Gambit, Part 2

What a wonderful weekend this has been. I got a lot of work done at home and managed to get in a golf game, cleaning my house, and going to game night with my friends and even a date! So much fun here on this end and I’m actually ready for the week ahead.

Elliptical Machine: Calories- 629, Miles- 3.95

Gambit, Part 2

The Enterprise is under attack from the mercenary ship but the phaser beams were rigged so that the ship would not be damaged. Riker and Picard worked together to send this message to the Enterprise. Data and Worf have a slight argument the next course of action but they smooth things over and life on the Enterprise continues to go smoothly. Riker and Picard are still trying to pretend they don’t know each other and that they hate each other. The mercenary captain continues to pit the two against one another and tells Riker he must shoot Galen if he wants to become a permanent member of the crew. Talera confronts Picard about his real identity and he reveals who he is and she reveals that she is a Vulcan intelligence agent on a secret mission. The Mercenaries are apparently searching for an ancient Vulcan weapon that amplifies thoughts and kills people. Meanwhile the Enterprise has picked up a Klingon who is just waiting around the next location for the mercenary ship. While the Klingon is being held for a “health and safety examination” the mercenary ship attacks. Riker and Picard lead the team to the Enterprise where they get the last artifact and Picard “kills” Riker so he can return to the ship. The Enterprise now follows the ship to Vulcan where Talera beams down to put together the final pieces for the weapon. Talera turns out to be a member of a Vulcan underground resistance group trying to eliminate outside influence on the planet. Picard outwits Talera and everything is set straight on Vulcan and the Enterprise. 

Yep that is Robin Curtis (the lesser of the two  Lt. Saviks) as Talera. 

Gambit, Part 1

Nothing to share today, Yet another boring blog post in one week! I really apologize everyone about the boring ass posts it is just that I have been so damn busy lately to even think about what is happening around my world. 

Elliptical Machine- Calories: 600, Miles: 3.70

Gambit, Part 1

The senior staff is searching for Captain Picard who has just disappeared a few weeks ago. They are searching for him in some intergalactic dive bar and they finally come up with a lead. A man has seen Picard but reports that he was in a weapons fight and was vaporized. The crew of the Enterprise goes on with their lives though everyone is heartbroken at the loss of their leader, Riker especially. Riker manages to secure the permission to investigate Picard’s death. The Enterprise heads to a planet linked to a group of mercenaries that have been raiding the sector for the past few months. While on the planet the landing party is attacked by the raiding group and Riker is taken on board as a hostage. Once on board the mercenary ship Riker meets their captain who rules the ship through the use of torture devices. Riker and the mercenary captain butt heads initially but a crew member named Galen suggests he kill Riker. This only brings Riker and the captain close to each other. By the way Galen is Captain Picard who has also been captured by these mercenaries. The Enterprise figures out that these aliens have been raiding ancient Romulan ruins in search of something but they are unsure what. Picard and Riker finally get a chance to talk to one another about what is happening and they develop a quick plan of attack. The Enterprise engages the mercenary ship while it was attacking a Federation outpost and that is when the cliffhanger happens. Right as the mercenary ship is firing on the Enterprise. 

Interface

I did this workout yesterday but was in no mood to write it up because I was feeling just a little bit pissy about being constantly cancelled on by potential dates. But today I am feeling in much better spirits so I have decided to put the smile on my face and push on! I had a great day today and went on a 4 mile run with a friend of mine. Nothing to fantastic to be honest.

Elliptical Machine- didn’t write down my stats

Interface

LaForge, Data, and Crusher are working to perfect a system where a person can interface with a probe to go into a dangerous situation safely. The system is not perfect but it needs to be in a matter of days when they are to perform a rescue of a Starfleet vessel that was stranded on a planet with a toxic atmosphere. Meanwhile we learn that the USS Hera has disappeared, the ship that LaForge’s mother was recently made captain. Everyone in LaForge’s life seems to be moving on with the loss of Captain LaForge except for Geordi himself. He even starts to see his mother while he is interfaced with the probe on the planet. She tells him that they are stuck on the ship below and he goes off the deep end about trying to find her. Everyone on board tells him to get over it and Picard even goes so far as to ban him from making the interface again. LaForge of course disobeys this order and makes the interface with Data’s help. He finds his mother on the ship but it is quickly revealed that she is just the image of his mother being used by a group of aliens who are stranded on the Starfleet ship and need help getting back to the surface. In the end LaForge moves on an accepts his mother’s death. 

In this episode we get to meet LaForge's parents who are played by Ben Vereen and Madge Sinclair, both of whom starred in Roots with LeVar Burton. Ben Vereen was a big broadway star and Madge Sinclair is famous as playing the Captain of the Saratoga in Star Trek IV. 

Liaisons

St. Cloud’s gay pride festival was larger than I had expected for the town and I am sure that in a few years it will be much more of a big deal. I will give the folks of the planning committee,, your drag performers kinda sucked last night. I would strongly advise that you go the Minneapolis and hire some good queens! This is my only advice other than that I had a total blast last night in St. Cloud and it was very fun to celebrate this event in my former school town. On a related note I have found that since I have become a more active person I do not suffer a headache or a hangover nearly as bad as I did when I was chubbier guy.

Liaisons

The Enterprise is playing host to two Iyaaran ambassadors and Picard is going to the Iyaaran home world as part of cultural exchange. Troi and Riker are to play liaisons to the ambassadors but one of them demands a change from Riker to Worf and he is less than pleased.  Worf’s ambassador is rude, condescending and awful to him for the entire visit and the two butt heads until Worf decides to do what any good Starfleet officer would do, kick the ambassador’s ass.  After this episode the ambassador and Worf get along fabulously. Meanwhile Troi’s ambassador becomes quickly infatuated with desserts, chocolate and pleasure activities. Troi enjoys this approach at first but eventually she wants to have a serious conversation about ship’s functions and human values and mores. Meanwhile while on route to the Iyaaran home world Picard’s shuttle is damaged and he and the Iyaaran pilot land on a nearby M class planet. A woman who has been on the planet alone for the last 7 years finds Picard and takes him to her makeshift shelter. Picard has been injured and slowly but surely this woman starts to reveal that she is crazy. When Picard confronts Anna about this situation it is revealed that the whole thing has been a test from the Iyaaran’s who didn’t understand the concept of love and attachement. The other two ambassadors were attempting to better understand aggression and pleasure while on their visit. Picard is mad about what has happened but he shrugs it off and the ambassadors part way back to their home. 

Descent

The last two days have been quite good I must say. Things at school are a little tough at the moment because of the sheer number of students that I have on my caseload but I will make it by and manage. I am also happy to say that the weather this fall has been amazing; I love it when the fall starts cool and crisp. It really gets me in the spirit of the season. IN a bit of bad news, due to the fact that I am so busy with work and other responsibilities I have had to drop out of assistant directing the fall youth theatre shows. I am bummed about this but I need to maintain a certain level of mental health so that is what prompted that decision. Today I am heading up to St. Cloud to attend their annual Gay Pride festival. I’ll be exploring the park, going to dinner and a drag show. It should be a good time and at least I will be attending a pride festival this year since I skipped out on Twin Cities pride in June.

Weigh-in: I now weigh 195 pounds!!!!!!!!

I did part one of this episode on Friday and part two of this episode today.

Elliptical Machine:

Part 1- Calories: 450, Miles: 2.60

Part 2- Calories: 575, Miles: 3.77

Descent, Part I and Part II

Part I

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Federation outpost that is under attack. Upon beam down the landing party is attacked by a group of Borg drones but they are acting much more like human warriors than a typical drone. These Borg move quickly, talk about themselves as individuals, and display emotions. While being attacked Data shockingly displays a violent outburst of aggression and anger. Starfleet puts the whole quadrant on alert and tensions rise as the Enterprise responds to multiple false reports of attacks from nervous Federation citizens. Meanwhile Data is trying to figure out how he has developed a display of emotions and he continues to be baffled by the outburst. The Enterprise is attacked by a Borg vessel, though it is not a typical cube design. During the attack two Borg are beamed over to the Enterprise to attack and the ship speeds away in a subspace porthole. One Borg is killed but the other lives and is put in the holding cell. Data is supposed to talk to the Borg and determine if he is broadcasting a signal to other Borg in the area. The Borg’s name is Crosis and he activates some device that makes Data start feeling emotions again. Shortly thereafter Data and Crosis leave the ship and go through a subspace porthole which the Enterprise closely follows. The shuttle is traced to a planet some 65 lightyears from Federation space. Picard orders for nearly the entire crew to beam down to the planet to form search parties, leaving a skeleton crew on board and Dr. Crusher in command of the ship. On the planet Picard, Troi, and LaForge are captured by the Borg, Data and the new leader of the Borg… Lore.

Part II

Lore reveals that he plans to use the Borg to destroy all biological lifeforms in the galaxy and turn the Borg into a race of pure artificial intelligence. Data takes Picard, LaForge and Troi to a holding cell where soon they estimate that Data’s ethical processor has been deactivated and therefore he is being controlled by Lore and not under his own control. Lore has been testing out new procedures on the Borg but decides to use LaForge for these tests and he puts Data in charge of them. While LaForge is being experimented on Picard and Troi put into motion a plan to reactivate Data’s ethical processor and they eventually get this processor to work again. Meanwhile on the Enterprise Crusher beams most of the crew back up to the ship but the Borg are attacking them so they make a run for it and use the sun and metaphasic shields to destroy the Borg ship. Also at the same time Riker and Worf are captured by a group of Borg in hiding who are being lead by Hugh, the Borg the Enterprise rescued nearly a year ago. Hugh is very angry about what the Enterprise did to him, he does agree to help Riker and Worf recover the away team because his friend LaForge is among the captured. During a confrontation Data refuses to kill Picard and before Lore can kill Data the whole scene is interrupted by Riker and Worf and all hell breaks loose. Data ends up killing Lore so that he can’t be a problem to the universe anymore! In the end Data and LaForge have a conversation abouth Lore’s emotion chip and LaForge refuses to let Data destroy it in case he wants it in the future.

The show is a great opening to the 7^th and final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We finally get to see one of the ladies taking command and doing a pretty good job of things. We also get to see Troi having a bit more of a brain and eventually she will become a command officer as well. The series had really hit its stride in later half of the second season and grew stronger and stronger as each season went by and I really think the show could have gone on for an 8^th season, too bad they wanted the crew to go on and make movies instead. The shame there is that of the four Next Generation movies one of them is amazing, two of them are just ok and one of them is horrible. Oh well.

I am also incredibly proud as I write this post as well because this marks the completion of ten seasons of Star Trek. My plan is to be completed with this season of the Next Generation by the end of October and to start Deep Space Nine on November 1^st. At this rate I should be done with that series by October 2013, Voyager by September 2014 and Enterprise by January 2015. 

Timescape

Today was simply a glorious day outside and I was stuck inside working. And despite that small detail I had a wonderful day at work. There was a love connection made between a few of my students that I don’t really approve of, this small detail makes me feel like an over protective father, yikes! A student played along with me on a joke on a 6^th grader in which I said that if paperwork was not returned fingers would be cut off! The seventh grader in my room played along and pretended that he was missing a finger. Both boys had quite the laugh that hour. Finally there was a hilarious incident regarding the perception of maturity. The stories that I have accumulated over the years with my students could not be written they are so funny and odd. This of course is one of the reasons that I love my job, besides the fact that I get to help my kiddos.

Elliptical Machine- Calories: 590, Miles: 3.23

Timescape

Picard, LaForge, Data and Troi have all been away at a conference and are on their way back to the Enterprise when strange things start to occur on board the roundabout. They begin to experience periods of time standing still and they determine that they have been caught in some type of subspace or time continuum rift. They find that there are shifts throughout the whole system and they carefully navigate back to the Enterprise, which they find to be in a battle with a Romulan warbird. LaForge devises a way for the group to beam over to the Enterprise which is currently frozen in time. The find Romulans all over the ship and Troi even finds that Crusher has been hit with a disruptor and will die as soon as time returns. Data also finds that the warp core is on overload and a breach will destroy both ships in a matter of hours. Picard has a freak out in engineering and it is the result of subspace psychosis, which goes away quickly. They three move to the Romulan ship to see what happened and they find two different problems. The first is that there are aliens on board the Romulan ship and the Romulan’s quantum singularity is causing the whole problem. The alien is not a Romulan but a subspace alien who is trying to protect its young that are living in the Romulan singularity. Data, LaForge, Picard and Troi develop a plan to turn back the time in order to stop the ship blowing up, stop Crusher getting killed and then solve the whole situation from happening. Their plan goes off well enough and all is set right . 

Second Chances

My elliptical is still making noises but I am now waiting for the parts to show up in the mail so that it can be repaired this weekend. I worked out today on my elliptical and the noises really started bugging me a good 10 minutes into the workout but I decided to cope with it and carry on with the routine. I am now only two episodes away from starting the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation! I really have pretty much nothing to say on today’s blog so I really am sorry that this post is a bit lame.

Elliptical Machine- Calories: 565, Miles: 3.52

Second Chances

The Enterprise is orbiting Nervala IV, a planet that Riker had been on nearly 8 years ago and almost didn’t escape alive. Upon beam down to the planet Riker and the rest of the away team come face to face with Riker. It appears that there is a duplicate Will Riker somehow and so Lt. Riker is sent up to the Enterprise for medical testing. Crusher finds out that this man truly is Will Riker and further research shows that 8 years ago Riker was beamed up to the Potemkin but somehow a duplicate was sent back to the planet. So Lt. Riker has been living alone on an isolated planet for 8 years and he’s a little miffed by the whole thing and well so is Commander Riker because now there are two of him. Troi and Lt. Riker meet and to him they are still in love and throughout the course of the show the two fall back in love which is something I would have thought Troi was smarter than but oh well. Riker and Riker continue to butt heads about how to regain access to the station’s computer core and it is decided that they will have to go into the core itself to fix the problem. While there the two’s lives are endangered and this brings them close together finally. Lt. Riker is transferred to the USS Gandhi but Troi does not opt to go with him and stays on the Enterprise. To help distinguish himself from Will Riker this other Riker decides to go by his middle name Thomas.

So Data had and evil twin and now Riker has a semi-disgruntled genetic copy hanging around the galaxy. The show is again a play on the topic of seeing yourself and not liking what you see.