I used to always write my posts the night before, but for the past several months, I’ve been writing them first thing in the morning. However, this post, I wrote last night. I knew I would probably not have time to write one this morning. Why you might ask? The series finale of Star Trek: Discovery was released today, and I’m going to watch it before I go to work.

I’ll admit that Star Trek: Discovery has not always been my favorite Star Trek series. However, it was what brought Star Trek back to television, even if it was on a streaming service. Because of Discovery, we got Picard, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds. We also got Prodigy, but honestly, that one is really not worth mentioning. Discovery started the “New Trek” era. There have been ups and downs with this new era of Star Trek shows, but we got Star Trek back and it wasn’t through J. J. Abrams, who I think did Star Trek movies a major disservice.

I’ll hate to see Discovery end, and I’ll hate to see Lower Decks end with its next season, but we have at least two more seasons of Strange New Worlds to look forward to and the upcoming Section 31 movie with Michelle Yeoh and the recently announced Starfleet Academy series which will apparently have Holly Hunter as a lead actress. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but we’ll see how she does.

So, as one series ends, and another one about to end, Trekkies still have a lot to look forward to in the near future.

P.S. I hate to see the end of a series headed by Sonequa Martin-Green. As far as I know, she’s the only lead on a Star Trek series from Alabama, and she has a degree from the University of Alabama. Although Louise Fletcher, who played Kai Winn on Deep Space Nine, was also a fellow Alabamian, she was a recurring character, not a lead actress.

In the penultimate episode of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Subspace Rhapsody,” the show goes somewhere no other Star Trek show has gone before: the world of musicals. I’m not always your most typical gay man and don’t always follow stereotypes, unless I’m camping it up for one reason or another, but I am an embodiment of one stereotype: I love musicals and always have. With that being said, I’ll have to admit, even I was a little skeptical about a Star Trek musical episode. Could they pull it off? Would it be incredibly cheesy or silly? Could the cast even sing?

However, the producers of Star Trek surprised me. I know there will be some naysayers, and there are plenty of Trekkies who seem to actually hate everything Star Trek, yet still consider themselves “fans.” Said naysayers either nitpick one very minor thing and claim it goes against “canon” and ruined the whole show (and I mean show not just episode), or they will claim that Star Trek should always be serious scientific exploration. Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, said in a 2009 interview with Reuters, “Canon is only important to people because they have to cling to their knowledge of the minutiae. Open your mind! Be a ‘Star Trek’ fan and open your mind and say, ‘Where does Star Trek want to take me now?’”

Nearly every episode has had its critics, but just as many have people who were enthusiastic about it. Facebook fan groups are already having debates about the merits of the episode. The same naysayers hated the recent Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover episode “Those Old Scientists.” I thought it was one of the best episodes of the series, but I’ve also liked the Spock-centric episodes: “Spock Amok” and “Charades.” The best Star Trek series have had a balance of fun and wacky episodes and serious and scientific episodes. For example on Deep Space Nine, there are the serious “O’Brien Must Suffer” episodes and the humorous “Ferengi” episodes. In both Strange New Worlds and Deep Space Nine (the two series I know the best), a serious episode was usually followed by a fun episode or vice versa. Picard and Discovery, both of which I liked in their own way, tend to stick to serious episodes and use a serial story arch format for the season. Strange New Worlds and Deep Space Nine often follow the episodic format similar to Star Trek and The Next Generation. Both formats have their advantages, but I think I often prefer the episodic format.

One of the things I enjoy about Strange New Worlds is that there are certain subtle commentaries and traditions about Star Trek in each of the episodes. The writers/producers seemed to give a nod to the Leonard Nimoy quote above in “Subspace Rhapsody.” When Uhura plays Cole Porters “Anything Goes,” I suspect it was a message from the producers and writers to say, “Where does Star Trek want to take me now?” The bottom line is they did pull it off. Yes, it was cheesy and silly at times, but it’s a musical and by the nature of the genre, people break out into song when normal people wouldn’t. Also, like many musicals, it had its emotional moments and plenty of humor along the way. That leaves the last question: Could the cast even sing? The answer is, some can, others are OK. Rebecca Romjin (Number One) and Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) have beautiful voices as does Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel). As for the others, the lack of being a music virtuoso makes sense in the way it was done or they sing as part of the chorus. I’m not sure anyone would want to hear Carol Kane sing with that voice of hers. I also liked that the style of music that various characters sing fit their characters. For example, Anson Mount’s Captain Pike has an almost county twang to his songs. Ethan Peck’s Spock is more serious.

I’ve tried not to give too much away, so I don’t think I’ve given any spoilers. Forgive me if I have. Of course, my enjoyment of “Subspace Rhapsody” is just my opinion (but I’ve already watched it twice since it was released yesterday). Trekkies everywhere will have strong opinions one way or another. I liked it and wanted to share my own opinion. Overall, if anyone was going to do a “Star Trek Musical” this was the way it should have been and was done. The “Subspace Rhapsody” official cast recording will be available for purchase starting today, though Apple Music accidentally released it early and then took it down. If/when you watch it, I’d love to hear your opinion of the episode (I know those outside the United States aren’t yet able to watch the episodes).

For the past six weeks and for the next four, I look forward to Thursday because a new episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres each week. The show is great, and I think it’s the best iteration of Star Trek since Deep Space Nine. It is especially fun to watch SNW for two reasons: Anson Mount (above, left) and Ethan Peck (above, right). Anson Mount makes the best looking Star Trek captain since the original Star Trek Captain Jeffrey Hunter, who also played Captain Christopher Pike. However, the main reason is Ethan Peck, the grandson of Gregory Peck. Ethan Peck plays Spock and is incredibly handsome. He also has a fantastically shaped butt and a great body overall. I mean, look at this man:

The show itself is well worth watching, but thankfully there is also plenty of eye candy, including Paul Wesley as a young Lt. James T. Kirk.

The bridge of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise was surpassingly diverse for a 1960s television show. The first officer was an alien, the helmsman was Japanese, the navigator was Russian, and the communications officer was an African woman. Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, played communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, whose name came from Uhuru, the Swahili word for “freedom.” At age 89, Nichols died Saturday night of heart failure in Silver City, New Mexico. Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series. 

It was a groundbreaking role that Nichols did not realize just how groundbreaking until she met a particular fan of hers. It was 1967, and reviews for the first season of Star Trek were not great. Nichols had bigger issues with the show. She found it demoralizing to see her lines cut and cut again. She had to deal with racist insults off set, as well as from executives who conspired to keep her from seeing her fan mail. At the end of the first season, Nichols recounted in her autobiography, she told the show’s creator she was done.

But the next day, at an NAACP function, a fan greeted her: Martin Luther King Jr. He told her how important her role was and how he and his family watched Star Trek faithfully and adored her in particular — the only Black character. Nichols thanked him, but said she planned to leave. 

“You cannot and you must not,” she recalls him saying. “Don’t you realize how important your presence, your character is? … Don’t you see? This is not a Black role, and this is not a female role. You have the first non-stereotypical role on television, male or female. You have broken ground. “… For the first time,” he continued, “the world sees us as we should be seen, as equals, as intelligent people — as we should be.”

Nichols stayed for the next two seasons of the series, lent her voice to an animated version, and appeared in a half-dozen Star Trek movies. She had the first interracial kiss in American television. She recruited for NASA. Through her work, she influenced Mae Jemison — the first Black female astronaut.

Nichols suffered a stroke in 2015 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2018. Last December, at San Diego’s Comic Con, Nichols made her last public appearance and was celebrated by NASA.

With the passing of Nichelle Nichols, one of Star Trek’s brightest stars has gone out. Hailing frequency closed.

There are certain actors that make my heart go pitter patter and can take my breath away when I see them on the screen. Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery is one of them, and the new uniform this season makes him even hotter. There’s something about these new uniforms that just look great, no matter who is wearing them, but back to Cruz. When he played Enrique “Rickie” Vasquez, a troubled, gay teen, in the short-lived series My So-Called Life, Cruz was the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay character in a leading role in an American television series. That was in 1994, and I was a junior in high school. While I may not have been out, or even understood that I was gay back then, Cruz still made an impression on me. So when he was cast in Discovery as a gay doctor, I was thrilled. Who better to play one of the first two openly gay Star Trek characters than such a groundbreaking actor. Also, while over the four seasons of Discovery Cruz’s role has become more important each year, his character in the fourth season seems to have really hit its stride. Dr. Bashir on Deep Space Nine and Dr. McCoy on the original Star Trek have always been my favorite Star Trek doctors, Dr. Culber has surpassed them.

There are other actors that always get me hot and bothered. One of those actors is Luke Macfarlane. You’re probably all going, “Who?” Macfarlane first notable role was as Scotty Wandell on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters from 2006-2011. He was the husband to Kevin Walker (played by Matthew Rhys), one of the “brothers” of the show. He was also a main character in the Sci-Fi Channel (and Canada’s Space Channel) show Killjoys from 2015-2019. Also, if you watch any Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, he’s on of their go-to actors. Most recently he was in the Micheal Urie and Kathy Najimy Christmas movie on Netflix Single All the Way as the gorgeous fitness/ski instructor James (see above picture). I watched the movie last night and enjoyed it. I have not seen Macfarlane in a lot of stuff since I had seen him in Killjoys, but when he came on the screen in Single All the Way, I think my heart literally skipped a beat.

There are many gay actors that I love, and a few that aren’t gay, that make my heart go pitter patter. One that never fails me is Colton Haynes. I have been in love with him since I first saw pictures of him making out with another male model in the now defunct XY Magazine. Years later, he was in Teen Wolf and Arrow. What’s amazing about Haynes is that he’s been a successful model and actor but has also suffered from severe anxiety all of his life. Sadly, he dealt with that anxiety with drugs and alcohol, but as I understand it, he is finally sober and doing well these days.

So what actors, particularly gay ones, make your heart go pitter patter?