Thursday news quiz: A captain’s debut, a crypto snafu and some sausage dogs, too

1. 

   The Thursday quiz was devastated last week to learn of the death of Patrick Stewart, an absolute legend of stage and screen. In what year did his iconic role of Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise, debut?

   1. 1977

   2. 1983

   3. 1987

   4. 1993

2. 

   Who (not pictured) stars in the 2026 John Lewis Christmas ad (also not pictured) in the UK?

   1. Emma Thompson

   2. Penelope Wilton

   3. Miranda Richardson

   4. Kristin Scott Thomas

3. 

   $6.3bn of fantasy digital money was stolen in what has been described as the world's biggest heist. From which cryptocurrency exchange platform?

   1. Coinbase

   2. Binance

   3. Bybit

   4. GriftBite

4. 

   Which video game has been criticised for using genuine footage of a deadly Seoul crowd crush in its latest instalment?

   1. Grand Theft Auto VI

   2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

   3. Resident Evil Requiem

   4. Horace Goes Skiing

5. 

   Karl Bushby has, for frankly inexplicable reasons, walked around the world on foot in an unbroken line from Chile to get back to his hometown of Hull. How long did it take him?

   1. 14 years

   2. 18 years

   3. 24 years

   4. 28 years

6. 

   This week's guest canines are Richmond and Lincoln, whom the quiz master (pictured) looked after for a bit in a bar in Gosport. The dogs want to know who beat Luke Littler at darts to win £501,000 on a Netflix show last week?

   1. Fallon Sherrock

   2. Beau Greaves

   3. Noa-Lynn van Leuven

   4. Gary Barlow's massive son

7. 

   The *checks notes* 'multimillionaire lifestyle mogul' Martha Stewart (pictured, but not in the costume) apologised and said she had 'really screwed up' after dressing as what for Halloween?

   1. A Ku Klux Klan member

   2. A homeless person

   3. A Nazi officer

   4. Liz Truss

8. 

   Sofia Demetriades (pictured, centre) won the BBC Young Musician 2026 final. What did she play?

   1. Cello

   2. Flute

   3. Violin

   4. Kazoo

9. 

   Some bloke in Australia is A$1m richer after landing the top prize in a fishing competition. Which type of fish (not pictured, that is the Pokémon Dondozo), carrying a bright red tag signalling a big win in the NT’s Million Dollar Fish competition, did he catch?

   1. A Wobbegong Shark

   2. A Redfin Blue Eye

   3. A Barramundi

   4. A Spotted Handfish

10. 

    An escaped animal called Hex that belongs to a tattoo artist in Brisbane was found admiring itself in the mirror of a house it had broken into. What sort of animal is Hex?

    1. A pygmy marmoset

    2. A peacock

    3. A kunekune pig

    4. A very naughty miniature dachshund

11. 

    Juan Atkins (pictured), who died at the weekend, recorded under the name Model 500 and was part of the duo Cybotron. One of the pioneering artists of the techno genre, he was born in which US city, which gave its name to his music's distinctive sound?

    1. Detroit

    2. Cleveland

    3. Miami

    4. New York

12. 

    The Collins English dictionary word of the year is the latest in the inevitable procession of 'words of the year' to be announced. What did it pick?

    1. Aura

    2. Cooked

    3. NPC

    4. Mogging

13. 

    A Nasa telescope launched in 2004 was on course to succumb to 'mavity' (the correct technical term, according to Doctor Who) and plunge back to Earth, burning up in the process. Ouch. What was it called?

    1. The Kip Thorne Tern Array

    2. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

    3. The Eugene Parker Merlin Telescope

    4. The Henry Armitage Nightjar Explorer

14. 

    Nimbys have been doing their nimby thing after the embassy of which European country moved into a five-bedroom family home in Pimlico?

    1. Andorra

    2. Montenegro

    3. Kosovo

    4. Borduria

15. 

    And finally … the quiz master has never looked happier than he is here, posing with Doctor Who's robot dog. The man who voiced K9 died this week. Who?

    1. Geoffrey Beevers

    2. Ronnie Le Drew

    3. John Leeson

    4. Roy Skelton

Solutions

1:C - Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987 until 1994, and then spawned a series of movies. Rest well, Patrick. Make it so!, 2:D - It is November. It is November, 3:B - The Thursday quiz firmly believes that all money is fictional. Discuss in the comments, 4:B - Bereaved families have demanded that the makers remove the seconds-long harrowing footage, used to represent a scenario of civilian casualties during a fictional invasion, 5:D - He was greeted by his 36-year-old son. Go figure, 6:A - The show pitted the darts prodigy against amateurs, and Sherrock apparently met that threshold, never having had a PDC tour card, even though she has an MBE for services to darts and has played at the PDC World Darts Championship, 7:B - 'I am distressed that my Halloween costume yesterday, which was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness, has offended people, which was never my intention,' she said, possibly through gritted teeth but the Thursday quiz cannot be sure, 8:C - Judges hailed the 18-year-old from Leicestershire's performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturity, 9:C - 'I’m just happy to catch fish. I can’t believe I caught a million dollars’ worth of fish,' the man said during a press conference. The fish was not available for comment, 10:B - Silly boy, 11:A - Atkins was described by former bandmate and fellow electronic musician Kevin Saunderson as 'a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us', 12:D - 'Basically, if someone or something has made you look a bit rubbish by comparison, you’ve been mogged,' is the explanation given by the wordsmiths at the dictionary, and the Thursday quiz is happy to confirm that it has mogged off every other weekly news quiz on the internet, the losers, 13:B - The satellite, which was designed to operate with its three telescopes for just two years, was no longer able to steer or observe, bless it. It was trying, don't call it a failed unit, 14:B - Apparently the flagpole is a nuisance and there is a legal case trying to claim that proper planning permission wasn't granted for the change of use, 15:C - Affirmative, master

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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