Star Trek New Voyages ”The Holiest Thing”

Nerd heaven

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.

Jacy King plays Carol Marcus. Married to Brian Gross who plays Kirk.

She’s a good choice. She definitely looks the part, a lot more than Alice Eve did in Star Trek Into Darkness. And, of course, she doesn’t have the inexplicable British accent.

I didn’t see Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn at the cinema. I don’t know if it even showed here in Tasmania. But I was only 4 years old. I saw the first half of it on TV, and then watched the whole thing on VHS many years later.

When I watched it, it had been quite some time since I’d seen the original TV series. So I had assumed, from the way she was introduced, that we’d seen the character of Carol Marcus at some point in the past. Of course, that wasn’t the case. The back-story of Kirk and Carol Marcus always seemed like this big glaring hole that demanded to be filled. So I liked that Star Trek New Voyages chose to fill that hole.

Carol is shocked and horrified to learn all her team is dead.

There’s no evidence of alien contact. Kirk is going to begin the investigation assuming it was an accident. Carol wants to be a part of it. She will work with Spock.

But McCoy thinks she needs to work with someone more sensitive to her current emotional needs, given her great loss. So Kirk volunteers.

Carol’s terraforming technology uses transporters to re-arrange matter. Seems like a pre-cursor to the Genesis device she’ll eventually create.

Scotty thought he saw a ship on sensors, but now they can’t detect anything.

Spock wants to run background checks on Carol’s staff, considering the possibility of sabotage. She doesn’t react to this well.

There is now clear tension between her and Spock. He’s not sure she should accompany him to the surface, given her “emotional outbursts.”

This episode actually gives a character arc to both Marcus and Spock. Marcus, of course, is trying to figure out how to deal with the painful emotions of having lost her crew, and feeling responsible. Spock, on the other hand, has to learn how to relate to a human who is experiencing very understandable strong emotions. It’s a learning experience for both.

A quick zoom out shows us that there is indeed a ship hiding in the system. It’s not cloaked. It seems to be hiding in a gas cloud. It’s not a familiar design. At least, it wasn’t to me, in this shot, but we’ll come back to that.

Kirk goes to see Marcus. He apologises for Spock. Marcus has come to agree that Spock asked the right question, she just didn’t like it.

We get some insight into why Marcus is so passionate about terraforming. She talks of a famine that happened on a world. People suffered. She wanted to help. Terraforming dead worlds is an answer, but it’s far too slow to be of any practical help.

She is driven by compassion for people.

She sees herself becoming a mother of worlds

It’s a good conversation. There’s no flirting or inappropriate behaviour, as you often get from Kirk the minute he meets a pretty girl, Just 2 people getting to know each other.

They’re both people with authority. They understand each other

Kir acts s little sheepish as he starts to realise his attraction to her. Maybe he’s sensing that he feels more than just sexual attraction. Something deeper.

She’s feeling it too

Spock and Carol beam down to investigate destruction site.

We see Xon at transporter console. He is the Vulcan character created to replace Spock in the original Star Trek Phase 2 series that was cancelled in favour of Star Trek the Motion picture, because Nimoy wasn’t going to be involved in that show. When it became a movie instead of a series, Nimoy agreed to return.

Star Trek New Voyages chose to bring Xon onto the Enterprise as a new character alongside Spock.

Spock and Marcus are learning to appreciate each other.

Marcus seems to be a little envious of Spock’s ability to suppress emotion as a Vulcan.

They’ve found something on the planet. Not something belonging to the team. It doesn’t belong there. They’re bringing it aboard for analysis.

Kirk is seeking counsel from bones on how to help Dr. Marcus through what she’s going through. He claims he has no romantic interest in her. That would be wrong. Interesting to see Kirk say that when nothing usually stops him. But Carol is going through a great deal of emotional pain at the loss of her friends.

Sometimes in older fiction, like Star Trek, you’ll see characters who are trying to comfort someone through grief, and suddenly it becomes romantic. Like they’re taking advantage of the other person. Even Star Trek 2009 did this with Uhura and Spock, but reversing the expected gender roles. It felt really odd.

I’m glad to see Kirk not doing that here.

His relationship with Carol Marcus is one that is important to us as fans, so it’s nice to see them doing it right.

When the mysterious object causes problems with their respirators, and even Scotty can’t get a lock on Carol, Kirk has a very reckless plan to rescue her. Beaming down without a respirator of his own to give Scotty something to lock onto.

It’s a plan that could work, but probably not something the captain of the ships should be doing.

We’re clearly seeing here how much Kirk cares about her.

Fortunately, it works.

The energy reading of the debris they found looks kinda like the graphic depicting the genesis wave in Star Trek 2. But this doesn’t really go anywhere.

Kirk takes carol to the arboretum

She’s changed into a revealing outfit. Makes me think it's a deliberate date.

Carol is thinking of giving up. Kirk doesn't think she will. She cares too much

Kirk has been there too. At what point do you say, this is enough.

Kirk says he’ll tell her when he gets there. He’s not there yet and neither is she

The way this is written it feels much more real than most of Kirk’s many romances, of which there have been many. He’s not being creepy. He’s not overly flirty. It’s just two people getting to know each other, going deep, and forming a genuine bond. Basically it feels like a real relationship.

It’s condensed for time so it’ll fit into a 1 hour episode maybe, but real nonetheless.

Carol and Spock are also growing in their relationship. A professional one. We get the impression from Star Trek II that Spock knew Carol.

Here’s a question. Why does Kirk think it’s appropriate to talk to the admiral with his shirt off and slung over his shoulder? I wouldn’t dream of talking to my boss half dressed. If I got a surprise zoom call from him, even if I was in an unprepared state, I’d throw on a shirt before I clicked accept.

Anyway, Starfleet are itching to assemble a warfleet to engage the alien ship that might not might not be there. The admiral needs Kirk to get him some real answers. Fast.

And then, of course, we get another scene where a woman walks in on Kirk shirtless in his quarters and gets embarrassed. Seems I only just talked about this an episode or two ago, so I don’t have any further comments, other than to notice it happening yet again, in another fan production.

Carol has been working very hard on her investigation and hasn’t eaten for 9 hours. Kirk invites her to dinner, which she readily accepts. But it very quickly becomes apparent they’re not going to dinner. They have …. Other plans.

It’s really not surprising to me that the actors playing Kirk and Marcus are married. You can see the genuine affection between them. I guess that’s the elusive thing that people call chemistry. Whatever that is, these two seem to have it, as you’d expect from a real couple.

The next morning, Kirk is finding himself in a bit of a melancholy place, thinking about how the Captain’s chair is a lonely one. It was pretty rare for ships captains in Kirk’s time to marry. It was a more wild frontier. Gone from earth for years at a time. They didn’t really have families on board like they did in the 24th century.

That hasn’t rarely bothered him with his past conquests. Perhaps because he sees a potential future with Carol.

They’re heading for the dust cloud, to try to find that evidence for Starfleet.

After going to warp, Sulu says “like a leap on the solar wind” which is, of course, a reference to Firefly. Not sure exactly why they added that.

Spock has found the cause of the explosion. Protomatter.

This is something that is mentioned in Star Trek 3. Apparently, David Marcus, Carol’s son, used protomatter in the matrix for the Genesis device. It was the only way to solve certain problems. We’re told it’s use is unethical because it’s “dangerously unstable”

Here, in this episode, we get a bit more of an explanation of what protomatter is.

It’s a remnant from the creation of the universe. It can fluctuate between matter and anti-matter states. If both appeared at the same time, an explosion would occur.

It seems the matrix from Carol’s experiment was contaminated with protomatter. Something she acknowledged as a very minute possibility, but so unlikely as to be statistically insignificant.

Sadly, it happened.

They’ve found the alien ship in the dust cloud.

My first thought when seeing it this time was “that looks kinda like a Ferengi ship.”

The alien’s weapons are no match for the Enterprise’s shields.

They’re refusing to respond to Kirk’s hails.

When we see a camera point of view from within the alien ship, we catch a glimpse of the side of their heads. It’s pretty clearly Ferengi.

They claim that the transformation of the planet is a hostile act.

When Kirk says they weren’t aware of anyone have a claim on the planet, the response is “You didn’t ask,” and Spock says they have a point.

But ask who?

It was an empty planet. Nobody there. It was claimed by no government that the Federation is aware of. Remember, they won’t make official contact with the Ferengi until TNG season 1.

So it seems to me the Federation acted in good faith with all the information they had available. I don’t think they could have asked anyone else.

The alien voice makes it clear they’re not interested in discovery or friendship. Only profit.

And then, the episode breaks continuity by having the alien not only show his face, but identify his species as Ferengi.

This is a really odd move from my point of view.

They already had the Ferengi communicating by voice only. And if they wanted to show the Ferengi on screen, they could have done so purely on the alien bridge Point of View. No need for Kirk to actually see them. Why they started this way and then flipped is beyond me. They’d set it up the perfect way to include the Ferengi without breaking continuity, and then they did it anyway.

Enterprise did, of course, have an episode with Ferengi, not at no point during that episode did they mention their name to Archer and his crew.

But it occurs to me now that in Encounter at Farpoint, before that official contact, Picard had at least heard the name Ferengi. So I guess they could have heard that name this early. But it always felt to me like a more recent thing. That they’d heard of this race, The Ferengi, but just hadn’t met them yet.

Anyway, the Ferengi claim to have a prior commercial arrangement with the Federation. Something that is news to Kirk.

And then he say a very interesting line

“The only thing more expensive than a question, is the answer.”

I wonder if that’s a rule of acquisition. If it isn’t, then it should be.

The only logical possibility is that a member of the team on the planet had made an arrangement with the Ferengi. The question is, did Dr. Marcus know about it?

Kirk is quick to come to her defence, based on his knowledge of her character. But can he offer any evidence?

Carol is really struggling with having lost crewmembers. It’s somewhat compromising her ability to think clearly. This is understandable. Kirk has left people under his command before. He sadly has to let her know that it never stops hurting. I like what they’re doing with Carol’s character in this story.

That protomatter came from somewhere. Maybe there was a black market going on behind her back she wasn’t aware of.

They’ve detected protomatter in the Ferengi’s cargo hold.

Sabotage is not a logical possibility. It makes no financial sense to kill your trading partners.

The project was behind schedule. Someone could have purchased the protomatter to speed things up, and it went badly.

Kirk is going to try to bluff the Ferengi poker style to get information. Of course, it would be good for him to be aware of the Ferengi love of Tongo.

It was the project director, Dr. Robert Dewhitt, who purchased the protomatter. He was as passionate about the project as Carol was. He must have been desperate.

Carol is going to start over. She’s learned a lot from this experience. She knows how to make it work now. She’s going to start inventing the Genesis device.

Three days later, they arrive at the nearest starbase to drop off Dr. Marcus. But first, she goes to see Kirk.

Kirk is hoping they can have dinner before parting ways, but she says no.

Then Kirk proposes.

It seems pretty sudden after only a few days. But … Carol Marcus is his soul mate.

But she says no.

For the reasons she gave in Star Trek 2.

For them to be together, one of them would have to abandon their dream.

Carol claims she can’t do her research on The Enterprise. A lot of her work would require her to be on planets, but surely much of it, especially in the early days, would be lab work. Hard to see why that couldn’t be done on the Enterprise. A ship of scientific exploration.

Kirk offers to leave the Enterprise, leave Starfleet.

But she won’t let him do that. Over time, he would resent her for it.

Which is possibly true.

She admits she loves him, but, but asks him to stay away.

For all their sakes - all three.

And this is where it gets really unfair.

She tells him she’s pregnant with David, and asks him to stay away. To have absolutely no contact with his son. Ever.

This is how it has to be, because this is what Star Trek 2 set up.

But I believe Carol is wrong here.

I believe she is hurting not only Jim, but David as well. Robbing them both of the relationship they both deserve to have.

This is heart-breaking stuff.

Kirk gallantly does as Carol wishes.

Honestly, I don’t know how he has the strength.

This must haunt him every day for the rest of his life.

It would me.

This episode relies on accepting a lot of truncated time regarding Kirk and Carol’s relationship. There’s no way around that when you’re telling the story of the entire relationship in one episode. But I forgive it because it’s a great story. A very fitting prequel to Star Trek 2.

As fun as it was, I’m not sure what the point of the framing device with TNG Scotty was, other than maybe to show that the terraforming efforts eventually succeeded and people are living there now. I would argue that it wasn’t necessary, and might even distract from the episode. But It was cool either way.

But another little thing. At the beginning, Scotty says that Lappa III was uninhabited - or so we thought. I don’t think they paid off that statement. We learn of no indigenous life on the planet. The closest we get to a payoff is the Ferengi, but they’re not living on the planet, just trading with one of the crew. So I’m not sure what happened there.

Next time, we’re going to look at the first part of Star Trek Coninue’s two-part finale.

“To Boldly Go.”

I’m looking forward to talking about it.

Don’t forget the first three books in my Jewel of The Stars sci-fi series are available on Amazon, Kobok, Google Play, Apple, all the usual places.

Until next time

Live long and prosper

Make it so.