Star Trek Continues ”Embracing The Winds” - Detailed Analysis & Review

In today's Star Trek Continues podcast, we talk about the episode "Embracing The Winds" which tries to address Janice Lester's claims that "your world of Starship captains doesn't welcome women" in the episode Turnabout Intruder. This episode does a good job of looking at a contemporary issue in a new way through a Star Trek lens.

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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.

 

This is episode 101 of the podcast. 

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

 

And I’m excited to announce that the third book in my Jewel of The Stars series is now available in eBook and print from all the usual retailers. You can find links to many of them by going to books2read.com/jewel3 (and that’s the number 2 in books 2 read)

 

Let me quickly read the back cover blurb and then we’ll jump into this episode.

 

Tourists on a cruise. Stranded in an alien battleground

 

When their warp drive mysteriously stops working, the luxury cruise ship Jewel of The Stars becomes easy pickings for humanity’s enemy – the Dracnor. And there may be an enemy agent on board.

 

Before the fall of Earth, a madman made doomsday predictions on Captain Les Miller’s doorstop. How did he know the invasion was coming? Now that same man has been spotted walking the promenade. Les must stop him, but the evidence contradicts what he knows to be true.

 

Will the legacy of an ancient war mean the end of the galaxy’s last free humans?

So if that sounds interesting to you, please consider checking it out. You can find the first links to all the books in the series at AdamDavidCollings.com/books

 

The description on Star Trek Continues.com reads

 

While the Enterprise is sent on a seemingly routine mission, Kirk is recalled to starbase where he faces an ethical dilemma that challenges the very core of Starfleet Command.

 

This episode was written by James Kerwin and Vic Mignogna

It was directed by James Kerwin

And it first aired on the 3rd of September 2016

 

Star Trek has a problem which was introduced in the original series episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

That episode postulates that women are not allowed to be Starship captains in Starfleet.

Of course, we’ll see a number of female captains after this, in Star Trek 4, Yesterday’s Enterprise, and Voyager just to name a couple, and we even saw a female Captain before this, back in Enterprise.

It seems a very out-dated concept to think that there are not female captains in the 23rd century. So how do you deal with this?

 

This episode of Star Trek Continues is one approach to try to explain this issue, which I find very creative.

 

Another approach, postulated by the youTuber Lorerunner, is simply that Janice Lester was mad (just look at her) and the whole rule against women being Starship captains was all in her mind. I don’t mind that explanation either.

 

Interestingly, Star Trek Continues re-shot the final scenes of Turnabout Intruder as a transitional short film to connect to the new show before their first episode.

 

So Kirk and Spock have been called down to Corinth IV. Sulu is along for sightseeing and Mckennah for work research.

 

We get a nice little bit of continuity back to the episode “Lolani” dealing with the fallout in the Orion Syndicate, and how things may be changing due to Lolani’s influence.

And that’s beautiful. This is the kind of ongoing continuity you just didn’t get in the original series. Not to this extent.

 

Sulu makes reference to one of his ancestors being in an internment camp during World War 2, which is a nod to George Takai who actually lived that experience.

 

I love the planet. Very TOS but with effects that couldn’t have been done in the 60s.

 

I have to ask, are there any high ranking Starfleet officers who don’t indulge in Romulan ale? Perhaps Admiral Ross really was the only one. Even Spock relents and drinks after the news he’s about to be given.

 

They meet Commodore Gray. She and Kirk have had some differences. She also appeared in Lolani, where she ordered Kirk to return the Orion slave to her master.

 

The Crew of Hood have been lost. Some sort of life support failure. No evidence of foul play

 

Kirk and Spock have been called here because the Hood needs a new captain and crew.

Starfleet have chosen Spock

 

Kirk has mixed feelings. I get this. He’s proud of Spock and happy for him, but he doesn’t want to lose his first officer, and his friend.

 

But there could be a complication with spock’s promotion

A Commander Garret had a