Inside Trek/Outside Trek: Colm Meaney

To the entire Star Trek Universe, Colm Meaney will forever be remembered as The Chief. Making his first appearance in The Next Generations pilot as a background character, Meaney soon found himself in the rotating guest cast for the Next Generation as the character O'Brien was fleshed out and used to bridge the next spin off when he became part of the core cast of Deep Space Nine. Becoming a favourite as the mild mannered transporter chief, O'Brien solidified his place in Star Trek history in Deep Space Nine thanks to Meaney bringing a grounded, working-class style into the collection of officers and diplomats around him, kicking and cursing at broken down equipment in DS9's pilot episode and continuing to bring the most human character as a father, husband, mentor and overworked fixer of all things. Beyond Star Trek, […]

SFCQ2 Comms June 9, 2026

A Fistful Of

A Fistful of New Beginnings

The coming of a new year always comes with a feeling of new beginnings. Whether it's hearing the bells at midnight or planning a list of new years resolutions to forget about by February, the changing of numbers and another year ahead can bring us a sense of starting over. To commemorate another year passing, and the beginning of a new Star Trek milestone, we're kicking off with our usual list looking at five times Star Trek itself was able to give itself a fresh start. GROWING THE BEARD Between the first and second seasons of The Next Generation, things changed. A lot. A lot of the Next Generation was just carrying over from the abandoned Phase II and Roddenberry's constant rewrites led to a very inconsistent start for the show. By the second season things has calmed down a […]

ADM JT Marczynka, DoFA January 6, 2026

A Fistful Of

A Fistful of Forgotten Technology

Travelling the stars is a lot more fun when you have engineers who can turn rocks into replicators and scientists who come up with some crazy ideas on a whim and bring some brand new tech into creation to solve this weeks problem. But sometimes you have to wonder what happens to the inventions that didn't last the week.... Borg Again Once upon a time, Neelix died. Then Seven came along, casually unstuffed some Borg probes in him and suddenly he's back to life again. Mortal Coil is an episode that focuses on Neelix's belief and psychological after effects of being dead, even if just briefly, only to experience nothing but his revival. It's a common story throughout all genre's of TV. It's just this time there were nanoprobes to speed up the 'coming back to life' part. Seven's nanoprobes […]

SFCQ2 Comms December 2, 2025

A Fistful Of

A Fistful of Vulcan Emotions

Being a key element in the Sstar Trek lore from the very beginning, Vulcan mythology can often seem distorted by simplicity. Seen as a stoney emotionless species, their society is built on logic and science in helping them understand and navigate through the complexities of the universe. Though when it comes to them being emotionless, nothing could be farther from the truth. Once a volatile and primitive species, the Vulcan culture came from the teaching of Surak who learned to repress his violent urges and find peace within logical thought. Surak's teachings would become the basis for Vulcan core values for centuries. When it came to the original series, Vulcans were introduced through Spock – a half Vulcan with a human mother who often wrestled with the cultural norm of repressing emotions alongside the human half's more emotional state. Over […]

ADM JT Marczynka, DoFA April 1, 2025

Retro Review

No One Expects The Starfleet Inquisition! Retro Review: Inquisition, DS9 S6E18

Stopped from heading to a quiet medical conference, Doctor Bashir is locked down with the crew of Deep Space Nine when internal investigations officer Sloan arrives. Apparently Deep Space Nine has a security breach. Information's being leaked to the enemy and all leads point to one person: Julian Bashir. It's a nice rarity when this era of Star Trek plays out it's story of the week without a B-Plot and Inquisition does it all quiet nicely. Especially as everything's played out from the perspective of Bashir as he's separated from his colleagues which enhances the tense paranoia of whats happening as Sloan probes through evidence that points to the doctor betraying the Federation. Thematically it's a story told many times before, even previously told in Star Trek, but with DS9's tone becoming a little darker by this stage, it worked […]

ADM JT Marczynka, DoFA January 21, 2025

Retro Review

[Retro Review] What You Leave Behind; DS9 Series Finale

In comparison to it's predecessors, Deep Space Nine is a show that built on it's concept expanding in story, setting and character unlike we'd seen before. In bringing the series to a close, it wasn't just a one and done grand finale. It was the culmination of story threads reaching back from the beginning; from the spiritual state of Bajor and the aliens they heralded as Gods, to the slow creeping Dominion threat that became all out war that dragged in nearly every faction that set foot on the station.

ADM JT Marczynka, DoFA May 21, 2024

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