The John Doe Starship and the Intergalactic Binmen: The Official Starships Collection Issues 44 and 45

Has it really been four weeks since the Pasteur and Species 8472 bioship?

I only clicked yesterday and had to do a quick tally on the calendar but I reckon the arrival of the fourth special knocked my internal chronometer out of alignment.

So yes...another great Enterprise starship -  and only the second Starfleet vessel from the show believe it or not - the Intrepid kicks off April's entries. 

Making two episode appearances the Intrepid is a much more compact entry into Starfleet's ranks, acting more as a defensive craft rather than an exploratory vessel like it's warp five peer. This model is very, very plain but with good reason as I discovered and it does have a more cumbersome feel than the NX Class.

As always the primary hull is the more weighty piece here with the lower section in metal only. There is some dark window detail picked out across the surface which lifts the surface of the ship from being fairly non-descript. The aztec paint scheme does make its way right across every inch of the hull, nacelles and connecting section In contrast to the Enterprise it's also white rather than silver adding that note of distinction between the two which is probably more about making sure we, the viewers, could tell them apart on the small screen. 

The Intrepid is a little bendy in places and getting her out of the box was a careful operation - work from the front rather than trying to pry her out by the nacelles as there is some flexing in everything to the rear of the half-saucer primary hull. The shape is lovely and certainly holds firm as a precursor to the warp five craft but this model, perhaps because it was intended purely as a background starship, is very blocky in it's detail with a gold deflector, bridge dome and warp nacelle end caps with no blue sections to enhance the sides of those nacelles. That deflector isn't very accurate either, being more a slab of colour than screen accurate although scale and safety might be a factor here.

The bussard collectors do stand out against the rest of the ship in their crimson-red transparentness reminiscent of the USS Enterprise in The Original Series and, of course, the NX-01. Decal-wise there seems to be even less with a total of four - two around the sensor palettes at the edge of the primary hull and two on the underside of the nacelles.

Yet despite the very plain nature of the Intrepid, which meant it could be copied and pasted into scenes multiple times without fear that the registry would be spotted as the same ship, it's a beautifully crafted vessel with lots of recessed hull detail to the rear (which could have been a little more well-crafted) as well as a full covering of plating lines which, again, help to break up the plain paintwork. 

Stand positioning gets a nice tick here with the clip fitting to the nacelles and connecting section giving that more satisfying "flying" look.

For an Enterprise entry though, the Intrepid does seem to be very understated, Usually the series' entries are all bells and whistles with every intricate detail filled in to CGI-realised perfection and here the ship seems to go, quite interestingly, against type. Compare it to the complexities of the Romulan Drone or even the NX-01 and you're likely to agree.

The magazine covers the Intrepid's two series appearances in The Expanse and the show highlight, Twlight which saw it take an engine-breaking beating from the Xindi. Sadly there aren't a lot of photos of the ship from the show included in the magazine so we do get some fuzzy shots of the Enterprise alongside the computer created images for the production.

There's also some focus on the "Warp Delta" style ships from the title sequence and that were seen alongside the Intrepid in the series which means we will/won't be seeing a model of these in the future?

Designing the ship explores the discarded ideas and how Rob Bonchune tried to leash the concept firmly in the 22nd Century rather than the 23rd or 24th where some of the first drawings might have taken it. Unusually for the magazine series we get a close-up on a member of the show production team in the form of four pages dedicated to Bonchune who has already graced the collection through his work on the Nebula Class CGI model which he attempted to scratch-build for Voyager.

This is perhaps the stronger section here, understanding how Bonchune made his way through the ranks through knowledge, experience and a touch of luck to land his dream job and create ships and effects for Star Trek.

Going from the pristine curves of the Intrepid we jump a couple of Star Trek centuries and land heavily in the Delta Quadrant with the grimy, pollution-soaked Malon Export Vessel first seen in Voyager's fifth season.

At first the impression it gives is similar to that of the Intrepid in that it looks pretty bland as just a big stick but there's definitely more to this one than you might think. Looking particularly bulky and cumbersome, the export vessel doesn't scream spaceship at you being more function than form. 

Designed by Rick Sternbach, the Malon vessel is actually very impressive particularly around the waste containers and the cabling which wraps around them. 

For note this is the smaller of the Malon vessels seen in Voyager -  from the episode Night - while a larger version was seen later in the same season,  Juggernaut but the overall structure is very much the same. 

Rendered in a grim brown which adds to the pollution-soaked, unclean image of the Malon, the export vessel upper hull also carries the small exhaust towers and plating detail. To the rear there's the propulsion section which seems to have been a little sloppily painted.  It's also how the ship is attached to its stand with a clever little plastic sleeve/stand holding it at the back end. A clever way of displaying her but it might put a lot of stress on the engines over time given the weight of the rest of the ship hanging out in nowhere.  

However, it's the structure and detail of the waste containers that is the best bit here thanks to those unusual curves and the way they sit under the metal ship body. What does give me a bit of a head-scratching moment is that the pictures/CGI images in the magazine seem to give the ship a lot more shades of colour - albeit shades of grey as well as brown - they do make a better impression on the model but in "reality" it does look like it got a slap-on coat of brown all over.

Yes it's about the detail but also the way in which Eaglemoss have put the ship together. It can't have been a simple design process on this one but the result is certainly one of the best.  I'd go as far to say this is one of those months where the Enterprise release isn't the stronger of the pair and is definitely the less interesting of the two.

The magazine for issue 45 treads the familiar episodic details path for the introduction, covering the standard foray of details picked out from the ship's onscreen appearance plus a few titbits from the second Malon episode, Juggernaut.  The plan views are nicely presented but do re-affirm that the model which was used for reference didn't have quite as much detail as you might have expected which means that the recreation on the page does look a fair amount better than the model provided.

Time seemed to be the biggest enemy in the design of the Malon export vessel from Rick Sternbach but ultimately it came good with the final craft taking at least some of its inspiration from the 1950's trains of the USA. Certainly function takes priority over form here including one feature that Sternbach didn't purposefully add in but was suggested by fans. In some ways I'm surprised that we've had this before a Vidiian, Hirogen or even a Kazon ship considering their greater impact and larger number of appearances in Voyager - it'll be issue 51 when we get a Hirogen ship by the way.

The season five overview included here is pretty brief but manages to hit the key episodes (on the whole) in the year where Brannon Braga took over as exec producer from co-creator, Jeri Taylor. It is, as explained, a much darker season; a much stronger season in my opinion which steered away from the Seven of Nine focus that saturated a good deal of the fourth season but still gave us a great deal of Borg action as well as the memorable 100th installment, Timeless.

This variation on features through the two magazines does allow us to get a bigger picture on the Star Trek universe but it does stray from the headline title of a Starships Collection. I realise the magazines aren't the main reason we're collecting this series but on occasion I still find myself a little disappointed that the accompanying literature isn't as exhaustive on the craft and its associated race perhaps as I might have desired.

That said, this month has given us two very good quality entries but they are going to be easily eclipsed by issues 46 and 47 which feature the classic Enterprise-C and the Negh'Var, two of my favourite ship designs from the last 50 years. Also this month we've had the announcement of issues 61 through to 65 featuring the Norway Class from First Contact, the Voth ship of Professor Gegen from the Voyager episode, Distant Origin, the Antares from the remastered Charlie X, Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix and the Xindi Aquatic Ship. Quite a varied selection and I'd never have come up with Gegen's ship as an option even at a much later point - definitely a series curve-ball if ever there was one. Also, does the Antares count since it was only in the remastered version?

Just something to mull over!

Were you impressed with this month's starships from Eaglemoss? Drop your thoughts below! Don't forget you can still subscribe to the Starships Collection by clicking through the link in our left sidebar.

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter

+1 us on Google+

Add us on Tumblr

Pick us out on Pinterest
Add to to conversation on Star Trek: Risa

Write It Up: Star Trek: Engage

One area we've not touched on is role-playing within the Star Trek universe - but then as if by magic we seem to have found ourselves the perfect commentator to explain what's going on. +Aoibhe Ni it's over to you...

In the past 15 years I have been imprisoned countless times by several malicious factions.

No, don’t worry, it's OK. I'm fine...

I swear.

It didn't knock a feather out of me, actually.

I have also lost my memory, lost a husband (literally, he went through a wormhole, and I haven't seen him since...), passed from one collapsing reality into a safer one where I now reside. I have had a building fall on me in the midst of a firefight, I have manipulated people to my own ends, and in turn I have been manipulated by others. I have yelled “Abandon ship!”, “Fire when ready!”, and uttered the immortal phrase, “He's dead... er, Tim...?” more times than I can count.

I have been telepathic, athletic, near death, crippled, excruciatingly shy, annoyingly outspoken, a harlot and a saint, and I have had several competing past lives. I have even been human once or twice, y'know, for a change.

I am a role-player and I get my kicks playing Star Trek: Engage.

Star Trek: Engage is new on the scene, but its roots go way back. Our founding members all played text-based RPGs since the '90's, using imagination and a love for the written word to pull adventure after adventure out of the bare bones of a story laid down by a Game Director.

Think D&D, without the dice, with a more fluid format, and played by dedicated players who are dotted across the globe, and you get the idea. But it's far more than just sitting in a chatroom while you describe your character doing the Enterprise Shuffle (though, we do love a good Star Trek-related meme...). A well-written character will take on a life of their own, and playing them week after week can bring out side-stories, character arcs and interactions you never would have expected.

The fact that the game is played in a chat room once a week for an hour means you have to think on your feet while all around you the story unfolds. How would you react if suddenly faced with the Borg, for instance? Or confronted with a dying planet containing 3 billion beleaguered inhabitants? What if your Captain started to act unreasonably all of a sudden... would you risk mutiny, or stand by his side trusting that it’d all make sense in the end? What would happen if your best friend was taken hostage and you were ordered to stand down? What if your consciousness was beamed into the body of that hot chick from Astrometrics? No, actually... better not answer that last one. No-one needs to know.

In addition to the hour a week you play with your fellow crew mates, you also have the opportunity to write a duty log that is then read by your crew, and by interested players across the entire game. This can be written in any format you fancy. Some people love to write occasional flashbacks to a time before their character was on board their ship, some do short conversations with NPCs, and some even collaborate with other players mid-week and produce fantastic joint-logs. Any way you slice it, these logs are an excellent way to flesh out your character and add to a crew’s growing rapport. They're also a wonderful chance to get your character's opinions and personality across.

The point is that with Star Trek: Engage, the sky is the limit in terms of story-telling. If you can describe it, you can do it. Just... try not to describe that Astrometrics lady in too fine a detail, OK?

Currently, we have five time-slots to choose from, effectively spanning the week, and we are gearing up to add a sixth ship to our ranks. We have made sure to cater for both morning, evening and weekend players, so you’re bound to find a ship at a time that will suit you. The more we grow, the more ships we’ll launch, and as a player you’ll have a direct say in when those new ships will run. 

Right now, we have the Nova Class USS Saturn, a Prometheus Class USS Hyperion, the Intrepid Class USS Bremen (shut up, I like it…), the Nebula Class USS Hooke and a Space Station on the edge of Tzenkethi space, and we have plans in motion to add a Sovereign to that list. Each ship and station has an atmosphere of its own, and each crew works together differently, making each one unique. 

Whichever ship you choose, you will start at the rank of Cadet, with your first promotion most likely happening after the 4th week. From then on, it’s a case of gathering up promotions for quick-thinking and bravery, commendations for loyal service and dedication, or reprimands for disobeying orders. Your Starfleet career is bound to be peppered with a combination of all three, and who knows… perhaps it’ll even culminate in you being awarded your own captaincy...

In Overview from SKoST

Sounds very, very interesting don't you think? If I had the time I would be tapping away at the keyboard at every available opportunity because writing is definitely my passion and there's always a part of me that wants to define my own corner of the Star Trek universe.

Back in the 00's I used to write for the sadly long-defunct Delta Fleet which was a great experience and helped hone my fictional writing skills which had been out of practice for a few years. I had a Gorn security chief and an operative from Section 31 active on the ship but time and life took precedent (the site still exists in a very different form). The great thing with Engage is the chance to create your own character or characters in an established piece of the fictional universe. Who knows, but you could be creating people who might well end up as the stars of a future

While my experience of writing for the expanded universe was done turn-based, linking characters together over weeks or months to complete a story this sounds much more focused and organised with specific times to connect up and write a new story aboard one of the featured ships. Additionally there are blogs on the site which act as workshops to help aspiring writers develop their characters in a "realistic" manner rather than making them all super-human with Q-like abilities. Certainly makes you feel like you're not alone and there's always going to be someone around top point you in the right direction - or the wrong one depending on your character's evolution!

Star Trek: Engage hasn't been around for long but already there seems to be a good level of organisation and if you want to write - and perhaps aren't quite up to creating your own backstory, ship and setting then this is a great starting point. Even if you're not and are a fan of Star Trek and want something new to be involved in that can feed your hunger for the franchise then why not drop by and see what's going on. I'm sure you'll be most welcome.

If you want to join the adventure, Enlist Here. 

Want to learn more? Have a look at the handy handbook.

Your crew, and your Starfleet career awaits at Star Trek: Engage!

Thanks to Aoibhe for letting us into the Engage world.