Star Trek Continues ”Lolani” - Detailed Analysis & Review

Lolani is the first of the really focussed "issue" episodes of Star Trek Continues. It examines the theme of slavery, but even moreso, the theme of apathy in the face of evils such as slavery. It's a hard-hitting drama that really makes you stop and think. Join me as I delve into this latest episode of Star Trek Continues to see what it's all about.

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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 96 of the podcast.

Today, we’re talking about the Star Trek Continues episode “Lolani”

 

The description on StartrekContinues.com reads

A survivor from a distressed Tellarite vessel pulls Captain Kirk and his crew into a moral quandary over her sovereignty.

 

The teleplay was written by Paul Bianchi

With story by Huston Huddleston and Vic Mignogna

It was directed by Chris White

And it first aired on the 8th of January 2014

 

And you’ll notice that’s a good 7 months since the last episode came out. That’s the reality of a fan-made web series. This is a show of professional quality, but it’s being made by amateurs. It’s not their full-time job. They get the work done in the time span that they can. But it meant that each new episode was an event, like a new mini movie coming out. Of course, now, you can binge the entire series, which is great.

 

First of all, I’d like to say how happy it made me to see this show portraying Kirk as a bookworm. Which of course, he is. I found that the Kelvin universe movies kind of misunderstood Kirk’s character, especially his younger self. They portrayed him as this hard-partying bad boy. And I know it was already a new timeline, and the absence of his father explains the differences, but that’s not the Kirk we knew in the original series. Young Kirk in the prime timeline was a nerd. He had a reputation at the academy for carrying books wherever he went.

 

Anyway, Cool to see him so disappointed to have to leave his book behind when the Enterprise picks up a distress call from an unidentified ship.

 

And cool to see Sulu’s viewer rising out of his console. Nice touch.

 

The ship is Tellarite in design. And this is where we meet Ensign Tongaroa.

My first thought when I heard him speak was “Ugh. American’s can’t do Australian accents.” But I was very quickly corrected when the character says he’s from New Zealand.

 

But he didn’t really sound Kiwi to my ears either. Admittedly, I’m not from New Zealand, but we do hear the Kiwi accent, and it has a lot of similarities with the Australian accent. Some definite differences too. Certain vowel sounds come out very differently.

 

Anyway, I looked up the actor, Daniel Ogan. Turns out, he is indeed from New Zealand.

And not only that, as a child, he played Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode 2: Attack the Clones. Which is really cool.

Interestingly, in Star Wars, he sounded much more like what I would think of as a Kiwi accent.

So I don’t know if his accent has changed over time as he’s gotten older, or if I’m just talking rubbish and don’t have a good ear for these things.

 

Anyway, it’s really cool to have him in the show, and it’s always fun to see a fellow Australasian in Star Trek. (and if you’re not aware, Australasian is a blanket term that includes both Australia and New Zealand).

 

There’s only one life form aboard, life signs are erratic and life support on the ship is failing. Despite this, Spock is not convinced it would be a good idea to beam the survivor on board. He doesn’t really give a reason, other than this being an unknown lifeform.

 

So what’s the alternative, Spock? Just let the person die?

 

Kirk orders security to the transporter room, which is a reasonable precautio