Mid-Titan: More of Eaglemoss' Unreleased Treasure Trove

Designed for a book cover in the mid-2000s, the USS Titan has since gone on to become almost as iconic a starship as the lead vessels in each Star Trek series.

Eaglemoss did produce a smaller bonus model in line with their regular collection back in 2017 which reflected the original Sean Tourangeau design (2005) for the Pocket Books competition which led to the book cover for Sword of Damocles. 

While Star Trek Online would enthusiastically include the Titan and therefore the Luna Class in its digital universe, the ship would only gain its first onscreen, canon, appearance in Lower Decks' season one finale, No Small Parts.

Featuring a radical new paint scheme and some other alterations for the animated series, the Titan made a big impression, receiving an XL model as part of the Eaglemoss collection. 

But there was more because along with the USS Cerritos and USS Vancouver (and apparently the Yosemite shuttle!), the Titan was to be featured in the Star Trek Universe series of mid-sized starships. This has now been dropped to the world thanks to Master Replicas finding a load of them in one of Eaglemoss' multiple warehouses and it's a blinder.

Doing away with the two tone flat grey colour scheme of the original model, the Lower Decks USS Titan explodes with colour. It retains the darker grey base coat but has the phaser bank arc in a striking blue with the recessed sections of the hull in a light purple/lilac that draws out the detail on the hull.

Comparing the two, the basic primary hull panelling is near identical although the lifeboat hatches are more defined. The paint scheme is the big winner in really bringing this model to life. Reflecting on the original, it might have been accurate but it was incredibly bland. The siing up has meant that lines have been crisped up and the markings especially behind the bridge just sit more prominently.

The number and alignment of windows has also been changed with those at the outer edge of the saucer moved closer to the lip and a second set now added inside the phaser ring where there was only one previously.

Note too that the registry is a more realistic size and less crammed into a tiny space between the phaser bank and the recessed hull detail. Even the NCC code has an added red border which was conspicuous by its absence on the original. Even the navigation lights have been added to the front, port and starboard positions on the saucer making this a superior replica at every step.

Ok, so this is the animated version so it is brighter and perhaps not the way it would be portrayed in a live action series but Eaglemoss have produced one of the most exciting and vibrant ships in their collection with the Titan. 

The pod sitting atop the saucer seems to be a little longer on this edition and has equally received a repainting with the recesses in blue rather than the inset squares. This did bear the navigation lights but only as painted on features while the mid-size version has them as raised elements. It has also gained an upgraded paint job with the panelling itself remaining unchanged in layout.

Moving back along the Titan, the lilac/grey split colouring continues and draws the rear lifeboats and shuttlebay doors out. Eaglemoss have added landing strip detail here as well which was absent previously.  The pylons now bear more lilac than grey and this is where the most updates seem to have occurred. The ridging on the pylons is now painted up and navigation lights added to the tops of the engines.

Eaglemoss retained the painted in warp engine grilles but the front of the nacelles have had a massive revamp as evident on screen. The tips are now slimmer and have lost the split casing in favour of much rounder sections connecting to the translucent bussard collectors.

With the pennants, the wording is more in line with the scale and "Starship" has been added before USS Titan with the red striping extending to the halfway mark. The registry to the rear is now in a more suitable font (as per main hull) with the red edging in place.  In every sense it's a big upgrade that sings of better precision and maybe half a decade of learnings from the series as a whole. 

If you think you can't love it any more, take a look underneath. The underside of the saucer is alive with colour and more rows of windows painted onto the raised panelling. The features once more mirror the original down to the number of lifeboat hatches and the lower sensor platform at the centre. The colours just work here even though there's probably no difference in the way that the panel levels are defined against the original. 

On the smaller version the paint wasn't too heavy so the detail wasn't lost as it had been on the issue six Voyager and it's just built on here. Importantly and something that is new is the separate piece used for the deflector dish. Not just a painted (poorly) circle now, the deflector is an individual section slotted into the front of the hull and the colour seems much more suitable. It's even in a translucent blue just to drive home the point.

The build overall is very solid with the main hull in metal linked to the plastic secondary hull, pod and engines. There don't seem to be any evident gaps or dodgy seams either which is very reassuring but also a gut punch since this was to have been one of the later models released. It showed a lot of love for Lower Decks and one of Star Trek's most interesting designs.

As with the engines, the pennants along the sides of the small secondary hull have been reworked and refined to a better scale. Yes, the original was constrictive when it came to the script but lessons have been learned and scale increased to produce one of my favourite models from the whole collection.

Yes, even I'm shocked I've gone that far but it truly is just exciting to look at from every angle and adds that "ping" that a shelf of grey starships might just need sometimes. If you can find one, get it, you won't regret it.

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Wings: Discovery's Klingon Bird of Prey

 Ah Discovery. Remember seasons one and two when it all went down? 

Yep, me too and I hope that in season five we'll get back to some of the quality that the first two batches of episodes provided.

For the time being though I can still gaze longingly at some of the models that were produced by the now-extinct Eaglemoss as I round out the last splatterings left in the "IN" pile. Oddly though it seems the right moment to look back since several sites are not selling these editions plus we have masterreplicas.com promising more on the way.

Now these are going to be older models that most people who followed the collection will have but for the sakes of my own completism and desire to ensure that everything from them I've got is documented, here are the last of the regular series Discovery ships I have.

These were actually purchased in that last gasp for breath sale the week before it all went Pete Tong and I had to pick quickly!

First up there's the rather impressive if unwieldy Bird of Prey. One of the things levelled against it is that it looks nothing like the classic design nor does it even come close to anything that's been seen since The Search for Spock, even in Enterprise. Still, it fits with the rest of the fleet - as it was designed to  and that's what counts. After all we're not reviewing the model design, more the model itself as a replica of what was on screen in both detail and construction quality.

The Bird of Prey is, honestly, one heck of a beautiful design for the show. From the front you can very clearly see the distinct shape of a classic version of the vessel but that's where the similarities tend to stop.

As we'll see in all the Discovery designs and models, the detail is mind-boggling. Just taking in the wing shape and features here is a task in itself. Aside from the dirt and weathering which is good but not overbearing,.

Constructed in metal, the curving wings have a very textured finish with ribbing extending from the centre of the ship out and just beyond the edges. These are distinctly raised on both the upper and lower surfaces and coloured bronze against the brown base coat. There's also a clever feathered effect at the wing edge which you just can't appreciate on a TV screen but certainly can here. That bronze edging is in evidence right across the Bird of Prey from the wings into the main body and then into the neck and head section. There's a distinct Gothic feel to the way in which this has been designed and that shows through in the model itself.

But there's also an organic piece to the Bird of Prey as running down the centre is a structure that can only be described as its spine replete with a protruding "bone" structure. Again, the detail is just magnificent although, when compared to the images in the magazine you can see that some of the higher level texturing has been lost to the weathering effect.

Some of the detail is there, notably along those feathered wing edges but into the main body the paint finish is smoother just as the bodywork itself tends to become more complex. 

The neck and head section are masterpieces when it comes to modelling with the translucent blue section touched up with bronze detail to seem an integral part of the vessel. There's something almost Alien (intentional capital) about the shape of the ship's body as if it would genuinely open up and strike out a razor sharp tongue. Everything about it says aggression and Eaglemoss managed to replicate its onscreen persona pretty closely.

Plastic models are unforgiving when it comes to cost though and sadly that real finishing texture that's so evident in the magazine does get lost a little. 

Where there is a bit of a tragedy is that these Discovery ships seem to have very little if any annotation to give you an idea of what parts are what. I can work out from the images that the wings do fold with the ship displayed in attack but what's the little piece that sits under the wings and has a piece of transparent blue at its centre? 

The design might look good but fans do want to know there's thought behind some of the features and why certain things are in set places - it's just the way they are!

The only real letdown as far as the Bird of Prey goes are the two forward facing antenna that are fairly obviously much larger than they should be. Any thinner and we'd be approaching Solar Sailor levels of delicate but these two protrusions are fairly solid. The ship is well put together with the metal and plastic sections both curving and meeting with very little indication towards the front of the sweep.

In the magazine the coverage of the design is the clear highlight with the first section only covering the Bird of Prey as part of the Klingon fleet and the actions they were used for in the first season of Discovery. At least with the design article there are a good chunk of pictures to illustrate the extensive work to create this new take on a classic starship. Even goes as far as working out the scale!

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Path Not Travelled: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D All Good Things Future Version

There was a ton of excitement when the subscriber gifts for the Official Starships Collection were announced. Along with the binders, Enterprise-D plaque and infamous light up Borg Cube, perhaps the most eagerly awaited was the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D as seen in the alternative future of All Good Things....

While this version would never come to pass in the Prime Timeline due to the destruction of the Enterprise in Generations, it proved to be an unforgettable arrival into the Star Trek starships canon.

The subscribers version was made on the same scale as the 180 issue "regular" collection but once Eaglemoss expanded into the XL line it was only a matter of time before it joined the series. Indeed, the second of the XLs had been the NCC-1701-D. 

In essence this is the XL-D with its future alterations so for the most part this is an absolutely identical finish to the model we've already reviewed. Indeed, lining them up it's very easy to see that the two are - at a basic level - identical.

The aztecing, the decals, the window alignment is bang on a copy but where we get exciting is in the extra parts that were attached for The Next Generation's seventh season finale.

On the top of the saucer we have the least updates to the design with the probe-like guns added either side of the bridge module and then what seems to be an additional torpedo launcher just behind it. The larger scale shows up the slight misalignment in the registry decals with the red border a few millimetres out to the right but aside from that there's nothing major to note here... unless we want to cover those pesky windows once more.

The three structures added to the dorsal side of the saucer might just be bolt-ons but they do mesh perfectly with the green/blue (duck egg) colour scheme of the ship overall. Following just how the original studio model was updated for the series, the All Good Things... Enterprise has the glue on third nacelle structure.

Stretching from the new impulse engine at the rear of the saucer, this element traverses the spine of the ship down the neck connection and along the Engineering hull before rising up to bear that prominent third nacelle. There is a good level of new detailing on here including what seem to be additional transporter emitters along the sides and a raft of new windows as well as continuations of the Starfleet pennant stripes.

Flip her over and the most evident addition is the huge phaser weapon slapped right down the centre line of the saucer. Ok, it does mean saucer separation is out of the question but for pure "wow" factor it nails it. Detail on this has been scaled up and comparing to screenshots of the episode, the colours and patterning appear to be aligned. What is good with the XL is that there's much more definition to the panelling on these extra pieces. Certainly with the cannon the muzzle area has had some nice upgrading and recessed areas although the fit to the hull on the saucer curvature is a little patchy.

All three nacelles feature the additional top "lumps" indicating a new, larger mould to accommodate those elements which add in new phaser placements and modified decals. The engines do retain their translucent blue and red inserts although on close inspection the joint lines are a bit gappy.

Moving just a little further back and the last of the mods to the ship is evident with the two wings dropping away from the curves of the pylons. This has to indicate the upper half of the Engineering hull is actually a different mould to the original since these are definitely part of the structure and not add ons as with the other All Good Things... upgrades.

The finish overall with the future Enterprise-D is superb and actually enhanced with all the clip on parts. The Eaglemoss model carries the original paint scheme on too with the third engine pylon and raised areas of the secondary hull actually blending seamlessly in regards to colour matching.

The magazine gives some brief coverage to the episode and the ship's appearance but the majority is dedicated to the development of All Good Things... as a story. Lining up after that is a short article on the new ships for the finale in the form of the Klingon starship that would become the Negh'Var and the USS Pasteur medical frigate.

Admittedly this is a bit of a "take it or leave it" XL given that the "real" Enterprise-D returned as seen in The Next Generation for Picard's final season. This might in turn just twist collectors to re-label the secondary hull of their XL to match its onscreen swansong. Good finish, lovely design and well executed. 

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Fair to Middling: USS Cerritos Unreleased!

Trying to find an XL USS Cerritos is becoming harder and harder.

Master Replicas have managed to secure just about every single last one on the planet but there was some good news when they revealed the existence of the mid-size Cerritos and USS Titan from Lower Decks.

Never released by Eaglemoss, these two are ship-only editions that would have (you suspect) launched the Lower Decks ship range as part of the Star Trek Universe series.

The Cerritos in either scale has been in considerable demand with both this and the XL selling out in minutes although some dodgy multi-orders have been noted by the Master Replicas team. Good to know they're all over it.

Based on the season one version of the ship, the Eaglemoss model doesn't have some of the higher detail that was added in subsequent seasons. It's a bit of a loss that there were never opportunities to upgrade the original build but we all know why that is.

The paint scheme for one is very simple. A plain grey base with blocked dark grey sections  and mid-level grey hull highlights dominate the top of the ship. Alignment of the mid-grey to the lifeboat hatches is pretty good, likely assisted by the scale since this is a relatively small ship in-universe. The windows are also painted on. I can ay no more because the alignment on the mid-size Cerritos is appalling. There's no other words for it because they are so off from their hull indents it's embarrassing. Was this a rush job at the end of the line knowing what was coming? Maybe it was but it ruins what is actually a decent replica.

Eaglemoss have, to their credit, added in the phaser strip with more precision and this almost totally encircles the saucer. The distinct Support Services yellow stripe also pops that touch of colour both on the dorsal and ventral sides of the ship 's primary hull and on the bottom of the engineering hull.. One can only assume that over time collectors would have been able to add ships with the red and blues of command and sciences to their shelves.  

To the rear of the hull is the plain and simple ship registry of USS Cerritos NCC-75567. This is the only place on the model and is in keeping with its onscreen counterpart. The reason for this is brilliant. Since the Cerritos is a support ship and more likely to be towing something, the registry was placed to the back rather than emblazoned on the front.

One thing I do like here is the unevenness of the mid-grey panelling. It's beautifully asymmetrical on the top and bottom of the saucer and Engineering section although that's not continued onto the warp engines. They mirror each other from the centre out but let's get to them momentarily.

On the underside there is some very slight misalignment of the grey highlights in regards to the four darker recesses but those are almost insignificant. The colour scheme works perhaps even more effectively here as it swirls around in three shades towards the centre of the primary hull.

Darting down to the pencil-shaped nacelles we have two industrial-looking struts. Given their size they do provide decent support for the engines. Oddly the two smaller pieces which connect to the tiny Engineering hull are patchily painted.

Nor do the engines contain any transparent elements for the bussard collectors or warp grilles. Everything is painted in here and in respect to the collectors that makes sense as there's a ton of detail around them leading into a darker grey piece before the lighter shades of the main bulk of the nacelle.

Maybe the translucent elements could have been painted as we have seen before however this choice gives the Cerritos a more "cartoon" and matt finish overall. The warp field grilles on the nacelles are fairly slim which may have dictated the choice to go 100% plastic with just the addition of a conspicuous Starfleet pennant towards the front.

The seemingly inaccessible Engineering hull finishes off the Cerritos with the same uneven patterning which is less evident onscreen than it is in reality (which is bizarre since there's actually no physical filming model of the Cerritos!). The deflector is finished in pastille shades which does look out of place and subdued when compared to the rest of this design. Why we've gone for a toned down effect here is a bit of a mystery given the bright glow that emanates from it in Lower Decks and if anything it detracts from the finish.

The stand fit for the Cerritos mid-size is secure although fitting the clear holder into the black base was one of the tightest connections ever to the point where I thought the force would snap something. 

This is a good replica but the choice to market it at exactly the same price as the XL (£59.99) remains a mystery. Yes, it will go with the mid-size Titan but again that's the same price as the XL edition Eaglemoss produced. Both of the mid-size are rare and clearly from the speed they sold the demand was there especially if collectors were unable to get hold of the XL. For note that did drop just two weeks later.

Nor is there a magazine with this one since it was produced and lost in the depths of Eaglemoss' multiple third party warehouses scattered across the globe. I think that finding all of these items may have been Ark of the Covenant level cubed at least.

We'll be comparing this to the XL shortly but at first impression and seeing why some of these were cancelled orders following its launch there really doesn't seem to be a reason to have this AND the larger edition. Personal opinion, choose one and go with it because they're going to be similar in detail with only size being the difference.

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NX XL: Enterprising Perfection

Even a decade later, the NX-01 model from the Eaglemoss Official Starships Collection remains one of its finest entries.

How would one even attempt to top it? After all, it exuded superb detail, brilliant build quality and, incredibly, it was less than a handful off issues into the 180 edition run.

The answer to that was fairly simple; make it bigger. While I was unable to get my hands on one of the NX-01 XLs back in the heyday of Eaglemoss, Master Replicas have given both myself and every Star Trek fan out there another bite at the apple so to speak. That's been true in this very case.

The Enterprise from, well, Enterprise is just as magnificent as it smaller counterpart which was also re-stickered up as the Mirror Universe version for the second of the bonus editions.

If you’re into collecting Enterprises then this one is a sure thing. The detailing on the hull is exquisite with the increased scale only adding to the package. Just on first glance there’s the shimmer of the aztec paintwork utilising that very slight tonal change to add real depth to the hull. 

But what makes this just so damn amazing? Well, initially that paint job works a little better with the contrasts not being so obvious and blocky. There's more definition around the RCS thrusters  at the edges of the saucer and significantly the golden elements including the bridge dome are brighter. The grille behind the bridge itself is now silver rather than gold and the "lined" detail on the shoulders has been removed with additional window detail dropped on.

Hull lines seem more precise and actually less prominent. Looking back on the original, the window details at the saucer edge are less blurred and there's a much cleaner curve and slope to the hull. On the smaller version the gradient is quite sharp and ugly but here there's a visual step to the lower rim. 

Out at the front the deflector isn't luminescent blue with the tones limited to the surround rather than bleeding out on to the silver edges of the surrounding metalwork. Same goes for the red and greens of the port and starboard lights which are much more exact in their finish, avoiding the slodgework of the regular issues.

Moving backwards there's little change apart from the upscaling and you can see that the XL is an enlargement of the original moulds. The pylon detail is much sharper with the larger bussard collectors and blue warp engine grilles allowed more space to add that pop of colour.

On the underside there are some noticeable updates. There are more windows and on the issue four version the black "dotting" was absent however some of it here has the standard misalignment we've come to love... or not. The lower sensor dome now has a full coat of paint replacing the worn/unfinished look of before. you might even be forgiven for thinking that the black decals to the front and on the port and aft registries has been darkened because it very evidently has.

Best upgrade has to go to the stand. The smaller one was prone to snapping and only formed a hairs-breadth fastening to the hull. In the XL box the clear holder now folds around the underside of the NX-01 rather than relying on a tiny piece of hull for support.

The magazine (hit and miss if you'll get one with the Master Replica releases) treads the territory of how Enterprise came to be as a prequel series and also the casting of the main crew of Earth's warp five starship.  As with a lot of the XL mags it feels hopelessly padded and really not one that will tempt you back for a reread anytime soon. To be honest when the model is as good as this one, why would you want to?!

This is another where there's not been a serious amount of reworking rather the scale up has allowed for more accuracy and touchups where required. If you've not managed to snag one by this point, time is running - or may have - run out. One of the best? Yes and even better that little bit bigger.

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Vup To Something: Actor Dominic Burgess

PLEASE NOTE THIS INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BEFORE THE CURRENT ACTORS STRIKE IN THE US

How many people can say that they have appeared in both Doctor Who and Star Trek?

You might jump immediately to mention Simon Pegg however there’s another name you should consider - Dominic Burgess.

Zapped by the Ann Droid during the first season of the Russell T Davies BBC reboot in 2005, Burgess would also add appearances in Batman Begins, The Flash and Agents of Shield to encompass the DC and Marvel universes plus a ton of others and more to come!

Hailing from my own neck of the woods in Stoke on Trent, Dominic would attend secondary school and go on to theatrical school before branching into TV and movies. Indeed, our conversations revealed a similar trend in TV viewing - Thunderbirds, Terrahawks, Knight Rider,  Lost in Space and The X-Files to name but a few. We may have diverted into memories of collecting VHS releases for the latter and THAT cliffhanger with Mulder in the buried box car. 

How about telling the Head of the National Theatre that your favourite media experience of the year had been Fellowship of the Ring and not Hamlet? He's even done that so yes, there was a lot of nerdy digression but let's stay on track here and now!

As a fan of Star Trek, nabbing a role in the franchise was always going to be on the bucket list and that’s exactly what came up for Picard’s first season episode Stardust City Rag. 

Born in Stoke, Dominic was brought up in Weston Coyney, schooling in Catterswall and Newcastle Under Lyme and having a summer job at nearby Alton Towers. Burgess remembers "...frequenting the haunts of Festival Park and Waterworld," as well as the Odeon Cinema where he saw First Contact.

Following that he chose to head off to Drama School; "there was no option to do GCSE drama or A-level drama. It was all very academically driven and I remember the career guidance counsellor pushing back saying I should do English with Drama...I was very adamant I would take a gap year, travel to the United States and work there at a summer camp and see the country."

"I'm very lucky to now be doing what I love," continued Dominic who is now working not only acting but writing screenplays and exploring the world of directing. "I had the best time at drama school and the way that mine operated was that the arts should sustain you and you should be working in a black box theatre on the Shetland Isles for £5 a night...and that wasn't my mentality. Los Angeles worked better for me than London because it was a business and network TV back then was eight day prep, eight day shoot, eight day post and a machine that you could quantifiably see a career. You could move from co-stars to guest stars and recurring guest stars and your career can get more elastic from there."

"Star Trek and Dr Who have parallels in how I went about getting them. I graduated from ALRA in 2004 and about that time they announced Dr Who would be coming back with Christopher Eccleston and I had grown up with the show. I tracked down the casting director, sent handwritten letters and that I would love the opportunity to audition. Andy Pryor the casting director brought me in for a couple of lines but that was enough to feed my soul!"

His memory of Eccleston is the complete opposite of how the actor was made out to be by the press at the time as he had stated that he would not be returning for a second series. "He was the first person I met when I got to basecamp. He was lovely and upbeat and ebullient. It was my only interaction with him but it was a delight."

However, his first job was actually in Batman Begins which he took a group of friends to see at the Odeon in Stoke, "only to find out Dominic was never in Batman." he recalled as the scene was cut from the final version however his name still remains in the credits!

Both these credits helped the actor to get his 01 visa to work in the US.  A visa that would lead to appearances in series such as The Thundermans, ANT Farm and also the recent Netflix drama, Dahmer.

Viewers may not know this but Burgess actually played the role of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. "I love working with accents and physicality. I watched a lot of video footage of the way he talked and moved. The way he processed information was so odd that right up until the end he denied any involvement in the murders and tried to pass them off on other people."

Not a subscriber to method acting, Burgess found it easy to separate himself from the part; "That first scene involved fight choreography and then next you cut to see Gacy holding a man's head in the bath...I was more concerned about safety and that I had it all down. There are other things which go through your mind while you're doing it so I can switch off."

But let's move forward once more to Star Trek. A self-confessed fan, Dominic's first introduction to he franchise was the films; "The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home. Then I remember school finishing quite late at about 4pm and the bus would take me 50 minutes to get back home. It was always a conscious effort to try and get back before The Next Generation started on BBC2 or Sky One. 

"I missed out on Deep Space Nine and whenever that was airing there was always a football match. When Voyager aired it was the first series I watched from pilot to finale and so it it always special to me and I got the whole Trek journey."

Dominic, like many Trek fans collected the Voyager VHS tapes and the films up to First Contact.  It then expanded into model kits of Enterprise, Voyager and the Klingon Bird of Prey "...which are still probably at home in Stoke-on-Trent. One of them might even be in the window!"

Even at home in Los Angeles he's not without the DVD sets of DS9 and Voyager and a model of Janeway's Intrepid Class starship in there to boot.

With Voyager as his favourite series, it must have been a lifelong dream come true to work with Jeri Ryan? Actually, I might have suggested it was like Christmas.

"It was kept top secret and they had accidentally sent me the script to the episode to mine and with the cliffhanger I was thinking 'Where am I?'

"It's still one of my career highlights just to be in that show and to have a scene with Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan and to be directed by Jonathan Frakes was incredible. I went up to Santa Clarita to get fitted for the prosthetics and wardrobe and the team asked if I'd like to meet Jonathan Frakes as he was just in the dining hall.

"Just in the middle of the canteen he stood up as I walked in, threw his arms out and said 'There he is, there's Mr Vup! Welcome to the family!'

"There was no feeling of those are the main people over there and I need to sit in the corner and not get in the way. It was so wonderful and so warm. Just a treat from beginning to end. The whole thing is something I will always, always cherish."

In regards to the prosthetics, Dominic thought it wasn't too bad; "I worked on a show called The Magicians and they took about five hours for that but the Star Trek one was about an hour and a half. It was designed by Neville Page and it was effectively a foam cowl over your head with your face visible. Then there' a single piece they put on for that. The hands were effectively gloves. They took moulds of my hands for those so it was overall a very quick process. Probably the quickest prosthetics I've ever been in."

In a similar fashion to his interest in appearing in Dr Who, Dominic contacted his agent to start the ball rolling the second he heard Patrick Stewart announce that Picard was returning. "I found out it was through a casting agent called Liz Dean with UDK and luckily they knew my work already from Feud."

The actor wrote her a handwritten card recalling his weekly rush home to watch TNG and how much it would mean to get on Picard which was not something that was the done thing. "Normally you're told don't send cards saying you would love to be on a show, you have to be specific on a role. On this occasion I just said I'll be a sliding door, I'll be whatever you want me to be!"

But it worked because Dominic was asked in for auditions; "Again I had an existential crisis because there was such limited information on the character, not even saying what species I was."

It was only when he walked into the audition room that it was revealed he would be playing a new alien species, a 600 pound, rock solid individual. "I'd got to  point where I could go to auditions, do them, get past them and go and do something else for the rest of the day but with Star Trek I just wanted it so much that in the audition room I could feel the pressure. I kept falling over the technobabble and tripped over it four or five times. Liz asked if I needed to step outside because she could see I wanted it so much. Bless her, she took a shot and wrote the technobabble down for me behind the camera.

"I left kicking myself and thinking I blew it but then I got the call saying that I had it and I'm pretty sure there were happy tears. When I met Jonathan Frakes I'm sure that Liz had told him I was a fan!"

The scenes for Stardust City Rag, were filmed at a nightclub in Universal City. "In between takes Patrick and Jonathan would sit down and talk about old times. Everyone was included.  talked to Patrick and when I said I was from Stoke on Trent he remembered playing at the Victoria Theatre."

One of Dominic's best experiences was getting to sit in video village which is where all the monitors are set up for directors, producers and writers to be able to see what's being filmed. This gave him the chance to see how Jonathan Frakes worked ("If you're not sure what to do, my advice is low and wide!")

"I did the voice as I did on set with prosthetic teeth which helped lower the voice. Four or five months after I went back to loop and do all the lines all over again at different octaves to try and overlay it to try and show that I had several vocal folds. For a time there was a thought about doing this fun layering of his vocals.

"In the cowl there wasn't much room to move my neck so you have to move very purposefully and you have to really move it so that it reads through the prosthetics. I really enjoy that and find the physicalities in the role."

No longer a time for physical scripts, Dominic does regret one thing; "When I went in for the makeup test I was given a set of teeth to practice with and when I went back I returned them. I wish I'd kept them when they gave me the set I used onscreen."

As for the future, Dominic has some TOP SECRET projects coming up so watch out for those and if they're ever remaking Battlestar Galactica he's definitely available.

Reviewing where he was in 2003, Dominic certainly sees a big change in his answer; "Back then I would have given a flowery answer in terms of something that is fun and creative but now having had the experiences of The X-Files and Star Trek that's where I want to be."

While fans might hope Mr Vup's exit from the episode wasn't quite so final, one might hope the Beta Anorian has a brother but that might not be the case. So, what about if Jonathan Frakes called him tomorrow and gave him the option of coming back for more Star Trek? Any series, any character?

"I would love to do Legacy because that's where my heart is as a fan. I love Strange New Worlds and I think that there are a couple of writer from The Magicians who have gone over there. I would actually love to do a Star Trek show where I'm not in prosthetics. You get there early to get made up so I never met Patrick Stewart or Jeri Ryan as me. Jonathan Frakes didn't see me out of prosthetics until three weeks after shooting and he'd forgotten what I looked like!"

"Your call time can be 3am so you can start shooting at 9am. There are always bits falling off and you need touching up so you don't necessarily get a chance to interact in a "normal" way. If Rainn Wilson doesn't want to play Harry Mudd again in Strange New Worlds, I'd be there!"