Star Trek Continues ”Come Not Between The Dragons” - Detailed Analysis & Review

Nerd heaven

On this 100th episode of the Nerd Heaven Podcast, I discuss the Star Trek Continues episode "Come Not Between The Dragons" a deeply thematic episode starring aussie sci-fi royalty - Gigi Edgly of Farscape Fame. Join me as we discuss the episode and it's themes, and then reminisce a little over the last 100 podcasts.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars

And I am a nerd.

And it’s a big moment. This is episode 100 of the podcast. How insane is that?

When TV shows make it to 100 episodes, it’s a big deal and they usually celebrate by doing something special.

I’m going to spend a bit of time reflecting on the past, and maybe having a little fun, at the end of this podcast, But first, we’re going to be talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Come Not Between The Dragons”.

The description on IMDB reads

A troubled creature pierces the Enterprise hull, pitting the crew against a pursuer that threatens to tear them apart.

The teleplay was written by Greg Dykstra, James Kerwin and Vic Mignogna

The story was by Greg Dykstra

It was directed by Julian Higgins

And it first aired on the 28th of May 2016.

And just a little warning, this episode deals with themes of violent abuse by a parent.

The first thing you’ll notice that’s special about this episode is the presence of Aussie sci-fi royalty - Gigi Edgley. Most famous for her role in Farscape as Chiana.

In this episode, she plays Ensign Eliza Taylor.

And the cool thing is, they let her keep her Australian accent for the role. I don’t hear many familiar aussie accents in Star Trek, so I found that pretty cool.

While I gave up on it too early back in the day, I’ve become quite a fan of Farscape, so it’s very cool to see her here.

By the way, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it, but a few episodes back, in The White Iris, the character of Amphidamas, the alien representative, was played by another member of sci-royalty, Colin Baker, who played the 6th Doctor on Doctor Who. I’m unbelievably embarrassed that I didn’t notice and comment on it. Sorry about that.

This one starts off seeming to be a monster story. But we’ll soon learn that it’s not. This is a real thematic message show, but one with a real difference.

Scotty is currently in command. Eliza Taylor hands him a padd.

And then Kirk enters.

8 ships have been destroyed studying an accretion disc. But the crew have been rescued

It’s very telling of Scotty when Kirk says “at least there were no casualties” and Scotty says “there were - the Lexington.”

With the shift over, Smith and Eliza leave the bridge. Smith and McKennah are heading to the rec room, and they invite Eliza to join them. I get the impression she’s not quite part of their little friendship circle, but they’re welcoming her in. And isn’t that just the way a friendship group should work? I know it’s not easy. You really need an extrovert in your group to do the inviting, but cliques are not healthy, and being excluded can be quite hurtful - even for an introvert.

The Enterprise suffers a hull breach from a meteorite travelling near light speed.

As Chekov says, “that should be impossible.” But I’d have to believe that an object travelling that fast making impact with the ship would have to completely destroy it, so there must have been some substantial and rapid deceleration.

Whatever it is, is moving through the ship, from Deck to deck. Scotty can’t find it.

As we end the teaser, we see that whatever it is has broken into Eliza’s quarters.

But we don’t see it, only her reaction.

This is an okay use of the ‘hide the monster’ trope because we’ll almost immediately see what she’s seeing after the credits, but her reaction gives us a powerful hook.

And Taylor isn’t sure what she’s looking at just yet. We experience it with her as the thing slowly unfolds. Some kind of lifeform. Hard and rocky with glowing eyes and a part that looks almost insectoid.

This creature was a practical effect. The alien was designed by the writer of this episode, Greg Dykstra, who appeared in the previous episode as the union doctor. He pitched this story to Vic because it was very personal to him. We’ll get to that.

Dykstra designed the alien and then they got a creature effects company to actually build it. It was huge. An actor could wear it as a suit, but it was very heavy and hot, so the guy they cast needed to have breaks.

I’m a big lover of CGI creatures, but I have to admit that this alien works very well as a practical effect. It looks awesome. It provides a link to the original series who always had to use practical effects, because CGI wasn’t a thing yet. It’s also fitting because we have a Farscape actor in this episode, and Farscape was really into practical creatures, being made by the Jim Henson company.

The alien stands tall. Much bigger than a human. It’s bipedal.

Taylor cowers in the corner and throws something at it. It retreats.

I’d say Taylor reacts in a very non starfleet way here. She’s trained to experience the unexpected. But she may be a new officer. This might be her first experience with the unknown. And despite all your training, seeing something like that in person for the first time could be quite scary, especially if it suddenly appears in your quarters.

So I can’t judge her too harshly.

It doesn’t take long to find the intruder. It rips holes through walls. It’s not exactly subtle.

Kirk begins by assuming the intruder is intelligent. He asks if it understands him. The lack of reply certainly doesn’t imply a lack of intelligence, though.

Kirk calls the transporter room and asks the chief on duty to beam it out of here.

Now when I hear that, it implies to me that Kirk wants it beamed into space. But he asked the chief about his intra-ship beaming skills. Either way, Kirk’s order is very imprecise. Where exactly does he want the chief to beam the intruder to?

In any case, the alien can shield itself from scanners so they can’t transport it.

Kirk’s next action is strange. He throws some debris at the alien.

The alien reacts pretty much as any lifeform would to being attacked. It lashes out in self defence, requiring security to stun it with a phaser.

I’m not sure what Kirk was trying to accomplish there, but it certainly didn’t help build any rapport of trust between them.

Kirk and Bones have found some fascinating things about the creature’s biology. It’s a unique lifeform - probably natively spaceborn. It has multiple hearts and no lungs. But all McCoy’s tricorder will register is a rock. Again, suggesting the creature can shield itself from their sensors.

Spock and Uhura have configured the universal translator to better work with the alien’s unique vocalisations. I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a hand-held universal translator like this in TOS before, but I could be wrong. In the TNG era, we know that Starfleet universal translators are embedded in the com badge (while Ferengi use implants in the ear)

Kirk gives the honour of speaking to the alien to Taylor, as she was the first human to encounter it. This is a big deal. First contact is what Starfleet are all about, afterall.

Taylor seems to carefully consider what her first words should be. She wisely, in my opinion, chooses to start with “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” and then asks what it’s called. It replies, Usdi. When asked why he came here, Usdi replies “Me. To. Hurt.”

That doesn’t sound good. Is it a threat? It’s hard to tell with such a limited understanding between them.

Usdi is an example of a cosmozoa, a space-fearing lifeform. His species is called the Utana.

Something out there is using a form of echo-location to search for something. The shockwaves are damaging to the ship.

When the next wave hits, Spock begins to act very strangely. His voice filled with anger, he calls Udsi disobedient and demands his respect. Fires a phaser at him.

He then attacks Taylor when she tries to intervene, and blames it on Usdi.

This, I believe, is a common thing with people who struggle with extreme anger problems. Blaming the subject of their anger for their own actions.

Something is clearly going on with Spock. He’s not himself. Perhaps in a literal sense.

But others are feeling it too. Kirk is the first to vocalise his concern, in a way, opening it up for others in the bridge crew to discuss what they’re experiencing without fear of judgement.

Checkov is feeling suspicion and paranoia.

Spock’s in a bad way. We learn that the part of the brain responsible for suppressing emotions in Vulcans is called the mesiofrontal cortex. So that’s pretty cool.

But it’s working so hard right now McCoy is worried it’ll burn up. Spock is filled with powerful emotions. But they’re not his.

Spock is also physically injured. Possibly from his dust-up with the alien.

He asks Spock to lock him up. He’s dangerous. Something dark and dangerous in his Vulcan mind is being awoken.

Kirk would do well to follow Spock’s recommendation here. Spock knows what he’s talking about, and currently still has the presence of mind to communicate it.

The next wave is stronger than anything so far. It drives Spock to rampage through the ship after the alien. He says “Usdi is hiding from me.” He looks like he’ll tear the alien limb from limb.

After Kirk stuns him, he orders Spock put in the bridge. McCoy argues against this, because Spock is not himself.

The funny thing is, Kirk is right. He’s absolutely right. For the wrong reason.

He’s wanting to put Spock in the brig as punishment for insubordination.

McCoy is right that Spock isn’t himself, but he needs to be put in the brig for his own safety, and the safety of those on the ship.

When McCoy helps Kirk realise that he’s not himself either, that he’s filled with unnatural anger, he changes his turn and has Spock taken back to sickbay under double restraint. Yeah, good luck with that.

The brig was the best option for now. He still needs medical care, of course, but I wouldn’t be trusting any restraints, double, triple, or quadruple, in sickbay when the next wave hits.

By the way, this is the third episode in a row to have original music composed by Andy Farber. And I have to give it to the student musicians that are performing it, they’re brilliant.

While all of the crew are experiencing elevated levels of anger, and lowered patience, Kirk and Spock specifically seem to be experiencing anger directed at Usdi.

It’s like when Spock was stunned, Kirk became the new puppet of this force.

Kirk refers to Udsi as a delinquent brat. He also describes him as disobedient and undisciplined.

I’m embarrassed to say the first time I watched this, I didn’t put it all together until later, but watching it now, it all seems so obvious what we’re dealing with.

Taylor is hiding Udsi in her quarters. She calls in McKenna for help. She doesn’t know who else to turn to.

Taylor has figured out that Udsi is familiar with these waves. And he gets more and more afraid each time one of them hits. McKenna is now having her rage directed at Udsi, as the latest wave hits.

“You must have done something to deserve this,” she says.

Could it be the proximity to Udsi is what focuses the rage, while those who’ve had little or no contact with him just feel general anger directed at whatever is at hand?

But the most interesting thing of all is that it’s pretty clear at this point that Taylor is not being affected. She may be the only one on the ship that is truly herself.

McKenna is very aware of her condition. She’s trying to push through it. But it’s hard. Taylor made a wise choice here. As a trained counsellor, McKenna may have more tools at her disposal to fight this anger than the rest of the crew. She genuinely wants to be free of it.

She needs alpha wave generators. When she says “Leave McCoy to me” I wasn’t imagining she’d just slug him in the face and knock him out, but it was effective. She can’t fight the anger in her, but here she was able to use it for something good. Well, not that punching McCoy is good, but it’s for a good cause in helping her in her mission.

She asks for the alpha generators from a nurse, but not chapel. She calls her Sarah.

While I like seeing familiar characters show up in this show, it’s kinda cool that they’re filling out the medical staff. It often felt, in TOS, like McCoy and Chapel were the only two medical officers on the ship. We know this is not true, of course, but the budget likely didn’t allow for filling sickbay with extras.

Scotty is reacting to all of this a little differently. Rather than getting angry at everyone, he’s having a lovely old time drinking. Scotty hasn’t had contact with Udsi, so his priorities are different. He cares, as he always does, about his engines.

They have now cured a couple of crew members of the anger influence. They have McKenna, Uhura and a redshirt. They figure that Usdi is hiding from the ship that is generating the waves. But he’s not talking.

The redshirt figures out if they move Usdi to engineering, the ship might have a harder time locating him. He’s able to simulate Scotty’s voice using the universal translator, and a little technical magic from Uhura. He calls for an evacuation of engineering. But Kirk sees through it, because he knows Scotty is in the brig.

Once engineering is cleared, all they need to do is beam there with Udsi. Saves trying to drag him through the ship in front of crew who want to attack him.

Smith finds McKenna and the transporter chief in the transporter room. She’s still under the influence of the waves. Kirk should be here soon as he told Smith to meet him here. We’re not sure what he’s doing on the way yet.

Smith insists that Udsi is going to get what he deserves. McKenna gets her to stop and think a little when she asks “Why”. Smith can’t answer, because she’s being motivated not by logic or reason, but by emotions. Emotions that are clearly not hers.

McKenna’s question, and her offer of an alpha generator definitely gives her pause. If Kirk hadn’t called her, she might have relented, but a conflict ensures. Possibly not a great idea of McKenna’s to attack her while she was distracted. Smith is clearly the better fighter, and the fight only serves to feed the anger.

I’m noticing that in this episode, there’s a real focus on the female characters. Taylor, McKenna, Smith, Uhura. They’re all taking on significant and powerful roles. But the episode doesn’t make a big deal about it. And I think that’s the best way to do it.

I recently watched the Star Trek animated episode “The Lorlelai Signal”. That episode came up with a convoluted way to put Uhura and other female officers in charge of the ship, and then have Uhura do very little. This episode succeeds well where that one failed.

And I don’t know if this was even a deliberate and active choice, to make this a female-centric episode, or if it just ended up that way. And I think it’s better for it. Contrast this to that scene in Avengers Endgame which just felt a bit on-the-nose to me.

Anyway, I’m loving it because these are great characters played by great actors, and I’m enjoying seeing them get to do much more than the original series would have allowed them. I’m especially enjoying how they’re developing Smith.

Usdi is communicating with Taylor again. She says she understands, but we’re not hearing a verbal translation this time. So … I’m not sure how that works.

Kirk beams in with Smith and several security officers. Kirk has a big phaser rifle, so that’s what he was up to.

That’s not good.

All 4 of them fire their phasers at Udsi. Luckily, he survives. His body is essentially made up of stone, afterall. Interestingly, the Utana feed on space-born rocks and minerals.

Those under the influence are subdued, mostly because of quick thinking on the parts of Taylor and Uhura. With generators on their arms now, they’ll all be able to think clearly.

Honestly, I’m not sure it would have gone down that way. Kirk and his team seem to be the better fighters, and they all started armed with phasers. But let’s apply a little suspicion of disbelief so the good guys can win and move the plot forward.

The ship has arrived in visual range, but it’s not a ship. As the image appears on the monitor, we see that it’s another Utana, but much bigger than Usdi.

The entire crew are wearing alpha generators now, so we’ve resolved that particular conflict and moved on to the next. I think that was a good choice for the script. We don’t want an entire episode of mutiny among the crew, because ultimately, that’s not what this episode is about.

Kirk surmises the difference in size between Udsi and this attacker could be the difference between an adult and a child.

And he’s right.

Greg Dykstra actually chose the Cherokee word Udsi, which means little, as the name of the alien. When we first see him, he seems anything but little, but now, as we realise he’s a child, and he’s very small compared to the adult outside, the name makes sense.

Scotty apologises for his behaviour. Hardly necessary, since they were all in the same boat. Kirk’s answer “I’ll fire you later,” reminds me of a line he’ll say much later in Star Trek 3. “Fine. I’ll kill you later.”

The adult refuses to respond to hails. It attacks the Enterprise.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect a space-born lifeform to be able to receive and respond to subspace radio signals. But anyway.

Spock points out what might be their only logical option to survive this. Release Usdi into the adult’s custody.

But how can they? That thing wants to kill him.

Kirk finds an alternative. Fire a torpedo at the part of the alien’s body that seems to be generating the destructive waves.

When Usdi sees the attack against the adult on the screen, he says “Usdi protect.”

Taylor misunderstands. Usdi isn’t asking for protection. He’s stating that he must protect the adult.

Taylor goes to the bridge to explain the situation. The alien out in space is Udsi’s father.

Usdi has left the ship. Positioned himself between the Enterprise and his father.

The attack has stopped.

If we haven’t already figured it out, we realise at this moment what this episode is really all about. This is about parental abuse. Greg Dykstra wrote this story because there was a history of this kind of abuse in his family. His grandfather had been a violent abuser. It had affected his father and grandmother profoundly. He wanted to explore that theme, and a Star Trek episode turned out to be the perfect tool for that kind of thematic expiration.

The creatures look at each other - moving their heads. Most likely engaged in communication we can’t perceive.

Now it’s time for Kirk to make one of those famous Starfleet captain speeches.

He points out that while all the entity’s anger was directed at his child, Usdi still protected him. Udsi saved his life, because The Enterprise would have killed him.

Only time will tell if that will make a difference.

This is the heart of the message that Greg Dykstra wanted to get across. That despite the hurt and damage caused by an abusive parent, the victims of that abuse still love the parent.

It’s a complex paradox.

A difficult one.

There’s a nice scene between Kirk and Spock. I’m noticing that over time, Todd Haberkorn is winning me over more and more as Spock. It just took a little longer than with Kirk and Scotty. But he really is doing a good job of it.

Kirk is used to being able to persuade others with words. He’s frustrated that he was unable to convince Udsi’s father to change.

Spock points out that the alien had a deeply ingrained behaviour. Did he really expect to be able to change that with words? With one conversation? This also, is very thematic. I’m sure there are many loved ones of violent abusers who want so desperately to change that person. But it’s probably not an easy task.

In the case of Greg Dykstra, his father learned to move on from the experience, but his grandfather never changed. Never overcame that darkness inside him.

Ultimately, Kirk didn’t expect silence.

But maybe silence isn’t so bad. Maybe silence represents thinking. Maybe a contemplation of one’s own actions is better than lashing out.

Kirk wonders, what would it take to change someone like that?

Spock’s answer, “one is better able to lead someone down an unfamiliar path when one has already been down that path oneself.”

Wise words.

Kirk is a little surprised to learn that Spock has regular conversations with McKenna about life and people.

This, I believe, is the first hint of a growing connection between those two characters. We’ll continue to explore it, to see where it might lead.

They’ve found where Udsi and his father have gone. Kirk goes to see Taylor. “I wasn’t able to reach him, but maybe you can.”

Spock’s words have sparked an idea in Kirk. And I think maybe he knows something about Taylor that we don’t yet.

Gigi Edgley’s acting in this scene is wonderful. (not to mention the CGI shot of the Enterprise parked next to the cloud)

Taylor knows that Usdi came to her for a reason.

“Your son loves you very very much. Just like I love my father,” she says.

“I know in your heart that you’re not a monster, but every time you lash out in anger at your son, you become less the father he loves, and more the monster he fears. Please, find a way to heal yourself. Because my father never did.”
The alien says one word back. “Heal.”

“Change for Usdi.”

I’m sure this alien has a difficult challenge ahead of him, but maybe, just maybe, he can do it. Because Taylor reached him.

Wow, what an emotional scene. Huge credit to Gigi Edgely for this. What a legend. And huge credit to Greg Dykstra for a powerful story.

This episode is something of a masterpiece. This is true Star Trek at its core.

One of the things I love so much about this episode, is that it’s a thematic episode, it’s a message episode, but there’s nothing political or controversial about it. It’s the kind of message I’ve never seen in a TV show before, but it’s an important message. The creators of this show found something important to say that not many others have said before. And I’m not saying sci-fi shouldn’t address political or controversial issues, but I think this episode left the well-trod paths and found something new and interesting to say.

When we watch a show like this, it’s easy to think, “well, obviously this is not for me. This is for those deeply problematic people, those violent abusers, the ones with the real problems.

But maybe rather than thinking about others we know who need to hear this, we should stop and think, what can I take away from this.

Most of us are not violent abusers. But most of us who are parents, at some point, have become exasperated with our children. Have lashed out and treated our kids more harshly than they deserve, because of frustration. Maybe it’s because the child has genuinely done something really bad, or maybe it’s pressure in life that has nothing to do with them.

I know from time to time, I’ve taken the time to stop and examine my parenting. To ask hard questions of whether I’m taking my frustrations out on my children in a way that I shouldn’t. To see if there are any changes that I need to make in how I parent.

And I think that’s a healthy thing to do.

For the sake of our kids.

Anyway, Star Trek Continues never fails to impress me. It’s just a whole other level above most other fan productions in so many ways, and honestly, sometimes better than actual real Star Trek.

So as I said. This is episode 100. I still can’t believe I’ve been talking about sci-fi for that long. It seems only yesterday that I started Nerd Heaven.

It was the 6th of December 2019 when my first podcast went live. I talked about Star Trek: The Next Generation “Best of Both Worlds.” I was doing a little series in the lead-up to the launch of Star Trek Picard season 1. Covering episodes and movies that I had selected as a good lead up to the new series based on what I’d seen in trailers. It was a fun little series and allowed me to cover some old favourites.

I remember I’d recorded just enough episodes to release one weekly until the premier of Picard episode 1. I did them in a big batch and scheduled them for release so they’d drip out while I was away on an extended Christmas holiday. We visited family in Tamworth, New South Wales, and then took a carnival cruise to New Caladonia and Vauatu. What a wonderful experience that was.

After finishing Picard season 1, I did a few random things. I talked about my own history with the Star Trek franchise, I covered the remaining TNG movies I hadn’t already talked about, and I watched Stargate Origins: Catherine for the first time. I also started looking at Lord of The Rings, both the book and the movies. I never actually finished that series though. I was doing a walk to Mordor challenge, but the unexpected pandemic kind of got in the way of that.

I then started going through the movies of the DCEU. I really love some of those movies, like Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. And I had a lot to say about them.

After making my way all the way to Shazam, it was time for Star Trek Discovery season 3 to come out, so once again, I covered this show live as I did with Picard.

This was really challenging. I’d watch the episode on Friday night just for fun. Then I’d watch it again on Saturday morning, taking notes. Then I’d record the episode, and spend most of Saturday afternoon editing and publishing it. It really did consume a lot of my weekend. In addition to doing a travel vlog on youtube, this is when my writing life really took a hit. I no longer had time to work on my books.

After I finished Discovery season 3, I knew I needed to make a change. I couldn’t keep up this pace. And there were so many other content creators covering new Star Trek. I couldn’t compete with them. Even today, after 100 episodes, I only average around 10 to 20 listeners per episode. Not big numbers. Not enough to justify the huge amount of work I was putting in. I needed to have the freedom to spend time with my family.

So I made a switch to covering retro stuff. Doing re-watches of old classics. Stuff I’d loved in the past that I really wanted to talk about.

The obvious choice there was Stargate Universe. A divisive show. A show that so many dismiss. But I knew the show had something to say. And I knew I had a lot to say about it, beyond just the question of whether it’s good or bad.

While this was a less crowded niche, I didn’t suddenly become a superstar, but I did pick up some new passionate listeners, which I really appreciated.

In any case, I now have a complete set of podcasts discussing every single episode of SGU. That will stand forever as something people can find and enjoy. And I’m really proud of that.

After finishing SGU, I jumped into Star Trek Continues because again, there were things I wanted to say about it. And I’m having a blast.

So what lies in the future? I’m not sure. I have plenty of ideas of shows I could talk about after I finish Star Trek Continues.

The biggest challenge I face is balancing all my creative endeavours. This podcast, my travel vlog, and my writing.

I still don’t have all the answers, but at least I’m not burning myself out like I was this time last year.

I’m pleased to say that I have got back into my writing and at the time of recording, I’m nearing the time where I’ll finally publish book 3 of Jewel of The Stars. I can’t wait to talk about that in a future episode of the podcast.

I want to thank all those who have listened to this podcast. I’m sure my audience has changed over times as I’ve covered different shows.

I don’t know if there’s anyone listening who’s been around since the early days, but if there is, let me know. Because that would be really encouraging.

Next time, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Embracing the Winds.”

Until then, have a great two weeks.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.