The Wrath of Khan doesn't seem like a "best Star Trek film" to me -- why do so many people think that it is? - Star Trek: Website

To be clear, I’m not looking to debate whether this is the best Trek film. Rather, I’m asking why so many people see it as such. I enjoy TWoK well enough, and certainly it is a good film overall. But consider: it is much more militaristic than any Trek before and more than most Trek since, and relatively violent compared to TOS; there is no exploration of strange new worlds; tonally, it is quite different from most Trek stories. (To be clear, I’m not suggesting that these qualities are required for a “good” Trek film – I’m just noting a few obvious ways that TWoK is unusual.) In terms of TOS episodes, TWoK is probably most like a combination of “The City On The Edge Of Forever” and “Balance of Terror” – which, to be fair, are beloved classic episodes, in part because they are somewhat exceptional compared to the rest of the series. So perhaps that gives us some clue as to why the film is so beloved. In general, TWoK is ultimately about mortality. For all that the film professes to be about Khan, he really is just an Act of God (in the natural disaster sense), creating an unstoppable force that Kirk must humble himself against. The film is really about Kirk learning to confront death – heightened by the contrast of the new life of Genesis and in his newly-rediscovered son. And that is something that the film did which was new: able to plumb the depths of Kirk’s emotional journey at greater length thanks to the larger screen and the longer format. But, again… it’s a great film, but I don’t know that it’s obvious to me that Kirk learning to deal with the no-win scenario particularly epitomizes what “Star Trek” is (whatever the hell Star Trek actually “is”). In that respect, The Voyage Home seems like the most obvious candidate – whatever Star Trek “is”, to me TVH “feels” more like it than does The Wrath of Khan. So, why has TWoK earned such a place of acclaim? (PS: I could write a similar post about First Contact, whose popularity also confuses me.)

What episodes would work well as community theater stage plays? - Star Trek: Website

To elaborate on my criteria: these should be episodes that can work with a minimum number of sets, no special effect and modest-to-minimal practical effects, and amateur though dedicated actors. Two examples come to mind. The first is TNG’s “Measure of a Man”. This episode is almost entirely dialogue and takes place in large part in a single conference room. You could probably do a pretty straightforward 1:1 rendering of this episode on stage. The second is DIS’s “Species Ten-C”, in which the crew make first contact with the titular species and determine how to communicate. This would require more creativity on the part of the production, but given that the 10-C communicate using light, I imagine that even an amateur production could do something compelling with practical effects. I’ll admit that I am biased: I think I tend to prefer episodes that meet these criteria. I like my Trek talky and tend to have a soft spot for sappy and hammy episodes. But what intrigues me further about these stories is their ability to pass into cultural myth. I’m not saying that these are the only episodes that could transcend Trek and move into the cultural fabric of the era (think of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader), but they seem like they might have the best shot. What do you think?

Did the writers care about the ranks of their characters? - Star Trek: Website

I’m not talking about stuff like O’Brien’s hollow rank pip, I’m talking about stuff like “Why make Chakotay a lt. commander rather than a full commander?” It seems like there was at least some forethought put into who has what rank, but it’s not clear to me how much thought, nor how much meaning was supposed to be baked in to those decisions. For example, Dr Crusher was a full commander from Day 1, matched only by Riker on the main cast. Was that supposed to signify the authority afforded to the CMO? Was it supposed to be blatant enough for the audience to “get” it? One of the most prominent examples is Sisko starting his series as a commander. Again — was that supposed to signify that he was more junior, a younger officer? Behind the scenes, I wonder if we can trace a waxing and waning military influence in the writers room over the years. I know Roddenberry served, and I think some of the early TNG writers did as well. But I feel like that became less common in later series? (But I don’t know for sure.) I think it’s striking that rank is significantly downplayed on DSC, except for Burnham and potentially Saru.

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What's a piece of fanon that you suspect the writers believe? OR, What's a piece of fanon that has been recently (ish) canonized? - Star Trek: Website

For example, the Federation’s founding members (Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, Humans) were the subject of fan theories and “fanon” for many years before the ENT writers made it official. One of the interesting (and fun) aspects of this recent wave of series has been seeing the writers increasingly add nods to fan theories and pieces of fanon lore over the years. What are some good examples of this? And relatedly: what’s a fan theory, or piece of fanon, that you suspect the current writers believe, even if they haven’t explicitly stated it on-screen?

Why does Odo shapeshift less as the series goes on? - Star Trek: Website

Back in the day on TrekBBS (alas, I cannot find the original post), someone pointed out that Odo shapeshifts less and less often as the series goes on. It was never a super frequent thing, but it occurred more often in the earlier seasons, but, even accounting for his time as a solid in Season 5, he seems to shapeshift less and less in later seasons. What reasons (in-universe and real-world) might there be for this? Was it just a budget thing? Were the writers using it as a “trick” (writing crutch) earlier on? Are we supposed to believe that Odo is trying to assimilate, or reject his Changeling heritage?