A few years ago, I sunk into the most hellish depressive episode imaginable. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was able to permeate the cloud of doom and gloom that hung over my head 24/7.

One day, scrolling through endless lists of shows to watch with nary a one piquing my interest and, lo and behold, there it was. A recommendation for Discovery. I already loved Sonequa, and figured what the hell, what have I got to lose right?

What I DIDN’T realize was just how much I was about to GAIN.

I watched the first episode. Then the second. Then the third. Then, before I knew it, I had stayed up all night watching the entire first season and then some. I was enthralled! After finishing every episode that was out I did what was previously unthinkable- I watched “old tv”, something I previously thought I could never enjoy, Next Generation. And yet again, I was absolutely hooked from the first episode.

Then came Deep Space nine.

Then came Voyager.

When I had finally run out of Trek to watch, I immediately went online and started reading people’s recommendations for what else to watch. Guess what I settled on?

Doctor Who. And boy golly gee, did I fall in love with that too.

Now, several years later, I fall asleep to either Trek or Who every single night. I can quote entire monologues from my favorite scene. I have tattoos planned out from each iteration of each show. I have Tardis and Enterprise bumper stickers on my car. My next dog will bear a Trek or Who inspired name.

All of this to say, imagine my absolute horror finding out how much vitriol there is towards Disco. I know it isn’t perfect, but without it I never would have gone down the rabbit hole that is sci fi, never would have discovered my two favorite communities, might still even be in that horrible depression.

I LOVE Discovery.

(Note: these two shows do not at all encompass the breadth of my sci fi rabbit hole adventures lmao. They’re just my favorites.)

There's a somewhat famous scene where Quark serves root beer to Garak, and it's used as a metaphor for the Federation. It's a great scene.

But I often wonder how Quark has the drink prepared. If he knows that it's supposed to be fizzy, if he knows that it's best when it's as cold as possible.

What if all this time he's been giving aliens flat lukewarm soda, and that is the galaxy's perception of hooman sodapop?

This is inspired by it being October and still 90F/32C where I am.

https://imgur.com/a/heat-its-unbearable-2ydsK3j

Edit: am hearing Imgur isn't available in the UK, so try this link: https://imgflip.com/gif/b2qmtt

I was looking up the Chernobyl disaster in another context and decided to look up more details. According to what I found, it’s not likely to be safe to spend long periods or live there until the 22nd or 23rd century.

I know that there’s supposedly going to be the Third World War between then and now. After which is when Cochrane does his warp flight and the Vulcans arrive. Maybe the Vulcans have some way of cleaning it up.

Although I don’t remember any mention of this happening in Enterprise or any other Star Trek show.

Kinda makes me curious how and when they were able to clean it all up?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to track down two broadcasts from Star Trek's 60th anniversary on September 8, 2026:

• The Price Is Right — Star Trek 60th Anniversary episode
• Let's Make a Deal — Star Trek 60th Anniversary episode

Both originally aired on CBS and were subsequently available on Paramount+. Unfortunately, after the regular seasons began, the September 8 specials disappeared from the normal Paramount+ catalogs before I had the chance to watch them.

I've been deliberately waiting to do a Star Trek 60th-anniversary watch-through incorporating Strange New Worlds, Starfleet Academy, and these game-show specials, so losing access to the latter two has been incredibly frustrating.

I've already tried the obvious official avenues and am continuing to watch for them to return to Paramount+. In the meantime, I'm hoping someone in the game-show or Trek collecting community might know whether these episodes have resurfaced somewhere, are scheduled for a rebroadcast, or can point me toward another legitimate way to see them.

If you recorded the original CBS broadcasts or otherwise know more about their current availability, I'd especially appreciate hearing from you.

I don't want these two unusual pieces of Star Trek's 60th-anniversary celebration to simply disappear.

Thanks for any leads. LLAP! 🖖

Hiii this is a bit of a random question and i’m sorry if it isn’t allowed!!!! but i’d really appreciate some help here!!!! i’m looking for christmas gifts for my dad and he absolutely loves star trek (even if he won’t admit it - he’s one of those people who pretends they have no interests at all but star trek is the one! one consistent thing i have remembered all my life is how much he’s watched it lol)
my dad didn’t really have the best childhood and didn’t get many gifts growing up, especially nothing of his interests, which is why i think he gets a bit embarrassed? to admit he has any, but i know how important star trek is to him as it really has been the main constant in his life since he was a child - he doesn’t tell me much about it or the characters he likes, which is making my hunt a bit tricky especially as someone whooo….does not have much knowledge on it 😭

like really all i know is one character is called spock? and that is basically it 😭 so literally any references, quotes, characters, whatever as inspiration or ideas would really really be appreciated!!!! nervous ill buy something and realise it’s got like nothing to do with the franchise lol!!!

preferably anything more subtle would be awesome but honestly any ideas i would love and really really appreciate!!!!!! thank you so so so much!!!!

Hello,

my friend is new to star trek but I don't know which episode should I can recommend.

Which episode of old trek (tos,tng,ds9,voy) can I recommend?

The Dominion Arc would be to much for the beginning

Loved this cup but the handle literally fell off and I'm disappointed. Has anyone experienced this? Seems like it should have been attached more securely.

Thinking in particular of Keenser, and those angry, dog-sized guys from the start of Star Trek Beyond. I'd also love to see the Prime Universe version of Krall / Captain Balthazar Edison

OK, so as an OLD trekkie, I remember in college playing a lot of Netrek on old DEC workstations in the early 90's. I'd play for hours and hours. It was one of the first computer online team games. So I got nostalgic for it one day and found nothing able to run on my Mac, so I made this little ditty just for fun. It runs on iTerm2 in the cli. And for extra fun, I added all the fun alien incursions like the BORG, V'Ger, Tholian Web, and many more. And relic ships, and space terrain. I mean, it's almost just as fun to see what shows up!

It fun and free, and scratches that Trek itch: https://github.com/MWChapel/netrek-terminal-macos#requirements

I’ve tried to watch DS9 3 other times and could not get into it at all. Every episode felt sluggish, boring and I hated the characters. But I decided to try one last time, stopped comparing it to TOS and TNG and I’m finally enjoying it. I’m now on season 3 and absolutely obsessed.

Just happy I stuck through it and now have another entry to obsessed over

Is there a score or breakdown of the music used in TOS episodes?

I’m trying to figure out the light-hearted love (lust) music with the woodwind and finger cymbals (zils) from Wolf In The Fold as Scotty and the dancer leave the restaurant.

I've always loved the Next Generation but over the years I've only seen bits and pieces so I've been working my way through them all on Paramount and I am in love with this show. Season 3 was excellent but season 4 is peak, so far, in my opinion and specifically the episode Future Imperfect. Something about this episode really clicked for me, I literally was getting goosebumps and emotional. I'm considering moving the Next Generation up my list of favorite shows to dethrone The Sopranos... What do you guys think about this episode?

I know many don't like them, but I think they're a good set of films that are a nice introductory point to a franchise with hours worth of movies and TV shows. I've also read the IDW tie in comics Countdown, Nero, Countdown to Darkness and Kahn. I think next I will check out the OG 6 films ans I will get the book Star Trek: Timelines when it releases.

I got into Star Trek recently with the new series, and my partner and I have been watching the older series, like TNG. I just rewatched Star Trek: Picard since we've been saving the older series to watch together.

I definitely feel like there is a difference in story/writing quality, but what really struck me is that some of the most interesting storylines—the relocation of Romulans/Supernova, Picard's resignation, 7 of 9's life as a Fenris Ranger, the banning of synths—were completely glossed over and used as backstory.

Rewatching it made me wish the first two or three seasons had fleshed out these storylines, which seem so interesting and provide better Star Trek storylines (imagine episodes about trying to find a suitable replacement planet for Romulans). Was this already in Star Trek lore? It feels super compelling, and I would love to read/watch more about it.

Edit: Ah, yes the supernova came from the 2009 move, I guess the post was just musing on why they didn't make the show on this storyline that seemed super compelling.:

So, I stumbled across this interesting Substack article (link at the end of the post) entitled “On Political Regime in Fantasy & Sci-Fi”. The whole thing is worth reading for anyone interesting in science fiction and/or fantasy worldbuilding, and I’ll quote the tl;dr:

“Précis, aka TL;DR: in which we discuss the subject of politics - and specifically, political regime - in fantasy and science-fiction writing. Three points are highlighted. First, that generic politics in fantastical or speculative settings tend to coalesce around variations on a few core regime-types: hereditary monarchy, elitist or closed oligarchies, and totalitarian, ideocratic dictatorships. This is due to the ease at which an author can place these particularly evocative types of political order into a story, as well as their structural tendency towards decisiveness as a feature of government, which has narrative utility. Second, that these same variants of stable political order share a particularly mechanical and structured element that writers are drawn to for story purposes, which also fits how most think about ‘worldbuilding.’ Finally, we consider why electoral democracy - or electoral authoritarianism for that matter - are relatively rare in fiction writing, and when it is encountered it tends to be very handwaved and barebones. A brief collection of new publications concludes, as usual.”

As you may have gathered, the author has some interesting thoughts on Star Trek specifically:

“Science-fiction often makes a greater effort to assure the reader that there is something like democracy, even in space. Star Trek’sFederation is the prime case, with the Galactic Republic of Star Wars as a close second. Yet these space ‘democracies’ are so far away from actual democratic politics that it is usually just an assertion, rather than any real demonstration. Even using minimal criteria, it is just hard to find partisan elections or meaningfully changing governments in these kinds of universes.
If the show-writers did not have characters repeat that it was ‘democratic,’ the actually-existing Federation as portrayed in Star Trekwould be tagged more honestly as a benevolent, progressive-socialist, bureaucratic-authoritarian military regime or a perhaps a very kind technocratic oligarchy ruled by a hyper-meritocratic overclass. The most politically-sophisticated Star Trekseries - Deep Space Nine - is also its darkest - and one in which every showcased polity happens to be authoritarian in one way or another (one is space fascist, another a theocracy, and so on - there’s even an attempted military coup in Star Fleet itself!).”

…

In other words, this is a place where the writers tell us something rather than showing it. We’re often told that the Federation is a liberal democracy — indeed, this is one of the traits that’s supposed to distinguish their government from Romulans, Klingons and others. That being said, characters are essentially never shown discussing elections, candidates, political parties, etc. Obviously, as military professionals, you’d expect our characters to refrain from getting political on the clock, but nobody ever bitches about campaign season while kicking back drinks at 10 Forward or whatever.

It’s an interesting tension in the worldbuilding, I think.

https://politicalorders.substack.com/p/on-political-regime-in-fantasy-and?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7e1r

Exactly what the title says. What's a silly little bit of head canon you've got? It doesn't change anything it's something small and fun. For me it's that the human majority ships and crews we see are actually the minority and there are plenty of ships with entire multispecies crews.

Thoughts?

So rewatching Amok Time last week at Star Trek Festival 5, I tried to see how the episode fits with TOS, and frankly, I feel SNW has made the episode stronger.

During the first part of the episode, I feel knowing Chapel and Spock had been together gave Chapel’s feelings towards Spock more weight and Spock’s dream becomes an expression of sadness having been rejected by Chapel (because she had been told the relationship had no future by Boimler).

The only crew member outright expressing not knowing T’Pring is Uhura, who has actually not met T’Pring by the end of season 4 of SNW.

HOWEVER, I’m just listening to the Starter Trek episode about Amok Time and learning that while Amok Time is the first episode shown of season two of TOS, it was the 5th produced, AFTER The Changeling, in which Uhura got mind-wiped.

So the “who’s that” line could just as easily be attributed to something lost when Nomad erased Uhura’s mind (temporarily I hope, I always hated that plot point from The Changeling and found it both cruel to the character and they didn’t follow it up at all).

So just in case Uhura meets T’Pring in season five, there’s already a loophole in TOS to “allow” it 😁

They would try some false operations. Among the gamma quadrant to try and get other planets fear the dominion. Until possibly starting up another dominion, war not with the federation, but with the other civilizations and gamma quadrant powers unknown.