The 5 Best and Weirdest Star Trek References in Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering’s Star Trek set celebrates the franchise’s most memorable stories, characters, and ships. Sagas revisit acclaimed episodes such as “The Inner Light” and “In the Pale Moonlight,” while familiar lines like “Live long and prosper” make their way onto cards. The set also embraces the franchise’s stranger side, from comic adventures to infamous episodes. Here are five standout references to Star Trek at its weirdest and most controversial.

5. Adversary by Algorithm

One version of Lieutenant Commander Data depicts the android dressed as Sherlock Holmes, a nod to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Elementary, Dear Data.” When ordinary holodeck mysteries prove too simple for Data, Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge asks the computer to devise an opponent capable of defeating him. The request produces a villain far more dangerous than intended.

That adversary is Professor Moriarty, the character depicted on Adversary by Algorithm. The holographic mastermind becomes aware of his simulated existence and gains access to the ship’s computer. Data and Captain Picard eventually stop him, but Moriarty returns in “Ship in a Bottle” and appears again in Star Trek: Picard.

4. Humpback Whales

Humpback Whales might look more at home in Magic’s aquatic set Nauctis, but the card actually recalls Leonard Nimoy’s delightfully silly Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. In the film, a massive probe unleashes devastating storms on Earth while transmitting sounds that Spock recognizes as humpback whale songs. With the species extinct in their own time, the former Enterprise officers travel to 1986 to bring whales back to the future.

The mission leads to plenty of comic mishaps, including Pavel Chekov being mistaken for a Russian spy and Dr. Leonard McCoy treating hospital patients with futuristic medicine. The crew’s stolen Klingon Bird of Prey also appears as H.M.S. Bounty, Unlikely Timeship, a card that lets players search for a whale and Time Walk.

3. Pongify

Pongify, a blue removal spell that replaces a creature with an ape, is a fitting choice for a reprint inspired by The Next Generation episode “Genesis.” After a flu treatment goes wrong, the Enterprise crew begins to “de-evolve” into bizarre forms.

Worf becomes an acid-spitting predator, Counselor Troi turns amphibious, and Commander Riker and many of the human crew regress into primitive versions of themselves. Fortunately, Data finds a cure before the episode ends.

2. De-evolve

Star Trek: Voyager explored a similarly outlandish transformation in “Threshold,” an episode widely regarded as one of the franchise’s worst. Stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth, Voyager’s crew spends the series searching for ways to shorten a journey that would otherwise take 75 years.

The card De-evolve references helmsman Tom Paris’s attempt to reach Warp 10 in a shuttlecraft. After returning to Voyager, Paris begins mutating. He later kidnaps Captain Janeway and takes her through the same process. On a swampy planet, the pair become salamander-like creatures and produce offspring. The crew rescues Paris and Janeway and restores their human forms, but leaves the young creatures behind.

1. Impossible Choice

Ethical dilemmas are central to both Starfleet’s adventures and the Star Trek set, but few have sparked as much debate as the one depicted on Impossible Choice. In the Voyager episode “Tuvix,” a transporter accident involving alien orchids merges Vulcan officer Tuvok and Talaxian cook Neelix into a single person.

Tuvix combines qualities from both men, pairing Neelix’s humor with Tuvok’s skills as an adviser and tactical officer. When the Doctor discovers how to separate them, Tuvix objects: restoring the two crew members would end his own life. He pleads with the crew to let him live, and the Doctor refuses to perform the procedure because of his oath to do no harm. Janeway ultimately carries it out herself, restoring Tuvok and Neelix and leaving fans to debate her decision for years to come.

Source: Polygon