Kirk and Spock: February 2010

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Star Trek's Chekov actor pays tribute to son found dead in park

STAR TREK actor Walter Koenig has paid tribute to his son Andrew, who has been found dead in a Vancouver park.

Andrew, who lived in California, was visiting friends in Canada when he went missing on Valentine's Day and missed a flight home two days later.

His father Walter, 73, who played Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series, said on his website that Andrew had "a long battle with depression."

He described him as "a funny, caring, gifted, passionate and multi-talented young man."

Mr Koenig wrote: "Andrew's disappearance caused a worldwide campaign of support and search efforts by those who were lucky to be his friends and by those whose lives he touched.

"A beautiful human being, Andrew died in his favourite city, filled with friends, in a park he loved. The family is truly touched by the outpouring of support and love."

Walter had earlier said in a press statement: "My son took his own life. He was obviously in a lot of pain."

Andrew, 41, had a regular role in 80s sitcom Growing Pains and also appeared in a 1993 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Superhero fans will recall that he played the Joker in the acclaimed 2003 movie Batman: Dead End, an eight-minute fan film written and directed by Sandy Collora which you can see at the filmmaker's official website.

Andrew was found hanged in a densely-wooded area of Vancouver's 1,000-acre Stanley Park. Friends and family made the grim discovery on Thursday.

An earlier police search of the park on Tuesday had failed to spot the body which officers said was hidden deep in the forest and could not be seen from the pathway.

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2010/02/chekov-actor-pays-tribute-to-s.html

Star Trek Online Review: A Piece Of The Action

After years of television series, books, cartoons, movies, and video games for both consoles and PCs, Star Trek faces the final frontier: the massively-multiplayer role-playing game.

When Star Trek Online was first officially announced back in June of 2008, fans of the series were excited, cautious, and slightly nauseous, all at the same time. The prospect of a massively-multiplayer Star Trek universe had so much potential, but just as much potential to get things horribly, horribly wrong.

There were so many questions. When would it take place? Would we be captains? Crew members? Could we play aliens? How would transporters work? One by one, developer Cryptic Studios answered the questions, and today we have our first, (somewhat) fully functioning Star Trek MMO.

Did Cryptic's boldly going pay off, or have they gone where no man has gone before, and for good reason?

(As part of our new MMO format, I created a series of four weekly MMO Logs for Star Trek Online, to give readers an idea of how much of the game I've played coming into this review. If you've yet to read them, you know what to do. If you have, then continue on.)

Loved
Character Creation: Cryptic proved its mastery over the character creation process with both City of Heroes and Champions Online, and while you won't find much in the way of colored spandex here, you will find enough character creation options to keep you occupied for quite some time. Would you like a short, squat Klingon? A tall, lanky Ferengi? Done and done. Choose from a nice selection of pre-established races, or go in-depth, creating your own custom alien race, injecting some of your own fiction into the Star Trek universe.

Space Combat: Star Trek Online shines when you're dancing ship-to-ship. Cryptic has found a nice balance between the strategic combat of Starfleet Command and more arcade-style space shooters like Wing Commander, with an innovative way of granting players the sort of special powers you'd find in your average fantasy MMO. The space combat system manages to represent the power management and shield balancing of starship combat in such a way that players new to the series can easily understand it, and using your bridge officers' special skills to enhance your combat performance was a brilliant move on Cryptic's part. They've managed to make me feel like a Starfleet bad-ass, charging into battle with photon cannons blazing, while making sure I still fight in a strategic manner, as befitting a starship captain.

Star Trek Flavor: This isn't a generic space MMO with Star Trek graphics laid over top. The developers of Star Trek Online have gone out of their way to make sure that every mission, from the shortest escort trip to long, convoluted episodic missions, is completely steeped in Star Trek lore. Not only will you find familiar friends and foes at every turn, the game carries over many of the themes of the franchise as well, subtle (and not-so-subtle) current-day political commentary included. From the moment you log in until your forehead bangs onto your desk from exhaustion, you're living Star Trek.

Intricate Systems: While many of today's MMO games are going the way of World of Warcraft, simplifying the game for the sake of more casual players, I come from the Anarchy Online school of MMO mechanics, where you have to use advanced math in order to dress yourself. While Star Trek Online doesn't quite reach that level of intricacy, there's still a whole lot of micro-management for the player to handle. You maintain your character's inventory and skills, the inventory and skills of each crew member, and the weapons, devices, and consoles attached to your ship. As you get deeper into the game you may find yourself cultivating separate sets of bridge officers for different situations, or even keeping a stable of different ships, depending on what sort of content you'll be participating in and what role you'll be playing. I've had moments where I've logged on, spent an hour swapping around equipment, and then logged off, and I'm completely satisfied with that.

The Ships: You could put any avatar in a Star Trek uniform and suddenly they're a Starfleet officer. The real characters in Star Trek Online are the ships. Star Trek Online's starships are gorgeous creatures, lovingly rendered with painstaking attention to detail, and given to the players, who can then mix and match parts from several different styles to create their own personal star-spanning ride. Every new rank (10 levels, more or less) you are given your choice of new ships, and every time it happens you hate to see the old one go almost as much as you love the look and feel of the new, more powerful model. I love my ship more than I love some of my pets.

Auto-Party: As talkative as I can be once you get to know me, I'm actually a rather shy person around strangers. Having spent the majority of my MMO-playing days surrounded by friends eager to join up for adventure, it's hard for me to form my own party with people I don't know. That's why I love Cryptic's auto-join feature. When questing in popular areas, this option automatically groups you with others on the same mission, which greatly enhances the risks and rewards. Sometimes you'll find new friends, and sometimes you'll go through multiple mission branches, never saying word one to your newfound teammates. The system has its ups and downs, but I like never having to shout 'Looking for group!'

Hated
Repetition: After you play the game for a while, you'll start to notice certain patterns. You might find yourself in a generic starbase that looks exactly like three other starbases you've visited recently. Warping into a strange, unexplored system loses some of its weight when you immediately recognize the pattern of asteroid field in front of you, knowing that the station you are looking for is at the very end, because you've done the same thing several times over.

Ground Combat: While the ground combat in Star Trek Online didn't wind up quite as horrible as I thought it might, it still leaves something to be desired, especially when compared to the dazzling space combat. Missions on the ground are played out with you and a host of NPC bridge crew members, some of which wind up not being quite as helpful on the ground as they are on the bridge. I can't count how many times I've sprinted through a base to reach an objective, only having to wait for around a minute once I arrive while my crew tries to navigate the corridors to my position. Ground combat is also fairy repetitive. While equipment kits help ease the tedium, giving your character new powers and skills to fool around with, fighting on the ground generally involves kneeling, spamming your primary fire hotkey until the group of enemies is dead, and then moving on to the next. There are some strategic options for positioning your crew, but I haven't found occasion to use them yet.

It's Not Finished: Star Trek Online is a game that would have definitely benefitted from several more months of polishing before release. Bugs and broken missions are regular occurrences, and I often find myself swept into fleet actions - large, instanced battlefields with tons of enemies - without pressing the key normally required to join one, an issue that needs to be fixed before Cryptic decides to impose stricter death penalties.

On top of the bugs and the broken bits, the Klingon faction's focus on PVP at launch is a fancy way of saying that the faction's story content wasn't finished yet. Cryptic is addressing this with a major content patch in March, but why release the side at all if it wasn't all there?

While Star Trek Online might not be as finished a product as I'd like, it does have several things going for it. The developers obviously have a firm grasp on the Star Trek universe, crafting content that speaks not only of their knowledge of the franchise, but their reverence for it as well. The game manages to twist common MMO mechanics in such a way that you always feel like you're the captain of a starship, and not just some Elven rogue with a high-tech makeover. The music is lovely as well.

But by far the biggest thing Star Trek Online has going for it is the fans. Star Trek Online has given Trekkies far and wide a place to come together, sharing their thoughts and feelings about the beloved series while playing out the dream of piloting a giant model spaceship across a field of painted stars on a black backdrop. You'll still find the odd Captain Cannabis of the U.S.S. Blunt during your travels across the stars, but for the most part you'll be hanging out at one constant online Star Trek convention, minus the unusual smells.

Star Trek Online was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Atari for the PC on February 2. Retails for $39.99 USD, with a monthly subscription of $14.99 required for play. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Read our Star Trek MMO Logs for information on how and how long the game was played.

http://kotaku.com/5481007/star-trek-online-review-a-piece-of-the-action

Comics Review : Star Trek Movie Adaptation Issue 1

The cover states this comic as being Star Trek: The Official Motion Picture Adaptation, but on the inside front cover, at the bottom, it states it as being Star Trek Movie Adaptation #1. So, that's what I'm calling this series and that's how I'm going to file it away in my comic collection.

The covers: George Kirk is watching it hit the fan on the Regular Cover by David Messina, with colors by Giovanna Niro. Very nice. The Retailer Incentive Photo Cover is of Chris Hemsworth, pondering if he could be a god of thunder. Damn! Now that's a photo cover! Overall grade: Regular Cover A, and "RICP" Cover A+++

The story: "Based on the Screenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, Adaptation by Mike Johnson & Tim Jones." Whew! Seen the movie? Duh! Bought the DVD? Double Duh! Watched the extra footage? Three-and-oh! So, you've seen what this book has for you. The cut scene of Spock's birth and then the U.S.S. Kelvin's battle. So, the book delivers nothing for you, Star Trek reader? I didn't say that. By its definition, an adaptation is supposed to tell the movie in comic form, hopefully so that it allows the reader to emotionally relive their favorite moments, as well as inspire others to seek out a film they haven't seen. So, does it succeed? The Vulcans whispering on panel 4 of Page 2 gave me a shiver, Page 10 is intense and angry, and Pages 15 through 22 are as intense as the film (and would it be blaspheme to say that's my favorite emotional scene of the movie?). The answer is, yes it succeeds. So, why a "minus"? I've seen it all on the DVD, and I'm greedy enough to want something not on the DVD. Overall grade: A-

The pencils: We're spoiled little Trek fans to have David Messina be able to jump from Angel back into our (new) universe. My whole question about this book even being produced was whether the artist chosen would lay out the panels from angles different from the way the film was directed (as Chee Yang Ong did for The Wrath of Khan adaptation) or "phone it in" by just copying off the DVD? The answer is neither, really. Messina has some of his panels laid out the same as the film, but his strength is his ability to generate emotion, so some angles are changed and close-ups (one of Messina's specialties) deliver the goods (Page 10 and Pages 15 - 21). An adaptation should re-enact the film and use iconic shots from it, but it should not bind the artist down. He, or she, should feel free to make the film his or her own. David Messina does it again. Overall grade: A

The inks: Gaetano Carlucci, welcome aboard! David Messina's work is angular, and I like that. Mr. Carlucci softens up those severe straight lines, but without sacrificing Messina's look. You sir, Mr. Carlucci, can be the inker anytime in anything I ever read. As I thumb through this issue, I can't find a flaw. Thank you, sir! Overall grade: A

The colors: Giovanna Niro has so much to do! Messina and Carlucci are a great team and Niro only adds to them with her coloring by giving all the characters added dimension. Look at Page 7 as your proof. Reading comics in the 70s and 80s, those people would be monotone in skin color, but with the technology today, and Ms. Niro's skills, it's almost three dimensional. Take that Avatar! No glasses required! Overall grade: A+

The letters: Robbie Robbins also delivers: dialogue, birthing screams, explosions, a trident opening, a computer flat lining, and many computer readouts. I kept looking for the lettering equivalent of a kitchen sink. Overall grade: A

The final line: It's a successful comic adaptation because it's able to capture the emotions and images well enough to make you want to watch the film again when you're done reading it. Now, if you'll excuse me, that's what I'm going to do. Overall grade: A

http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/02/26/Comics-Review-Star-Trek-Movie-Adaptation-Issue-1.shtml

The Contender Q & A: 'Star Trek's' Barney Burman

arney Burman is a scion of the legendary Burman family of Hollywood makeup effects artists - his father, Tom, is an Oscar nominee and multiple Emmy winner whose credits include "Planet of the Apes" (1968) and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," while grandfather Ellis Burman Sr. made prosthetics and props for the original "Wolf Man" (1941) and "The Twilight Zone." Burman himself has created effects for a slew of popular features and television shows, including "Tropic Thunder" (he transformed Tom Cruise into the repulsive Les Grossman), "Valkyrie," "Blades of Glory," "Alias" and many others. His work for J.J. Abrams on the feature film revision of "Star Trek," which blended interpretations of iconic makeup designs with new versions of the show's alien races earned him his first Oscar nomination. Burman spoke to The Envelope from his studio, Proteus Make-Up FX.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/26/entertainment/la-etw-barney-burman26-2010feb27

Star Trek Online: State Of The Game

Star Trek: Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich updates players and other interested parties on the state of Star Trek: Online.

Now that the launch of Star Trek: Online is past, the emphasis is on fixing problems, tweaking the game and planning for the future.

STO022610

“So very, very much has happened over the last few weeks,” said Zinkievich. “It feels like every single time I began to write a new State of the Game, we’d have to quickly douse live shard fires, juggle major play tests and push critical late night patches. By the time the dousing, juggling and pushing was done, the outline of my State of the Game would be hopelessly out-of-date.”

One important element for Zinkievich is maintenance and support. “Our objective,” he said, “[is to] implement as many of the stability and gameplay adjustments you asked for as soon as humanoidly possible (as safe practices allow, of course). To this end, Community has put more effort into moderating the boards and CS has recently staffed up in order to get through your tickets quicker. The idea being, ‘we can hardly fix what we can’t see.’”

Early server issues were a problem, but “we’ve also thrown a metric ton of hardware and man hours at getting the server capacity up. Our network operations crew has been performing admirably, to say the least.”

Zinkievich listed the game adjustments that are on the way.

Respec
Death Penalty
Difficulty Slider
More open auto-fire
Replayable missions
Improving Memory Alpha
Fixing those Commodity Missions

“And there are a bunch more,” said Zinkievich. “We’ve heard you and are working on all these issues, but we want to make sure that they come out clean and finished. We hate rushing out features, it inevitably leads to us accidentally breaking things we didn’t have time to test.”

http://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/02/star-trek-online-state-of-the-game-2/

Comics Review : Star Trek The Next Generation Ghosts Issue 4

The covers: Joe Corroney provides both, again, with Picard giving his best "J'Accuse!" pose to Riker, while the world's oddest looking tactical officer looks on (give Corroney credit: that's the way the tact. off. looks in the interiors). It's a sharp cover, though this scene doesn't appear within. The Retailer Virgin Incentive Cover is, as always, the same cover without any lettering. Overall grade: Both A

The story: A nice concise summary of the Enterprise-D's situation in panel one, Page 1. Riker's in charge and (finally someone) is calling out Deeron. While Number One tries his best with diplomacy (thank goodness Worf wasn't in charge), a surprising reveal comes in Picard's new surroundings. It's incredibly low budget, and highly successful, and how very Original Series Trek! Naturally our Captain is not alone, and that's when the story really begins to click. Yes, the characters he encounters are highly predictable in their actions, but I loved every page set there! The high point for me was the "discoveries" made at the bottom of Page 17: how very Next Generation! Big kudos to Zander Cannon, the writer of this. It's upped my opinion of the story quite a bit, and plotlines are being resolved. Overall grade: A-

The art: I still believe that artist Javier Aranda does better than average space shots (look at Page 1, panel one), his interiors of the Enterprise-D are top notch (pick any page and he's not shirking his duties to let the colorist play pick up), and he moves his "camera" very well (I am a big fan of the nine panel page). His major stumbling points are his characters, especially the leads. He's moving his focus about so that characters are shown from different angles, which is what a reader wants, but he's overdoing his facial shading. Riker, Geordi, and Picard look scarred, not shaded. And Riker is blowing kisses on Pages 2 and 3 in every panel. Maybe that's Freudian on my part, but take a look! And the new bridge tactical officers (Pages 2 & 3 and 20) are the dumpiest looking Starfleet officers ever. How'd they pass the Starfleet fitness tests? Yes, it's only seven panels but they really stuck out. On a positive note, Cannon has given Aranda the nightmare of Picard's new setting, and he delivers wonderfully in a set up that made me nostalgic. Overall grade: C+

The inks: As before, how much of this character over shading is Aranda or inker Mark Rueda? I don't know. I have to give the inks the same grade as the art. Overall grade: C+

The colors: Two major set pieces that are perfect opposites for colorist John Hunt: the Enterprise-D and Zoor space. The Enterprise is a vivid, bright environment and Zoor space is...Zoorish. A great job! Overall grade: A

The letters: The always capable Neil Uyetake does a tremendous amount of dialogue with the sole sound effect being the main viewscreen ending transmission. Overall grade: A

The final line: The art is not supporting this story. The story is wrapping up, better than I expected. Sadly, the art ain't helping, and for a comic book that's a liability. Overall grade: C+

http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4b88f2feca800

Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto on How the Star Trek Online Game and J.J. Abrams Movie are Creating a New Generation of Fans

Reuters posted an article on Star Trek Online game, with a few quotes from Star Trek

movie stars Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, who did voicework for the game. Here are excerpts from the article.

"I think this game has an opportunity to unify the 'Star Trek' fans, many of whom really are serious gaming fans, with those who aren't," said Quinto, who played Spock in J.J. Abrams' movie and voices a hologram medical doctor in the game.

"I think it's great to unify these two groups and give people the opportunity to engage each other and play with each other online and have the experience of the game together."

While Quinto's character guides players through a tutorial that covers the game, the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, narrates the online game.

"There are a lot of young people who never saw 'Star Trek' before who went to see this movie who are now interested in 'Star Trek,'" said Nimoy.

"I think there will be a number of them who will be interested in a video game

and a number of them who will be going back to the original episodes to take a look to see what the roots of all this is all about."

http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4b89293d66bca

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Star Trek XI’ Nominated For Six Saturn Awards

While no match for the Avatar juggernaut, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek still received six nominations for the Saturn Awards today.

According to the full list of nominations posted on the SF Site, Star Trek was nominated as Best Science Fiction Film, while both director J.J. Abrams and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were nominated in their respective categories. The full list of nominations for Trek, as well as the films it will be competing against, can be found below the jump:

Best Science Fiction Film

The Book of Eli
Knowing
Moon
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Best Director

J.J. Abrams (Star Trek)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes)
Zack Snyder (Watchmen)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Writing

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers (Where the Wild Things Are)
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (Star Trek)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Alex Tse, David Hayter (Watchmen)

Best Make-Up

Barney Burman, Minday Hall, Joel Harlow (Star Trek)
Joe Dunckley, Sarah Rubano, Frances Richardson (District 9)
Sarah Monzani (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (The Book of Eli)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (Drag Me to Hell)
Mike Smithson, John Rosengrant (Terminator: Salvation)

Best Production Design

Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg (Avatar)
Scott Chambliss (Star Trek)
Stuart Craig (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
Sarah Greenwood (Sherlock Holmes)
Philip Ivey (District 9)
Alex McDowell (Watchmen)

Best Special Effects
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicholas Aithadi, Tim Alexander – (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
John DesJardin, Peter G. Travers, Joel Whist, Jessica Norman – (Watchmen)
Volker Engel, Marc Weingert, Mike Vezina – (2012)
Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton – (Star Trek)
Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken – (District 9)
Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones – (Avatar)

http://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/02/star-trek-xi-nominated-for-six-saturn-awards/

'Star Trek' Star Walter Koenig Son's Andrew Koenig Still Not Found

It's now been 10 days since Growing Pains actor Andrew Koenig was last seen in Vancouver and unfortunately, he still hasn't been found. The Vancouver Police are currently conducting a massive search for the 41-year-old actor, following up on a "substantial" number of tips and though there haven't been any solid leads, at least one official believes that Andrew Koenig is still alive and well.

"Electronic information leads us to believe that Andrew is still in the Vancouver area," Constable Tim Fanning told RadarOnline.com. "We think Andrew is just lying low."

Andrew Koenig's disappearance, whether intentional or not, has caused his family and friends a great deal of anxiety, especially his 73-year-old father, Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, who has been appealing to cameras in an effort to find his missing son.

After the Star Trek actor made his first appearance on TV on the Today Show since his son went missing, he issued an emotional plea for Andrew to contact him.

"I just want to know you're OK," Walter Koenig said. "If it means you just want to stay here, that's OK. You don't have to come back. Just let us know that's your intention."

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/star-trek/star-trek-star-walter-koenig-s-34847.aspx

Star Trek's Walter Koenig Appeals to Today Show Viewers for Help Finding Son Andrew

In a perfect world, Andrew Koenig would just be beamed back to his family.

Sadly, the search for the Growing Pains actor continues and his former Star Trek-starring father is forced to open up about his 41-year-old son who's been missing for more than a week.

"It's very, very tough," Walter Koenig tells Today. "He was very depressed about his life."

His mother, Judy Levitt Koenig, hopes that the public's heartwarming concern brings him home.

"He is much loved and beloved in this world, and I just hope he gets that feeling," she says.

The family, including Andrew's sister, Danielle, who spoke to E! News yesterday, is doing everything they can to stay positive about his current state, praying he's not injured or worse.

"I don't want to think that way," Walter says. "I'm trying very hard not to think that way."

The erstwhile Pavel Chekov continues to urge anyone and everyone with information about Andrew to contact the authorities.

________

Anyone who has spotted Koenig or has information on his whereabouts is encouraged to contact the Vancouver police at 604-717-2534.

Missing Actor's Dad to Meet with Vancouver Cops

"Star Trek" star Walter Koenig -- father of missing "Growing Pains

" actor Andrew Koenig -- is leaving for Vancouver in a few hours to get briefed on the search for his missing son.

Walter tells TMZ his son's been depressed before ... but this is the first time he's straight up disappeared.

Walter and his wife plan to stay near Stanley Park, where their son was last seen on Valentine's Day.

Walter had been aware that Andrew cleaned out his Los Angeles apartment but had no idea his son planned to move to Vancouver ... which Andrew told friends before he disappeared.

According to Walter, Andrew told him he was only there to visit acting school friends.

Star Trek actor's son missing in Vancouver

Andrew Koenig, son of Walter Koenig who played Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series, failed to return to California after a trip to Vancouver. Andrew, who is also an actor, did not make his scheduled flight home on Feb. 16th. Friends reported him missing two days later.

Police say the actor, who once had a recurring role on the show "Growing Pains", was visiting friends in West Vancouver at the time of his disappearance. Koenig is very familiar with Vancouver because he once lived here. He was seen at a bakery near Stanley Park on Valentine's day but no one has seen or heard from him since.

Walter Koenig's website had this: If you've seen Andrew since February 14th, PLEASE contact Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534

Koenig received a letter from his son that sounded despondent. He says that there is no particular event causing Andrew's depression but that it had been building for some time.

Today's social media might have a hand in finding the missing man. "Andrew Koenig" is a trending topic on Twitter. Messages about the actor have been retweeted hundreds of times. Some famous people, including Star Trek alumni are spreading the word:

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher): I was hoping it was a hoax, but it's not: Andrew Koenig has been missing in Vancouver since 2/14.

Brent Spiner (Data): Walter Koenig's son is missing, last seen in Vancouver. If you see Andrew Koenig, please call 604-717-2534

Sarah Silverman: ANDREW KOENIG was last seen in VANCOUVER on Feb 14. If you know his whereabouts, tweet

Alyssa Milano: MISSING: Andrew Koenig missing since 2/14 in Vancouver.

Felicia Day: Andrew Koenig(who I know from improv) missing since 2/14 in Vancouver. PLS RT

Holly Robinson Peete: Hope they find Andrew Koenig - worked with him on 21 Jump Street first season

Hopefully Andrew will be found safe and sound soon.

http://www.examiner.com/x-37172-Vancouver-Olympics-City-Guide-Examiner~y2010m2d22-Star-Trek-actors-son-missing-in-Vancouver

Qmx Announces New Star Trek Movie Badges

According to TrekMovie.com, replica maker Quantum Mechanix announced their first available retail products from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie - four replica badges. Here is an excerpt of their report.

According to TrekMovie, Qmx worked with Paramount on a special exclusive Blu-ray set for Best Buy, which included a set of four replica badges. So the only way to get the badges was with that set, until now. Today Qmx announced the badges (the same ones from the exclusive Best Buy Blu-ray set) will be available for retail, sold separately for $9.95 each.

According to TrekMovie, Qmx also have plans for a model of the new U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701, a phaser and little statues.

http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/02/22/Qmx-Announces-New-Star-Trek-Movie-Badges.shtml

William Shatner to star in new CBS pilot

CBS has commissioned a pilot starring William Shatner as an angry old man, according to reports.

The veteran Star Trek actor plays a real man, who has become well-known for his son Justin Halpern's Twitter account , which is called 'S**t My Dad Says'.

Currently untitled, the planned sitcom adaptation will be penned by Halpern and his long-time writing partner Patrick Schumacker.

Followers of the online account have already surpassed a million, and a book on the same subject is forthcoming.

"Even though he already was like, [censored] do it!" Halpern said. "He just doesn't want to have to support me when I'm older," Halpern told the Los Angeles Times.

Max Mutchnik and David Kohan (Will & Grace) are producing the show, which will also focus on unemployment.

http://www.digitalspy.com/ustv/news/a204350/william-shatner-to-star-in-new-cbs-pilot.html

Music from Star Trek, Star Wars and Dr Who to be performed by Liverpool Phil

EXPECT to be fired into the stratosphere when the RLPO presents an Out of This World afternoon next month.

The event at the Philharmonic Hall is one of the RLPO’s series of Family Concerts aimed at getting youngsters interested in classical music and live orchestras.

The programme includes music from Dr Who, a musical tribute to Star Trek, as well as music from Star Wars.

Mankind’s giant leap is remembered and the orchestra pays a visit to our nearest planetary neighbour with a movement from Holst’s Planets Suite.

Concertgoers are encouraged to come in their best outer space gear for a truly intergalactic experience.

The concert is presented by the irrepressible Alasdair Malloy, a percussionist by trade who has dedicated much of his musical career to enthusing the next generation of music lovers.

He also runs the Phil’s Schools Concerts series.

“It’s extraordinary,” he says. “There’s no doubt the RLPO plays to more children than any other orchestra in the UK, if not Europe.

“For me I think a successful family concert should have all the same things as a successful family day out. Like a theme park for example – the moment you wake up the children are excited.

“Then the event itself should have all these elements of excitement and surprise and discovery.

“Then afterwards you have the shared experience as a family and with any luck you’re going to talk about it.”

Alasdair may be based in London, but he says the Philharmonic Hall is “a wonderful place.

“There’s a definitely a sense of occasion as you arrive. But I’ve also gone to the very back of the balcony to see how it feels and you still have a feeling of intimacy and that it’s special.”

Add in the fact that you can see some of the best musicians in the country for as little as £5, and the fact it’s all, in Alasdair’s words, “great fun” and you can expect a cracking family afternoon out.

Out of This World is at 2.30pm on Sunday, March 7. Tickets are £5 for children and £7-12 for adults, on 0151 709 3789

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/02/22/music-from-star-trek-star-wars-and-dr-who-to-be-performed-by-liverpool-phil-100252-25884162/

Get Yourself a Signed Star Trek Tricorder

If you have ever felt like prancing around in a lycra jumpsuit, basted in a thin coat of sparkly gold paint, which I know you have., then this Star Trek Gadget could make a great addition. Well when you get that urge to L.A.R.K about, you might want to consider accessorizing with this nifty little gizmo. ‘Ha, of course I have a tricorder!’ I hear some of you say, despite the fact that my speakers are turned off…and you don’t have a microphone. Well putting that freakish spout of telekenisis aside, you probably don’t have a tricorder signed by Mr Brent Spiner, the actor who played Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I used to, but I miss read tricorder as trifle and ate it…tasted like Gagh…and I hate Klingon food.

As well as brandishing a signature from everyone’s favorite synthetic psychopath, this awesome slice of Trekkie goodness also comes with a unique serial number and is limited to a production line of a measly 1000 units, worldwide. The Star Trek Starfleet Mark IX Tricorder Signature Edition Replica is based on patterns supplied by the original prop maker and comes complete with sound effects and some mesmerizing, LED light effects. It measures in at; 4-inches tall and 3 1/2-inches wide, crafted out of high quality, die-cast plastic. This particular model is based on the TR-590 series, which replaced the TR-580 model that was used in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And to ensure that you’ll never get laid, you can perch it on your mantle piece using the display stand included in the pack. You’re going to have to dig deep into the pockets of your Starfleet issue uniform if you want one though. Priced at $348.99, this baby is gonna set you back more than a bit of loose change. If you want a holster to wing its way to you along with this shiny new toy, you can expect to add another $20 to that price tag.

For those of you that aren’t ‘down’ with the Trek — The tricorder is an invaluable scanning device, which allows away teams to check atmospheric condition, unusual minerals and pick up life-signs when exploring new worlds. It also comes with a variety of other useful functions, acting as a universal translator and being able to link with several other tricorders in order to form a powerful computer network. A handy little contraption, and a must for any Starfleet officer.

If you’re one of those impulse buy folks, and have already decided that you’ve got to have one, you can pick it up along with Captain Kirk Chair or the Star Trek phaser which is the best thing since cap guns.

Star Trek Online: Fans Ask About Skills

The latest Star Trek Online edition of 'Ask Cryptic' is now up on the official site. This time, devs answer questions about skills. Check it out!

Liquidisim: The starship skills such as Heavy Escort, do those carry thru to higher level ships such as fleet escort. If they apply only to t3 ships, then there is no point in having those skills come endgame.

There is hardly no point, though these skills currently become less useful in the endgame. However, we are in the process of changing this. All ship skills will grant some bonus to the ship above it. So an Assault Cruiser will benefit from Starship Captain, Cruiser Captain, Heavy Cruiser Captain, Exploration Cruiser Captain and Assault Cruiser Captain, but it will get the most benefit from Assault Cruiser Captain Skill. So if you want to maximize your Assault Cruiser, you will need all those skills. Note, the Assault Cruiser will not gain any benefit from the Star Cruiser Captain skill and vice-versa. The bonuses only affect ships upwards along the tree, not laterally.

SquidheadJax: Without the ability to expand our skills indefinitely, how is continuing to earn Bridge Officer SP even relevant, since our captain's skills won't be able to expand to make them useful?

As you gain levels, you can recruit more bridge officers. This allows you to have much more variety in the higher levels, with what officers you're using at stations, and on your away team. Furthermore, bridge officers come in different "quality" levels, much like items. More rare Bridge Officers have more traits and better abilities. Continuing to gain Bridge Officer skill points allows you to train-up brand new officers of a higher (rarer) quality, or use them to improve the skills of your existing Bridge Officers. As you improve your roster of Bridge Officer, and acquire new ships, you will learn new ways to combine them all and optimize your build. Also, look for a Bridge Officer Trading system soon.

http://www.warcry.com/news/view/98479-Star-Trek-Online-Fans-Ask-About-Skills

New German Cover for First Book in the Star Trek Destiny Trilogy

Defcon Treklit posted a draft cover for Cross Cult's German edition of Star Trek Destiny Gods of Night, the first novel in the Destiny trilogy written by David Mack. The cover features Captain Ezri Dax of the U.S.S. Aventine and Captain Erika Hernandez of the Columbia NX-02.

A larger version of the cover can be found at Defcon Treklit and 8of5's Guide to the Trek Collective.

http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/02/20/New-German-Cover-for-First-Book-in-the-Star-Trek-Destiny-Trilogy.shtml

Bakula As Part of Star Trek Legacy

Scott Bakula, currently starring on TNT’s Men of a Certain Age with Ray Romano and Andre Braugher, spoke about J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek and his own contribution to the Star Trek legacy, as well as Quantum Leap’s fan base and modern social media.

Even though his time on Star Trek: Enterprise is in the past, Bakula still feels that he is part of the ongoing Star Trek story. “You’re part of the lore and history of this forty-five year or so legacy. I don’t think there’ll ever be anything like it again and I have to say I’m honored to have been a part of it.’

Bakula022210 Like many other Star Trek actors, Bakula took time to see the latest Star Trek movie, and he gave his opinion on it as well as the performance of Chris Pine, the newest Star Trek captain. “I saw the movie last summer and thought he [Pine] was fantastic,” said Bakula. “I though the movie was fantastic; I thought they did an incredible job of creating a new franchise for the studio. I thought it was great.”

Bakula also spoke about another popular series on which he worked, Quantum Leap. It didn’t take long into the Quantum Leap series until Bakula realized how passionate the fan base for the show was. “I think we knew by the end of the first nine episodes, the first half season that aired, that we had a passionate fan base because the fans basically kept us on the air,” Bakula explained. “When they switched us to Wednesday nights they made a big announcement and rallied the troops, back in the old days before there were emails and Twitters to use; the news went out the old fashioned way, in newspapers.”

“We knew we had a strong fan base but I kind of marvel that we’re almost twenty-one years since we went on the air and as I go around the world, the amount of people that are still coming up and acknowledging the show is kind of amazing,” said Bakula. “I don’t think any of us anticipated that.”

Nowadays, fans have new technologies to keep up with their favorite actors and shows and the days of letters have given way to Twitter and Facebook. “It’s just so different now,” said Bakula. “When Chuck was making a big appeal to their fans they have access to this new way to reaching people that we never used to have. I remember NBC made a commercial with Warren Littlefield where they dumped letters on top of him throughout the commercial and he was like, ‘Alright, alright, we’re bringing Quantum Leap back.’ The idea of using that image of dumping letters on the head of a network in this day and age is just antiquity.”

http://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/02/bakula-as-part-of-star-trek-legacy/

Star Trek: The Next Generation' Webcomic Recaps by Jess Fink

As fans of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" are likely well aware, the much-beloved (and arguably best) series in the Star Trek franchise's history is still in syndication on the Syfy, and we're still DVRing every episode in hopes that perhaps there's one that we missed -- an episode that could still be new to us, over 15 years later.

But for comics artist Jess Fink, who has never watched the series before, every episode is new, and she's been making mini-recap comics as she winds her way through the legendary space exploration show, starting in the middle of the third season with "The Offspring," and moving on to "Allegiance," "The Most Toys," "The Wounded," "Sins of the Father," "The Mind's Eye" and "Redemption."

Her blog is worth dropping on your RSS feed for the TNG recaps alone, but as a warning/inducement, be aware that Fink is also the creator of some highly sexy comics -- including the erotic steampunk comic "Chester 5000 XYV" soon to be collected by Top Shelf -- so not all parts of the site are safe for work, though they remain safe for hotness.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/02/22/star-trek-the-next-generation-webcomic-recaps-by-jess-fink/

Star Trek Online Patch Released

Looks like Star Trek Online got a bit of patch action today. Here are the release notes:

We’ve addressed an issue where some Bridge Officer powers were not getting slotted properly when you trained new powers. This update will address and attempt to place powers in the proper rank slots the next time your character logs in.
The special item Red Matter Capacitor now properly triggers its cooldown when you have two so that they cannot be stacked.
Fixed an interact in the Rashana Base that would not work if you did the objectives out of order.
French and German Remote Contacts now work properly and should not have garbled HTML tags anymore.
The traffic controller who allowed access on Starbase 39 was not doing the job very well. We’ve made adjustments so that players are always able to beam down regardless of what missions are sending you there.
A remote contact was prematurely giving out the mission for the upcoming Deep Space 9 Fleet Action which has not been pushed to release yet. Players should no longer be offered this mission until the Fleet Action is pushed in an upcoming update.
Daily missions were recently updated to reset 24 hours since taking the mission. We’ve reduced this to 20 hours since taking the mission to allow time for players to complete the missions around the same time every day.
Players who had selected Escorts during the Captain promo mission were unable to clear the mission after getting their ship. This fix prevents this from happening again but does not retroactively fix players with this mission already in progress. Fix for players stuck with this mission unable to complete is coming soon.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/53314/Star-Trek-Online-Patch-Released

Casting Call: If Family Guy Does Star Trek

In light of the DVD release of Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side, we've decided to take a look at what we would want to see if the Seth MacFarlane and company decided to make a full-episode Star Trek parody.

What Movie?

With so much material to choose from, the first question to ask is what movie should be parodied?

While it would be tempting to re-imagine J.J. Abrams' recent reboot of the franchise, it would definitely be funnier to take a stab at some of the older installments. While Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would be an obvious choice; we've already seen quite a few references to this movie on Family Guy.

Instead, we'd pick the highly successful Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as our film to parody instead. The movie had broad appeal, and even non-Trekkers would be able to relate to this retelling.

The Cast

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Family Guy Star Wars parodies has been the clever casting choices made. It's amusing to see which Family Guy character gets chosen to represent each Star Wars icon. With the Star Trek crew, the casting choices are even more difficult.

Captain Kirk
Who We'd Cast: William Shatner (Seth MacFarlane's version)

Who better to play Kirk than Shatner? While it would be incredibly amusing to see The Shat reprise his role himself, it's not certain he'd be willing to do this. If not, there's always Seth MacFarlane's representation who's appeared in a few Family Guy episodes already, and would be the obvious choice for Captain Kirk in any Star Trek parody.

Spock
Who We'd Cast: Quagmire

He's definitely got the look, but a serious attitude adjustment would be needed. Of course, Spock wasn't quite himself for most of this movie, and he does spend most of the movie in that lounge-y Vulcan nightgown – so maybe Quagmire could fit right in.

Scotty
Who We'd Cast: Peter Griffin

While Peter would in no way have the aptitude to make an Enterprise engineer, he does look a bit like James Doohan did in this movie. The main reason why he'd be a great choice would be to hear him do the "hello computer" line where he tries to talk into the mouse, when visiting an aluminium plant. If memory serves, the computer used was a Mac, so there's the obvious Apple gags that can be thrown in as well.

Dr. Gillian Taylor
Who We'd Cast: Lois Griffin

Lois would be the obvious choice for Kirk's love interest in this movie. Not only does she look the part, but she'd definitely be able to pull off the motherly role of protecting the humpback whales.

Sulu
Who We'd Cast: Stewie Griffin

Sulu doesn't get to do too much in this movie, but he does get to fly a helicopter. While it might seem a bit limiting for Stewie, we're sure the writers could find a way to expand his scenes and make this interesting.

Dr. McCoy
Who We'd Cast: Brian Griffin

Brian's definitely got the right attitude to be Dr. McCoy. His overt cynicism and disdain for social injustices would make him fit right in. His highlight scene in this remake would be at the hospital where he gets to argue with a doctor on how to treat an injured Chekov.

Uhura
Who We'd Cast: Donna Tubbs (From The Cleveland Show)

Donna would be the most obvious choice to play Uhura. She looks the part, and would get the chance to hang out with Chekov in search of "Nuclear Wessels."

Chekov
Who We'd Cast: Chris Griffin

Could Chris Griffin pull off a fake Russian accent? Why not! He'd make a good Chekov and would be fun to see getting interrogated on a warship while being asked about his "ray gun."

George and Gracie
Who We'd Cast: Meg Griffin and Adam West

In the spirit of other creature-based casting choices for Meg in the Star Wars parodies, she and Adam West would be an absurd enough combination to play the two time-travelling humpback whales.

http://tv.ign.com/articles/106/1067311p1.html

Star Trek The Motion Picture : Remembering Persis Khambatta and Lt. Ilia

Continuing our retrospective on the 30th anniversary of Star Trek The Motion Picture, TrekWeb presents excerpts of a rare interview with the late actress and former Miss India Persis Khambatta, who played Deltan navigator Lt. Ilia in the 1979 Star Trek movie directed by Robert Wise.

The interview was published in the now cancelled Star Trek Communicator magazine, issue Issue 120. (Dec 1998/Jan 1999) and it is presented here as part of our "Archives Interviews" series of articles.

Here are excerpts of the last interview with Ms Khambatta, who died on August 18 1998 at the age of 49 from a massive heart attack.

When you were cast as Ilia, the role originally was for the never-made Star Trek II television series, right?

Yes. I had signed a contract for five years with the TV series. There were something like 600 actresses who had tested for the role. Paramount and Gene Roddenberry sort of gave me 10 out of 10. There were a lot of women with hair that looked really stunning, but when you remove the hair they somehow lose the look. Basically, they had asked me if I would shave my head or wear a bald cap. I said look, if you are doing a series for five years I would want to shave my hair because I would go bald with all the gum and glue from the bald cap. Besides, a bald cap would have never looked real.

You had a beautiful head of hair. It sounds like you were just ready to shave it all off for the part.

I didn't have a problem with it at all. If they say, "Persis, you have to shave your head," it's just part of my work. If I want to do the part I will do it. I did not think it was going to look bad.

When they shaved my hair, Fred Phillips, who was our make-up man, (director) Robert Wise, Nichelle Nichols and everybody were all there watching as my hair was shaved off. I later saw in a film that they had shot of it that Fred Phillips was crying. I had told them to cover all the mirrors with newspaper.

Were you disappointed that Star Trek, and with it your role, jumped to the big screen instead of landing onTV?

I was thrilled, because I like the big screen and I could then move on to the next thing. It was the biggest break for me. In a way, though, I wish it had been a TV series because then you are working for five years.

As if the shaved head wasn't stunning enough, that costume you wore in the film basically left you half naked through most of it. (Laughs)

That outfit I worn in Star Trek, the white one, it was my idea. I was supposed to wear one of those same gray uniforms. I said, "Look, give me something white. Give me a pantsuit with something that has a little collar to it." So they did. I then walked into Gene Roddenberry's office and pulled the pants off. I said to Majel and Gene, "Listen guys, I've got the best legs, so why don't you use them!" (Laughs) You see, being bald and wearing that gray starship uniform, I would have looked like a boy. I wanted to look like a sexy female.

It sounds like your time on the film was fun. What was your relationship with Bill Shatner like on the set?

Everybody was saying, "Listen, you are going to have a rotten time with this guy, so be careful." But if you say, "Oh, God, he's going to be terrible," you only put a vibe on it and create that negative energy. Maybe I'm being philosophical and spiritual, but I believe that if you put negative energy out there that that is what will come back. I realize now as I look back on it that perhaps it was his own insecurity.

Creative people are very insecure people because they don't know whether people like them or are in awe of them. That insecurity always comes out. It makes them a better actor, I feel.

What do think of Star Trek's success since that first film?

I think it deserves the success. I don't think anybody made science fiction as well as Gene Roddenberry. That man's thoughts! I don't know where he got his thinking from. He was blessed. I mean, every Star Trek episode you saw was just phenomenal. Gene Roddenberry was a genius. I've got him in a framed picture right here in front of me. He wrote on it, "To my dream alien..." There was nobody like him. He was a lovely person.

The full interview can be found on issue 120 of the Star Trek Communicator magazine.

http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4b8490bd54e75

Clip of the Day: RARE FOOTAGE OF FIRST 'STAR TREK' REUNION SURFACES ONLINE!

LOCATION: The Enterprise

THE SKINNY: Technically speaking, nothing is "rare" once it appears online, but when you consider that until recently this footage only existed on 8mm film, you can be sure that it was pretty rare before it got transferred.

The footage shows one of the earliest STAR TREK conventions following the show's cancellation in 1969, and features the first full reuinion of the cast, including Leonard "I am not Spock!" Nimoy.

Here's how TrekMovie.com describes the clip:

The film below comes from Star Trek Chicago '75, held at the Hilton hotel in Chicago, August 22-24, 1975. 16,000 fans attended the event. The below YouTube video (courtesy of broadbarn.com) was recently transferred from the 8mm film. The short film features the appearances of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Walter Koenig, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols (with quite the 70s fro), and Arlene Martel (T'Pring "Amok Time"), all appearing on a recreation of the USS Enterprise bridge. There is no sound, but Rich Portnoy, who shot the film, provides a narration.

http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp?article=9371

Star Trek MMO Log: The Final Frontier

In this, my final MMO Log for Star Trek Online, I desperately claw my way through PVP combat and missions based on classic Trek episodes in my quest to make it to commander rank before the series ends.

I want a new ship. That was my ending thought in the third Star Trek MMO Log, and it’s how I begin this one. All of my efforts in this final week’s worth of playing are focused on that one goal. Will I make it? The suspense is killing me!

Tuesday, February 16, 10pm Eastern

This is it. Bolstered by the determination I exhibited in my previous MMO log, I am ready to log on tonight and start shooting my way towards Commander rank. As I’ve explained previously, Star Trek levels are divided into ranks. Levels one through 10, for instance, are Lieutenant rank. Once you hit 11, you are technically a Lieutenant Commander zero, until you spend skill points. They you are officially a Lieutenant Commander one.

Each rank affords you a new ship, more crew spaces, and lots of new places to put weapons and other devices, so gaining rank is a huge thing in Star Trek Online.

Right now I am a Lieutenant Commander four. I have a long way to go.

And little motivation to get there it seems, at least this evening. I tool around a bit, talk to the guild, rearrange my equipment, and wander off to watch television. Not a good start.

Friday, February 19, 1am

Those of you handy with numbers might have noticed a bit of a temporal jump there. Due to personal issues, I couldn’t make it online on Wednesday and most of Thursday, despite my best intentions. Now it’s time to make up for that.

It’s late at night, and I need sleep, so I decide to try and complete a quest I have that requires me to take place in a ground fleet action. Until now, I’ve only participated in space fleet actions, in which massive numbers of players take on massive amounts of powerful enemies from the safety of their very large spaceships. Now I have to beat feet with Starfleet.

Unlike normal ground missions, in a fleet action it’s just you without your crew, teaming up with a large group of other players in order to accomplish some ground-based goal. In this case, we had to take out Klingon scouts encroaching on a Federation dig site or something. Then we have to jam communication signals. Finally, we have to defend the camp until a timer runs out. Once the timer finishes, awards are doled out to the top performers in the Federation group.

I’ve not done the best job maintaining my ground equipment. Luckily for me, these folks have.

In space fleet actions, it’s easy to find yourself alone against incredible odds. In this particular ground action, we find safety in numbers, tearing through the Klingon forces with nary a problem.

As I arrived late and didn’t have the best weapons, I didn’t win an award, unless you count the joy that comes from camaraderie as a reward.

Me neither. It’s bedtime.

Friday, 8am

They say sleep is for the sleepy. Apparently not.

I wake up early, eager to get a jump on some of the exciting-looking story missions I have lined up on the path to becoming a Commander. One, called The City on the Edge of Never, I’ve been told is particularly Trek-worthy, but first I have to complete its pre-requisite.

Technically I don’t have to. Both missions are open and available, but when I see the description of something occurring in one mission included in the next, I like to go in order.

The prequel mission is called The Ultimate Klingon. A geneticist by the name of Amar Singh, a follower of the teachings of one Khan Noonian Singh, is working on biologically enhancing the Klingon and the Gorn in order to create a powerful master race, just as Khan tried to do with humans in the past.

The fiend! I rush to the Korvat system, which lies in the reddish Klingon section of space. The members of my fleet are not amused by me typing “Little Red Korvat – woo-hoo!” in our chat channel. Hmph.

Once we find Singh’s base, it’s a simple matter of watching my crew members being tossed about by augmented Klingon and Gorn troops while I crouch and hit the fire rifle hot key over and over again. We confront the mad scientist, he sics two giant Gorn on us, we shoot them dead and take the misguided soul into custody.

Case closed… or is it? Time for work!

Friday, 9pm

(Editor’s Note: If don’t want to spoil one of the best missions in the game, skip down to Saturday’s entry.)

The City on the Edge of Never kicks off with a mission to rendezvous with the USS Kirk, which has been involved in thwarting several Klingon attacks on medical bases in the past few weeks. It turns out Amar Singh was working with a Klingon Ambassador named B’vat, and the two expressed interest in time travel.

As we arrive at the rendezvous, we find the Kirk under Klingon attack, led by B’vat himself. What could he want with the Kirk? After waging a firefight through the bowels of the ship, we discover his target: Miral Paris, the daughter of Star Trek: Voyager’s Tom Paris and half-Klingon B’Elanna Torres. In that television series it was revealed that certain Klingons think Miral is the kuvah’magh, a Klingon savoir figure. Obviously B’vat is a believer. He kidnaps Miral and beams back to his ship. We give chase.

B’vat leads us to a strange, quarantined planet in a remote system, where one of the Federation’s greatest secrets lies – the Guardian of Time. Oh yes, we’re going to do the time warp.

We beam down to the planet, fighting our way through Klingon ground troops, but it is too late – B’vat and Miral have gone through the portal. The Guardian speaks to us, with voice acting, which is a nice touch, tasking us with flying our ship through a time portal and setting the past right.

We emerge in the year 2270, and B’vat is helping some ancient Klingon ships take on a similarly ancient Federation vessel. It’s the U.S.S. Enterprise! Kirk’s USS Enterprise!

That dirty Klingon was going to kill off Kirk in the past, but with our aid the Enterprise survives, and B’vat flees. Spock, voiced by Leonard Nimoy himself, hails us, asking for identification. Fearing a temporal paradox, we give chase to B’vat instead.

Once we catch up with B’vat’s ship we board her, and are greeted by a very odd welcoming committee.

Smooth-headed Klingons fighting alongside ridge-headed Klingons. It’s like old-home week!

After a desperate battle through the Klingon vessel, we come face-to-face with B’vat… but this isn’t Ambassador B’vat. It’s his younger, smooth-headed self. In a brilliant bit of classic Trek writing, young B’vat questions how his older self became so bitter, asking my crew and I to give his older self the honourable death in combat he so desires.

Not a problem.

B’vat goes down, and we head back to the Guardian in order to head home, but damn if those Klingons didn’t set a trap for us. Several waves of enemy ships attack, wanting to dissect our ship to gain advantage over the Federation with future technology. When all seems lost…

…here comes the Enterprise! With Spock’s help we dispatch the attackers with shielding left to spare. Hailing us one last time, Spock explains that he is familiar with time travel, and that we should get going. We pass through the Guardian one more time, the past is saved, and I sit back in my chair with a huge grin on my face.

This mission might have just made the entire game for me. Everything about it was simply perfect. If Star Trek Online fails for some reason, this mission will always be remembered.

Before I go to bed, I spend about an hour trying to take on the Crystalline Entity. A massive creature that appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, in Star Trek Online it returns as a giant, mobile raid boss that no one can agree how to kill.

Entering into the zone with the creature, I am greeted by duelling lines of chat in the zone box. Some say I should target the Entity and ignore the countless crystal shards coming off of it, chasing ships and exploding for massive damage. Others say I should shoot the crystals before they return to the Entity, healing it. I fly around for about an hour, firing on the Entity and avoiding the shards. We get it down to 25% health, and then it regenerates up to 80% again.

Accusations are thrown, people log off, and I decide it is time for bed. I’m still only a Lieutenant Commander six, and I’ve got a long way to go.

Saturday, February 20, 10am

My girlfriend has a lunch appointment, so I kick back and boldly go places for a few hours. I take on a mission that involves The Doomsday Machine, an original series episode about a gigantic weapon that looks like a dried slug with no head.

Following up on a previous mission, I locate some advanced weapons the Klingons are stockpiling – special, ultra-destructive torpedoes. After sneaking through a nebula to beam down onto a planet, I take out several Klingon squads and confiscate four of the projectiles. Beaming back up to the ship, the Doomsday Device appears, as dried and slug-like as ever, as you can see in the picture at the top of this article.

I have to fly through a destroyed planet’s core to charge the torpedoes, and use them four times on the Doomsday Machine. It’s pretty much a cakewalk. So much for Doomsday. And look, the girlfriend is home, with food. I’ve heard good things about food.

Sunday, February 21, 3pm

This is it. I promised myself I would get Commander this week, and with my time on Monday and Tuesday severely compromised, this is the only day I have left to make four more levels and earn my Commander’s stripes, or pips.

Moving on from Klingon space, my newer missions mainly deal with the Romulan threat. I perform a quick delivery mission, a few station-based fetch quests, and then I face my first major issue with the missions in Star Trek Online.

A Starfleet Admiral believes that a remote Romulan outpost is manufacturing weapons in order to stage an invasion of Federation space, and she wants my ship to go investigate. That’s fine, no problem.

I’m slightly unnerved by the fact that she accompanies us on the mission, standing stoically behind me as my crew blasts their way through Romulan guards towards the base’s computer.

According to the computer, all the base is manufacturing is medical supplies, which makes me feel like utter shit. I killed all of these scientists and there were no weapons of Federation destruction onboard?

The Admiral is nonplussed, assuring me that once I’ve been fighting the Romulans as long as she has, that I’d know they were hiding weapons here.

OK, first – ripped from the headlines much?

Second – at this point, if I had any choice in the matter, I would have left. I certainly wouldn’t have continued butchering innocent scientists, only to be called out by the Romulan Commander at the end for being a heartless butcher.

After we kill the Romulan, the Admiral reveals herself as a shape shifter, hoping to start a war between the Federation and the Romulans.

We do battle, she morphs into the dead Romulan Commander and beams out. I am far too pissed at the outcome of this mission to continue playing today. Scripted content is fine, until you force the player to do something he or she doesn’t want to do.

I feel better after eating a sandwich, but I’m still a rather surly Lieutenant Commander eight. Three more levels, and an attitude. Sounds like it is time to PVP.

I have a repeatable PVP mission, which gives me substantial experience for every five Federation versus Klingon death match-type games I take part in. Losing a round I make half a bar of experience (there are ten bars per level). Winning I earn a full bar. It’s time to turn on grinding mode.

From around 5.30pm to 11.30pm, I participate in round after round after round of PVP, earning skill points, experience and the admiration of my peers. Perhaps it is my weapon selection, my chosen skills, or my Escort-class ship, but I’m consistently on top of the damage charts every round I play.

Unless the Klingons swarm and the Federation doesn’t party-up. In that situation, where the enemies are picking us off one at a time, I fly around in circles outside of the range of the attackers. Sometimes I sing a little song while doing so.

At 11.34pm, I cross the threshold into Lieutenant Commander eleven. Spending my skill points, I graduate to Commander one. I trans warp back to Earth Space Dock, and soon I’m in my brand-new ride.

Behold the USS Titanic. Long may she sail.

The Game So Far

This week was one of highs and lows. Star Trek Online continues to wow me in terms of fan service, with references to all versions of the television series littered liberally throughout the universe. To be able to walk in the footsteps of the great Captains and crews from the series is an amazing feeling, and when those footsteps cross with your own, the experience sings.

As much fun as I had with the story missions, I was disappointed with that one Romulan mission, and the fact that grinding PVP content was a faster way for me to progress than through normal missions doesn’t seem right. I’m a fan of a PVP system with its own rewards, separate from your standard earning of experience points. In other words, as little as I played this week, I shouldn’t have made it to Commander rank.

But I have, and I’ve got a feeling I will be continuing for quite some time. Until I’m the pilot of a Defiant class vessel, I will not be truly fulfilled.

I hope you all enjoyed these four instalments, and that you’ve gotten a good idea of how much time I’ve spent playing, along with how I spent my time with the game. Stay tuned Friday for Kotaku’s full review of Star Trek Online, and keep an eye out for the USS Titanic. It has a nasty habit of listing to one side.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/02/star-trek-mmo-log-the-final-frontier/