I've been watching a lot of Star Trek lately, so I really wanted to write about Violet and Quigley discussing Star Trek. A lot of the things Violet will say here are things that my parents (both Trek fans) have said to me. I had a lot of fun writing this.

Edited 2020 to make the dialogue sound like actual humans (not just badly-programmed AIs), add more detail, and include a reference to Star Trek: Picard and Lower Decks.

I don't own ASOUE or Star Trek.

"So, Duncan tells me you like science fiction."

"Hm?" Violet looked up from the device she was fiddling with to see Quigley standing next to her.

"He said you're a bit of a trekkie. Is that right?"

Violet chuckled.

"Actually, most of us prefer the term 'trekker', since 'trekkie' implies that we've based our entire lives around Star Trek, but yeah, he's right." She put her screwdriver down and turned to face Quigley. "I'm a Star Trek fan."

"Which one is your favorite?"

"I personally liked the original series the best. I mean, it has its flaws, and The Next Generation is great, but to me, you can't beat classic Trek. I think Wayne Campbell said it best when he said that while TNG is superior in many ways, it will never be as recognized as the original."

"To be honest, I've never really been into it. I'm more of a Firefly, Dark Matter kind of guy. I liked The Orville, though."

"The Orville actually borrows heavily from Trek, especially Next Generation. It's basically Star Trek, just written by Seth McFarlane." Violet stood up and walked over to a shelf full of DVDs in the living room. She pulled a box from the top shelf and looked it over. "Do you remember the episode of The Orville with the delegates from rival planets?"

"Yeah, the one with Rob Lowe."

"That one had a lot of similarities to an episode in the first season of Next Generation." Violet opened the box and looked inside. "If I remember right, the episode was called 'Lonely Among Us'."

"Which episode?"

"Episode 7." She put the box back in its place and turned to face Quigley. "The first season also had an episode called 'The Naked Now', which was actually based on an episode in the original series called 'The Naked Time'."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah, but it's not really done all that well."

"Oh." Quigley walked over to the shelf and stood next to Violet.

"To be honest, most of the first season isn't great. The second season isn't, either. The cast didn't really get into their groove until about the third season."

"Why's that?"

"The writing wasn't great. The cast hadn't really gotten to know each other yet, and there was a writer's strike around season two anyway. Oh, and Gates McFadden was fired and replaced by Diana Muldaur, so that was whole other thing. Things changed when Gene Roddenberry had a stroke."

"When was that?"

"Around season 3, I think. That's also about when the writing started to improve, I think because they were taking more creative liberties. I don't know if the two things were related, but you never know." Violet pulled another box off the shelf and looked it over. "It also got better after Wesley Crusher left for Starfleet Academy."

"Which one is he?"

"He's the kid that wears a lot of ugly sweaters. You know, the annoyingly smart one." Violet put the box back. "It's a shame he had to come back for later seasons."

"He sounds a little like River Tam to me." Quigley shrugged. "Or even Five."

"Bite your tongue!" Violet gave him a look of distaste. "River at least had a legitimate reason for being the way she was, and Five was a likable character from the start. Wesley was just annoying."

"Oh, come on. How bad could he be?"

"...He's a kid. He hasn't been to Starfleet Academy, and he doesn't have the training required to work aboard a starship. He's only there because his mom works on the Enterprise. How did he solve problems that the crew couldn't?" Violet turned and walked over to the sofa. "There was an episode where he was put on trial on an alien planet."

"Okay?" Quigley followed suit and sat down. "Is that why you and Klaus were yelling 'Kill Wesley' last week?"

"That's exactly why. He was supposed to be executed, but he was saved at the last minute." Violet turned to face Quigley. "And then there's Q. Every season has at least one Q episode. Season one has two. And that's not counting the Q episodes in Voyager."

"Who's Q?"

"Well, the Q are a god-like race with the power to manipulate space and time. There's a Q episode in every season, and season one has two of them. Voyager has one. Anyway, in 'Encounter at Farpoint', Q puts Picard and a few other crew members on trial for the crimes of humanity, and the rest of the series is basically him checking up on them with the worst timing ever. Sometimes he hijacks the Enterprise."

"He sounds like a real winner."

"He's also the one that got them interacting with the Borg in 'Q Who'."

"Wow."

"But by the end, Picard and Q have kind of a grudging respect for each other, which we see develop throughout the series, especially in 'All Good Things', which I think was one of the best TNG episodes of all time."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. That actor does kind of have a punchable face, though."

Quigley snickered.

"What, even more punchable than Wil Wheaton?"

"Well, I wouldn't go quite that far. Wil Wheaton has him beat there."

"Gee, Violet, tell me how you really feel."

"Wesley is not well-liked by fans. Wil Wheaton's just... I dunno. To be fair, fans would come up to him just to say 'Shut up, Wesley!', and if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't be so pleasant myself, but that's still no excuse to be a dick to your fans."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I mean, not everyone hates Wesley, but the ones that don't hate him tend to be younger when they're introduced to the show. Sunny doesn't seem to mind him, but Klaus really dislikes him."

"Is that surprising?"

"Yes and no. To be honest, they have a few similarities. They're both know-it-all nerds that wear a lot of sweaters. That's about where the similarities end, though. At least Klaus admits that he's a know-it-all."

"Hmm." Quigley smiled thinly. "Okay, so Wesley stands out in a bad way. Are there any characters that stand out in a good way?"

"Oh, yeah. Tons!" Violet grinned. "There's a character for everyone to relate to, which is one of the main appeals of the show."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, I wasn't too fond of Tasha Yar, but I liked the rest of them, especially once the cast really started to gel together."

"Any favorites?"

"Well, to start off, there's Picard, obviously. And I know that the fandom would regard this as blasphemy, but I like him better than I liked Captain Kirk."

"Would that have anything to do with William Shatner's personality?"

"A little. He's a brilliant actor, but he just strikes me as arrogant. Obviously, I've never met the guy, so I can't know for sure, but that's just how he comes across to me."

"That makes sense. Any other favorites?"

"Well, I have a really wide variety of favorite characters, so it's hard to choose. I know Klaus tends to gravitate toward the non-human characters that are there to comment on humanity, like Spock and Data. He also really liked Seven of Nine. He'll tell you that it's because he can relate to her experiences in getting the hang of this whole 'human' thing, but I think a big part of it is that he thinks she looked good in that biosuit."

"Well, she did."

"Fair enough." Violet shrugged.

"If you had to choose, who would you pick?"

"Do you want just Next Gen characters, or all of Trek?"

"All of it, I guess." Quigley paused. "Wait. How many Star Treks are there?"

"At least nine."

"Really?"

"Really. There's the original series. That came first. Then there was the animated series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks. And that's not even counting the movies, like Wrath of Khan."

"Wow." Quigley raised his brows in astonishment.

"Enterprise and Discovery are actually prequels, but you don't necessarily have to watch them first."

"That's always confused me. I don't understand prequels." Quigley frowned. "I mean, I kind of see where they're coming from, but I can never figure out what order I'm supposed to watch things in."

"Oh?"

"Like, with Star Wars. Are you supposed to watch them in chronological order of release dates, in the episodic order, or in the machete order they described on Big Bang Theory? And Jeepers Creepers. Am I supposed to watch them from one to three, or do I watch the third one right after the first because that's the order the story is in?"

"I don't think it really matters. I mean, we didn't worry about that when The Hobbit was released."

"That's different. The books and movies all go in a specific order and we know how the plot is supposed to go, so it's kind of hard to mess up. Silmarillion first, then The Hobbit, then Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King."

"Unless they decide to make a Silmarillion movie." Violet shrugged. "Hopefully not."

"They're doing it backwards. That drives me crazy." Quigley ran one hand through his hair and shook his head. "No matter what, you miss out on context clues and plot details you'd have if they made them in order."

"Not always." Violet replied. "You don't even really have to watch all of it. Look at Star Trek. Do you think I've watched every episode of every season of every series?"

"Frankly, yes."

Violet chuckled.

"Not quite. I've seen all of the original series, Next Generation, Voyager, and Picard, but I never ended up finishing Enterprise. I never even got around to watching the animated series. I don't know how I feel about Discovery yet, and I'm still working on Deep Space Nine. Lower Decks only has a few episodes out, but I like what I've seen so far."

"What do you recommend watching first?"

"The original series, no question. Don't get me wrong, Enterprise will give you a lot of context, but you don't necessarily have to watch it first. Hell, you can pretty much pick and choose which ones you want to see. Like, some people like the original series better, some people like Next Generation, some people like Voyager. It doesn't matter. Each one is pretty much a self-contained series, even if they feature characters from other ones."

"Do they do that a lot? Featuring characters from other shows, I mean?"

"Sometimes. There's an episode of Next Gen that focuses on Scotty, and Bones appears briefly during season one. Deanna Troi and Barclay both either feature in DS9 and Voyager, or are mentioned. You'll also see Worf in a few episodes of DS9."

"Oh, okay."

"Anyway, you wanted to hear about favorite characters. I really like non-human characters, especially ones with cultures that differ a lot from the typical human culture, like Klingon and Betazoid. Klaus and I both like the concept of a character exploring their humanity, like Data in Next Gen or Seven of Nine in Voyager. I also find Spock really interesting."

"I'm guessing Spock reminds you of someone."

"Gee, how'd you guess?" Violet smirked. "Yeah, he's a lot like Klaus. He doesn't have a use for emotion or illogical thought. Klaus describes himself as more of an android than a Vulcan, though. He's like Data, but after he gets his emotion chip. And I'm not just saying that because Klaus tends to remind people of a badly-programmed AI."

"Yeah, I see it. He doesn't really understand human behavior, does he?"

"Klaus or Data?"

"Yes."

Violet chuckled.

"Yeah, not really. He wants to, but he's not quite human, so he'll never completely get it."

Quigley tilted his head to the side.

"You know, I still can't tell whether you're referring to Klaus or Data."

"I think I'll let you chew on that for awhile." Violet smirked. "But anyway, I have a lot of favorite characters. Sorry for info-dumping on you, there."

"No, I like it. I like hearing you talk about Star Trek."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you get really animated and your face just lights up. I love that." Quigley wrapped his arm around Violet's waist and kissed her on the cheek. "Not everybody has something they're this passionate about."

"I wouldn't say I'm passionate about Star Trek, I just really like it."

"Those aren't mutually exclusive. You love it, and it makes you happy. If that doesn't warrant passion, I don't know what does."

"I'm glad you see it that way." Violet rested her forehead against Quigley's and smiled. "Hey, you know what we should do?"

"What?"

"We should watch an episode of Next Generation."

Quigley began to laugh.

"I'd like that." He said. "I'd like that a lot."