Benjamin Sisko

Screenshot: ParamountThe Battle of Wolf 359's legacy goes much further than just “The Best of Both Worlds,” both in and out of the text of Star Trek itself. The trauma of the incident follows Picard throughout the remainder of TNG, brought up explicitly in episodes like the following season’s “Family” and “The Drumhead,” and of course in Star Trek: First Contact and its renewed engagement with the Borg in Sector 001, set just six years after the events of “The Best of Both Worlds.”It touches other important Star Trek…

Screenshot: ParamountAnother rare entry on this list that is not from either the Dominion or Klingon Wars is still perhaps the most famous battle in Star Trek history: Starfleet’s engagement with Borg forces in the Wolf system, just eight light years from Earth. Compared to other conflicts mentioned here the numbers involved are much smaller in scope, 40 Starfleet vessels and a single Borg Cube. But Wolf 359 is devastating for the trauma it impacts on much of Star Trek itself in the years since its aftermath was first…

Screenshot: ParamountExtinction avoided is nice, but that doesn’t stop other bad things existing in Trek’s 2024. Remember those Sanctuary Districts we mentioned earlier? They begin cropping up in major cities all over the United States, intended to provide free housing, healthcare, and job opportunities to people impacted by the wave of economic, climate, and political crises wracking the country. But Sanctuary Districts rapidly descended into totalitarian ghettos, with local police forces ruling the districts with iron…

Image: ParamountStar Trek loves itself a nebula. It loves itself a starship that gets stuck inside a nebula. When that nebula is actually a living being? It’s downright giddy. This week’s Star Trek: Picard not only did all three, it used that classic premise to give all its characters a choice: come together or crack under the pressure.“No Win Scenario,” the fourth episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3, builds on last week’s barnstormer of an episode where Picard, Riker, and everyone else aboard the Titan were having the…

Screenshot: ParamountJadzia finds herself on trial for a murder she didn’t commit—but that her Trill symbiont’s former host, Curzon, might have—leading to an ethical quandary over whether or not she can be held accountable for his actions.Star Trek loves itself a “trial for a wrongly accused Starfleet officer” episode, and this is a solid one of those, but Deep Space Nine elevates the trope with this early exploration of Jadzia’s relationship with her past selves, not just on the ethical level of the premise but…

Deep Space Nine revolutionized so much of what could be possible in the world of Star Trek, but it will always be remembered for one of its most transgressive plot threads: the devastating outbreak of the Dominion War, a conflict that, 25 years ago, challenged everything the franchise’s idealistic vision of utopia could stand for.01:25Randall Park's Favorite SuperheroesMonday 5:02PMAlthough the Dominion had been an ever-growing threat throughout the fifth season of Deep Space Nine, its dramatic finale—and the coming…

Screenshot: HuluOn Futurama, we learn that Al Gore heads up “a group of top nerds whose sole duty is to prevent disruptions in the space-time continuum” (it’s real, read the Constitution!). This superteam also includes Nichelle Nichols, Gary Gygax, Stephen Hawking, and chess-playing computer Deep Blue. Though they happen to be skilled at murder, they utterly fail at stopping Fry from destroying the universe, but—good news, everybody!—this happens on a “what if?” anthology episode that doesn’t affect Futurama’s own main…