TWITrek Character Insight No. 60: Chekov

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we continue our review of characters from the Abrams timeline with a look at Pavel Andreievich Chekov.

 


Although Chekov joins the Enterprise as a junior office rotating around various stations as the age of 22 in the prime timeline, the Chekov of the Abrams timeline is an even younger child prodigy who comes aboard the Enterprise as a 17 year old ensign. Chekov is the most obvious example of the primary difference in this timeline, that being the forcing of the major crew members into their roles at a much younger age than in the original timeline.

In this timeline, Chekov serves as a navigator who has a special talent at running the transporter. Chekov is top in his academy class at stellar cartography and transporter theory, which makes sense given that he can calculate transporter paths faster than the ship's computer as evidenced in Star Trek 09. Chekov also comes up with the plan to drop out of warp near one of Saturn's moons to mask a beaming of Kirk and Spock aboard Nero's vessel in the plan to save Earth.

Unfortunately, that turns out to be Chekov's only real memorable moment thus far other than running the transporter.  Of all the characters in Into Darkness, Chekov is one of two that really took on a reduced role with few memorable moments, along with Sulu. Unlike Sulu, who gets a chance to show an affinity for command in a nod to the original timeline, Chekov does not move forward in character development much as he ends up stuck being Scotty's replacement in a hopeless sabotage situation.

Of course, Chekov has partially taken Scotty's role of transporter expert and temporary chief engineer, so he may be tracking into a much different character mentored by Scotty rather than leaning toward science officer and navigator in the original timeline. That would be an interesting big break, something that has not been used much thus far in this timeline. One would hope the writers make more of a role for Chekov if possible in the third Abrams movie.

 Our notable quote this week comes from the Star Trek 09:
"I can do that!...I can do that!....move, move, move, move...I can do that! (running to transporter)."
 
Actor: Anton Yelchin plays Chekov in the Abrams timeline. Yelchin has been acting since the age of 11, over half his life.  He can recently been seen as the title character in Odd Thomas, an adaptation of a Dean Koontz thriller, and heard as the voice of Clumsy Smurf in the Smurf movies.

TWITrek Character Insight No. 59: The Borg Cube

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we profile The Borg Cube from TNG and Voyager.

  

In this segment we have profiled characters stemming from pets to holograms, and aliens to gods. But for the 100th episode, we need to do something different and special. Thus, the Borg Cube becomes the first ship to be profiled on Character Insight. If you don't think a ship can be a character, just look at how the Enterprise is treated in the movies.

And that ship design is one of the things that makes the Borg such a distinctive enemy. The cube-shaped vessel looks imposing and impenetrable, with all the sharp edges bringing a contrast to the normally aerodynamic designs of Alpha Quadrant spacecraft. The design fits the Borg well, standing as a beacon of space efficiency and redundancy that makes the vessel difficult to defeat.

In addition to missile weapons, Borg cubes typically use tractor beams and cutting laser beams to hold opposing ships, drain shields, and cut into or destroy hulls. Borg cubes also have great defensive capabilities, including transwarp drive and highly adaptive shields. That keeps opposing forces on their toes against this formidable foe, as proven when 39 of 40 Federation ships were destroyed in the battle of Wolf 359.

Commander Shelby, who we profiled last week, estimated that 78% of a Borg cube could be destroyed before the entire cube becomes inoperable. The cube measures 28 cubic kilometers in volume, enough space to house hundreds of thousands of drones. The highly decentralized design enables the Borg to assimilate more races and incorporate them into the crew without any redesign of the ship. The Borg cube is utilitarian and mechanical, fitting the Borg personality like a glove.


Although the original foam core concept model for the Borg Cube was sold at auction for $900 back in 2010, the studio model used during TNG is still in the possession of Paramount Pictures and still makes public appearances. The model was scratch built layer by layer and covered with acid etch brassthat was and drawn and etched to form the distinctive exterior appearance.

Instead of a quote from the ship, here's a quote from the Borg at large:
"Resistance is Futile."
 
Actor: N/A

Until next time, live long and prosper...

Special Outro - Thanks for listening. Special congratulations to Mike and Darrell on reaching 100 episodes, and thank you for continuing to make Character Insight a part of your show. I can't wait to see where we Boldly Go on the next 100 episodes.

TWITrek Character Insight No. 58: Commander Shelby

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we profile Commander Shelby from TNG.

 


Commander Shelby serves as the primary guest star character on The Best of Both Worlds, arguably the best episode of TNG and one of the high points in the entire Star Trek franchise. In that brief appearance, Shelby provided much debate on whether the crew of the Enterprise-D would change forever in Season 4 and an interesting look into what that alternative reality might look like. Shelby is only one of 3 characters to serve as first officer in this series, along with Riker and later Data.

Shelby is brought on board as an up-and-coming lieutenant commander who has served for some time as the leader of the Federation's defensive planning against the potential Borg invasion. Shelby learns of an offer for Commander Riker to become a captain of his own ship, and she assumes he will take it because she is so focused on advancement herself. That leads her to try and show off during an investigation of the Borg attack on a Federation colony, and her brash style contrasts with Riker's safe style. However, she is field promoted to first officer under Riker after Picard is captured and assimilated by the Borg.

Although Patrick Stewart and the rest of the crew did come back for Season 4 (and three more seasons after that), nobody knew that in the summer of 1990 when Picard's life and character hung in the balance. That's part of the genius of the episode, making a real change seem truly possible.


Given how impressive Shelby turns out to be in leading multiple away missions to the Borg cube, it really would have been interesting to see more storylines about her. Or even more compelling, how would such a brash first officer fit in over time with Picard or Riker as a guiding mentor and captain? Plus, a strong woman lead would have more clearly paved the way for others like Major Kira and Captain Janeway later.

Shelby never appears on screen again, but she is referenced in the DS9 episode where Jadzia and Worf get married. Shelby also appears as a character in the New Frontier novels.

Our notable quote this week comes from Best of Both Worlds, Part 1:
"If you can't make the big decisions, Commander, I suggest you make room for someone who can."
 
Actor: Elizabeth Dennehy played Commander Shelby, and her interview on the Fathom Evens Best of Both Worlds DVD is very enlightening to see an outsider's perspective of filming with the TNG actors and crew.  Her biggest role outside TNG was a recurring role on Charmed in the middle of the last decade, as she has been mostly a guest actress for many television shows since 1988.

Until next time, live long and prosper...

TWITrek Character Insight No. 57: Nyota Uhura

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we continue our review of characters from the Abrams timeline with a look at Nyota Uhura.

 


Similar to the prime timeline, Uhura serves as communications officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain Pike, then under Spock and Kirk. Uhura was a gifted student at the academy focusing on xenolinguistics, which gave her the opportunity to be posted aboard the Enterprise as a cadet. Her immediate ability to speak Romulan in Star Trek 09 and Klingon in Into Darkness is the very reason she immediately grabbed this position for good on the flagship.

Although her role on the ship remains the same in this Abrams timeline, the writers have had a bit more free spirit with Uhura than they have with other characters. First and foremost, Uhura is romantically involved with Spock in this timeline. That makes for some great human condition dialogue outside that well-worn trio of Bones-Kirk-Spock that was relied on in TOS. Plus a little dash of romance helps sell movies (why else would Carol Marcus be introduced in Into Darkness?), so don't expect it to go away anytime soon.

Uhura also finally received a canonical first name, although the writers decided to have a bit of fun with this as well. Kirk tries for three years to learn Uhura's first name to no avail, but Spock lets it slip before he beams with Kirk to take out Nero and his ship in Star Trek 09. Thus, we now have it on record that Uhura's first name is Nyota, which means "star" in Swahili.


The origins of the Nyota name stem back to Gene Roddenberry and Nichelle Nichols though, as an author of a Star Trek history book and writers guide asked them for the name well after filming was done on TOS. The name Nyota was a suggestion from the author, but both Roddenberry and Nichols loved it. Thus, we end up with a name that means "star of freedom," a fitting name for a character who broke boundaries for gender and race in the beginning of this series.

Nyota has seen far more screen time as the love interest for Spock and as the balancing of the ensemble crew has been better done by Abrams than others before him. She even saw some legitimate battle in Into Darkness, taking on the Klingons on Kronos before later beaming down to help Spock finally subdue John Harrison at the climax of Into Darkness. Thus, she is rapidly becoming an even more well rounded character in this timeline.

Our notable quote this week comes from the Into Darkness:
"You brought me on this mission because I can speak Klingon. So let me speak Klingon."
 
Actor: Zoe Saldana plays Uhura in the Abrams timeline. Saldana can also been seen starring in Avatar and in a smaller role back in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Until next time, live long and prosper...