Character Insight No. 267: Gabler

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Lieutenant Gabler, a recurring character from The Animated Series. 

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp267 

Gabler is an operations division officer serving aboard Kirk's Enterprise on the five year mission.  Gabler is one of the best engineers in Scotty's department, but he also spends time as a security officer.  In other words, he gets the most bang for his buck out of the red uniform he wears.

We typically see Gabler serving as an engineering lead when Scotty is on another part of the ship or on another mission.  One example of this is in the episode One of Our Planets is Missing, where Gabler must supervise opening a series of doors at the rear of the nacelle to allow Scotty and Kirk to carry a force field box with an antimatter villus into the nacelle.  He's also seen receiving orders to operate ship systems in episodes like The Survivor, and Once Upon a Planet, where this quote comes from.

QUOTE (from Once Upon a Planet)

Scotty: Keep trying Lieutenant. Bridge to engineering deck...Gabler, what's the problem down there? We have zero G's on the bridge. 

Gabler: I know that sir.  The trouble seems to be in the gravity control computer.  But the bay door is jammed and I can't get to it. 

Other than the 5 appearances in TAS, Lieutenant Gabler is not seen much in Star Trek, with very limited mentions in books and other stories.  He is given the first name Frank in one short-story adaptation. 

As he is a human officer unlike the other regular recurring characters added in this series, there is likely no compelling reason to re-visit him or add him in, although I would not be surprised to see an Easter Egg about this type of character in a show like Discovery, considering the easter eggs dropped so far in Season 1.

Gabler was another of many characters voiced by James Doohan in this series.  

Happy New Year, and I hope the holiday season treated everyone well as we head into a new batch of Discovery episodes.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 266: Arex

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Lieutenant Arex, a recurring character from The Animated Series. 

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp266 

Arex is a command division officer serving aboard Kirk's Enterprise on the latter stages of the five year mission.  Arex is typically seen at his primary role as a ship's navigator on the bridge.  He's a long time veteran of Starfleet who has a reputation as the best navigator in the fleet.  However, he often fills in for the senior staff when they are incapacitated or off ship, as happens frequently in The Animated Series. 

A couple of Arex's most memorable moments are as follows.  In the episode Mudd's Passion, he falls under the influence of Mudd's love potion and neglects his duties to play the lute on the bridge instead.  At least there's some music to set the mood!

In the episode The Practical Joker, Arex is in command and takes a lunch break with another regular TAS recurring character M'Ress.  The food dispensers begin malfunctioning after they get their lunch, and that causes Scotty to blame them for breaking the dispensers.

QUOTE (from The Practical Joker)

Arex: Officer Scott, won't you join us for lunch?
Scott: No thanks Arex, I'm just going to grab a sandwich.
Arex: Very good.
<Food dispenser malfunctions>
M'Ress: Excuse me for laughing, but
Scott: Go ahead and laugh. Big Joke. I'm sure you two are responsible for this.
Arex: Hey wait a minute, we didn't cause this to happen.

Arex also ages in reverse like a Benjamin Button in The Counter-Clock Incident.  Thus, even though he was added to the bridge staff as a regular to provide another alien presence on the ship, he is often affected by much of the same issues as the rest of the crew in this series.  He was also intended to be a replacement for the regular character Chekov, who was not included in TAS.  Perhaps this would be an interesting callback if another Abrams movie as made, as the CGI tech now exists to make such a character lifelike in today's movies.

Would you like to see Arex and M'Ress become characters in place of Chekov in the movies?  Send a letter to Quentin Tarantino with your requests.

Arex was one of many characters voiced by James Doohan in this series.  He was the most prolific recurring character and really more of a regular on TAS, with 19 appearances.  If you want more of Arex, he shows up a lot in the books. 

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 265: Crewman Nelson

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Crewman Nelson, a recurring character from TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp265 

Nelson is an engineer who works in the operations division on Picard's Enterprise.  He is seen in 57 total episodes and was in the script for a handful more, but some appearances in the background hit the cutting room floor.  That puts Nelson in the top 10 for most prolific background characters in this iteration of Star Trek.

In most of these appearances, Nelson is seen in the corridors or in the background in engineering, typically only for one or two scenes.  When not in engineering or in that department's meetings, he is often working in the shuttle bay or in the shuttlecraft.  He is also seen in some episodes in off duty situations with friends, typically in Ten Forward.  Indeed, he's seen more than most characters enjoying the company of crew mates and drinks in the lounge.  Regardless, he is a lot like other regular TNG background characters we've previously profiled like Martinez, Russell, and Darien Wallace.

Some of Nelson's most notable appearances include the following.  He has to dive through a side door in engineering to escape shots fired by some terrorists on board the ship in the episode The High Ground.  He is given a name in dialogue in the episode Clues, where he works with Data on a sensor diagnostic before working with Geordi LaForge on some computer analysis, becoming one of the key crew members in solving the mystery of the crew blackout.

QUOTE (from Clues)

Geordi: Data, I'll take over from here.  Nelson, I need your help with this computer.

Nelson had about 10 more appearances following this naming in Clues, but his character is not given any speaking lines or bigger roles.  Often the naming of a long time background character is done as a farewell thanks, but in this case, that thanks came a lot earlier before this character stops appearing in the background.  While such roles are perhaps not glamorous, they are important for showing consistency in the crew beyond just the main characters we see the most.

Crewman Nelson was played by Rachen Assapiomonwait.  His most recent acting work was a couple of video shorts in 2007 and 2008, but he can also be seen in bit roles in the movies Monkeybone and Showdown in Little Tokyo.  Unfortunately, no further information could be found about what he's been doing for the last 10 years, so he's faded into the background of life, ironically. 

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 264: Owen Paris

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Admiral Owen Paris, who is Tom Paris's father and a recurring character form Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp264

Owen Paris is a senior Starfleet officer by the time we see him on Voyager, but he was previously the captain on the USS Al-Batani.  Kathryn Janeway was the science officer on that ship, and as such, she learned a great deal from Owen Paris.  This led her to track down Owen's son Tom in a penal colony when she needs a pilot and expert on navigating the Badlands.  She gives Tom a chance where other captains may not thanks to the former mentor relationship with his father.

In reminiscing about Owen Paris, Tom noted that his father was always pressuring him to excel, likely as a result of the strong self drive the Admiral has.  Owen was a firm proponent of the Prime Directive as a leading principle to guide space exploration, and he was believed to never change an opinion once he finalized his opinion on a matter.  He cares about family, and he cares about excellence in performance.

With this background, it should come as no surprise that Owen Paris leads the successful Pathfinder Project to establish contact with the lost Voyager ship and to help bring his former colleague Janeway and his son home from the Delta Quadrant.  In this role, we see Admiral Paris interact wit the quirky Reginald Barclay.  While the Admiral is inclined to be harsh when Barclay does not follow orders, he sees the brilliance and promise in Reginald's ideas, and lets those blossom into the successes of the Pathfinder Project.

QUOTE

Much like Kelby, who we covered last week, Owen Paris is a recurring character who is highly memorable as a result of the important episodes he appears in, but his main contribution is to provide significant background and color to explain why Tom Paris ends up on Janeway's ship, and the motivations of these two main characters. This is precisely the type of recurring role that makes Star Trek great.  And hey, he's not a total jerk admiral, so that's a change of pace.

Owen Paris was played by Richard Herd, who has not really had any leading roles in a 50 year acting career, but has a great niche as a recognizable face thanks to his authoritarian look and stance.  He played the recurring character Wilhelm in Seinfeld, and he recently appeared in this year's critically acclaimed movie Get Out.  He overcame bone marrow cancer as a child in the 1930's, and briefly served in the Army during the Korean War, before living the life of a stage and film actor.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 263: Kelby

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Kelby, a recurring character from the final season of Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp263

Commander Kelby served aboard Archer's Enterprise and was selected to take over the chief engineer position when Charles "trip" Tucker decided to leave for the same post on the Columbia.  However, this stint at chief engineer does not go well for Kelby.

Before Kelby can even get fully adjusted to the leadership role, a Klingon sabotage threat causes him to become overwhelmed.  Trip ends up needing to return to Enterprise to help purge a series of subroutines added to the control system by the Klingons that prevented Enterprise from dropping out of warp.  Trip then decides to stay on board to help out with repairs, and Kelby takes offense to this decision.

Over a couple episodes, we see Kelby and Tucker come to odds with one another over various situations in the engineering department.  This leads up to a fist fight in the episode Bound, when the pheromones produced by three Orion females on board the ship allows the frustrations of both characters to move to physical conflict.  As Kelby feared, Tucker does end up staying permanently as chief engineer following these events.

Kelby does remain on the engineering staff as a senior officer, and we see him later in the episode Terra Prime take over as acting chief when Tucker is kidnapped by the Terra Prime terrorist group.  Kelby is suspected of sabotaging a shuttlecraft in this episode on behalf of the terrorist group, but it is later discovered to be an ensign who took Kelby's role on the shuttlecraft team when Trip came back from the Columbia.  So in the end, Kelby remains a loyal crew member.

QUOTE (from Terra Prime)
Reed: On your feet, sir.  Shuttlepod One was sabotaged.  We nearly crashed!
Mayweather: Is this your signature?
Kelby: Yes. You think I had something to do with it?
Malcom: Is there any reason why we shouldn't.
Kelby: That's a shuttlepod maintenance log. Commander Tucker took me off that team when he returned from Columbia.

Kelby is one of those characters who briefly shows up in an arc of episodes, but has a well-developed story that adds to the tapestry for one of the main characters, in this case, Trip.  It's one advantage in character development and storytelling seen in the more modern Trek shows, as compared to the fully episodic earlier versions.

Commander Kelby was played by Derek Magyar.  He continues to act today, with mostly television series credits on his resume.  Other than Enterprise, his longest recurring roles have been on the soap Days of Our Lives, and on Boy Culture.  When not acting or directing in LA, he is an avid Dodgers fan.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 262: Azan and Rebi

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Azan and Rebi, twins who were recurring characters on the latter seasons of Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp262

In the episode Collective, Voyager discovers a Borg cube that is disabled with a pathogen, leaving only five drones in charge.  Voyager rescues these drones and Seven of Nine helps bring them back to individuality, including two twin children Azan and Rebi. 

After rescue, Azan is often seen in a blue shirt and brown overalls, while Rebi is in a red shirt and blue overalls, so they are kind of like an alien Mario and Luigi.  Interestingly, the outfit Rebi wears is the same one Jake Sisko wore in initial episodes of DS9, so that's an interesting legacy of costuming.

While on board, these two twins are only involved in a small handful of episodes and adventures.  One of these is caused by a power failure to the deck with the Borg regeneration alcoves, and Neelix has to keep them company by telling ghost stories.  In another episode, Voyager runs a science fair and the twins initially want to clone Naomi Wildman as their project.  Seven of Nine thankfully steps in and guides them to clone a potato instead.

QUOTE (from Child's Play)
Janeway: Why Potatoes?
Seven: They originally wanted to clone Naomi, but...

Azan and Rebi are Wysanti, and Voyager encounters their original people a few months after rescuing them from the cube.  These twins rejoin their people, along with Mezoti, who decides to help look out for the twins as they grow up in Wysanti culture.  One figures it will be an interesting life re-adjusting to the home culture, just like we saw for Seven.

Although some of the episodes featuring these characters felt a bit like late-season filler, the concept of repeating the success of saving drones from the Borg was a natural conclusion of stories that had stemmed all the way back to TNG.  Reclaiming drones from the Borg Collective is just one of the many ways the Federation gained the upper hand on one of their greatest adversaries.

Azan was played by Kurt Wetherill, who had limited child acting roles before becoming a cinematographer and production assistant from 2001-09.  His actual twin brother Cody Wetherill played Rebi, and Cody also followed a similar career path by working on many of the same projects as Kurt.  Little info can be found on Kurt online, but Cody is living a normal life in Portland Oregon now, as revealed by mother's day and golf outing pictures on Facebook.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 261: Ishka

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Ishka, a recurring Ferengi character from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp261
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp261

Ishka, also referred to as Moogie in the show, is the mother of Quark and Rom.  She was introduced in the episode Family Business, in which it is revealed that her business prowess was far superior to Quark and Rom's deceased father, so much so that she conducts many business transactions and accumulates more profit than Quark has in his entire lifetime, contrary to the social rules and norms of the Ferengi race.  She also does not buy into the other seemingly backwards Ferengi norms, like women always being naked and mothers chewing food for their children.

This interesting counter-culture take on Ferengi women was so successful that the character came back in a recurring role in a big way.  To this end, Ishka happens to fall in love with Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Zek, and she ends up assisting him with all business matters behind the scenes when he begins to lose his marbles.  It's as close as she could reasonably come to her dream of a female Grand Nagus, an interesting allegory to the leadership politics that continue to play out in the U.S. and other modern countries.

QUOTE (from Profit and Lace)
Ishka: "I predict that one day, a female will enter the Tower of Commerce, climb the forty flights of stairs to the Chamber of Opportunity, and take her rightful place as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance."

Based on Zek's love for this different woman and her influence, many cultural reforms were enacted during the waning days of Zek's tenure.  Thus, Ishka is a positive force for change in the Ferengi Alliance, and one of the most unique and interesting characters in a show with a lot of Ferengi stories.  In the final season of this show, she makes sure her son Rom takes over for Zek as Grand Nagus to assure that her reforms remain intact for many years to come.

The character of Ishka provided some real narrative punch that became a prime storyline for the Ferengi in DS9, while also serving as a good allegory or role model for those in oppressive situations.  That makes her one of the most influential characters of the series despite having only about 5 appearances.

Ishka's first appearance was played by actress Andrea Martin, and all further appearances were then played by Cecily Adams because Martin was no longer available.  Both these actresses were in the same age range or much younger than Quark's actor Armin Shimmerman, so both had to wear very heavy and elaborate prosthetics to show their higher ages.  Martin still acts and writes screenplays today, with recent appearances in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Difficult People.  Adams was a successful acting coach until her untimely death at age 46 in 2004 of lung cancer, but her spirit may live on in her now 16-year old daughter Madeline Beaver, who is also pursuing acting.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 260: Captain Proton

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review another holodeck recurring character: Captain Proton from Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp260

When we covered holodeck villains at the end of last year, one of those segments was on Doctor Chaotica, from The Adventures of Captain Proton.  Now we cover his foil, the title character of the holographic novel, Captain Proton himself, who is played by Tom Paris in all appearances we see on the show.

Captain Proton can often be seen swashbuckling his way through the plans and evil machines of Doctor Chaotica and Queen Arachnia.  His first appearance is in the episode Night, where he tries to have Seven of Nine experience the holo novel as Proton's secretary Constance Goodheart, who is often the damsel in distress in these stories.  It doesn't go well, but when the ship is attacked and all power is lost, trapping them in the holodeck, Seven proves a good ally to have in overcoming the all-too-familiar holodeck-gone-rogue situation.

Proton has a sidekick, like all super heroes, the one being Buster Kincaid.  When Harry Kim joins Tom Paris on these adventures, Harry plays the role of Buster.  In addition to having this be another way these two close friends spend time together, the holo novel provides a place of escape for Tom Paris when events in real life are too tough to handle.  Tom and Harry often refer to their escapades in this holodeck program in other episodes throughout seasons 6 and 7 of the show.

Of course, sometimes real life invades this holodeck, as in the episode Bride of Chaotica.  Aliens mistake the holodeck for real existence, and Tom and Harry must figure their way out of the mess that causes.  Captain Janeway joins the acting fun in this particular episode.  Although this episode was very close in time to the first two episodes involving this holo novel, the real story is that this episode was crafted to keep action or scenes on the actual bridge of Voyager at a minimum to allow time for repair to a set damaged by fire in real life.

QUOTE (from Night)
Dr. Chaotica: Captain Proton!
Tom Paris: Spaceman First Class, Protector of Earth, scourge of intergalactic evil - at your service.
Captain Proton was intended in part to be a parody of Flash Gordon, and a 1930s comic book character.  We see many of the same character traits in these holodeck scenes.  Captain Proton was not just another escape for a Voyager crewman on the long journey home, but instead, an opportunity to dive deeper into the Harry Kim-Tom Paris relationship and an opportunity for the show actors to have fun playing some campy scenes.

Interestingly, Captain Proton has been the subject of one story written in the real world, by regular Trek author Dean Wesley Smith.  He wrote the story to fit in as the background material that Tom Paris would eventually base his holo adventures off of.  If you want to look this up, it's called Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth.

Captain Proton and Tom Paris are played by Robert Duncan McNeill, who has served more as a director in Hollywood since his days on Voyager.  He was offered the chance to direct a season 1 episode in Discovery, but timing did not work, so maybe we will see his return to the series as a director in season 2.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 259: What the Renewal of Discovery means for Character Development

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we respond to this week's news that Star Trek Discovery will get a second season with a look at what that means for character development in this show.  This segment will not contain significant spoilers for the current run of Discovery, just some general information.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp259

According to the showrunner Alex Kurtzman, the primary story idea for a second season developed from a big idea that emerged in the middle and late parts of season 1.  As these episodes have not really aired yet, nobody can guess yet where the plot of this next season will take viewers.  However, it is clear that as long as there are interesting stories to tell, and more importantly, viewers tuning in to CBS All Access, this show will continue on.  Hey, at least this won't be like Firefly!

So far on Discovery, we have about 6 main characters and a lot of recurring characters in the mix, as the show runners tell us the story of the USS Discovery and the Klingon-Federation war.  Most of those 6 main characters have had individual character beats to help explain their background and where they may be headed as officers and people.  Obviously there's a heavy focus on the primary protagonist Michael Burnham, but the show has not lacked for development of the other crew around her, at least so far.

By providing another set of episodes and a second large story arc for these characters, there will be much more time to learn about these main characters in depth.  Conflicts between the characters can have time to develop and fully resolve, which may not have been truly possible with only a 15 (and honestly 13) episode run in season 1.  While season 1 will likely maintain a high level of focus on Michael Burnham, a second season may provide opportunities for deep dives into one or more other main characters, whether they be new or in the current 6.  Alternatively, if the character path for Burnham becomes as complex and interesting as other TV characters like Walter White on Breaking Bad, the focus could remain on her...but that just depends on the stories to be told.

Additionally, a second season and possibly more than that will allow for recurring characters to come and go with more regularity, which adds depth to the universe we focus on in the bridge crew of one ship.  As evidenced by how many different characters I've been able to cover on Character Insight for shows like Enterprise and TOS, it does not take long to make a canvas of characters worthy of in-depth analysis.

While it will be awhile before this segment covers these new Star Trek characters in detail, it is good to know we will be receiving enough of this series to have sufficient complexities and top moments to cover for a multitude of characters.  So your humble segment host, just like most of you out there, is jumping for joy on the news of the second season renewal.

We'll be back next week with a regular segment.  If you want to Choose Your Pain as the Klingons say, send in those characters you love that I have not covered yet, Discovery excluded of course.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 258: Edward Jellico

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Captain Edward Jellico, who appeared in the iconic two-parter Chain of Command, Parts I and II in TNG, and as requested by frequent show contributor Chris on Twitter.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp258

Jellico is the captain of the USS Cairo, after beginning his career as a shuttle pilot.  He is given command of the Enterprise when Admiral Alynna Nechayev wants a Cardassian expert to lead the flagship in a critical juncture of conflict between the Federation and the Cardassians.  At the same time, Captain Picard is assigned to an undercover mission that leads to his abduction and torture by the Cardassians.  You know, this one...

QUOTE (from Chain of Command, Part II):
Picard: "There are Four Lights!"

But this segment isn't about what happened to Picard, but instead, what happened to his ship and crew when Jellico took over.  Jellico was a stern authoritarian who demanded peak efficiency from his crews.  This led to some pushback from Commander Riker, who did not like many of the changes that Jellico put into place.  Indeed, Riker eventually is relieved of duty when his insubordination reaches too high a level for Jellico, following disagreements on what to do about Picard's abduction.

Jellico ends up working things out with Riker when Geordi insists that Riker is the best pilot on board and should be involved in a mission of planting mines on Cardassian ships hiding in a nebula.

QUOTE (from Chain of Command, Part II):
Captain Edward Jellico: Let's drop the ranks for a moment. I don't like you. I think you're insubordinate, arrogant, willful, and I don't think you're a particularly good first officer. But you are also the best pilot on the ship.
Commander William T. Riker: Well... Now that the ranks are dropped, Captain, I don't like you either. *You* are arrogant, and closed-minded. You need to control everything and everyone. You don't provide an atmosphere of trust, and you don't inspire these people to go out of their way for you. You've got everybody wound up so tight, there's no joy in anything. I don't think you're a particularly good captain.

After planting the mines on the Cardassian fleet, Jellico is able to negotiate from a position of absolute power.  He convinces the Cardassians to eject their phaser coils and retreat, while also returning Picard to the Federation.

Admiral Nechayev then restores Picard's command, sending Jellico back to the Cairo.  Jellico presents a very interesting contrast for what Star Trek TNG could have been like if the same crew has a very different style of captain.  One wonders how Riker, Troi, and the others would have made it long term on the Enterprise with the difference in command style, but it helps fuel the fire of great debates like Kirk vs. Picard.  Jellico does have the distinction of being one of only 3 people to have a Captain's Log on TNG.

Captain Jellico was played by Ronny Cox, and the character can be found in many Star Trek novels for those who want more authoritarianism.  Cox is in the end of a 40 year acting career, with appearances in big movies like Deliverance, RoboCop, and Total Recall.  Cox is also an avid musician, playing about 80 gigs per year and having 5 records released in the jazz and folk genres.

INSERT RONNY COX MUSIC (Silver City)

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 257: J. Hayes

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review J. Hayes, a MACO officer who appears on several episodes of Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp257

Hayes is the commanding officer of the detachment of MACO officers who serves aboard the Enterprise during the mission into the Delphic Expanse during the Xindi conflict.  Hayes is a hardened military man who values consistency and the chain of command above all else, likely a result of his upbringing and his training at West Point on Earth.  He also was a veteran of lunar survival training, one of the most grueling training regimens of the era.

The most notable part of Hayes and his story on Enterprise is an ongoing conflict from the moment he comes aboard with Malcolm Reed, the chief armory officer on the ship.  This conflict builds over a couple episodes and then erupts after Hayes recommends and the Captain agrees to start a series of tactical drills with all senior officers on staff.  Reed felt that he should have been consulted instead of circumvented, and they end up in an all-out brawl until interrupted by a hostile alien attack on the ship.  Captain Archer was not amused, as evidenced in this meeting in his ready room following the incident in the episode Harbinger.

QUOTE (from Harbinger):
Captain Jonathan Archer: Don't try to tell me who started it! I don't know what the problem is between you two, and to tell you the truth I don't care, but I want it settled right now! SETTLE IT! That's an order!
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: There's no problem, Captain.
Major Hayes: It's settled, sir.
Captain Jonathan Archer: How are the drills going?
Major Hayes: Good, sir.
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: Very good, sir.
Ironically, another serious fight a month later between Reed and Hayes is what helps sort out the differences between these two.  Hayes and the MACOs were placed in charge of the ship when Archer was under the influence of a neurochemical and the regular senior staff has to fight the MACOs to get back control of the ship.  Hayes admits to Reed that following the chain of command is never as simple as it seems.

In his final appearance, Hayes lead a boarding party to rescue Hoshi Sato, who had been abducted by the Xindi Reptilians.  He is shot during transport off the ship and dies shortly thereafter.  It was an honorable ending for a commanding military personnel.

Hayes was played by Steven Culp, who continues a prolific television acting career today, with highlights in long runs on JAG and Desperate Housewives.  He described that an LA Times article on a young soldier in Iraq who had a troubled childhood but found himself in the military inspired his performance of the Hayes character, and it all grew from there.  It's funny where inspiration comes from when actors are given a relatively blank character slate.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 256: Kasidy Yates

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Kasida Yates-Sisko, a recurring character from the latter few seasons of Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp256

Kasidy Yates is initially introduced to Commander Ben Sisko by his son Jake, as Jake thought his dad needed romantic companionship.  The romance heated up quickly, with Kasidy sharing Ben's love of baseball and moving her freighter captain role to work for the Bajorans so that she could stay close to Ben permanently.  As an independent civilian and freighter captain, she's a highly motivated and confident character that makes for a perfect foil to the likes of Commander Sisko.

The romance has a hiccup caused by the episode For The Cause, where Kasidy is hoodwinked into smuggling multiple loads of cargo to the Maquis.  She takes full responsibility for the actions of her crew, who rejoin the Maquis while she goes off to a prison sentence.  But that prison sentence ends a year later, and Ben Sisko clearly doesn't mind what happened or the brief interruption as shown by their warm greeting in her initial return in the episode Rapture.

Yates then temporarily serves as a convoy liaison officer aboard the Defiant, but she's not a big fan of all the Starfleet paperwork.  Some of the dialogue from this episode, The Sound of Her Voice, shows how close Sisko and Yates had become, as they know each other like a married couple.

QUOTE (from The Sound of Her Voice):
Kasidy Yates: [about Bashir, who is sparing with words] There was a time when you couldn't get him to shut up.
Captain Sisko: I think I like him better this way.
Kasidy Yates: That's mean.
Captain Sisko: I was just kidding.
Kasidy Yates: No - you weren't.

In the final few episodes of the show, when character development and relationships raced ahead as fast as the Dominion War conclusions, Sisko proposes to Yates and they get married.  They end up getting pregnant a few episodes later, as Sisko apparently forgot to renew his contraception injection on time...yes folks, the pill is a guy thing in the 2300's.  The future of Yates and her unborn child is left as a loose end in the finale, with Sisko joining the Prophets in the Celestial Temple and vowing to return someday.

Kasidy Yates-Sisko was played by Penny Johnson, who has had many major roles on TV series of the last 25 years, including on Castle, the Larry Sanders Show, and 24. (Insert 24 noise)  She is also now back in the sci fi mainstream as Dr. Claire Finn on The Orville, which would basically be the closest thing to Star Trek if we didn't also have Discovery.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 255: Alice and the White Rabbit

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Alice and the White Rabbit, two characters who surprisingly show up on two episodes of Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp255

Kirk's Enterprise crew never visited pleasure planet Risa, but they found the next best thing in the episode Shore Leave.  An amusement park planet that can create characters and experiences right out of your own memories and thoughts!  What an amazing and terrifying concept, all at once.

Alice and the White Rabbit, well known characters from Lewis Carroll books and the 1951 Disney movie Alice in Wonderland, show up after Dr. McCoy says that the beautiful shore leave planet was like something out of that same Alice in Wonderland movie.  The characters turn out to be robots created by the planet, but it was a fun trip to Disneyland as the crew must figure out the mystery of this planet.

The crew sees these characters again in the TAS episode Once Upon a Planet.  As you might expect if you're familiar with Carroll's original works, Alice is chasing the White Rabbit, who is always concerned about being on time.  In this episode, McCoy and Sulu have a picnic with these fairy tale characters and a dragon.  Because if we've learned anything from Game of Thrones, it's that everything is much better and more believable with a dragon.

QUOTE (from Conspiracy):
Remmick: "We mean you no harm...we seek peaceful co-existence"...(Picard and Riker shoot him).

To date, these are the only Disney characters to invade Star Trek.  Given how Paramount and CBS are on the opposite end of the spectrum from Disney and ABC...it's probably not likely we will be seeing any Disney princess crossovers in Discovery or otherwise.  Some TOS episodes become memorably wonky, and Alice and the White Rabbit accomplish that for sure.

The White Rabbit was played by William Blackburn in TOS and voiced by James Doohan in TAS.  Blackburn also played Lieutenant Hadley, the Gorn Captain, and other guest characters on TOS.  He was a profession ice skater before being an actor and costume director, and those slick moves come in handy when running away from little girls from fairy tales.  Alice was played by Marcia Brown in TOS and then voiced by Nichelle Nichols in TAS.  Brown did not have any other notable acting roles, so one might consider this a one hit wonder...from wonderland.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 254: Admiral Gregory Quinn and Inspector General Dexter Rimmick

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Admiral Gregory Quinn and Dexter Remmick, who appeared together in a couple episodes of TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp254

Admiral Quinn is one of the first recurring characters who shows up on TNG, as a critical part of the season one story regarding an attempt by an alien parasite to take over Starfleet Command.  In the episode Coming of Age, the Admiral helps uncover this secret plot and then sets Inspector General officer Dexter Remmick to investigate whether the crew of the Enterprise-D has been infiltrated in any manner.  This was a bit of a witch hunt similar to the Dominion storylines in latter seasons of Deep Space 9.  Indeed, the secretive nature of the investigation causes serious tension between Remmick and the Enterprise crew.

Ironically, Admiral Quinn and Remmick would both later become victims of the alien parasite.  In the episode Conspiracy, Captain Picard and Commander Riker must track down the mother creature of these aliens before the infiltration of Starfleet Headquarters is complete.  The mother creature turns out to be within Remmick, and when this creature is destroyed, all the other parasites are also killed.  That allows Admiral Quinn to make a full recovery.  The same cannot be said of Dexter Remmick, who has his head explode in an iconic, disgusting, and memorable scene, which sounds something like this.

QUOTE (from Conspiracy):
Remmick: "We mean you no harm...we seek peaceful co-existence"...(Picard and Riker shoot him).

There's also this from the same episode, because of course:
"Code 47" quote

Admiral Quinn and Remmick are not seen again outside prior footage in a Riker memory scene in the episode Shades of Gray.  Perhaps being taken over by an alien parasite is enough to make a man retire.

Here's to you, inspector general officer Dexter Remmick.  You may have been an annoying character in an interesting deep state conspiracy story, but at least you went out with a bang like the Fourth of July.  Much like Jim Shimoda and his isolinear chip Jenga, you will not be easily forgotten.  Or cleaned off the carpet.

Dexter Remmick was played by Robert Schenklan, while Admiral Quinn was played by Ward Costello.  Schenklan's acting career ended in the 90s but he has remained a prolific award-winning screenwriter in Hollywood, with recent credits on Hacksaw Ridge and All the Way.  The Admiral was one of Costello's final acting roles, as he wrapped up a 35 year career and enjoyed two decades of retirement before his death in 2009.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 253: The Sphere Builders

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review the Sphere Builders, a recurring set of characters in Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp253

The Sphere Builders are the villains behind the Xindi-Earth conflict that dominates over an entire season of this show.  Much like other top villains such as the Borg, the Sphere Builders try to destroy the Federation before it ever occurs because in a future timeline, the Federation foils this group's attempt to invade the Alpha Quadrant.  That means lots of time travel mumbo-jumbo is in order to explain this race.

The Sphere Builders repeatedly appear to the Xindi following the destruction of the Xindi homeworld, and the Xindi refer to them as religious figures called The Guardians.  The Xindi are guided to survive on habitable planets and then form multiple major weapons to attack Earth, all under the influence of the Sphere Builders.  This includes the prototype weapon that kills 7 million people in the initial attack of Earth, as well as a bio-weapon and the ultimate weapon that leads the Enterprise to track down the Xindi to stop the threat.

QUOTE (from Harbinger):
Sphere-Builder Test Subject: "When the Xindi destroy Earth, my people will prevail!"

The key to undermining the Sphere Builders in the time traveling schemes was time agent Daniels, who helps the Enterprise crew by transporting them through time to stop the bio-weapon threat and also helping them uncover evidence to prove the long-term manipulation of the Xindi to the leadership of the Xindi.  When this evidence causes some of the Xindi species to turn against the Sphere Builders, a final conflict emerges where the Builders try to destroy Enterprise while the Enterprise crew splits their attention between stopping the ultra weapon and disabling the Sphere Builder network, which creates the trans-dimensional space that allows these time travelers to exist in our realm.

I'll save the final conclusion of that battle to the main show, to avoid major spoilers for Mike and Darrell's trek through Season 3 of Enterprise.  But it's a satisfying end to a long story arc.

The concept of a mastermind meddling race causing the conflict between the Xindi and the future Federation is an interesting idea for building a conflict, but unfortunately, this also draws in a metric ton of time-traveling shortcuts from the 26th Century and garbage writing.  If you like the time travel stories and conundrums, you will love this.  But if you don't, it will be a long road, getting from there to here.

We see five Sphere-Builders on screen, played by Josette Di Carlo, Thomas Kopache, Alina Andrei, Ruth Williamson, and Mary Mara.  Kopache has had the most notable career of this group, with a regular role on The West Wing and appearances in movies like No Country for Old Men.  However, Andrei has been a top stuntwoman for many years and her most recent work is on The Orville, which launched this week for the sci fi parody laughs.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 252: Lewis Zimmerman

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we return to the land of recurring characters with a profile of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, from Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp252

Lewis Zimmerman is a Starfleet scientist who becomes the leader in the field of holo-engineering.  After 12 years of serving at the holo-programming center on Jupiter Station, he becomes the director of the station.  His crowning achievement was the development of a long term medical holographic program, the holographic EMH.

We first discover Zimmerman in the Voyager episode Projections, where we learn that all Mark I first generation EMH's were based on him.  Thus, we see Zimmerman as an older version of the holographic doctor we know so well.

In the DS9 episode Doctor Bashir, I Presume, we see Zimmerman trying to model Dr. Julian Bashir as the template for an improved EMH.  When it is discovered that Julian's parents had him genetically engineered as a child, Zimmerman has to disqualify Bashir from being the template.  Which is good because I don't think we could handle any more Julian Bashirs!

Zimmerman has a short dating relationship with Leeta on this episode, and when that breaks off, he has no trouble rebounding when he sees another good thing, as seen here:

QUOTE (from Doctor Bashir, I Presume):
Zimmerman: Perhaps I'm better suited to a life of solitary research...don't worry about me, I'll be fine.  Excuse me, are you familiar with the ancient Earth text called the Kama Sutra?

The best episode featuring Zimmerman is Voyager's Life Line, where he is terminally ill and prepares a last will and testament giving everything holographic to Reginald Barclay.  Barclay, who had established contact with Voyager, convinces the holographic Doctor to come try and treat Zimmerman.  After refusing to be treated by an earlier model of the EMH, Dr. Zimmerman eventually backs down and the EMH cures him, while also showing the personality he has developed in working with the Voyager crew.  It becomes almost a father-son relationship, and is another good character beat for the holographic EMH.

Zimmerman was an interesting character much in the vein of Dr. Soong, and his involvement on two concurrent series leads to good character development of Dr. Bashir and the holographic EMH.  You can't ask much more than that in a small handful of appearances.

Lewis Zimmerman was played by Robert Picardo, just like the EMH.  Picardo still acts today, and he can be found as host of the show The Planetary Post.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 251: Eclipses and Stargazing

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, I was one of many who traveled to watch the solar eclipse in its totality, so let's take a look at eclipses in Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp251

As primarily a visual phenomenon based on planets, eclipses are not seen much in the space faring stories of Star Trek.  However, one eclipse does serve an important story role in the Voyager episode Ex Post Facto, where Professor Tolen Ren's wife expresses the importance of witnessing such an event a few years prior on their planet Banea.

QUOTE:
I haven't been married for years Tom...he treats me as a friend, a companion...he hasn't treated me as a woman since the day of the eclipse four years ago.  He was very excited about the eclipse, don't ask me why.

It later became important for Tom Paris to recall this and other information when he is accused of the Professor's murder and is implanted with false memories of the alleged murder to punish him for these alleged crimes.  The eclipse was a turning point in the marriage, and that helped Tuvok discover the motive and proof to exonerate Tom Paris of the charge.

Other than visuals referring to eclipses in the Enterprise theme credits or the visuals of other credits, there are no other references that can be found to such phenomenon.  It's just one part of stargazing that has not received a ton of play on Star Trek, as there are many more phenomenon to experience when out there amongst the stars.

Stargazing more generally has certainly been shown in many contexts in Star Trek.  We see Captain Archer stargazing on a Risa shore leave, and also Trip investigating a stellar nursery from a telescope on Earth in various Enterprise episodes.  Kamin from The Inner Light also builds a telescope, as noted on the episode insight a couple weeks ago.  Voyager also showed both humans and aliens stargazing as well, perhaps most notably in the episode Blink of an Eye, where Voyager is spotted by an observatory on an alien world when the ship is stuck in orbit of the planet.

Stargazing and enjoying event like eclipses are all about exploration and discovery of the universe around us, so it makes sense that we see references to the same in Star Trek thanks to the central theme of the show.  We might have to wait 7 years in America to see another eclipse, but we have far less time to wait to enjoy new Star Trek, and so we go on discovering and exploring.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 250: The Best of Ben Sisko

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we celebrate the 250th installment of this segment by closing out the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with the station commander, Benjamin Sisko.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp250

For no reason in particular, when I started this segment over five years ago, I decided to start with one of the commanding officers, and so Ben Sisko was originally covered in segment number 1.  It's been a long road getting from there to here, but I'm happy to bring us back to Sisko and cover his best moments to finish up this series on DS9 main characters.

As with most commanding officers and leads, there are so many high points in the character development of Ben Sisko.  One of the best episodes in Deep Space Nine is The Visitor, which focuses on the special bond Jake and Ben Sisko share as son and father.  Ben is always providing life advice and guidance to Jake, who we see as an adult and a young man in this alternate timeline episode.

QUOTE (from The Visitor, S4):
Captain Sisko: I'm no writer; but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around, see what's going on. It's life, Jake. You can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

In the episode In The Pale Moonlight, Sisko hits a personal low point as he goes to any means necessary to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War to help the Federation.  His personal logs recounting this turn of events is some of the darkest and most interesting moments we see from a captain or commanding officer in all of Star Trek.

QUOTE (from In The Pale Moonlight, S6):
Captain Sisko: So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again - I would. Garak was right about one thing: a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it... Because I can live with it...
In a unique episode called Far Beyond the Stars, Sisko deals with visions in which he is Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction writer in the 1950s dreaming up and writing the Deep Space Nine story as science fiction.  The other main actors on the show also take roles in these visions as other human characters, which allowed for us to see more of their depth outside alien contexts.  This take on metafiction allows for a commentary on the importance of science fiction in our current era.

QUOTE (from Far Beyond the Stars, S6):
Captain Sisko: I have begun to wonder. What if it wasn't a dream? What if this life we're leading - all of this, you and me, everything - what if all of this... is the illusion?
Joseph Sisko: That's a scary thought.
Captain Sisko: I know, I know... But maybe, just maybe, Benny isn't the dream. We are. Maybe we're nothing more than figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere, far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell... is dreaming of us.
Sisko broke the mold of what we previously knew as Starfleet commanders, and that was a great thing for the future of this franchise.  He's certainly one of my favorites, so the Emissary of the Prophets is a fitting end to the Best Of series for DS9.

Ben Sisko is played by Avery Brooks, who has the most fantastic interview with Bill Shatner in the documentary The Captains. He has passion for music and theater, and he's been a professor in the theater department of Rutgers University for 40 years.  He even taught courses while he played Sisko, sometimes sending lessons by video to his students with him still in his uniform from filming!

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 249: Best of Worf

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we return to the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Worf, who joined the series as a strategic operations officer following his days on Picard's Enterprise in TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp249

Unlike almost every other character, Worf is a known quantity when he joins the DS9 crew in season 4.  Commander Sisko brings him in to serve as an expert and liaison on Klingons as the tensions between the Cardassians, the Federation, and the Klingons were maximized at this point.

In his initial episode, The Way of the Warrior, we see Worf struggle with his old ship's destruction and conflicts between his Klingon heritage and his Federation duties.  However, Jadzia Dax immediately takes a liking to him, and the beginnings of romance are already present in this first appearance during a holodeck scene.

QUOTE (from The Way of the Warrior, S4):
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: [ordering two holo-bat'leths for herself and Worf] I thought you might be tired of fighting holograms.
Lt. Commander Worf: It would not be a fair match.
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: I'll go easy on you.

The injection of a strong Klingon character led to a series of Klingon-themed episodes featuring Worf and Dax, who also was close with Klingons in a prior life as Curzon.  One example is in the episode The Sword of Kahless, where Worf interacts with the TOS character Kor and then must make tough decisions after finding a long-lost Klingon relic.

QUOTE (from The Sword of Kahless, S4):
Lt. Commander Worf: It is done.
Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: Good. It's for the best.
Kor: I hope you're right. It could be lost for another thousand years.
Lt. Commander Worf: When it is destined to be found... it will be.

Worf plays a critical role in defusing some of the Klingon conflicts and then later counseling the Empire to be a useful ally in the Dominion War.  One climax of his involvement occurs in the episode Tacking Into the Wind, in which he tries to convince Gowron to avoid a costly attack based solely on anger and vengeance, and ends up having to duel him to remove him as Chancellor of the Empire.

QUOTE (from Tacking Into the Wind, S7):
Lt. Commander Worf: We cannot attack Sarpedion.
Gowron: I decide what can and cannot be done!
Lt. Commander Worf: You rule without wisdom and without honor. The warriors that are gathered here will not say this to you, but I will. You are squandering our ships and our lives on a petty act of vengeance!
Gowron: I should have known better than to trust you again. If you were a true Klingon, I would kill you where you stand!


Other big highlights include the unique wedding with Jadzia in the episode You Are Cordially Invited, and the time Worf snaps the neck of one of the Dominion's Weyouns in the episode Strange Bedfellows.  As interesting as Worf's character was in TNG, he elevates to be one of, if not the best, main character on DS9.

Worf was played by Michael Dorn, who continues to act today but has plenty of other interesting passions.  For example, he is a member of the Air Force Aviation Heritage Foundation, and he also owns and operates an old Air Force T-33 trainer jet, his own starship if you will.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 248: Best of Ezri Dax

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we return to the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Ezri Dax, the main character who joined the show for the final season when the Dax symbiont needed another host following Jadzia's death.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp248

Ezri Dax serves as a Lieutenant counselor aboard the station, and she's got plenty of personal adjustment and baggage to work through as she mixes her young host with the decades of experience Dax has. Ezri was the only Trill available to join with the symbiont when an emergency happens while trying to return to the Trill homeworld, which leads to the adjustment issues as alluded to in the episode Shadows and Symbols.

QUOTE (from Shadows and Symbols, S7):
Ensign Ezri Dax: [nods] I lay down on that operating table one person and I woke up a completely different person - well, I should say eight different people. I was not prepared for this at all. I mean you're supposed to get years of training and preparation before you get joined and all I got was a 15-minute lecture from the ship's surgeon and he wasn't even a Trill...
Sisko: I'm starting to see the problem.

It takes a while for the crew to adjust to having a new version of Dax around, but at least this replacement is nicer than Dr. Pulaski.  She and Worf take the longest to finally get along, but Ezri is always a realist about how hard it is for Worf to overcome the loss of Jadzia, and they finally figure things out in the episode Strange Bedfellows.

QUOTE (from Strange Bedfellows, S7):
Lt. Commander Worf: I realize, Jadzia saw physical love differently than I do. To her it could mean many things, but to me it was a deeply spiritual act. When I made love to you... my motives were not spiritual. It was an unworthy impulse.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Worf, we're not gods or prophets. We're people. We make mistakes.

Although the show writers definitely took advantage of the new fertile storytelling ground they had with a new character in the final season, the dramatic push to the end of the Dominion War storyline kept this from being overdone.  However, the rapid development of Ezri's character included her own romance that had plenty of false starts, this time with Dr. Bashir.  They finally admit their feelings and become a couple right before the end, as shown in the episode What You Leave Behind.

QUOTE (from What You Leave Behind, S7):
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: We have to get up.
Doctor Bashir: Are you sure?
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: It's a big day.
Doctor Bashir: [sighs] It was a big night. Cleared up a lot of unanswered questions.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Such as?
Doctor Bashir: Such as, just how far these spots really go down.


As the DS9 crew never had a regular counselor, it was interesting to see one added to the mix in the final season.  Ezri was no Jadzia, but in some ways, that was yet another interesting twist in this most unique of the Star Trek series.

Ezri Dax was played by Nicole de Boer, who continues to act today after overcoming shyness as a child with stage acting in Toronto, Canada.  Some of her most notable work outside Trek includes as a regular on The Dead Zone and more recent bit roles on Reign and Private Eyes.
-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 247: Musical Instruments

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we congratulate Mike and Darrell on 300 episodes, and celebrate the centerpiece of The Inner Light with a review of musical instruments featured on Star Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp247


Star Trek has many core ideals, one of which is the exploration of other worlds and species, as well as celebrating the commonalities and differences found.  One commonality among many different cultures is music, and we see many different musical instruments and devices over the journeys of the crews of Star Trek.  According to Memory Alpha, we have already seen nearly 30 alien musical instruments over the history of Star Trek, to go along with a healthy dose of 25 or so familiar human musical instruments.

Sometimes these instruments serve as an important centerpiece or memorable contributor in episodes.  Certainly Picard's Ressikan Flute from his 40 years of experience in The Inner Light fits this bill, as does the Betazoid chime that Homn brings along in multiple Lwaxana episodes in TNG. 

Other times, they simply give more character to alien worlds or Federation crew members.  The Vulcan lute is seen played on multiple occasions by Spock and Tuvok, and the well-known trombone is played often by jazz fan William Riker.  It definitely appears that music has not lost any importance in the 23rd and 24th Century, but quite the opposite.

Although not typically thought of as a musical instrument, the voice of some characters is on full display with talent for singing.  Uhura was known to sing a tune at times on TOS, and the character development of the holographic Doctor on Voyager depended in large part on a passion for singing and music.  One of my favorite episodes is Virtuoso, in which the Doctor must decide whether to stay as a musical performer on a planet with a technically advanced civilization who adores him and had not heard music before Voyager arrived.

Although we see the usual gamut of string, wind, and percussion instruments on the show, Star Trek is always looking towards the future, and this came in so-called mental instruments that were played or controlled by thought and a touch of the hand.  Examples of this are the Enaren musical instrument from Voyager's Remember, and the Aldean musical instrument in TNG's When The Bough Breaks.  It will be interesting to see if musical tech follows some other tech shown on Trek to become a reality.

Congratulations again to Mike and Darrell, and here's to another 300 episodes with fun musical interludes.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 246: Jim Shimoda and Sarah MacDougal

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we take a request from "K
enP" and review Jim Shimoda and the moving parts of engineering in early TNG episodes.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp246


In the first season of TNG, the chief engineer and their leadership personnel would change almost as quickly as someone's underwear.  Until Geordi gets his hands on the job, nobody could seem to keep that department running smoothly.  That made for a nice corollary to the show writers getting their sea legs using many rehashed or callback scripts in the first season.

One such example is the episode The Naked Now, which of course is a similar story to what Kirk's crew faced with polywater intoxication in the episode The Naked Time.  In this episode, Sarah MacDougal takes her short stint as chief engineer, and she has to deal with a crazed Wesley Crusher locking her out of engineering, as kids do.  However, her most notable scene comes later in the episode thanks to a much more entertaining character, her assistant chief engineer Jim Shimoda.

You see, Shimoda was one of the crew members quickly affected by the polywater intoxication, and his way of acting out was to pull all the isolinear chips from the ship's computer and stack them in a game of tower building and Jenga.  Obviously you cant run a starship without some tabletop gaming enthusiasts, and Shimoda is clearly living out a great fantasy we can all relate to.  MacDougal has to try and put the chips back, but it turns out Data can do it better to restore control to the ship...which may help explain why we didn't need MacDougal much longer in charge.

QUOTE
Jim Shimoda: Never got as far as sickbay, Wes. I feel too good for that.

So here's to you, assistant chief engineer Jim Shimoda.  Hopefully you were able to retire after the polywater intoxication and live out your dreams of tabletop gaming for a living...you know, just like Wil Wheaton ended up doing!  It will be interesting to see if there's any department like TNG engineering that sees personnel turnover in the new Discovery show, given the similar long gap since writers had their hands on making Star Trek work.

Sarah MacDougal was played by Brooke Bundy, who had plenty of small TV roles over a 30 year career in shows like Lassie, Bonanza, and The Brady Bunch.  She has been retired for 25 years, but she did appear in the Elm Street Legacy documentary a few years ago thanks to her notable roles in the 3rd and 4th films of that horror franchise.

Jim Shimoda was played by Benjamin Lum, who had many small acting roles throughout his career before death in 2002 at age 48.  Shimoda did have a long recurrence on the show Guns of Paradise.  We will always have isolinear chip jenga to remember him by!

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!