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Star Trek Continues ”To Boldly Go. Part 2” - Detailed Analysis & Review

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Manage episode 371462521 series 2632495
Content provided by Adam David Collings. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Adam David Collings or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Today, we're looking at the final episode of Star Trek Continues. "To Boldly Go. Part 2."

So how does this episode hold up against other series finales such as "All Good Things" and "What You Leave Behind". And how well does this episode tie together Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

There's a lot to talk about, including some cool stories shared with me by director James Kerwin.

Audio Player control at bottom of page.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 107 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Star Trek Continues. “To Boldly Go, Part 2.” bringing our coverage of this show to a close.

The description on IMDB reads

The iconic mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to an end, as Kirk and his crew battle the ultimate adversary.

This teleplay was written by Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

With story by Vic Mignogna, Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 13th of November 2017.

We pick up in a very tense situation from last episode’s great cliffhanger.

Kirk is unwilling to relinquish his bridge. He, Spock, and Uhura all try to fight back. To no avail. Even the security officer’s phasers are useless against Lana’s powers.

And then the big surprise twist happens. Smith’s eyes go silver. She is uplifted as well.

This was nicely foreshadowed in the last episode where they mentioned that she was holding Garry’s hand when they passed through the barrier. I felt then, that she was holding something back.

She uses the same lightning force powers that Lana was using. We saw Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Denher use them in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. She forces Lana and Sentek to retreat to the Kongo.

So … it seems Smith wasn’t quite so unaffected as she claimed. I think this is a very cool development. But it raises a lot of questions. Where does Smith sit in the esper scale? Has she always been affected, but has been hiding it, or have her powers only just now manifested. And if so, why?

Kirk asks security to escort her to sickbay. At first, she’s taken aback. After all, she’s one of the good guys right. She helped them against Lana. But after a moment of thought, she relents. It’s probably a good idea. She understands the potential threat she represents. She sees things from Kirk’s point of view. Maybe she’d even do the same thing in his place.

She voluntarily goes with security.

The big question is, why are they just sitting there. Why have they not destroyed the Enterprise and her crew?

McCoy has the answer. It takes time for uplifted espers to grow in their powers. Perhaps they’re biding their time until they all reach full strength.

Bones has a medical defence that might help with the illusions. Scotty recommends keeping their distance as the espers don’t have unlimited range with their powers.

The Kongo’s engines are offline. The crew must have shut it off before they were overpowered. Maybe the espers don’t know how to get them going again.

Kirk hasn’t slept for two days. McCoy doesn’t argue. Usually Kirk would be wrong, but not this time. He needs to keep going.

I’m not sure McCoy is right, actually. As Riker says in Best of Both Worlds, you can’t fight the enemy at the same time you’re fighting your own fatigue. Lack of sleep impairs human decision making. I know my mind is absolutely useless after putting in a day of work, and Kirk has been going much longer than that.

Yes, the situation is critical, but for the moment, it’s quiet, This might be the perfect time for Kirk to catch 30 minutes of sleep while the enemy regroups.

Of course, there’s a lot to accomplish while they have this time. Coming up with defences, a plan of some sort.

There are no good or easy answers, which is probably why McCoy is not arguing with him.

In five years, 73 people have died under Kirk’s command. He remembers the exact number. Of course he would.

McCoy says “we’ll stop them” but that’s not the point.

“At what cost, Doctor?” Kirk asks. That’s what’s really on his mind.

It’s fitting for Kirk to reflect back on the cost of his five year mission as it’s nearing its end. Especially at a moment like this, when it looks like that cost is about to skyrocket.

But there’s more to it, as we’ll soon discover.

McKenna goes to see Smith. Everyone is afraid of her. Understandably.

Contact with Gary, at the time of his uplifting left some residual energy in her. She didn’t uplift at the time, probably because she doesn’t have the psi rating necessary. But her proximity to the barrier now has reactivated that residual energy enough to uplift her.

Smith has developed telepathy. She can read McKenna’s mind. She can feel the power flowing through her, but she claims to not be dangerous. She would never hurt anybody.

But McKenna can’t know that for sure.

Gary shows early signs of megalomania quite quickly. Denher much less so. She still retained her humanity despite temptation to the contrary.

Why?

Was it that Denher was intrinsically a better person? What is because Denher had a lower psi rating than Gary? If that’s the case, it looks good for Smith as she seems to have a lower rating still.

So far, it’s looking like Smith has a good chance of keeping her humanity long term.

But there are no guarantees here. We just just don’t know.

Charvanek comes to see Spock. It seems she is still trying to pursue a relationship with him. A relationship he was tempted to enter into in the past, but resisted.

She asks Spock to come with her when her ship departs. The mission of the Enterprise is almost over. His job is complete.

It’s a logical time to make a change in his life.

She tempts him with the promise of unification between Romulans and Vulcans. A promise that will consume him a century from now.

But why would a Romulan commander want reunification? She is as he would want her to be, not as she truly is.

This is not Charvanek.

When Spock resists the illusion, it disappears.

Other illusions are being used against the crew. An order to Checkov to lower shields and head into the barrier. Even Kirk’s preoccupation with the deaths of crew under his command.

I’m glad these moments were included. The greatest weapon Lana’s espers have is their mental abilities. Their ability to confuse and manipulate the crew of the Enterprise.

They should be using it every change they get. Probably a lot more than we see on screen.

With that many espers, and so many on board the Enterprise susceptible to them, it’s actually a miracle they don’t blow up their own ship.

This is one weakness I see in Deep Space Nine, actually. Now DS9 is my favourite of all the Star Trek shows, and I love everything to do with the Dominion War and the changelings. But their greatest strength was not the military might of their ships, or the fighting acumen of the Jem Hadar. Their greatest weapon was the ability to infiltrate the Federation. We saw a little hint of the potential they possessed in Homefront and Paradise Lost. And that was only 4 changelings. They should have used these infiltration tactics a lot more during the war. We know the blood screenings were not entirely effective. The Federation wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The reason I bring all this up is just to praise this episode for including these scenes.

The battle begins.

The Kongo fires on the Enterprise. The starboard nacelle is damaged. The Romulans join the fight but then move off.

The espers might need a minute to recharge their powers.

The nacelle needs 30 minutes to repair. Kirk orders a risky cold restart.

The esper’s powers cannot deflect multiple simultaneous strikes.

But two vectors will not be enough. Three would do the job, but they don’t have a third ship….or do they?

Kirk orders the crew to prepare for a risky procedure. One they have never before attempted.

Scotty will re-start the engines. They will separate the saucer from the Stardrive. Spock will command the saucer. Kirk, the secondary hull.

Obviously, this is something that TNG did, but TOS never did.

I was already aware that Gene Roddenberry had intended that the TOS Enterprise be able to separate. They didn’t really have the budget to make it a reality until Encounter at Farpoint.

What I didn’t realise, until it was pointed out by James Kerwin, is that Kirk referred to the process, which they called “Jettisoning”, not “Separating” in two different TOS episodes. “The Apple” and “Savage Curtain”.

Spock points out that it will be very difficult to re-integrate the ship after this. But not impossible

I like this approach. It shows that while yes, the original Enterprise COULD separate the two sections, it wasn’t a routine operation like on the Enterprise D. It’s a last resort. Not necessarily indeed to be undone.

Kirk describes it as “jettisoning the stardrive section.”

So it’s not the same as in TNG.

I like this a lot.

This gives the final episode of Star Trek Continues quite an epic feel.

Now they can conduct a three-pronged attack on the Kingo.

And it’s working. The Kongo’s power is decreasing.

Kirk is commanding the stardrive section from Auxilary control, which was seen from time to time in the original series. The set was built for episode 3 “Fairest of Them All”.

Director James Kerwin shared a story with me.

The Auxilary control set was re-assembled for the finale, not having been used in a couple of years. But the buttons and lights on the helm console had deteriorated due to humidity and dust. They no longer worked, and they had to film in two days.

Kermin checked the travel manifest and realised that Grant Imahara, who played Sulu, was flying in that day. Grant was an electrical engineer by trade. Kermin called him on his mobile phone and said “Grant, I’m so sorry, I know you have a day off before you need to film, but could you please come to set now and try to repair the auxiliary control helm console? He gladly did so and made it work beautifully. So when we see Sulu pressing the aux control helm buttons, and the lights on the console flashing, that was Grant’s work.

The Kongo hails the Enterprise.

We hear some ominous music. Music that is very reminiscent of the score from Star Trek The Motion Picture. A very nice touch.

This episode was the third time Andy Farber wrote and recorded original music for the show.

Starting to integrate some themes from The Motion Picture was a deliberate charge from Mignongna to Farber. This episode is, afterall, the missing gap between TOS and TMP. A handing of the torch.

What he did was incredible.

He weaved these different styles of music together in an impressive and wonderful way.

You hear it clearly during the saucer separation.

What made this extra special was the inclusion of Craig Huxley.

This man has deep connections to Star Trek. He played Peter James Kirk - the nephew of James Kirk, and also appeared in the episode “and the children shall lead.”

He invented a very unique musical instrument that featured heavily in the score of Star Trek The Motion Picture. The blaster beam. The longest stringed instrument ever.

You probably know what I’m talking about. The score for TMP had these deep resonant sounds like nothing you’ve heard before or since. Those sounds came from this unique instrument.

Jerry Goldsmith discovered this instrument and wanted to use it in his score.

It was also used in Star Trek 2 and 3, and even Back to The future and Alien.

I was surprised to hear that, because to me, those sounds are uniquely synonymous with The Motion Picture.

They brought Huxley back to perform some blaster box for the score of this episode, and man does it make a difference. It impacts me on such an emotional level, because of the link to The Motion Picture.

The Kongo’s original crew, including their captain, are alive in the cargo bay. Lana is going to use them as leverage to negotiate.

They want McKenna to beam aboard the Kongo, in exchange for the Kongo’s captain.

If she doesn't they’ll decompress the hanger deck.

It’s a classic prisoner exchange, like in Generations. But who will it benefit most?

McKenna is willing to go.

Sentek gives only one minute. Spock tries to contact Kirk but Uhura can’t get through the interference.

McKenna is trained in mediation. She can find a way to a win-win situation.

Spock is in command. He has to make a decision.

This could be a deception. The Kongo crew may not even be there.

McKenna urges Spock to listen to his feelings, rather than his logic.

Interestingly, I would have thought that his emotions would want him to protect McKenna, his friend.

But he relents and agrees to the exchange.

Mckenna for Captain Azmi.

This raises the important question of why they want McKenna so much.

As soon as McKenna beams away, it is revealed that the lifesigns were an illusion. There are no crew to be saved.

Sentek lied.

When Spock confronts him about this, saying Vulcans never lie, Sentek says they both know that is not true. And I can’t argue with that.

They now have a valuable hostage. One for whom Spock has affection. And that may be motivation enough for the espers wanting the exchange.

Lana orders Spock to stand down or McKenna will die.

Spock agrees.

The Kongo warps out of the system.

Can things possibly get any worse?

Lana brings food to McKenna, which gives her the opportunity to try to reason with her.

McKenna says there is room for everyone in the Federation. She’ll do all she can to help them find acceptance.

Lana points out that time after time, humanity has turned its back on self-improvement.

After all they’ve done, Lana knows there is no place for her and her people in the Federation.

She may be right. I can’t imagine many in the Federation would be keen to welcome these people, given the danger they possess.

Lana sees her and her people as humanity’s successors. She doesn’t want to assimilate into the Federation. She wants to replace it.

With help from the Romulans, the Enterprise has been re-attached into one piece. They’re now in pursuit, but they’re a long way behind.

Starfleet has requested help from both the Klingons and the Romulans. Both have said no.

McCoy’s medical defence is ready to help them focus.

This is important for the story, because otherwise, sooner or later, someone on the ship would succumb to an illusion. The good guys have to have a chance to succeed at some point.

Uhura has a way to circumvent the esper’s subspace disruption, so they’ll be able to communicate and coordinate.

The Enterprise will be working with the Exeter and the Potempkin. The only other two constitution class ships in service.

Spock apologises for his recent decision. Kirk confirms he would have done the same thing in his place.

Smith wants to help. Kirk isn’t convinced it’s a good idea.

Her power is growing quickly. But is her ego growing with the power? There seems to be no evidence of that so far.

Five years ago, Smith watched Kirk make impossible choices to protect his crew. That set something in motion in her. He showed her what it means to serve.

Originally a yeoman, Smith left and got her commission so she could return to the Enterprise and serve her crew.

This is what she’s meant to do - help.

Either Smith is a very good actor, or she is still herself. Still a good person.

It’s a great speech and a very nice character moment for Smith.

If things weren’t already bad enough, it seems the Exeter and Potempkin have both been destroyed. They fired on each other.

The espers powers of illusion have grown significantly. Probably greater even than what Gary’s were before he died.

This episode is doing a fantastic job of taking the tension and ramping it up further and then further.

Uhura and Spock have come up with another way to shield the Enterprise from the illusory power of the espers. It will be limited, but might buy them some time.

But without the other two ships, time to do what?

When they see the Kongo on screen, we hear another booming note from the blaster beam. So effective.

Smith is going to try to use her powers to force her way through the Kongo’s shields in order to beam over there.

Kongo has started firing. Spock has located McKenna. Smith is on it.

The scene where she storms into the Kongo engine room and throws the espers aside is awesome.

She has become a powerful superhero and I love it.

Who would have thought, looking at the character in Star Trek’s second pilot, that she would end up here.

But now it’s two against one, and their powers have had a lot more time to grow than hers.

As they zap her, her eyes seem to dim.

So she starts to fire all her power into the ship’s engines.

The espers run.

Her eyes fade to normal. Her lifesigns are gone.

She used the last of her energy to burn out the Kongo’s systems.

And this brings the story of Smith to an end. She dies a hero. She fulfils her dreams. She is able to serve in the most powerful way, doing what nobody else could have done.

When I think back on this episode, I always remember another death, that we’ll talk about shortly. But after this time through, Smith’s death will stick with me just as much, maybe even more. This death is just as emotionally impactful.

This is the moment when the good guys win.

James Kerwin really enjoyed shooting Smith’s sacrifice. He and actress Kipleigh Brown had been working together on film projects for many years, and both started working on Star Trek Continues at the same time, episode 3. He was glad to give the character an honourable send-off.

Not only did Kipleigh Brown write the previous episode, “What Ships are For”, she also wrote Smith’s farwell speech to Kirk.

The Romulans are firing killing shots at the Kongo. But they still have someone over there. The Romulans, like their Vulcan cousins, it seems, are very pragmatic in this situation. They’re not willing to risk the galaxy just for McKenna.

The visuals of the damages Kongo with it’s decks exposed looks awesome. Reminds me of the remastered effects in The Doomsday Machine.

Even Charvanek,who is still aboard the Enterprise, doesn’t approve of Tal’s actions.

Now the Romulan ship is firing at the Enterprise too.

The Enterprise takes some very significant damage. Casualty reports coming from all over the ship. As the saucer is mangled, and sparks flare all over the bridge, we get an epic sense of disaster you wouldn’t see in any other episode of TOS. This is the finale. It all ends here.

This nicely gives an added reason for the ship to undergo a major refit prior to TMP.

Charvanek disables the weapons on her ship, relieving Tal of his position.

The Kongo hails. They’re in bad shape. Even Lana has lost the silver from her eyes.

“Well fought, Kirk,” she says. “For a moment we knew the freedom of infinity.”

Their reactor is building up.

Scotty needs a minute to beam McKenna out.

He doesn’t get it.

He’s half got her, but having trouble re materialising her.

It looks like Spock has done it, but it still doesn’t work.

Spock’s emotions come out as he hits the console.

McKenna is still standing there, shimmering, allowing them to have a tearful goodbye.

Kirk apologises and thanks her.

Spock approaches. It’s a painful moment for him.

She says something to him, although it isn’t overly apparent to me in this scene.

We get hints of music from Star Trek 2. Fitting.

This scene really tears me apart.

McKenna herself seems to have a quiet acceptance of her death. She has a smile that seems to say “Thanks for trying.” She is remarkably brave in the face of her imminent death. Were I in her situation. I’d probably be horrified.

McKenna fades away.

Dead.

It makes narrative sense that McKenna would die in this episode. Over the course of this fourth season, she has become an important part of the show. Part of this family. It makes no sense that she wouldn’t be around in the movies. It’s logical that she would die. I guess the same is true for Smith. And in a story of this magnitude, there needs to be loss. There has to be a price for victory.

In the end, McKennma’s death was kind of senseless. She wasn’t able to make a difference, although it does serve an important story purpose as we’ll see in a minute.

But Smith’s death was critical to their victory. They never would have won without her.

In a very real sense, she is the hero of this story.

The Enterprise crawls home on its hands and knees. She has come home. But it’s not the triumphant moment they had anticipated. Their recent losses, how close they came to disaster, it all weighs heavily on them.

Kirk’s log is spoken with a very sombre voice.

We see the spacedock in orbit, where she’ll stay until her refit is complete and Kirk takes her out to confront V’ger.

We see a TOS shuttle fly over the golden Gate Bridge in a scene that otherwise could have come from the motion picture.

Admiral Nogura, who we hear about in the motion picture, but never see, congratulates Kirk on completing his five year mission, and on saving the galaxy. It’s cool to have that character appear in this episode.

In the show, we didn’t see the Enterprise crew saving the entire galaxy. They tended to deal with smaller scale issues most of the time. But it’s very fitting that they have faced and overcome such a threat in their final story.

Kirk still feels the cost acutely.

Based on Kirk’s experiences with McKenna, Kirk calls the experimental counsellor program a success. It should continue. Starfleet ships from now on will have counsellors on board.

Kirk looks at a series of models, from Cochrane’s Phoenix, to the NX-01, We see the USS Discovery, the constitution class, and finally, the constitution refit, as the TMP theme starts to play.

I get goosebumps.

Now, potentially, Discovery shouldn’t be seen here, as that ship was classified when it travelled into the future.

Of course, Discovery season 1 was brand new when this episode was made, so that canon hadn’t been established yet.

Personally, I think it’s not out of the question for an admiral to still have a crossfield class model in his office. It was still a part of Starfleet history. Nogura would have been active in Starfleet during the time of Discovery. And I think it’s worth it for the emotional resonance of seeing it in the lineup. It’s nicely ties old and new Trek together.

The Enterprise will be refit from the keel up. The crew will be given promotions.

And the Federation council has voted to reinstate the enterprise Delta as the official insignia of Starfleet.

Kirk says Scotty always thought it reminded him of the port and starboard warp signatures of Cochrane deceleration. I can’t help but wonder if this is a nod to the novel Star Trek Federation.

To Kirk, it’s an arrow. Rising upward and outward.

I was never a fan of the alternate insignias for other ships, and I believe, neither was Rodennberry. I remember reading somewhere, and I don’t remember where, so take this with a grain of salt, but I seem to remember Roddenberry wanted the crew of other ships to have the familiar delta, but the costume designer kept making new insignias, probably because he wanted to express his creativity.

For me, this is a part of canon I tend to try to ignore. It’s clear that in most of Star Trek, the delta is intended to be the logo for all of Starfleet, and always has been.

But, those alternate insignias are part of canon. And they were further canonised by both Enterprise and Strange New Worlds.

Later Star Trek established the delta was used as the general Starfleet logo both prior to Kirk’s five year mission, and again afterwards.

James Kerwin resolved this by having Nogura say that in honour of the Enterprise, they were RE-establishing the delta as the official starfleet logo.

This episode makes it all work here in a fitting way.

Kirk is questioning whether his time has ended. He is not the same person he was.

He’s suffered a lot of loss. His preoccupation with the loss of people under his command may have been brought on by the espers, but these feelings are real.

He expects more of himself than he’s able to give any longer. He could never be happy with that.

This makes him more receptive to what Nogura is about to offer him.

We see the Enterprise crew assembled in the same room where Kirk briefs them in TMP. It’s fascinating seeing those colourful TOS uniforms in a background plate that looks like it’s taken directly from TMP.

I do love the transitional moments like this.

Kirk emerges in his motion picture admiral uniform.

Like most people, I’m not a big fan of the TMP uniforms, but the one exception is Kirk’s admiral uniform. I like that a lot. I kinda wish the movie had just used that uniform for everyone.

Kirks makes a speech. He has been promoted to admiral and chief of Starfleet operations.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that they will continue to reach deeper into the stars. Explore more new worlds. Venturing further into the final frontier.

Our greatest adversaries, he says, are ourselves. We have much to learn about what’s out there, but also about what’s in here.

The experience with the espers has cemented that lesson.

Now the music goes full TMP.

The next thing the episode needs to do is set up where McCoy and Spock will be at the start of the movie.

McCoy says he’s done. He’s seen enough death. What he hasn’t seen is his daughter in five years. He’s leaving Starfleet and going home.

I feel that McCoy’s departure hasn’t been as well set up as Spocks, which we’ll get to in a minute.

But his reasons are sound. Particularly the family thing

5 years is a very long time to not see your child.

We don’t know the exact details of his family in the prime universe canon, but it has been established through the years, particularly in books, that McCoy had a family. The Kelvin movies made his marriage and divorce canon.

I can’t begin to imagine not seeing your child for five years, but I applaud him for doing something about it now.

This works really quite well for me, but I think it would work even better had there been a little more foreshadowing through the season. Seeing McCoy start to lament the lost time with his daughter. Realising how great that cost had become.

Of course, this isn’t the end of their friendship. And there’s a nice little nod to Drake.

There’s an acknowledgement of the awkward but strong friendship that exists between Spock and Bones when he invites Spock to join them.

Spock tells Jim what McKenna said to him before she was lost in the transporter beam.

“Forgive yourself.”

A difficult thing.

McKenna encouraged Spock to pay attention to his emotions. He did so. He made an emotional decision, ignored his logic and allowed her to beam over.

That decision cost many lives, including hers.

Spock doesn’t know how to deal with the guilt and regret he’s feeling. All he knows how to do with emotions is suppress them.

And that leads him to make the decision to undergo the Kholinar. He will purge all his remaining emotions.

This whole Kholinar thing seemed to come from nowhere in The Motion Picture. So Spock’s arc in this episode makes a whole lot of sense. It retroactively makes Spock’s arc in TMP even better. I absolutely love what the episode does here. It’s brilliant character work.

Kirk will see his two friends at dinner. But there’s one last thing he has to do.

He goes to the bridge of the Enterprise. Now shut down and empty.

And he looks at it. Says goodbye.

While Kirk says goodbye to his command, we say goodbye to a bridge that we will never see again - not in this form.

It’s a powerful scene. It holds similar emotional resonance as the poker scene at the end of “All Good Things.”

The episode hangs there. Gives Vic the time just to look and react.

We finish with a captain’s log.

Kirk’s last.

At least for now.

Then we pull back on a shot of the Enterprise in spacedock, as the music becomes very TMP sounding.

There is no music over the ending credits, just the ambient sound of the bridge.

This episode does everything a series finale should do, and it does it in style.

We had a huge story with epic stakes. Powerful impacts for our characters. A sense of full-circle as we link back to the beginning, and a setting up for what will come after.

I’d put this one right up there with the best of the Star Trek Finales, “All Good Things” and “What you Leave Behind.” This is certainly orders of magnitude better than “Endgame.”

I’ve loved Star Trek Continues as a whole, but this final two-parter epitomises the reasons I love this show so much.

I have to give a huge congratulations to the cast and crew. To everyone who made this labour of love a reality.

This show has a special place in my heart, and I’m deeply grateful to those who created it.

I would like to acknowledge the tragic passing of actor Grant Imahara who played Sulu.

He passed away on the 13th of July 2020 at just 49 years of age

I’d like to say a huge thankyou once again, to James Kerwin for reaching out to me, and generously answering my questions and sharing some cool stories.

Thanks, James.

Here ends my coverage of Star Trek Continues.

So what next?

Well it seems crazy not to jump right into Star Trek The Motion Picture after this. I’ve covered all the TNG movies on the podcast, but I haven’t covered the TOS movies. So I’ll make my way through them.

I also have some ideas of things I can do along the way. I’ve been thinking of revisiting the original Transformers cartoon from the 80s, which I have powerful childhood memories of. See if there’s anything in them worthy to discuss as an adult. I’d likely cover more than one episode in a podcast, and probably not go into as much recap detail as I’ve been doing with Star Trek. The idea is something I can do a little more off-the-cuff. Something that will take less time as I try to focus more on the fiction writing.

I’m also thinking of giving periodic updates on my reading of DC Comics, using the DC Universe Infinite app.

Anyway, there’s plenty more to come, so I hope you’ll find something of interest in the future of Nerd Heaven.

Until next time,

Live Long and Prosper.

Make it so.

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Today, we're looking at the final episode of Star Trek Continues. "To Boldly Go. Part 2."

So how does this episode hold up against other series finales such as "All Good Things" and "What You Leave Behind". And how well does this episode tie together Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

There's a lot to talk about, including some cool stories shared with me by director James Kerwin.

Audio Player control at bottom of page.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a Nerd.

This is episode 107 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the final episode of Star Trek Continues. “To Boldly Go, Part 2.” bringing our coverage of this show to a close.

The description on IMDB reads

The iconic mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to an end, as Kirk and his crew battle the ultimate adversary.

This teleplay was written by Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

With story by Vic Mignogna, Robert J. Sawyer and James Kerwin.

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 13th of November 2017.

We pick up in a very tense situation from last episode’s great cliffhanger.

Kirk is unwilling to relinquish his bridge. He, Spock, and Uhura all try to fight back. To no avail. Even the security officer’s phasers are useless against Lana’s powers.

And then the big surprise twist happens. Smith’s eyes go silver. She is uplifted as well.

This was nicely foreshadowed in the last episode where they mentioned that she was holding Garry’s hand when they passed through the barrier. I felt then, that she was holding something back.

She uses the same lightning force powers that Lana was using. We saw Gary Mitchel and Elizabeth Denher use them in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. She forces Lana and Sentek to retreat to the Kongo.

So … it seems Smith wasn’t quite so unaffected as she claimed. I think this is a very cool development. But it raises a lot of questions. Where does Smith sit in the esper scale? Has she always been affected, but has been hiding it, or have her powers only just now manifested. And if so, why?

Kirk asks security to escort her to sickbay. At first, she’s taken aback. After all, she’s one of the good guys right. She helped them against Lana. But after a moment of thought, she relents. It’s probably a good idea. She understands the potential threat she represents. She sees things from Kirk’s point of view. Maybe she’d even do the same thing in his place.

She voluntarily goes with security.

The big question is, why are they just sitting there. Why have they not destroyed the Enterprise and her crew?

McCoy has the answer. It takes time for uplifted espers to grow in their powers. Perhaps they’re biding their time until they all reach full strength.

Bones has a medical defence that might help with the illusions. Scotty recommends keeping their distance as the espers don’t have unlimited range with their powers.

The Kongo’s engines are offline. The crew must have shut it off before they were overpowered. Maybe the espers don’t know how to get them going again.

Kirk hasn’t slept for two days. McCoy doesn’t argue. Usually Kirk would be wrong, but not this time. He needs to keep going.

I’m not sure McCoy is right, actually. As Riker says in Best of Both Worlds, you can’t fight the enemy at the same time you’re fighting your own fatigue. Lack of sleep impairs human decision making. I know my mind is absolutely useless after putting in a day of work, and Kirk has been going much longer than that.

Yes, the situation is critical, but for the moment, it’s quiet, This might be the perfect time for Kirk to catch 30 minutes of sleep while the enemy regroups.

Of course, there’s a lot to accomplish while they have this time. Coming up with defences, a plan of some sort.

There are no good or easy answers, which is probably why McCoy is not arguing with him.

In five years, 73 people have died under Kirk’s command. He remembers the exact number. Of course he would.

McCoy says “we’ll stop them” but that’s not the point.

“At what cost, Doctor?” Kirk asks. That’s what’s really on his mind.

It’s fitting for Kirk to reflect back on the cost of his five year mission as it’s nearing its end. Especially at a moment like this, when it looks like that cost is about to skyrocket.

But there’s more to it, as we’ll soon discover.

McKenna goes to see Smith. Everyone is afraid of her. Understandably.

Contact with Gary, at the time of his uplifting left some residual energy in her. She didn’t uplift at the time, probably because she doesn’t have the psi rating necessary. But her proximity to the barrier now has reactivated that residual energy enough to uplift her.

Smith has developed telepathy. She can read McKenna’s mind. She can feel the power flowing through her, but she claims to not be dangerous. She would never hurt anybody.

But McKenna can’t know that for sure.

Gary shows early signs of megalomania quite quickly. Denher much less so. She still retained her humanity despite temptation to the contrary.

Why?

Was it that Denher was intrinsically a better person? What is because Denher had a lower psi rating than Gary? If that’s the case, it looks good for Smith as she seems to have a lower rating still.

So far, it’s looking like Smith has a good chance of keeping her humanity long term.

But there are no guarantees here. We just just don’t know.

Charvanek comes to see Spock. It seems she is still trying to pursue a relationship with him. A relationship he was tempted to enter into in the past, but resisted.

She asks Spock to come with her when her ship departs. The mission of the Enterprise is almost over. His job is complete.

It’s a logical time to make a change in his life.

She tempts him with the promise of unification between Romulans and Vulcans. A promise that will consume him a century from now.

But why would a Romulan commander want reunification? She is as he would want her to be, not as she truly is.

This is not Charvanek.

When Spock resists the illusion, it disappears.

Other illusions are being used against the crew. An order to Checkov to lower shields and head into the barrier. Even Kirk’s preoccupation with the deaths of crew under his command.

I’m glad these moments were included. The greatest weapon Lana’s espers have is their mental abilities. Their ability to confuse and manipulate the crew of the Enterprise.

They should be using it every change they get. Probably a lot more than we see on screen.

With that many espers, and so many on board the Enterprise susceptible to them, it’s actually a miracle they don’t blow up their own ship.

This is one weakness I see in Deep Space Nine, actually. Now DS9 is my favourite of all the Star Trek shows, and I love everything to do with the Dominion War and the changelings. But their greatest strength was not the military might of their ships, or the fighting acumen of the Jem Hadar. Their greatest weapon was the ability to infiltrate the Federation. We saw a little hint of the potential they possessed in Homefront and Paradise Lost. And that was only 4 changelings. They should have used these infiltration tactics a lot more during the war. We know the blood screenings were not entirely effective. The Federation wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The reason I bring all this up is just to praise this episode for including these scenes.

The battle begins.

The Kongo fires on the Enterprise. The starboard nacelle is damaged. The Romulans join the fight but then move off.

The espers might need a minute to recharge their powers.

The nacelle needs 30 minutes to repair. Kirk orders a risky cold restart.

The esper’s powers cannot deflect multiple simultaneous strikes.

But two vectors will not be enough. Three would do the job, but they don’t have a third ship….or do they?

Kirk orders the crew to prepare for a risky procedure. One they have never before attempted.

Scotty will re-start the engines. They will separate the saucer from the Stardrive. Spock will command the saucer. Kirk, the secondary hull.

Obviously, this is something that TNG did, but TOS never did.

I was already aware that Gene Roddenberry had intended that the TOS Enterprise be able to separate. They didn’t really have the budget to make it a reality until Encounter at Farpoint.

What I didn’t realise, until it was pointed out by James Kerwin, is that Kirk referred to the process, which they called “Jettisoning”, not “Separating” in two different TOS episodes. “The Apple” and “Savage Curtain”.

Spock points out that it will be very difficult to re-integrate the ship after this. But not impossible

I like this approach. It shows that while yes, the original Enterprise COULD separate the two sections, it wasn’t a routine operation like on the Enterprise D. It’s a last resort. Not necessarily indeed to be undone.

Kirk describes it as “jettisoning the stardrive section.”

So it’s not the same as in TNG.

I like this a lot.

This gives the final episode of Star Trek Continues quite an epic feel.

Now they can conduct a three-pronged attack on the Kingo.

And it’s working. The Kongo’s power is decreasing.

Kirk is commanding the stardrive section from Auxilary control, which was seen from time to time in the original series. The set was built for episode 3 “Fairest of Them All”.

Director James Kerwin shared a story with me.

The Auxilary control set was re-assembled for the finale, not having been used in a couple of years. But the buttons and lights on the helm console had deteriorated due to humidity and dust. They no longer worked, and they had to film in two days.

Kermin checked the travel manifest and realised that Grant Imahara, who played Sulu, was flying in that day. Grant was an electrical engineer by trade. Kermin called him on his mobile phone and said “Grant, I’m so sorry, I know you have a day off before you need to film, but could you please come to set now and try to repair the auxiliary control helm console? He gladly did so and made it work beautifully. So when we see Sulu pressing the aux control helm buttons, and the lights on the console flashing, that was Grant’s work.

The Kongo hails the Enterprise.

We hear some ominous music. Music that is very reminiscent of the score from Star Trek The Motion Picture. A very nice touch.

This episode was the third time Andy Farber wrote and recorded original music for the show.

Starting to integrate some themes from The Motion Picture was a deliberate charge from Mignongna to Farber. This episode is, afterall, the missing gap between TOS and TMP. A handing of the torch.

What he did was incredible.

He weaved these different styles of music together in an impressive and wonderful way.

You hear it clearly during the saucer separation.

What made this extra special was the inclusion of Craig Huxley.

This man has deep connections to Star Trek. He played Peter James Kirk - the nephew of James Kirk, and also appeared in the episode “and the children shall lead.”

He invented a very unique musical instrument that featured heavily in the score of Star Trek The Motion Picture. The blaster beam. The longest stringed instrument ever.

You probably know what I’m talking about. The score for TMP had these deep resonant sounds like nothing you’ve heard before or since. Those sounds came from this unique instrument.

Jerry Goldsmith discovered this instrument and wanted to use it in his score.

It was also used in Star Trek 2 and 3, and even Back to The future and Alien.

I was surprised to hear that, because to me, those sounds are uniquely synonymous with The Motion Picture.

They brought Huxley back to perform some blaster box for the score of this episode, and man does it make a difference. It impacts me on such an emotional level, because of the link to The Motion Picture.

The Kongo’s original crew, including their captain, are alive in the cargo bay. Lana is going to use them as leverage to negotiate.

They want McKenna to beam aboard the Kongo, in exchange for the Kongo’s captain.

If she doesn't they’ll decompress the hanger deck.

It’s a classic prisoner exchange, like in Generations. But who will it benefit most?

McKenna is willing to go.

Sentek gives only one minute. Spock tries to contact Kirk but Uhura can’t get through the interference.

McKenna is trained in mediation. She can find a way to a win-win situation.

Spock is in command. He has to make a decision.

This could be a deception. The Kongo crew may not even be there.

McKenna urges Spock to listen to his feelings, rather than his logic.

Interestingly, I would have thought that his emotions would want him to protect McKenna, his friend.

But he relents and agrees to the exchange.

Mckenna for Captain Azmi.

This raises the important question of why they want McKenna so much.

As soon as McKenna beams away, it is revealed that the lifesigns were an illusion. There are no crew to be saved.

Sentek lied.

When Spock confronts him about this, saying Vulcans never lie, Sentek says they both know that is not true. And I can’t argue with that.

They now have a valuable hostage. One for whom Spock has affection. And that may be motivation enough for the espers wanting the exchange.

Lana orders Spock to stand down or McKenna will die.

Spock agrees.

The Kongo warps out of the system.

Can things possibly get any worse?

Lana brings food to McKenna, which gives her the opportunity to try to reason with her.

McKenna says there is room for everyone in the Federation. She’ll do all she can to help them find acceptance.

Lana points out that time after time, humanity has turned its back on self-improvement.

After all they’ve done, Lana knows there is no place for her and her people in the Federation.

She may be right. I can’t imagine many in the Federation would be keen to welcome these people, given the danger they possess.

Lana sees her and her people as humanity’s successors. She doesn’t want to assimilate into the Federation. She wants to replace it.

With help from the Romulans, the Enterprise has been re-attached into one piece. They’re now in pursuit, but they’re a long way behind.

Starfleet has requested help from both the Klingons and the Romulans. Both have said no.

McCoy’s medical defence is ready to help them focus.

This is important for the story, because otherwise, sooner or later, someone on the ship would succumb to an illusion. The good guys have to have a chance to succeed at some point.

Uhura has a way to circumvent the esper’s subspace disruption, so they’ll be able to communicate and coordinate.

The Enterprise will be working with the Exeter and the Potempkin. The only other two constitution class ships in service.

Spock apologises for his recent decision. Kirk confirms he would have done the same thing in his place.

Smith wants to help. Kirk isn’t convinced it’s a good idea.

Her power is growing quickly. But is her ego growing with the power? There seems to be no evidence of that so far.

Five years ago, Smith watched Kirk make impossible choices to protect his crew. That set something in motion in her. He showed her what it means to serve.

Originally a yeoman, Smith left and got her commission so she could return to the Enterprise and serve her crew.

This is what she’s meant to do - help.

Either Smith is a very good actor, or she is still herself. Still a good person.

It’s a great speech and a very nice character moment for Smith.

If things weren’t already bad enough, it seems the Exeter and Potempkin have both been destroyed. They fired on each other.

The espers powers of illusion have grown significantly. Probably greater even than what Gary’s were before he died.

This episode is doing a fantastic job of taking the tension and ramping it up further and then further.

Uhura and Spock have come up with another way to shield the Enterprise from the illusory power of the espers. It will be limited, but might buy them some time.

But without the other two ships, time to do what?

When they see the Kongo on screen, we hear another booming note from the blaster beam. So effective.

Smith is going to try to use her powers to force her way through the Kongo’s shields in order to beam over there.

Kongo has started firing. Spock has located McKenna. Smith is on it.

The scene where she storms into the Kongo engine room and throws the espers aside is awesome.

She has become a powerful superhero and I love it.

Who would have thought, looking at the character in Star Trek’s second pilot, that she would end up here.

But now it’s two against one, and their powers have had a lot more time to grow than hers.

As they zap her, her eyes seem to dim.

So she starts to fire all her power into the ship’s engines.

The espers run.

Her eyes fade to normal. Her lifesigns are gone.

She used the last of her energy to burn out the Kongo’s systems.

And this brings the story of Smith to an end. She dies a hero. She fulfils her dreams. She is able to serve in the most powerful way, doing what nobody else could have done.

When I think back on this episode, I always remember another death, that we’ll talk about shortly. But after this time through, Smith’s death will stick with me just as much, maybe even more. This death is just as emotionally impactful.

This is the moment when the good guys win.

James Kerwin really enjoyed shooting Smith’s sacrifice. He and actress Kipleigh Brown had been working together on film projects for many years, and both started working on Star Trek Continues at the same time, episode 3. He was glad to give the character an honourable send-off.

Not only did Kipleigh Brown write the previous episode, “What Ships are For”, she also wrote Smith’s farwell speech to Kirk.

The Romulans are firing killing shots at the Kongo. But they still have someone over there. The Romulans, like their Vulcan cousins, it seems, are very pragmatic in this situation. They’re not willing to risk the galaxy just for McKenna.

The visuals of the damages Kongo with it’s decks exposed looks awesome. Reminds me of the remastered effects in The Doomsday Machine.

Even Charvanek,who is still aboard the Enterprise, doesn’t approve of Tal’s actions.

Now the Romulan ship is firing at the Enterprise too.

The Enterprise takes some very significant damage. Casualty reports coming from all over the ship. As the saucer is mangled, and sparks flare all over the bridge, we get an epic sense of disaster you wouldn’t see in any other episode of TOS. This is the finale. It all ends here.

This nicely gives an added reason for the ship to undergo a major refit prior to TMP.

Charvanek disables the weapons on her ship, relieving Tal of his position.

The Kongo hails. They’re in bad shape. Even Lana has lost the silver from her eyes.

“Well fought, Kirk,” she says. “For a moment we knew the freedom of infinity.”

Their reactor is building up.

Scotty needs a minute to beam McKenna out.

He doesn’t get it.

He’s half got her, but having trouble re materialising her.

It looks like Spock has done it, but it still doesn’t work.

Spock’s emotions come out as he hits the console.

McKenna is still standing there, shimmering, allowing them to have a tearful goodbye.

Kirk apologises and thanks her.

Spock approaches. It’s a painful moment for him.

She says something to him, although it isn’t overly apparent to me in this scene.

We get hints of music from Star Trek 2. Fitting.

This scene really tears me apart.

McKenna herself seems to have a quiet acceptance of her death. She has a smile that seems to say “Thanks for trying.” She is remarkably brave in the face of her imminent death. Were I in her situation. I’d probably be horrified.

McKenna fades away.

Dead.

It makes narrative sense that McKenna would die in this episode. Over the course of this fourth season, she has become an important part of the show. Part of this family. It makes no sense that she wouldn’t be around in the movies. It’s logical that she would die. I guess the same is true for Smith. And in a story of this magnitude, there needs to be loss. There has to be a price for victory.

In the end, McKennma’s death was kind of senseless. She wasn’t able to make a difference, although it does serve an important story purpose as we’ll see in a minute.

But Smith’s death was critical to their victory. They never would have won without her.

In a very real sense, she is the hero of this story.

The Enterprise crawls home on its hands and knees. She has come home. But it’s not the triumphant moment they had anticipated. Their recent losses, how close they came to disaster, it all weighs heavily on them.

Kirk’s log is spoken with a very sombre voice.

We see the spacedock in orbit, where she’ll stay until her refit is complete and Kirk takes her out to confront V’ger.

We see a TOS shuttle fly over the golden Gate Bridge in a scene that otherwise could have come from the motion picture.

Admiral Nogura, who we hear about in the motion picture, but never see, congratulates Kirk on completing his five year mission, and on saving the galaxy. It’s cool to have that character appear in this episode.

In the show, we didn’t see the Enterprise crew saving the entire galaxy. They tended to deal with smaller scale issues most of the time. But it’s very fitting that they have faced and overcome such a threat in their final story.

Kirk still feels the cost acutely.

Based on Kirk’s experiences with McKenna, Kirk calls the experimental counsellor program a success. It should continue. Starfleet ships from now on will have counsellors on board.

Kirk looks at a series of models, from Cochrane’s Phoenix, to the NX-01, We see the USS Discovery, the constitution class, and finally, the constitution refit, as the TMP theme starts to play.

I get goosebumps.

Now, potentially, Discovery shouldn’t be seen here, as that ship was classified when it travelled into the future.

Of course, Discovery season 1 was brand new when this episode was made, so that canon hadn’t been established yet.

Personally, I think it’s not out of the question for an admiral to still have a crossfield class model in his office. It was still a part of Starfleet history. Nogura would have been active in Starfleet during the time of Discovery. And I think it’s worth it for the emotional resonance of seeing it in the lineup. It’s nicely ties old and new Trek together.

The Enterprise will be refit from the keel up. The crew will be given promotions.

And the Federation council has voted to reinstate the enterprise Delta as the official insignia of Starfleet.

Kirk says Scotty always thought it reminded him of the port and starboard warp signatures of Cochrane deceleration. I can’t help but wonder if this is a nod to the novel Star Trek Federation.

To Kirk, it’s an arrow. Rising upward and outward.

I was never a fan of the alternate insignias for other ships, and I believe, neither was Rodennberry. I remember reading somewhere, and I don’t remember where, so take this with a grain of salt, but I seem to remember Roddenberry wanted the crew of other ships to have the familiar delta, but the costume designer kept making new insignias, probably because he wanted to express his creativity.

For me, this is a part of canon I tend to try to ignore. It’s clear that in most of Star Trek, the delta is intended to be the logo for all of Starfleet, and always has been.

But, those alternate insignias are part of canon. And they were further canonised by both Enterprise and Strange New Worlds.

Later Star Trek established the delta was used as the general Starfleet logo both prior to Kirk’s five year mission, and again afterwards.

James Kerwin resolved this by having Nogura say that in honour of the Enterprise, they were RE-establishing the delta as the official starfleet logo.

This episode makes it all work here in a fitting way.

Kirk is questioning whether his time has ended. He is not the same person he was.

He’s suffered a lot of loss. His preoccupation with the loss of people under his command may have been brought on by the espers, but these feelings are real.

He expects more of himself than he’s able to give any longer. He could never be happy with that.

This makes him more receptive to what Nogura is about to offer him.

We see the Enterprise crew assembled in the same room where Kirk briefs them in TMP. It’s fascinating seeing those colourful TOS uniforms in a background plate that looks like it’s taken directly from TMP.

I do love the transitional moments like this.

Kirk emerges in his motion picture admiral uniform.

Like most people, I’m not a big fan of the TMP uniforms, but the one exception is Kirk’s admiral uniform. I like that a lot. I kinda wish the movie had just used that uniform for everyone.

Kirks makes a speech. He has been promoted to admiral and chief of Starfleet operations.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that they will continue to reach deeper into the stars. Explore more new worlds. Venturing further into the final frontier.

Our greatest adversaries, he says, are ourselves. We have much to learn about what’s out there, but also about what’s in here.

The experience with the espers has cemented that lesson.

Now the music goes full TMP.

The next thing the episode needs to do is set up where McCoy and Spock will be at the start of the movie.

McCoy says he’s done. He’s seen enough death. What he hasn’t seen is his daughter in five years. He’s leaving Starfleet and going home.

I feel that McCoy’s departure hasn’t been as well set up as Spocks, which we’ll get to in a minute.

But his reasons are sound. Particularly the family thing

5 years is a very long time to not see your child.

We don’t know the exact details of his family in the prime universe canon, but it has been established through the years, particularly in books, that McCoy had a family. The Kelvin movies made his marriage and divorce canon.

I can’t begin to imagine not seeing your child for five years, but I applaud him for doing something about it now.

This works really quite well for me, but I think it would work even better had there been a little more foreshadowing through the season. Seeing McCoy start to lament the lost time with his daughter. Realising how great that cost had become.

Of course, this isn’t the end of their friendship. And there’s a nice little nod to Drake.

There’s an acknowledgement of the awkward but strong friendship that exists between Spock and Bones when he invites Spock to join them.

Spock tells Jim what McKenna said to him before she was lost in the transporter beam.

“Forgive yourself.”

A difficult thing.

McKenna encouraged Spock to pay attention to his emotions. He did so. He made an emotional decision, ignored his logic and allowed her to beam over.

That decision cost many lives, including hers.

Spock doesn’t know how to deal with the guilt and regret he’s feeling. All he knows how to do with emotions is suppress them.

And that leads him to make the decision to undergo the Kholinar. He will purge all his remaining emotions.

This whole Kholinar thing seemed to come from nowhere in The Motion Picture. So Spock’s arc in this episode makes a whole lot of sense. It retroactively makes Spock’s arc in TMP even better. I absolutely love what the episode does here. It’s brilliant character work.

Kirk will see his two friends at dinner. But there’s one last thing he has to do.

He goes to the bridge of the Enterprise. Now shut down and empty.

And he looks at it. Says goodbye.

While Kirk says goodbye to his command, we say goodbye to a bridge that we will never see again - not in this form.

It’s a powerful scene. It holds similar emotional resonance as the poker scene at the end of “All Good Things.”

The episode hangs there. Gives Vic the time just to look and react.

We finish with a captain’s log.

Kirk’s last.

At least for now.

Then we pull back on a shot of the Enterprise in spacedock, as the music becomes very TMP sounding.

There is no music over the ending credits, just the ambient sound of the bridge.

This episode does everything a series finale should do, and it does it in style.

We had a huge story with epic stakes. Powerful impacts for our characters. A sense of full-circle as we link back to the beginning, and a setting up for what will come after.

I’d put this one right up there with the best of the Star Trek Finales, “All Good Things” and “What you Leave Behind.” This is certainly orders of magnitude better than “Endgame.”

I’ve loved Star Trek Continues as a whole, but this final two-parter epitomises the reasons I love this show so much.

I have to give a huge congratulations to the cast and crew. To everyone who made this labour of love a reality.

This show has a special place in my heart, and I’m deeply grateful to those who created it.

I would like to acknowledge the tragic passing of actor Grant Imahara who played Sulu.

He passed away on the 13th of July 2020 at just 49 years of age

I’d like to say a huge thankyou once again, to James Kerwin for reaching out to me, and generously answering my questions and sharing some cool stories.

Thanks, James.

Here ends my coverage of Star Trek Continues.

So what next?

Well it seems crazy not to jump right into Star Trek The Motion Picture after this. I’ve covered all the TNG movies on the podcast, but I haven’t covered the TOS movies. So I’ll make my way through them.

I also have some ideas of things I can do along the way. I’ve been thinking of revisiting the original Transformers cartoon from the 80s, which I have powerful childhood memories of. See if there’s anything in them worthy to discuss as an adult. I’d likely cover more than one episode in a podcast, and probably not go into as much recap detail as I’ve been doing with Star Trek. The idea is something I can do a little more off-the-cuff. Something that will take less time as I try to focus more on the fiction writing.

I’m also thinking of giving periodic updates on my reading of DC Comics, using the DC Universe Infinite app.

Anyway, there’s plenty more to come, so I hope you’ll find something of interest in the future of Nerd Heaven.

Until next time,

Live Long and Prosper.

Make it so.

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