The Paramount+ streaming service has put together a special Holiday Collection which includes three episodes from their Star Trek television catalog. And to ring it all in, they have a special song from Strange New Worlds star Celia Rose Gooding.
Paramount+ adds some Trek to their Holiday cheer
The 2022 Paramount+ Holiday Collection includes brand new holiday-themed movies like Snow Day, special episodes of some newer shows like Ghosts, and more, including a Mariah Carey Christmas special and a whole bunch of holiday-themed episodes. There is also a curated selection of holiday-themed movies and specials from the Paramount+ library which includes episodes like “The Voice of Christmas” from The Brady Bunch, “Christmas Cheers” from Cheers, and “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas” from Happy Days. This classics collection also includes three less obvious Christmas-related episodes from the final frontier.
While the Star Trek future tends to be mostly secular based on Gene Roddenberry’s more humanistic vision of the future, some elements of the Christmas holiday have popped up over the years, so Paramount+ included three episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation in their “Christmas Classics.”
“Dagger of the Mind” (TOS: Season 1, Episode 10)
One of the episodes selected, the first season’s “Dagger of the Mind,” contained the first reference to Christmas in the franchise, and aired in 1966. The main plot deals with a visit to the Tantalus Penal Colony and when Captain Kirk beams down, he is reminded by Dr. Helen Noel that they recently met at the science lab Christmas party, setting this episode shortly after Christmas 2266. And of course, Noel is another name for Christmas.
Dr. Noel reminds Kirk about meeting at the Christmas party
“Devil’s Due” (TNG season 4, episode 13)
The second episode in the Paramount+ Christmas Classics Collection is “Devil’s Due” from the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which first aired in 1991. The episode dealing with an imposter posing as an alien mythological figure begins on the holodeck with Data performing a scene from the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Captain Picard watches as Data plays Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley.
Data plays Scrooge
“Tapestry” (TNG: Season 6, Episode 15)
Last up is a TNG episode that evokes the themes of A Christmas Carol, with Q visiting Picard in a sort of afterlife during emergency surgery to replace his artificial heart. Q gives Picard a chance to revisit a key moment in his past, like the ghost of Christmas past in A Christmas Carol. The original idea for the episode was intended to be a closer match to the Dickens play, titled “A Q Carol,” it would have involved Q taking Picard to several points in his past.
Like Scrooge, Picard is offered a chance to revisit his past
Based on these kinds of connections, there are a handful of other episodes that could have made it into the Paramount+ Holiday Collection, like the Voyager episode “11:59,” which was set in the days after Christmas 2000. And in the Voyager episode “Death Wish,” Quinn turned the USS Voyager into a Christmas ornament. In the Deep Space Nine episode “Our Man Bashir,” Julian Bashir played a secret agent in a James Bond-type program and he mentioned giving agent Anastasia Komananov a set of exploding earrings for Christmas. Perhaps the most overt Christmas moment in the franchise was a fantasy Jean-Luc Picard had in the Nexus of having a family opening presents on Christmas. However, that was in the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations, which for the time being is only available on HBO Max.
Picard’s fantasy family celebrates Christmas in the Nexus
You can see the full Paramount+ Holiday Collection HERE.
Uhura sings in the Holidays
The Paramount+ Holiday Collection is being promoted in a trailer with a special tune sung by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds star Celia Rose Gooding, who is a Grammy-winning Broadway singer.
Celia has a lovely voice. She can really sing! She is humble, smart, and very talented. Truly enjoy her performance in STW. Great addition to the Star Trek family.
A Star Trek “Christmas” collection is definitely a stretch. Halloween, yes, because there are quite a few that jump to mind for that–TOS “Cat’s Paw,” TOS the one with Jack the Ripper, TNG “Schisms”, TNG the awful Crusher one with the ghost, maybe even the Vulcan “zombie” episode of ST: ENT.
I think this collection is more… logical? These are episodes that involve the holiday in one way or another at least (except for Tapestry, but that apes “It’s a Wonderful Life” so I’ll let it slide). But we all have our own opinions and are entitled to them.