Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

  Fans that consider Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country among the better of the TOS movies of course remember the gag scene where, to get past a Klingon listening post while trespassing in Klingon space, Uhura refers to old-timey books rather than risk being caught using the Universal Translator.  "HA. HA. HA..."  I agree with Nichelle Nichols, who believed Uhura would be able to speak at least basic Klingon - a fact made right in Star Trek Into Darkness . Gosh Zoë Saldana is the best. Anyway, by coincidence - I picked up my recent Half Price Books-purchase: Klingon for the Galactic Traveler , while a Klingon language article on Memory Alpha was freshly left in disarray. One thing led to another, and now I find myself deep-diving into those stacks of physical books from The Undiscovered Country ...

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...

I've noticed, historically , that I watch more cooking shows in Winter than on average. Well, indeed lately I've been catching "Iron Chef" and "The Next Iron Chef: Redemption" and a few other shows here and there. Low and behold, my favorite TV Chef has returned.... Again! Haha, he's just good television! Marcel Vigneron, formerly of Top Chef season 2, season 8 (All Stars) and is back for The Next Iron Chef: Redemption after his "Marcel's Quantum Kitchen" got canceled after only 6 episodes. I tell ya one thing, he being my favorite TV chef, if I knew the show existed during it's run I would have tried to watch it -- but apparently I first heard of it after it'd already been canceled, so I only got to watch it on SyFy's website. But moving on. Did I mention "Eat at the Restaurant of one of my favorite Top Chef's" is #15 on my bucket list ? Carla, you qualify! Right this second I'm watching ...

First, Panda eventually unknowningly convinced me to get a Tumblr through her reposting things on Facebook and I eventually wanted to know what this thing was. Now I go to it daily - there's always something entertaining on there. ( My profile, name is AJHalliwell of course .) First cool picture I want to share: Sunday night while watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (which, by the way, is the most awkward of the Harry Potter movies. There are so many awkward scenes, between poorly made [IMO] romantic scenes and just odd conversation that I don't think was carried out properly.) The best of which would have to be the Girl drama while Ron is unconcious, while ALL the teachers are there just silently watching it play out. Prof. McGonnagal shooting her head back and forth like a Tennis match and Snape's stone-solid face, to Dumbledore's eventual "Oh, to be young..."  But I'm getting off topic: What I'm trying to say is back when I read t...

So I was reading this link I indirectly ended up at through Gizmodo: " Why Doesn't Anybody Use Social Media on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ? " -- and it's really interesting. It starts off kind of criticizing Star Trek for not predicting Facebook, Twitter, and social media to the accurate extent it predicted so much else and was ahead of it's time. And just when the argument seems complete, they pause and remember what characters on Star Trek do in their spare time: read and cook. Hey, Star Trek predicted iPad's okay -- give them some credit! The part I particularly like is that they point out: "You can tell a lot about a person by how they spend their spare time." Indeed, I have homework to do, lesson plans to write, school work to print, Key Club to research, CKI things to write, and sleep to get had; but I'm blogging. But on Star Trek, they don't seem to "waste time." I love that I have never quite imagined this concept to...

So today wasn't hugely exciting. Woke up early for class (not early enough, arrived 10 minutes late) I just can't seem to adapt to classes that early! It's killin me I tell ya, don't know how I'll do real school someday. Did some ASG stuff in the office, a lot of what I do this semester is responding to stuff on a never ending list of things to take care of. It's hard to get too motivated and excited. Worked on some research for saving a Rubber Tree, and safety concerns being the chair of that committee. Then it was off to lunch with Danielle and Brit actually and that was a lot of fun cause I haven't seen her in forever! We went all the way up to Macedonia, got Chipotle, discussed some aspects of her relationship -- and what trip to Macedonia with Danielle would be complete without the obligatory stop at Walmart! After that meeting with the College of Education on Student Success; that is always interesting, and by far one of my favorite committee assig...

Hello avid reader! Whether you care or not, I'm going to talk about: the fact that the Vulcan medical poster I've been working on is complete! I'm so excited :D I'm sure you know by now that I love things that make fiction seem real -- and in line with this, I've always wanted my own Star Trek props!!! Since the actual ones can go for thousands of dollars, and I am a poor college student, I must be creative and make my own: and designing a poster is pretty easy, especially when I've been practicing with Inkscape and Vector art for the last year. (To the right of the right-most Vulcan's head) Screen cap from "Stigma" This idea started as a poster seen in the background of the ST: Enterprise episode "Stigma" at the Vulcan offices at an alien Medical Conference. It may have been reused again in a later episode , in the background of a Vulcan ship's sickbay. (Oh hey look, it was!) (To the left of T'Pol's head on ...

Haha, as you may remember -- like a year ago, I had the urge to try my hand at various digital art forms and bought a pen and tablet. Well, as you may have predicted, I don't really break that out nearly often enough. Especially since the day after I bought that, rather than "drawing" style art, I found a free program to do vector-style art -- which I gotta say I'm much more interested in. And lately, when taking a break from ASG, CKI, class and the stresses of my life -- I've been trying to do artsy things! Here are some completed stuff and works in progress. First of all, this next image is NOT my creation. There is a book called the "Star Trek: Encyclopedia" last updated in like, 1997. In it are thousands of illustrations, some of them of uniforms/costumes. I gotta say, my artistic attempts are not so often "creating new stuff" as imitating stuff I like. And I like these illustrations, they are just non-detailed enough for their purpose...

ZOMG! So, in my spare time when I take a breather from CKI, I've been doing Star Trek stuff with what's left of my summer. Playing Star Trek Online , watching the DVDs I own, and making Star Trek digital art. (Remember the Eyewitness childrens books? Right now I'm making something similar to that.) Always love making things that make fiction seem real :D Anyway, I don't know if I've mentioned it here before -- but something I've ALWAYS wanted from Star Trek? A Vulcan comforter! It's got Vulcan writing on it and it's awesome *u* From the Enterprise episode "Home." Woken up at 4:00am is Commander Tucker . Well, I've made a major discovery in what it's made of/looks like! A major contribution to my Eyewitness project I'm doing has been pictures from the Christie's Star Trek Auction that are still online. Alot of cool pictures for the Star Trek fan on there! Well, it turns out the comforter is actually a wall tapestry ...