Ceti Alpha 3: A Star Trek Podcast

What If? Features in Pilot Episodes Never Changed In most Trek series created in the 20th century, the pilot episodes often have obvious differences from the rest of the series. From a character's make-up to their voice to their actions, change is inevitable. Even the music or look of the show itself can alter from the very beginning. Most of the times, these changes are seen as improvements. But...

A New Series of Star Trek: Enterprise Star Trek: Enterprise was the first TV series of the franchise to be unexpectedly cancelled since the 1960s. With the resurrection of the TNG story in "Star Trek: Picard", the trio open up their pitch meeting to map out a new season for the NX-01 crew in the 22nd Century. Twenty years have passed since we last saw the voyage of Enterprise in "Terra Prime." The...

Whittling Down Season Four (TNG) to 10 episodes Love it or hate it, today's Trek means less episodes than the 20th Century series. For some, it's a sign of tighter storytelling, focusing on quality plot and themes. For others, it means missing episodes that are more "day in the life," outside of one season's particular villain/mystery. Or maybe it's just show business wanting to spend less money!...

Character Codas With the ending of "Star Trek: Discovery" upon us, it's time to look back at the untold endings of our favorite Trek characters. From TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and (arguably) Picard, there are still futures for the main characters that have never been explored. While fans have gotten a few "post-series" peeks at characters, such as Tom Paris and Tuvok, we still don't know what their...

Pitching a New Trek Series: Enterprise-C There are "gaps" in Trek history, mostly between the launch of the Enterprise-B and the start of the continuing voyages of the Enterprise-D on "The Next Generation." The trio dives into creating a new series based during the earlier part of the 24th Century with the crew of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-C. Just like Captain Christopher Pike, fans already kno...

Species Focus: Vulcans Vulcans are everywhere in Star Trek - from the first appearance of Spock to later iterations with Tuvok, T'Pol, and T'Lyn. But how much do we really know about them? And does what we know actually raise even more questions about the way the Federation works? The trio braves the high heat of the desert planet and dives into all things Vulcan. Are they the only major Federatio...

Species Focus: Cardassians They are the villains of the Alpha Quadrant, the occupiers of Bajor, the makers of Terok Nor, the torturers of Picard ... the Cardassians! Introduced in "The Next Generation," fans learned more about this militaristic society in "Deep Space Nine" through characters like Garak and Gul Dukat. But is there more to this species than first meets the eye? Are they only the mil...

Games in the Franchise: Star Trek: Resurgence It's been a few months since the release of the adventure game "Star Trek: Resurgence" from Dramatic Labs. Players control two different characters in this story-driven game: Commander Jara Rydek, a Kobliad first officer just joining the USS Resolute, and Petty Officer Carter Diaz, a young but experienced engineering technician. Players decide what act...

Discovery and Series Finales Fans have said goodbye to many Star Trek series during the life of the franchise. Some shows ended more suddenly than others, e.g., The Original Series and Enterprise, whilst others had time to plan their ending, e.g., the seven-year series of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. In the 21st Century, "Star Trek: Picard" has been the first show to say good...

What's to come in Star Trek It's been a long road ... from 2023 to what we look towards next year for Star Trek. This past year saw the ending of "Star Trek: Picard", the continuation of "Star Trek: Strange New, Worlds" and "Star Trek: Lower Decks." There was the controversy around "Star Trek: Prodigy", a series that now lives on Netflix. The trio look at what the franchise will bring in 2024. How...

Computer Operations in Starfleet There is a lot that goes on aboard starships and starbases that we never see. There is no question that one of the most important systems in Starfleet is the computer - it runs all systems and yet we never meet the team who are in charge of maintaining it. Who is the master/mistress of the LCARS? The trio reviews the many computer malfunctions in Trek, and why the...

Characters' Holodeck Preferences In the Trek franchise, fans have seen our favorite characters enjoy many programs in the Holodeck (including those that try to kill them). But for time (and copyright) reasons, we know that there are more holographic programs in the starship or space station catalog than we ever see on screen. The trio hits the random character generator button and guesses what are...

Season Four - Star Trek: Lower Decks The season four finale of the second Trek animated series provided endings, new beginnings, and some mystery for our USS Cerritos crew. The trio looks at what happened with the unexpected return of Nick Lacarno (and how he looks ... familiar ...), the story arc of Lt(jg) Beckett Mariner, and what the future holds for everyone else. This era of Star Trek tends t...

Main Actors in Other Trek Roles We all know and love the Trek phenom that is Jeffrey Combs. His many notable Trek roles have led fans to think he may be playing them in everyday life! What is even more noticable about actors who play multiple roles is when it is someone who plays a "main character." A recent "Lower Decks" reminded fans about the Nick Locarno/Tom Paris double-billing. The trio look...

Creating a Section 31 TV Movie With the end of the writers' strike, pre-production continues on various new (and current) Star Trek projects. One such idea that keeps popping up from official channels is the idea of a "Section 31" story. From the initial promise of a series to the new evolution of a "TV Movie Event", it remains unclear what this will look like in the end. The trio try their hand a...

Ferengi Federation Membership In the "Lower Decks" episode "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place", viewers are surprised to see Grand Nagus Rom (and his wife Leeta) spearheading efforts for the Ferengi Alliance to join the United Federation of Planets. The trio looks at how Ferengi culture does (and does not) fit into what we understand of the Federation. From the extremes of capitalism to the "opportuniti...

Star Trek Toy Pitches First, there was Star Trek. Quite quickly thereafter, there was ... merchandise! Trek has been a franchise full of toys for over 50 years. From Mego to Playmates to Diamond Select to Eaglemoss, there have been many manufacturers of Trek action figures, playsets, accessories, and more. The trio looks back at the 90s era of Trek and asks - what would have been other great choic...

The Evolution of Fandom The trio are all (on a spectrum...) children of the 90s. They all embraced "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as their first Trek and expanded their love of the Trek franchise from there. They discuss how they entered the fandom and how it evolved over the decades until the 2009 "reboot" movie. Did their favorite series remain the same? How did they get to know The Original S...

What If ... All Series Had Season 6 Character Deaths? In the last episode of season six of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," audiences were in for the shock of their lives - Lt. Cmdr. Jadzia Dax was killed by a possessed Gul Dukat. No one saw it coming, and many fans were left bereft that one of their favorite main characters had been taken away. Whatever the behind the scenes story was of contracts a...

Lower Decks Update It has been a celebration of Star Trek animation this month with the 50th anniversary of "Star Trek: The Animated Series." The trio talks about the state of animation in the franchise, as well as the beginning of season four of "Star Trek: Lower Decks." The current animated series dropped its first two episodes, and not only featured everyone's favorite Intrepid-class starship b...

Fixing "Code of Honor" It's the worst episode of Star Trek. Or, at least, one of the worst. "Code of Honor" from the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has been written off by most of the cast as a racist, inappropriate episode that should never be included in the series canon again. The trio dips their toes dangerously into the waters of ... could this episode have been saved? This...

Writing a DS9 "Q" Episode The trickster Q bedeviled both Captains Picard and Janeway in his many outrageous appearances. However, there was only one "Deep Space Nine" episode that featured the omnipotent being in "Q-Less", a first season episode that is largely forgettable. It seemed for most that Q just didn't work in the world of Sisko and the tone of DS9 stories. The trio put on their writing h...

Megaprojects in Trek It takes a lot of resources to build a starship - but starships are not the biggest infrastruture in the Trek franchise. The trio look at the mega projects we see in the Star Trek future, from the shipbuilding facilities at Utopia Planetia to moving Deep Space Nine. What does it take the move a starbase from planet to planet, like we see in "Star Trek: Picard"? What about terr...

Strange, New Worlds Season Two Wrap-Up Captain Pike and his crew of the NCC-1701 complete their second season with some very memorable highlights. "Star Trek: Strange, New Worlds" has received plenty of acclaim as the leading live-action Star Trek series, but what's behind these past 10 episodes? From musicals to "Lower Decks" crossovers, what journey and complications did we encouter? What makes...

A Look Back at Star Trek: Prodigy, Season 1, Part 2 Not since the cancelation of "Star Trek: Enterprise" has a Trek series been in quite the challenge that "Prodigy" currently faces. It completed its (delayed?) second half to its first season, and then, just a few months later, it was removed from the Paramount+ streaming service. While its second season is nearing production completion, the serie...