Star Trek Social Club

The episode title alludes to the famous opening narration of the long-running television soap opera, Days of Our Lives: "Like sands through the hourglass, so go the days of our lives." Soap operas, the subject of this episode's homage, are best known for melodrama and plot twists. Incidentally, Days is broadcast on NBC/Paramount. Chronitons are technobabble particles associated with time travel.

The bright and hazy environment is typical of the lighting in daytime soaps, which are usually shot on video. “The dreaded Abbott-Chancellor Collision” is a reference to two rival families in The Young and the Restless. The dramatic pauses, looking to the side, camera angles, music and excessive exposition are all imitative of the style of soaps.

Pike hears the dramatic music, which means it is diegetic in nature. He wonders if he’s back in the musical (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”) or in a simulation (SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”).

Dr Elanor Chivers is played by Deidre Hall, who has played the character of Dr Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives for 50 years. Old fogeys like me also remember her as Electra Woman on the Sid and Marty Krofft series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Chivers is described as the ship’s counselor, which is a position that until now we did not think existed on 23rd century starships but was only established in the 24th century with officers like Deanna Troi. In an early draft of TNG: “Relics”, Troi says that counselors were only assigned to starships starting in 2330. Prior to that, the role of looking after the ship’s psychological welfare seemed to come down to medical officers like McCoy. That being said, in the fan production Star Trek Continues, Kirk’s Enterprise had a ship’s counselor, Dr Elise McKenna, played by Michele Specht.

The teaser ends with the reveal that the trickster cosmic entity (unnamed but definitely Trelane from TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”) from SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues” is behind this. Sadly, they didn’t do a soap-opera remix of the theme for this.

Sybok (ST V) is the half-brother of Spock and a v’tosh ka’tur, one who rejects the denial of emotion that Vulcan society demands and embraces it. He was mentioned last in SNW: “The Serene Squall” as being imprisoned at the Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan Rehabiltation Center on the 3rd Moon of Omicron Lyrae, where he used the alias Xaverius. Sybok was played by Laurence Luckinbill in ST V, who did not resemble Leonard Nimoy in the slightest (the role was originally written for Sean Connery) but is played by Ethan Peck here, likely because plot twists like “evil twins” are also a common soap trope, as are secret offspring.

Trelane starts to say his name but only gets as far as “Tre—“ before Pike cuts him off, preserving the idea that we don’t get his name until his proper debut in “The Squire of Gothos”.

The fact that Pike understands what a soap opera doesn’t necessarily mean the format has survived to the 23rd century (although given Ferengi television - LD: “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” - who knows?), because Pike has a fondness for classic media (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

Some of our younger viewers may not know that they literally did say “and now for a word from our sponsors” before ad breaks on television, much like YouTubers do nowadays.

The recipe book’s blank pages may be a reference to the days when television props weren’t as detailed as they are now because without HD television, nobody could really see it.

The robes and elaborate headdress of Trelane’s proctor resemble Q’s judge’s robes first seen in TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”.

“Vulcans can’t engage in subterfuge,” is a misconception. Vulcans (and Spock) are perfectly capable of lying (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, et al.). Kal-toh is a Vulcan logic puzzle game, playable solo or with an opponent. It was first seen in VOY: “Alter Ego”, several times in VOY and later on in LD and PIC. 

“Space madness”, like “cosmic amnesia” might refer to the habit of pulp science fiction to make something typical seem exotic by affixing a prefix to it. In TOS: “The Naked Time”, Spock says, “It could be some sort of space madness we’ve never heard of.” 
Sybok here paraphrases his dialogue from ST V: “Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me and gain strength from it.”

The Arachnid Nebula was first mentioned in ENT: “Fusion”. There is no such nebula in real life, although the Tarantula Nebula exists in the Larger Magellanic Cloud, outside the Milky Way, some 160,000 ly from Earth.

Cadet A’Sha’s name has been in the credits when she has appeared, but this is the first mention in dialogue.

Uhura’s parents were killed (on Stardate 1443.2 as per this episode), along with her older brother, in a shuttle accident a week before she was due to start at the University of Nairobi where they taught. Her grandmother, a former Starfleet officer, inspired Uhura to enlist (SNW: “Children of the Comet”). 
Ortegas, together with M’Benga and others, was kidnapped aboard a Gorn ship in SNW: “Hegemony, Part I” at the end of Season 2, escaping in “Hegemony, Part II” at the start of Season 3. Ortegas says this was “last year”, which more or less jibes with my calculations that the current year is around 2262-63.

Trelane’s screens display the status: “technical difficulties” as we enter the act break. While “technical difficulties” that interrupted a broadcast did happen, there is a trope that uses it as a euphemism when there is a need to cut transmission but not reveal why to the audience, like it is here.

Spock’s blood is definitely green here, despite showing red bruises in SNW: “Off-Hour”. The X-ray type scan shows his heart around where a human liver should be (TOS: “Mudd’s Women”). Having Sybok donating a cloned heart to Spock and lying next to him echoes Sarek’s cryogenic open heart procedure in TOS: “Journey to Babel” where Spock was also lying next to his father while donating blood for the operation.

Pike dealt with time travel most recently in SNW: “Valles Marineris”, zombie Klingons in SNW: “Last Shuttle to Kenfori” and his lover Marie Batel’s ascension in SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations”. 
 Juliet Pike, played by Anna Mirodin, was Pike and Batel’s daughter in the vision created by Batel in “New Life and New Civilizations”, although she was only named in the credits. Two weeks ago was Pike’s last memory, hosting a Captain’s Table, before waking up at the start of this episode, as stated earlier. This is Galor III’s first mention in lore, although the Cardassians have Galor-class cruisers (TNG: “The Wounded”), and Galor IV was the site of a Starfleet Research facility (TNG: “The Offspring”). 

The stardate is 2654.9, and it’s established that Sybok’s appearance is not the same as Spock’s. Dr Chivers is apparently real, though. In the part of the vision we saw, Juliet was engaged to Elijah April, the son of Admiral Robert April.

I was wrong! The soap opera mix and titles comes after the credits. I don’t know what the Jackaroony cereal box is referencing, unless it’s the BBC children’s programme Jackanory, broadcast between 1965 and 1996, which featured actors reading stories aloud for the child audience.

If anyone’s counting, this is the fourth episode this season involving hallucinations (SNW: “The Griffin incident”, SNW: “Human Best Friend” and SNW: “Level-Five Transporter Accident” being the other three). At least Spock didn't hallucinate this time. 


Clark Gregg (The Avengers) was a surprise guest who took over as Nancy’s professor husband.

The night kicked off with a read of the “Mudd’s Passion” script from a 1973 episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) took over as Kirk while D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place) assumed the role of Spock and Adam Arkin played the mad creator of a love potion. Other participants from the night included Iman Vellani (The Marvels), and Paul Scheer and Paul F. Tompkins, both from Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Rod Roddenberry was there to remember his dad, series creator Gene Roddenberry, and pay tribute to both the foundation’s 60th anniversary as well as the 60th anniversary of Star Trek.

More than 750 theaters across the U.S. will screen restored 4K presentations of classic Star Trek films paired with episodes of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES making their theatrical debut, from Sept. 4-8. Fans attending will also have the first opportunity to purchase limited-edition Star Trek “Enterprise” popcorn vessels and commemorative drink cups at participating theaters, while supplies last.

• Friday, September 4: Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director's Edition + S02E03 "The Changeling"
• Saturday, September 5: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Cut) + S01E22 "Space Seed"
• Sunday, September 6: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock + S02E01 "Amok Time"
• Monday, September 7: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home + S01E28 "The City on the Edge of Forever"
• Tuesday, September 8: Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy (TWoK, TSFS, TVH)

AMC and Regal will also be selling popcorn buckets to commemorate the occasion:

A bit of a list, some of which has been previously announced.

This is basically SNW's take on disaster movies, like The Poseidon Adventure and TNG: "Disaster”, in the same way so far this season they’ve homaged Doctor Who, Event Horizon, The Hangover, Casablanca and The Muppet Show. There's also some 24 in here with the ticking clock and near real-time action.

The stardate is 1213.72, and the “weekend” is about to begin. The jaunty notes of the soundtrack at the beginning remind me of a motif from TOS: “Shore Leave” when his old nemesis Finnegan appears to taunt Kirk.

As established in TNG: “Chain of Command”, starships work on a three-shift rotation, although some captains prefer four. Alpha shift is also usually the one where the captain is on duty.

The Bussard collectors that Ortegas mentions are the glowing caps at the front of the nacelles. They generate a magnetic funnel that sweeps in front of the ship gathering stray hydrogen from space which is then used to top up the ship’s fuel.

Dr Boyce would be Phillip Boyce, the former chief medical officer of Enterprise in 2254, who was played by John Hoyt in TOS: “The Cage”. This is the first time we are told he was actually interim CMO until M’Benga came along.

In TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, Kirk mentions that Chapel gave up a career in “bio-research” to sign aboard a starship. When first introduced in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”, Chapel was on a civilian exchange from the Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project (mentioned again later in this episode), although it was revealed later she did serve with M’Benga during the Klingon War a few years prior.

Scotty is right that there doesn’t really seem to be much of a difference between the terms “Bussard collectors” and “Bussard ramscoops”, the latter of which is just another name for the same technology. 

LT Radha (assuming it’s the same character) first appeared as a helm officer in TOS: “That Which Survives”, played by Naomi Pollack. On the wall in the briefing room we see a picture of Phoenix, the first Earth vessel to break the warp barrier (First Contact).

The person playing the piano is a Bolian - although I’m not sure if this is the ENS Rankin that Uhura mentioned earlier, which sounds like a human name.

Getting caught in a wormhole slipstream seems similar to what happened to Enterprise when initiating its upgraded warp engines in TMP. An antimatter imbalance created a wormhole and sent them speeding out of control.

M’Benga isn’t being wholly unfair when he says Chapel runs when things get real. In SNW: “Spock Amok” she confesses that she avoids relationships because they require sacrifice. When Spock became more serious about her, she applies for the archeological fellowship and broke up with him (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”). We’ve not been updated on the state of her current relationship with Roger Korby, although we do know they get engaged before he vanishes on Exo III (“What Are Little Girls Made Of?”). Chapel’s retort hints at what she knows about M’Benga’s past in the Klingon War and the trauma he carries from it.

Pike’s recklessness in reaching for an electrified control may be due to his knowledge that he has yet to meet his destined accident in a few years (DIS: “Through the Valley of Shadows”).

Scotty’s thought that the ship’s computer doesn’t recognise his accent (which is fairly mild by Scottish standards) reminds me of a sketch from the Scottish comedy show Bornistoun, where an elevator equipped with voice recognition technology hilariously fails to understand Scottish accents.

“Neutrino radiation at lethal levels” strikes me as a bit odd, because neutrinos have no charge, have almost zero mass, and trillions of them coming from the Sun pass through our bodies all the time with no issues since they rarely hit other atoms (and even if they do the radiation is negligible). That being said, the number of neutrinos emitted during a supernova could be lethal, and if they were focused enough, but the levels would really have to be ludicrous.

Inertial dampeners are what protects the crew from being smeared against the walls at high impulse or warp velocities. Ortegas is referring to the high G-forces produced at such velocities when she talks about “nosebleed city”.

The Vulcan cadet is A’Sha, who first appeared in SNW: “Valles Marineris” and has only ever been named in the closing credits. Black pudding is not a dessert, but a sausage made from flour, onions, grains, pork/beef fat and pork blood. It’s a vital part of a Full English Breakfast and really yummy.

Scotty calling Enterprise a “damn useless bucket of bolts” is a far cry from the affection he will feel for the ship in time to come, even willing to come to blows with people who insult her (TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”). This episode shows that transition. Princess Leia calls the Millennium Falcon a “bucket of bolts” in The Empire Strikes Back.

The lab table holding M’Benga’s vital organs in place and keeping him alive despite a fatal injury is similar to what happens in the Homicide: Life on the Street episode “The Subway”, where a man is only kept alive because a subway car is pinning him between it and the station platform. This was based on an apparently real incident related in the HBO show Taxicab Confessions by a New York City detective.

Boyce makes his first SNW appearance, played by Brian Markinson, who previously appeared in various other roles in Star Trek, notably as Dr Elias Giger in DS9: “In the Cards”. He also appears in TNG: “Homeword” as Vorin and VOY: “Cathexis” and “Faces” as LT Pete Durst/Sulan. He is wearing a pin above his delta which I can’t quite make out but it looks like the design on the tunic he wears in TOS: “The Cage”, which is an Earth map encircled by laurel leaves.

I know Una’s an Illyrian, but why isn’t Spock going? Vulcan is normally portrayed as a high-gravity planet in various RPG source books, and Vulcans are physiologically hardier.

Scotty invokes Starfleet Safety Protocol 429 to shut off life-support in the corridors (first mention).

The warp threshold Scotty refers to sounds similar to the concept established in TNG that nothing can exceed Warp 10 (on the TNG scale Warp 10 is infinite speed, where the ship is simultaneously at all points of the universe at once). VOY: “Threshold” refers to the “transwarp threshold” that divides warp and transwarp speeds. The maximum speed the TOS Enterprise achieved was Warp 14.1 (TOS: “That Which Survives), which by the TOS warp scales was about 2,803c. In TAS: "The Counterclock Incident", Enterprise exceeds Warp 22 while being dragged long by an alien starship capable of Warp 36.

M’Benga says the temperature will reach “negative 400 degrees”. He must be referring to the Fahrenheit scale, because temperatures can’t go below -273°C (0 Kelvin, or absolute zero), which is -459.67°F. The vacuum of space is approximately 2.7 K, or -270.45°C or -454.81°F.

The ion pod is a manned pod that is usually used to take readings during ion storms. It can be jettisoned if it picks up a dangerous charge from the storm (TOS: “Court Martial”). We’ve seen spacewalks while the ship is at warp before (Trip Tucker in ENT: “Divergence, Dal R’El in PRO: “Mindwalk” and Michael Burnham in DIS: “Red Directive”) - it’s usually okay as long as you remain within the warp bubble. 

Scotty materialises in a Jeffries tube, a maintenance tube named after real-life Enterprise designer Matt Jeffries, in a shot instantly familiar to those who have seen James Doohan in that exact position.

Rukiya was M’Benga’s terminally ill daughter which he placed in the care of a non-corporeal life form (SNW: “The Elysian Kingdom”).

“Strong force neutrinos” are made up because neutrinos and other leptons don’t possess any color or electromagnetic charge, and are therefore non-interactive with strong and electromagnetic forces. It’s not a question of a big enough lab. And since we’re making stuff up, sure, these “strong force neutrinos” could very well heal tissue. And be a dessert and a floor wax. Pike points out that neutrinos are “ghost particles” (thank you!) and Chapel retorts that these are “new ones” that act differently. Ooohkay. And now they can make more deuterium? Can I call them deus ex neutrinos?

Pike does the same as Kirk did in “Court Martial”, jettisoning the pod with a man inside (in the latter’s case LT-CMDR Ben Finney) before it endangers the ship.

Pelia tells Scotty he has to be a “miracle worker”. This is something he will try to continue to keep up a reputation for being (ST III, TNG: “Relics”).

Spock’s bruises look like they’re red with green scabs. Vulcan blood is supposed to be green, i.e. copper-based as opposed to human iron-based blood (although hemocyanin should be blue), and Spock does bleed green in TOS: “Patterns of Force”. The colour of his bruises here could be a function of his half-human heritage. That being said, in Star Trek (2009) young Spock had apparently red blood, and in SNW: “Ad Astra Per Aspera” Spock’s knuckles are red after he punches a wall.

Aquans first appeared in TAS: “The Ambergris Element”, and we recently saw one in the Cesnar Grand promotional video in SNW: “Human Best Friend”. Lanthanites are Pelia’s very long-lived race. Benzar is the homeworld of the Benzites (TNG: “A Matter of Honor”).

If Chapel’s fingers can get frozen to the table, why doesn’t vital tissue from M’Benga also break off when she pushes the table away? Oh fine, I give up.

Scotty says to tell Chapel she “rewrote the laws of physics”. In TOS: “The Naked Time”, Scotty says, “I can’t rewrite the laws of physics,” and in TNG: “Relics”, he says “You canna change the laws of physics,” when he relates the story of “The Naked Time” to Geordi.

Chapel finally signs on permanently to Starfleet, fulfilling Kirk’s remark in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

Written by: Bill Wolkoff

Directed by: Dan Liu

For me at least, the only interesting thing in here is that contrary to prior reports, the SNW sets have not been destroyed (but are disassembled and in storage somewhere).

While IMDB users are not representative of the wider population, I find it interesting to see that they've soured on Season 4 episodes so far.

Kate Mulgrew acts her best Janeway with the cast from Frasier.

No indication a recording will be made available, just the livestream for anyone who can’t attend in person.

In TNG, the lower the level of something the higher in intensity it was (a Level One Diagnostic was more intensive than a Level Four). In the 32nd century, the opposite seemed to be the case, as Reno talks about a Level-10 diagnostic in SFA: “Rubincon”. SNW seems to be taking the latter approach as well. This episode is not the first time we’ve seen people turned into puppets - in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”, Cerritos security chief Kayshon was turned into an (albeit inanimate) puppet by an energy beam. Fans might also remember the Angel episode “Smile Time”, a parody sequence in Stargate SG-1’s “200” and an imaginary sequence in Community’s “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking”.

The stardate is 3019.4. Enterprise is patrolling Rizonian space (first mention) on her way to Vulcan. Space piracy is indeed extant in Star Trek, with various species and factions engaging in piratical or privateering activities, notably the Orions (TAS: “The Pirates of Orion”), the Ferengi (TNG: “Rascals”) and the Breen (DS9: “To the Death”).

Spock and Scotty discuss longer-range transportation. Spock says 27,000 km is 2,000 km further than any transport achieved. By the 24th century, transporter ranges on the Galaxy-class could reach up to 40,000 km (TNG Tech Manual). To be honest, 27,000 km seems a bit short, since Earth geosynchronous orbit is 35,786 km. This might be a “Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale” trope issue.

That Scotty is working on increasing transport ranges references Star Trek (2009), where the Kelvin timeline Scotty is working on transwarp transportation to allow transmission across interstellar distances. Prime Spock helped him with this, giving him the necessary equations his Prime counterpart had already solved.

While chanting the mantra, “Logic is the rhythm of your katra,” (katra being roughly the Vulcan equivalent of the soul, ST III), Spock hears echoes from SNW: “The Griffin Incident”.

Kal Rekk, a day of “atonement, solitude and silence” was first mentioned in VOY: “Meld”.

T’Pring’s suspicion of “hijinks” refers to her two previous trips to Enterprise, one which resulted in a body swap (SNW: “Spock Amok”) and another which had Spock turned physically human (SNW: “Charades”). Specifically, in “Spock Amok” while in Spock’s body she says she does not like hijinks.

When Spock turns to see the puppet T’Pring, the music echoes bits of the soundtrack to TOS: “Amok Time”, the episode that introduced her and Vulcan.

April is actually less nonplussed about the situation than would be expected. But then again, as Janeway said in VOY: “Deadlock”, “We’re Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.” He says the nearest ship is two days away, but didn't Spock say the USS Witmere was 29,647 km away? This is answered at the end of the episode.

La’An has been concerned since SNW: “Four and a Half Vulcans” that her Augment heritage is asserting itself.

Orion interceptors first appeared in ENT: “Borderland” and are playable Tier 6 ships in Star Trek Online. Ch'Rol is played by Rachael Harris, who played Kes' mother Martis in VOY: "Before and After" and is better known for playing Dr Linda Martin in Lucifer. Her lieutenant Ejachi is played by Joe Lo Truglio, best known for playing Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

This is the second time in the series that someone has captured Enterprise, the previous time being Captain Angel in SNW: “The Serene Squall”. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to lose a ship once may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose it twice looks like carelessness.

While the stereotype of the submissive Orion slave girl is prevalent in popular culture, it is true that Orion women control the males via the use of pheromones (ENT: “Bound”). Another matriarchal society was seen in TNG: “Angel One”.

Spock “touching hands” with Pike while separated through glass and Pike saying, “The needs of the many…” echoes Spock and Kirk’s scene at the end of ST II when Spock dies. The full phrase - a Vulcan aphorism - is, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” Kirk, naturally, disagrees, sacrificing his ship and career to save Spock in ST III because “The needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many.”

Wait, how did Pike get back into the ship (and that room) if none of them can operate doors and they couldn’t even get out of the room? This is answered at the end of the episode.

Pike, La’An and Una in Vulcan robes is the first time the classic totem pole trench trope has been used in Star Trek.

When T’Pring rescues Spock, we can see a Romulan ale bottle behind the counter, although the liquid inside does not appear to be Romulan ale blue.

While the phrase “my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts,” is forever associated with mind melds, it was not actually used in TOS. The phrase debuted in TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan”, said by Spock’s giant clone.

And to round off a trilogy of tropes, we have the “All Just a Dream” trope, which was used to probably better effect in DS9: “Far Beyond the Stars”, although the dream appears to have had some therapeutic effect for Spock. Hoshi also experienced an entire episode’s hallucination during 8 seconds in the transporter buffer in ENT: “Vanishing Point”.

Written by: Henry Alonso Myers & Dana Horgan

Directed by: Jordan Canning

Article is in Portuguese. This was literally the most popular person at STLV this year.

Brief Star Trek mention if you don't want to read the whole (lengthy) thing.

DEADLINE: What is your plan for the Star Trek franchise? It is at crossroads with Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy ending and no new series greenlit. If I heard you correctly, you said that something is coming. Yes?

WISEMAN: Well, it’s one of the reasons why Chris is here as the resident number one fan of the Star Trek franchise. And there’s so many people in this building, by the way, that are. It is our goal and it is our job to figure out what the next bounce of Star Trek is. We’re talking to a lot of writers, we are leaning on CBS Studios, and it is imperative that we figure out what the next iteration is in this franchise because it’s just too important. We also are in touch with Paramount Pictures, they have a Star Trek movie that’s in development.