What Star Trek Means to Me

(by Collin R. Skocik) For the first half of the twentieth century, science fiction in the mainstream media was represented by two franchises:  Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.  Fresh, exciting, fun, uplifting, and wonderful, the Flash and Buck comic strips, movie serials, TV series, books, games, action figures, board games, and toys stirred the imagination …

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

(by Collin R. Skocik) The accidental destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis causes an ecological catastrophe on the Klingon homeworld Qo’noS, forcing the Klingons to reach out to the Federation for help. Faced with the collapse of the Klingon Empire and peace with his sworn enemies, Kirk takes the Enterprise out on his final mission …

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) The Enterprise is hijacked by Sybok, an emotional Vulcan who plans to take the ship to the center of the galaxy, where he hopes to find God. The friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy is tested as it has never been before. Actually, Star Trek V: The …

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

(by Collin R. Skocik) I feel comfortable in saying that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the most eagerly anticipated Star Trek movie ever made—with the possible exception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which I was too young to remember. In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, the Enterprise was destroyed, and …

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise has a gaping hole in it far worse than the battle damage inflicted by the battle with Khan. Spock is dead and everyone is affected. An integral part of the Star Trek family is missing and things are just not right. McCoy seems to be going crazy. Sarek visits …

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

(by Collin R. Skocik) Khan is back! Chekov, now the first officer of the starship Reliant, beams down to Ceti Alpha V with Captain Clark Terrell to pick a testing ground for Project Genesis, a twenty-third century terraforming project. There, they are captured by Khan Noonien Singh and his genetically engineered superhumans from the twentieth …

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

(by Collin R. Skocik) The five-year mission of the starship Enterprise is over. Our beloved characters have gone their separate ways. When a powerful alien cloud heads directly toward Earth, disintegrating everything in its path, Admiral James T. Kirk, having spent two and a half years wasting away at a desk job, seizes the opportunity …

Turnabout Intruder

(by Collin R. Skocik) Three years ago, Star Trek began not with a bombastic, epic premiere, but with a quiet, intellectual space mystery. Now, seventy-nine episodes later, the voyages of the starship Enterprise come to a premature end, with no hype, merely a final episode aired inauspiciously in the middle of a series of reruns. …

All Our Yesterdays

(by Collin R. Skocik) The star Beta Niobe is about to supernova. The Enterprise travels to Beta Niobe’s only planet, Sarpeidon, once the home of a thriving civilization and now mysteriously, devoid of intelligent life. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find only one person on the planet, alone in a library—Mr. Atoz (what a perfect name …

The Savage Curtain

(by Collin R. Skocik) While investigating reports of life on a molten, uninhabitable planet, the Enterprise comes across Abraham Lincoln floating through space. Okay, I don’t want to jump the gun and say this is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to this crew, but it’s probably up there. To their credit, they don’t take …