Top 8 Favorite Star Trek Bridge Designs

As we get closer to the official anniversary, I have one more Star Trek article before the 200th that I promised back at the start of the year. Since my last article discussed my favorite bridge crews, the logical follow up is favorite bridge designs. The bridge is the center of the show, so it has to not only be aesthetically pleasing but functional as well. By that mean it has to be awesome whether they're in action or just sitting around talking. 

Of course I am not counting the neon modern era designs, just the classic versions (I did post discovery and SNW above just to be fair). I also decided to count all the movies. And since DS9 is, well, a space station let's discuss the Defiant instead. And let's just focus on the ship's that helmed their various series, if I expanded to any ship, we'd be here all day. 

#8.Kelvin movies

I admit these movies deserve a round of applause for the excellent casting choices and even forgive the redesign of the ship itself. What I can’t be forgiving about is the awful apple iPhone inspired design of the bridge. Takes any and all character away and even worst, shows keep copying it!!! This leaves absolutely no impact on me. 

A Look at “The Mirror Universe”

One of the most enduring concepts that Star Trek ever created was the “mirror universe”. It’s one of my favorites and why not? The premise that our heroes are savages who will kill to get what they want is fascinating. It’s a chance to see our favorite characters out of character and having a little fun. Rather than review one episode, I decided to quickly run through all of them. 

Top 5 Star Trek Bridge Crew’s

A few months ago I was ranking the crews by departments, until I kind of ran out because the different roles vary show to show. Only two shows have a communication officer (gee wonder who was better). Neither DS9 or Voyager had a navigator (Sulu or Paris? Not sure, Paris is a better pilot but Sulu has combat experience), Voyager had no science officer (Data, Dax or Spock, ugh). And TOS had no security officer (man Worf, Odo, or Tuvok who would you pick?!). So I was thinking if there was anything else and realized I could just decide which crew was the best. 

So how am I going to make these choices? Basically which crews do I like every character and enjoy spending time with over and over. And I can’t stress enough, just opinion.  

My Favorite Moments in Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home

 So here’s a conundrum. This year is the 40th anniversary of one of my all time favorite movies. Star Trek IV was released in late 1986 and was a huge hit. It reignited the love of Trek and gave birth to Next Generation and everything that came afterwards. So what’s the problem? I’ve talked about this movie a lot over the years, so what’s left? I did an article on five things I “hated”. So many be this time I should the opposite!

Today I’m going to go over the moments I loved the most. I’ve seen this movie a million times even on an airplane, read the novelization and comic adaptation, and watched the dvd commentaries. So I know these scenes by heart. This movie was the first time I realized how adored Trek was by seeing it in a packer theatre that loved every second. I realized today I may have seen it the day it was released which may explain the exuberant crowd. 

These are in not in any specific order 

Underrated Trek:Twilight (ENT)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. As I continue to discuss my absolute favorite, I've watched them a million times, episodes it was hard to find one for Enterprise. I have a real love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with this show. But there is a season 3 episode I loved and am surprised I haven't mentioned it by now.

This was in the middle of the Season 3 Xindi arc and I tried; I really tried to care about it. But I just didn’t. It’s funny this episode has things in common with my other three favorites. There’s a framing device, an altered time line, and the captain suffering an odd mental state. 

Underrated Trek:Yesterday's Enterprise (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. When it comes to TNG picking my favorite “I’ve seen 500 times” episode is a no-brainer. In fact this is one episode I am pretty sure i have seen more than any other Trek episode of any series. 

Generally considered one of if not the best of the series. It’s more than just a great episode. This is the episode that made TNG go from “yeah I like that show” to “omg I love that show!” 

Underrated Trek:In The Pale Moonlight (DS9)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. As I continue to discuss my absolute favorite, I've watched them about 500 times, episodes we come to DS9. And this one is kind of a surprise in many ways. But I am certainly not alone in loving it, it's considered one of the finest episodes of Trek, Period. This is..

Why is it a surprise then? Well let's discuss this little gem. 

Underrated Trek:Night (VOY)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. For the next four articles however I want to discuss my absolute favorite “I’ve watched it 500 times” episodes for each series. As I’ve mentioned before I am a huge Voyager fan so let’s finally discuss my absolute favorite episode….

Some may be scratching their heads right now and saying “really??”. Not that it’s awful but this season five premiere has its critics. So what makes me say it’s my favorite??

Underrated Trek:Dead Stop (ENT)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. I’ve said many times that Enterprise just didn’t find a place in my heart the way the other four shows did. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few decent shows. Here’s one I actually liked…

Season two was far from perfect but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any good episodes. Right? 

Top 5 Star Trek Engineers

 This is even harder than the last two lists. Engineers are the heart and soul of their respective vessels even though it’s the captains who get all the glory and credit. Star Trek has a had a weird relationship with these characters however, as we’ll discuss as we go over them. 

Neither pilot really paid any respect to this position (Scotty was there but not in red yet). Did Pikr even have an engineer? It would take the series proper to finally make the engineer an integral part of the show. 

#5.Tripp

Not the worst character on the show but not the best. In fact I always forget he was the engineer that’s how much of an impact he made to me in that role. 

Top 6 Star Trek Doctors

 I talked about officers it’s only feel to turn to the next most important position. The chief medical officer! The doctor is integral since members of Starfleet are constantly getting hurt or sick. So who was the best? 

Again not including Discovery (I don’t even know who the doctor was on that show! And honorable mention for Dr Piper and Dr Boyce from the two pilots. They set the standard (and thank goodness were replaced). 

Six this time for reasons I think are obvious. And as always just opinion. 

#6.Pulaski 

She was a great doctor but a horrible person. It amazes me when I see defenders of her. She was arrogant, bossy , and a huge technophobe. Yeah she had her pleasant moments, when she wasn’t arguing about every little thing. 

Top 5 Star Trek First Officers

Here’s an idea long overdue, and harder than it sounds. Every great captain has an even better first officer behind him (or her). The first officer does more then just wait to take over for the captain. They have to run the more mundane ship functions and be there to support the captain, even if the captain is making a mistake. 

This began in the very first pilot when we saw how capable Number One was. I wish we had seen more of her (the garbage that is SNW does not count). But of the five first officers we got in the main series, how would they rank? 

This isn’t about how good a character they are, but how they specifically worked as a first officer. And let me be clear, they are all awesome I am just choosing who is more awesome than the rest. Just opinion and just for fun; of course. 

 

#5.Kira

A Bajoran first officer made sense to Sisko in the pilot and he was right. She was tough and opinionated but she always stood by Sisko’s commands. And that was it though. She was a great character who had some wonderful arcs on the show but except for stepping up when Sisko was away she never impressed me as a first officer. And on a personal note, her episodes were soooo boring. 

Five Things I Hated in Star Trek-First Contact

A few months I discussed the follow up episode, it’s seems high time to discuss the movie itself, It’s almost hard to believe it, but this year is the 30th anniversary of Star Trek-First Contact. The one and only decent Next Generation movie. It’s amazing what a mess those movies were, it’s a shame they were in such a rush to get them out. The creators forgot that one of the big reasons the original movies succeeded was the nostalgia factor. People just didn’t miss TNG yet (It's why people were excited when the cast did reunite on Picard Season 3 even if thar series was less than perfect). But this is the one movie which managed to at least be good. 

The movie was released November 1996 and as I noted is the one movie that was considered pretty good, even great. Making the Borg the villain was a no brained and the lovely Alice Krige made a great Borg Queen. Yeah she was a retcon but not a terrible one. It made sense, sort of. However while the movie was really good that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Here are five things I hated. 

Underrated Trek:Trials and Tribble-ations (DS9)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. But today we’re doing something very special. This episode isn’t just loved, it’s beloved. And since this is it’s 30th anniversary it’s time to talk about….

The episode is simply amazing. It’s a celebration of the then 30th anniversary of Trek and is so much fun. But at the same time is it a little…overrated? 

Underrated Trek:Homeward (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. Now I’ve done a lot of these that didn’t really meet that criteria. But today I wanted to discuss a season 7 episode I really have a soft spot for, but is hated by most. 

This is a Worf episode that isn’t about Klingons for a change. Is there anything good in it? 

 

The Best & Worst Star Trek-Voyager Character Episodes

 

Several years ago now I did an article talking about my favorite episodes of TNG for each specific character. With 23 episodes a season there are plenty of chances to let our characters shine for an episode (take notes modern Trek), for better or for worst. I wanted to do one for Voyager but never got to it. 

Last year at a convention for the 30th anniversary of Voyager Brannon Braga listed what he thought was the best episodes for each character. Some choices were interesting, but did I agree? I have always said Voyager was more of an ensemble show than TNG making character driven episodes more rare. But they had them. Here are my choices. 

Like last time these are not necessarily the best episodes just the strongest character pieces, and like last time I will try to list my example of the worst episodes also. And for fun I’ll mention the episode Braga went with and why I disagree. 

Should mention as always this is just opinion and for fun. 

Neelix-Mortal Coil 

Say what you want about Neelix but this is a great episode. Everyone loses faith at times and this episode deals with it wonderfully. I love also that it’s Chakotay that helps him, it’s one of the few times the character is truly useful. Yeah “Jetrel” is ok but this is better. 

Worst-any early episode he was in raging jealous mode 

Braga-the same, this is universally considered the best Neelix episode. 

Top 5 Favorite Captain Kirk Love Interests

So as I teased last time, today I want to talk about women Kirk has been with. And yeah there are a lot. Thanks to the stupid era Kirk had to have a new girl every week whether it made sense or not. Most of the times Kirk didn’t really have feelings for these women aside from being attracted to them. It was usually strategy when he would engage with them, to get information or buy time to save his ship. 

However, a few did go to the level of more than a cute girl. Kirk was capable was real feelings and when he was experienced true heartbreaker it was devastating. So, here are my favorite women of the many Kirk has been with over three series and six movies. Unlike the last list the rules are different. It's not necessary they had a long-term relationship what I am looking for here is chemistry. Did Kirk really have feelings for these people?

Let’s first talk about a few people some may be surprised not on this list. Janice Lester, because come on! Rayna from “Requiem for Methuselah” because they had zero chemistry. Janice Rand I mentioned last time. Elan of Troyius because that was mind control. Ariel Shaw from “Court Martial” could have made it but didn’t. And finally, Antonia, the lady mentioned in “Generations” who we hardly see and barely count as a character. 

#5.Gillian (Star Trek IV) 

This movie is one of the few that remembered “oh yeah, Kirk likes women!”. Star Trek VI gave us Martia but that wasn’t real and the only other I’ll get to. This is the one time we see romantic Kirk from the series, being all charming and trying his best to win her over. I think they had decent chemistry too. 

Top 5 Favorite Star Trek Romantic Couples

How have I not done this yet? So, as we get closer to Valentine’s Day let’s take a look at something people forget Trek is good for-romance. Yes, along with the action and drama and even occasional comedy there have been some great romantic episodes out there. Episodes that will have you crying your eyes out sad the two characters couldn’t work out. However I want to talk about more than just a one-episode romance. What about a romance that runs through a series (or beyond) ?  

Trek has done a great job giving us some real power couples. We love it watching the relationship evolve, when they’re together and feel it when things go bad. Here are my top 5 Star Trek Couples. The only rule is they have to be main characters on the show (sorry Chief O’Brien and Keiko) and the romance has to be more than infatuation. Of course that rules out the original series entirely since the closest we got there was Kirk and Rand…

But that hardly counts. No Chapel and Spock do not count (screw you SNW) and I am not including that stupid Spock/Uhura crap from the new movies.

#5.Tripp and T’Pol (Enterprise)

They get the top spot because they almost shouldn’t count. Since the series was canceled, we never saw where the relationship wound up. However, I really liked the chemistry these two had. Unlike Voyager where I learned to love all the characters, I didn’t like most on this show. These two were a highlight of the show, however. 

Underrated Trek:Conspiracy (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. I talked before about how Voyager's Counterpoint is an episode many love but I do not. Today I wanted to discuss a season one TNG I have similar feelings for… 

I hated this episode, even before the gory ending (I’ll get to that). And while many consider it a highlight of season one, it’s not for me. I really am not sure when the last time I sat and watched it was, maybe not since it first aired! Well let's see if time has made me change my mind. 

Ten Decent First Season Episodes of Star Trek-The Next Generation

In 1987 I, and many many others, were excited about a new show called Star Trek-The Next Generation. I still remember seeing the promo that they had on the VHS of Star Trek IV and it looked epic! 

Years later and after the show has evolved into what it would be famous for being, I find that first season so unwatchable. Season 2 managed a few great, even iconic, episodes but season 1? Ugh. But in looking back I wonder if I’m being too hard on it. I mean it’s like Friends. A lot of people hate that shows first season because it’s so out of step with the series, but those episodes were great when they aired and are still great. So is season 1 so awful that nothing is redeemable?