We're taking a brief side-quest from our regular coverage of Star Trek Continues, to look at an episode of Star Trek New Voyages, because it sets up the back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus's relationship, and I just like to throw it in there when I'm doing a re-watch of Star Trek Continues. ----more---- 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 105 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about an episode of a different fan series - Star Trek New Voyages. “The Holiest Thing” Why? I just like to throw this one in when I do a re-watch of Star Trek Continues, because it does a similar thing to Continues, that is, to help develop the story filling in the gaps between TOS and the Star Trek movies. This one introduces Kirk to a much younger Carol Marcus, for the very first time. So I figured, let’s have a look at this one. Next time, we’ll be back with part 1 of the finale of Star Trek Continues. The description on IMDB reads Captain Kirk and the Enterprise investigate the devastation of Lappa III, apparently by the terraforming efforts of Dr. Carol Marcus. This episode was written by Rick Chambers It was directed by Daren Dochterman And it first aired on the 15th of January 2016 We start this episode in a very unexpected place. A shuttle flies past the camera. But it’s not a TOS shuttle. It’s an Enterprise D shuttle. We cut to the inside where we see a woman in TNG era uniform and an older Scotty. So, clearly this is set some time after the TNG episode “Relics” where a retired Scotty finds himself in the 24th century. I have to say, they cast a pretty decent look-alike for older scotty. A guy named Carl Sheldon. He hasn’t done a lot of acting. Watching this scene, I’m again reminded just how professional the acting and writing are in Star Trek Continues. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Star Trek New Voyages. They did some amazing stuff long before Star Trek Continues was a thing. But the acting, and the dialog here just isn’t at the same standard as Continues. But I want to give this show credit for set design and visual effects. What we see in this episode is great. And not all the acting feels as amateur as this first scene. The ensign has been doing some training with Captain Scott. They’re approaching the Lappa system. She asks Scotty if he’s ever been there. He recalls a time in his past, when the world was still very much on the frontier. It was un-inhabited back then. At least, that’s what they thought. We then cut to the TOS present day. A scientist, who we’ll shortly learn is Dr. Carol Marcus, is working to terraform this planet. Scotty is there, and in this show, he has a moustache. Another little nod to closing the gap between TOS and TMP. Marcus says “we have Enterprise and her chief Engineer watching over our shoulder.” This is something that bugs me. That she says “Enterprise” rather than “The Enterprise.” Voyager was the first Star Trek show to drop the word “The” when referring to the ship. And I was okay with that because “The Voyager” somehow sounded wrong. In contrast to “The Enterprise” and “The Defant” which both sounded completely natural and right. Then we got Enterprise, and on that show, they did the same thing. They called the ship “Enterprise”, not “The Enterprise” That annoyed me a little, but I got over it. But nowadays, in Strange New Worlds, they are referring to the original starship Enterprise, the one commanded by Pike and eventually Kirk, as “Enterprise.” I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong. That ship was always “The Enterprise” so that annoys me quite a bit. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. Here, in New Voyages, we have the same problem. Carol is referring to Kirk’s ship. It should be “The Enterprise” Marcus told the science council she could terraform Lappa III in less than a decade. But with recent problems with the equipment, it’s going to take twice that long. Both Marcus AND the council seem to be very inpatient about that, even though, as Scotty points out, it’s a whole century faster than anybody else has done it before. It amuses me to see her pacing impatiently when we’re talking timeframes of decades and centuries. And centuries sounds about right for terraforming, something that, if it is actually possible, is not going to be quick. Apparently, they’re using transporter technology in a whole new way. Scotty wants to see what it’s all about. Something goes terribly wrong and the lab explodes. Scotty and Marcus barely escape in their shuttle. But they crash. This was a pretty spectacular sequence. The Enterprise crew have recovered Scotty and Marcus. Scotty is pretty banged up. Marcus is unconscious but should be out of here soon. But Kirk is very impatient to speak with her. He needs to know what happened on the outpost....
