Nestor’s puzzles are invariably perfectly constructed and perfectly fair and have great originality and variety of approach. While Nestor is among the harder Indy setters, I find the standard of Nestor difficulty can vary quite a bit from puzzle to puzzle. This had quite a few references esp to Star Trek (which I must admit being in virtually total ignorance of). So there came a point that I would have got no further without turning to reference sources. Routledge, I’m afraid, meant nothing either tho when I looked at the Wikipedia entry, I said “Of course”. With them I eventually got there, but I certainly found it one of the very hardest puzzles of the year and your blog gave extra subtleties in the explanations that I did not fully appreciate when solving. I did get the ‘broken reed’ idea thanks to Ms Bradford who has it listed under ‘unreliable’ in her book which I often need to look up esp in the ‘advanced’ themed puzzles like the Inquisitor.

My favourite clues were USERS and esp RECEIVE. Thanks, Nestor, for the puzzle.

Let me start by saying what I did like: the clues to Cerebrum, Ipod and Easy Does It. I was not so keen on the clues to Premium and Scapegoat. Plummy may be a stretch too far for U, likewise subject for ego. Romulus was a guess, since I knew neither the helmsman nor the planet. Last in was Breed, on the grounds that it could not be Blood, Blend or Bread. Thanks to Gaufrid for the explanation.

23ac is B[roken] REED

If we accept that ‘weak, unreliable person’ approximates to this slang word, then if we abandon ‘five characters after start’ we get BREED (sort).

May not be correct, but I have tried, haven’t I?

I found this tough and there were at least half a dozen clues where I needed your explanations. I too liked the 5,6, 20 links, and CEREBRUM raised a smile. So this for me was a most enjoyable challenge, at about the limits of my solving ability.

Can’t help with BREED, I’m afraid. The D presumably comes from the fifth letter of ‘abandoning’, but I don’t see the rest.