My Answers to the “This Or That” March 2024 Star Trek Writing Prompt from “Make It So”
I’m brand new here on Medium, and this is my first post. So, it’s convenient that I almost immediately stumbled on to the Star Trek themed “Make It So” publication and their writing prompt for March 2024, a “This Or That” challenge. I was obsessed with “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” in high school and college, and I remain a Star Trek fan today. So, I think I’m up for this challenge.
I also enjoyed “Enterprise,” I’ve seen some of “The Original Series,” I’ve started wondering if I was too cruel to “Voyager” back in the day, and I’ve seen enough of “Discovery,” “Picard,” and “Strange New Worlds” to know that…I’m turning into a grumpy old man a little too soon.
(And, again, I’m new here, so I hope it’s okay that I’m borrowing this writing prompt from “Make It So” even though I’m not a writer for their publication.)
#01 — Ferengi or Gorn?
Ferengi would be the clear winner for me. I’ve never watched all of TOS, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the episode “Arena” where the Gorn are introduced. Despite that, I’m somehow still not thrilled with the way “Strange New Worlds” turned the Gorn into vicious beasts a little too much like the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise.
Despite a rocky introduction in TNG, the Ferengi flourished in DS9. We were treated to a shrewd and complex — even if not entirely successful — businessman in main character Quark. He never shied away from new business opportunities, he eventually gained the respect of station personnel and his own world’s Grand Nagus, he occasionally surprised other characters and the audience with a few moments of good scruples, and he proved that he could adapt to working with Cardassians, Bajorans, the Federation, and even the Dominion. His brother Rom…(SPOILERS)…proved to be a brilliant engineer and successfully wooed a beautiful Bajoran dabo girl, and his nephew Nog became the first Ferengi in Starfleet. By the end of DS9, Ferengi were no longer a failed threat nor a joke but instead a credible group of people.
#02 — Khan or Q?
Q is another easy answer for me. I’m a TNG fanatic, and I love most of Q’s special appearances in that show. When my friends and I started the Discerning Geeks Portal podcast back in 2020, our fifth episode was a review of all the Q episodes in Star Trek. In preparation for that ranking, I checked out Q’s single appearance in DS9, his three outings in “Voyager,” and even the TOS episode “The Squire of Gothos,” since Trelane is sometimes theorized to be a member of the Q Continuum or at least something Q-adjacent. Even though I’m not the biggest TOS or “Voyager” fan, I ranked some of those episodes just as highly as some of Q’s TNG appearances.
I do enjoy “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” but not as much as most people do. Some consider it a masterpiece or at least the best Star Trek movie. I would probably rank it 4th or 5th among the franchise. Curious about Khan’s origin, I also watched his TOS episode “Space Seed.” It was…fine, but I was a little surprised that they decided to base a whole movie villain on just that one appearance. “Strange New Worlds” attempted a…(SPOILERS)…would-you-kill-Hitler-as-a-kid scenario with Khan in one of its episodes. It was an intriguing premise, possibly the best of that season (by default), but they also got the timing of Khan’s childhood wrong. That just helps keep alive the frustrating debate: do modern Star Trek writers haphazardly and/or intentionally ignore Star Trek canon, or are newer Star Trek shows in an alternate timeline?
#03 — Parallel universe or time travel?
This is a tricky question because both have their perks and faults, and some parallel universes could be considered the products of time travel. But, for the sake of this comparison, I’ll assume parallel universes are naturally occurring, pre-existing universes where infinite variations exist (like shadows in Roger Zelazny’s “The Chronicles of Amber” book series). By a smidge, I’ll side with time travel. I like the idea of being able to go back and fix a wrong, and time travel is usually fun. On the more serious side, you also have the intriguing moral dilemmas where fixing something in the past could lead to a worse future than just leaving something as it was.
Parallel universes are…tricky. Star Trek did it well with the mirror universe, first in TOS, then even further with several great episodes of DS9. “Discovery” handled it…okay…in the 2nd half of season 1. Other franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or DCTV on The CW start off the idea of parallel universes well but then let them get out of hand. “Fringe” might be the show that did the best job with that storytelling device.
#04 — Holodeck or shore leave?
By another smidge, I’ll lean toward holodecks. The idea of shore leave is attractive if you’re talking about a picturesque setting with perfect weather or a welcoming alien society, but you can’t always pick your shore leave. Remember, just because it’s called shore leave, it can sometimes still take place on a starbase. If so, you might have access to large indoor parks or arboretums, but you still don’t have natural sky, you’re still breathing recycled air, and you might still resort to holodecks for certain forms of recreation. At least with ship-based holodecks, they’re always there. You can use them after any work shift, not just when a ship is in between missions.
#05 — Original Series or spinoff series?
I think my previous answers make this obvious. Two of my all time favorite TV shows are “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (with DS9 winning by a hair and both of them beat only by “Babylon 5” and “The West Wing”).
#06 — Tea, Earl Grey, Hot or There’s coffee in that nebula?
As an adult, sometimes I wonder why any of us like coffee or tea. By themselves, both are kind of bitter. Don’t we really only like them after we’ve added copious amounts of sugar, honey, and/or cream? When it’s bad, coffee is basically dirt water. Tea is at its best when the herbs or spices overpower the basic tea itself (kind of the way pumpkin pie is more about the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, than it is about the pumpkin). All said, I lean slightly toward coffee. I can always take coffee. I kind of have to be in the mood for earl grey tea (though still one of the better flavors of tea).
#07 — Riker with a beard or Riker without a beard?
This is easy. Beard. I can’t articulate why. He simply looks better with than without.
#08 — Streaming Star Trek or Star Trek on DVD/Blu-Ray?
I was never the biggest collector of physical media even when it was more popular, and I’m not sure any of my discs were for Star Trek. Access to Star Trek is a primary reason for holding on to Paramount+. So, streaming wins for me.
#09 — Chief Medical Officer or Chief Engineer?
My knee-jerk reaction is Chief Engineer, as something I relate to more, if nothing else. Scotty, Geordi, and Chief O’Brien were all great. Trip was fine, and I’d be willing to learn more about B’Elanna. But, Dr. McCoy was a “big 3” main character in TOS, both Dr. Crusher and Dr. Pulaski had their moments in TNG, the originally slightly annoying Dr. Bashir got a special character twist in a later season of DS9, Dr. Phlox was an alien doctor with some intriguing and unorthodox medical techniques, and the Voyager EMH had some convenient special features. I can’t believe I’m saying…uh, typing…this, but I’ll go with Chief Medical Officers. Bashir and Phlox carried them over the line.
#10 — Enterprise D or Enterprise No bloody A, B, C, or D?
Easy again. D. It’s still an impressive and well-designed ship. It had a comfortable interior look to it, and it had some features (such as cetacean ops and the expansive main shuttlebay) that we didn’t even get to see due to budget and special effects constraints of the ’80s and ’90s.
The original NCC-1701 was an okay place to start and good enough for the ’60s. Its refit and the A clone were nice improvements. The B looked okay. The C, having both an elegant and rugged design, was a worthy carrier of the name Enterprise. The E was a nice modern upgrade for the TNG movies. The F from the online game, now canon due to a scene in “Star Trek: Picard,” looks okay except for the split-neck design which really bugs me. Sadly, the renaming of one recently on-screen ship to the NCC-1701-G was just nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia. I’m sorry (not sorry), but in terms of size, appearance, and screen time, I don’t think that ship is quite worthy of the name Enterprise. Going back to the NX-01 (so that I don’t end on a sour note), I like that design as a retro-precursor to what would come later in fictional chronology but what was also paying homage to real life past. As for the real life “space” shuttle Enterprise (designed for atmospheric tests only, sadly never set into orbit), I’m glad I got to see it at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, in 2012, before it was replaced there by the space-worthy shuttle Discovery (which I also got to see later in 2019).
