Star Trek: Fair Trade

Episode: "Fair Trade"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 13

Original Air Date: January 8, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Voyager arrives at the edge of the mysterious Nekrit Expanse.  Our friends head to a nearby space station to trade for supplies and hopefully gather helpful information for navigating this difficult region of space.  Meanwhile, Neelix is facing an existential crisis.  Do Janeway and company even need him any more now that they've reached a part of the Delta Quadrant he doesn't know?  His anxiety leads to trouble when he runs into Wixiban, an old friend and a connection to Neelix's shady past.

At this stage of the series, the search for Neelix's raison d'être extended to both sides of the camera.  By mid-Season 3, both NextGen and DS9 were well-oiled machines.  Voyager is still an awkward fledgling and unsettled characters are a major issue.  Adding Worf to the DS9's cast was a matter of building on strengths.  Similar bold changes await Voyager in its fourth season.  With historical hindsight, we know what's coming.  But I think even a viewer in January 1997 might have sensed that addition by subtraction was looming.  Neelix has been mostly annoying to this point and I can't imagine that cutting him loose wasn't considered.  If they were going to keep him, they'd better help him find a foothold fast.

Fortunately, "Fair Trade" is a pretty good episode - certainly the strongest Neelix story so far.  Connecting back to his previous life is meaningful.  Voyager is a well-established reform project for several characters: Tom, B'Elanna, Lon Suder, etc.  Why not Neelix, too?  And the way he manages to wiggle out of trouble is genuinely clever.  The crisis point with the Captain in the final scene cuts to the chase: no, Neelsix, casting you off would be too easy.  You need to live with the guilt and rebuild trust.  And I, the viewer, will acknowledge, that's not just an episodic television convenience.  It is genuinely the more interesting narrative choice.

Neelix is a nervous but loyal dog.  He's eager to please, to impress, to love and be loved.  He sees love as something he must earn, then guard jealously.  He whines when threatened or neglected.  He understands the shame he deserves.  He is grateful for forgiveness.

21st Century Notes

We need to talk about the cancellation of Starfleet Academy.  I'll put my cards on the table.  It is the best Star Trek series of the streaming era - indeed, the finest Trek since Deep Space Nine ended.  The stories are rich.  The characters are amazing and refreshingly unpredictable.  The concept is long overdue and the narrative possibilities enticing.  Two separate Season 1 episodes brought me to tears.  A four-season run was already mapped out.

And now, the trolls have killed it.  Paramount will say it was the ratings and to be fair, plenty of amazing shows have met similar fates for crass commercial reasons.  Firefly and Freaks and Geeks come to mind.  Television producers want an adequate return on their considerable investments.  Artistic quality doesn't always sell.  

But good luck convincing me it doesn't run deeper with Starfleet Academy.  The Internet trolls set their sights on the series from Day 1.  And yes, it's well-documented that right-wing interest groups actually pay people to go on social media and be assholes.  The objections are mainly two: a gay Klingon and unconventional women in positions of authority.  

I'm not going to linger too long on the basics of representation because anyone who's actually paid attention knows it's been the whole point of Star Trek since 1966  If you have a problem with extending tolerance to LGBTQIA+ characters, you are not a Trekkie.  You're also on the wrong blog.  If anyone is going to spew any of that shit here, understand that I will not treat your "opinion" as valid.  Your squeamishness harms people.  Period.  Grow up.

via Memory Alpha

And heaven forbid the franchise should finally bring some dimension to Klingon society.  Jay-Den is a pacifist in what has long been projected as a monolithic warrior civilization.  He would rather heal others and watch birds than kill anyone.  That alone would probably have been tough to swallow for the idiots but likely not enough to kill the show.  The much greater sins: he's gay and he occasionally wears gender-nonconforming clothing.  Even worse, no one in-story, his own Klingon family included, gives a shit.  Where is the public shaming?  We all know queer characters must be made to suffer, right?  Hell, if the writers aren't going to do it, the MAGA fuckers sure better do it for them.

The women?  Two of the faculty members, Jett Reno and Lura Thok, are open gay lovers.  Lura Thok is also bi-racial (Spock, anyone?): Klingon and Jem'Hadar.  "Is that even biologically possible for the Jem'Hadar?" the trolls whine.  It's all fiction, dipshit, of course it's possible.  But this sort of deviance is only to be expected in the horrible halls of academia, right?  The trolls' most vehement objections are directed at the Academy Captain and Chancellor, Nahla Ake.  Her crimes?

She walks around barefoot and won't sit properly in the Captain's chair.

No, seriously, that's it.

via Wikipedia

You see, the idiots don't mind a female leader as long as she still adheres to masculine expectations.  Act like a man as much as possible while still looking pretty.  Even a lesbian is borderline acceptable because, well, she wants to sleep with women and that's dude stuff, right?  Now, to be fair, these standards extend deeply into the real world and across all fictional platforms.  Ake is a challenge to the norms and that is exactly what Star Trek is supposed to be, folks.  The entire mission from the beginning has been to push us all just that little bit further out of our comfort zones until it starts to feel normal.  Then push us a little bit further again.  Repeat.  For 60 years.  

Have there been missteps along the way?  Of course.  Have there been obvious opportunities for them to push harder that they didn't take?  You're damn right there have.  But the mission has always been there and it's exactly why so many of us care so deeply.

The fact that a woman who won't sit up straight is enough to kill an otherwise wonderful show says quite a lot about where we are as a society.  It's not exactly an encouraging revelation.

I won't put all of this on the political/religious right just as I can't in the real world.  Morally ambitious though it has been, Star Trek has always reflected the current anxieties of white liberalism.  The color blindness we were taught in the '80s and '90s is mirrored by the attitudes toward "alien races" in the NextGen-era series.  Indeed, the fact that they're still referred to as aliens is revealing.

21st century wokeness has its limits and gender - even more than sexuality at the moment - is a major test of those limits.  Plenty of white "liberals" feel we have gone too far in advocating for transgender people, not because they don't think it's right to do so but because they worry it has made the Democratic Party vulnerable in elections.  This is not my imagination.  I've heard people say it.  This anxiety is cowardly and it is 100% real.  

The trolls know they can push on certain buttons and sow the seeds of doubt in white liberals.  They know they can scare them away from a show like Starfleet Academy with suggestions that it might be going too far on gender.  The ratings are what they are.  But the trolls put a heavy thumb on the scale and it worked.  And the current leadership at Paramount have made clear they're not inclined to stick their necks out in the present political climate.

Season 2 is already in the can so we will get a little more.  There have been fan petitions to save Starfleet Academy but the set pieces have already been sold off.  In the eyes of those with control of the funding, it's all over.  Unfortunately, that's all that matters in the end.

I hope Star Trek survives this setback.  Yes, I know there will eventually be more material.  I mean that I hope the mission itself survives.  

Acting Notes

via Grey's Anatomy Universe Wiki

James Nardini (Wixiban) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey.  His films include Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and voice dubbing in the English-language version of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.  Television work includes Night Court, Cheers and Criminal Minds.   

Squid Eats: Stone's Throw

Stone's Throw makes the best pizza in our immediate area: a beautiful crust and fresh ingredients.  To be honest, the crust is thinner than I would usually want but the flavor more than makes up for it.  Our closest location is pick-up only but the Richmond branch has table service, making it a perfect choice on a recent evening.

Our typical order is the Hunter: red sauce, pork belly, peppers, onions and rosemary.  I am not a rosemary fan so we swap it out for basil.  This visit, we decided we'd each get our own small pie.  My wife picked the Casablanca (top shelf in the photo): white sauce, chicken, lemon, harissa sauce, feta and parsley.  I got a sausage and onion (bottom shelf).  I did not try my wife's but she assured me I'd like it.  I don't know.  Lemon and feta on pizza?  Not sure that's for me.

Regardless, quality is top notch.  Still the best pizza in town, by a comfortable margin.

Star Trek: The Darkness and the Light

Episode: "The Darkness and the Light"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 11

Original Air Date: January 6, 1997

via Memory Alpha

An unknown assassin is hunting Kira's former Bajoran Resistance comrades and taunting her with each successive kill.  Kira is a pregnant woman and therefore should let Bajoran and Starfleet authorities (one of the attacks happened on DS9), pursue the killer rather than taking matters into her own hands.  Right?  We know better, don't we?

There's been a lot of meaningful Kira development recently, particularly in regards to her history with the Resistance.  In "Things Past," knowledge of Odo's unfortunate role in a Terok Nor assassination investigation soured Kira's relationship with the Constable.  In last week's "Rapture," she had a memorable exchange with Kai Winn, a conversation I didn't even cover in my reflection.  The Kai, generally cast as the antagonist in DS9, shames our dear major, sharing her own heretofore undisclosed suffering under the Cardassian Occupation.  In this week's story, Kira is confronted by one of the civilian victims of her own cell's attacks.

The clear message: war is ugly and it's not easy sorting out the good guys.  Kira never asks forgiveness for her role in the struggle.  From her perspective, she was doing a job that needed doing.  But stories like this reveal that her moral standing is not as cut-and-dry as would normally be the case for a Star Trek principal.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Randy Oglesby played the role of the assassin, Silarin Prin.  Oglesby has played seven different Trek characters over four different series, the role of Degra on Enterprise probably the highlight of his career.  Oglesby was born in Memphis, Tennessee, August 31, 1948.  Other television guest appearances include The X-Files, General Hospital and Mad Men.  Films include Independence Day, Pearl Harbor and Argo.  

Squid Mixes: Yellow Submarine

Ever since I first tasted chartreuse, I've thought of the remarkable liqueur as psychedelia in liquid form.  So when considering a cocktail devoted to my favorite band, it seemed sensible to use it as one of the building blocks.  While there are a lot of yellow submarine cocktail recipes to be found online, there is no universal agreement as to ingredients.  So, I figured I could do as I pleased with my own interpretation.

The Yellow Submarine 

1 oz. white tequila

.75 oz. yellow chartreuse

.75 oz. honey amaretto

.25 oz. lime juice

I deliberately chose four ingredients to go with the Fab Four but until the kid (age 21+) asked, I hadn't given any thought to which corresponded to which band member.  I think I've got it now.

The chartreuse is Paul McCartney, the dazzler.

The amaretto is George Harrison, the mellow soul.

The lime juice is Ringo Starr who always adds a kick, especially when paired with an almond flavor.

The tequila is John Lennon.  In my first attempt, I used vodka.  My wife suggested a salty note so I swapped in the tequila.  Salty note: definitely John.

The end result is very tasty and very yellow.

Star Trek: Rapture

Episode: "Rapture"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 10

Original Air Date: December 30, 1996

via Memory Alpha

On the eve of Bajor's acceptance into the Federation, Captain Sisko has a vision.  The vision leads him to the lost city of B'hala, a site which had eluded archaeologists for thousands of years.  He has more visions - rapturous visions (thus the episode title).  The Prophets are clearly trying to communicate through him as their Emissary.  His own life is at risk, yet he doesn't want to break the connection.  His earthly son Jake is left with a difficult decision.

This episode is vitally important.  Sisko's journey from denial to acceptance of his role as Emissary has been central to his character arc from the beginning.  In "Rapture," for the first time, Sisko fully embraces the reality.  He is the Emissary.  There's no question about it any more.  The implications for his relationships with his family, with Starfleet, with his friends and, of course, with the Bajorans are profound.  

And even with over 2.5 seasons left to go, this shift is another marker of the beginning of the end for this extraordinary Deep Space Nine series.  Being separated from the visioning elicits regret comparable to what Odo felt being separated from The Great Link (see here).  Once again, it is the sort of deep regret that implies a return is inevitable.  For two principals now, we can see points of finality on the horizon - points beyond which we as the viewers are unlikely to be allowed to follow.

I am reasonably certain "Rapture" won't make my Top 10 at series end.  So far, it's only #3 for Season 5 and I know there are still several memorable stories yet to come.  It's another reflection of DS9's remarkable quality.   Not many TOS or TNG episodes are this meaningful.  And it's not just Star Trek.  Very few mainstream television shows have had the courage to go so far down this road.  Like it or not, the Emissary arc is part of what makes DS9 special.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Ernest Perry, Jr. played the role of Admiral Charlie Watley, on hand for Bajor's admission ceremony.  Perry was born in Evanston, Illinois, May 30, 1947.  His films include Liar, Liar, The Color of Money and Dunston Checks In.  Other television appearances include Chicago, P.D., The Chi and Turks.  

Perry passed away in 2023.

Squid Cooks: Taco Kit

When my wife said she was thinking of a taco kit for dinner one night, I got surprisingly excited.  I grew up with taco kits, indeed one of the first dishes I learned to make myself back in my latchkey kid days.  My wife asked me if I wanted to be the one to cook it.  We both know she's the better cook so I rarely get that suggestion.  I jumped at it.

First, let me make clear, I'm actually pretty confident about making real tacos.  I've even posted about taco rice bowls before which are similar.  The only significant differences with a kit are the ready-made shells and seasoning.  And as you can see below, I don't actually believe in hard shells so I crumbled mine over the top.  Left entirely to my own choices, I'd pick soft flour tortillas.  I added onion, avocado and tomatoes for toppings.

And the end result was just fine - the taste of adolescence.  Certainly easy, too.  I'd do it again.

Star Trek: Macrocosm

Episode: "Macrocosm"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 12

Original Air Date: December 11, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Captain Janeway and Neelix return from an away mission to find the entire crew suffering from a debilitating virus.  The Doctor accidentally brought it back from his own away mission.  What had been microorganisms have grown and they're reproducing quickly.  Neelix quickly succumbs as well so it's left to the Captain and the Doctor to save the day.

How handy that Star Trek so often has one non-organic life form who is less vulnerable than everyone else, not unlike the Scarecrow and Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.  

"Macrocosm" is a fairly obvious Aliens send up, though the writers have always denied it, likely for copyright infringement reasons.  The Trek creatives were no doubt still stinging from the brush back from the James Bond lawyers regarding "Our Man Bashir."   But Janeway wandering the halls in a tank top with a big, rifle-like weapon while weird creatures are emerging from people's bodies?  Sure looks like Aliens to me.

This episode goes on the long list of episodes other people seem to like but I don't.  The reason is not complicated.  I'm not a fan of horror films.  Indeed, I've never actually watched any of the Aliens movies myself.  So the tropes tend to induce anxiety rather than thrill.  Honestly, I found "Macrocosm" difficult to watch.  But I won't say it's a bad episode - just not my jam.

Acting Notes

via Dexter Wiki

Albie Selznick plays the Tak Tak Consul, representative of a culture who incorporates intricate body movements as part of their language.  Neelix masters the language quickly.  Janeway, not so much.  Selznick Selznick was born in Los Angeles County, January 1, 1959.  "Macrocosm" is his second of three Trek appearances.

Selznick performed as a magician with a group called The Mums for 25 years.  The Mums appeared together in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.  Most of Selznick's high-profile work has been on television, including appearances on Suddenly Susan, The Young and the Restless and NYPD Blue.

Squid Eats: Place Bell

The kid and I made a trip up to Montreal to watch the Montreal Victoire take on the Seattle Torrent in a Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) game.  It's a good thing I double-checked location before leaving the house because I totally thought the game was at the Bell Centre, home stadium to the NHL's Canadiens.  In fact, it was at the similarly named Place Bell in Laval, a large suburb to the north of the city.  After weathering the horrors of Montreal rush hour traffic and sorting out parking, we finally settled into our seats after missing most of the first period.  Fortunately, we didn't miss any goals.

If you love hockey and you don't know about the PWHL, you're missing out.  If you live in or near a city with a team - Montreal, Boston, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, St. Paul, Vancouver or Seattle - you should definitely go to a game.  Here in the States (or basically anywhere other than Canada), you can watch for free on YouTube.  Game tickets are a fraction of the cost of the NHL equivalent.  

The hockey's great and the energy is electric.  The arena was packed, even on a random Thursday.  The crowd was young, overwhelmingly female and noticeably queer-friendly.  Loads of girls' youth hockey teams came in jerseys.  They sing along with the piped in music, even after it stops.  And since women and girls are encouraged to sing in a way that men and boys are not, the singing sounds a lot better than it does at, for instance, Liverpool soccer games.  Professional DJs entertain during intermissions.  

If a new hockey league is going to succeed anywhere, it's going to thrive in Montreal, to be sure.  All of the cities in the league are undeniably hockey-crazy.  No Phoenix.  No Florida or Texas.  All northern cities with genuine passion.  Keep it that way.  I think keeping at least half of the teams in Canada would be a solid plan moving forward.

Food is standard stadium fare.  We got two hot dogs each.  I got beer - an American IPA - in a can.  It's Canada so the the servers were very friendly indeed.

Right, the game.  Montreal handled this one easily, 4-1.  The first star of the game was Laura Stacey with an assist and two goals, including an empty-netter to seal the win.  Stacey is a three-time Olympic medal winner with the Canadian national team.

Star Trek: The Q and the Grey

Episode: "The Q and the Grey"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 11

Original Air Date: November 27, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Q appears uninvited in Captain Janeway's quarters, intent on seducing her.  In time, we learn not all is right in the Q Continuum and our old friend sees having a child with our dear captain as the solution to all of the problems.  But wait, there's more.  Evidently, our Q (John de Lancie) already has a Q mate (Suzie Plakson) and she's none too happy about this plan.  Of course, neither is our captain.  To make the Continuum Civil War understandable for "Kathy." as he calls her, Q creates an American Civil War-scape illusion, thus the episode's title, a play on The Blue and the Gray, a 1981 Civil War mini-series.

As previously discussed, I don't share the same reflexive affection for Q as many fans do and his Lothario impression here does little to improve my opinion.  That said, "The Q and the Gray" is fun in its way.  And Kate Mulgrew looks in her element in period dress.

My favorite part of the episode is near the end when the Qs finally mate with each other and Janeway... doesn't exactly avert her glance, though the "show" is certainly underwhelming.  Our dear Kathy has a bit of voyeur in her - or at least a healthy curiosity about how Qs get it on.  Perhaps a bit of both?  Either way, it's funny.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Harve Presnell played the role of Colonel Q, commander of the opposing forces in the Continuum Civil War.  Presnell was born in Modesto, California, September 14, 1933.  He was a child prodigy musician, scoring his first professional opera role at age 16.  He got a bachelor's in vocal performance at USC.

After a few years working as a professional baritone, he was discovered by Meredith Wilson while the latter was working on a new musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  Wilson created the role of Leadville Johnny with Presnell in mind.  Presnell played the part on both stage and screen, where he won a Golden Globe.  Other films include Paint Your Wagon, Saving Private Ryan and Fargo.  On television, he had a principal role on Andy Barker, P.I.  Guest appearances include The Pretender, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Dawson's Creek.

Presnell passed away in 2009 from pancreatic cancer.

Squid Flicks: Oscar Shorts 2026

Our child is home for spring break.  This past weekend, we went to see all of the Oscar-nominated shorts at Vermont International Film Festival's screening room in Burlington.  This is something we used to do every year.  We started with the animated shorts, figuring those were likely to be the most child-friendly, then added the other categories in later years.  It was great to renew the tradition.

My favorites are shaded in red.  The ultimate winners are in bold.  

Live Action Short Films

The Singers - 4 stars out of 5

A Friend of Dorothy - 4

Butcher's Stain - 3

Two People Exchanging Saliva - 3

Jane Austen's Period Drama - 5

Without a doubt, this was the strongest of the three categories.  I could understand and even defend any of the five of them winning.  A shared victory is only fitting.

Dorothy is a wonderful story of intergenerational platonic love.  Elderly Dorothy encourages young and handsome JJ in dramatic pursuits.  It hit all of the right emotional buttons for me, even if it was a bit predictable.

via Wikipedia

Jane Austen's PD is a delight and the only one of these 15 that my wife and I had seen before.  An Austen-esque heroine must explain her menstruation to a young suitor.  It's hilarious.  Every line of dialogue is an absolute zinger.  Everyone should watch it.  Forever.  I think it's a real shame it didn't win.  The Academy nearly always favors drama over comedy which is absurd.

Best Documentary Short Film

Perfectly a Strangeness - 3

The Devil Is Busy - 4

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud - 3

All the Empty Rooms - 4

Children No More: "Were and Are Gone" - 3

I fully expected Armed Only with a Camera to win.  Brent Renaud was a documentarian who died in the field and I figured his peers would honor one of their own.  

All the Empty Rooms is about school shootings, a topic virtually guaranteed to inspire a profound emotional reaction from me.  Interestingly, the middle three in my list above all address gun violence in America in one way or another.  

Best Animated Short Film

The Three Sisters - 3

Forevergreen - 3

The Girl Who Cried Pearls - 3

Butterfly - 3

Retirement Plan - 3

This year's batch was good, not great.  In my experience, the Oscar usually goes to the most visually-impressive film in this category rather than the best story.  I understand Pearls as the choice here, a hyper-realistic marionette play.  I found the character figures a bit creepy, otherwise it might have been my favorite, too.

via Wikipedia

Retirement Plan's artwork is dead simple but the story of a man anticipating finding deeper meaning later in life resonated with me.

Star Trek: The Ascent

Episode: "The Ascent"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 9

Original Air Date: November 25, 1996

via Memory Alpha

With sheer delight, Odo arrests Quark who has been summoned to appear before a Federation grand jury.  The constable assumes the responsibility of escorting the bartender to Inferna Prime.  All goes awry and the two of them end up stranded on an uninhabited world - no communications, no replicator and practically no rations.  Meanwhile, Nog is back from Starfleet Academy.  He and his old buddy Jake become terrible roommates.

It's The Odd Couple times two.  

The writing staff had been wanting a story to dig into the Odo-Quark relationship, partly because of the thick tension between the two characters but also because of the undeniable skill of the two actors and the chemistry between them.  The initial inspiration for "The Ascent" was Samuel Beckett's classic minimalist play Waiting for Godot but they couldn't figure out how to make it work in a DS9 context.  Who would the two of them be waiting for?  Sisko?  Sure, but why?  Honestly, I don't think Beckett quite suits the obvious antagonism between Odo and Quark.  Neil Simon, on the other hand...

One of the first complaints Quark makes about Odo during their journey is the way he smacks his lips when he eats.  It's been a while but I'm fairly certain that's straight out of the Odd Couple script.  The Felix-Oscar vibe is more pronounced between Nog and Jake.  What's funny is that before Nog went off to the Academy, one would have expected Jake to be the neat freak and Nog the slob but with maturity, they've flipped roles.

Anyway, it's good fun.  Juxtaposing the comedy with the seriousness of a survival narrative is a little odd but it works in the end.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Robin Morselli plays a Bajoran officer in "The Ascent."  She was born in Bodega Bay, California, March 21, 1955.  She graduated from Western Illinois University, then started but never finished law school.  

Morselli appeared in 69 DS9 episodes, 77 Trek episodes in total - all of them uncredited.  She also appeared in The Nanny and the Clint Eastwood film In the Line of Fire - again, always uncredited.  Never forget, folks, all of those actors in the background without any lines have names and careers, too.

Morselli met her husband on the set of DS9: Mike Reilly, a camera operator.

Off My Duff: The Big Thaw

We got a real winter in Vermont this year, by which I mean it snowed a lot, got cold and remained snowy and cold for over three months.  That's how it should be.  Other years, we get locked in what feels like an endless freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycle that wreaks havoc upon our dirt road.  Mind you, the road suffers in March regardless but at least we got a few months of normal (if often slippery) first.

We are entering what is colloquially known as mud season.  It can be a depressing time.  Often cloudy and wet - plenty of moisture on the ground even if it isn't currently falling from the sky.  Mud is messy.  

On the other hand... 

The days are longer now.  It's suddenly darker in the morning because of the time change but it's lighter later which is almost a fair trade.  And now we have more colors.  Granted, it's shades of brown and grey but that's more than we've been seeing for several months.  We still have a couple more months before green takes over.  I saw a lot of happy walkers and even happier dogs on my most recent neighborhood walk.  

We're not out of the woods yet on snow.  Nearly every year brings a big March snowstorm.  Our first "winter" here, we got 20 inches of snow in a single April day.  But spring is definitely on its way.

That is a wonderful thing.

Squid Flicks: Star Trek VIII: First Contact

Title: Star Trek: First Contact

Director: Jonathan Frakes

Original Air Date: November 22, 1996

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Memory Alpha

The Borg are back to take another run at conquering the Federation.  This time, they resort to time travel, going three hundred years into the past to interfere with Zefram Cochrane's momentous launching of Earth's first warp-capable engine.  Obviously, Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew can't let that happen so they make the time trek, too.  Our friends must approach 21st century Earthlings with caution, though, as they have not yet had contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Once again, Star Trek films follow their strange, well-established pattern.  The even-numbered films are typically much better than the odd-numbered ones.  Is there another film franchise like this?  Most wouldn't survive a first awful movie.  Trek makes mistakes in one, then fixes them for the next.  The saving grace: thanks to the rabid fan base, even the terrible movies make money.  Final Frontier is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, yet it exceeded budget at the box office by nearly 100%.  

Whatever the explanation for this unique phenomenon, First Contact is a huge improvement over Generations.  For starters, sticking with the NextGen-era characters works a lot better than trying to mix and match with the originals.  More importantly, the narrative hits more cleanly on the emotional targets.  I doubt any Trek movie moment will ever be more moving than the death of Spock in Khan but Cochrane's first handshake with the Vulcan captain runs a respectable distant second.  

I hadn't seen First Contact since watching it in the theater nearly 30 years ago.  I didn't know Trek nearly as well at the time.  My high school friends and I would frequently watch NextGen together followed by The X-Files.  But honestly, I didn't usually pay such close attention to either show.  They were on in the background while I was doing other things - chatting, playing board games, etc.  I knew the characters but would have missed the subtleties.  I certainly didn't know the spinoffs so I wouldn't have understood why Worf was on the Defiant rather than the Enterprise nor would I have appreciated the cameos for either Ethan Phillips (Voyager's Neelix as a nightclub maitre d') or Robert Picardo (as the Enterprise's Emergency Medical Hologram).

This, along with some of the reviews I've seen for the new LEGO Enterprise, makes me wonder how much of the public knows Star Trek from the movies rather than the TV shows and how much of the material goes over their heads as a result.

Adding First Contact to my rankings...

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
2. Star Trek VIII: First Contact
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
5. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
6. Star Trek VII: Generations
7. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
8. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

I will admit upfront that I am biased towards NextGen stories.  The characters are stronger and, as a result, the stories are stronger.  However, I still feel Khan, because of the death of Spock, holds a special place in the broader legacy.

On the Road: Pro Wrestling GRIND

Andy "Thiccc Daddy" Brown

Ha!  Didn't see this coming, did you?  I will admit that until fairly recently, I wouldn't have had it on my bingo card either.

A couple of Novembers ago, we went to see Judge John Hodgman perform live in Turners Falls, Massachusetts (see my post here).  One of his "cases" was between two professional wrestlers based in a gym in, of all places, Easthampton, Mass., not too far from where our child goes to college.  Before that moment, I had never even considered the possibility that "minor league" pro wrestling was a thing - though I suppose you have to work your way up, just like in any business.  Since then, a couple of developments enhanced the family curiosity in pro wrestling.  Our child discovered WWE and I discovered the comic book series Love & Rockets, which features the sport prominently in some of the Locas stories (see here).  

So we made a plan to go.  We invited my wife to join us but, not shockingly, she passed.  So I headed down on my own this past weekend so the kid and I could go to GRIND's spring season opener, entitled "Brave New World."

It was... exactly what I expected.  My own previous exposure to pro wrestling is limited.  I grew up in the '80s when WrestleMania was born and the sport was achieving its first strong footholds in mainstream culture.  I was introduced to amateur wrestling at around the same time and thought it was awesome.  "Fake" wrestling held significantly less appeal.  So even though going to GRIND was technically my idea, I still went in with considerable reservations. 

It was camp.  It was theatrical.  It was violent.  It was 100% staged and scripted.  It was also 100% impressive and entertaining.

The space was small - a local VFW, not even a high school gym - and intimate.  We were in what started as the back row (they eventually added folding chairs behind us) but never far from the action.  I got nervous every time the wrestlers fell out of the ring (even though I know it was planned).

We got five matches in all: four duals, including a women's match, and a 3-on-3 tag team event.  In as much as I like wrestling at all, I'm a sucker for tag teams.  But the final, main event was the real treat: Perry Von Vicious, the reigning in-house champion, versus Andy Brown, aka Thiccc Daddy.  Even though he was the out-of-town challenger (technically the "bad guy"), Thiccc Daddy first won over the crowd, then won the match and the championship belt with it (see top photo).  He'll also be in GRIND's next event in March.  I'm guessing there's a season-long drama planned.

Mike Graca

Grind OGs vs. The Lost Boys

The victorious OGs

Ridiculous?  Check.  Fun?  Also check.  Most importantly, the kid had a grand old time.  Would I go again?  Maybe.  I don't know if we'll have time to go see GRIND again but there is Green Mountain Wrestling in Montpelier...

The following day, the kid had to work so I had the afternoon to myself.  I perused the guidebook for something I could do that would be less appealing for the rest of my family and thus an ideal choice to explore on my own.  And there it was: the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

I have passed the silver dome of the Hoops Hall many times on the highway though always on the way to somewhere else.  And that is already one of the biggest selling points of this Hall: it's right off the Interstate.  This stands in notable contrast with baseball's Hall in Cooperstown, New York - a lovely little hamlet but it's in the middle of nowhere.  And the baseball Hall doesn't even have a proper parking lot.  Plus basketball, unlike football, baseball, ice hockey or even rock 'n' roll, has a well-documented origin story.  That story, along with many others, is well-preserved in Springfield.

Interestingly, the kid and I had just had a chat on the walk back from brunch - before I'd even concocted my Springfield plan - about the accessibility of museums.  Accessibility for the disabled, of course, but also the literal separation between exhibit and observer.  For the most part, you can't touch stuff.  Regarding the first consideration, there are a lot of stairs at the Hoops Hall, but also a lot of elevators.  Much of what is behind glass is at a relatively low eye-level so a person in a wheelchair would be able to see them easily.

Regarding the second consideration, the first thing you see when you get off the elevator at the beginning of the tour is a wall with brass (maybe copper?) basketballs on a wall with actual players' handprints on them.  The idea is to see how your own hand measures up.  Surprise, surprise, the average star basketball player's hand is enormous.  Next, you walk around a ring to see how you measure up in height with NBA and WNBA players, beginning with Muggsy Bogues (one of my all-time favorite athletes) at 5'3" and ending with Yao Ming at 7'6".  So even before you get to the other exhibits, you've established yourself in the physical world of the players.

Then the Wall of Honor, when you finally get to it near the end of the tour, is just a wall of names, no plaques.  Instead of plaques, there are huge touch screens so you can easily find the stars you care the most about - again, a tactile experience.  I found all of the Georgetown Hoyas and Washington Wizards (then the Bullets) greats.  

The entire museum surrounds a basketball court, viewable from each level and completely open for people to shoot around with their friends, their kids, whomever.  The Hall truly is built around the love of the game itself.

Best of all, the women's game is celebrated on equal footing.  Every space of the Hall that honors men also honors women.  They are not shoved away into a corner.  For the moment, more of the "stuff" is for the men than for the women but it's obvious that's changing in a hurry.  We're living in the Age of Caitlin Clark and the face of basketball is increasingly female.  The Hall is doing its part to encourage that.

I do have one criticism: not enough books in the gift shop.  I know there are books about basketball because I've read them and reviewed quite a lot of them here on The Squid.  There were a few books.  There should have been a lot more.

Star Trek: Warlord

Episode: "Warlord"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 10

Original Air Date: November 20, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes rescue three injured beings from a ship moments before it explodes.  They seem grateful - at first.  One of them is possessed by a malevolent entity who takes mental possession of Kes just before his current host dies.  Possessed Kes and her two new friends steal a shuttle and return to their own world, intent on overthrowing its current ruler.

"Warlord" is a good Kes episode.  Jennifer Lien gets to show off some range as Tieran, the entity possessing her, is quite ruthless in pursuing his ambitions.  We nearly get an on-screen same-sex kiss between Kes and Nori, Tieran's wife, before they're rudely interrupted.  More importantly to the long term, Kes breaks up with Neelix.  At first, it seems like she's only doing it because she's possessed.  That would definitely have been disappointing as Neelix is undeniably a controlling, possessive boyfriend and Kes's desire for breathing room is completely understandable.  But, in fact, this is it.  They never will get back together after this episode.

Unfortunately, we're running out of time with Kes.  Jennifer Lien left the show near the beginning of Season 4.  I'll discuss the particulars when we get to that point.  But having the benefit of knowing what's coming, I'm inclined to appreciate the character all the more while we still have her.  With "Warlord," we see Kes finally coming into her own.  She can be more than Neelix's adoring girlfriend or The Doctor's eager assistant or everyone's empathetic pal.  Just as she's finally being given room to grow, we must prepare to say goodbye.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Leigh J. McCloskey (Tieran) was born in Los Angeles, June 21, 1955.  "Warlord" is his first of two Trek appearances.

McCloskey is unusual for the people I have featured in this space in that he is likely more accomplished as a visual artist than as an actor.  His ongoing work The Heiroglyph of the Human Soul is a hand-painted library installation in his own home.

That said, the screen resume is nothing to sneeze at.  He found particular success in soap operas: 248 appearances on Santa Barbara, 46 on Dallas and 32 on The Young and the Restless.  Films include Inferno and Just One of the Guys.

Squid Flicks: A Master Builder

Title: A Master Builder

Director: Jonathan Demme

Original Release Date: November 11, 2013

My Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Halvard Solness, an accomplished architect, is dying.  His doctor pays a visit, as do his former rival, that rival's son/Halvard's assistant and the assistant's fiancée/Halvard's bookkeeper and mistress.  Follow all that?  It's not even the most twisted part of the story.  Halvard is also visited by a young woman, Hilde, who remembers Halvard from her childhood.  Though she's not seen Halvard in 10 years, she's clearly in love with him.  The screenplay is Wallace Shawn's adaptation of Ibsen's play The Master Builder.

Halvard (Shawn) is a terrible person.  His wife Aline is fully aware of his philandering as he makes minimal effort to conceal it.  He destroyed his rival professionally and is deliberately holding his own protégé back.  The fact that he once made advances on 12-year-old Hilde would be disgusting in any context.  All that aside...

It's an absorbing story even with a thoroughly detestable protagonist and the fact there's very little action.  The entire film is shot in the one house - maybe three rooms? - which helps support the stage-play-on-screen feel.  The acting is strong.  Shawn is always good.  Julie Hagerty hits all the right buttons as Aline and Andre Gregory plays the former rival, Knut, in a My Dinner with Andre reunion.  Honestly, it feels a bit like the earlier film - more characters but nonetheless a complete narrative told in conversation.

Lisa Joyce steals the show as Hilde - a bright ray of sunshine, yet clearly on the edge of madness.  She more than holds her own in her scenes with both Shawn and Hagerty.  

Overall, it's okay.  The basic elements are strong and I certainly admire the simplicity.  But I don't see myself ever watching it again.

Star Trek: Things Past

Episode: "Things Past"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 8

Original Air Date: November 18, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

It's also a Terok Nor episode.  Sisko, Odo, Dax and Garak pass out on a runabout, then wake up on the station seven years before when it was still under Cardassian control.  They are not themselves.  They are Bajorans whom Odo remembers had been accused of and executed for an assassination attempt on Gul Dukat.  Our heroes quickly set about figuring out how to escape their fate.  Meanwhile, Odo is falling apart.

The technobabble explanation for how they all ended up in the situation is completely ludicrous, detracting from what is otherwise a meaningful story.  The writers didn't want to do time travel or a flashback.  Instead they concocted a convoluted "everyone is living Odo's dream" scenario.  I fail to see how that's better.

Honestly, I wouldn't normally be up for a flashback either - typically the sort of choice that indicates a show's writers are running out of ideas.  I'll forgive it in DS9's case because the Terok Nor history is particularly interesting - and pertinent to the series's present.  In this instance, Odo is working through guilt over his own role in the assassination investigation.  "Things Past" is not as strong as Season 2's "Necessary Evil," my choice as DS9's first truly great episode.  But I'll still take Terok Nor over the Mirror Universe anytime.

At story's end, there's a confrontation between Odo and Kira over the newly revealed truth, an exact swapping of roles from their confrontation at the end of "Necessary Evil."  They're even now.  For each, there is something the other did in the deep dark past that will be difficult to forgive.  The Odo-Kira relationship is only going to get more complicated moving forward.  Will they be able to trust one another?

Acting Notes

via Regular Show Wiki

Kurtwood Smith played Thrax, Odo's Cardassian predecessor as head of security on Terok Nor.  Smith was born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, July 3, 1943.  He has a BS from San Jose State and an MFA from Stanford.

Smith's stage and screen resume is extensive, one of the most recognizable character actors of the 1980s and '90s.  I remember him most for two very different father roles: Tom Perry, Neil's father in Dead Poets Society, and Red Foreman, Eric's dad in That '70s Show.  He's a hardass in both, though it plays out differently in drama and comedy.  Other films include RoboCop, Rambo III and A Time to Kill.  On television, he had principal roles on The Ranch and That '90s Show, reprising his role as Red Foreman for the latter.  He made guest appearances on Lou Grant, The X-Files and 24.  "Things Past" was his first of two Trek appearances.

Off My Duff: Winter 2026

In my last fitness report in September, I noted that winter was a challenging time for maintaining goals and so it has been this year.  It's colder.  It's darker.  Hibernation instincts are hard to fight.  Even recess duty doesn't help as much as in fall or spring because we're more likely to be inside due to cold and ice.

So, my initial idea to increase my step goal didn't help.  If the goal is harder to reach, I'm more inclined not to try.  That's the trouble for me (and I imagine for others) with exercise.  It's too easy to come up with an excuse not to do it.  Attainable goals matter.  Without them, I just won't bother.

In early January, I think, I set my step goal back to AmazFit's factory setting: 8,000.  Since then, I've hit the goal far more often than not, including every day this past week.  The hardest days are travel days with long stretches in car or plane with virtually no steps at all.  

The step goal is enough for now.  Admittedly, it's not as good for exertion but at this point, I think those targets will need to wait for summer.  Establish the vigor habits then with an eye towards how to keep them up in the fall.

Meanwhile, my present aim: hit the step goal for 365 consecutive days.  I'm currently at 7.  It can and shall be done!  The key is doing it on the days when I really don't feel like it.