By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Star Trek has often been strangely obsessed with baseball. New deep spacefor example, shows that Captain Sisko has a fierce passion for the old sport and keeps a baseball in his office as a valuable item. This spinoff even gave us a hilarious baseball game pitting the DS9 crew against some arrogant Vulcans, and fans still love to cosplay wearing the same Niners baseball jerseys worn in the episode “Take Me Out To the Holosuite.” However, Star Trek most The famous baseball game was probably the one mentioned in The next generation episode “Evolution” which references the decisive 1951 National League showdown between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.
Star Trek writer loves baseball
If you’re one of the many Star Trek fans who don’t watch much actual baseball, a major plot point in “Evolution” could have been confusing. This episode features an eccentric scientist with a passion for baseball, and rather than recreating classic games in the holodeck, he recreates them in his mind as a sort of reward for himself. He demonstrates his ability to do so by reciting “Lockman first, Dark second, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound”, which is a direct reference to the aforementioned game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, although the narrative highlights certain crucial elements. errors.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Showrunner Michael Piller wrote “Evolution” and is a huge baseball fan (more on that later), and he chose this game because it’s so special. This clash between the titans of baseball led to what is known as the “shot heard around the world.” It’s the affectionate nickname of New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson who hit a ninth-inning home run that helped his team win the National League pennant. That made this 1951 game unforgettable for sports fans, but the baseball superfan at the heart of “Evolution,” Dr. Paul Stubbs, actually gets major details wrong when recounting the game.
Despite Star Trek guru Michael Piller’s great love of baseball, he got a few details wrong when he wrote to Stubbs saying “Lockman first, Dark second, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound “. Because Giants player Clint Hartung had been replaced, the lineup looked a little different. To be completely accurate, former prodigy Stubbs should have said “Lockman on second, Hartung on third, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound.”
While he may have gotten a few details wrong, we doubt the late, great Piller lost any sleep over this mistake…after all, it was this Star Trek storyline and its baseball references that helped him get the job as showrunner of The next generation. Before Piller, Michael Wagner was briefly the showrunner but quickly left the production, and the “Evolution” script helped Piller win over executive producer Rick Berman. Piller later said that Berman “shared my love for baseball” and that Stubbs’ speech “hit him between the eyes”, leading to a “partnership” in which Piller became the showrunner of this spin-off of incredibly popular science fiction.
And there you have it, friends: if the Star Trek: The Next Generation The episode “Evolution” hadn’t been so much about baseball, Michael Piller might not have gotten the showrunner job, and TNG could have continued to be a disaster instead of “evolving” into one of the greatest shows in television history. And without Berman and Piller’s mutual love of America’s greatest pastime, we might not have had Captain Sisko’s own obsession with baseball, much less “Take Me Out To the Holosuite,” a near-perfect DS9 episode.
As a franchise, Star Trek fans owe a lot to the creators’ passionate love of baseball. That’s why we’re here to ask the big question: When Trek baseball legend Buck Bokai Finally get his Picard-a solo style series?
