Mastermind: Cakeshop's Alex Chen Boldly Goes With Our Star Trek Quiz

Sanlitun: Beijing’s Final Frontier. These are the voyages of Alex Chen, Beijing’s biggest Trekkie (not to mention the founding partner of marketing and branding firm Cakeshop, whose clients include Mercedes Me). With the recent release of Star Trek: Beyond in China, three’s no better time for the PR guru to boldly go where no Mastermind participant has gone before. And he “made it so” (as Picard would say), answering Star Trek trivia questions with the ease of an alien that has telepathic powers.

Finish this famous catch phrase from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager: "We are The Borg. Resistance is____."
Futile √

Which alien race on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is famous for having huge ears and being shamelessly greedy? (Hint: They consider massaging each others big ears to be an act of intimacy. I know, yuck).
Ferengi √ (Alex comments: "I’m kind of impressed that you found a DS9 question to put on here. Albeit an easy one. A super hard one would have been something like: “What is the full name of the second Dax symbiont host from DS9?”)

Okay, no need to get cocky. Next question: What is the name of the technique/ability that Spock and other Vulcans use to read minds?
Mind meld √

What technology allows villainous Klingon and Romulan starships to turn invisible?
Cloaking technology √

Star Trek: The Original Series is famous for featuring television's first interracial kiss. Which characters acted out this scene?
Uhura and Kirk. √

Which actress played a bartender/restaurateur named Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation? (Hint: She is now one of the hosts of the daytime talk show The View).
Whoopi Goldberg √

LeVar Burton played the blind, visor wearing engineer Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Aside from that series, he also simultaneously hosted a children's TV show. What was that show called? (Hint: His catch phrase on it was: "But hey, you don't have to take my word for it!").
Reading Rainbow! √

Who was the character/actor that's famous for killing Captain Kirk in the movie Star Trek: Generations? (Hint: This actor first became famous in the '70's as the star of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange).
Wow – I have no idea… on purpose. I tried to forget everything about the movie. ×

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry decided that The Original Series should have transporters (aka teleportation) because:
a) He thought it would look amazing
b) It was cheaper to make the special effects for the transporter than to make special effects for the ship landing on different planets
c) No other TV series had featured teleportation before, and he wanted Star Trek to be the first
d) None of the above
B √

Commander Worf once called which of the following beverages "A warrior's drink."
A) baijiu
B) Dr. Pepper
C) prune juice
D) Lighthaus's "The Fred" cocktail
C √

FINAL SCORE: 9/10
VERDICT: Nerd alert! Chen answered these questions with warp speed.

Answers: 1) Futile, 2) Ferengi, 3) Mind Meld, 4) Cloaking technology, 5) Uhura and Kirk, 6) Whoopi Goldberg, 7) Reading Rainbow, 8) Macolm McDowell, 9) B, 10) C

Visit cakeshopconsulting.com for more information about Chen’s work.

This article first appeared in the September/October issue of our magazine. Read the rest of the issue here.

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
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Photo: Uni