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Recap / Star Trek S2 E25 "Bread and Circuses"

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Original air date: March 15, 1968

After coming across the wreckage of the S. S. Beagle , Kirk, Spock and Bones beam down to the surface of the nearest planet. This planet is a class M planet remarkably like Earth down to the land/water ratio. Atmosphere and radio signals hint a technological advancement equal to 20th century Earth. They beam down to a part of the wilderness close to city limits, thinking it deserted when they're taken captive by slaves on the run. After Kirk impresses them with his communicator, they take him in and tell him about the Empire. Apparently, they get very angry when slaves worship a different god. Kirk and company gather the runaway slaves to be "sun" worshipers. It seems the civilization on this planet is a reflection of a modern day Earth where Rome never fell.

When Kirk and company are captured and taken to the city, they find out what happened to the crew of the Beagle . Merik was convinced by a local not to spread knowledge of their people, and was offered a life of luxury as First Citizen in return for selling out his entire crew to fight in the gladiator pits.

The Fan Nickname for this episode is "The One with the Space Romans ".

Tropes and Circuses:

• 30-Second Blackout : Scotty causes one to help Kirk and company escape.
• Affably Evil : Proconsul Claudius Marcus. While he's shown to be annoyed by Kirk's defiance, he never takes it personally, even arranging for a night of pleasure for Kirk with his personal slave girl before his execution the following day. On thinking that Kirk has persuaded the girl to steal back his communicator, Marcus says he won't punish her for that , and he will see that Kirk and his friends are given a swift execution.
• Aliens Speaking English : The fact that the locals speak English with 20th Century Earth idioms is noted. Though that doesn't explain why Latin isn't the dominant language instead. It's pretty much just there to make the sun/son homophone work.
• Alternate Universe : Though only in the "What if Rome never fell?" sense. Instead of an alternate history Earth, we have a planet so similar to Earth it somehow evolved a Roman Empire, a Christian-like religion, and the Madsen submachine gun.
• Ancient Rome : This planet's hat.
• Spock claims that about six million people died in WWI and eleven million in WWII. Low-end estimates place the number of dead in the first at about fifteen million, and of the second at an astounding seventy million, with the Soviet Union and China each losing far more than eleven million by themselves. The lowest estimate for Soviet deaths is nearly double eleven million.
• Kirk, Bones and Spock all spell out what the Prime Directive is, even though they presumably know what that is.
• Scotty also spells out what Condition Green is for his Log.
• Bones is about to be killed in the arena, so Spock disables his opponent and comes to his rescue.
• Kirk is about to be executed on live television when Flavius charges in with a sword and Scotty kills the power.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor : The sequence with the televised gladiator game show gets in a good few jabs at network television and the pursuit of ratings. This episode was made when Star Trek was facing cancellation at the end of the season, and the show's makers were not feeling charitable toward the network.
• Blood Sport : Barbarians (i.e., people not of this planet) and slaves fight to the death in gladiator pits. It's treated like Monday Night Football .
• Bread and Circuses : Look at the title.
• Bronson Canyon and Caves : Bronson Canyon is the place where Kirk and Co encounter the rebel slaves.
• Covert Distress Code : Kirk tells Scotty "Condition Green, everything's fine." However, "Condition Green" is their code for "I'm in trouble, but don't do anything to help." Scotty has to figure out a way to help Kirk without breaking the Prime Directive. He does.
• Cut the Juice : Scotty has Enterprise overload the power grid as a show of force . Cue the lights going out in the studio giving Kirk a chance to escape.
• Deadpan Snarker : When an armed man points at Spock's pointed ears and says "What do you call those?" He calmly replies "I call them ears." When asked if he's trying to be funny, he flatly replies, "Never."
• Defiant to the End : Merik's last move is to throw Kirk his communicator.
• Discretion Shot : When Kirk and co. are watching a televised gladiatorial combat, the losing gladiator falls to the ground and out of shot just before he's stabbed, so the death blow is not visible. Stands out because of the conflict between the priorities of the real TV network and the in-universe TV network, which would have insisted the camera follow the falling gladiator so the audience isn't deprived of the money shot. While he does fall out of shot, we then cut away to Uhura flinching in horror, so presumably there was an In-Universe close-up of the killing. Uhura also loses the television signal just as Harrison is about to be stabbed.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : Claudius Marcus, proconsul of the slave-owning Roman Empire, has a Southern accent.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You : Spock to the gladiator he's fighting, who unlike Flavius is seriously trying to kill his opponent. Spock isn't bluffing either—on seeing Bones is about to get killed, he takes down the gladiator easily so he can rush to defend his colleague.
• Repressive, but Efficient : Though the Pax Romana is apparently worldwide and has lasted for many centuries, and slaves are treated well enough that it's not worth their while to rebel (provided they're not exposed to subversive religions preaching freedom and equality).
• Enforced Plug : While looking through a magazine, Kirk notices an advertisement for the Jupiter 8 automobile. Later the gladiator contest Name The Winner is brought to the audience "by Jupiter 8 dealers from coast to coast!"
• A Father to His Men : Averted with Merik, who betrayed his own men to save his own life. Those who failed to adapt to Roman society ended up in the arena—the last of them is shown being killed just as the Enterprise arrives.
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : Spock: Situations quite familiar to the 6,000,000 who died in your First World War , the 11,000,000 who died in your Second , the 37,000,000 who died in your Third ...
• Before Kirk beams down he has a discussion over how the M-class planet is exactly like Earth in some ways, but different in others.
• Proconsul Marcus notes that one of the communicators has gone missing, and muses that maybe Kirk persuaded Drusilla to steal it for him . Turns out Merik has it instead.
• Forced to Watch : Kirk is handcuffed and forced to watch Spock and Bones (along with Flavius) fight to the death. He annoys the proconsul by refusing to yield and pretending he's not bothered by any of this. Merik turns out to be more affected as it brings back memories of his own men dying.
• Flynning : To the point where, during the arena fight, Bones is able to look away from his opponent and hold a conversation with Spock, while his opponent stands there carefully hitting his shield. Justified in that: A) The fight is broadcast for entertainment, and B) his opponent had befriended them earlier and doesn't want to harm them.
• Gilligan Cut : Just as Bones and Spock find something to agree about — their concern for their captain — we cut to Captain Kirk eating Grapes of Luxury with a Beautiful Slave Girl .
• Gladiator Games : The games are televised as entertainment, with well-known contestants featured in magazines. At one point Flavius isn't fighting hard enough and he's threatened with "We'll do a special on you!"
• God Guise : Lampshaded by Bones when he jokes that he'd like to screw the Prime Directive, beam down to a planet and claim to be the Archangel Gabriel.
• Grudging "Thank You" : Spock tells Bones to hurry up with what he's trying to say while he looks for a means to escape their cell. "I'm trying to thank you, you pointy eared hobgoblin!" Bones blurts out.
• Happiness in Slavery : Previous slave revolts were crushed, but conditions for slaves have improved over the centuries (including medical benefits and pensions) so that slavery has become an institution .
• Heel–Face Turn : Merik eventually decides to aid Kirk, redeeming himself, though he has little time to enjoy it.
• Heroic Sacrifice : Flavius rushes in to save Kirk from execution at the last minute. He's killed for it, but the attempt is just what Kirk needed to escape (helped by Scotty's blackout of the city) - at the end, McCoy notes that Kirk mentioned his sacrifice in the captain's log .
• Hilarious Outtakes : Including one of the guards doing a Prat Fall as he rushes into the room, and William Shatner being abducted on-set by Ted Cassidy as a practical joke.
• Hit Me, Dammit! : Flavius is trying to avoid killing Bones and getting whipped for his trouble. Flavius: At least defend yourself! McCoy: I am defending myself! Flavius: Not like that, you fool! Hold your weapon higher!
• Claudius Marcus has a touch of this; because he respects Kirk's courage , he feels obliged to give Kirk a proper death, to the point that when his guards have Kirk's team surrounded at gunpoint, he insists they use their swords instead of just gunning them all down on the spot (though at the same time, using their guns would cause more deaths than just their targets; the soldiers are in each other's line-of-fire, Claudius included) .
• Marcus also knows that while the Enterprise has the power to rescue their men by force or lay waste to the entire planet, they won't do so because they've sworn to uphold the Prime Directive .
• I Have Your Wife : Kirk is told if he doesn't do as Merik did, Bones and Spock will be forced to fight to the death in the gladiator pits. Even threatened with this and with guns to his head, Kirk still refuses. Claudius Marcus is impressed by this show of character. Merik is rightfully ashamed.
• Inexplicable Cultural Ties : The Hand Wave we get is something called Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Development.
• Involuntary Battle to the Death : What could possess a man to battle another man to the death? Whips! Massive whips!
• Killed Mid-Sentence : Merik: Starship, lock in on this. Three to beam— (gasps as a Reveal Shot shows that the Proconsul has just stabbed him)
• Laugh Track : In the televised gladiatorial combats, the crowd's cheers and boos are mechanically produced. Bones even looks around in confusion when he hears the canned boos.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal : After Kirk impresses Claudius Marcus with his courage and integrity, Claudius Marcus can't help repeatedly mentioning how much better that makes him than Merik, who betrayed his oath and his crew to survive. Having his nose rubbed in his failings inspires Merik to help Kirk, at the cost of his own life.
• Mr. Fanservice : Just look at the damn picture.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine : Claudius Marcus invites Kirk and company to eat with him, before he forces him into a Sadistic Choice at gun point.
• No Sense of Personal Space : Marcus is very happy taunting Kirk when the latter is handcuffed and trying to pretend Spock and Bones fighting other gladiators doesn't bother him.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy : While they do have a Sexy Discretion Shot later, Kirk initially shows little interest with Drusilla and her telling him she's his slave.
• Not So Stoic : Bones says the reason Spock is Not Afraid to Die is because he would no longer have to worry about losing his emotional control. Spock's lack of a snappy comeback implies he's hit a nerve. However when Bones goes on to say he wouldn't know what to do with a genuine feeling, Spock just gives a sardonic, "Really?" and Bones admits that he's worried about Kirk too.
• No Such Thing as Space Jesus : A subversion in the literal sense, as the planet is implied to have had an actual Jesus. ( If that's his name. He's called the Son of God, and Kirk calls him Christ note  Christ is a title meaning "an anointed one" and implying he's a descendant of King David , but we never hear his real name.) Beyond that, what exactly their version of him did, other than emphasize a commitment to total peace and a philosophy of love and brotherhood, doesn't get much coverage.
• The Oathbreaker : Kirk condemns Merik as one because he sold out his entire crew just to save his own life and gain luxuries. Merik doesn't deny a word of this, as he's long-resigned himself to it, although later Kirk's display of character helps bring him out of that... enough that at the end, his last act is to help them escape at the cost of his own life.
• Opponent Instruction : Spock and McCoy get forced into the arena to convince Kirk to submit to the villains' plans. Despite preferring a pacifistic approach, Spock keeps his opponent at bay easily, but McCoy, not being a Combat Medic , can barely manage. His opponent, a fairly Nice Guy who doesn't actually want to hurt him, starts trying to coach him during the match. Flavius: At least defend yourself! McCoy: [waving his arms in frustration and leaving himself vulnerable] I am defending myself!
• Playing Sick : They try the old faking sick trick. It works okay, despite Kirk not warning McCoy in advance that he was going to be the sick one, but they're quickly recaptured by another set of guards.
• Prime Directive : Unfortunately Merik has told Proconsul Marcus about it, so he knows Kirk can't just beam down a hundred men with phasers to blast him out. Scotty however has no problem with Loophole Abuse ; he decides to Cut the Juice as an Intimidation Demonstration , giving Kirk a chance to escape.
• Redemption Equals Death : In the end, Merik decides to help Kirk, Spock and McCoy escape, and is immediately killed for it by Claudius Marcus.
• Reluctant Warrior : Spock and McCoy are thrown into a death match against gladiator-style warriors on a new planet. While the alien opponent is coming at him with a sword, Spock constantly plays defensive, choosing to dodge the blows while insisting that he "does not want to injure" him, leading to the watching crowd concluding that "the pointy-eared barbarian" is about to get killed. However, when he notices that the much less action-oriented McCoy is in danger, Spock deals with his opponent in the space of a second and darts over to save his frenemy.
• Sarcasm Mode : McCoy while in the arena. Spock: Do you need some help, Doctor? McCoy: Whatever gave you that idea?
• Schizo Tech : Gladiator fights with swords are broadcast on television.
• Sexy Discretion Shot : Kirk makes smoochy face with Drusilla the Sex Slave . Pan up to chandelier. Pan down to Kirk sleeping alone. A line that was cut had Kirk drinking wine and saying "good," eating something and saying "excellent," and then — "And you?" and Drusilla says "Superb, I'm told."
• Shoot Out the Lock : After Spock fails to get through the carbon-steel bars of the prison cell with his Vulcan strength, Kirk shoots out the lock with a submachine gun. Kirk: Obsolete but effective.
• Scotty decides to kill the power as a show of force, as per The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) .
• Snark-to-Snark Combat : Spock and Bones are at it again! Even in the heat of combat, they manage to snark each other.
• Space Romans : The whole planet.
• Stern Sun Worshippers : The crew of the Enterprise are extremely surprised to find that the "Children of the Sun" are a peace-loving, egalitarian movement that is persecuted by the Roman Empire government. They discuss that most sun-cults are the exact opposite. The episode closes with the reveal that they are not worshippers of the sun , but rather son (of God), i.e., Jesus.
• Stock Footage : Stock footage shots of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco are used to depict the Roman capital. Given the use of Roman architecture in Western civilisation to portray power and authority, it works well.
• Sword and Gun : The Proconsul's Praetorian Guard are each armed with a gladius and a Madsen M-50 submachine gun. When they find themselves in a potential crossfire, they resort to their swords instead.
• Teleportation Rescue : Averted at first; having been warned about teleporters by Merik, Marcus marches in his guards to hold Kirk at gunpoint before allowing him to complete his transmission to Scotty. Merik later makes the call on Kirk's behalf, and by the time the guards pick up their submachine guns (having put them aside earlier) they're already beaming out.
• Think Nothing of It : Spock's reaction to Bones' Grudging "Thank You" .
• Thwarted Escape : Kirk tells Maximus to let the First Consul know that his old friend "Jim Kirk" is in prison. Unfortunately it works too well; when they later overpower the guards, they rush out into the corridor and find the First Consul and Proconsul waiting for them, along with all their bodyguards.
• Unusual Ears : Which gets Spock pegged as a 'barbarian'.
• Villain Ball : Claudius Marcus and Merik take Kirk and company aside and Explain to them that the crew of the Beagle were stranded in the planet after the ship broke up. Merik made arrangements with Marcus to integrate himself and a few willing members of his crew into Roman society, while keeping the secret of aliens from the general populace. The rest of the crew was executed in gladiatorial games, but that's the local culture and the solution is in line with the prime directive, if cruel. It kind of sucks that the planet practices slavery, but Kirk's mission is fulfilled and Marcus broadly agrees with the prime directive and had no interest getting his hands on alien tech. Then, Marcus demands that the Enterprise crew beam down so that they can be killed in gladiatorial games. Why? Because it would make great sport!
• Vitriolic Best Buds : Spock and McCoy, as usual. It gets lampshaded when Flavius, after seeing them argue, asks Kirk if they're enemies, and Kirk replies that even they don't know for sure.
• We Come In Peace : Flavius first instinct is to kill these uniformed strangers. Septimus: Keep always in your mind, Flavius, that our way is peace. McCoy: For which we are grateful, for we are men of peace ourselves.
• What Happened to the Mouse? ?: Merik said some of his crew were able to adapt to Roman society, but doesn't specify how. Did Kirk just leave them there, without checking to see for himself what their statuses were? There may have been some that wanted to get home, but were now trapped and did what they had to to survive.
• Whip of Dominance : Anyone who tries to get out of the gladiatorial combat gets whipped back into action.
• Star Trek S2 E24 "The Ultimate Computer"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek S2 E26 "Assignment: Earth"

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Religion in Star Trek

Religion seems to be largely absent from the futuristic and secular world of the Federation and in particular from human society. Star Trek's takes on religious topics are often critical, and they almost routinely close with a victory of science over faith. This is anything but a surprise, knowing that Gene Roddenberry was an active atheist.

Roddenberry is very commonly cited with the words :

"I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will -- and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain."

The authenticity of this statement has been contested, however. In fact, the first part about the "false prophets" can be found in the book Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation , whereas the latter part about the "malfunctioning brain" is unsourced.

Verifiable statements about his stance on religion and religious people come from an interview with The Humanist from 1991:

"So my thinking about religion sort of stultified at that time and I just decided not to pay any attention to it. I stopped going to church as soon as it became possible for me to do things on my own as a teenager. I made up my mind that church, and probably largely the Bible, was not for me. I did not go back to even thinking much about it for years. If people need religion, ignore them and maybe they will ignore you and you can go on with your life." (Gene Roddenberry, interview with David Alexander, The Humanist , 1991)

Star Trek remained largely secular (as far as human society was concerned) after Gene Roddenberry's death in 1991. In a Q&A session executive producer Brannon Braga was asked whether there was supposed to be a deity in the stories that he wrote. He said:

"No, there was no consideration in giving humans, talking about God, or talking about those types of things. We wanted to avoid it to be quite frank. But we did very often explore theology through alien characters. Which frankly is much more interesting anyway. Whether it was the Bajorans and their religion or the Borg and their religion. They had the religion of perfection. That, I think, was more interesting. We want to keep Star Trek secular. The human facet of Star Trek secular." (Brannon Braga, transcript from his former website)

Here is an incomplete list of significant occurrences of religion and spirituality (human as well as alien) in Star Trek. Please note that trivial references to mythology or lines like "Oh my god!" are not included, as they would give us an endless list.

Human religions

The following is some evidence for the existence of human religion in the future.

• In the wedding chapel on the Enterprise we can see a sort of altar and a number of apparently religious symbols, among them a cross (TOS: "Balance of Terror").

• A remarkable example for a lack of religiousness comes from Edith Keeler who doesn't mention God once in her address to the people in her otherwise obviously Christian mission in New York in the 1930s (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever").
• Kirk says: "Scotty doesn't believe in gods" and also "Man has no need for gods. We find the one quite sufficient" . This almost sounds like Kirk is supposed to be Christian, Jewish or Muslim (TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais").
• After the Companion has taken over the body of Nancy Hedford, Spock objects, "Companion, you do not have the power to create life." Companion-Nancy replies: "That is for the Maker of all things." , referring to the existence of a god (TOS: "Metamorphosis").
• Spock compares the Tribbles to "lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin." This is from Matthew 6:28 and Luke 12:27 (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles").
• The rebels on Magna Roma, a nearly perfect "Parallel Earth", seem to worship the "sun", which is actually (God's) "Son". More precisely, Spock rules that "Sun worship is usually a primitive superstition religion" , whereupon Uhura corrects him: "Don't you understand? It's not the sun up in the sky. It's the Son of God." So the episode (or at least Uhura's opinion) is remarkably supportive of Christianity as some sort of "more enlightened" religion (TOS: "Bread and Circuses").
• McCoy thinks that Spock would need him in the "lion's den". Spock answers: "Daniel, as I recall, had only his faith." . He obviously recognizes the reference to the Book of Daniel. In the same episode, McCoy says, "What in the name of Heaven is this?" Scotty replies: "Heaven's got very little to do with this" (TOS: "The Gamesters of Triskelion").
• The computer M-5 states: "Murder is contrary to the laws of man and God" (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer").
• Another astonishing reference from TOS is a dialogue between two researchers, of whom at least one is clearly religious, when there is a quake on Minara II. Dr. Ozaba: "In His hands are the deep places of the Earth. Psalm 95, verse 4." Dr. Linke: "Looks like He was listening" (TOS: "The Empath").
• Bridge officer Lt. Rahda wears a bindi, a traditional Hindu symbol, on her forehead (TOS: "That Which Survives").
• Data mentions a Hindu Festival of Lights in his log entry. So this religion, or at least its rituals, still seems to exist (TNG: "Data's Day"). On a related note, there is a mention of a Christmas party too (TOS: "Dagger of the Mind").
• The "Scottish" Caldos Colony includes a church or chapel beside the graveyard, which may be more than just decoration, and we can hear the attendees say "Amen" at Felisa Howard's funeral (TNG: "Sub Rosa").
• The American Indians on Dorvan V continue to practice their old rituals such as vision quests. Picard says he has the deepest respect for them (TNG: "Journey's End").
• Captain Picard celebrates Christmas with his family in the Nexus in a very traditional fashion, even by 21st century standards. This is astounding not only considering that the holiday has largely lost its religious significance already in our time but also because it takes place in the dream world of a man who otherwise deprecates religion ("Star Trek Generations").
• Kilana asks Sisko: "Do you have any gods, captain?" He says, "There are *things* I believe in." (DS9: "The Ship").
• Joseph Sisko recites from the Bible to his son's surprise. Joseph also appears as a priest in Ben's hallucination (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars").
• Kasidy Yates says she would like to have a priest to perform the wedding ceremony (DS9: "Penumbra").
• The holographic Leonardo da Vinci says that he sometimes prays to God for inspiration. Janeway thinks this isn't going to work for her. (VOY: "Scorpion, Part I").

• The Doctor acts as a Roman Catholic priest, the first time in Star Trek that a human religion is a part of the story - albeit only in a holodeck scenario. The interior of the church is wrong, the altar is empty and there is no crucifix (VOY: "Spirit Folk").
• Dr. Phlox says he has been to a Tibetan monastery and that he has attended a mass at St. Peter's Square. This is the most definite statement that religion still plays a role, at least in the 22nd century (ENT: "Cold Front").
• Dr. Phlox appears as a priest at Porthos's funeral in one of Archers's hallucinations (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay").

Alien religions

This is evidence about the Vulcans, Klingons, Bajorans or any other aliens whose religions are shown in more detail, notably only since the later seasons of TNG.

• Worf visits the monastery of Boreth where Kahless, the famed Klingon religious figure, reappears. In the course of the episode Kahless turns out to be a clone (TNG: "Rightful Heir").
• While the Klingons otherwise generally don't practice a religion, the Klingon afterlife, Sto-vo-kor, is repeatedly in the focus of interest (DS9: "Image in the Sand", "Shadows and Symbols"). The Klingons don't have a burial ritual. They just dispose of dead bodies (VOY: "Emanations"). After an accident B'Elanna apparently enters Gre'thor, the Klingon version of Hell. It does not become entirely clear whether she was really there or if her mind made up everything (VOY: "The Barge of the Dead").
• At least some Vulcans, such as notably Sybok, believe in an idyllic place from which they as a people were born. Their name for this place is Sha Ka Ree ("Star Trek V").
• Ancient Vulcans practiced a polytheistic faith. Among their gods were the gods of War, Peace and Death (TNG: "Gambit, Part II").

• The monastery of P'Jem, erected some 3000 years ago, is one of the most sacred places for many Vulcans (ENT: "The Andorian Incident").
• Approximately 2000 years ago, in a time of devastating atomic warfare, a philosopher named Surak codified a system of belief based on logic and the repression of emotions. This system eventually came to be the basis for modern Vulcan civilization. This time came to be known as the "Time of the Awakening", or sometimes the Vulcan Reformation. Surak's teachings were recorded in the Kir'Shara, essentially a Vulcan Bible (ENT: "Kir'Shara").
• Among the precepts of Surak was the concept of the katra, referred to as the "living spirit" or "all that which is not of the body" , effectively the "soul" of the person. The katra of a Vulcan could be stored in a katric ark, or carried by another person, presumably so that the essence of what that person was would not be lost, and could even be consulted with by knowledgeable Vulcans. In the extremely rare case of a Vulcan's body regaining or retaining life after the transfer of the katra, it was possible to attempt to return it to the body via a process called Fal-tor-pan, though it was dangerous and difficult, with no guarantee of success ("Star Trek III", ENT: "Awakening").
• T'Pol says she doesn't believe exactly everything that is said about Surak. In other words, this is skepticism about the Vulcan religion much like many Christians say they don't believe everything written in the Bible (ENT: "The Forge").
• There is an ongoing conflict between Bajoran faith and Starfleet science about the nature of what the Bajorans call Prophets and Starfleet refers to as "wormhole aliens". The controversy emerges when Sisko and Dax discover the wormhole (DS9: "Emissary").
• In her class, which was originally meant to be multicultural, Keiko O'Brien teaches Starfleet's view that the Bajoran Prophets are just another kind of aliens. Jake Sisko says that believing in them as gods is stupid. His father's reaction: "My point is it's a matter of interpretation. It may not be what you believe, but that doesn't make it wrong. If you start to think that way, you'll be acting just like Vedek Winn. Only from the other side. We can't afford to be that way, Jake. We'd lose everything we've worked for here" (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets").
• The story of the Prophets is continued in several DS9 episodes that are just too countless to discuss separately. The general tendency is that the Bajoran faith grows on Ben Sisko, that the Prophets are gradually becoming more god-like and that ultimately Ben even becomes one of them. The Prophets' god-like nature becomes particularly clear in the episodes where they determine the destinies of the Bajoran people and of Sisko, respectively (DS9: "Rapture", "By Inferno's Light", "Shadows and Symbols", "What You Leave Behind").
• Also, the Prophets have evil counterparts, the devil-like Pah-Wraiths (DS9: "The Assignment", "The Reckoning", "Covenant", "What You Leave Behind").
• Considering that religious leaders of Earth's past, without mentioning particular examples, are condemned in Star Trek (for instance, by Picard in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"), it is interesting to note that Bajoran religious leaders may be just as bad, with Kai Winn as the foremost example (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets", "Strange Bedfellows").

• Harry finds himself in a society that practices a ritual that would kill their people and transfer them to an unknown place - the afterlife. Even though the true nature of this phenomenon can be revealed and even though Harry helps an unwilling candidate to escape, the question remains if the Vhnori are not better off if they kept believing in their afterlife (VOY: "Emanations").
• The Ocampa believe that their comra (their soul) is released into the afterlife (VOY: "Emanations").
• The Voth scientist Prof. Gegen, who has found scientific evidence that the Voth's origin is on Earth, is accused of harassing against his government's doctrine that the race is indigenous to the Delta Quadrant (VOY: "Distant Origin").
• Neelix dies and is recovered using Seven's nanoprobes. After the experience of death, or rather a lack of the experience of an afterlife, Neelix's faith is shattered so much that he would commit suicide (VOY: "Mortal Coil").
• A group of pilgrims of different races worship the "Great Plume of Agosoria", a neutron burst from a protostar (ENT: "Cold Front").
• A group of religious fanatics hijacks Enterprise. Different factions of this religion are struggling for the right interpretation of their faith. Archer repeatedly blames their faith, rather than their ruthless leaders, for misguiding them: "Your faith betrayed you" (ENT: "Chosen Realm").

"False gods"

In this very common plot, someone or something (usually technologically advanced) imposes religious views on a (usually backward) culture.

• There is no explicit reference to religion, but seeing how the natives used to worship Vaal, Kirk more or less destroys their faith by ridding them of Vaal and telling them that they will be better off if they can care for themselves (TOS: "The Apple"). Similar cultural interferences happen in almost a dozen TOS episodes, but usually not as definitely as here.
• In the effort to avert Wesley's execution, Picard has to argue with the Edo "god", an unidentified entity in their orbit. No effort is made to convince the Edo that it's not their "god", though (TNG: "Justice").
• Picard is believed to be a god by the local populace on Mintaka, who are living on a low technological level but were so far deemed "rational". Picard strives to obey the Prime Directive, but seeing that the damage has already been done, he reveals himself as what he is -- not a god, but a mortal whose technology makes him appear powerful. Picard rejects any kind of religion as backward and compares it to superstition. He tries hard to convince the natives of exactly that (TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers?").
• When the planet Ventax is about to be taken over by the alleged devil-like Ardra, Picard poses as some kind of god to demonstrate that their "devil" Ardra is not supernatural either: Picard states that people should not abide by the power of religions and myths. Still, he concedes that the faith in the contract with Ardra, signed 1000 ago according to the myth, has inspired the people to transform their planet into a paradise (TNG: "Devil's Due").
• After he has been shot and his artificial heart is damaged, Q welcomes Picard with the words "This is the afterlife, and I'm God" . He then demonstrates to the incredulous Picard how his life would have been, had he made a different choice in his younger years (TNG: "Tapestry").
• A weird example of a religion is the relationship between the Founders and the species created by them, namely the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar. They both revere the Founders, the latter are additionally addicted to drugs. The Jem'Hadar Goran'Agar says: "The Founders are like gods to the Jem'Hadar. But our gods never talk to us. And they don't wait for us after death" (DS9: "Hippocratic Oath", "The Ship", "Treachery, Faith and the Great River").
• There may be good reasons for Dukat's followers to worship the near-divine Pah-wraiths. But everything surrounding Dukat himself is a classic example of a "false god", culminating in the Cardassian-Bajoran hybrid he presents "as a sign of the Pah-wraiths" (DS9: "Covenant").
• The Caretaker is a powerful entity that protects the Ocampa after inadvertently causing an ecological disaster on their planet. After his death Janeway decides to continue his work at any rate. There is no real religious mention though (VOY: "Caretaker"). Suspiria is the antithesis to the Caretaker. Her open hostility is the only reason for Janeway to fight her with moderate means (VOY: "Cold Fire").

• Two Ferengi exploit the population of a planet, using their technology to pretend that they are the "Holy Sages" from the planet's mythology (VOY: "False Profits").
• Kathryn Janeway is badly injured after a shuttle crash. An alien parasite induces a hallucination in her mind, that she has died, and that her late father has come to welcome her in the afterlife. Janeway, however, doesn't want to let go and her mistrust for her "father" keeps growing. Her "father" initially emerged from a bright white light, and vanishes in a fiery light that Janeway labels as "hell". After her recovery she muses that all reported near death experiences might be the result of an alien inhabitation (VOY: "Coda").
• While it is visible in the sky for centuries, the Starship Voyager becomes a religious icon as the "Skyship" on an alien planet (VOY: "Blink of an Eye").
• There is a "false god" aspect about the holographic characters in Fair Haven, but it's of secondary importance because they were programmed to be superstitious (VOY: "Spirit Folk").
• B'Elanna becomes a mythical figure on an alien planet (VOY: "Muse").

Spirituality

These are general examples of spirituality without a definite statement about or specific reference to a religion.

• "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" shows V'ger on the quest for its creator, "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" features the act of creation, "Star Trek: The Search for Spock" has Spock's resurrection from the dead, "Star Trek: The Final Frontier" explicitly sends the ship to seek God.
• Another Surakian practice is the kolinahr, a series of rituals and meditations designed to totally purge all emotion from a Vulcan's mind. Attainment of kolinahr is considered a great achievement ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture").
• When a false Data asks, "What is death" , Picard explains that there are different interpretations, that some hope for an afterlife, while others think they will vanish into nothingness. Interestingly, Picard says that he himself believes his existence is more than a meaningless illusion, considering the "complexity of our universe" (TNG: "Where Silence Has Lease").
• A spiritual aspect lies in the discovery that all humanoids are descendants of a proto-humanoid race that evolved in the galaxy 4 billion years ago. Whilst this refutes particularly the Christian view of creation, it becomes sort of a religion itself (TNG: "The Chase").
• The inhabitants of Dorvan V claim that Picard was sent to their planet because his ancestor Javier Maribona Picard, a Spanish soldier, participated in a massacre of Native Americans after the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. It also seems that Wesley was supposed to find his true way on the planet, although it turns out that the Traveler triggered his change of mind, rather than some kind of spirit (TNG: "Journey's End").
• Chakotay is a descendant of an ancient Native American tribe. He practices rituals like meditation with an animal guide (VOY: "The Cloud"). His spirituality may have enabled him to remain alive when he is taken over by an alien (VOY: "Cathexis"). This is not completely evident, though. Aliens have brought a sort of religion to his tribe (VOY: "Tattoo"). His special dream techniques enable him to trick aliens that want to take over the ship (VOY: "Waking Moments"). Surprisingly, Chakotay has to concede to B'Elanna that there may be no afterlife (VOY: "Barge of the Dead").

• On the Nechani homeworld Janeway undergoes a ritual in order to find out more about an energy field around a shrine that has caused Kes to fall into a coma. However, she is warned that all she is eager to do in the ritual is meaningless. The Doctor, who monitors Janeway's lifesigns, finds a clue that may help Kes. But when he tries to revive her, Kes's condition deteriorates. Janeway asks to repeat the ritual, this time the way it was meant to be. Now she gets the advice to take Kes to the shrine again. Although it is against all reason, Janeway carries Kes through the gate, and Kes wakes up. It turns out that the ritual actually prepared Janeway, and that the Doctor's treatment protected Kes the second time she passed the energy field. Janeway, however, doubts that everything that happened can be explained with science (VOY: "Sacred Ground").
• Seven has a spiritual experience when she witnesses the Omega molecules take a stable form, which represents perfection to the Borg, "the Borg's Holy Grail" as Janeway expresses it (VOY: "The Omega Directive").

The purpose of this article is not primarily to answer the frequently asked question whether religion, particularly any of the present-day world religions, will still exist on future Earth. Rather than that, the analysis will attempt to draw an overall picture of religion in Star Trek, based on canon evidence and with a bit of background information. The question that comes to mind is if and how Gene Roddenberry's stance is represented in the various incarnations of Star Trek. His opinion that religion is mindless and primitive superstition, and that it is an obstacle to free thinking, may show up more or less openly in the franchise.

TOS - subtly secular

One negative aspect of religion and one that was apparently essential to Roddenberry can be found more or less systematically encrypted in several TOS episodes. It is the classic and already stereotypical "false god" plot, where god-like entities are destroyed or are uncovered as what they really are. This happens in TOS: "Return of the Archons", "A Taste of Armageddon", "Catspaw", "The Apple", The Paradise Syndrome", "Who Mourns for Adonais", "And the Children Shall Lead", "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and "Plato's Stepchildren", to name only the most obvious examples. Many of these stories closely resemble one another, and most of them fail to make a moral statement except for a sigh of relief that the "false god" has been overthrown and that his/her subjects have gained their freedom.

Only "The Apple" bears some more definite statements that progress can only be made in a self-determined culture. This is in the spirit of Roddenberry's testimony about religion quoted above, and it becomes even more relevant as Vaal's followers were indeed the most primitive humanoid civilization the crew encountered during all of TOS. So irrespective of religious references, the "false god" especially of TOS may have been Roddenberry's covert attempt to denounce religion as depriving people of their free will.

TOS Movies - the search for spirituality

Whilst organized religion is not commonplace any longer, there is still a desire to explore the last mystery of our origin, our existence and our destiny. It is where physics and religion converge, and it may be seen as either a confirmation or an unintended (self-)rebuttal of Roddenberry's ideas. A confirmation because, in the end, science more or less inadvertently gives us the elucidation that religion always strove but eventually failed to provide. A rebuttal because here scientific interest leads to a religious experience and, the other way round, a religious desire may be fulfilled using science. If we look at it from this angle, the contrast that Roddenberry may have wanted to build up is suddenly leveled.

At the time of TOS, Vulcan culture used to be a blend of New-Age meditation and telepathy techniques with some ancient rituals that do not require the existence of a religion. Moreover, owing to the inherent contrast between faith and logic it seemed unlikely that Vulcans would believe in gods or in an afterlife. The movies, however, add exactly these missing links with the concepts of Sha Ka Ree and of the katra. It is astonishing that not just Spock, as a principal character, but his whole civilization turns out to be spiritual to some extent. While this seems to contradict Roddenberry's policy, it only emphasizes the contrast to the secular society of humanity. The Vulcan faith, its history and present will be further elucidated in TNG, in Voyager and especially in Enterprise.

TNG - faithfully faithless

With Roddenberry being strongly involved in the making of Star Trek at the beginning of TNG again, his atheism becomes a prevalent tone of the new series. The non-existence of religion in the Federation is said to be equally progressive and enlightened as its non-profit economy . "Primitive" civilizations and particularly Earth's own savage past are repeatedly shown or cited as a contrast to the peaceful, wealthy and happy secular world of the Federation, just like in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint". In a couple of stories, including TNG: "Justice", "Who Watches the Watchers" and "Devil's Due", "false gods" are exposed (not to mention Q who, however, rather enjoys being a continuing nuisance than being worshipped). Although the situation seems different, considering that the Mintakans are enlightened compared to the dull Vaal people, the outcome in "Who Watches the Watchers" is much the same as in TOS: "The Apple". Here, Picard takes the opportunity to condemn religion in unconcealed and harsher words than Kirk could have chosen during TOS. Even though TNG is known to apply only mild violence compared to TOS, if any, we may only speculate what would have happened if the false Edo "god" in "Justice" hadn't been much more powerful than the Enterprise-D.

The overall situation and Picard's assessment is different in "Devil's Due" where Picard is vehemently opposed to the concept of Ardra as a deity from the outset, but also recognizes that the myth of Ardra helped the Ventaxians to transform their world into a paradise.

On some other occasions in TNG, religion is tolerated - as long as it doesn't cause trouble. But it remains noteworthy that TNG's Starfleet with its Prime Directive ultimately shows respect for and puts up with implacable lifeforms (e.g. in TNG: "Silicon Avatar"), intolerant societies (e.g. in TNG: "The Outcast") or inhumane rituals (e.g. in TNG: "Half a Life"), whereas it battles comparably harmless occurrences of religion with a passion. The two "false god" episodes mentioned above close with the verdict that it would be better if the respective alien civilization got rid of their religion.

It seems that this general tone almost abruptly changes after Roddenberry's death with episodes like TNG: "Rightful Heir" that leave a loophole for religion in a way that it may hold some truth after all. But even in this episode that treats an alien religion with a certain deal of respect for the first time, science ultimately prevails over faith when it is discovered that Kahless is just a clone. He is not exactly another "false god", but close enough. On a different note, Worf now takes over Spock's role of the principal alien character who embraces (religious) customs and mythology, in contrast to the secular humans of the respective series.

TNG: "The Chase", also produced after Roddenberry's death, seems to unify all the anti-religious and pro-scientific efforts in a way that none of the various humanoid species is a divine creation, although the outcome that an ancient race is actually responsible for their existence makes it at least as mystical. The outcome may be even taken or rather mistaken as evidence for the creationist theory of "Intelligent Design" , seeing that this is exactly what the proto-humanoids did. They created the humanoid races in their image and initiated an evolution, which is only to a certain extent governed by random processes. Yet, promoting such ideas is clearly not the intention of the episode, especially in light of the ancient humanoids who just happen to have been the first of many alien civilizations, of which Starfleet or the Federation has never seriously considered one to be god-like.

DS9 - the two sides of the medal

The series initially exhibits a preference for Starfleet's agnostic view that the Prophets are just "wormhole aliens". The particular conflict in DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets" may be even seen as a little concealed allegory of the "evolution vs. intelligent design" debates with a clear tendency in favor of the more rational scientific explanation. The main motive why the Prophets are not downright condemned as "false gods", especially in the remarkable explanation ( "It may not be what you believe, but that doesn't make it wrong" ) that Ben Sisko gives to Jake in "In the Hands of the Prophets", may be that the producers and writers still had plans with them. This provision pays off in the following story arc in the course of which the Prophets remain god-like beings and in whose ironical outcome Sisko himself, the Starfleet officer, ends up as a Prophet.

Maybe it is easier to answer the question who would certainly not qualify as gods. DS9 too has "false gods" with the Founders. Clearly the Vorta and Jem'Hadar are enlightened enough not to worship the Founders the way the Vaal people or the Edo are looking up to their gods. This becomes especially clear when Goran'Agar talks about his "gods" in "Hippocratic Oath". They know how and why they have been created, not unlike Data, who would never see Dr. Soong as a superior being either. Still, both the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar are conditioned to have that sort of ultimate loyalty to the Founders and to renounce life's pleasures just like ultimate monks. These self-proclaimed gods that create devote followers almost "from scratch" are the perhaps most obvious examples of "false gods" that simply don't deserve to be worshipped. Maybe even rather than the Pah-Wraiths, who are no more than a simplistic concept of a devil or of a "dark side" of the Prophets, the Founders stand for Roddenberry's "classic" attitude to show that religion is wrong, especially since the concept of the Dominion could easily exist without religious references.

Voyager - mixed bag of myths

But Voyager shows much more spirituality than only Chakotay's. Gradually, almost everyone of the main cast has a spiritual experience that goes well beyond the excitement about the discovery of a new particle or lifeform. Interestingly this development goes along with a tendency that the latter discoveries are becoming boring routine on Voyager, quite in contrast to TNG where science was always much like the actual religion.

On the whole, Voyager shows many of the well-known plots involving religion in a new light. The Caretaker is an interesting variant of the archetype of a "false god". But unlike Vaal or the Edo god, to whom the Caretaker is closely related, no effort is made to remove or even destroy this entity. On the contrary, Janeway decides to continue his work at any rate. Another observation along the same lines is possible in VOY: "Emanations". The faith of the Vhnori is directed towards something the Voyager crew can rationally explain. Harry helps a dissenter who doesn't want to be killed. Still, Voyager's crew tolerates their faith and ultimately allows a Vhnori woman to die (albeit inadvertently) who has accidentally materialized on the ship. There were similar situations in TNG: "Half a Life" and "Homeward", but in the two previous episodes no religion was involved. It is also clear that the Sky Spirits from VOY: "Tattoo" have much the same role in the history and religion of the Rubber Tree People as the Judeo-Christian God in the Bible. There are several clear cues in the episode such as the creation of people "in their own image" and the existence of a "chosen people" and a "sacred land". It is interesting, however, that the religion of the Rubber Tree People is not criticized in the episode, although it bears many traits of a "false god" syndrome. It wouldn't be far-fetched to say that Voyager is the Star Trek series that concedes the same rights to religions that TNG granted other cultures and law systems under the Prime Directive.

In "Sacred Ground" there is an ongoing struggle between science and faith in the story in which the two alternatingly gain the upper hand. In the end, there is a scientific explanation for Kes's sudden recovery, but one that is extremely complicated and that is made possible only by a series of unlikely coincidences. So there is enough room for the myth to be true. In any case, it is one occasion where Voyager authors treat an alien religion with respect, so much that it is on par with science.

VOY: "Distant Origin" is one of the stories in the tradition of TNG. It criticizes a false religion that has become a political ideology. Still, there is largely no spiritual impact, although Prof. Gegen's struggle against the "doctrine" (a term taken from political science, not religion) of the Voth is very reminiscent of Galilei's efforts to defend his teachings against the church. To quote Lenin, "Religion is the opium of the people" , but in their consequences, political ideologies like fascism and communism have become the ultimate religions of the 20th century, so the example of the Voth may be fitting as "false religion". In this context it is interesting to note that, although basic concepts like racism are condemned, concrete examples of fanaticism of political leaders are overall not quite as frequent in Star Trek as occurrences of "false gods". Clearly the two phenomena are closely related, but the authors may have deemed it more interesting to give a political conflict an additional spiritual aspect.

Enterprise - tolerance, but not at any price

In the following the series remains largely secular, with the notable exception of the Vulcan arc in the fourth season, when Archer experiences Surak's katra and the Vulcans ultimately rediscover their lost faith. This episode adds even more religious aspects to the Vulcan culture in history and present, although this doesn't happen unexpectedly because the episode arc is written to be perfectly in line (continuity-wise) with previous Star Trek series.

Well, and Enterprise used to have "Faith of the Heart" ;-).

The future of religion

On a related note, it may seem fair and balanced that none of today's world religions really shows up in Star Trek. That way, it may be easier to see humanity as a whole and not as people who are guided or, as Roddenberry would probably put it, misled by their various respective religions. On the other hand, such a benevolent excuse becomes questionable if we take into account that Star Trek never made any effort to correct the undeniable ethnic and national preference concerning its characters, as if it took place in 20th century USA. Considering this strong political bias, where would lie the problem in making certain characters Christians, Jews or Buddhists?

First off, I don't think that science fiction is a literary genre that should frequently explore religious issues, depict religious societies, or even promote them as a desirable vision of the future. Living with faith instead of atheism is just one option that many people on this planet have chosen for themselves.

With a few exceptions, Star Trek is largely free of clear-cut anti-religious statements. Fortunately. Because it would be hard to condone an utopian fiction of a better society if it were systematically intolerant in one respect. Star Trek's stance on religion has a clear tendency to become more balanced since DS9 and especially Voyager, although the prevalent tone is still agnostic. Religion is not only tolerated since then, but is also seen as an opportunity to come up with attractive new plots that would have fallen under Roddenberry's presumable ban on religious issues. On the other hand, with other contemporary science fiction, fantasy and mystery series focusing even more on the mystical, Star Trek may have just been following a general trend.

Gene Roddenberry failed to recognize that religion is typically not something imposed on people, but that human beings have always been seeking for explanations of the world, for a code of behavior and for the perspective of an afterlife. The whole point of atheism is that nothing exists that we could believe in. Star Trek frequently shows that there is someone or something divine indeed, only that this always winds up as a "false god" that does not deserve to be worshipped. However, an impostor posing as a "god" is not the same as a religion, even if we allege that all religions are ultimately man-made. And who says that religion needs an idea of a concrete person or entity as "god"? Star Trek itself has discussed spiritual issues without a reference to a god numerous times, it is full of spirituality that just pretends to be of profane scientific nature.

Roddenberry's atheism is a personal idea that found its way into Star Trek. There are remnants of this part of his heritage despite frequently changing producers and writers. This is good for continuity, but debatable as a vision for the future. Roddenberry condemned religion because it suppressed people in his view, which is definitely true for some eras of human history. But he did not look at the other side of the medal that, quite contrary to his statement that religion is making people dull, it has enriched Earth's cultures and even science in the course of the centuries. What would our world be without its magnificent cathedrals and temples, without music and literature inspired by religion, without scientific interest that has its roots in the desire to be closer to god(s)? And if we don't need religion any longer in modern times, where would we have to draw the line? Ironically, the few examples in which Trek characters explicitly condemn religion on screen show primitive cultures that are held back by a "false god". This does not comply at all with the general course of Earth's history.

His reasons for rejecting religion stand against the fact that billions of religious human beings on present-day Earth live in relative peace and tolerance. There are certainly fundamentalists who do not respect other views than their own. However, just like political fanaticism this is just an outgrowth of the human nature, not of the idea of religion. It would be unfair and ultimately counter-productive to ignore the ways of life of the majority of humanity in an effort to depict Star Trek as a desirable future for them. In order to achieve Roddenberry's utopia some day, we could ponder about abolishing everything that might be subject to misuse or what might restrict our freedom. But then we could question the existence of just every technological, cultural, political or social custom, law or institution, anything that makes up our lives. With a firm stance that it would be better to take away faith from people, Star Trek, in its few worst installments, is just as narrow-minded and arrogant as the religious zeal it strives to condemn. On these occasions Star Trek acts against its own principles.

Whatever his reasons were, Gene Roddenberry was mistaken about some aspects of religion. I am glad that he hit the nail on the head with other ideas that he came up with.

Thanks to Daystrom Institute Technical Library , the origin of the "false god" classification. Special thanks to Gregory Price , who added several references about Vulcan faith and spirituality, and to David Brown for more examples of human religion in TOS. The observation about Edith Keeler comes from Michael A. Burstein in Boarding the Enterprise . Thanks also to Jörg Hillebrand for the picture of the cross, to TrekCore for several screen caps, to Julian for reminding me of more occurrences of human religions in Trek, to Jorge Hernandez for a hint about "Balance of Terror" and to trlkly for reminding me of facts from TNG: "Tapestry" and VOY: "Sacred Ground".

The Roddenberry "malfunctioning brain" quote is contested in The Gospel According to Star Trek: The Original Crew By Kevin C Neece.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/religion.htm

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Published Jan 1, 2014

One Trek Mind: Benjamin Sisko -- Son of a God?

To the hardcore, outlier Star Trek fan who answers “ TOS vs. TNG ” with a resounding “ DS9 !” the first week of January is a special time. January 2nd, 1993, was when we first met Captain (then Commander) Sisko, newly assigned to his diplomatically vague position of Federation liaison to the provisional Bajoran government at the end of the Cardassian Occupation.

Terok Nor, the Cardassians called it, but Deep Space Nine was the new name for the space station hovering near Bajor, out on the frontier of the Alpha Quadrant. What was soon recognized was how this distant location was to become the center of everything thanks to the discovery of the first stable wormhole.

Well, that's what the Federation folks called it. The Bajorans labelled it as something from their own myths: the Celestial Temple.

I should back up. From the Federation's perspective, it was Bajoran myth. To Bajorans, it was their religion.

Deep Space Nine broke a lot of ground for Star Trek , and one of the ways it differentiated itself was by doing something you're not really supposed to do on television or at dinner parties – it got into religion.

Star Trek to this point didn't get too involved in theology. It never stood up and said “we embrace science, not faith,” but that was always the general vibe. To be fair, certain TOS episodes toss in a blunt Judeo-Christian reference here and there. There's Kirk's remarks to the “Greek God” aliens in “ Who Mourns for Adonais ?” (“Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.”) There's also Uhura's revelation at the end of “ Bread and Circuses ” (“It's not the sun up in the sky. It's the Son of God.”) But even that moment quickly backpedals. Kirk talks about “Caesar and Christ” from an historic point of view; Bones mentions the “philosophy of love.” (I always wondered how William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, two Jews, felt when first getting the pages for this script.)

Deep Space Nine equivocates far less. Bajor's Prophets live in the Celestial Temple, and while Federation skeptics politely refer to the non-corporal, four-dimensional beings as “Wormhole Aliens,” by the time we get to the end of the series, everyone is pretty convinced that these lifeforms are very, very powerful and prescient.

The way in which DS9 approached Bajor's religion was always, to my mind, part of the admirable, Rainbow Coalition-like tolerance in all of Trek . When the Bajoran religious leader Vedek (future Kai) Winn accuses Keiko O'Brien of being blasphemous, the station educator lays it right out for her. “I don't teach Bajoran spiritual beliefs,” she says in “ In The Hands of the Prophets .” “That's your job. Mine is to open the children's minds to history, to literature, to mathematics, to science.” Never does Keiko state that Bajorans shouldn't believe what they want to believe about the denizens of the Wormhole. “I respect that the Bajoran people believe [in the Prophets].”

It's a fine line the show has to walk, not just because one of our heroes (Major Kira) is a believer, but because the show itself, in the emerging “PC” years of the 1990s, was held up as a paragon of inclusiveness. (It was still something of a big deal to have an African-American as the central figure on the show.)

In DS9 's first episode Sisko is welcomed by the Bajorans as a promised religious figure, an “Emissary.” He found the Celestial Temple (quite by accident) and then had an Orb Experience and spoke with the Prophets, who told him of his destiny. In time (by season seven) he'll be the protector of Bajor during the Reckoning.

At first, Sisko shrugs it off. He's almost a little annoyed by all of this – he doesn't even want to be at Deep Space Nine, though his duty and general good nature stop him from being dismissive to the point of being impolite.

In time, though, we'll learn that while Sisko's father is a Creole chef in New Orleans and his mother was actually possessed by a Prophet and forced to conceive a child. This is something of a reverse-Virgin Birth, in a way. When the Prophet left her body, Sisko's mother became despondent and abandoned the family. Not such nice behavior from the Prophets. (Kinda resembles those Greek Gods we talked about earlier.)

Q, of the Q Continuum, was often referred to “having the power of a God,” but this description from Picard and others always felt like it came with an understood, unspoken “but we know he's NOT a God” at the end. These are characters well aware of Clark's Third Law which states that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Surely there must be REASONS that Q can do all the things he can do; we're just not scientifically advanced enough to understand them.

Kira, on the other hand, comes from a culture with a heavy religious emphasis. There's the Bajoran concept of “pagh,” not too dissimilar from “The Force” in Star Wars , but without the telekinesis. Enough exposure to Bajorans, the long-suffering tribe under the thumb of the Fascist Cardassians, and you begin to see how their faith manifested itself into a palpable thing – a unifying agent that aided them during the Resistance. Does this make the question of The Prophets' divinity “true?” Not necessary. But it does show how belief in The Prophets offered providence, which remains a unique aspect of DS9 in comparison to all the other series.

How did Sisko's eventual acceptance of being the Emissary of the Prophets sit with you? Did you find it to be an affirmation of Star Trek 's open-mindedness, or did you ever wish someone would tell the Bajorans to take off their earrings and get with the times? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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The 10 standout episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series

Ready to explore (or revisit) strange new worlds and smart sci-fi adventure? Launch into the Final Frontier with our list of 10 essential episodes of the original Star Trek.

A five-year mission that's now headed into its seventh decade, the Star Trek franchise is still boldly going where no one has gone before. More installments of the franchise are on air then ever, with something to offer almost every Trekkie in its rapidly expanding universe. However, Star Trek: The Original Series is the big bang that started it all. Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future — produced by Lucille Ball , no less — debuted in September of 1966 and ran for three seasons on NBC before finding new life in syndication.

While the series' Prime Directive seemed to be shredding Capt. Kirk's shirt as often as possible, our mission is to represent a variety of agreed upon classics from the U.S.S. Enterprise's maiden voyage that would delight both the original and next generation of fans.

So fire up your favorite snacks in the replicator, silence your tricorder, and beam on down our list of the 10 must-watch episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , all of which are available to stream in remastered form on Paramount + .

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (Season 1, episode 3)

After the Enterprise goes through an energy rift at the edge of the galaxy, Captain Kirk's ( William Shatner ) friend and shipmate, Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood), begins to develop terrifying ESP abilities that grow stronger by the minute. As he makes the transition from man to "god," he becomes increasingly more dangerous and detached from humanity. Ship psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner ( Sally Kellerman ) believes his mutation can help mankind evolve, but Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) is adamant he must be killed before he destroys them all. Will Kirk choose his best friend over the best interests of his crew — and the universe?

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is most famous for being the second pilot filmed for the series, and introducing viewers to Captain James T. Kirk, Chief Engineer Scotty (James Doohan), and Lieutenant Sulu ( George Takei ). It's also just a great hour of sci-fi storytelling. This superior first episode seamlessly mixes action, high stakes emotions, and tough ethical questions, setting the blueprint for the franchise.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" (Season 1, episode 28)

When a time disruption from a nearby planet rocks the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ) — aka Bones — accidentally injects himself with an overdose of a dangerous drug. Driven mad, he flees to the planet below and goes through the time warp, changing history and erasing the Federation of Planets from existence. Kirk and Spock follow him to set things right, and find themselves in 1930s Depression-era New York.

As they search for Bones, Kirk meets and falls in love with a social worker named Edith Wheeler ( Joan Collins ) whose fate, it turns out, will determine the course of humanity. Once again, Kirk must choose between someone he loves and the greater good. One of Trek 's most emotionally charged hours, "The City on the Edge of Forever" — scripted by Harlan Ellison — is considered by many to be the greatest episode of all-time.

"Space Seed" (Season 1, episode 22)

The Enterprise team stumbles upon the marooned S.S. Botany Bay in deep space and awakens the crew from suspended animation. They soon discover these lost spacefarers were exiled from Earth during the infamous Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, and our heroes have unwittingly unleashed a genetically enhanced super-tyrant named Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalban ) in the 23rd century.

Montalban's magnetic, calculating would-be-ruler serves as a perfect foil for Shatner's compassionate, tactical Kirk, leading to a great one-on-one showdown between the two for control of the ship. This season one episode is the introduction of the series' most infamous villain, who 15 years later will headline Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , widely regarded as the best film in the franchise.

"Amok Time" (Season 2, episode 1)

Kirk vs. Spock! Kirk's shirt ripped open (again)! Spock in heat! This episode has everything a fan of the duo that launched a thousand slash fics could want. Every seven years, a Vulcan must return home for an ancient mating ceremony called "pon farr." When Kirk and Bones accompany him, they find themselves dealing with (farr) more than they bargained for when the Captain is forced to battle Spock in a ritual fight to the death.

In addition to the showdown between the leads, "Amok Time" has several other firsts: the first use of the Vulcan Salute, the first appearance of Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), and the first glimpse of the planet Vulcan itself. This perennial favorite is also heavily referenced in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' fifth episode — titled " Spock Amok " — on Paramount +.

"Mirror, Mirror" (Season 2, episode 4)

An away team consisting of Kirk, Bones, Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ), and Scotty are sent to an alternate dimension when they are caught in an ion storm mid-transport. This "mirror" dimension is populated by violent doppelgangers of the Enterprise crew who serve the Terran Empire instead of the Federation of Planets. The foursome must navigate the cutthroat nature of this universe and find a way back before their secret is exposed — all while surviving a mutiny to overthrow this reality's Kirk. Hip daggers, bare midriffs, and Spock's goatee are just a few of the signs that things in this universe are askew.

Although Evil Bearded Spock is certainly fun to see, George Takei gives the standout performance as a delightfully evil Sulu, complete with a badass facial scar. This episode is a highlight of the original series and forms the foundation for several stories in future Trek franchises like Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Discovery .

"The Trouble with Tribbles" (Season 2, episode 15)

A fan favorite episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles" is a comedic left turn that shouldn't work, but absolutely does. Starring adorable little furballs who are "born pregnant" and multiply at a rapid pace, this zany hour allows the heady sci-fi questions of morality to take a back seat in favor of punchlines and hijinks.

The actual plot of the episode revolves around Kirk protecting a supply of space grain essential to Starfleet's sovereignty over a contested planet. The fun begins, however, when Uhura picks up one of the tiny tribbles while on shore leave at Space Station K-7 and unleashes an infestation on every corner of the Enterprise — including Kirk's lunch. The Captain's exasperated responses to the growing tribble crisis are comedy gold, especially as he seems to be the only one immune to their cooing charms. "Tribbles" also features a fantastic slapstick bar fight between Scotty, Chekov, and a handful of Klingon officers for the honor of the Enterprise. This episode is a fun detour into the lighter side of the crew's five-year mission.

"Balance of Terror" (Season 1, episode 14)

Kirk and company find themselves in an action-packed showdown with the Romulans when they investigate a mysterious loss of communication with Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone. Despite a history of war with Earth, no one has ever laid eyes on an actual member of their species — until now.

As the Romulans are believed to be the violent cousins of the Vulcans, Spock becomes the subject of suspicion and xenophobia from some of the crew — particularly Lt. Stiles (guest star Paul Comi) — whose ancestors were killed in the Earth-Romulan War. The story's point-of-view shifts between the two vessels, allowing the viewer to see that the warring foes are more alike than they realize.

This season one classic features the first appearance of the Romulans — who will go on to be recurring antagonists for the heroes of the franchise. Also, keep an eye out for actor Mark Lenard as the Romulan Commander. He'll return to the series in a recurring role as Spock's father.

"The Corbomite Maneuver" (Season 1, episode 10)

While exploring an uncharted area of space, the Enterprise is pursued by a mysterious cube emitting harmful radiation. To protect themselves, they lay waste to it, and incur the wrath of Balok, commander of a technologically superior alien race. He takes control of the Enterprise's systems and declares the ship, and everyone onboard, will be destroyed in 10 minutes. A tense hour with a really wild twist ending, this installment showcases Kirk's ingenuity and characteristic refusal to lose — one of the many times the Captain will boldy bluff where no man has bluffed before.

"The Corbomite Maneuver" is also the first time DeForest Kelley (McCoy) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) played their iconic characters, although they appear earlier in the series due to NBC originally airing episodes out of production order.

"The Doomsday Machine" (Season 2, episode 6)

Our intrepid explorers receive a distress signal from fellow Starfleet ship the U.S.S. Constellation and rush to its aid. Upon arrival, they find Commodore Matthew Decker (William Windom) — the ship's commander and sole survivor — wracked with guilt and suffering from PTSD. Decker's entire crew was annihilated by a massive energy weapon of unknown origin that destroyed the entire star system.

Pulling rank, he takes command of his rescuer's ship, and puts the crew of the Enterprise in the crosshairs of the unstoppable world-killing device. Kirk, marooned on Decker's derelict starship, must figure out a way to rescue the Enterprise from both the machine and an out-of-control superior officer. Introducing a planet-ending energy weapon 10 years before Star Wars , this episode features a real nail-biter of an ending.

Fun fact for the continuity-conscious : Decker's son, Willard Decker ( Stephen Collins ), will play a prominent role in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

"Arena" (Season 1, episode 18)

Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones, and an unfortunate " Redshirt " arrive at the Cestus III Outpost for a diplomatic mission and find it annihilated by an alien race called the Gorn. Seeking revenge, Kirk pushes the Enterprise to pursue the Gorn starship and destroy it. The chase leads into an unmapped sector of space ruled by a powerful force calling themselves the Metrons. Outraged by the brutality of both ships, the Metrons force the two captains to settle their dispute in a fight to the death on a desert planet. The winner will leave the sector unharmed, while the loser, and their crew, will die.

The bulk of this episode involves William Shatner being chased by an actor in a giant rubber lizard suit — and honestly, it rules. Yes, the suit looks goofy, but the showdown is fun as hell and the message of the story is classic Star Trek : sometimes there is more going on beneath the surface than we realize. Very few Star Trek villains are ever just one-dimensional bad guys, and the Gorn are no exception.

Fun fact : Ted Cassidy, who provides the voice for the Gorn captain, also provided the voice of Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver."

Related content:

• Nichelle Nichols' life in photos
• Stars across the galaxy mourn 'trailblazing, incomparable' Nichelle Nichols: 'My heart is heavy'
• William Shatner, George Takei, and fans celebrate #StarTrekDay for sci-fi series anniversary

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Glenn morshower's 5 star trek roles explained.

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Every Star Trek Series, Ranked Worst To Best

Every star trek movie in chronological order, star trek actors & executive producers react to peabody award.

• Glenn Morshower portrayed five characters across multiple Star Trek series & films, showcasing his versatility as a character actor.
• Morshower's roles ranged from a junior officer to a sneaky alien, displaying his talent for embodying different personas effectively.
• Known for playing military and law enforcement roles, Morshower's commanding presence shines through in each of his Star Trek performances.

Character actor Glenn Morshower has portrayed five different characters across three Star Trek series and one feature film. Morshower's first Star Trek appearance came near the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, when he portrayed ensign Burke in "Peak Performance." He later appeared as an alien named Mr. Orton in the TNG season 6 episode, "Starship Mine." Morshower briefly appeared as the navigator on the USS Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations before popping up in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise .

Glenn Morshower has appeared in numerous films and television shows, often portraying military men or law enforcement officers. He is best known for playing Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce in 24 and Colonel Sharp in the Transformers films. Morshower has also appeared in episodes of The X-Files, CSI, The West Wing, Friday Night Lights, and Agents of SHIELD. More recently Morshower played Marshall Winthrop in 25 episodes of The Resident and President Andrew Johnson in the Apple TV+ series Manhunt . Morshower has also done voice-over work for several popular video game franchises, including Call of Duty and Wolfenstein.

There are 11 Star Trek TV series (and counting) over 58 years. From The Original Series to TNG to Strange New Worlds and Prodigy, we rank them all.

5 Ensign Burke

Star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 21 - "peak performance".

In Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "Peak Performance," the USS Enterprise-D participates in war games exercises, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) faces off against Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in command of the USS Hathaway. Glenn Morshower portrays Ensign Burke, who serves as a junior operations and tactical officer aboard the Enterprise. When Riker chooses Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) to be a part of his crew on the Hathaway, Burke takes the Klingon's place at the tactical station.

A Ferengi ship commanded by DaiMon Bractor (Armin Shimerman) arrives and attacks, unaware that the two Federation ships are participating in practice exercises. The two Federation ships and their crews are able to outsmart the Ferengi, and bring an end to the wargames. Ensign Burke then serves as a mediator during a game of Strategema between master strategist Sirna Kolrami (Roy Brocksmith) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner).

4 Mr. Orton

Star trek: the next generation season 6, episode 18 - "starship mine".

In Star Trek's version of Die Hard , Captain Picard must singlehandedly thwart a group of thieves aboard the USS Enterprise-D. When the Enterprise docks at the Remmler Array to undergo a decontamination process, Captain Picard ends up stuck on the ship when the rest of the crew beams down to the station to attend a party. The party is quickly interrupted when the station administrator, an Arkarian named Mr. Orton, takes the senior officers captive, while his accomplices board the Enterprise.

With his alien appearance and prosthetics, Glenn Morshower is unrecognizable as Orton, who is eventually captured after the captive Enterprise crew members escape. Data and the other crew members had rigged the VISOR of Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to emit a hypersonic pulse that rendered everyone other than Data unconscious. Orton initially played nice with the Enterprise crew members at the party, before revealing his part in the plot to steal trilithium from the Enterprise.

Tim Russ portrayed the first of the marauders taken out by Captain Picard on the Enterprise. Russ is most known for portraying Vulcan Chief of Security Tuvok in all 7 seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , but he also appeared briefly as a lieutenant aboard the Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations.

3 USS Enterprise-B Navigator

Star trek generations.

Glenn Morshower's unnamed navigator only appears in the opening sequence of Star Trek Generations as a crewmember aboard the USS Enterprise-B, under the command of Captain John Harriman (Alan Ruck) . Setting out on its maiden voyage, the Enterprise-B soon gets pulled into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian refugee ships. Morshower's navigator informs Harriman that the Enterprise is the only ship in range of the El-Aurian ships , and he later releases plasma from the warp nacelles as part of the rescue attempt.

When the Enterprise gets trapped in the same energy ribbon that damaged the El-Aurian ships, the navigator is hit by an explosion and presumably killed. From this point forward, Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) takes over the navigator's station and helps the Enterprise escape. Having gone down to the deflector control room to modify the main deflector, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) gets caught in a hull breach and is presumed dead. In reality, he ends up in the mysterious Nexus, where Captain Picard later finds him.

With 13 entries in the Star Trek movie series from 1979-2006, there are a couple of ways to watch the films chronologically.

2 Mokra Order Guard

Star trek: voyager season 2, episode 12 - "resistance".

As Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Lt. Tuvok, and Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) try to buy tellerium for the USS Voyager, they are targeted by the planet's ruling body, the Mokra Order. Tuvok and B'Elanna are captured, while an injured Janeway is saved by a local man named Caylem (Joel Grey). Caylem believes Janeway to be his daughter, Ralkana, who was killed years ago trying to rescue her mother from prison.

Glenn Morshower only appears briefly as one of the Mokra Order guards stationed at the prison where Tuvok and B'Elanna were being held. When Janeway and Caylem mount their rescue attempt, Janeway lures this guard away from his post so that Caylem can knock him out. With distinct ridges at the tops of their noses, the Mokra Order soldiers were brutal members of the Alsaurian species opposed by the Alsaurian resistance movement.

1 Sheriff MacReady

Star trek: enterprise season 3, episode 9 - "north star".

As the Enterprise NX-01 explores the Delphic Expanse, they discover a planet inhabited by humans living in a civilization modeled after the 1860s American frontier. Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) , Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) visit the planet to investigate and soon meet Glenn Morshower's Sheriff MacReady. MacReady is immediately suspicious of Archer, and orders his deputy to keep an eye on him.

Archer and his crew eventually learn that the humans were originally brought from Earth by a species called the Skagarans. The humans later overthrew their Skagaran masters and subjugated them, creating laws preventing them from getting an education or owning property. Archer later tells MacReady about modern Earth and emphasizes that humans of the 22nd century have moved past subjugating sentient species. With his penchant for playing law enforcement officers, Glenn Morshower brought a commanding presence to all five of his Star Trek roles.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, & Star Trek: Enterprise are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek Generations is available to stream on Max.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star trek voyager, star trek: enterprise.

• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

• May 10, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Debuts On Nielsen Streaming Top 10
• May 10, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Breens Out On “Erigah” With Commentary From Elias Toufexis Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• May 9, 2024 | Star Trek Franchise Wins Peabody Award
• May 9, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets Cool Under Pressure In “Erigah”
• May 8, 2024 | Chris Pine Talks “Big F-ing Deal” Landing Kirk Role; Surprised ‘Star Trek 4’ Has Another New Screenwriter

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Goes On A Spiritual Journey In “Whistlespeak”

| May 2, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 105 comments so far

“Whistlespeak”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 6 – Debuted Thursday, May 2, 2024 Written by Kenneth Lin & Brandon Schultz Directed by Chris Byrne

A classic Trek setup delivers a solid episode exploring character arcs and big ideas.

Hey, I’m in this episode too!

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“The most important thing is to work in harmony”

Picking up on the clue they nabbed in the previous episode, Paul and the geek squad run into a science wall deciphering the simple vial of water so the captain suggests they try cultural analysis instead before she pops off to the mysterious Infinity Room. Kovich tells her that another ship is tracking Moll and L’ak, and the Disco has to stay on task for the Progenitor Tech. He does offer a bit of help, providing a list (on actual paper!) of all the scientists from Vellek’s team. Returning to the science lab the team quickly sorts out which scientist left the water clue, it was a Denobulan named Dr. Kreel who designed rain-making weather towers. A bit more detective work narrows things down to an arid world on an old Denobulan trade route and presto shroomo, they arrive at Planet Helem’no. The good news is they found one of Kreel’s weather towers. The bad news: the tower is surrounded by some “weird energy” preventing scans… and a pre-warp society. The captain flexes her xenoanthropology, revealing Helem’nites have three gender identities and no concept of class status; sounds like just the kind of place a Denobulan would party. Tilly is tagged to join on the field trip and so it’s good ol’ alien disguise time!

On the planet, they have a bit of a hike to get to the tower so they walk and talk about Tilly’s new life as a teacher at Starfleet Academy, where she is concerned one of her students is thinking of leaving. Soon enough they follow some “whistlepseak” (title alert!) leading to a group of pilgrims, only to witness one collapse due to spending too much time in the dust storms. Michael and Tilly struggle over that old Prime Directive, but the local woman ends up being saved by High Priest Ohvahz and his cool “sound cure,” which has the surprise side effect of knocking Michael out. She wakes up to find Tilly making friends with the priest’s kid Ravah who is super excited to get to the temple at the high summit, which is actually an 8-century-old Denobulan weather machine. Shhh. There is a traditional “Journey” race with the winner getting the honor to enter the temple and so Michael and Tilly sign up as a way in to search for the clue. Ravah signs up too, but priest dad is suspiciously not into the idea. Tilly encourages them, seeing the same kind of ambition she admires in her cadets. Michael takes a surreptitious sidebar to talk to Rayner and the gang on the Disco. Adira discovered more old (and broken down) weather towers and this last one is about to fritz out too. This fun day trip just turned into one of those “everyone is going to die if we don’t fix it” kind of things.

Why am I getting a sense this is no “fun run.”

“Let’s go meet the gods together”

Meanwhile on Discovery, Culber is still feeling a bit off. He decides to get counseling from a holo grief program based on his own abuela, who was known to dabble in the spiritual. He is looking for answers to what’s been happening to him since he merged with a Trill , but grandmother reminds him she was also a doctor, suggesting he stop trying to examine his soul before examining his body. So he grabs his hubby and they head to sickbay because “nothing is as romantic as a neural scan.” Aww. All Paul can detect is Hugh’s brain is normal, and of course “handsome.” Adorable. Culber was hoping for more, revealing ever since Trill he feels “more connected” to something big, but he just doesn’t know what to do it about. Is someone about to meet a Koala ?

Michael has a curious chat with the cured woman from earlier talking about how she really misses her old friend who won the last big race. Like priest dad, she suggests there are other ways to show devotion besides participating in the Journey ritual. Hmm. The race begins with the sucking of a cube that parches the competitors as they head up a course lined with water bowls, which they can’t drink without being disqualified. After spotting some mutated moss, Michael leaves the race to find the radiation-leaking control panel. Eventually, Tilly and Ravah are the only two left, both tripping big-time with dehydration. The ritual now calls for carrying water bowls, which seems particularly cruel. Ravah drops theirs and Dad is elated, but Tilly steps up and shares her water with her new little protégé, and they continue to the high summit together. Teamwork! They tie up and both get to enter the temple. As Ravah takes in the spiritual moment, Tilly uses her cool new retinal tricorder but isn’t finding any clue. Priest dad shows up looking miserable, telling the winners their sacrifice will bless Helem’No for many seasons. Sacri-whatnow?

Upon reflection, fire was not a good call for the vacuum chamber.

“Beliefs can evolve”

As the walls are about to literally close in on Tilly, Michael gets some tech support from Adira to fix the weather system’s control panel, which is in the middle of the forest for some reason. The ensign is still feeling out of sorts since letting the time spider on board (not their fault) but Rayner rallies them so after some technobabble, the system is fixed. Tilly is now trapped in a vacuum chamber and can’t be beamed out so Michael breaks the Prime Directive and beams into the room right next door where Priest Dad is hanging out. With the air escaping, Ravah is now having second thoughts as Michael goes all in with their father, revealing his whole world is a lie so he should just open the door. Yeah, that didn’t work so Michael makes contact through the impenetrable wall using her subcutaneous communicator and starts humming a song she hears from Ravah that their mother used to sing. That gets Ohvahz’s attention and with “I am not a god but maybe I was sent here by one,” he opens his mind to a new reality… and the door. By this time Ravah has collapsed but Culber’s medical team can now beam in for the save. Heisenberg be praised!

As Culber and his team work everyday miracles, Ohvahz takes in the wonder of a hologram of his planet as he learns aliens called Denobulans saved them centuries ago. Now it’s his job to keep their technology working… no prayer required. Michael plays agnostic on whether this big reveal disproves the divine, leaving him with the thorny issue of getting his society to stop the pointless (yet popular) sacrifices. As Dad and Ravah reunite, Tilly has big news, showing Michael wall markings matching those on that persnickety water vial clue. They are in the wrong tower, but the next map piece and clue is in tower #5. Back on the ship, Book is sulking for not getting picked for the fun away mission, doing what dudes do… playing video games – technically shuttle combat simulation, but it looked just like Asteroids . Culber joins to cheer him up with a snack and to find a new outlet to talk about his burgeoning “spiritual awakening.” The former courier offers solace saying it’s okay for Hugh to have a part of his life he doesn’t share with Paul, while Book inadvertently shares how much he misses what he had with Michael. As the boys share a nice moment, Tilly and Michael have one too as they put the fourth piece of the map in place and ponder the big picture, and how each of the scientists seems to be sending them a message through time, warning of the “massive responsibility” of the Progenitor tech. Before they work all that out, the word comes that Moll and L’ak have been found. Black Alert!

Wait ’till I tell you about Denobulan marriages, it’s going to blow your mind.

Faith of the heart

“Whistlespeak” is a decent mid-season episode that takes a moment to pause and reflect on the season’s themes and impact on the characters. The pacing was slower by design, giving time to take in the location, performances, and character development. And they threw in the world-ending stakes to keep it interesting. Like other season 5 entries, the premise is classic Trek with an actual visit to a strange new world. Exploring a pre-warp society and coming into conflict with the Prime Directive, evokes episodes like “Who Watches the Watchers,” “The Paradise Syndrome,” and many others. You may not even notice it but the facial markings and even Tilly’s hairstyle were added as they beamed down, a subtle 32nd transporter tech upgrade to having the doctor handle alien disguises. It’s always hard to come up with a new culture on Star Trek but keeping it simple worked for “Whistlespeak.” The events on Helem’No were also a bit of a microcosm of the season itself, a race to receive the grace of the gods is not so different than the USS Discovery’s race to find the Progenitor’s tech. Like the Progenitors, the Denobulans played God with this planet but there is a warning about even good intentions can have unintended consequences. Confronting the Prime Directive — one of the core tenets of Federation philosophy — isn’t so different than how the High Priest had to evolve his worldview. The season’s focus on connection was nicely woven throughout the various plots and stories with a strong emphasis on the recurring theme of exploring spirituality without getting too heavy-handed, showing respect, and learning lessons from different points of view, which is all very Star Trek.

This was a great episode for Mary Wiseman as she showed off all the familiar aspects of Tilly from her dry wit to her whip smarts, with the season’s added layer of her growing into a mentor figure, such as how she immediately bonded with Ravah, ably played by guest star June LaPorte. And once again this final season reminds us where it all started, bringing back some of the Michael/Tilly bonding seen in the first couple of seasons, including a bit of running together as they used to do around the USS Discovery. Extended scenes with Wiseman and Sonequa Martin-Green have been missed. But as this was a Tilly-focused episode, the show could have held back some of its tendencies, giving her more of the “aha” moments to move the plot along. Burnham will also be the hero, but share the character wealth. Wilson Cruz also stood out as we explored his character’s spiritual awakening. This storyline has been playing along nicely and seems to be setting something up. Simple things like paying off namedrops of his abuela show how much Discovery has improved on layering in these season-long character arcs.

Tilly is concerned about her listing on ratemyprofessor.com.

Reach for any star

While the intriguing big Breen reveal from the previous episode was set aside for this week, the search for clues structure continues to allow for these nice little episodic adventures. It’s always great to meet a new culture and expand on the canon. Once again the season doesn’t shy away from utilizing franchise lore, in this case bringing in a few bits of Denobulan society through Dr. Kreel. However, after we got to (sort of) meet the first two Progenitor research scientists in episodes 1 and 3, the show is missing an opportunity to continue that by introducing the others. Instead of just talking about Denobulans, it would have been a treat to actually get to see Dr. Kreel (and Dr. Cho in the last episode, too), and that could have also helped sell some of the episode’s themes. On the other hand, it’s always great to get to learn more about the enigmatic Dr. Kovich, with David Cronenberg continuing to intrigue us with more tidbits about his character who has a penchant for old legal pads. This and his “Infinity Room,” all feel like it is leading somewhere and hopefully this series doesn’t wrap up without finally explaining what is his deal.

Of course, the episode also has some of the usual frustrations. Discovery needs to find some more creative ways to explain away when and how and where the 32nd technology doesn’t work. It seems every episode has some weird energy field preventing the transporters from working so that the episode can progress at the desired pace, specifically a walking pace. That being said, the retinal tricorders were a nice new bit of tech, although perhaps not discreet enough if someone checks out what’s happening with one of your eyes. And while it may only be the “Prime Suggestion” to many Trek captains, it still isn’t clear if the season plot “Red Directive” supersedes the Prime Directive, but for obvious reasons, it’s not likely Burnham will face the same kind of tribunal as (formerly) Captain Rayner. The disruption to this society was pretty profound and they probably should have noted that Starfleet would be back to check in to make sure they didn’t just kick off a religious war. By the way, why didn’t the Denobulans ever check in after leaving all their tech running? These quibbles are not episode breakers but are the usual kinds of things that Discovery doesn’t seem interested in tying up, and perhaps they are a bit nitpicky, but that too is a Trek tradition. Finally, this may not be a nitpick, but the crew seems a bit blasé in how they treat the slowly-assembling map, which seems to be left around various parts of the Discovery. Like every hero ship before, the USS Discovery has been boarded by the bad guys on several occasions, so maybe this is setting up for a coming heist.

The most important thing in the Federation makes for a nice conversation piece.

Final thoughts

This (dare I say) “filler” episode was a solid outing that delivered some classic Star Trek to Discovery . With four out of five pieces of the map assembled in six episodes, it feels like we are making progress without getting sidetracked. The pivot in Season 5 continues to be finally finding the sweet spot in episodic adventures, serialized plot, and character development.

Only four more, y’all.

• For the third episode in a row, Doug Jones is not credited. Saru is confirmed to appear in at least the finale episode, so he will be back.
• The actual whistlespeak heard in the episode was performed by professional whistler Molly Lewis .
• Michael studied xenolinguistics on Vulcun under a Dr. T’Prasi.
• Denobulans use silver iodine to make it rain on Denobula, which is used today in cloud seeding .
• The walls of the Denobulan vacuum chamber were made of solid Tritanium , which was commonly used by Starfleet in the 24th century, but perhaps the thickness prevented beaming.
• The (replicated) Culber family Mofongo con pollo al ajillo is a traditional Puerto Rican dish with rice, chicken, and garlic.
• The “sound cure” bowls used by the Hilem’No are like so-called Tibetan “ singing bowls ” which have been used in the modern era for “ music therapy .”
• The sound wave pattern shown during the “sound cure” is a real phenomenon called cymatics .
• The weather control interface was in the Denobulan language , first seen on  Star Trek: Enterprise .
• If Kovich’s 21st century legal pad is made of acid-free paper, then it could indeed survive for centuries .
• Vellek (Romulan)
• Jinaal Bix (Trill)
• Carmen Cho (Terran)
• Hitoroshi Kreel (Denobulan)
• Marina Derex (Betazoid)… obviously named in honor of Marina Sirtis .

Four more?… for you maybe.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery  will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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All Access Star Trek Podcast , Discovery , Interview , Review , Shatner , Star Trek 4

Podcast: All Access Breens Out On “Erigah” With Commentary From Elias Toufexis Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

Discovery , Review

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets Cool Under Pressure In “Erigah”

Preview ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode 507 With New Images, Trailer And Clip From “Erigah”

It’s a good stand-alone ep. It proves you don’t need bad guys chasing for the same relics. I realized how unnecessary they are.

I echo that sentiment, big-time!

The best Trek is without “bad guys”. Always has been. Too bad modern writers don’t get it. This was a gem of an episode.

Great episode i really enjoyed the slow pacing of it and i always like a episode involving a trip to a pre warp society.

It’s great that they have gotten 4 of the 5 pieces of the puzzle already and not leaving it to the penultimate episode.

I do agree with the review that it would be nice to see the rest of the scientists and i hope when they do find the Progenitor Tech we find get some form of flashback with the scientists finding the tech.

I really like it when NuTrek references Enterprise.

What do you mean, exactly? I didn’t get get it

Possibly he’s referring to the Denobulans.

This is like the trill episode. A lot of other stuff happens with a minimal plot advancement. I’m ok with that, if it’s interesting. If you’re going to recycle and re-use tropes, it needs to be interesting. This was largely, not. I found it more interesting than the Trill episode, and I loved the delivery of the message Burnham gives at the end. That why I found this episode better than that one. But still wasn’t all that great.

I was bored rigid. This is what happens when you take 45 minutes of plot and stretch it out over 10 episodes.

I finally started watching Slow Horses on the weekend – and ended up binging all three seasons this week.

Six 40ish-minute episodes a season, no filler, complex plots and solid characters, writing and acting.

I wish Trek could pull that off.

Great show.

This is my main problem with it, yes. I loved episodes 1 and 2, but from after that it started going downhill for precisely that reason: because there’s not much of a story here. So we get a whole lot of filler scenes, scenes about people being unsure of themselves (this must be the most emotionally fragile crew in the history of Starfleet–it’s getting kind of ridiculous at this point), and minimal plot advancement. Meanwhile, all the focus is on Action Hero Michael every single episode, with Saru, Stamets, the entire bridge crew, and Reno doing almost nothing all season. Tilly has had more to do this season, which is great. But other than Michael, Book, Culber, and Saru, everyone else has done almost nothing since season two. I really wanted to like this season, and when it started I very much did. But it’s going nowhere fast.

You nailed it.

Wow you said everything I been thinking too. The season is feeling more and more flat and the characters outside a few of them just has nothing to do.

Started off great but halfway through now and I’m getting bored again because it doesn’t feel compelling enough.

Yeah, they took what might have been a solid four-hour story and turned it into ten hours, and they gave us two entirely lackluster villains. One thing that has been a big problem on Trek for a while now–on Discovery, as well as on Picard–has been utterly forgettable and boring villains. Not one of them has really stood out to me on either show, other than Lorca.

This has been the problem with almost all of these. I go back to, if you’re going to deviate a bit, it’s ok.. but it better be engaging.. better be interesting. With Star Trek, you really have to make the theme feel original. None of that happens here. I don’t have a problem with what they’re trying to do.. I have a problem with the execution of it. And that’s the same problem with most of Discovery for me.

agree. I wonder what the financial upside would be if they had the courage to write the main story they want to tell and film it. This should be the benefit of the streaming platform model. If it’s 5 episodes, it’s five episodes but – if they are a great five episodes, wouldn’t that be better for the franchise than 10 of mediocre quality?

Pssst… not sure if you are aware of this or not. But that was the whole premise of the show from the start. It was… and is… about Michael. It was never going to be a cast show. It is a show about Michael. And that is why she is predominately the focus in the episodes.

Bit behind on this series and just watched episodes 2 and 3 this evening., but Culber had a big part in episode 3 in my opinion. Also it seems to me that Captain Rayner has a big part. It isn’t just the Kirk, Bone, Spock show to me with Discovery this season.

This sounds lovely and wonderful! I think I’ll finally break down and join Paramount+ instead of waiting for the DVD release! (And I’m a Tilly fan, too :)

My least liked episode of the season. It was a filler episode without any meaningful filler.

Yeah they found the next clue in the end but it went sideways at times with Tilly and Culber having some kind of personal crisis that went nowhere. .In my opinion, it wouldn’t be noticed if this episode were accidentally skipped. It is a standalone episode that stands still.

Maybe this show is better if the seasons are watched in one sitting?

Hopefully the next episode will advance the plot more than this one did.

To my happy surprise, I enjoyed Tilly’s involvement a lot. I don’t always like her. But here, I thought she worked well. The rest of the episode? Pointless.

So Betazed is the location for both a red herring AND a real clue? Moll and L’ak are going to be pissed they missed it. I mean, they had to have missed it or they would have had no motivation whatsoever to return to Lyrek.

I think that’s more because the clues left for the Trill episode pointed toward the Trill and not the Betazed clue though too. Although, yeah I’d be irritated too.

Anyone else find it interesting though that whatever they’re making they are finding the pieces right in the order they appear in the circular puzzle?

Seems intentional in-universe; the only way to not start at the beginning would be to luck into a random clue and somehow see it for what it is without the Romulan journal providing context and the official starting point.

Does anybody know why Doug Jones is absent for so much of this season? Was he off making a movie or something? It seems odd that he is not actually in the series that he is one of the main stars of…

This season is peculiar because of the missing regular cast, hard to believe they couldn’t get commitments from the actors unless the show simply couldn’t use them or didn’t want them. I suspect it has something to do with controlling the budget or other contractual issues.

It’s peculiar, I agree. Discovery has become the Michael-Book-Culber show, with most of the characters under-utilized and ignored. That, for me, has been its greatest failing in the past couple seasons, but especially in this one.

Tilly was similarly absent for most of last season. It’s keenly felt because it’s a small cast to begin with. That’s part of my frustration with how they never really promoted any of the bridge crew to be a more impactful and fleshed-out character. There’s been plenty of time to do it.

Doug Jones posted that he was out for most of this season due to Hocus Pocus 2.

Thanks for the information, William. I was going to say it was weird that he chose to be absent from a big chunk of the last season of his show, but then remembered that he did not know it was the last season.

Seems like Hocus Pocus 2 came out waaay before this and that wouldn’t have been filming anywhere close to each other – dates in Wikipedia indicates HP2 was done filming by the time Disco 5 was even ordered

But – time is an illusion. Tea time, doubly so.

This is his Twitter post: https://twitter.com/actordougjones/status/1784136793753042992

He was promoting Hocus Pocus 2 while S5 was being filmed.

That’s not how contracts work, though. If they wanted him for episodes of Trek, he’d have had to skip the press tour. This means they let him out of any contract he had, presumably; which in turn likely means they were find with paying him for fewer episodes.

I agree on the statement about how contracts work and it probably was a cost saving measure for them. There’s also the possibility that Doug Jones original contract for Hocus Pocus included sequel clauses and promotional requirements.

This current era of Trek though does seem willing to let their players go do other things. Saru in Season 5 with Hocus Pocus, Tilly in Season 4 with her play, Bryce for his BET show.

It was a descent episode. And since you guys were discussing what a ‘filler’ episode is on you and Laurie’s (amazing) podcast, I too wanted to say: this is a classic filler episode. Nothing really happened but it was injoyable on its own. Funny enough, I give this one an enjoyable 7, where last week was a frustrating 7.

Some of the repeating things are getting annoying:

• Michael headlining EVERY episode.
• Transporters not working.
• Talking about characters but not showing them (at least here it was an unknown).

I still don’t understand what they’re trying to do with Culber and his so-called spiritual awakening. Like you said, it must be going somewheren, because, what else is the point. I’m juist not seeing (or getting) it yet.

I’m shocked you didn’t mention the perfectly machine-made wooden water bowls by the way. That one bugged me, for such a primitive people.

And I cringed at the Marina tribute, because it was just too on the nose as a literal first name of a person.

By the way, regarding Kovich: there might be a chance he’s from the department of temporal whatsit. Although not the same suit as temporal agents on SNW season 2, it is about the same color.

Yeah, I’ve always assumed Kovich could time-travel, so that’s how he gets the paper.

Correction: The episode happened in and around tower #3, the clue was in tower #5

I only mention that because I read somewhere how nitpicking is part of Trek … :)

I guess the fact that the winner of the race was sacrificed was supposed to be a surprise? When the priest tried to talk his child out of it, and the person Burnham saved talked about how the friend who’d won the race she ran when she was young was dead, I was sure that the winner would be sacrificed. If it was obvious to ME, how did Burnham and Tilly miss it?

I know Burnham decided to break the Prime Directive for what she thought was a good reason, but I’m amazed that she decided to show the priest his planet from space. Wait, once it’s broken, you can go whole hog? There’s no attempt to maybe limit the damage?

I’m an atheist because of Occam’s Razor, and I’m always uncomfortable when Star Trek tries to get spiritual. I grew up on Kirk’s unmasking false gods and tearing down computers who pretend to be gods, so NuTrek’s careful tiptoeing around gods always makes me long for a little Jim Kirk. Apollo’s just an alien with an extra organ in his chest, damn it! :-)

I didn’t even like it when DS9 turned the franchise more toward a distinctly non-Roddenberrian spirituality, much less when Discovery does it. That said, I enjoyed this episode.

The extended impact of Culber’s experience on Trill could have played out in a very cliche way, so at least this is different. I suspect his “new outlook” will have a place in the resolution of the Progenitor tech. It’s also sort of retcon of his rebirth, which never really was “used” properly. So far, I am liking this… and I definitely come to Trek to should down alien gods!

Mankind has no need for gods we find the one quite adequate Captain Kirk

McCOY: We were speculating …’Is God really out there?’ KIRK: Maybe He’s not out there, Bones. Maybe He’s right here …in the human heart. …Spock?

SPOCK: I wish we could have examined that belief of his more closely. It seems illogical for a sun worshiper to develop a philosophy of total brotherhood. Sun worship is usually a primitive superstition religion.

UHURA: I’m afraid you have it all wrong, Mister Spock, all of you. I’ve been monitoring some of their old-style radio waves, the empire spokesman trying to ridicule their religion. But he couldn’t. Don’t you understand? It’s not the sun up in the sky. It’s the Son of God.

KIRK: Caesar and Christ. They had them both. And the word is spreading only now.

MCCOY: A philosophy of total love and total brotherhood.

Kirk or Sisko wouldn’t have asked the dad to open the door. They would have blasted it with their phaser.

Could Kovich be a Supervisor ala Gary Seven and Tallinn?

I was wondering – or a Q?

I think he’s a time agent. His suit is different than the time agent in SNW but basically the same dark grey.

Technically he can’t be a time agent. They said in Season 3 that there were temporal accords that prevented those types of personnel in Starfleet.

Future Guy from ENT

He managed a staples in 2004.

Two ‘meh’ ones in a row. Who Watches the Watchers this is NOT!

Sure, It’s great to see a pre-warp prime directive story again and I liked that Burnham revealed herself in the end to save Tilly and the girl. That’s always a Trek trope and I’m trying to think of any episode where they managed to stay completely hidden the whole time. Anyone have any examples?

But this episode just really lacked for me. Not awful just not very interesting either. It tried but just felt pretty flat overall.

As for finding pieces of the progenitor tech, it’s become pretty formulaic now and very little of a challenge. The clues are all easily found and it’s literally like putting together a Jinga puzzle. It just feels too easy. And Moll and Lak doesn’t feel threatening at all. They are just there so they can have some conflict in the story but it also feels so meh, similar to the Book and Tarka’s ‘chase’ last season.

I know they are trying and want to give us this grand adventure story but it’s still Discovery falling back to the same issues again and again. And this show keeps stretching five minutes of plot into an hour story. I wish I could care more about Culber’s ‘spiritual journey’ but yeah I just don’t.

Anyway four more episodes. Trying to stay positive but sadly I think I’m just back for the show to end. Hopefully things will finally start to ramp up and the Breen becomes a bigger part of the story.

Some great acting and character moments happened throughout this episode. But I was amused that violating the Prime Directive is just a matter of paperwork now.

I also always wonder how Michael and Tilly communicated with the people on the planet. Of course they had their universal translators and could understand them, but the people they were talking to didn’t have them.

I was surprised by the Prime Directive being paperwork too, especially after Rayner seemed to lose his command over what they were considering a Prime Directive issue.

yeah, the prime directive stuff is eye rollingly bad. It’s really there for the exact reasons they violate it in this episode. It’s stupid.

That has always been a problem with the universal translator on Trek. The concept works fine over a comms channel. But as soon as people are in direct communication the concept (as presented on all the shows) kind of falls apart, especially if only one side of the conversation even has such a technology.

I rewatched the Enterprise Incident a few weeks ago where Kirk sneaks onto the Romulan ship and fully disguise as a Romulan but oddly talks to everyone in English. Seems like that would be the biggest giveaway he’s really not a Romulan lol.

Yeah it’s always been a problem from the very beginning. The later shows have tried to find ways to explain it a little better but I don’t remotely buy you can just pretend you sound like a native speaker when A. You just met a race for the first time and B. That they wouldn’t know you’re speaking through some device.

Forget pretending it can just deduce an an entire new language after hearing a couple of words. I don’t buy that regardless the century they are in and it happens on every show.

Sure it’s a stretch that a computer can decipher an unknown language after a few words. But at least it’s technically easy to swap out audio during the transmission. It falls apart when people talk to each other directly. Unless you assume they have a chip implanted in their brains that intercepts the nerve signals from the ears. Plus another chip in their vocal chords that translates outgoing speech. The universal translator exists so that we as the audience don’t need to read subtitles, the actors don’t need to learn made-up languages and the plot doesn’t have to come to a grinding halt each episode while the characters learn how to communicate. Having the universal translator fail and dedicating an episode to showing how people actually figure out how to communicate is interesting from time to time but the majority of the audience would probably grow tired very quickly if this took up substantial time in every single episode.

Of course I get all of that. I was just agreeing how it sometimes make no sense in the story itself. But it’s all fiction and most of us just accepted it at this point.

I am thoroughly enjoying this season of Disco. Possibly because I am not hunting for anything and everything to criticize. Among other things, I think it is nicely balancing the slower pace of a serialized format while also having more episodic stories. It reminds me a lot of DS9 in this regard without having as many episodes per season to work with.

I am also interested in how well they will explore the topic of spirituality, another commonality with DS9. Although in the end I don’t think DS9 quite succeeded in this because the viewers could just dismiss Bajoran Faith as ignorance of the “true” nature of “The Prophets” as “wormhole aliens.”

Looking forward to see how it all turns out, though I wish this were not the final season as the series really seems to have hit its stride. But all good things…

I thought it was “ok.” Definitely tried to be a more traditional Star Trek episode, but I often feel when Discovery, and to a lesser degree Strange New Worlds, tries to do traditional Trek it just feels shallow. Like they are following a recipe to the letter but not adding any of the zest that really makes it stand out. I was also confused why they made such a big deal of the “whistle speak,” and then have it play almost zero role in the plot. Finally, it was really convenient that Michael and Tilly just happened to arrive at the exact perfect time to join the race to enter the temple. I wish I could master the art of perfect timing so well :-)

I though it was pretty clear that the young woman wanted to become and adult and requested the race because she thought she could beat “foreigners” in the race.

But I also thought it was going to become a battle to the death. They never went that far – only starving their competitors!

Ah, could be. I plan to watch it a second time and will look for that… thanks!

Making the race a battle to the death doesn’t really make sense because the winner of the race was actually going to be sacrificed.

I would like some Saru, Owosekun and Detmer now please.

I’m sure they’ll show back up at the end with a refitted ISS Enterprise.

The music in this episode was outstanding.

Is it now a Star Trek trope to show a member of a pre-warp society a view of their planet from space?

Whistlespeak is about caretaking.

Did this week’s episode begin a deeper, exploration of what this all could really mean? Power? Responsibility? Her trepidation is a nice way to end the episode.

I’m in love with the whole idea of sound as language. I wanted SNW’s musical episode to be totally like what we see in this episode – so it was a nice kick for me to get a taste .

That Denobulan’s name Hitoroshi Kreel….Hoshi Sato. Why do I feel like that might be another Enterprise reference?

47 comments so far. Discovery is quite the barn-burner! ; )

Maybe people are just annoyed by all the whining that people post in here.

People keep saying this and yet so far this has been generally a very positive season so what are we missing??

Even this episode, while more divided there are just as many people who liked it as many who didn’t (and unfortunately I am in the latter personally). Actually I would probably say more liked it than didn’t.

This idea that its been nothing but constant hate this season is not remotely any basis in reality. Most people seems to be more positive than negative over it. The real possibility seems to be many have just stopped caring in general as there is a lack of discussions everywhere online besides here and probably why the lack of postings this season.

I’m not sure what you’re reading, but it’s been nothing but negative comments from season one. People are sick and tired of the same comments over and over again. I know many people have stopped commenting due to this. But would be interesting to see what the site traffic numbers are and to see if the site traffic is gone down or just the comment section. It’s honestly the same people saying the same thing over and over and over… Yawn.

The real strength of this season so far is that they have not teased something they cannot deliver. I have really enjoyed each episode without worrying that the characters were going to do something stupid just for the sake of stuffing the plot with action. Seems pretty sad that they are largely “getting it right” and no one wants to celebrate that.

I literally counted the number of positive vs negative posts in the episode 4 thread when someone suggested this and it was 24 positive posts about an episode vs 3 negative ones.

Go back to the first two episodes of the season. Again it was overwhelmingly positive. Nearly everyone liked those. The outliers were the people who didn’t.

I just counted the number of people who were positive about this episode vs the people who weren’t. And I only counted the ones who directly said they liked or hated it.

The people who said they liked it are 13 people. Now some some of those were mixed feelings for sure but if they said they ultimately liked it then it counts. But half of those considered it outstanding. As for the ones, like me, who didn’t like it are 7 people. So again that’s more people here saying they liked it than didn’t correct? So what am I missing?

Every episode this season there has been way more positive posts than negative overall. Yes I get your bigger point people have been putting down the show since the first season which is definitely true lol but it didn’t stop people from talking about the show in droves for YEARS. And your argument doesn’t hold water this season because most people who are commenting seems to LIKE it, right? The minority comments so far are the people who still thinks the show sucks.

And even the people who don’t they are just giving their opinions about it and not attacking or challenging anyone who DID like it. That’s actually one thing I have been noticing about this season and there isn’t a lot of infighting about the show. Again look at this thread, besides me and you lol, who is arguing about it? There is no big debates or people being triggered. The people who said they liked it aren’t being challenged over it no more than the people who said they hated it.

Isn’t this is what we want on a message board? People being civil and not attacking others? And one such troll was finally banned here a month ago who IRONICALLY kept attacking anyone who was being negative about the show and turning everything into a ridiculous fight in every thread; so that probably has helped the civility here a great deal now he’s gone regardless of your personal thoughts about the show.

So I don’t remotely buy this argument. The reality seems to be a lot of people have just moved on from the show in general. When you look at the level of discussion about the show in its first three seasons vs the last two the gap is very obvious.

Again maybe many people are still watching the show. Unfortunately we don’t have any data on that. But we know how this works when people are passionate for a show on the Internet it’s very very easy to see everywhere.

Picard season 3 is the perfect example. I went and checked how many posts its episode 6 got here (since this episode 6 of this season) and it was 450 posts and that was just a year ago. And people slammed season 2 like no one’s business lol.

I don’t think this season has even gotten that many posts if you combined all the episodes.

I’ve also said this before as well and the show had been off the air for two years now. Yes we’re used to seasons having longer gaps these days but that’s still very long even for today and a lot of people could’ve just moved on or lost interest.

“Again maybe many people are still watching the show. Unfortunately we don’t have any data on that.”

Actually I have to correct myself on that because I forgot Paramount+ is part of the Nielsen ratings for streaming. But I have no idea exactly how in-depth they make it publicly. I only know how well a show is doing here when this site reports it.

And maybe Discovery will enter the top 10 this season. Now let me make this very very very clear, even if it doesn’t it doesn’t mean the show is failing in terms of views obviously. When there are 200 streaming shows these days and many on much bigger sites to boot it’s a miracle for any Trek show to be in the top 10 lol. And those listings are very skewed in my opinion since the only ‘top 10’ list we ever see are original shows. So while I’m happy to see Trek on any top 10 lists it still doesn’t tell us the whole picture just much these shows are truly being viewed.

And Paramount+ still avoids releasing any numbers independently unless a show is huge like some of the Yellowstone spin offs.

“Every episode this season there has been way more positive posts than negative overall.”

Hmm, maybe that’s the real problem and it’s all the negative and bitter haters that just finally left haha.

But don’t worry I still show up as much as possible! 😁

I’m teasing I’m actually enjoying the season for the most part but agree I think most people just lost interest. Obviously the people who always loved it are probably still devotely watching but it is probably the fence sitters and the people who always hated it who ultimately moved on which would make sense.

And I have seen people say they just have no interest to watch the show week to week anymore after being burned every season and just plan to binge it when this season was over. I even remember reading you were thinking of doing that so that could be another issue.

“Isn’t this is what we want on a message board? People being civil and not attacking others? And one such troll was finally banned here a month ago who IRONICALLY kept attacking anyone who was being negative about the show and turning everything into a ridiculous fight in every thread; so that probably has helped the civility here a great deal now he’s gone regardless of your personal thoughts about the show.”

This is really is the biggest irony out of all of this. A lot of these comments section does get inflated when you had people like that guy being triggered all the time, making the same 20 posts a day over anything he didn’t like (how many times did he utter the phrase ‘ROTJ’ in every Picard post 🙄) and literally went on constant tangents how people here were just coming here to drown the boards in hatefests?

Instead that lunatic was removed and ironically this place has been the most relaxing in years lol. The very fact as you pointed out no one is spending time arguing with others over their opinions is another reason there are fewer posts because no one cares anymore lol.

I think everyone just resigned to the fact the show is now done and everyone’s views are baked in so what’s the point arguing over it anymore?

And when you remove the disruptive people who wants to act like insullen babies like that guy and Alpha Predator, REGARDLESS how they feel about a show, good or bad, surprise surprise you get a more civil and balanced discussion and board now.

Yeah … shocking! 😉

“And I have seen people say they just have no interest to watch the show week to week anymore after being burned every season and just plan to binge it when this season was over. I even remember reading you were thinking of doing that so that could be another issue.”

Yes this is possible as well. In fact another member here said they were thinking to do just that after they watched the first episode of the season but didn’t like it.

And yes I too was considering it because of just how bad season 4 felt by the end. I was even thinking of doing the same thing with Picard season 3. But once I heard it was the final season (and Picard was bringing back the TNG cast) it’s no way that would happen. And I don’t know if I would’ve done it regardless because I have zero willpower lol.

I guess I’m just surprised because I really expected the opposite for three big reasons. A. Being the final season of course. B. Being so closely connected to a big and popular TNG episode and C. The early reviews were solid.

So I just thought it was going to be a big party lol. Not at the level of Picard season 3 but at least at the level of SNW.

But instead of a party it feels more like a funeral. Or maybe someone on their death bed is a better morbid term lol. Just sorta here waiting for it to end and not really hyped up about the season.

As far as your last point, agreed. No matter what these boards have been a lot more fun and relaxing to write on.

I have said it before in the past it is really strange the lack of discussion around this season. Outside of this site I also post on TrekCre as you know and Reddit (but under a different handle there) and it’s obvious how much the discussions have fallen off at those places too. It’s not a lot of people at TrekCre so the posts were already less but the more popular stuff like Picard and SNW still got decent traction. It just doesn’t feel the same way with Discovery this year and I post there a few times a week as I do here.

Reddit it’s very obvious though. There are times you can’t even view all the responses because there was so many especially the first few seasons. Now it’s much more manageable.

It is a little disappointing because this will probably be my favorite season (that’s not really hard though lol) and like you I expected to see a lot more debate and discussion considering we’re dealing with such a big storyline.

But I imagine the audience has peaked for this show years ago and it’s just the hardcore mostly watching. There is no hype for it outside the usual places like here.

Good for you. You counted the comments the last couple of episodes. What about all the past seasons? Have you gone back and counted all that? People just don’t want to bother with all that negativity. It’s like the movie BEYOND, a far better movie than INTO DARKNESS. But less people went to see because they felt it would be bad like ID. Same thing here. Because of all the negativity last season in the posts, less people are reading and posting comments. Like I said, would be interesting to see if the traffic on this website reflects the comments. My guess, the same amount are hitting the page but less commenting. And the ones that are commenting, are the same usual suspects. People can’t be bothered reading the toxic comments spewed towards the actors, the writers and the producers. Same old blah blah from the same old people. Yawn.

I’m going to say it again.

A. This is NOT the only place that has less discussions. I keep saying this and it keeps getting ignored lol. This is across the board. A great example is Reddit. It’s easily the biggest Trek board. Until this season most Discovery threads had 600+ posts when an episode review was posted. Now most of them are under 500 which is not horrible but it already tells you a huge gap Discovery has when you compare it to the bigger shows like Picard and SNW which easily goes into the thousands. It’s the same with TrekCre, Trek BBS, etc. The show has less people talking about it these days.

B. Your logic doesn’t make sense because if the more negative posts drove away the more positive posts then why are there still more positive posts?? And literally on every review thread. How do you derive at that conclusion if more people are actually saying nice things about it? Wouldn’t it be the opposite then? Or at least a bigger subset of those posts? Help me out here?

C. I have been saying these boards have been negative since 2009. You just made the point for me with STID. That time was brutal lol. Way worse IMO because there were so many more people at the time.

People go on and on about how much hate Discovery gets here but very few threads ever went into the THOUSANDS of people fighting over it like what happened with STID… for years after it came out.

But you’re also right yes less people discussed Beyond when that came around but I don’t think you can blame that all on STID either. I think people grew tired of those movies in general and Beyond just didn’t grab people on its own (and had a HORRIBLE marketing campaign), hence a big reason why it bombed. I don’t think you can blame this board for that lol. In fact I think less postings was simply an reflection that less people had interest in the movie in general and its box office indicated that.

I’m saying the same thing has happened with Discovery. It’s not just ONE thing. I do agree that the negativity has maybe driven some people away. I also think the show itself has driven people away too for those people really unhappy with the last few seasons. It CAN be both right? Just like what happened with the Kelvin movies.

D. How is it any different than all the derision Picard got in it’s first two seasons? And yet season 3 had the highest number of people posting probably simce STID. And most people seem to think season 2 wasn’t just the worst season of that show or even NuTrek but one of the worst Trek seasons ever.

It didn’t stop anyone talking up season 3 to death and not everyone loved that season either.

You can repeat it until you’re blue in the face. Whether it is hear or on other boards… The same repetitive negative people here are the same repetitive negative people on other boards. People are tired of hearing the same drivel no matter where you go because it’s all the same people.

Do you actually believe that people don’t go to multiple platforms? Come on. People are mean. People are arrogant. People are negative. It’s repetitive drivel.

My logic makes perfect sense. And I would put money on that the traffic on the site hasn’t dropped. The articles are still good. Fans want to read them. But people just don’t want to deal with the same crap all the time. How many times does Emily have to say how much she hates nostalgia and legacy before you are sick of hearing it. How many time does Lorna have to slam Martin-Green’s acting and “whisper speaking” before you get sick of it? And the list goes on. Blah blah blah over and over.

I’m going to repeat myself. How come the last season of Picard didn’t get the same problem? You can admit season 2 was blasted as much as season 4 of Discovery was right? I think even worse. It didn’t stop anyone from talking about season 3 in droves.

And I seem to recall others still repeating themselves who still hated that show too.

As far as Discovery It’s probably a show that has been falling in the ratings awhile, hence it’s cancellation before season 5 even aired. My guess has always been by the end of season four a lot of people had simply stopped watching it because there were people, some on this very board, said they stopped watching it lol.

Again it CAN be both things right? Yes you can be right but what’s weird is you seem to acknowledge a lot of the negative feedback but you don’t acknowledge that maybe many of those same people have simply stopped posting or watching on their own as well.

It IS possible right?

I mean the show is now halfway over. There has not been a single article ANYWHERE discussing the metrics of the show. Not one press release by Paramount that the show is hitting any admirable numbers even if they don’t tell us what they are. This is the one frustrating thing about the streaming era.

And maybe it’s really doing great but the deafening silence is telling.

So I’m going to say it again could you be right, yes. Is that the ONLY reason though, no I don’t think so. Not by a long shot.

But listen if you really feel that way fine. But I’m also the SAME guy who has been begging for an IGNORE BUTTON more times than I can count. I get accused of saying the same things over and over again too and believe me I have said that the most out of everything else lol.

Personally I don’t have an issue what people say here but yes I am sadly more on the negative side of Discovery. I don’t WANT to be but sadly yes although I am still liking this season, but it’s starting to lose me.

I’m not just talking the negativity about Discovery… I’m talking about the negativity towards Trek in general ever since Discovery debuted…all all the shows thereafter. It’s too much dude. Way too much negativity towards Trek in general now. It’s fine to dislike a show regardless if it Discovery, SNW or lower decks… But coming on and slagging the shows ENDLESSLY is tiresome. You even have people PRE-hating the academy series before it’s even shot! Mention section 31 and you get the “space Hitler” people coming out of the woodwork. So no, it’s not just the hate of Discovery, it’s the constant hate of everything new. So that’s why people don’t bother. Enough already.

Which I LITERALLY said has been happening here since 2009 did I not?

Look I don’t know what you want me to say but this isn’t a new thing. We obviously agree on that lol.

Same time though we just have different philosophies on it. I have no problem of people saying whatever they want AS LONG AS they don’t attack others for their opinions or try to argue with them over everything because they don’t like their opinions and trying to shut them down.

And yes that has happened PLENTY of times here but thankfully those people have mostly been banned.

But outside of that this is how message boards operate. People are abandoning this site NOW after nearly 15 years of negativity? What took them so long lol.

And dude I’ve asked you this three times now if that’s the case then why did season 3 of Picard get so much fanfare then? Or season 1 of SNW?

Again I get what you’re saying but you seem to discount all the times fans are generally excited and positive about things here. It’s not all bad all the time INCLUDING with Discovery. Whenever they like something about it people shout it from the rooftops. Remind me how we got SNW again?

I remember having this SAME discussion with TG47 (another guy who looks like took off for good and yes probably due to the negativity) when he complained about people being too negative over SNW. I didn’t see that at all because the MAJORITY of people liked the show, but they still pointed out some of its flaws as they should.

I guess I just don’t know what people expect? Do you seriously just want to come to a board where everyone loves every show only say glowing things about it? OR are you saying that these shows don’t have any flaws for people to be that critical about? I don’t think the answer is yes to either of these questions, so what is the answer.

All I can say is I remembered waaay back in the 90s when fans were crucifying Berman and Braga saying that Voyager and Enterprise were horrible shows, DS9 was a slap in the face to Gene’s ‘vision’ and Nemesis were so bad it killed the franchise.

I didn’t see any of that on this board because it didn’t exist then. But I saw it in plenty of places. And it went on and on until Enterprise was cancelled. Doesn’t mean everyone felt that way(I personally loved DS9 and VOY from the start; no comment on Enterprise or Nemesis;)) but none of this is new bro. It’s been going literally since TNG first aired to be honest. We just didn’t have the Internet then to wallow in the hate lol.

Oh there was a lot of hate going on for Picard season 3. All the people complaining about it being nothing more than nostalgia. Saying the writing was crap and so on. And there were a lot of criticism about SNW and how it doesn’t look like it’s before TOS and how come the Enterprise looks like potato peeler. And so on. Yes, people are finally tired of it. Frankly, so am I. I have actually stopped going to other boards for that very reason. Why wait until now? Well it’s because there were literally years… YEARS… between Trek 2009, ID and Beyond. Barely anything happened on the boards. I actually thought the site would close. Now, with so much continuous Trek and Trek news, you see the whiners and complainers and haters so much more. Back during TNG and the TNG movies, DS9, etc… the internet was as it is now. You would barely hear anything from the fans unless you were at a convention. People were buying magazines and read those articles. So you didn’t see the hate and negativity like you do now. It’s so easily accessible. Anthony, if you are reading, what are the site traffic numbers like? Is there a decline like in the comments? Or are the numbers stable with only the comments dwindling?

Ok I get your point. I guess I’m just decencitize to it lol. But as I said I’m not as bothered. For example I loved season 3 of Picard. It’s my favorite season in NuTrek in terms of live action at least. It brought me back to a time where Trek was very special for me.

But same time I read all the same criticisms as well it was too much nostalgia, a lot of memberberries etc. And I didn’t really disagree with that sentiment but didn’t have any real issues either. I understand people just have issues with the show and I had a few as well but more minor.

Same with SNW, I generally think it’s a good show but I get the criticisms for that one too especially the canon ones which drives me crazy lol. But that’s why we come to places like this, to hash out stuff out with fellow fans. If others are getting triggered over it because some of is just want to discuss these things then OK but this isn’t the place for them obviously.

And no maybe it wasn’t as in your face in the 90s because obviously the Internet as big as it is now. Social media didn’t exist. I always remind people YouTube started the last year Enterprise was on. But still there were PLENTY of places to talk Star Trek and by the late 90s it became very negative by then. It’s worst now in terms of much is out there but the vitriol was still pretty bad. Type in Berman’s name on this site and you will see it here circa 2007 and on.

But if you need a break for awhile certainly understandable.

See, this kind of back and forth is what gets the comment count over 100. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Even if there was hate for Picard season 3 it wasn’t the majority who felt that way, far from it and tons of people still discussed it. In fact the sole reason I joined this board was to just discuss that season. I really planned to stop posting here once it was over. But hardly anyone is discussing this show this season which is odd since most who is watching it at least seems to like it.

And I used to be a huge NuTrek hater. Guilty as charged lol. I had no problems being cynical about it because we are now paying for these shows full time and the Internet is the place to vent and debate this stuff. No one I know in real life outside 1 or 2 people knows these shows exist much less watch them. Oddly Star Trek feels more niche today even though there is so much of it on right now.

But anyway these sites are the places fans come to be honest about their thoughts. I was very disappointed with JJ verse, Discovery and especially Picard and have no problem saying so. But I didn’t want to hate any of them but overall they all been mostly disappointments. Obviously not just to me but a lot of people. I will say the JJ movies were more popular with newbies but clearly not enough cared after awhile and why Beyond ultimately failed but that’s a different thread.

As far as the shows themselves I have been open-minded about all of them and oddly they always started off strong but end in a winper.

But even that has changed since I love he animated shows out the gate and SNW finally feels like 90s Star Trek again which a lot of people like me was missing.

Now oddly I’m on the other side of it and considers myself a NuTrek lover. Who knew that was possible lol. But it proves I was never out to hate anything; it just sucked IMO.

Like I said I’m even enjoying Discovery now, my worst show in the entire franchise. But I understand if others still think they are bad and just want to vent. I can’t be a hypocrite about it. If I could get online and spew why I thought shows like Discovery and Picard were total trash then I have to allow others say that about shows I truly like like SNW or LDS.

That’s how it works right? I believe message boards are here to hash everything out regardless my personal feelings about it. Some people oddly can’t seem to understand this basic reality when they decide to join a board and that’s why they get banned or everyone hates them; not for their opinions but constantly trying to censor others over theirs.

Sure you may be right and people are sick of the negativity. But we’re Star Trek fans, this is how we usually roll! 😂

But yeah I get it it can feel too much at times but I’m actually with Tiger2 on this one most people seems to be a lot more positive lately. The last year has been really fun to talk about Star Trek thanks to LDS, Prodigy, Picard season 3, SNW and now even this show. Of course there will always be naysayers but they don’t overrun these boards either. It’s not YouTube lol.

Amazing episode again. This season the show is just knocking it outta the park! Wish it wasn’t the last season.

Admittedly this is kind of a paint-by-numbers Star Trek episode, but I enjoyed it quite a bit if largely for Tilly’s charisma. I do find the ongoing Culber existential crisis a little off balance, feels like we’ve already been here before with him after a far more significant event. But I do like aspects of his crisis, especially the tug between the scientific and the spiritual and how that’s expressed in his conversation with the analytical (yet caring) Stamets. Like much of Discovery’s writing, the story does take some logic shortcuts that I find distractingly convenient, but at least it fills in most of the gaps. On a side note, although I have a very high end sound system that sounds phenomenal with most streaming content, Discovery has uniquely terrible onset audio, it’s been a constant problem for the show (and seemingly all Toronto-based productions), but this season is by far the worst. It’s making it really hard to understand every word being spoken, I’m constantly rewinding to listen again and I just straight-up miss things all the time because the voices are often garbled.

While I certainly did not dislike this episode, I still found its resolution to be kinda lacking. It left me wondering whether they couldn’t have found a way to bend the Prime Directive instead of outright breaking it (even though, arguably the DISCO-crew weren’t the first to do so but rather the Denobulan scientist who installed those weather towers in the first place). It seemed like they just took the easiest possible route there… Also: Why was the episode even called “Whistlespeak”? Was there any sense in introducing that culture’s whistle language at all? I was honestly flabbergasted that there was no mention of such means of communication actually existing on Earth (on the Canary Island of La Gomera) and it existing on that planet could’ve been a nice setup for another linguistics-centered episode (not necessarily another “Darmok”, but maybe something akin to SNW’s “Children of the Comet” – you know like, a linguistic problem interwoven with a bunch of other problems). However, upon closer inspection, the whole introduction of that concept just went absolutely nowhere. A bit of a pity if you ask me.

Thank you! The titular “whistlespeak” was completely irrelevant to the plot or theme of the episode. I kept waiting for it to at least play a function in the third act. The writing of Disco can be so maddeningly sloppy.

Loved this episode. Very smart writing and continued with a great pacing. It had quite the TNG feel to it as well as feeling like a really Star Trek-y episode.

Really loving this season. The writing has been very solid as has been the acting.

For how much I dislike this season, I must admit this was actually a good episode to watch. As usual too many shared emotions, but the plot and the story was enjoyable for once.

I know I have mentioned this before but the dearth of posts this season is really surprising.. It’s the middle episode of the final season and its barely gotten 60 posts so far after a day. And again this is not TM alone. The show has lacked discussion everywhere and nowhere close to the kinds of discussions SNW season 2 and especially Picard season 3 got.

Maybe its getting more viewings than the discussions themselves are suggesting but if not it’s probably was a good idea to end the show after this season. I think a large part of the fanbase have simply moved on.

Yeah, I was curious about this and went back to check. Each recap/review article for SNW and Picard got hundreds of comments.

Yeah! And to be more fair I went and checked how many views those shows previous seasons got in the seasons run to correlate with the current episode of this season and for episode 6 Picard season 3 had 450 posts (which is pretty insane lol). For SNW season 2 it had around 240 posts which to be fair is the more common number for most live action shows.

Picard was more of an outlier for the obvious reasons. But then again it’s also PROOF when people are excited or passionate about a show or season you see it reflected.

It’s not nearly the same for this season. Many seem to like it overall and I include myself in that even if I’m starting to feel more mixed about it, but no one is really jumping up and down about it either.

I noticed this as well, engagement is very low which I suspect is reflected in the viewership. Part of this is probably the long 2-year hiatus and the cancellation, not to mention lack of promotion. This season also seems to lack a hook like the previous season, I know my interest was very low because I felt this story had been told and there really was nothing noteworthy this time. However, this season has been significantly more interesting than I expected because it’s so smart about its canon, for once! I’m really enjoying the work put into building this world and telling a story within the Star Trek mythos.

I think you nailed it. Viewership is just probably much lower these days which shouldn’t be surprising since they cancelled the show lol.

But ironically this is the most I have enjoyed the show so far and that’s probably because they are really embracing canon these days. I love we have the Breen back finally and I have loved how they dived into stuff like the Dominion war, Trill mythology, and the Progenitors. Every episode has been a link to old school Trek connections like how this episode linked the Denobulans (would’ve been cool if we saw actual Denobulans though).

It hasn’t all been winners like the Mirror universe stuff and the ISS Enterprise connections felt really weak and shoehorned like many have said; but I still applaud them for the effort. But overall it sadly doesn’t feel like many people care anymore. I remember how much fun it was here and other places to talk about Picard season 3. There was real excitement about it.

Oddly there is none of that here this season. People seem to like it, comment what they like but no real exchanges about any of it. I think the two year wait including how disappointed people were with last season just made the reception to this season feel very ho hum so far. I can’t believe it’s already passed the halfway mark.

It actually reminds me how Beyond was received. It came out, most people, at least old school fans, seem to at least like it (it’s my favorite of the three) but it was obvious the hype was over because no one really talked about it much after the first few weeks after it came out. And of course it bombed which was more odd because it was a decent movie but a lot of Trekkies and newbies had moved on.

This feels very similar.

That’s a good comparison. I liked Beyond too, but sometimes even I forget it exists.

Also, I wonder if Culber’s holo-Grandma is going to be the medical-holo on Academy. This seems like a perfect set up.

This one reminded me of first couple seasons of Enterprise. Not because of the Denobulan references but because it was uninspired, pointless, and painfully boring.

i’m sorry but i really can’t stand Tilly. she is like the opposite of Ensign Kim, who spent 7 years overachieving as an ensign where as Tilly is now a wise old sage full of nervous / frantic confidence. i hope she’s not a series regular on Starfleet Academy, the way she’s written and performed is so offsetting. meanwhile lets sideline Saru, IMO the only true ST style character on DSC.

Very Star Trek and it had some good performances, notably Mary Wiseman and SMG’s. This was certainly nothing we haven’t seen before from other Trek shows, they just added the detail about their language and some connection buzzwords and Culber’s less than compelling spiritual crisis.

But a solid double all the same.

Why Wesley Crusher Left Star Trek, and Why He Came Back

Wil Wheaton's Wesley Crusher disappeared from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he came back for select episodes, movies, and Picard. Here's why.

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Wesley crusher went from boy genius to star trek time-travel god, wil wheaton was the 'big name' on star trek: tng, wesley crusher returned to star trek twice after leaving with the traveler, would wil wheaton return to star trek.

Despite running for seven seasons and keeping a grueling filming schedule, the central cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation didn't experience much turnover. In fact, of the regular cast who appeared in the series premiere and the series finale, only one character was absent. Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton) left Star Trek: The Next Generation early in the fourth season for a mix of personal and professional reasons. Still, Wesley returned a handful of times, and Wil Wheaton is still an active participant in Gene Roddenberry's universe. Despite Wheaton's unbridled enthusiasm for all things Star Trek and his experiences as part of The Next Generation family, his time playing the character wasn't the nerd's dream everyone thought it was.

The fans were harshly critical of Wesley Crusher , and the line "Shut up, Wesley!" from Season 1, Episode 13 became an early internet meme. In a promotional special, The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next , Roddenberry said the genesis of the character was himself at age 14, and "Wesley" was his middle name. Though, the Great Bird of the Galaxy admitted he was never the genius the eventual Starfleet cadet was in the series. Despite these struggles with Wesley Crusher's character, it was behind-the-scenes problems that inspired Wheaton to leave Star Trek: The Next Generation .

REVIEW: Star Trek: Picard: The Art & Making of the Series Tells the Story Behind the Story

Wesley was the only son of Doctor Beverly Crusher and her late husband Jack, the best friend of Captain Picard. He was a deeply curious boy, but he was often treated harshly by the crew and its captain. In the sixth episode of Season 1, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," Wesley befriends and impresses the mysterious Traveler, an alien with strange abilities. At the end of that episode, despite his disdain for children, Captain Picard promotes Wesley to "Acting Ensign" allowing him to serve on the bridge in advance of his application to Starfleet Academy.

Wesley's time in Starfleet Academy was tumultuous despite his genius and experience serving on the Enterprise. He failed the entrance exam the first time he took it, though so did Captain Picard. Once he was accepted, he left the ship and only appeared in a few episodes. While at the Academy, he joined Nova Squadron led by Nick Locarno . He was part of a cover-up with the squad, hiding the death of a classmate while performing a forbidden flight maneuver. After admitting the truth, he had to repeat that year at the Academy.

In Star Trek: TNG's final season , Wesley Crusher returned to the Enterprise on leave from the Academy. His grades were dropping, and he was in danger of failing out of the program. He challenged Starfleet's and the captain's orders in order to stand up for a colony of Native Americans being forcibly removed from their home to appease the Cardassians. He experienced a vision of his father, Jack, telling him Starfleet wasn't his path. Instead, Wesley joined the Traveler to ascend to "another plane of existence" paying off the arc that began in the first season. What that meant, however, remained a mystery .

How Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Connects to TNG's Biggest Open Mystery

The youngest TNG character went through some changes in development. Legendary Star Trek producer Robert H. Justman lobbied to make "Wesley" into "Leslie," according to Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek, but Roddenberry eventually overruled the decision. They also struggled to come up with a justification for why this young man was so special, earning a coveted position on the bridge. In a memo, Justman wrote that Wesley's youth gave him a brash, assertive nature the adults on the crew lacked, making him "a one-man 'think tank' without pre-conditioned limitations.'"

Despite LeVar Burton's iconic role in Roots and the popularity of Reading Rainbow , it was Wil Wheaton who was the "big name" in the cast . Best known as Gordie in Stand By Me , the burgeoning movie star jumped at the chance to be in The Next Generation . "I was a Trekkie," Wheaton said in The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. However, Wheaton said that even he was annoyed by how Wesley was written, calling him "pretentious." When he was offered a role in a film directed by Milos Forman, The Next Generation producers wouldn't let him do it. They told him he was going to be in a "really important to the series" episode during the filming window, but Wheaton said the producer "just lied to me." Wheaton also revealed that "years later," Deanna Troi actor Marina Sirtis told him she'd heard the producers were worried the film would make him an even bigger star.

If Wheaton's star rose, "it would have been harder for them to deal with me. I felt so betrayed by that," he said in The Fifty-Year Mission . Despite his love of Star Trek , this slight made Wheaton desperate to leave the series . However, in his memoir, Still Just a Geek , Wheaton detailed how his parents pushed him into acting in the first place, when he wanted "to just be a kid." This neglect, plus instances of abuse on various sets, particularly The Curse , soured him on the profession for many years. Still, Wheaton also maintains his fellow cast on The Next Generation are like family to him. Their love and support helped him and helps explain why he returned to the show for guest-spots. Returning was "like coming home for me," he told Entertainment Tonight in 1992. "I always have a terrific time [on set.] I adore the cast."

How Star Trek: The Next Generation Disserviced This Fan-Favorite Character

Despite leaving Starfleet and going off with the Traveler in "Journey's End," Wesley Crusher almost returned. Wheaton filmed scenes for Star Trek: Nemesis at the wedding of Riker and Troi. Wesley was again a Starfleet officer and slated for duty aboard Riker's ship, the USS Titan. However, the scene was cut from the film . In Still Just A Geek , Wheaton wrote about the experience. Even though it ignored Wesley's final episode on The Next Generation , Wheaton enjoyed the experience working with the cast as an adult. While it might have seemed like another slight by Star Trek producers, cutting the scene worked to the advantage of the character.

In Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Wesley Crusher appeared in the 21st Century to Isa Briones's character Kore Soong. He explained that he was part of a group called "the Travelers" who worked to protect the universe, all of reality from "annihilation." It's a difficult job apparently, since the last time Wesley made a joke he apparently changed a century of history. While the Travelers mostly observe, knowing when to act is a crucial part of their task. He recruited Kore into the group, and when she accepted, they both beamed away. The beaming effect was not like those audiences have seen from Starfleet or other species and organizations in the galaxy.

It seems Wesley Crusher and the Travelers were connected to Talinn, played by Orla Brady, in Picard Season 2 . She watched over Reneé Picard whose destiny was even more important than her famous starship captain ancestor. The group can also trace itself back to the Season 2 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series "Assignment: Earth" that introduced Gary Seven . An attempt at a spinoff series by Gene Roddenberry, Gary was a not-so-ordinary human tasked with protecting the 20th Century, specifically the space program.

Star Trek The Next Generation: When Does TNG Get Good?

Outside of this brief appearance on Picard , Wil Wheaton's involvement with the Star Trek universe has been as a professional fan . As the host of The Ready Room he talks to the actors, producers and others about making this third wave of series. His charm and grace put his guests at ease, because while he's still very much a fan of Star Trek , he's also been where they were. His time on the set and playing Wesley Crusher was both joyous and troubling. Ironically, the character that adult fans hated the most when he debuted is now the best ambassador to the Star Trek fanbase they have.

While Wheaton still does some on-camera work, he's mostly done voice acting of late. Still, Picard Season 3 introduced his half-brother Jack Crusher. Wheaton seemed enthused by the idea of teaming up with actor Ed Speelers for a "Crusher brothers" adventure , either a series or feature. Wesley Crusher's appearance at the end of Season 2 was a lovely coda for a character who deserved better . If that's all fans get, it might be enough. But after all these years, fans would likely be very excited to see Wesley again, especially if he's teaming up with Jack.

Star Trek series are available to stream on Paramount+, and The Ready Room can be found on YouTube.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

I Think Burnham's Star Trek: Discovery Prime Directive Violation is Better Than Picard's in TNG

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 6 - "Whistlespeak"

• Captain Burnham respects Halem'nite beliefs, bridging technology and faith better than Picard in TNG.
• Dr. Culber explores spirituality in "Whistlespeak", showcasing science and faith coexisting.
• Star Trek: Discovery promotes tolerance by validating different beliefs.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, "Whistlespeak", written by Kenneth Lin and Brandon Schultz, and directed by Chris Byrne, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) violates Starfleet's Prime Directive in a way that's better than Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) did in Star Trek: The Next Generation . The USS Discovery's next stop in Star Trek: Discovery 's treasure hunt is Halem'no, where a pre-warp society reveres Denobulan scientist Hitoroshi Kreel's camouflaged weather-regulating towers religiously. The 800-year-old towers are failing due to disrepair, and the Halem'nites are responding by sacrificing people, including Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), so Burnham halts the sacrifice and explains the rainmaking technology isn't divine.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 4, "Who Watches the Watchers", the USS Enterprise-D crew resupplies the researchers observing the pre-warp society on Mintaka III from behind a holographic "duck blind". An accident at the research station causes the failure of the hologram and injures Liko (Ray Wise), a Mintakan civilian who spies the scientists. After Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) resuscitates Liko on the Enterprise, Liko returns to his village, proclaiming to be healed by an ancient Mintakan god, and the god's name is "the Picard" . Picard's answer is to deny not only his own divinity, but the existence of any gods at all.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 6 Ending Explained

Captain Burnham must break the Prime Directive to save Tilly and find the Progenitors' next clue in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6.

Captain Burnham Validates The Halem'nites In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Captain picard's philosophy in tng matches roddenberry's vision, but is that okay.

After making a conscious decision to violate Starfleet's Prime Directive of non-interference with pre-warp civilizations, Captain Michael Burnham doesn't deny the existence of the Halem'nite gods. Burnham reveals herself to Ohvaz (Alfredo Narciso), a Halem'nite elder, and explains Burnham's transporter and Halem'no's rain are both the result of advanced technology. That gets Ohvaz questioning the existence of gods entirely, and Michael responds with genuine uncertainty, instead suggesting that the Halem'nite faith can coexist alongside knowing that technology is responsible for the rain. It's not up to Burnham to decide whether gods are real, just to tell Ohvaz how to keep the weather stations functional and the Halem'nite people alive.

Burnham's agnostic compassion in Star Trek: Discovery stands in contrast to Captain Jean-Luc Picard's atheistic response to the Mintakans in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Captain Picard agrees to dispel Liko's notion that Picard is one of Mintaka III's ancient gods, not just because Picard isn't a god, but because Jean-Luc himself believes that Liko's faith in any religion is a backward development. The TNG portrayal of religion as a superstitious practice that must be discarded for cultural evolution aligns with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future, but it's an insensitive line of thinking that Star Trek: Discovery rectifies.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , season 1, episode 19, "In the Hands of the Prophets", Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) shows similar respect for others' culture when Ben tells his son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) that the Bajorans aren't wrong to believe the wormhole aliens are Prophets because they very well could be.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 6 Raises Questions of Faith

Dr. culber's storyline in "whistlespeak" is synergistic with the a-plot.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, "Whistlespeak", allows science and faith to coexist on the same level. As Captain Burnham and Lieutenant Tilly address the beliefs of the Halem'nites, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) searches for a physical, scientific reason for feeling connected to something greater than himself. Culber theorizes the feeling is an after-effect of lending his body to Trill host Jinaal in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3 , "Jinaal", but without an anomalous reading, the only explanation is a spiritual one. Framing Culber's newfound spirituality as positive instead of regressive is a beautiful conclusion that reaffirms what Burnham tells Ohvaz on Halem'no.

Faith can bring communities together by giving hope and comfort to people in difficult times.

By treating religion and technology as separate, but equally valid concepts, Star Trek: Discovery is more in line with Star Trek 's overall message of respecting cultures and being tolerant of those unlike ourselves than Roddenberry's atheistic vision. Religion can be used as a tool to harm others, as Picard fears in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but faith can also bring communities together by giving hope and comfort to people in difficult times, as the Halem'no faith does in Star Trek: Discovery . Burnham recognizes the benefits inherent to the Halem'nites' beliefs, and respects their faith, making Burnham's approach to a Prime Directive violation better than Captain Jean-Luc Picard's.

Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: The Next Generation are streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Cast Blu del Barrio, Oded Fehr, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Wilson Cruz, Eve Harlow, Mary Wiseman, Callum Keith Rennie

Writers Alex Kurtzman

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Whom Gods Destroy

• Episode aired Jan 3, 1969

Kirk and Spock are taken prisoners by a former starship captain named Garth, who now resides at, and has taken over, a high security asylum for the criminally insane. Kirk and Spock are taken prisoners by a former starship captain named Garth, who now resides at, and has taken over, a high security asylum for the criminally insane. Kirk and Spock are taken prisoners by a former starship captain named Garth, who now resides at, and has taken over, a high security asylum for the criminally insane.

• Herb Wallerstein
• Gene Roddenberry
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 26 User reviews
• 11 Critic reviews

• Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

• Mister Spock

• (as Richard Geary)

• Lieutenant Hadley
• (uncredited)
• Elba II Inmate
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The plot of inmates taking over the asylum and impersonating the warden closely resembles Dagger of the Mind (1966) , right down to the "agony chair" prop which is reused from that episode. In his memoir 'I Am Not Spock', Leonard Nimoy shares a memo that he wrote to the producers to complain about the similarities.
• Goofs Governor Cory explains to Kirk that Garth can change his appearance at will due to his control of his body cells, but that does not explain how his clothing changes as well (a typical hitch with sci-fi shape-shifters).

Marta : [reciting a poem she has written] Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate/Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/And summer's lease hath all...

Garth : [shouts] You wrote that?

Marta : Yesterday, as a matter of fact.

Garth : It was written by an Earthman named Shakespeare a long time ago!

Marta : Which does NOT alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday!

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Featured in Atop the Fourth Wall: Batman: Jazz #3 (2015)
• Soundtracks Theme Music credited to Alexander Courage Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

User reviews 26

• MiketheWhistle
• Jan 25, 2020
• January 3, 1969 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Paramount Television
• Norway Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 51 minutes

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‘The Masked Singer’ Reveals Identity of the Poodle Moth: Here’s the Celebrity Under the Costume

By Michael Schneider

Michael Schneider

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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 11, Episode 10 of “ The Masked Singer ,” “Quarter Finals: Final Four,” which aired May 8 on Fox.

“This Is Us” star Chrissy Metz knew “The Masked Singer” would be a challenge. But that’s why Metz, who was revealed as latest celebrity to be unmasked on Wednesday night’s quarter finals, figured she had to do it.

Popular on Variety

For Poodle Moth, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg got it right with Chrissy Metz. Rita Ora guessed Faith Hill. Robin Thicke went with Shania Twain. Ken Jeong said it was Melissa McCarthy.

The two singers with the least amount of votes were Poodle Moth and Gumball. The two then faced off in a smackdown, each performing their own version of “If I Could Turn Back Time,” by Cher. Gumball won, and will join Goldfish and Clock in next week’s semi-finals.

Back for Season 11 are host Nick Cannon, alongside panelists Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, while Rita Ora has joined the desk to fill in for Nicole Scherzinger, who was in London to star on the West End’s “Sunset Boulevard.”

“The Masked Singer” Season 11 features themed episodes including “The Wizard of Oz,” in celebration of the 85th anniversary of the classic film; “Transformers” (marking the brand’s 40th anniversary) and music tributes including “Billy Joel Night” and “Queen Night.” Additional themes include “Girl Groups,” “Soundtrack of My Life,” “TV Theme Night” and “Shower Anthems.”

With sixteen total celebrity singers, including three “wildcards,” Season 11 features new costumes including “Gumball,” “Lizard,” “Ugly Sweater,” “Goldfish,” “Starfish,” “Book,” “Gumball,” “Miss Cleocatra,” “Afghan Hound,” “Beets,” “Poodle Moth,” “Clock,” “Spaghetti & Meatballs,” “Lizard,” “Koala,” “Seal” and “Sir Lion.” According to the show, the Season 11 contestants boast a combined 22 Grammy nominations, 11 platinum albums, 33 Teen Choice nominations, 108 million records sold, 326 film appearances and 1.7 billion Spotify streams.

This means Group B winner Gumball will face off against Group A winner Goldfish and Group C’s Poodle Moth and Clock for the quarter finals.

Here were the performances on Wednesday’s Episode 10, “Quarter Finals: Final Four”:

Goldfish (Group A Champion)

Song: “Unforgettable,” by Nat King Cole

Panel guesses: Nicole Scherzinger, Hilary Duff, Julianne Hough

Phone message clue: “Hey babe, I’m so happy to see you thriving in this competition. But honestly, I knew you would all along. You never back down from a challenge and you absolutely love to perform live.”

Package voiceover: “It feels incredible to be the Group A winner. Best part of being here is getting to do what I love. I feel like I’ve been through a lot in my career. When you’re young and suddenly a role model, there’s a lot of pressure to live up to the expectation. And grow up in front of the whole world. People wanted me to be one thing: Perfect. But perfect is impossible. The one thing that I am is resilient. In Hollywood, you have to keep reinventing yourself. We’re not the same from our teenage years to our adult years. And thank God! Tonight I’m singing ‘Unforgettable.’ And it would mean the world to me to get to the semi-finals. Because while they say goldfish don’t have a great memory, this experience is one I will never forget.”

Previous songs: “Vampire,” by Olivia Rodrigo, “Baby Come Back,” by Player; “The Show Must Go On,” by Queen

Previous panel guesses: Lea Michele, Selena Gomez, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sarah Hyland, Kristen Stewart, Nina Dobrev, Hilary Duff, Vanessa Hudgens

Gumball (Group B Champion)

Panel guesses: James van der Beek, Derek Hough, Taran Killam

Phone message clue: “Hi, Gumball, it’s your wife, Mrs. Gumball. I’m just so proud of you. And watching you on that stage reminds me of your time spent off-Broadway. You’re really back in your element, and I’m excited to watch.”

Bonus Prime delivery clue: Kids doctor kit.

Package voiceover: “I am still amazed that I made it to the quarterfinals. I wasn’t kidding when I told you I had doubts that I belonged on this stage. I think that is what landed me in the smackdown in the first round. But, that turned out to be the awakening I needed to dig deep. As much self doubt as I had, I think I have as much fight in me. As someone who was an athlete, I felt like I was back on that field. I felt it was time to leave it all on the stage. And that’s why I’m singing ‘I’m Yours’ tonight. It’s my battle cry for this competition. I am all in. I’m yours.”

Previous songs: “If I Only Had a Heart,” by Jack Haley; “Wide Open Spaces,” by the Chicks; “Carry On Wayward Son,” by Kansas

Previous panel guesses: Chace Crawford, Kevin Jonas, Jamie Dornan, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Derek Hough, Taran Killam, Jack Black, Zachary Levi, James Marsden

Clock (Group C Champion)

Song: “Get on Your Feet,” by Gloria Estefan

Panel guesses: Stephanie Mills, Sister Sledge, Shirley Bassey

Phone message clue: “Hi mom, you never cease to amaze me. I’ve seen you perform thousands of times. I know you’re nervous tonight, but remember, you performed for the Pope! Ken Jeong should be a piece of cake.”

Package voiceover: “It’s incredible to be in the quarterfinals as the Group C champion. And winning against all these young whippersnappers still has this clock in shock. When I was younger, everyone loved hearing me sing. Until I told them I wanted to do it for a living. Suddenly, it was all, ‘what? Are you crazy?!’ You see, I was a young mother, and most concerned was my own mom. She said, ‘how are you going to take care of these kids and sing in nightclubs?’ But that all changed when she saw me sing one night. She was mesmerized. And from that moment on, it was a family affair. She helped out where she could, and now my son actually works with me on tour. And I’ve been able to stay on my feet for all these years because of their support. Now tonight, I plan to get you on your feet. Because this clock is ticking for a spot in the semi-finals!”

Previous songs: “Piano Man,” by Billy Joel; “Good Times,” by Blinky and Jim Gilstrap; “Respect,” by Aretha Franklin

Previous panel guesses: Anita Baker, Evelyn Champagne King, Diana Ross, Stephanie Mills, Debbie Allen, Janet Jackson, Tina Knowles, Denice Williams

Poodle Moth (Group C Panel Save)

Song: “Price Tag,” by Jessie J. ft. B.O.B.

Phone message clue: From her sister,“Ooh, Poodle Moth. Is there anything that you can’t do? Seriously, from performing in that costume to earning a Golden Globe nomination, your talents are endless. Keep singing your heart out. I love you to the moon and back.”

Package voiceover: “I was so disappointed when I lost the Battle Royale. So when the entire panel saved me, I was so grateful. Being saved reminds me of another time in my life when I was saved, right when I needed it most. Before my big break, I had no cash. A credit card gaining interest, and even had to borrow money for gas. I was afraid of answering my phone, just in case it was the debt collectors. Again. Until one time I was this close to ignoring it. But for some reason, something in me made me pick it up. And thank goodness, because that call changed everything. I got my big break, and well, the rest is history. And now all of these years later, I’m here on the most fantastical stage, singing my heart out as the adorable Poodle Moth. And I’ve learned that you can’t put a price tag on fate.”

Previous songs: “Just the Way You Are,” by Billy Joel; “Unwritten,” by Natasha Bedingfield; “The House That Built Me,” by Miranda Lambert

Previous panel guesses: Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Rita Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, Lauren Graham, Connie Britton, Sharon Stone, Brooke Shields, Shania Twain

Last season’s performers included Ne-Yo as Cow, John Schneider as Donut, Macy Gray as Sea Queen and Janel Parrish as Gazelle join John Oates as Anteater, Keyshia Cole as Candelabra, Sebastian Bach as Tiki, Ginuwine as Husky, Ashley Parker Angel as S’more, Metta World Peace as Cuddle Monster, Luann de Lesseps as Hibiscus, Tyler Posey as Hawk, Billie Jean King as Royal Hen, Michael Rapaport as Pickle, Tom Sandoval as Diver, Anthony Anderson as Rubber Ducky and one-time special guest Demi Lovato as Anonymouse.

Fox Alternative Entertainment is behind “The Masked Singer,” which is exec produced by showrunner James Breen, Craig Plestis, and Nick Cannon. The series is based on the South Korean format created by Mun Hwa Broadcasting Corp.

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