Star Trek Social Club

The title refers to the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valleys) canyon system on Mars, the largest in the Solar System. It stretches across nearly a quarter of the planet, roughly 3870 km (2400 miles) in length, spans 600 km (370 miles) at its widest and goes down 9.3 km (5.8 miles) at its deepest. The system was named after the 1971 Mariner 9 Mars orbiter.

The stardate is 2491.5, about six months after the events of SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations”. Pike says this is their 15th mission in a row. This is the first mention of Tulaxar in lore.

Pike’s affinity for horses dates back to his first appearance in TOS: “The Cage”, and he was seen riding in SNW: “Strange New Worlds” as well as keeping a saddle in his quarters (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). Another captain who enjoys riding is TNG’s Jean-Luc Picard. The way Pike is speaking about meds and not being discovered makes me think this is an aid mission to a Prime Directive-protected planet.

Spock and La’An began a relationship in SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”. Una is concerned that Pike is keeping busy to not think about the loss of his lover Marie Batel (“New Life and New Civilizations”).

These are the first mentions of the K’thonia disaster and the FFakisha conflict. S’Sha (as the Vulcan cadet is named in IMDB) says Uhura is “several years older” than she is, but is not clear by how much. Spock entered the Academy at age 19, and Uhura was 22 in Season 2 (“Those Old Scientists”), so I estimate her age to be about 23-24 now, making it around 2263-ish.

Pelia claims she saw a category 10 interstellar squall from inside a “phone box”, a reference to the Doctor’s space-time machine, the TARDIS, from the long-running British television series Doctor Who which is permanently stuck in the shape of a British police phone box from the 1960s. We saw the TARDIS floating in the background near a scavenger ship in SNW: “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”.

Ortega’s console is showing Enterprise moving at Warp 6.25 around the storm.

Scotty says they cannot ignite the warp engines without iridium. In TOS: “Bread and Circuses”, the SS Beagle was in need of iridium after suffering unspecified damage.

The shuttlecraft is named Curie, presumably after Marie Curie, which follows the convention of naming Enterprise shuttles after scientists like Galileo (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”) or Einstein (TOS: “The Doomsday Machine”). The 24th century successor to Curie was attached to Enterprise-D (TNG: “Parallels”).

65 million years in the past would place the ship in the Cretaceous period, the last hurrah of the dinosaurs, and the period to which the Tyrannosaurus Rex belonged. One might ask where the Voth (VOY: “Distant Origin”) are, but the Doctor hypothesised that they descended from hadrosaurs that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, which means they evolved after the end of the Cretaceous.

The episode attributes the origin of the Valles Marineris to the crash of a Dol’drm ship, the aliens being an insectoid species. The scar on the planet reminds me of what was left by the Xindi probe (ENT: "The Expanse").

La’An carries Augment genetics as a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh (SNW: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

Like Archer did in ENT: "Damage" to an Illyrian ship and a warp coil during the Xindi war, the Martians steal a critical component from Enterprise in service of their war with the Dol'drms, in this case an antimatter fuel cell.

Spock finds a fifth planet between Mars and Jupiter. One of the theories about the origins of the Asteroid Belt are that it was either a planet that never quite formed or the remains of one. I guess the latter is where Star Trek is laying its hat.

The Chicxulub asteroid, named after the Chicxulub Pueblo community on the Yucatan Peninsular where its namesake crater is located, is believed to be the primary cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Pelia says she remembers the evolution of humanity, which is another hint to how old she actually is. While Homo sapiens arose around 300,000 years ago, the genus dates back some 2-3 million years at least.

What the crew describes at the end is a predestination paradox. We hate those (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-lations”).

A Princess of Mars is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, describing the adventures of a former Confederate soldier who is astrally transported to a populated Mars in conflict.

Pike says they created the solar storm that sent them back in time as part of the paradox, but it’s not clear how that would have happened, since the explosion that sent them back took place 65 million years in the past and in the Sol system.

Text from social media announcement (email announcement was lacking):

It is our pleasure to announce that Rod Roddenberry and his company, Roddenberry Entertainment, are coming to ST:LV Trek to Vegas 60th Celebration!

Not only is Rod an executive producer on a variety of Star Trek projects, but he also produced and starred in the critically acclaimed "Trek Nation" documentary and founded The Roddenberry Foundation, among so many other achievements.

Roddenberry Entertainment is also building some great programming on multiple stages for this year's enormous Trek to Vegas, including "Roddenberry's 60th Anniversary Star Trek Showrunners' Showcase" on Saturday. The panel features several high-profile showrunners and stewards of Star Trek’s 60 years.

And thanks to Roddenberry Entertainment, we are excited to announce that Michelle Paradise (showrunner of Discovery), Mike McMahan (showrunner of Lower Decks), and Dan & Kevin Hageman (co-showrunners of Prodigy) are coming to Las Vegas to be part of Saturday’s Showrunners’ Showcase on the main stage!

We also have one more guest to announce today: THE legendary 33-inch USS Enterprise model will be joining the Roddenberry team at STLV! This priceless original 1964 proof-of-concept was showcased throughout the opening credits of The Original Series. Built by Richard Datin for the pilot episode "The Cage," it went missing for decades after being loaned out in 1979, but was miraculously recovered in 2024. Now, the Roddenberry family is dedicated to sharing this historic artifact with Trek fans around the world.

STLV 2026 is next month, and it is going to be spectacular. Copper Weekend Admission Packages, autographs, photo ops, and special events are still available online!

Get tickets: http://bit.ly/STLV2026

So first things first:

1. Rod Roddenberry and his company Roddenberry Entertainment will be present at STLV.
2. He is traveling to Las Vegas with the 33-inch Enterprise model.
3. You can get a photo with Rod and the Enterprise.
4. The DIS, LD and PRO showrunners will be present for what sounds like a panel featuring all four people.

EDIT: I updated the bit.ly link. This was posted on Facebook and the link doesn’t seem to otherwise. It’s just a link to the Creation Entertainment website.

1. "Valles Marineris"

2. "The Griffin Incident"

3. "Human Best Friend"

4. "A Case of Chiaroscuro"

5. "Level-Five Transporter Accident"

6. "Off-Hour"

7. "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass"

8. "Orders of Magnitude"

9. "Once La'An a Time"

10. "Tomorrow's Enterprise"

The Next Mission Begins!
Dear Hero Within Family,
It's been a while since you've heard from us, and I wanted to start by saying thank you.

Thank you for your patience, your encouragement, and for sticking with us over these past six months. We know we've been quieter than usual, and we truly appreciate everyone who has continued to support Hero Within.

Today, we're thrilled to finally share the news we've been waiting to announce...

We're back with Star Trek!
We're incredibly excited to announce that, in association with our friends at Factory Entertainment, Hero Within is once again officially licensed to create Star Trek jackets and apparel.

We're grateful to the entire team at Factory Entertainment for believing in us and giving us the opportunity to continue creating products for one of the greatest franchises ever made (and the best fanbase). We're looking forward to working together throughout the coming year and beyond.

Many of you have asked what our future plans were, and we've had to be intentionally vague. The licensing approval process took much longer than any of us anticipated, and we couldn't share details until everything was officially finalized. Thank you for your understanding while we navigated that process.

Now that we're cleared for launch, we're excited to announce that Hero Within will be making our return at San Diego Comic-Con at Booth #1943!

We'll be debuting our Star Trek Collection along with brand-new SDCC exclusives. Admittedly, we're a little behind our usual planning schedule because of the extended licensing process, but we're giving it everything we've got to make this year's convention a memorable one.

And that's especially important because this year marks a major milestone for us...

10 Heroic Years
This San Diego Comic-Con kicks off the celebration of Hero Within's 10th anniversary! Over the past decade, you've helped turn a dream into a community, and we couldn't have reached this milestone without you.

To celebrate, we'll have some special heroic anniversary swag available to commemorate the occasion. We can't wait to celebrate with everyone in person.

As a sublicense of Factory Entertainment, there will be a few changes to how Hero Within operates going forward. I'll be sharing more details about those changes in another email later this week.

We'll also be sending a dedicated San Diego Comic-Con email with a full look at our exclusives, convention schedule, and special events so you won't miss any of the fun.

Finally, thank you once again for your incredible patience over these past six months. We are beyond excited to be creating new Star Trek apparel for this amazing community once again.

One last favor—if you've enjoyed what Hero Within has created over the years, we'd love it if you would like, follow, and subscribe to Factory Entertainment on social media and send them a thank you. Their partnership has made this exciting new chapter possible, and we're incredibly grateful for their support.

We can't wait to see you at San Diego Comic-Con.

Live long and prosper,

Tony B Kim
Owner & Chief Nerd 
Hero Within