GGB Reno’s February Star Trek Brunch

The geek girls of Reno met up at Liberty Food and Wine Exchange for our February “Star Trek” themed brunch. We discussed our favorite shows, films, characters, and everything we loved (or didn’t!) about the Trek universe.

We kicked off the brunch with an important welcome to Julie, one of our two newest GGB Reno officers! She asked everyone to talk about why they loved Star Trek, and what their favorite series was. She was first to call out The Next Generation as her favorite, as she grew up watching episodes with her family. Next Gen won out with newcomers Micaela and Veronica, Chelsea, Sarah, and Z, making it the clear series winner of the group. For many brunchettes it was their first introduction to the Trek universe, although Sarah admittedly used to ask her parents to turn it down when they watched it! Julie also discussed her crushes on Picard and Riker, but her mention of the song “Mr. Worf” by Ookla the Mok was one of her most important, and most hilarious, contributions to brunch!

Clara and Vanessa both grew up watching The Original Series episodes with their moms! They journeyed away on a tangent for a while about what is the official first episode after The Cage (spoiler: by air date, it was The Man Trap, Clara FTW), then they laughed over quotes from Clara’s favorite of the films, The Voyage Home. Kate watched TOS as a kid with her dad, then gravitated towards TNG. Her favorite episode of TOS was Devil in the Dark, which she said she relates to as a mom, a point many of us found interesting as a uniquely female perspective on Trek.

Deep Space Nine received much love from many of us, including Julie, Abney (who thinks it’s better than TNG), Chelsea (whose favorite Trek character is the badass Jadzia Dax), Kate, and Vanessa. We generally liked the introduction of darker, more complex, and less episodic storytelling.

There were also many Voyager fans, mostly due to Janeway being a tremendously strong, smart, and unabashedly feminine leader, which many of us appreciated. No one was a bigger Voyager fan than Abney, whose “raging girl crush” on Janeway is only part of the reason she considers that series her favorite.

While Kate did admit to watching Enterprise for Scott Bakula, most of us were not huge fans of Enterprise. Abney and Vanessa discussed, in the most spoiler-free way imaginable, their opinions on Star Trek Discovery, and its unfortunate acronym (STD?!). Sarah also expressed her interest in watching Discovery, eventually.

As for favorite characters, the clear winners were Picard and Janeway (although honorable mentions go to Riker and Data). We even had a Shatner hater (Z!). Most of us were fans of the new film series, including Chris Pine’s and Zachary Quinto’s fantastic portayals of Kirk and Spock, respectively. We had a difference of opinions on the Uhura/Spock romance, however, as Kate thought it felt shoehorned in the way it was introduced, while others such as Vanessa LOVED the surprise element. We also talked a bit about our feelings on the rumor that Tarantino will be at the proverbial helm of the next Trek film. Some of us were intrigued, but most were dismayed and concerned.

Other mention-able mentions from our roundtable:

• Please take the time to listen to the Sexy Data Tango
• Vanessa sent a shout out to Galaxy Quest, which received a resounding and enthusiastic second from the table, being the perfection that it is
• Other space exploration series were brought up, such as Babylon 5 and Farscape, both of which had avid fans at brunch
• We argued over the merits and drawbacks of the Orville
• A sad moment was had in memory of Anton Yelchin
• We talked about Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, and the incredible influence Star Trek has had on space exploration
• We discussed how I Love Lucy paved the way for Star Trek to see the light of day!
• Every holiday season is made better by “Make It So” video

We ended brunch with a raffle for some enviable prizes, including a Data and Spot cardigan, won by the very lucky new brunchette Veronica, a Metal Earth Enterprise model, won by Clara (being an engineer, she was very excited about this!), and a metal sign won by Chelsea, with a meaningful and memorable quote from everyone’s favorite half-Vulcan, half-human first officer.

GGB Reno will return for next month’s Marvel March brunch!