I think Fringe also did this pretty well with Peter's origins. We all knew what was going on before the characters did, but that didn't ruin the story in any way, or make it less fun to watch.

I think they waved their hands in that direction—the evil admiral (because all admirals in Trek are either evil or just assholes) found the Botany Bay and used Khan to help him build his secret warship. I forget exactly why Khan decided to betray him and take vengeance against the Federation, but I'm sure they…

The appearance of Spock Prime really didn't have any effect on the outcome of the movie either. While it's always great to see Nimoy, he showed up and said "oh yeah, we fought Kahn before, that guy's crazy." Then New Spock asked him how they beat him. They cut away before Nimoy gives a real answer, but the answer…

It's a small island that somehow supports 2 major quarries and a clay pit, not to mention the rest of the businesses and farms, as well as separate repair sheds/factories for diesel and steam engines. There's also literally no where on the island that's not accessible by train—they only seem to have roads so that…

That "Ask" video sounds terrifying. I wish my son would find those music videos though—instead he got sucked into "unboxing" videos and people showing off their collection of wooden railway engines (real, adult people).

In the original books, the engines never do anything without a driver pulling a lever or some such thing. In the cartoon it's way creepier. All the engines have drivers, but they never speak or anything. You can just see their heads through the windows. They seem to be just sort of a removable portion of the…

Yup, it opened up in August. We took the little guy there for his birthday.

Personally, I think the wooden one is the best. Pro tip—nearly all wooden train sets are the same size and fit together the same way. You can by cheaper track pieces by getting them off-brand and they'll still work with the Thomas sets.

The first time I brought my son to one of those events, we met a family who had made it a goal to ride Thomas in every state. Their kid was maybe 6 or 7, I wanna say, so they'd been to quite a few already. Thankfully, Thomasland is now a permanent fixture near me, so the craziness is spread out over the whole season…

Your write up of Thomas is spot on. I don't know how it happened, but CleverGuy Jr. has been absolutely obsessed for most of his lifespan. It's actually slowing down a bit, as he discovers more things. But we were decorating our Christmas tree last night and we came across the Thomas ornament that I had forgotten…

I'm getting my time-travel shenannigans mixed up again. Thanks for setting me straight.

eh, Chekov always had that accent. I don't think the joke was about him struggling with the language, it was about people in LA being less than helpful and also about how suspicious it would seem to have a Russian guy asking about nuclear vessels at the tail end of the Cold War.

Oh yes, with Captain Kelsey Grammer and a retconned heroic death for Tasha Yar. I remembered them meeting up with C through some kind of time-travel shenannigans, but I couldn't recall the specifics.

Exactly. Which would you rather fly through the galaxy in? Top-of-the-line warship is a no brainer.

I admit I'm not up on my Federation (future) history, but the original Enterprise NC-1701 lasted quite a while didn't it? Kirk chose to self-destruct rather than hand the ship over to the Klingons at the end of Star Trek III, so that was at least 20 years after his historic 5-year mission. I don't really know what…

I believe Voyager used that tactic against a Borg vessel at least once. Granted, that's not the Enterprise,and you may have a point—Picard would definitely have some qualms about killing thousands of people. But once he was aware of the destructive capability of that technological terror, he'd do what was necessary.

I disagree. Sure, the Enterprise won't fit down that trench, but they have transporters. They'd just beam a photon torpedo directly into the Death Star's reactor core—no trench run or Force-guided missiles required.

I have to agree, Enterprise is definitely the more practical ship. The Falcon might be cooler, in a mid-life crisis kind of way, but let's be honest it's practically held together with space-duct tape. The Federation flagship is in top shape, and if anything gets damaged, they can replicate new parts in a matter of…

Fun fact! A Christmas Gift for You is the only holiday album and the only compilation album to be included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was also released the day before JFK was assassinated, and pulled from stores as a sign of respect.

Has it really been that long?