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ussthunderquack · 5 years

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MCU characters in the “Star Trek” universe

I thought of making this post months ago. I hesitated, and still do, because some of these are very close to some original “Star Trek” characters that I’m cooking up for a personal “Star Trek” fanfic.

But then someone else made a post about an Avengers/”Star Trek” crossover, with a Vulcan Stephen Strange, that I found interesting. They said they were new to “Star Trek,” and I offered suggestions. They asked me to tag them when I post this, so here I tag: @ellisper this is partially for you. I am not telling anyone that they have to write their Avengers/”Star Trek” crossover this way; this is just my personal two-cents.

Steve Rogers: Thawed Augment from the Eugenics Wars

In “Star Trek” canon, the Eugenics Wars are a dark part of Earth’s history, set between present day, and the Utopian 23rd Century in which the main action of “Star Trek” is set. The famous “Star Trek” villain, Khan, comes from this time period. The Eugenics Wars occurred before Humans discovered Warp travel, or met any alien life. During this time, humanity experimented with genetic engineering, and created super-humans called Augments. Augments tended to be evil, due to superiority complexes. The most infamous was Khan, who, along with his crew of Augments, wound up cryogenically frozen, and thawed centuries later in Captain Kirk’s time. For a “Star Trek” version of Steve Rogers, this seems fitting. Naturally, Steve is one of the “good” Augments, who was fighting for equality, against Khan. Somehow, he wound up frozen like Khan’s crew, and thawed centuries later. Just like canon-Steve, this Augment Steve is from a past war that most Starfleet officers only know from history books; and his body and abilities come from a scientific experiment that was abandoned long, long ago.

Sam Wilson: Human pilot, from an off-world colony, scarred by the Dominion War

Sam would be one of the first people to welcome Steve Rogers to the 24th Century, and treat him like a regular person. His military experience and involvement in PTSD groups might be related to the Dominion War (which occurred during “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and had a lasting effect on Starfleet and all of its allies, in “Next Generation” and “Voyager.”)

I feel like Sam would come from an off-world colony, maybe because he has a rougher edge to him, that an Earth-bred officer might lack. If I’m not mistaken, Sam also grew up in poverty, in MCU canon. (In “Star Trek,” Earth is a “paradise” in the 24th Century, with all poverty and prejudice eliminated; so human characters who come from bad places come from off-world, like Tasha Yar.)

Stephen Strange: Romulan turncoat, training with Vulcans

Vulcans and Romulans are evolutionary cousins. Sans the foreheads, the only significant difference is cultural. Vulcans tamed their volatile emotions centuries ago, with logic and discipline. Romulans embraced their darker tendencies, and are now more imperial. There is great animosity and distrust between the two sub-species. However, some Romulans respect the Vulcans, and seek to learn from them. (This is revealed in “Star Trek: the Next Generation.”)

The Stephen Strange we see in “Infinity War” might seem Vulcan-like. But if you watch his movie, “Dr. Strange,” he wasn’t always so. Pre-wizard Strange is like many of the Romulans you’ll see on “Star Trek:” a brilliant scientist, but very arrogant, with a volatile temper, and questionable ethics. For a “Star Trek” Dr. Strange, I postulate a Romulan scientist who suffers an injury and loses his ability to practice. He travels to Vulcan in the hopes of curing himself, and learns from one of the most powerful Vulcan telepaths. (Vulcans have far more experience with telepathy than Romulans, who for the most part, don’t seem to even have the ability.)

Naturally, a Vulcan/Romulan Strange would also rock that evil-Spock goatee. In short, Strange is a Romulan who converted to Vulcan-ism. His Romulan temperament still shines through his newfound Vulcan discipline, especially when he’s interacting with....

Tony Stark: Joined Trill

Here’s the one that made me hesitate, because of my “Star Trek” OC. But, here we go....

The Trill look like humans with spots on the sides of their faces, and kangaroo pouches in their tummies (for both males and females). Most of the Trill are pretty much just that. But one tenth of the Trill population is “joined” to a race of super-intelligent, immortal slugs, who live in said kangaroo pouches. Once joined, the slug--called a Symbiont--and the “host” Trill---both have their minds merged into one being. It is very important that a Trill and Symbiont are well matched before joining, or else insanity could result.

A joined Trill will replace his or her last name with the name of the symbiont. (Ezri Tigan is joined to the Dax symbiont, and changes here name to Ezri Dax.) A host will have all of the memories of the Symbiont’s past hosts, which can lead to some confusion and identity crisis. Since Tony Stark is a character marked entirely by conflict and dualities, I can’t see him being anything but a joined Trill. The Stark symbiont is the genius engineer, and the Tony host is the playboy manchild.

Since Tony’s character is heavily driven by his past (daddy issues, guilt, etc) that could also translate into memories of past-hosts. Maybe the crimes Trill-Tony blames himself for weren’t his at all, but a past host of the Stark symbiont.

On my “Star Trek” OC, Nuvo Auz: He is not exactly a carbon copy of Tony Stark, but he’s close enough to this “Trill Tony Stark” described that I hesitated to share. But oh well. It’s fan fiction, so it’s not like originality is a major issue here.

James Rhodes: Another joined Trill, who has been friends with Stark for several “hosts”

There is now a reason Rhodey changed appearances so abruptly and completely; he changed hosts! The Rhodey on the left sadly died during a mission where he was unfortunate enough to be wearing red, but the Stark and Rhodey symbionts were inseparable, even though various hosts. The plotline of Rhodey breaking his back might also be replaced by Rhodey losing another host altogether. That would really motivate Tony, if his best friend really did partially-die, during one of their battles.

The Trill do have laws against “re-association” with past-hosts’ families and spouses, but friendships seem to be except from this rule, as Captain Sisko is friends with Dax through three hosts (Kurzon Dax, Jadzia Dax and Ezri Dax).

Pepper Potts: Unjoined Trill Telepath

As mentioned above, most Trill are not joined. Among the unjoined Trill, a small percentage are telepathic. These telepathic Trill cannot be joined, but are important in helping with those who are. Trill telepaths guard the unjoined symbionts in their cave-lakes, and also use their telepathy to perform Trill rituals that allow a joined Trill to talk more directly with his or her past hosts.

Trill telepathy is not elaborated on in canon, so this AU has a lot of freedom in terms of what Pepper can do with her telepathy.

Pepper is the only Trill telepath who could deal with the insanity that is Tony Stark, and has been by his side for years. Her telepathy gives her sharp intuition, and she is the first to discover that Stane is betraying Tony, when she quickly reads Stane’s mind when he isn’t looking. She can sense when Tony’s in danger, and communicate with him mentally from afar.

She hates how reckless joined Trill like Tony are, since they feel immortal. She reminds him he is not immortal; his memories may be, but there will only ever be one Tony Stark, and she doesn’t want to lose him.

Morgan Stark: Get some tissues....

Tony, being Tony, goes against the Symbiosis Commissions rules about joining, and leaves his symbiont Stark to his daughter after his death. Morgan inherits the symbiont, and with it, all her father’s memories. She constantly hears him tell her, “I love you 3000.”

Mantis: Aenar/Betazoid Hybrid

The Aenar are evolutionary cousins of Andorians (those blue guys with the antennae). The Aenar, unlike Andorians, have very powerful telepathic abilities, and live in seclusion.

Betazoids look identical to humans, except for their solid black eyes. Betazoids, as well, have a wide range of mental powers. Most are some degree of telepaths, but how powerful they are depends on the individual. Counselor Deanna Troi, who is half-Betazoid and half-Human, cannot read minds like most full-Betazoids, but she is an “empath,” and can sense emotions from other people.

Mantis’s black eyes and empathic powers scream of Betazoid to me. But naturally her antennae and sheltered nature also scream of Aenar. I think an Aenar/Betazoid hybrid makes the most sense for her, personally.

Natasha Romanof: Low-telepath Betazoid, or Betazoid/Human Hybrid

Betazoid women are stereotyped for their alluring, seductive natures. Natasha Romanov uses seduction, along with her sharp intuition, in her job as a spy. She clearly cannot read or affect others’ minds the way Mantis or Wanda Maximoff can, but Nat’s ability to read other people would make sense for a part-Betazoid, or a Bertazoid on the low-end of the telepathy spectrum.

Clint Barton: Human, or Bajoran

Bajorans are basically humans with wrinkly noses, and their whole planet seemingly follows one religion. All in all, not “Star Trek’s” best concept for an alien race.

I was originally going to dismiss Clint as a boring Human, but he could just as easily be Bajoran. Bajorans have a history of guerrilla fighting Cardassian oppressors, and while it’s never stated in canon, I’ve always gotten the impression that Bajorans were more nimble and stealthy than humans. After recently winning their home planet back from the Cardassians, Bajorans are trying to rebuild their lives and families. Many are farmers. This all seems fitting enough for Clint. Otherwise, Clint might simply be the token boring Human onboard. Like Miles O’Brian of DS9, Clint is the family man in the group, and...not much else. He could even relate to Miles over having a relatively mundane-seeming job compared to the other characters (Miles sat at the transporter controls when on the Enterprise, and is the subject of much ridicule in the fandom for this.)

Thor: Klingon, son of the current emperor

If you’re new to “Star Trek,” you might be thinking, “No way, pretty Thor, one of those ugly lizard things from ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and the recent movies?” Well I’m thinking more of the Picard-era Klingons for this one. Yes, Klingons are warriors--and specifically, they are largely based on stereotypes of Vikings--but not all Klingon characters are vicious monsters. Many are jolly and full of honor, and love to drink mugs of bloodwine while telling exaggerated tales of their glorious battles. Picturing Thor, and all of his Asgardian friends, as Klingons, each with their own unique Klingon forheads, armor and weapons, is just too great.

Loki: Changeling orphan raised by Klingons, who later allies with the Dominion

Introduced on “Deep Space Nine,” the Founders, AKA “Changelings,” are a species from the other side of the galaxy. Their true form is silver syrup, but with practice, they can take any form, depending on how skilled and experienced they are. The Founders are rulers of the Dominion, a sort of evil counterpart to the Federeation. Their subject species worship them as gods, and the Founders hope for galactic domination.

To gain more information on the rest of the galaxy, the Founders often send baby Changelings out into the universe, to grow up among alien species, so they can come back and share their experiences with the rest of the Great Link (the sea of silver jelly that makes up the Founder homeworld). Unfortunately, the Founders don’t seem to plan this very well, as they give the baby Changelings no way of knowing where they’re from, why they were sent away, or what they’re supposed to do. Odo, a main character on “Deep Space Nine,” grew up an orphan and the only one of his species, having no clue of his origins.

Now if this isn’t all Loki in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

Emperor Odin found the baby Changeling, and taught him to take a Klingon form. Loki grew up very bitter about not knowing his origins. When he did finally learn of the Founders, he was eager to return to the Great Link and prove himself, and became one of the Dominion’s highest agents. Loki was far more skilled at shape-shifting than Odo (as many Founders were), and could take any form with ease.

He tried to take over the Klingon Empire by impersonating his father; he led a Dominion Army to try to conquer Earth; and in the end, he switched sides and died trying to save his brother and the Klingon Empire....or did he?

Bruce Banner: Human/Klingon hybrid (either natural or artificial)

There are several part-Klingons in “Star Trek” canon. One of them, B’Elanna Torres ( “Star Trek: Voyager”) is a brilliant engineer, who is constantly frustrated by her Klingon temper interfering with her work. Bruce Banner could just as easily be in the exact same boat as her, though his personality would be different than hers. (B’Elanna often combats her rage with sarcasm, and has a lot in common with Tony Stark in that regard.)

B’Elanna is a born hybrid--one human parent, one Klingon parent. There are others, however, who are “artificial hybrids;” a person born one species, who, through some genetic engineering or mistake, ends up with traits of the other species fused into them. Klingons experimented with genetic engineering on themselves to try and disguise as Humans, to infiltrate Star Fleet. (This was a retcon in “Enterprise,” to explain why the Klingons in the Original “Star Trek” look so Human, and nothing like the Klingons of TNG-onward. A Klingon-engineered-to-look-human also appears on “Discovery.”)

Bruce Banner could just be a born hybrid like B’Elanna... but if one wants to tie in his MCU backstory into this “Star Trek” AU, it may make sense to go the “military genetic experiment gone wrong” route. Admiral Ross (no “generals” in Starfleet, don’t ask me why) may have ordered Bruce to test this method of disguising humans as Klingons on himself, and it went horribly wrong.

King T’Challa: Human, from a separate colony that still practices genetic engineering

In “Star Trek,” it is not uncommon for members of one specific ethnic group to build a colony on an alien planet, based entirely around that one culture. (Or stereotypes of it. “Star Trek” is kind of clumsy with how it handles real life cultures, unfortunately.) There’s a colony of Scottish people, where Dr. Crusher’s nanna lives. Commander Chakotay’s culture was a tribe of Native Americans who left Earth and set up a colony on another planet to preserve their culture.

Wakanda could just as easily be the same case. In addition to preserving their culture, the Wakandans might also have left Earth so that they could continue using genetic engineering, a practice that Starfleet has banned (after the Eugenics Wars). In the Wakanda Colony, genetic manipulation is handled very carefully, and only the ruling king becomes a full-on Augment.

Gamora: Orion pirate

Orions are a green-skinned race, known to be pirates and slave traders. Orion women emit pheromones that seduce males of other species, though it’s unclear if this always true, or how much control they have over it. Trekkies tend to think of Orion women as scantily dressed slave dancers, but latter “Star Trek” incarnations have female Orions in other roles, often as badass pirate traders and leaders, and sometimes even Starfleet officers. They do have a tendency to wear kinky black leather though, and the last Orion woman we saw on “Star Trek: Discovery” was a dead-ringer for Gamora!

Bucky Barnes: Liberated Borg Drone

The Borg are the single greatest villains in “Star Trek,” and are every bit to “Star Trek” what Hydra is to the Avengers. The Borg are a race of half-machine cyborg people, whose minds are all enslaved to one collective Hive Mind. Their goal is to assimilate the entire galaxy. On “Star Trek,” we’ve met several characters who were assimilated by the Borg, but later escaped, and struggled to reclaim their humanity. It happened once to Captain Picard; he was assimilated, and forced to wipe out an entire Federation fleet, under the influence of the Borg, before he was rescued by the Enterprise. On “Voyager,” Seven of Nine--formerly Annika Hanson--was assimilated with here parents at age 6, and wasn’t rescued until 18 years later. She spends four years on the show regaining her humanity, wrestling with the guilt, and coping with the trauma.

Borg-Bucky can tie into Trill-Tony this way. Perhaps a previous Stark host was assimilated along with his entire family by Borg-Bucky, and somehow, the Stark symbiont was rescued and able to move into a new host. Since this is "Star Trek,” it’s also perfectly believable for that massive plot line to get abruptly dropped and never mentioned again. (Sorry, I’m still salty about that...)

Wanda Maximoff: Ocampa, from Suspiria’s Array

This is another one from “Star Trek: Voyager.” The Ocampa are a race of telepaths, but how powerful they are depends on which sect they come from. Centuries ago, another race called Caretakers (a race of super-intelligent blobs) accidentally turned the Ocampan home-world into a desert. One Caretaker kept a bunch of Ocampans underground on their dead homeworld, and provided for them. Being dependent for so many generations caused their powers to weaken, until basic telepathic conversation was all they could do. But the other Caretaker, named Suspiria, took a few Ocampa lightyears away to live on a space station, where she encouraged them to exercise their powers to the max. Their abilities included telekenesis, and inducing spontaneous combustion in plants. These Ocampa were more sinister than the other kind. I think this would be as good a backstory as any for MCU-Wanda Maximoff. After nearly destroying the ship, she switches sides, and tries to tame her incredible mind powers, and only use them for good.

Also, Ocampans only live 9 or 10 years, and are fully grown by age 2. This could explain some of the confusion surrounding Wanda’s age, with characters treating her like a kid one minute, and a soldier to bring into battle the next. This is another one that’s vaguely similar to one of my OCs, though my Ocampa character is almost nothing at all like Wanda. But, she is an Ocampa from Suspiria’s array.

Ava Starr: Human mutated by a freak transporter accident

There’s an episode of “Star Trek: the Next Generation” where Lt. LaForge and Ensign Ro get into a transporter accident that essentially turns them into ghosts. Here, something similar happened to poor Ava Star, but she could sometimes maintain solid form, and was visible to others, even when phasing.

Her father was attempting to open a gateway to either the Mirror Universe or Fluidic Space, or some such other dimension, and it literally blew up in his face. He and Ava’s mom died, and they were the lucky ones.

Ava was then taken advantage of by Section 31 (basically the Federation’s CIA), and used for classified missions. And now she is just so done with everything and everyone, and just wants a cure.

Hank Pym: Eccentric scientist who rejects Starfleet

There are quite a few of these in the world of “Star Trek” (Data’s creator, Seven of Nine’s parents). Some scientists just think Starfleet is too controlling, or corrupt, or they just hate people, or the writers just want an easy way for a scientist to be up to something Starfleet doesn’t know about.

Hank Pym was a prominent Starfleet scientist, until Howard Stark tried to steal his research. Pym quit Starfleet, and tried to find a place to settle to continue his research undisturbed. But his ship crashed on an alien planet. He almost died in the alien wilderness, until the planet’s dominant species--a race of super-intelligent insecticides--took him in and adopted him into their colony.

Pym now trusts neither Starfleet nor “Starks,” regardless of who the current Stark host is. The only ones he trusts are his faithful companions and minions, the ants.

Hope Van Dyne: Pym’s estranged, half-Vulcan daughter, who works for Starfleet

Unlike Spock, she doesn’t try to mask her emotions and be entirely “Vulcan.” But she does practice lots of Vulcan control and sardonicism, to deal with her resentment towards her father for her mother’s (supposed) death.

Janet Van Dyne: Pym’s Vulcan wife, thought killed in a space anomaly, but actually stranded in Fluidic Space

Fluidic Space is another dimension, where Species 8472 live (from “Star Trek: Voyager”)

Scott Lang: Lower-decks crewman who everyone thinks is gonna die a redshirt’s death, but turns out to be a badass

And because he’s a dopey human who makes funny quips and is the butt of endless jokes, he will end up with the half-Vulcan woman who can’t stand him.

Peter Quill: Human, from the 20th Century

Time travel is rampant in “Star Trek,” so Peter Quill’s character can stay pretty much exactly the same as he is in MCU-canon.

Nebula: Bolian, ex-Borg Drone

Bolians are bald blue people, and.....that’s about all we know about them. Well, they supposedly are also all motor-mouths, but you know, stereotypes. Anyway, being assimilated would make even the chattiest person turn pretty antisocial.

Her eye-implant is also a LOT like Seven of Nine’s.

Carol Danvers: Human-Q hybrid, Starfleet pilot

The Q are among the most powerful beings in the Universe, as well as some of the most sinister. The main Q character we know on “Star Trek: the Next Generation” and “Voyager” has dealt at least twice with young Qs, who he was rearing with questionable methods. In the TNG episode “True Q,” Q mentors young Amanda Rogers (an orphaned Q raised by humans), in a way that is very reminiscent of Yon Rogg’s mentoring of Vers. Is it possible for Q to reproduce with non-Q? Who knows, but since the Q seem capable of damn near anything, I don’t see why not. Though, if we’re keeping things close to MCU canon, then Carol may have been born a regular human, and only became part-Q after a bizarre accident. In any case, she is no longer with the Q Continuum, and now fights for justice independently, or with Starfleet.

Peter Parker: Kid genius, except likable. The Anti-Wesley.

During “Infinity War,” my friend said Peter reminded her of Wesley, and I said, “Never say that again, or I’ll beam you into a black hole.” Anyway, Peter would be a kid-genius serving on a ship like Wesley (but likable), and like Reg Barclay, would end up becoming part spider, due to one of the many bizarre anomalies the ship runs into every week.

If canon-Peter was enamored with Iron Man, just picture this Peter’s excitmenent upon learning that the chief engineer is a joined Trill, who has lived multiple life times, and all of the inappropriate questions he’d pester Tony with, like, “What’s it like to die? What’s it like to die three times? Were any of your deaths really badass? Like, did you ever go out blowing up a Borg cube or get blown into space or something?”

“This is why some species eat their young.”

Friday: Hologram

In “Star Trek,” holograms--by the 24th Century anyway--look and even feel like solid, real people. Which begs some very disturbing questions about the fact that they’re created as basically slave labor. But Tony at least would never treat any of his holograms like mindless appliances to toss away, and if any of them wanted to leave he wouldn’t stop them.

Anyway, Friday is a hologram he programed after Jarvis was integrated into Vision. And she is a badass.

Vision: Soon-type android, with a hologram and alien technology mixed in

Kinda self-explanatory, not sure what else needs to be said.

Thaddeus Ross: insane admiral

Alongside doomed redshirts and and promiscuous male commanding officers, the evil insane admiral is one of “Star Trek’s” oldest and most treasured traditions. It does get to be a bit concerning after a while, that there are so many insane admirals in the Federation. Some fans theorize that Starfleet promotes bad captains to admirals to keep them off starships, figuring the occasional crazy admiral grabbing at galactic domination is better than a crazy incompetent captain every week. Whatever the reason, insane megalomaniac admirals plague Starfleet.

Thaddeus Ross is one such admiral. Previously leader of a fleet of starships, he was promoted to an even higher brand of admiral after the fiasco with Bruce Banner. Unfortunately, it turned out that giving this twit even more power was, shockingly, a bad idea.

If I think of more, I may update this. But I think these are the main ones I have AU ideas for.

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wbwest · 7 years

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West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 7/28/17

One of the best discoveries I’ve made has been the digital subchannel Heroes & Icons. If you’re a cord cutter, then get yourself an antenna and check this thing out. My favorite aspect of it, however, is the fact that it runs a 5-hour Star Trek block six nights a week. Star Trek at 8, Star Trek: The Next Generation at 9, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at 10, Star Trek: Voyager at 11, and Enterprise at 12. Sunday through Friday. And on Sundays they actually kick things off with Star Trek: The Animated Series at 7. I’ve pretty much watched nothing but Star Trek for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been reacquainted with favorite episodes, like TNG‘s “Chain of Command” and DS9‘s “Far Beyond the Stars”. I’ve discovered some hidden gems, like TOS‘s ” The Cloud Minders”. I’ve even discovered that I don’t hate Voyager or Enterprise as much as I thought I did.

I don’t talk about this too much, but the first 12 years or so of my life were comprised of pretty much NOTHING but Star Trek. From 1987-94, my favorite show on television was The Next Generation. When DS9 debuted, I expected it to continue my love affair, but it felt too preachy with its Space Holocaust allegory. It was in the later seasons, once the Dominion War began, that it actually ensconced itself as my favorite iteration of the franchise. By the time Voyager debuted, I had discovered comics, and they became my new mistress. While I watched about 4 hours of TNG a day in high school (Channel 20 REALLY loved playing TNG), my heart didn’t have room in it for a new Trek, so I “No time for love, Dr. Jones”‘ed Captain Janeway and her crew. Enterprise debuted when I was in college, and I was simply too busy worried about other shit to watch Captain Quantum Leap and his crew. Plus, due to some kind of contractual fallout, Ithaca didn’t get UPN. So, since the finale of DS9, my Trekkerdom lay dormant.

But when I say “I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know”, that’s primarily about Star Trek. I had several editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, I had the Technical Manual, the Technical Journal, the Star Trek Chronology. All of it. I’ve got the figures, and the role play toys. I even created my own uniform for Halloween back in the 90s. I was all Trek, 24/7, and you couldn’t tell me shit. Over time, though, that trivia got overwritten by X-Men 1st appearance notations and the names of TNBC actresses. What I’m saying, though, is that Heroes & Icons brought it all rushing back. It’s like I’m 15 again, blowing the evening watching Star Trek episodes I’ve already seen hundreds of times already. It’s also given me new perspectives on things that completely went over my head when I was younger. For example, Sisko is the Bajorans’ Space Jesus, and that’s pretty heavy. Even he doesn’t believe it, but in the end, yup it turns out he’s Space Jesus. I’ve also got thoughts on the current state of the franchise, too.

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At SDCC, we got the above trailer for Star Trek: Discovery, which will air in North America on CBS All Access (yes, Dean, I know you’ll say All Anal Access because it sucks that we have to subscribe to another service just to watch this thing). I had no interest in this show because everything I heard about it didn’t sound like Star Trek. Now, though, the more they try to sell it as a bunch of new ideas, the more it just sounds like DS9. It’s gonna be Trek with interpersonal conflict. Great. I can get down with that. Its aesthetic seems more like late-era Stargate than Trek, though – especially those Klingon designs. There are certain things, though, that still feel like they miss the mark.

Take for example the fact that the show will feature the first same-sex couple on a Star Trek series, played by Rent‘s Anthony Rapp and My So Called Life‘s Wilson Cruz. Yeah, I get that representation is important, but it bothers me that this is being done in a prequel series, set before the events of the original Star Trek. With the exception of Enterprise, this is the series that takes place the closest to our timeline, so it’s really not much of a leap to think that same-sex couples exist. Ya know what would’ve meant more to me (as a straight, cis male who really doesn’t have a dog in the race but is still opinionated)? If the show had actually been a post-Dominion War, sequel series to TNG/DS9/Voyager, and it featured a same-sex couple. Science fiction tends to go 2 ways: it’s either dystopian or it’s about HOPE. As it stands, from what we’ve seen, same-sex couples are pretty much nonexistent in the 24th century. Yeah, I’m sure they exist, but we never saw them. It seems like it would be a testament to how enduring they are to see them that far in the future as opposed to just a couple of hundred years from now, when Discovery is set.

I could also be politicizing this for my own agenda, as I really want to know what happened after the war ended. Sure, there are books and stuff, but those things aren’t canon. I feel there are so many stories to tell from that era, and I’d love to see the franchise move forward instead of dance between the raindrops of continuity in the past. It feels like they’re stalling, which is how it felt with Enterprise and even the Kelvin movies. Someone, somewhere out there has got to have a great idea as to how to move the franchise forward and I hope CBS/Paramount finds them sooner rather than later.

SDCC Bullet Points

The bulk of San Diego Comic Con took place over the weekend, and here’s some stuff that debuted:

Michelle Pfeiffer is Hank Pym’s lost wife, Janet Van Dyne, in Ant-Man and The Wasp

The Captain Marvel film will be set in the 90s, and introduce the Skrulls to the MCU. Oh, and Nick Fury will have 2 eyes

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We got this trailer for Ready Player One, which was hella polarizing. It seems a lot of folks hated the book on which it’s based. If you ask me, it just looks like a cinematic version of this commercial:

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Comic creator Frank Miller, of 300 and Sin City fame, is writing a Superman: Year One story with art from John Romita Jr. Nothing about that sentence makes me want to open my wallet.

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We got a new trailer for X-Men spinoff, The Gifted. I’m actually surprised they used established mutants like Polaris and Thunderbird. And is that actually Fenris?! I want to like this, but it just looks so…Fox.

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We got a new trailer for The Defenders on Netflix. I get that this is the culmination of all the Marvel Netflix shows, but it didn’t do much for me since I’ve only seen 2 out of 5 seasons so far. There’s no way I’ll get caught up by this premiere date, but I’m sure it’ll mean more to me once I’m up to date. Kinda tired of the hallway fight trope, though.

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Legends of Tomorrow is such a fun show. It started kinda dry, but got so much better last year. It reminds me of a syndicated Saturday afternoon show, but in a good way.

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This Justice League trailer did very little for me. It’s like, sure, Wonder Woman’s cool, but we JUST saw her. Aquaman seems cool, but he’s not really “Aquaman”. I’ll see it, but I ain’t looking forward to it. No, for me, November belongs to:

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Things You Might Have Missed This Week

We’ll have to wait a bit longer for our annual dose of Abbi and Ilana, as Comedy Central has moved the Broad City season 4 premiere from August 23rd to September 13th

A few months ago, it was reported that Amy Schumer would be starring in a Barbie movie. Well, I made fun of that, she blocked me on Twitter, and then eventually dropped out of the role. Now they’re reporting that Anne Hathaway is up for the role, which is somehow more bewildering than the Schumer choice…

Justin Bieber cancelled the rest of his Purpose world tour because he was “committing his life to Christ”. This pissed off his crew, as they were left without jobs. He, then, proceeded to run over a paparazzo with his truck while leaving church. I swear, you can’t make this shit up!

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has replaced Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.

Beginning September 29th, Hulu will begin streaming the Warner Bros shows that comprised ABC’s TGIF lineup, including Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, Full House, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step. Meanwhile, Netflix is feverishly developing Perfecter Strangers, Family Still Matters, Chillin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step By Step.

I haven’t seen a non-country music video in years, but apparently they still make them, as Katy Perry will host the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards

Speaking of the VMAs, following the lead of the MTV Movie Awards, they’re doing away with the gendered categories Best Male/Best Female Artist, to be replaced by Artist of the Year. Also, in a bit of pandering, they’ve created the Best Fight Against the System, for those artists who have called for folks to #RESIST and all that.

Though I felt its farcical nature wore a bit thin during its first season, TBS’s Angie Tribeca has been renewed for season 4.

Smallville‘s Tom Welling is joining Fox’s Lucifer and *yawn* that’s really all there is to say about that.

Netflix has ordered 20 episodes of the animated series Disenchantment from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. It will features the voices of Nat Faxon, Eric Andre, and Abbi Jacobson. Apparently it’s about elves and trolls and shit. Not really my bag, baby.

Person of Interest‘s Michael Emerson has been cast in a mysterious role for Arrow‘s 6th season. So, he’s probably Deathstroke’s accountant or something.

Because SyFy just doesn’t care anymore, and because they need something to air between Sharknados, Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a 3rd season.

The Wonder Woman sequel has a release date of December 13th, 2019

Apple discontinued the iPod Nano and Shuffle models, as they are the last remaining models that cannot run iOS apps.

Current Superman Henry Cavill grew a mustache for his role in Mission Impossible 37: Mission Harder, which will have to be digitally removed for Justice League reshoots. Ya know, the movie where he’s supposed to be dead, but is actually the worst kept secret in Hollywood.

Lionel Richie and Charlie Puth are in talks to join ABC’s American Idol reboot as judges. Yeah, that’s funny. Unless they’re coaching the contestants on how to get caught cheating while dancing on the ceiling, I’m not sure what Richie’s old ass brings to the table. And Puth is simply too new to be judging anybody.

New James Bond film in 2019. Nobody knows who’s playing him or directing the thing, but it’s coming. Yesiree, Bob!

Since they’re handing out cinematic universes like chicken samples at a food court, the John Wick universe will be expanded by the female-focused film, Ballerina.

Michael Phelps raced a CGI shark and people felt betrayed. He’s the friggin’ son of Poseidon! He can’t race ACTUAL sharks! There would be civil unrest beneath the surface!

With DC being the political capital of the country, it’s hard for a news person to stand out because the place is crawling with them. That wasn’t true, however, for Jim Vance. Everyone knew him and the man was an institution. Coming to NBC4 in 1969, he was one of the first Black anchors in a major news market. He anchored for over 4 decades, ingraining himself into the families of those who watched him.

When I was a toddler, I was really into the local news (I’ve always said I’m regressing as I get older), and I could name every anchor on every local newscast. And this was a golden age of DC news. You had the great Glenn Brenner, you had Maury Povich before he became a talk show host, and you had Vance. There was something about him that made him seem like your aunt’s cool boyfriend. He was an old man with a hoop earring. We used to laugh about it, but secretly I was hating because I knew I’d never be able to pull that off at his age. He rode motorcycles and laughed inappropriately at news stories he found funny. He was a guy who made you glad to watch the news, especially as the cries of Fake News! grew louder.

Back in May, Vance announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and it advanced rather quickly. He passed away last Saturday morning, and the announcement touched all corners of the DC area (no, I’m not calling it the DMV!). It was touching to see all of the tributes to him on the local stations, from those who were colleagues and competitors. Last Saturday night, News4 spent the entire 11 PM news talking about Vance and what he meant to DC. This might sound crazy, but it was so refreshing to watch the news without a single drop of actual news being reported. No Trump b.s., no local murders, not even a weather report. Just 30 minutes about a man who we basically grew up with in our homes. I always kinda took him for granted because you just expected he would be there every evening, but I’ve certainly missed him since he’s gone. I know he won’t mean much to those of you outside the DC viewing area, but believe me when I say that everybody here knew who Jim Vance was, and we’re all going to miss him in one way or another. For that reason, Jim Vance had the West Life Ever.

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