificial intelligence. It speaks with Jim’s voice. It claims to be the protector of James Kirk.   Samara speculates that given the time, the Defiant computer could have developed multi-tronic circuits. Which is a bizarre statement to me. Is she suggesting that the computer evolved? By itself? That’s a bit out there.   Tiberius wants its friend back. It wants old Kirk to be returned.   Old Kirk warns against firing at the defiant, saying “you can’t give him the power, it feeds the dark.” He then clutches his head and Bones rushes him back to sickbay. That seems to be a foolish move. Clearly old kirk has information. Information about Tiberius that is vital, that could determine their safety. And Bones just gets him out of there before he can give that information. I understand the need to get the older man medical help, he is clutching his head in obvious pain, but this doesn’t give the impression of a medical emergency so life-threatening that they can’t take a moment to let old Kirk explain. What makes it even worse is that not long after, Bones will confirm there is nothing physically wrong with the man, he’s just old, and will send him to McKenna.   Kirk tries to negotiate with Tiberius but it isn’t interested in the crew’s safety. He blames them for abandoning Kirk, which they technically didn’t do. They didn’t know the duplicate Kirk existed. And old Kirk tried to explain this to tiberius.   Scotty has found a recording of Tiberius saying “it is forbidden for you to remember.” That’s creepy. “Know you are safe. The dark will send you home.”   A brainwashing device. Is Tiberius protecting him from something? Something it thinks old Kirk shouldn’t remember?   They’ve found the duplicate’s logs. Duplicate kirk reprogrammed the computer with a new prime directive, to get Kirk home. It’s started developing a personality.  Kirk says “he’s imprinting on me.” I’m not sure what he means by that.   Now I’m a software developer. Now you can code an artificial intelligence. We’ve done a little of that at our work, with image recognition, but most of my work relates to an asset management system. It has some cleverness and expert knowledge built into it, but it’s essetially a database that stores the details and condition of assets, like bridges. No matter how much data we store in this system, no matter how many features I code into it, it’s not going to spontaneously become self-aware. It’s going to suddenly transform into an AI application like ChatGPT.  You can make an AI, but you’ve actually got to code it. Microsoft Word is not suddenly going to turn into Alexa.   I’m just not buying the idea of Tiberius, which makes it difficult for me to connect with this story, because its existence is kind of crucial to that story.   Anway, after 31 years, Kirk is still failing to find a way home.   Old Kirk is back in his old quarters. This was his cabin once. He has a lot fo talk to McKenna about. It took him 4 months to bury all the crew of the Defiant.   McKenna tries to comfort Kirk with the words of The Ancient Mariner. He was given a second chance to help ensure that others don’t lose hope.   Kirk is struggling with a sense of betrayal on two fronts, first from his crew he thought abandoned him, and second, from the only “friend” he’s had in many years. McKenna says what he needs is to know that although he’s lost all those years, he hasn’t lost who he is. Interestingly, the best person to help him might be our Kirk. Who knows him better? What would Kirk need to hear if he was in old Kirk’s place?   I like that McKenna gets to be a counsellor in this episode.   They reminisce about knowing Samara. Apparently they were close when Kirk was a teenager. Samara rebuilt a biplance.   Another nice touch is seeing the defiant uniform with its custom logo patch. But we’ll talk more about that when we get to the finale.   A question old kirk had to grapple with was Are you even a captain when you have no crew? Are you a leader when no one is following? He knew his crew wouldn't leave him, but the decades passed and they never came. You can’t replace them because there are no other societies to integrate into. It was a universe of void. Nothingness. When does a machine become conscious? When there is nobody around to say it can’t. I never said he couldn’t, so he did. And now he’s as self aware as he is invincible.   And this is all nicely poetic, but I’m still not buying it.   If he’s self aware, maybe he can be reasoned with. Kirk says Tiberious is hiding something. Something so horrific that you could never face it. Old kirk says “the dark.” but he can’t remember what that means.   The rift is emitting dark matter. The Computer suggested a new engine design with the power to open a rift home. In year 51, the computer is sentient. And bloomin McCoy, just as old kirk is explaining things, he wants to give him another sedative. Why? I dunno, because it’s hard for him to get the words out. I'm sure there’s more to it but the episode doesn’t really explain the stakes to us. IT almost feels like McCoy is the one trying to keep this horrible secret.   Shared realities. Two black holes that must