Equestria finds itself caught in the cold war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. Can friendship prevail, or will this cold war turn hot, despite their best efforts?

Full disclosure: we did not have a huge Trek fan at the ready to give this Crossover a review. The extended long description said the story drew mainly from the original series from the sixties, and neither of us were very familiar with that particular iteration. I've always been more of a Star Wars guy myself, but hey, I'm not a complete troglodyte. I knew the cast and characters, so while I wouldn't catch every single reference weaved into the narrative, I figured I could keep up.

And sweet jumping baby Jesus did that first scene melt my brain.

I understood Q thanks to the pony fandom. That was John de Lancie. Absolutely every other species, planet, and name that was dropped in that bit went right over my head. So not only did that make me wonder if the long description was wrong since Q is from a later series, it also sent me to google to figure out what the hell was going on. Apparently the crew of the Enterprise and a band of Klingons drove off a windigo, which was a scenario that sounded absolutely nothing like what came up on the dude chatting with Celestia, or the episode he was involved in (though I did discover the "windigo" incident when I searched for Kang after he showed up).

Seriously, this made more sense to me.

To my pleasant surprise, this was the only scene that overwhelmed me. In fact, the rest of the story has thus far not referenced it at all, which makes sense as it contains two immortal beings chatting about things behind the scenes. Looking back at it once I got the context from the rest of the story, it set the chess board pretty well.

Things were certainly more normal after that. Perspective switched to the Enterprise, to characters I actually recognized, and the story began in earnest. This might have been a good time to elaborate on the information about driving off a windigo from earlier. It could have been recounted by the people who were actually there. Just a note if the author wants to write more crossovers in the future. If the inciting incident leading to the events of your story won't be common knowledge to all potential readers, it would be easier to those not in the know to have a bit of exposition sooner than later. I'd rather learn it from the story than from Google.

Moving on, things take on the airs you would expect of a Human in Equestria story, but it's amazing how much more entertaining it is to hear people marvel at the sun moving around the earth for the umpteenth time when those people are space explorers. Contact with alien species is old hat for them. I really enjoyed all the interactions. I feel like I got to know the characters--both from the crew and the Klingons--through their mingling with the ponies, and considering I knew nothing but simple surface traits going into this story, I think that means something.

I also had a blast with all the humor sprinkled throughout. The ponies being confused when the crew talked shit about each other, Double de Lancie with Discord meeting with Q, and the Shatnerian pauses in Kirk's dialogue amused me to an illogical degree. And I got a kick out of the mural of Bill the Brave and his friends, Sam the Wise and Frozen Door.

Besides the early confusion I had with the story's first scene, there aren't many flaws for me to pick on. In the scene where Spock and Mara study the sun in more detail, he "arched an eyebrow" so many times I almost started picturing him as The Rock. Got a bit repetitive there. There are some missing words in a few paragraphs across multiple chapters. And this little oddity at the start of a sentence in Chapter 4:

“... “And here is the cutie mark map room. It's where my friends and I meet, discuss important matters, and even get missions from the map itself.”

The only other quibble I have is that there isn't more to the story yet. Partly because I would like to read more, but also because things haven't quite escalated yet. I've enjoyed the characters mingling together, and that seems to be the case for future chapters as well. Kirk is scheduled to have a duel with Blueblood, but there's also drinking games between human booze, Equestrian cider, and Klingon blood wine scheduled. Nothing that really jumps out at me that could turn a cold war hot like the long description said. Things just seem to have a decisive slant towards Slice of Life.

Obviously, that can still be entertaining as I hope this mostly positive review has said. But if the plan for the story was to get the Trek-universe characters acclimated to Equestrian rules and culture before stepping on the gas, I would say missian accomplished.

I went back and forth on whether I would rate this Enjoyable or Recommended. I always try to weigh a story's merits and flaws against each other for the rating, and for this story, the biggest flaw I could see was one I know for a fact others won't have. That info dump of an intro. So... is the correct approach for a crossover to ease in the new crowd since it's posted to a pony site? Or would the title and everything a reader sees before reading be warning enough?

Eh, I was able to recover from the confusion quickly enough. I don't see it as being "It's okay, but..." or some other qualifying phrase. The merits outweigh the flaws.

Final note: in honor of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, the franchise that spawned the birth of the Slash fic with Kirk/Spock shipping, I leave you with this.

Dusk/Blitz makes me happy in concept, but the only fic I've ever seen for them had a terrible relationship that felt all kinds of emotionally abusive.

...yes I just skimmed this to see what kind of suggestive/shipping images you included.

I'll read the review in full around midnight tonight when I'm off work tonight.

5882000 Thank you for the review. A lot kinder than I thought it'd be. ;)

And sweet jumping baby Jesus did that first scene melt my brain.

Sorry about that! I was just aiming more for those familiar with Trek. In hindsight, maybe not my best move.

Absolutely every other species, planet, and name that was dropped in that bit went right over my head

Would it have been better to include links from Memory-Alpha for Trek stuff? I've been told it'd be helpful, and told it was distracting.

This might have been a good time to elaborate on the information about driving off a windigo from earlier. It could have been recounted by the people who were actually there.

Well, to be fair, neither the crew of the Enterprise nor that of the Pride knew it was a windigo. Still don't. But yeah. They should've been told about it.

If the inciting incident leading to the events of your story won't be common knowledge to all potential readers, it would be easier to those not in the know to have a bit of exposition sooner than later. I'd rather learn it from the story than from Google.

You're right. Although that does run into the problem of exposition in the fic and talking heads. But then again that's a problem inherent in most-all crossovers.

Besides the early confusion I had with the story's first scene, there aren't many flaws for me to pick on. In the scene where Spock and Mara study the sun in more detail, he "arched an eyebrow" so many times I almost started picturing him as The Rock. Got a bit repetitive there. There are some missing words in a few paragraphs across multiple chapters. And this little oddity at the start of a sentence in Chapter 4:

Yeah. Bit too much parody from me, there. Although do you remember any of those missing words?

The only other quibble I have is that there isn't more to the story yet. Partly because I would like to read more, but also because things haven't quite escalated yet. I've enjoyed the characters mingling together, and that seems to be the case for future chapters as well. Kirk is scheduled to have a duel with Blueblood, but there's also drinking games between human booze, Equestrian cider, and Klingon blood wine scheduled. Nothing that really jumps out at me that could turn a cold war hot like the long description said. Things just seem to have a decisive slant towards Slice of Life.

I've grown a bit... tired, for lack of a better term, concerning crossovers with fighting.

I went back and forth on whether I would rate this Enjoyable or Recommended. I always try to weigh a story's merits and flaws against each other for the rating, and for this story, the biggest flaw I could see was one I know for a fact others won't have. That info dump of an intro. So... is the correct approach for a crossover to ease in the new crowd since it's posted to a pony site? Or would the title and everything a reader sees before reading be warning enough?

That question has been plaguing crossovers since Jason and the Argonauts. It's one I don't have an answer for.

Anyway, again, thank you.

5884477
I would side with links being distracting. Sudden green text--or worse, having "click here" in parenthesis--would be jarring. But the Enterprise crew could have been told that the Klingons meeting them were the same ones they drove off the windigo with, since I assume both governments coordinated efforts to get their delegations there at the same time. That could have spawned some dialogue like "Kang, wasn't he there for the chaotic entity we dealt with?" Perfectly reasonable dialogue for a character to say in the context of the scene, and the reader has a clue right there.

I don't remember the missing words, unfortunately. I read this on my Kindle, and by the time I got back home to my laptop, their placement slipped my mind. I only found the double quotation marks bit by running a ctrl+f search for it. Sorry.

Understandable point about the fighting crossovers. I suppose meeting a new race of aliens would be an adventure no matter how many times you do it. Always new stuff to deal with.

5884526

I would side with links being distracting. Sudden green text--or worse, having "click here" in parenthesis--would be jarring.

That's what I figured. Although the parenthesis thing, I've never seen done. And hope I never do.

But the Enterprise crew could have been told that the Klingons meeting them were the same ones they drove off the windigo with, since I assume both governments coordinated efforts to get their delegations there at the same time. That could have spawned some dialogue like "Kang, wasn't he there for the chaotic entity we dealt with?" Perfectly reasonable dialogue for a character to say in the context of the scene, and the reader has a clue right there.

That's a good idea. Legit shame I didn't have it.

I don't remember the missing words, unfortunately. I read this on my Kindle, and by the time I got back home to my laptop, their placement slipped my mind. I only found the double quotation marks bit by running a ctrl+f search for it. Sorry.

No, it's all right! I'll have to go through. I'm gonna correct that extra quote mark, at least. Thanks for that. :)

Understandable point about the fighting crossovers. I suppose meeting a new race of aliens would be an adventure no matter how many times you do it. Always new stuff to deal with.

Yup. I've seen so many versus, so many 'who would win?' threads on message boards. Anyone can pull any 'feat' or incident out to have any side win. Over and done with for me. Having them talk is kinda novel for me.