Entertainment
How Star Trek Tried To Redeem Its Most Boring Character
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Pop quiz: Who do you think is the most boring character in Star Trek? The franchise is filled with annoying characters like Wesley Crusher and Neelix, but those characters were at least grating in memorable ways. Unfortunately, Voyager had one character whose lines, line deliveries, and plotlines were guaranteed to put you to sleep.
We’re talking about Chakotay, the former Maquis rebel leader who has all the personality of an unsalted cracker the moment he becomes Captain Janeway’s first officer. However, Voyager did their best to correct the problems with this character very early on. For example, the forgotten Season 2 episode “Initiations” was written largely to make Chakotay more interesting to audiences.
The Most Boring Man In Starfleet
Some quick context about the episode: “Initiations” begins with Chakotay (played by Robert Beltran) taking a shuttlecraft out to conduct a ritual honoring his father’s death. But he takes custody of a young Kazon before both are captured by a larger Kazon vessel. There, they are forced to escape in a rollicking adventure that gives these two very different characters plenty of time to discover more about each other’s respective cultures.
Incidentally, exploring Kazon culture was one of the goals of “Initiations” and Season 2 as a whole. But the episode was also written in large part to make Chakotay a more interesting character. As revealed in the sixth issue of Star Trek Monthly (remember magazines, kids?), the producers felt that Voyager had underutilized Chakotay in the first season.
Rebranding Chakotay As An Action Star
Episode writer Ken Biller understood the assignment because he agreed with the producers that Chakotay was a pretty weak sauce character in the rest of Season 1 compared to how he was portrayed in “Caretaker,” the series premiere. Biller told the Official Star Trek Voyager Magazine that Chakotay is “like a real action hero in the pilot” and that “I think we need to give him some action stories,” something he was hoping to do with “Initiations.” That’s why the episode features this first officer getting into multiple fights, escaping captivity, and even offering to let his newfound ally kill him.
Why was it necessary for the writers and producers to make Chakotay a more interesting character? The short answer is that early Voyager, like The Next Generation before it, was hesitant to feature much conflict between characters. Therefore, even though the show’s premise was that Starfleet officers would be forced to work with Maquis terrorists, everyone mostly acted like one big, happy family after the first episode thrust them together.
Facing Off Against The Entire Delta Quadrant
In “Caretaker,” Chakotay is a Maquis leader who tries to help his crew escape the pursuing Voyager. After both ships are transported to the Delta Quadrant, he proves himself in and out of battle, eventually becoming Captain Janeway’s first officer. This was a practical choice because of Chakotay’s skills and Starfleet experience, but it was also a symbolic choice that underscored the need for both crews to work together to survive.
This was a recipe for juicy conflict between these two very different characters, but that never happened; Chakotay quickly became little more than Janeway’s yes man in Season 1. The writers tried to make him more interesting in subsequent seasons, but this led to mixed results because Voyager increasingly relied on the fraudulent Native American consultant Jamake Highwater to craft Chakotay stories. At any rate, Chakotay actor Robert Beltran came to hate how his character was written, and he reportedly began phoning in his performances later in the show due to what he saw as poor scripts.
While Chakotay never became a very interesting character, “Initiations” remains a very solid episode full of action, adventure, and a cameo from Deep Space Nine’s Aaron Eisenberg. In helping to flesh out the Kazon, this episode lives up to the Star Trek mandate to seek out new life and new civilizations. Unfortunately for the fans and Beltran alike, though, Voyager would soon run out of strange new worlds to explore with Chakotay, who soon cemented himself as the most boring character in the entire franchise.
Entertainment
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 23, 2026
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you’re a frequent flyer.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
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Yellow: Rounded
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Green: Nervous Nancy
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Blue: Catch a flight
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Purple: Math words
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Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Spherical things
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Green: In an anxious state
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Blue: Parts of an airport
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Purple: Ending in geometry terms
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections #1138 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Spherical things: BASEBALL, GLOBE,
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In an anxious state: EXCITED, FEBRILE, FRENETIC, INTENSE
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Parts of an airport: PINS, SNAPS, TWEETS, VINES
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Ending in geometry terms: APPOINT, DEPLANE, FELINE, JANGLE
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for July 23, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re a veteran.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Hail to the chief petty officer
The words are related to the military.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe military titles.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.
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NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Navy Ranks.
NYT Strands word list for July 23
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Recruit
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Admiral
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Ensign
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Navy Ranks
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Lieutenant
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Commander
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
The World’s Richest Man Just Promised An AI Version Of The Odyssey, But It’s Never Going To Happen
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Every day, we get another reminder that the internet isn’t real life. For example, right-wing voices have been hating on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey for months, backlash that mysteriously began when the director cast a Black woman and a trans man in prominent roles. The haters spent plenty of time, energy, and endless social media posts trashing the film and predicting it would fail because it’s woke garbage. Of course, when the movie actually premiered, it was a critical darling that made over a quarter of a billion dollars in its first weekend.
In a sane world, that would have ended the discussion. The movie thousands of people thought would fail succeeded; end of story, right? Well, you’re not in a sane world, bucko, you’re in Hellworld. Case in point? Spurred on by comments from his loyal army of sycophantic followers, Elon Musk has now pledged to use his pet AI Grok to create a more “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey. His fans are excited, but I’ve got some bad news: not only would such a film be a critical and commercial flop, but there’s no way in hell this movie ever comes out.
The Odyssey: Video Game Cutscene Edition
Why am I so confident that Elon Musk’s Grok-powered version of The Odyssey will never come out? Simple: while Musk has achieved massive financial success (he was, for a moment there, the world’s first trillionaire), he has spent much of the last decade promising things that just never happened. Like, he previously promised SpaceX would be landing humans on Mars by 2025 at the latest; not only did that never happen, but SpaceX’s stock value is currently tumbling following several engine failures and an aborted flight.
The list goes on. Fully self-driving cars straight out of a sci-fi movie? He made the promise, but that never happened. The Hyperloop, announced in 2013? The project shut down in 2023. The pledge to have a million robotaxis on the streets by 2020? Yeah, that project died quietly amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. For all of his successes, this is who Elon Musk is: a relentless hypeman who promises more than he can deliver and tries to cover up his failures with more breathless announcements that he thinks his biggest fans will respond well to.
This AI Movie Is Its Own Trojan Horse
That’s what this AI Odyssey announcement is about. After years of being lauded by liberal fans as a real-life Tony Stark, Musk went fully right-wing, complete with pivotal endorsements of Donald Trump and a temporary role in Trump’s government. As such, Musk has become one of the most popular figures in conservative circles. While his political allegiances shifted, one thing never changed: Musk’s absolutely palpable desire for people to like him. Accordingly, he spends plenty of time on X, engaging with conservative fans and platforming both conservative thoughts and movies (like Citizen Vigilante). By and large, his fans hate Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, so he has pledged to give them an alternative.
Once again, Musk is telling his fans what they want to hear. Hate that “woke” movie everyone’s talking about? Well, he’ll make his own, and he’ll do it without help from Hollywood! That’s the promise, at least, and Musk’s fans are eating this up with a fork and spoon. None of them seem to think that this project, like so many others, will quietly disappear. Or that the man who has spent years running a social media platform into the ground might not actually be the best guy to deliver an actual film and not sloppy shorts that look like a PS4 cutscene.
Elon Musk’s Movie Is Already History
But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Musk actually makes his more “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey. Why does anyone think this thing will be watchable, much less better than Christopher Nolan’s version? Not only does the proof of concept suck, but Musk’s rejection of Hollywood has seriously reduced his talent pool for things like voice acting, art design, and so on. Plus, the very announcement brings up an obvious question: why has Musk given himself until the end of the year to make this film? Nolan shot a real movie with real people in only three months, so why will it take Grok’s prompt engineers almost twice as long to make their own?
The answer is simple: this movie is never going to see the light of day. Elon Musk’s biggest fans are frothing at the mouth about Nolan’s The Odyssey right now, but soon enough, they’ll have something new to obsess over, like Spider-Man saying something too woke in Brand New Day. As they move on, the once and future (?) trillionaire will move on as well, making even more promises he never plans to keep. With any luck, all of the people demanding an AI version of The Odyssey will start clamoring for an AI adaptation of another ancient text. May I suggest The Bible, complete with a historically accurate, very brown Jesus Christ?
Lynx coach: Napheesa Collier on minutes restriction in debut
Lynx easing in Napheesa Collier for season debut vs. Storm
