First thing's first: we just have to spend a moment sitting silently in awe at that episode title. It alludes, of course, to the Betazoid President and his delegation testing Starfleet's willingness to protect their territory, and to the new Academy faculty getting to see what outsiders think of the way they've set out their stall. But it's also about the fact that the second episode of this show, as with any show, represents a test conducted by the audience, in a way that "

( Spoilers below ) Well well well. Happy birthday me. There's a moment toward the end of "Kids These Days" that summarises the whole episode, and gestures to what we can hope is the mission statement of the show entire. The USS Athena sheds her (owl) wings, and descends from orbit into San Francisco, to form the central campus of the newly reconstituted Starfleet Academy. As it does so, as the cadets we're just beginning to know stare in wonder at the sight, the episode offe

Context Is For Kings "Say Billy Keikeya was better ONE MORE TIME" A second try at the second try. "Because He Was A Fun Guy" The standard approach for considering this season as touched upon in my essays on "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle At The Binary Stars", is that those opening episodes are best considered separately from the year's broader arc. It's not quite as simple as saying those episodes mark a total disjunction from what follows - Bryan Fuller gets the same story

Children Of The Comet "Also, M'hanit decrees you are all now named Blempuus ven Sclim. He demands you say your name!" "I really don't see how... " "WHY THIS IGNORANT HATRED OF OUR GOD, BLEMPUUS?" Computer, music. Genre: of the spheres.

Starstruck "I could always call up my holographic mess-hall chef. HAH! Oh, you kids. You kids have NO idea. Wow." Our second binary system in the second round of the second iteration of IDFC . Feels like something we should be doing something with, right? "Red Wunz Go Fasta!" When we covered Battle At The Binary Stars , we talked about how Michael risked being torn apart by the difficulty of trying to orbit two stellar bodies at the same time. "Starstruck", as the oldies say,

Envoys "The lightning will go back in the bottle if I have to PUT IT THERE MYSELF" A step back, a leap forward. Second Contact We talked last time about the ways Lower Decks immediately establishes itself as a better Trek show than either Discovery or Picard. "Envoys" continues to make that case, but it also ups the ante, beginning the process of proving itself not just superior Trek , but superior television. . Much of this comes down to a careful structuring of the show

Our playground for the month In which two academics expand the boundaries of maths by expanding the boundaries of the Romulan Star...

Maps And Legends The Plastic Popular Front It still hurts to think about. All that potential wasted. With Discovery abandoning the true...

Battle At The Binary Stars TFW Head Office is calling, but the boss hasn't come back from his bathroom break Ladies, gentlemen, and those...

Strange New Worlds Snow in April. Wait, no. Strange New Worlds is almost certainly unique in the history of television. This is probably...

Those of you in America (or with deep pockets for an import) might be interested in the latest book from ATB Publishing; Outside In Can...

Lost And Found "You have nothing to lose but your chains, and your lazy assumptions of gender!" The scenery's unfamiliar, but we're...

Some of you may already be aware that, when I'm not writing about Trek , I'm an teaching-focussed academic. Occasionally, these two...

Second Contact A dynamic is ESTABLISHED. A Star Trek situation comedy? You must be joking. Laugh Trek Writing up Lower Decks is going...

Empires of the suns Once more we MATHS! I mean, sort of. Broadly. The Boom; Where It Happens This post is brought to you by the number...

On the off chance you haven't noticed - it seems to keep floating at the top of the blog - the IDFC shop is finally open for business!...

Remembrance Of COURSE we're starting with a dog photo Picard offers us something new in its lack of newness. To one extent or another,...

The Vulcan Hello "Captain, we have Admiral Whitesplain on Channel 7" Alright! Let's give this another go. Long-Range Sensors In...

The first IDFC book approaches! (Artwork by @ harrysaxon.bsky.social ) That's right! A mere - checks dates - Jesus , a mere two and half...

So. It's been precisely three years since this blog debuted, and just over two since my last post. Time for an update. I've not been...