Before I leap headlong into my incoming rant, I want to take a moment and apply my fading iota of positive feeling to those who wrote notes of sympathy to my previous flu-induced entry. Your well wishes were greatly appreciated.

Okay now back to by scheduled vitriol.

What the hell is up with every commander in the Star Trek pantheon ejecting the warp core of their ships? I just read a comic book issue in which young Lt. Saavik did it in a simulation.

Casting out the heart of ones vessel in the face of a crisis is a neat trick to do--ONCE. But ever since the TNG Technical Manual was published, revealing that the volatile articulation frame of a starship can be forcibly ejected it seems that the only problem a starship can have is a warp core breach (I get tired, just typing the words.) and the only solution is taking a big warp core dump.

I've seen this in like a dozen Voyager episodes, was annoyed by it in this summer's movie, and am not happy to see it what was a fresh and enjoyable comic book run.

Enough.

Someone needs to put a moritorium on this overused tactic.

I'm reminded of a story in which jet pilot instructor back in the 1950's had to deal with a burgeoning plague of pilots using their new fangled ejection seats prematurely (Yea, yea, I said 'premature'. Laugh it up, we were all twelve once!) during minor in-flight malfunctions that would not have prevented them from landing their jets.

The instructor waited until another inexperienced pilot threatened to eject in the face of a minor malfunction and fired tracer rounds over his canopy, promising the newbie bigger problems than losing his jet if he decided to ditch her.

Perhaps someone should do a story where a Star Fleet Academy instructor hammers home the lesson that the first solution to a crisis should never be to abandon the heart of one's vessel. Or perhaps editors at Paramount and IDW could simply threaten their writers with bodily harm.

In any case, enough with the warp core cliche.

Eject it already.