LWORD!!!! A thousand times LWORD!!!!! This might be my favorite puzzle ever!!!! I'm using too many of these !!! I'll try to curb my enthusiasm. No promises!! When I hit 22A, I squealed with delight, out loud squealed, and just went after it out the gate!! I am normally very much a methodical crosses first and then downs on my first full pass, not today! I was all over the place, first filling in the shaded squares, then the long downs with the correct names, though I originally spelled them down, before I saw that didn't work, got BEAMMEUP at 84D and switched them all to heading up—more squealing—then my husband came in to say hey, so I lovingly (but with tremendous sacrifice—after all, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one) paused it to talk with him.... then I started some minor squealing again and made him look at my progress so far. Then he decided I might need some alone time so I could finish the puzzle, and quickly ducked out of the room—har! (He is also a Star Trek fan, but I'm the more exuberant in nature.) Finish I did, in less than half the time of my average... I was simultaneously wanting it to last forever and for me to find all the things all at once! Oh, boy, I'm on an emotional high right now, my good people!! Did I mention that I realllllllly, reallllllllllllly enjoyed this puzzle!?!? Love letter, indeed! I'm over the moon and grateful for such a wonderful puzzle!! Loved the TNG nod, as well!! All the 🩵⭐🩵⭐EMOJIs!
@HeathieJ Your exuberance made me focus on what I loved about this puzzle and forget about my little quibbles. Thank you!
@HeathieJ Your comment made my day. There are some negative comments in this section, but your joy overwhelms all off them. LWORD your comment, a thousand times LWORD.
@HeathieJ so enthusiastic were you, apparently, that you stuck in a Star Wars reference to sow confusion in the non-SF crowd.
@HeathieJ That's what I call an explosion at the exclamation mark factory!
@HeathieJ Best HeathieJ comment ever!!!! And I'm totally with you on the puzzle. Should be a nominee for POY, don't you think? Some time ago I wondered if your "!" key was wearing out as you seemed to be backing off your trademark enthusiasm. Glad to see it's back with a new emphasis!!!!
When Captain Kirk goes to the record store, he visits the vinyl frontier. (Yeah, that pun will do the trek.)
@Mike To Oldie(s) go. So that he may Klingon the past.
@Mike Good pun. Did you planet ahead?
@Mike You could Enterprise contest with your pun!
@Mike I always enjoy your puns, but this one went above and beyond! 🖖
@Mike I'm stunned. Maybe I'm just going through a phase(r).
@Mike I like the fact that when you post one of these, you make no Bones about it, and you always get off Scott free. You can Chekov today, and start working on tomorrow's.
@Mike wow you must be a dad! If not, you are definitely ready to be one! 😂
Hats off to Jeremy Newton for highlighting this groundbreaking tv show at a time when we need its messages more than ever. The original series aired in the mid-1960s when network tv would not tackle the themes of racism, sexism, and xenophobia in more “realistic” shows. Gene Roddenberry, and Rod Serling before him on The Twilight Zone, tackled those issues in creative ways and subtly taught viewers the importance of multiculturalism. Including a Russian navigator (Chekhov) at the height of the Cold War always struck me (an idealistic young adult at the time) as brilliant. Hope for a future of cooperation. Spock’s calm composure was a lesson for any child who was ever bullied for physical differences. In Nichelle Nichols (Uhura)’s NYT obituary I remember reading how she traveled the country learning how her character inspired young women and children of color to pursue careers in the sciences. This was an age when a sexist president (LBJ) signed an executive order trying to eliminate women from astronaut training programs. But that didn’t stop Sally Ride, who often referred to Star Trek as her childhood inspiration to pursue a career in space exploration. Fandom is one thing, but a tv show that accomplished so much cultural capital deserves all the love this puzzle brings. And it couldn’t come at a better time when the evils of racism, sexism, and xenophobia are stalking the halls of government in this country, while science and learning are being thrown under the bus.
PS - As a bonus for you other Trekkies … I stumbled across a movie not long ago - Galaxy Quest - that is a brilliant satire on Star Trek fandom. The late great Alan Rickman plays the Spock-like character in a group of actors jaded by all the fan conventions they attend … and then there is a twist. Absolutely brilliant.
@Connie 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Bravissimo! I'm sure it's been brought up somewhere here by now, but the first interracial kiss on network TV was from the Original Series, between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols. Star Trek was adventurous. In fact a lot of shows about that time were. For example the Smothers Brothers. It felt like things were changing for the better.
@Connie I think Deep Space Nine continued Roddenberry's vision in the first few seasons, before they sent things back to war with simplistic good and evil sides. Those first seasons were allegorical to Europe after WWII, with former enemies in close proximity, uncomfortably learning that many did not fit the stereotypes they had of each other. Even the side that was much like war-time Germany turned out to have characters that varied from true believers to merely complicit to resistant. And the good side turned out to have some dogmatic religious fanatics among them. I thought it was a brilliant exploration of those themes in a more confined space where characters were forced to deal with each other. The ones I was most invested in seemed to vanish once everyone went back to war with a new, monolithic enemy. There were also crackling scenes between strong female characters, which I had not seen yet in sci fi, and a sophisticated exploration of "I-ness" in a being that was a symbiant. But alas, these themes did not fit the target audience of 12 year olds with allowances to spend, or so I read at the time.
@Connie Not just the advancement of social causes, but technological ones, too. It was after Star Trek that we had sliding doors that opened by standing in front of them, monitors on desks (or on the main deck with folks on other ships) while we visually communicated through them, medical devices that could scan your symptoms (I have a thermometer that I scan across the forehead), handheld communication devices, replicators (3-D printing), holograms, and AI voice assistants—I refer to my Alexa as “Computer”! I am sure there are more. This puzzle brought unexpected and much needed JOY!
@Connie And for this puzzle to appear the Sunday after the ST: Strange New Worlds episode that was a love letter to 1960s Trek? Chef’s kiss.
@Ben Blackwell One person’s pure drudgery is another person’s shear entertainment. :)
@Ben Blackwell I agree with drudgery. Too many clues tried to hard to be witty. Not a terribly fun one for me.
@Ben Blackwell <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAYN9zVnwg&list=RDijAYN9zVnwg&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijAYN9zVnwg&list=RDijAYN9zVnwg&start_radio=1</a>
Every day it's a question as to whether I'll read the comments or not, because so many people just seem to come here to dump on the constructor and/or the editor. "Should have been a Tuesday, so easy and boring." "How could the NYT even publish this." I will never understand the need to put someone else down to make yourself feel better, smarter, or more important. Some of these constructors are college-aged first-timers, and I can't imagine having to read what gets written here as a constructor. There are puzzles I don't vibe with, and it's fine. I do my best, and I usually end up learning something in a new area, be it rappers or art or birds or history or geography or whatever. As a second-generation and lifelong Trek fan, not only did I love the theme, but the sheer amount of theme that was crammed into a single crossword was astonishing. I'm vaguely embarrassed that I did not see the silhouette of the Enterprise until after reading the column. An absolute delight all around.
@TholosTB, I couldn't agree with you more, on all fronts. The mean comments about constructors and editors irk me greatly. It's possible to express an opinion or criticism without being a jerk. And this puzzle was absolutely amazing on so many levels; the construction is impressive, the fill top notch, and the theme is deep. Delightful!
I know very little about STAR TREK except what I’ve learned through osmosis. Nevertheless, I was able to solve the puzzle enjoyably and without difficulty. Maybe I was experiencing a mind meld with the constructor. I admire the construction and especially like the spaceship design of the shaded squares. Congratulations, Jeremy. You made quite a spocktacle of yourself.
@Anita If you casually drop "mind meld" into the comment, you know more about Star Trek than you realize--or let on.
So very timely - Yes ! BEAM ME UP! It has become a daily plea, I'm afraid.
@Canoe-er Don't lose heart. There is still intelligent life here. Not as much as one might wish, perhaps.
Even if you can't name the castaways on Gilligan's Island or Herman Munster's children, I doubt there's an American over 15 who hasn't heard of these characters, or requested to be beamed up. Okay, maybe not the latter. But this is a classic in my book. Great puzzle, great theme, even some pretty good fill.
@Pezhead well, i m over 60 and never saw or cared about star trek. i did this as a themeless and had no idea of the circled letters. i get it n0w
@Pezhead I was never a fan but I’d say that more people know the phrase better than most characters outside of Kirk and Spock.
@Pezhead I know next to nothing about Star Trek but thankfully was able to finish it in about my usual time anyway. Thought this might be a streak ender given the rather specific theme.
@Pezhead Herman Munster only has one child; Eddie. Marilyn is his (poor, unfortunate) niece. :)
@Pezhead Anyone who has seen Gilligan's Island remembers Mary Ann.
@Francis I didn't like Ginger either. But really felt for the actress once I read how she'd been roped into the part and how she felt about the whole thing.
Definitely one of the best puzzles I’ve ever solved and I can’t even say I’m a Trekkie. I actually laughed out loud when I figured out the relation between 11D and 112 A. By Juan’s early light is a new one for me haha Even though I’m not too familiar with the characters apart from watching the 2009 reboot movies once, the phrases weren’t so obscure that I couldn’t figure them out with a little help from the crossings. And lastly, realizing all the characters are literally getting beamed up to THE ENTERPRISE which is curved in the shape of the actual ship at the top really tied it all together. I mean… wow! Superb puzzle construction.
So much love for this puzzle! For those solvers who say they weren’t fans, I say that resistance is futile. My stepdad is a diehard Trekkie. At any given time, you will find something from any of the Star Trek series playing at my mom’s house, guaranteed. My late father was a fan of the original series (TOS) as well. I used to work for TRW/Northrop Grumman. One of the episodes of TOS was filmed where I worked at Space Park in Redondo Beach! The episode was Operation - Annihilate! filmed on February 15,1967. It was the final episode of the first season. I used to run newhire orientation and that was one of the fun facts that I shared 🖖🏼 I had the pleasure of meeting George Takei during Asian Heritage month. He was our featured speaker and spoke about his childhood and time in Japanese internment camps during WWII. Definitely a dark cloud in our history. George is a punster himself and would definitely appreciate this grid construction. He would give Mike from Munster a run for his money! Huge thank you to Jeremy Newton for this amazing construction. May you live long and prosper 🖖🏼🤟🏼🤙🏼
@Jacqui J, I recently saw George Takei’s memoir in graphic form, “Rhymes with Takei”. I was going into the bookstore and sitting down and reading large sections of it, that’s how good it was. He talks a lot about his experiences at the internment camps and growing up gay in a very unaccepting hetero world. I should probably just buy the darn thing.
The way the answers containing the circled letters describe the characters whose names are spelled out by those circled letters is fantastic.
That was a good solid hour of superb entertainment for me. And I've been a Star Trek fan since the first episode of TOS aired in 1966, when I was in the ninth grade. It immediately became my favorite show. I wanted to be Mr. Spock, knowing I could never be Captain Kirk. My eyesight is such that I need to enlarge the puzzle on my laptop, so at any one time I'm only looking at a fraction of the puzzle. And though I thought I was making good progress, I kept discovering huge white areas. It felt like the puzzle was growing faster than I could solve it. Anyway, I had a great time, and am very appreciative of those who came up with this doozy of a puzzle.
My five favorite original clues from this week (in order of appearance): 1. Phish-monger? (4)(6) 2. What goes on goes here (6) 3. Something to hit to get fit (3) 4. Something clicked to add an attachment (7) 5. Wordlessly indicate "Please give me a hand" (4) SCAM ARTIST CLOSET GYM STAPLER ANTE
My favorite used-before clue from this week: [Eyebrow makeup] HAIRS
Forgive me for posting my clue list a day early -- it's the only way I could do it while I'm on my vacay! My next list will arrive on time a week from Monday, and I will return to commenting the Wednesday after that. It will make my heart happy to return to you all!
@Lewis So glad you have CLOSET on the list! One of my favorites too.
@Steven M -- Good catch, and thank you. Answer to #3 is THE GYM, not simply GYM. I'm sorry for that!
@Lewis Sorry, I've never clicked a stapler.
I'm tellin ya, the ingenuity of some of these constructors just boggles my mind. Admittedly, there's not much up there to boggle some days, but this puzzle just makes me sit back and wonder how they do it. Terrific job Jeremy.
I’m 100% the target audience for this theme! Very enjoyable!
@DQ I am also among the target audience! I've seen all the Trek episodes of all the shows to date, having just watched episode four of season three of Strange New Worlds twice. Great fun! Happily, I needed no cheats. Thank you so much, Jeremy Newton!
I loved this puzzle all the way through. I got THEENTERPRISE at the start, and continued to be amazed as all the other related hints and answers came up (pun intended). Hearty congratulations on a beautiful, astounding construction and a very enjoyable solve!
(Second attempt.) Although I have been a fervent Star Trek viewer for decades, I didn't find this puzzle a breeze. And xwstats.com supports this; it calls it Hard. I did beat xwordstats's median solve time, but was slower than my own Sunday average. This puzzle was dense with theme, but there didn't seem to be any visible compromise as a result. Many of the first few answers were ambiguous enough that the ones I put were wrong and had to be replaced (YEP for YUP, SOAR for RISE, PEELS for PEDIS, MILD for TAME, CCCP for ICBM) and some clues were just a little bit too vague for me to guess without some helping letters (BOW, STAPLER, COLOR, CTSCANS). But there were enough "can't be anything else" clues that got me on a solid footing. The puzzle took me longer than the average Sunday, as I said, but it was worth the extra thinking. As a Star Trek fan (don't want to call myself a Trekkie or a Trekker, because I've never gone to conventions or kept collectibles), this puzzle was a lot of fun, but I can see how a non-fan would have a different opinion.
@Steve L Every clue was a pun. Every one.
@Steve L I definitely used the theme on a couple of the long ones. Once I realized the names were bottom up, I was able to fill the circles with letter, kind of like having a second clue. I am a little surprised it was rated as Hard, but I'm not one to opine on that since I've know those actors and those characters most of my life.
@Steve L I am not a Trekkie either but certainly have seen enough that the themes were hugely helpful. As such, I came in well below median solve time and I now wonder how I would have fared had I not filled in the circled letters first. Regardless, I found this to be one of the most enjoyable puzzles of my year. Bravo on the construction of all those themed clues with the names in them!
Not a trekkie, but I had no tribbles with this one… wife and kids were more into it, and I worked a lot of evenings, so I missed the missions, mostly. Didn't phase me. Anyway, it's an impressive construction, and with a lot of themery included, and I reluctantly (just kidding) enjoyed it. Thanks, Jeremy!
@JayTee. See, that one I get. The only episode I ever watched as a kid was The Trouble with Tribbles, so maybe that’s why I never got into the show? At least that is how all my Trekkie friends explain it.
Sheesh. I’m all for a fun theme, but when half of the answers revolve around a very specific piece of pop culture you are almost immediately alienating 1000s of solvers who have never watched Star Trek. Appreciate that not every puzzle is going to be for everyone and hopefully the Trekkies out there sincerely enjoyed this but for me, pure slog.
@Sam Yes, we Star Trek fans really got a leg up on this one. I was feeling like you on the bird one a week or so ago.
@Sam The real question is why haven't you ever watched Star Trek?
@Sam I stopped slogging about a fourth of the way through. The 4th was not with me (I know, wrong reference). I have seen a few episodes and a couple of the movies (especially liked seeing Leonard N. hop a San Francisco MUNI bus) but in one ear and out the other. Maybe I’m just too tired at 8:15 pm. I’ll see if it’s fun in the morning.
@Steve L I'll speak for myself (and probably a bunch of other non-American) : in my country (not Switzerland but a G8 country), Star Trek The Next Generation was broadcasted on cable TV from 1996 onwards, and on free TV between 2005 and 2007. That's 20 years after it was produced, so everything felt already old and had mediocre dubbing. Even though I enjoy things considered "geeky", neither me nor my nerdier friends were watching it. Now it feels complicated to start, just like everything with an extended universe (Star Wars and Marvel are similarly overwhelming for newcomers). Where to begin : chronologically from when it was released or from the story perspective, with a focus on the series or the movies and so on. In the end my only exposure to Star Trek has been through the USS Callister episodes of Black Mirror, which I enjoyed but it was clear I was missing some references.
@Sam I've never seen a single minute of any Star Trek movie or show in my life, but I loved it. I don't feel the slightest bit alienated. It enhanced my enjoyment, even, because it made it more challenging! Of course, unlike many here, I don't feel entitled to have the crossword mirror my specific interests or areas of knowledge.
@G I think Marie meant that it was not shown on free TV until a couple decades after it aired here. I'd love to watch the current Star Trek series but it is not on free TV here, either.
@Sam I never watched the show and didn’t feel alienated. Sheesh. Something not being in your wheelhouse doesn’t mean you’re alienated. No one made this puzzle AT you.
@Sam it's worth noting that many people do the crossword because they enjoy learning about new things. I don't know a bit about Star Trek (besides what I've picked up from popular culture, anyway) but I had a lovely time today admiring the incredible effort it must have taken to make this theme work so thoroughly.
Star Trek ❤️❤️❤️ I fell in love with ST:TNG in the early 1990s as a teenager, when the advent of democracy and market economy meant we could install a satellite dish and gain access to TV from all over the world (we pirated British Sky TV, as it wasn't officially offered in Poland 🤣. Poland didn't have Western-style copyright laws until 1994 though, so it wasn't *legally* piracy). The characters - especially Captain Picard - and Star Fleet's values actually influenced who I am as a person. Then came DS9 and Voyager - I liked them less than TNG back then, but I rewatched them recently and developed a new appreciation for both shows: the human (well, sentient entity, anyway) interest factor of DS9 is through the roof, and as the husband of a wife working in a managerial position in a largely male environment I saw Captain Janeway in a completely new light. I actually saw the original ST series and the movies with the original crew of the Enterprise quite late, after TNG. The series has a sort of gung ho, Wild West feel to it, very different from the later shows, but I liked it, too. I never developed a taste for any of the post TNG/DS9/Voyager series. The first of the rebooted Star Trek motion pictures was quite cool though. I also liked the ST-inspired Orville. So yeah, I enjoyed this puzzle a lot 🤩 (I had to look up REAL ID, LTR, RUSS and ANI though)
I can only imagine what a chore this grid must have felt like to people who are not into ST. Eeek! You have my sympathy 🫂
@Andrzej As I said elsewhere, I'd seen The Original Series as a young teenager. Later I went through a period in which I completely avoided almost everything cultural, and so was stunned to hear from a colleague that Star Trek: Next Generation was not only a thing, but a really good thing. I think they were two full seasons in at that point. IMO, TNG is magnificent, but I've never really ventured on into Deep Space Nine or the rest. Maybe I need to. Maybe hour after hour of the Star Trek franchise is exactly the box I've been looking to hide in.
@Andrzej Regarding LTR, my first thought was that few outside the US will have any chance at this. Conversely (and sadly), few Americans will know about A4 🤨 Mark
@Andrzej I am in so much agreement that I don't even know where to start. Captain Picard is one of the greatest characters ever created. Also, Patrick Stewart is an incredible human. I'm not big into celebrity, not at all, but Patrick Stewart is amazing. The hope for the future that is at the center of Star Trek is an inspiration. It is hard but i still hope. My husband sometimes jokingly gets mad because he thinks that I love Captain Picard and Mr Clean, which is a cleaning product featuring a very bald man with a very lemony scent more than him. As I tell him, just keep putting on Star Trek and using Mr Clean products to clean up and we're all good. 😆
@Andrzej You might really enjoy Strange New Worlds. As a fellow big fan of TNG, it feels very true in spirit to that series.
Not a Trekkie by any means (not watched a single episode or movie) but couldn't stop marveling at this feat of construction. Managed to figure out the fill via the sheer number of pop culture references I've heard over the years and loved how all the theme items just 'fit' together so perfectly. Kudos!
Ha ha. A couple observations: (1) SQUIRES made me think of the episode "The Squire of Gothos" involving a petulant alien. (2) Great job with the priming -- by the time solvers reach 106A, they've got Star Trek in their brains and "warp-driven device" becomes such an effective misdirect.
@Pat I envy your incorrect answer. For the life of me, I couldn't think of a 4-letter something that would be driven by warp.
@Henry Su And I tried SHIP, even though it felt lame.
@Henry Su It's so good to read a comment of yours -- been a while! Hope you've been well.
@Henry Su, Welcome back!
It was extra fun that we started on the third season of Stange New Worlds tonight after I finished the puzzle and after dinner. We've been meaning to tonight anyhow so it was such a wonderful coincidence that this puzzle appear today. Anyhow, we watched the last episode of season 2 to reacquaint ourselves with the two-part cliffhanger. I had kind of forgotten that Mr Scott makes his first appearance in this that episode. 🥳 So very good!! I have loved today so very much!! From husband home this weekend and that late breakfast on the balcony that I talked about yesterday to a couple of fantastic episodes of Stange New Worlds and everything in between!! Life isn't easy lately, but these joyous days full of little and sweet wonders are worth everything!
I would love to hear everyone’s weird crossword coincidences. Here’s one for today— I haven’t eaten at a Denny’s for probably 20 years, and ate there yesterday. I even told my nephews that it’s just like an IHOP. Can’t remember the last time it was referenced in a crossword puzzle. How odd is that?
@SP Wish I could do some Twilight Zone music here. Things like that are truly stunning. It's hard to imagine it's coincidence, but also hard to imagine it isn't.
@SP Did you happen to do the weekly news quiz today? I thought of you as to one specific question. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/01/briefing/quiz-tsunami-nyc-shooting-tariffs.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/01/briefing/quiz-tsunami-nyc-shooting-tariffs.html</a>
@SP Oh I remember another one recently too. I was in a plane doing the crossword and the clue answer was DONTSTOP as Clinton’s election theme music. It was then playing in the Uber on the way from the airport. And I can’t remember hearing the song for years.
I really glommed onto Star Trek. I must have seen, purely by accident, one of the first two or three episodes broadcast, of course at one time once a week, and no do-overs. To me (and HeathieJ mentions this below) Star Trek was hope. This was 1966, and the Cold War was sometimes very, very scary. We'd just gotten through the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I believe was a major trauma for my mother. In another year there was going to be a major Mid-East war. In the cold war I don't think there were any small wars--all of them could lead to the big one. The last one. So I wasn't really sold that there was any future. I was firmly convinced we'd never see 1971. Imagine that: me, a drama queen. Go figure. Then Star Trek happens. Suddenly a vision that suggests we'd not only get through this, but that there was a future out there where Americans and Soviets worked together on such a magnificent ship on such a magnificent mission. I chose to believe in it for the same reason I "believe" in the Loch Ness monster: it's more fun to believe than not believe.
@Francis Amen, my friend!! Hope!! ❤️
@Francis That was beautifully said, thanks. I have also found the optimism of Star Trek inspiring. Look what we can do when we work together, making the most of our diversity ❤️
Every time I see ERSATZ I think, “I’d like to use that word one day.”. But I never do.
@Joe P It's like "penultimate"...once you get the hang of it, you can shoehorn it in almost every day, until nobody can stand to have a conversation with you. You have to make the effort, though..
@Joe P @Bruce Hey, I learned both ERSATZ and penultimate from A Series of Unfortunate Events! Book 6 is The Ersatz Elevator, and the second-to-last one is The Penultimate Peril.
@Joe P I had a hard time getting that answer, because I speak German, In German ERSATZ has more the connotation of 'substitute' rather than false.
My report: Usually I do the puzzles alone, but tonight I was with my band doing a sort of sound check. I knew they would have ideas! “What’s the name of the Russian guy again?” “It’s UHURA not UHURU, right?” “Oh! FULL THRUSTERS!!” And a few minutes later it was done. Fun! Beam us up, Scotty.
Not being a Star Trek watcher, my first reaction was "Oh, no, another puzzle based on something I know nothing about". But as the solve progressed, I became a big fan of this puzzle: By ignoring the circled letters it was possible to guess the long phrases without any Star Trek knowledge. And of course I could not help having learned a little about it just by osmosis, which did help a bit. At the end, I had to find my mistake(s), which turned out to be YeP instead of YUP. Lots of clever misdirection! So I ended up liking this puzzle a lot.
When I finished the puzzle, the timer told me the solve took 29:20 total. But I just went back to the puzzle now, maybe five minutes later, and the (stopped) timer now reads 38:15. What is going on? This same thing has happened to me way too many times. Can't they get the software of a timer to work right?
Star Trek for me was a long time ago. Never saw any of the movies, and had to remind myself that this isn't the one where the force may be with you. Nevertheless, Roddenberry made his mark on my psyche and it all came back to me. It was a joy to spend an afternoon with this old friend. Now I'm ready. Beam me up, Scotty!
@dutchiris I hope I'm able to remember that I'd like "Beam me up, Scotty" to be my final words.
Of all the puzzles I have solved in my travails... his was the most... human.
@Matthew Gardner 😂 Recognizing the significance of your post is a great test of trekkie knowledge.
Wow! Puzzle of the year for Trekkies! I loved it. Took awhile, but very satisfying on so many levels. (If you haven't watched Star Trek, hopefully next week will be in your area of nerddom.)
I would put this on my POY list if I had one. Hope I remember it. Not only the theme, but many of the entries appealed to me. STAPLER was just one of many. ERSATZ atop DEIGN for the words-only specialists.
@Al in Pittsburgh Stapler was a nicely clued answer.
@Al in Pittsburgh Same here on the POY!! 🖖
As someone whose family watched original Star Trek in reruns every evening during dinner in the 70s (we ate early), I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle... enough to jump into the comments, which I've been avoiding for the past few weeks while I'm on a cross country road/camping trip with the family. It's hard enough to get the puzzle done every day (keepin' the streak alive!) when we often find ourselves in remote places without cell reception or Wi-Fi. I just wanted to mention that while on this trip, we stayed for two nights at Goblin Valley State Park in Southern Utah, where the "rock monster" scene from Galaxy Quest was filmed. It really does look as other-worldly as in this clip from the movie: <a href="https://youtu.be/EQG3I5efwWo?si=LjhaVbyfgkZ9pj4m" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/EQG3I5efwWo?si=LjhaVbyfgkZ9pj4m</a> For those who don't know, Galaxy Quest is a brilliant spoof of Star Trek.
@Beth in Greenbelt "Galaxy Quest" is indeed brilliant and much more than a spoof. I rarely use this arty word, but is a(n) homage. Any Trekkie who doesn't have Galaxy Quest in their rotation is missing out.
@Beth in Greenbelt I'm a little embarrassed to say what I found funniest about Galaxy Quest, which I loved. In the final action scenes, every event while running through the ship tears Sigourney Weaver's top just a little more, revealing a little more cleavage. And Weaver, fine actress as she is, played it perfectly straight, not calling attention to it, leaving the whole sequence hilariously understated.
Not my favorite because a) I'm not a Trekkie and b) I could not for the life of me get "games" for "sneakily exploits." Oh well.
@Jamie This should have been a monthly puzzle that focuses on just one subject.
@Jamie Games as in “games the system”.
@Jamie Same for me. Ignoring the Star Trek theme (which I know little about), I thought the clueing was overdone. It tried to hard to be witty and funny, and in many cases the answer was a stretch. Just my opinion.
First time in a while I’ve not really enjoyed a puzzle - the solve was fine, but just lacked a je ne sais quoi for me. It’s not all about me though, and seeing the comment section go off with excitement is always a cool. Kudos to the constructor, clearly hit a vibe for many.
Very well-executed theme as many have commented, but I thought a shout-out for the clueing (especially the non-theme clueing) was in order. Almost no gimmes, tons of word play, everything ultimately gettable and satisfying once gotten. I like a puzzle that requires thinking outside the box. This puzzle is a good exhibit for those arguing for more from veteran constructors.
@The Borg So... Will you assimilate it?
My 8th grade language arts students had to write a position paper on just about anything they chose, giving at least three arguments in favor and two against. The main purpose was to teach them how to research and use citations. One young man's position was that Star Wars was better than Star Trek. At the end of my one-page analysis of his paper, I couldn't help myself from writing, "Oh, you poor deluded boy. Haven't you ever watched "The Trouble with Tribbles"? He still got at A.
@Marcia Fidler should have failed him. Better to correct this factually incorrect opinion early in his academic career 😂
A small quibble about the clue for 16D...a typo is not made by a pen, but from typing. "Slip of the pen" (or, to give the pen the slip) would be to type.
@LisaK Though that too, but let’s assume it’s a pen on a computer tablet
@LisaK It's a sideways clue. Kind of definition adjacent. And there is something the same about them. The same brain-hand misdirect? Anyway, because these are hints rather than definitions, not sure it broke any rules.
I had the pleasure of going to a Star Trek convention in NYC in the mid-seventies. A carful of friends drove up from Philadelphia. Harlan Ellison spoke about his episode , The City on the Edge of Forever. The cast of that episode included Joan Collins. Leonard Nimoy also discussed Mr. Spock. As an aside, and of only slightly less enjoyment, we then went to Chinatown for dinner.
This was the most entertaining puzzle in months! (Enough months that I'd started wonder why I was still bothering.) So many, of late, have been dreary and too full of themselves. My family members are Trekkers, so I've learned a lot despite not being one myself. It was great fun to work this out!
I've seen mani, mani pedis in the puzzles lately! Took me a while to see that all the names were being beamed UP. Cool. Liked warp-driven instrument especially. What a great misdirect. That was awesome. And how the shaded squares do look like the Enterprise. Lots of nice touches in this one. With 29 NYT puzzles under his belt, we can't say that Jeremy Newton is part of the Next Generation of puzzlemakers. We might have to wait for someone else to take on Jean-Luc Picard & crew. Or maybe not: perhaps Mr. Newton will "make it so." Also like some of the relevant crosses to the vertical themers: -- "We have to make this quick" should indeed be written in ITALICS, to add a little more JUMP. So if you want what I'm selling, just kick THE GYM bag filled with cash over to me, I'll give you the KILO and we'll be on our merry way. -- When the Enterprise is on the WARPATH, full thrusters are essential. -- If your armor failed and you took a knock on your nut when that star went nova, you can always count on me to do CT SCANS to see what's wrong. -- Are you hurt? I know this MASSEUR in KYOTO who can help! -- I don't know how those supermodels do it, how they keep composure while they STRUT down the runway in a squire's jacket over some old skirt Evita Peron might have worn. -- I took a risk and bet my wife's 24-KARAT gold bracelet even though I only had a PAIR of tens.
Didn't like this one tbh, pretty much unsolvable if you haven't watched star trek (tough, as most people in my age range haven't) unless you could get every single other horizontal one. Didn't feel fun, more like a chore tbh.
@ES I respect everything you said. I am wondering what is your age range? New Star Trek iterations are being made left and right. Admittedly as an old-timer Star Trek fan, some of them I'm less of a fan of but they're still pretty relevant and present. But they're not for everyone and of course if that's not your thing that's totally cool, but I was just wondering.
Our columnist thinks the grey-square shape is the Enterprise from the front, but on a bias. I’m no serious Trekkie, but don’t we all agree it is the Enterprise IN PROFILE, with the front disc to the right?
While I'm not a star Trek fan, I thought the puzzle construction was extremely impressive and well executed.
As someone who doesn’t know the first thing about Star Trek, this was a difficult themeless puzzle 😅
I've been working through the 1997 archive and just completed the 8/2/1997 puzzle, which has a down spanner that solves to SPLITINFINITIVE. Coincidence? I think not. I was in elementary school when Star Trek aired but didn't watch it until years later because my heartless parents wouldn't let us watch television. In fact, I don't think we owned a TV until after the series ended. Anyway, I remember all the kids talked about it and I didn't know the word "trek" and thought it was Star Track. I'm not a trekkie but I am serious fan of this puzzle! OK, one more. Several years ago, my husband and I entered a cocktail contest and the ingredients had to include scotch. My husband came up with the name for our entry, Beam me up Scotty. We won!
Love, love, love this puzzle! Longtime fan here, who wrote an outraged letter to NBC when they first tried to cancel the original show. I truly hope someday we'll embrace Grne Roddenberry's inclusive view of the future. This puzzle packs in so many theme entries that it is a delight to solve.
This has to be one of my favorite puzzles ever. I adore the series, but the amount of thematic material that kept popping up was a continual delight. I think this was the first time I ever figured out a theme after a single word. As soon as I saw the clue for 4A, I knew what this was about, could recognize that shape. Got 3/4 way down the grid, filling in an amazing amount on my first pass, and thought, wow, I'm going to have a fast time. Then hit 90A and went, "Whaaa? I already have USS up top." That was quickly solved, but then I reached the bottom of the grid and saw I had nothing on the last three rows. Just blank. Then I started on the downs. Got to 3D, saw that the circled squares were supposed to refer to a character, but there is no one in that universe with 29 letters in their name. Finally, when I got to 36D, I knew that had to be SPOCK, and things fell into place. OK, now things will go fast. Except--in the midst of easy clues, there were a couple of places that held me up. Haven't read the other comments yet, but having COL__ for Cherry or Lime tripped me up because the "or" indicated the answer was single, but surely it was COLas? and 51A was DEbasE? In the end, this took slightly over my usual time. And then I had to just sit back and admire it. The density of the theme words, the theme letters, and the theme visuals, this was nigh on perfection.
@Lynn That was my story, too!!! I kept thinking I was closing in, only to find huge untouched areas. I was having fun so I didn't mind, but it felt like it was growing as I was solving.
@Lynn I also did the COLas thing. I couldn’t figure out the other crossings there after two passes and no music. Broke my first 8-day streak ever. Sigh.