Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

While Star Trek has created an incredibly intricate and mostly  internally consistent universe, some episodes through the years have referenced a species in a throwaway line never to return to them again. Now that Star Trek: Lower Decks  has a blank canvas to design species without the constraint of makeup budgets, here are a few unseen races with fairly little defining background that the writers could choose to flesh out - or create a killer look, slap an existing name on it and build the canon. Unnamed "Ape Face" from  Nimbus III (Star Trek V) The Demerians . Mayweather's family was set to make a delivery of stromatopod larvae to the Demerians in 2153. (ENT: "Horizon") So they were spacefaring and friendly in Earth's neighborhood pretty early. Were they even bipeds? How many sexes did they have? Did they eat the larvae, or why did they need Humans (the snail mail of the era) to deliver them? The B'Saari of B'Saari II . The B'Saari made first c...

( Forgive the yardsign-shadows ) Denkir IV was the fourth planet in the Denkir system, located near the Cardassian border and Sector 21505. It was known to Federation science for its diverse aquatic life.  Paintings of Denkir IV were popular aboard the USS Enterprise -D in the 2360s. In 2364, the elementary school aboard the Enterprise  was learning about the Evolution of Intelligent Life on Planet Denkir IV, between recreational time with the new puppies aboard. Recreational time between lessons. (TNG: "The Child") Learning about life on Denkir IV again in 2366. (TNG: "The Offspring") ( No shadows, but harder to read ) Oniboshi lum Squaluformus Neopictis Squaluformus vino shiro Neopictis gourami Neopictis spinotap cochrani Neopictis spinotap Oniboshi lum ran Oniobshi benten Vermacelli alfredo Squaluformus vino Delphoidia Delphoidia cochrani Delphoidia cochrani tempus Delphoidia cochrani obliquidens Delphoidia moroboshi Delphoidia moroboshi lum Oceosauroida Oceosau...

As a lover of props and making a fictional universe seem realistic, Star Trek: Enteprise  did a great job adding new layers to the iconic + historic Vulcans. I recently stumbled upon YourProps.com , what appears to be a reputable gallery of Star Trek props and/or replicas, with a lot of images I haven't seen before - even things not in the "It's a Wrap!" auctions . My favorite find would have to be the Vulcan silverware / utensils that T'Pol, Trip and T'Less ate with in " Home ."  (An episode I've already found especially inspiring in the past, check out my "Eyewitness" artwork here .) Way back in " Broken Bow ", T'Pol noted that Vulcans do not touch their food, cutting a bread stick with a fork and knife. A cool little nod to come up with some interesting alien utensils. Screen-used props are expensive, so I was super excited that I didn't have to Google "bamboo spoons" very far to realize ...

"32!"   "Hmm?" "This is the thirty-second planet I've set foot on!"   "248!"                 - Malcolm Reed and Phlox, after getting out of the shuttlepod on Mars. ("Terra Prime") More or less since the Star Trek: Enterprise episode " Terra Prime " aired in 2005, I've intended to go back and count those up to see how many planets it is suggested that tactical officer Lt. Malcolm Reed set foot on off-screen. (Spoiler: It's 12.) Note that other than Earth and Mars, these numbers are for my counting and while they may be in the right order, there may be some between those listed that didn't happen during episodes. Season One (2151) 1. Earth   -  Based on the phrasing, I'm counting Earth by default. 2. Rigel X ("Broken Bow") 3. Archer IV ("Strange New World") Terra Nova Colony 4. Terra Nova ("Terra Nova") 5. P'Jem ("The Andorian Incident") - No...

The universal translator is one of Star Trek's greatest thematic devices, used to explain why all the aliens seem to speak English . Like many Star Trek inventions, we're inching closer and closer to a universal translator (for known, Earth languages) being a reality - even if it doesn't somehow change the speaker's lip movements. In the Star Trek: Discovery second season episode " An Obol for Charon ," the universal translator malfunctions translating the crew's spoken English into what I've liked to call "a chaotic cacophony" akin to the Tower of Babel; the crew can't understand each other or their consoles. (You can watch the scene over at YouTube  or below.) Since the episode aired, I've looked for someone to have translated the scene -- but to my surprise, no one has, so in addition to the edits I've made over at Memory Alpha , here is the scene as I've been able to put it together. Burnham: qav...

Merry Christmas blog-followers, as I was telling Angela the other day -- this year has been so busy with things to do it's almost like I'm too busy living life to blog about it. A dilemma I'm certainly happy to suffer from! I just hope that I remember to enjoy the moment, if I am not documenting them quite as diligently. The family got together for Christmas at Grandma's yesterday, and the immediate family is all here at home today. David got mom and I gifts for the first time in more than 10 years -- and he got mom cash "to make up for all the years he forgot to get her gifts." Which I thought was bizaare, and I don't think mom quite knows how to react to it, but I'll make sure she spends it on gifty-things for herself. It just seems to go against tradition to get your parents cash for a gift ever. Even gift cards are pushing it, if there isn't some level of thought put into it. Like, "I got you this giftcard to [store] because I know th...