Prodigy: Preparing for Part 2

The reveals of Picard's third season trailer might have distracted you from the fact that Prodigy's first season (part two) is set for return this October. 

As I said a few months back, rather than individually go through every episode I wanted to be able to have a more educated overview and look back in sections. This, for Prodigy, seems like a good point to take stock.

My thoughts ahead of it airing offered very low expectations of the show. It was for kids, I even grumbled at the animation in the first episode and wasn't planning on giving it a great deal of my time.

How wrong was i. Because I went in without demanding greatness from the first frames and was aware that it wouldn't be as adult-orientated as Discovery or Picard likely made a big difference.

While Burnham's journey in the 32nd Century seems to have meandered a little, Prodigy has remained untainted. The wokeness and community servicing that Discovery in particular has gone to town on is nowhere to be seen. Now, I get that Star Trek should be discussing current issues and scripting allegories just as Gene Roddenberry himself did back in the 1960's but there are some that would say Discovery is trying too hard to accommodate.

Prodigy on the other hand isn't. This is a straight up action adventure that provides a gateway into the world of Star Trek for a younger generation. It still talks about teamwork, family and has a story and characters who are already developing but it's kept things simple and, ironically, quite down to Earth.

Assembling a crew of aliens is one thing but to actually show character advancement in what is, at the core, a kids show is brilliant. All of the leads feel as though they are on individual journeys with some more prominent than others. Dal and Gwyn do tend to take the lead as the "acting captain" and the daughter of their nemesis, The Diviner but Rok too has been provided with serious development albeit in one episode.

But let's not get too ahead. Prodigy's first season has been wholeheartedly (to this mid-point) a brilliant success. These first ten episodes have successfully introduced the cast, a new ship, told a mini story arc and still managed to step way for a few weeks with a great cliffhanger.

With a strong learning towards its new elements and only sprinkling in a minor amount of existing Trek lore, Prodigy has done well to avoid the franchise's own self-loving and aim to embrace a totally new audience. The basics of the show, the Federation and our new crew have been set over this initial run of episodes and the writers have done a magnificent job of avoiding in-jokes and keeping their stories open and accessible.

The ship is a very clear Starfleet design with the over-hull nacelles and a distinct primary/secondary hull shape that can be traced all the way back to its most original form in USS Enterprise NCC-1701. Yes, it's got some neat twists; lots of surface landings, a 3D vehicle printer, that extremely open glass-topped bridge, the Janeway hologram and the incredible protowarp drive - but it's still recognisably Starfleet and I goddamn want one.

The crew are oddly relatable. Dal might be the captain-elect (by himself) but he has to share that centre stage with the equally capable and more mature Gwyn. But Dal is the new viewer to Star Trek, excited, interested and wanting to know it all. He is the avenue into the franchise that the Nickleodeon audience should be following. Rok has come on in leaps and, well, leaps from background to essential. Zero's Medusan nature has been touched on and visualised in one of the larger callbacks to the history of the franchise (Is There in Truth No Beauty? TOS S3) although Murf remains a complete enigma however completely indestructible he/she/they are.

The only character to really have been left at the kerb a little is Tellarite Jankom Pog. He feels almost as neutered as the Maquis after Caretaker and the argumentative nature played on right from the first episode has been frittered way in weeks. Hopefully he won't be relegated to the Inspector Gadget of the team with his extendable arm as his only "thing".

Now (spoilers) I had expected the Diviner arc to last more than the first half of the season but it has meant that this line of storytelling hasn't overstayed its welcome. It felt right to go in the direction the show took this plot and it felt conclusive and also the end of the beginning. The mid-season two-parter returning the Protostar and its crew to the mining colony where we started out ensured that loose ends were tied up although we know that there have been hints at the ship's purpose and final mission through these ten episodes.

Nor at any point has Hologram Janeway felt intrusive. Kate Mulgrew's return has been a masterstroke. It has greatly benefitted the series and of all the returning characters we've seen across the recent shows, certainly Prodigy has nailed it both with this leading lady and the assembling of the crew for Dal's Kobayashi Maru sim.

For long term fans there is still a sense of familiarity through the reminders of Starfleet, the design of the ship both internally and externally and, of course, that cliffhanger which leaves no doubt that the universe is all coming together. Would I be surprised to see one of the Prodigy cast turn up in a live series at some point? Not in the slightest and with the hints of an upcoming Academy show it might be sooner rather than later.

I'm very much drawn towards Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks but in Prodigy there is the hidden gem of the current Star Trek catalogue and something that is wildly accessible by every generation with enough in there to draw in Voyager fans as well as a new, young generation who can then go on and discover the shows of the '90's.

Leaving the season on a cliffhanger and by introducing the real Janeway aboard a very real USS Dauntless, the show has dropped a massive bombshell and a sharp left at the same time. Where is Chakotay? Will the Dauntless catch the Protostar and what the hell is Murf?

Prodigy has a ton and a half of things to offer and is just heading in its own direction. Whether it's possible to dovetail it into one of the series occurring at the same time has yet to be seen yet it remains absolutely unique just as each other series has managed so far in this Kurtzman era.

 

Perhaps the stories haven't minded much depth with the plots fairly straight-forward but it has managed to keep the audience interest at all levels and you can bet the second half of the season will deliver just as much if not more.

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Prodigy S01 E01: Lost and Found

With an extended first episode, Star Trek: Prodigy has launched with the first main cast who have no direct association with Starfleet... at least to begin with.

Episode one, Lost and Found does everything you would expect; introduce the characters, their predicament and their means of transport - but does it all work?

On a first viewing my feelings were mixed. There is a clear direction and audience for the show. Prodigy doesn't delve too deeply into its characters to begin with but we get a good sense of who they are from the few moments each is granted to shine. Dal stands front and centre as our lead. He's a prisoner on a moon destined to spend the rest of his life mining and dreams of escaping to the stars. Also on Tars Lamora we have engineer and Tellarite Jankom Pog. As with all Tellarites he loves a good argument. Crystal-like Rok Tahk looks like a heavy but is actually a young girl who is accompanied by Murf, a gelatinous creature that has an insatiable appetite. Then we have Medusan (Prisoner) Zero who has been enslaved to destroy the minds of The Diviner's enemies. Rounding out the group by way of a kidnapping, is Gwyn. One of the two remaining Vau N'Akat she carries a bracelet that can reform itself into a sword... which is cool.

The Diviner is Gwyn's father and therefore the other remaining Vau N'Akat. As the episode reveals, he is searching the moon for something and that turns out to be the USS Protostar.

In essence the episode is about driving this young team together and placing them on the ship to escape the Tars Lamora prison and get away from The Diviner and his cybernetic henchman, Drednok. 

Lost and Found isn't a deep dive into the human psyche and, cuttingly, is probably the most unStar Trek series of those in existence today. While the ship and also the returning Kate Mulgrew as holographic Janeway do bring in elements of the Federation, this is brand spanking new territory. There are some nice nods to the Delta Quadrant with the inclusion of the Kazon but this feels as though it should be entitled Prodigy: A Star Trek Series rather than taking the moniker up top. 

While the other shows have fed directly off the concept of Starfleet in some form this has taken a massive step away with only a couple of pieces really engaging that element of the franchise. It also felt at points that it wasn't sure what it wanted to be - is it comedy? Is it action? Is it trying to build relationships with these characters? There doesn't feel as though there's a good balance here with all three parts clashing at times. Wisecracking is good at times but it does clog things up between people in Prodigy; even moreso given the time restrictions.

While Lower Decks had three of the four main cast already friends, this has a lot to establish in a frighteningly quick timescale. Introduce a whole cast to each other plus an antagonist and a narrative. Somehow it succeeds but I think that's because of its target audience. There's not a great deal of depth and we have several characters whom we will no doubt be learning about as we progress. A lot is made of Dal's unknown origin plus viewers with some knowledge of Star Trek will be wanting to know how a Medusan and a Tellarite managed to end up in the Delta Quadrant.

This rag-tag bunch do offer a lot of possibilities for the show as does the arrival of Kathryn Janeway just at the end of the episode. But I guess more on that one with episode two.

My biggest gripe with Prodigy isn't the concept or the characters or that strong disassociation with Starfleet - it's with the animation itself. I'm a big fan of Lower Decks as you will already know from previous articles praising it to high heaven and with that the animation fits the style of the show perfectly. Here though, while there is a clear attempt to make it look absolutely stunning and go all out on the visuals, it comes off a little stilted at times and almost a bit dated. The character movements don't seem to be particularly fluid and once I'd noticed that, it bugged the hell out of me for the rest of the episode. Yes, it does look amazing when it comes to the big vistas and the sense of scale but it's the detail where Prodigy feels like it's being let down. Maybe that slightly less "perfect" look was the intention here but for me it's not quite working at this stage of the game.

One thing that is awesome and will be a much talked about point is the USS Protostar.

Apparently a much smaller starship than we've seen before, the ship is super stream-lined and glisteningly clean. Featuring an unusual front loading ramp, the Protostar's appearance in the show totally locks your attention. The escape sequence is easily the most impressive part of Lost and Found as the new crew put their reborn starship to use. Again and as with the characters you know that there is more to the vessel and we're teased some of that in the titles. I also suspect that Janeway and its impressive propulsion system aren't the only surprises that will be coming our way over the next few weeks. 

Prodigy is as big a step as Star Trek made when it launched Discover. This is different, uncharted territory. Of the three animated shows it's the first one to ever be strongly targeted more at the younger Star Trek market rather than existing fans. The bulk of the main cast are kids and voiced by young actors which continues to emphasise the direction Paramount and Alex Kurtzman are heading with the show. 

This is very much about securing the next generation, the future, of the franchise and for it's long term success. Start off with Prodigy and then grow up to watch the other shows. Whether this will drive newer fans to dive into the 50 year catalogue I can't be sure but I would suggest that it will probably encourage a few to examine the other series from the Kurtzman era and explore more strange new worlds (pun fully intended).

I do foresee Prodigy being a success. It's not trying to be a deep-thinking, cerebral show and it's been very wise of the current curators of the Star Trek universe to diversify and have a clear and different definition for each of the series that currently exist.  This one has the most to gain and the most to lose with not only a totally unique audience but look and feel. Prodigy is different. It smells different with us more as visitors to Starfleet. Think about it; to become immersed in the Star Trek universe this makes the perfect entry point - literally. These characters are themselves about to learn about Starfleet and its ethics. It's the entry point to the Universe from a newbie - and a younger perspective. Prodigy is itself a clever learning tool buried within a glossy package which, I would believe, will see this bunch of personalities be forged into a proper crew by the Janeway hologram. If that is the case then this is one of the most well-thought shows in the catalogue and you have to hope that it succeeds in being the gateway to the bigger Star Trek picture and starting point for many young viewers.

What was your opinion on the premiere of Prodigy? Did it deliver what you wanted or expected?

ALSO check out our full set of season one and two reviews for Lower Decks HERE!

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Delivering the Endgame

To quote Dirty Harry "...in all the excitement I kinda lost count myself..." as I totally missed it was 15 years since Endgame first aired last month and therefore brought Star Trek: Voyager to an emotional close.

Indeed it's been a big month for series finales with this week also marking the 47th anniversary of the first airing of Turnabout Intruder, the episode that should have been the end of Star Trek back in 1969 however we all know what happened there...

Over the course of my slow and steady re-watch, I've had the chance to reacquaint myself with the three feature length finales. All Good Things... is still the pinnacle of them yet I was previously a much bigger fan of What You Leave Behind (which also turned 17 just last week) from Deep Space Nine than Voyager's Endgame. Over the last 12 months though - and through the course of that re-watch - I've actually started to lean towards the return home of Janeway and crew as a better series closer. So why has that come to pass?

Since Deep Space Nine debuted in 1993 I have been utterly in love with the show. I liked The Next Generation, I adore The Original Series but the story of the space station at the very edge of the frontier really captivated me from day one. It was so refreshingly different, so raw, dark and filled with a widely diverse range of main and secondary characters that every episode, even the bad ones, was a pleasure to watch because I was sold on the people. Deep Space Nine for me had everything - drama, development, ongoing stories, payoffs, humour...everything and when Voyager came along I was loathe to like it. 

As I've said before there were two of us at school who were obsessed with Star Trek but once The Next Generation had passed our interests diverted into Deep Space Nine for me and Voyager for Steve with each of us sitting firmly pro our series with no chance of swaying. So it stayed for the best part of the 15 years since Voyager left the airwaves and while I had to make do with Janeway and her adventures in the Delta Quadrant after Sisko bought it in the Fire Caves, I never felt quite satisfied. Hell, Endgame was nowhere near as good a finale as What You Leave Behind - check out the build up not just in the previous eight episodes but in the seven seasons before! Endgame had nothing on it and I readily dismissed the finale once I'd seen it on VHS.

Last year however at the age of 35 I got round to hitting through Voyager one more time from beginning to end after finishing my Deep Space Nine marathon and here's where things began to change. Perhaps a certain middle-aged maturity has finally kicked in but What You Leave Behind actually left me a little cold. There's no question it's a good finale because it wraps up the Dominion War, ties off the Sisko/Prophets thread and places the crew at the end of their association with that era of the station however its not the highlight of that ten episode arc and as such I now feel a little bit gutted by it. Even more so it's not a final episode that's an easy watch on its own. You need to have a good grasp of what the heck has been happening (especially in the final season) to really "get" where it's going.

The eight episode build-up is amazing, well paced and exciting with numerous threads from Section 31 to Rom becoming Nagus, Sisko's marrage and more all being ticked off the big list but in retrospect the final episode just can't deliver on such an incredible narrative. It also has the weirdest passage of time ever. Just how long are Winn and Dukat in the Fire Caves while Sisko is off at Cardassia Prime for example? Anyway, it does a good job but after seeing Worf kill Gowron, the Breen smash the hell out of the Defiant and Kira in a Starfleet uniform how could the last episode live up to it? Well when I watched it through now, not as well because the pay off is not as strong.

So as I dived into Voyager I found myself refreshingly surprised by the show. My blinkers had been lifted and I made myself open to be entertained by the series. Seven seasons sped past as we moved from Kazon space to Hirogen to Borg via sick cheeses, alternative timelines and a lifetime of coffee. We even made contact with the Alpha Quadrant and not too late in the process either I might add. 

Every season had closure, every year brought something new and a concept that only Voyager could make work. Full year in two episodes? Tick. Future museum butchers the ship's history? Tick. Rogue Starfleet ship? Tick. The list goes on and while Voyager was back to the single-episode story trait of The Next Generation because of its transient nature it still managed to load story arcs and offer some form of continuity plus being the most "out there" thinking of any Star Trek series.

When Caretaker aired I was 100% certain the finale would be the other creature they mentioned but that was done with by the early part of season two which left the ending very, very open and suggested that Voyager was going to be around for some time. What could they do? How could it all come to an end?

The arrival of the Borg as an adversary late in season three and Jeri Ryan's addition to the cast at the beginning of the fourth season changed a lot of things and the final four years are a lot more self-contained than seasons one to three which brings me to Endgame.

Ultimately the show does pay off on the promise from the pilot in that the ship does get home (whoops...spoiler!) but it doesn't allow itself to be dragged down by that point because there's a lot more to it than that. As with All Good Things... and to an extent These Are the Voyages, there's an element of time travel locked in here but check out how the strands from the show are wrapped up. The Pathfinder Project and Barclay are integral to the finale, Kim finally gets a command even if it is a ship where the name is bigger than the saucer but there are still things that shouldn't have happened specifically Tuvok becoming gravely ill and the death of Seven.

Of course we all know how it pans out with Admiral Janeway heading back, boosting the abilities of the Voyager from her past and seemingly putting an end to the Borg in the process. All in a day's work of course and many fans might rejoice more to realise that Neelix is only present for a matter of two minutes via subspace. Winner all round.

Endgame draws on some of the show's best and most inventive elements from the off. Indeed, if you think about it the ship actually gets home twice - at either end of the episode plus it demonstrates how far it had come from the planet/cloud/enemy of the week formula that was prevalent throughout the first two years of the series (give or take a Kazon instalment). In fact Endgame is a great example of Voyager learning from its 174 episodes. Yes there were errors and learning curves (!) but in the final 90 minutes it draws on its strengths by focusing on the biggest of bads and drawing a line in the sand.

The finale is indeed all the stronger for expanding the story to Earth and by default the secondary Earthbound recurring cast since Pathfinder had been brought into the series on more than one occasion over the final few years and provided a very different slant to the series that none of the other shows had been able to exploit. For once there was a group not aboard the title vessel who were integral to the story and Dwight Schultz as Barclay is a much better character here than he was in The Next Generation. Odd to think that his association with Voyager actually goes all the way back to season one and Projections. Who would have thought he would become such a major factor in the show?

Endgame explored, very much like All Good Things..., where our cast of familiars had ended up for good or bad but it also did something that no other series had ever done - destroyed a major enemy for once and for all it seemed. Deep Space Nine may have ended a war but the Dominion still existed while here Admiral Janeway not only brought technology resistant to the Borg to the table but affected their demise at the same time. At its core - and just as with All Good Things... and What You Leave Behind it's about family and the completion of something very special. Seven years have passed, we've lived and died with these people (several times in some cases) and experienced some life-changing moments as they've explored beyond the final frontier but there's always been that underlying unity. A unity that interestingly never once references the Maquis and the crew's formation in the last episode.

There is no big save for humanity here, it's just one crew and one final attempt to get back home which is, as you will know, a success although it was criticized for that moment coming right at the end credits but if we look at the show as a whole we always knew they would return to Earth at the end it was, please accept this cliche, always about the journey and on that level it most certainly delivered.

The finale is pure action/adventure and keeps with the ethos of the previous seven years. Everyone has their time to shine and share the limelight which is possible because the cast never became as large as its space station based sibling and the relentless pacing plus the singular storyline of Voyager versus the Borg means there is very little (if any) baggage carried through these last 90 minutes of the show.

Endgame remains a pure and uncomplicated finale to the show which still marks to this day the latest episodic moment in Star Trek history (of course Nemesis and the destruction of Romulus in 2009's movie go beyond this point) making it very much the bookend to the franchise on TV. With all the hype and interest around the upcoming series for 2017 that is a record it may no longer hold especially if the anthology concept is going to be the way forward. I also suspect the omission of a subtitle for the show (i.e. The Next Generation etc...) may well be linked integrally to that possibility.

That aside, Voyager's Endgame is a finale that has bettered with time and one I now find I can happily watch again and again. All the cast give solid and meaningful performances throughout and while the end of What You Leave Behind is bitter-sweet this remains firmly positive with the bookending of the show in every sense. The journey was indeed well worth it and remains just as good - if not better 15 years on.

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We've All Been the Scarecrow: The Genius of Death Wish

Voyager's second season has been a much better bag than I recalled but there's one episode which for me still rates in the show's top ten.

It's also been a LONG time since I've doen an episode retro-review and there was no better opportunity than this one.#

Death Wish brought Q to the Delta Quadrant and after his fleeting visit to Deep Space Nine I seriously thought this was going to be car-crash Star Trek from start to finish. Luckily I was utterly wrong and it turned out to be probably my favourite Q episode of the whole franchise.

I could argue that Q Who was just as powerful or that Tapestry kicked ass but looking at either of those stories, Q acts as a vehicle for a bigger story be it the unveiling of the Borg or the impact of Picard's unfortunate meeting with a Nausicaan knife. Death Wish on the other hand is a pure Q story that actually packs a punch and makes a point.

With not just one Q to contend with it could be seen as overkill but this avoids falling into the near-slapstick of Q-Less or the rather lacklustre teacher/pupil relationship that we saw in True-Q. Death Wish has a heart and a soul and perhaps even more so let's dive in - grief it's been a while since I've done one of these....

Freeing an errant Q is never going to be a clever move but Gerritt Graham - last seen as a Hunter in Captive Pursuit over on Deep Space Nine is very understated and airs a surprising amount of humility in comparison to De Launcie's arrogant, omnipotent super-being. De Lancie's Q holds a relationship with Janeway here that harks back to the more playful elements of his sparring with Picard in the earlier The Next Generation seasons. It certainly works better than his meeting with Sisko as that pairing was pretty brash and resembled the immoveable object and the unstoppable force.

While there is a serious point to Death Wish there are the diversions within the episode that make it sparkle with the power of Q from start to finish. The chase from the beginning of the universe, via a Christmas tree or the disappearance of all the male crew couldn't occur in any other Star Trek story and suggest that not all Q are created equal - which in essence is what the episode is all about and there are some that have more than one independent thought. Graham's Q is more understanding and much less manipulative than his long-serving counterpart, maybe representing what Q could have become if they hadn't become so passive.

Death Wish manages to weave not just a very moral Star Trek issue which Gene Roddenberry would have been proud of but also tips in a few nods for dedicated fans and followers of Voyager since Caretaker. There's Q's tease of returning the crew to Earth should Janeway decide in his favour which was one of the glaringly obvious ways they could have made the trip back. Fortunately it's handled in a manner befitting the personality of Q. 

But one of the draws here is the appearance of one Commander William T Riker. Unexpected but blatantly a ratings pull it could have been anyone at all but bringing in a recognisable face was a solid sure-fire winner and means that Frakes turns up in everything except The Original Series. The court scene involving Riker, Sir Isaac Newton and Woodstock electrical worker Maury Ginsberg (played by Maury Ginsberg!) is fitting and a little fun at the same time when we see how Graham's character has influenced their lives. Equally compelling and one of my favourite Voyager scenes is the explanation of the Q Continuum. 

Never seen before or again it's "dumbed down" for Janeway and Tuvok as well as the viewing TV audience to the infamous desert road gas station filled with silent, uninterested Q's who have been there and done that, travelled the road and yes, even been the scarecrow. This scene perhaps more than any other matches the two Q perfectly with great verbal sparring and retorts as Graham remains calm and De Lancie bites.

However what makes this an absolute killer Q episode is Gerritt Graham's second Q. A total counter to De Lancie's outgoing, sometimes offensive, childish, egotistical god-figure, Graham underplays the role and is almost apologetic for his existence as a Q from the start - and he isn't too hot on the old powers either, initially removing all the men from Voyager. Of all the "other" Q's we meet played by actors such as Suzie Plakson and Corbin Bernsen, Gerritt Graham easily steps into second place with his compelling portrayal. 

His demise at the end, while fitting, is still a surprise as even as the minutes ticked by I expected him to be let off the ship at an inhabited planet or flee Voyager in a borrowed shuttle. Having De Lancie's Q involved and finally realising that he's lost his supreme "Q"-ness was a great decision. The problem from that was both The Q and the Grey and the last ever Q episode, Q2 were undeniably rubbish.

Death Wish isn't a mad episode, it isn't grossly dark or Q at his maddest yet there's a story here from Michael Piller's son, Shaun, which is one of the best the show arguably produced in seven years and definitely produced within its first two seasons. I never tire of this one which does carry a weighty conclusion and is one of the more cerebral and tasking episodes that Voyager and maybe any Star Trek produced purely because it deals with a tender subject head on. 

One day I'd love to chat to John De Lancie about this episode. Voyager did Q a lot better justice in one episode than Deep Space Nine managed. It's a shame they wasted further opportunities so frivolously and this would be the last great Q episode in Star Trek history.

Was Death Wish as good as I suggest? Is it one of the best Q episodes from Star Trek?

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Character Traits: Star Trek Timelines

Star Trek Timelines is getting me far, far too excited thanks to the constant stream of information we're receiving.

Over successive weeks we've been treated to the reveal of the Constellation Class ship, a Ferengi Marauder, more recently we've been privy to detailed information on a handful of playable characters as well as an insight into the demo from Las Vegas and much to my satisfaction, the Defiant.

The ship reveals have gone a long way to illustrating the care and attention the designers have gone to in recreating the iconic vessels and the very feel of the fabric of the Star Trek universe. The way they move, act, go to warp and appear is very appreciative of the franchise and I like the respect this shows from Disruptor Beam. I thoroughly recommend and direct you to their YouTube channel (it's not SKoST but hey, they're trying(!)) to keep up to date with what's happening and any big reveals.

Going back a little, I did mention those announced characters. Skipping through the ton of comments on Facebook it's apparent that virtually every character ever seen in Star Trek will be available (except the Wadi if you can) and in from different points in the show. At the moment we've only got a smattering of indications plus a few snap-shots of development. 

I was very fortunate to get the chance to find out more about this highly-anticipated game from Rich Gallup, exec producer for Timelines; "Right now we're preparing for Beta to invite people with a fresh set of eyes to check we're making the right decisions or tell us about stuff before launch about things we need to fix. We've been playing this game for over a year and Las Vegas was great to allow fans to see it for five minutes but now we want people to play it for hours and tell us what it's like."

Rich grew up watching The Next Generation with his family right through, dabbled with Deep Space Nine and Voyager but since working on Timelines he's re-watched the whole of The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and is currently about 12 episodes into Enterprise. "It's been great revisiting stuff that I knew, episodes that were familiar and I'm getting back up to speed on stuff I thought I knew and learning new bits on the way. Now I'm a part of the Star Trek community I was hesitant because there's this stereotype that if you love Star Trek you know the name of every single episode, every single ship and every single character but when you meet up with the people you're making this game for you realise that a lot of them had a favourite show they loved and are familiar with the rest."

As exec producer, Rich Gallup is making sure things are getting done, priority setting and people managing. "Jon Radoff is directing the game and guiding us towards a certain vision," said Rich, "making sure what he wants is what we're making and I make sure the team have the freedom to explore that vision and make sure that they're all OK!"

Each of your characters will have at least one of the core skills; Command, Diplomacy, Science, Security, Engineering or Medical which can be levelled up and will differ between characters ie. Spock is likely to be a better scientist than Malcolm Reed. Your traits and combination of characters will then affect the outcome of the missions you place them into meaning that a diplomatic situation will benefit more from having Picard manage it than sending in Worf.

The first character we saw in any detail was Captain Janeway and my impressions of the game did go up because Timelines will offer three different versions of the Voyager captain. There's Starfleet uniform Janeway, Die Hard/Macrocosm Janeway replete with phaser rifle and finally Queen Arachnia Janeway from Bride of Chaotica!. What a selection - and fortunately we've been spared Fair Haven Janeway or Victorian novel Janeway (please...no....but we would welcome Admiral Janeway!)

Each version of the captain will have its own attributes and differences making each a unique character within the game that will change outcomes dependant on which you choose or get landed with depending on your preferences.

We also got a snap of Kruge who will be turning up here and marks our only full Klingon reveal to date. While I might bemoan Wizkids for not offering him and his Bird-of-Prey as an expansion pack in Attack Wing, here we'll get the chance to add the Genesis-obsessed power-hungry commander to our ranks. Lots of honour and combat bonuses I would think with this one. The artwork does capture a really impressive likeness although I'm a bit confused by the need for him to be running so energetically and I would have liked to see him in that weighty Klingon overcoat barking into a communicator - but who knows, that may very well be a variant in the future!

One of the biggies we were shown was the action-posed Captain Kirk. A character that is as essential to this game as anti-matter is to a warp core, there will be three versions of the Enterprise captain at launch. I can only think there will be one in his movie monster maroon and another in a selected getup from The Original Series. 

Specialising in Command, Diplomacy and Security, Kirk is said to be an "essential" character in the game which will mean he'll cost an arm, a leg and a starship to buy and add to your crew. Apparently having him lead an away team will add in bonuses as I suspect placing him in the command chair will also do. Comparing this to the more simply imagined Trexels, you can see there is a lot more depth to the Timelines experience. Characters will be a lot more unique visually and statistically helped particularly by the greater range of skill sets available for the developers to tweak on each person - and each iteration of that person!

As a spin on that I suggested it could get more interesting when it gets to nine versions of a character but that might/might never happen (delete as applicable) however Rich and I did a mini-challenge to see if we could work out nine distinct Kirk's...so we did...

1. Yellow shirt Kirk
2. Green shirt Kirk (season one)
3. Where No Man Has Gone Before Kirk (with phaser rifle)
4. Season two green wraparound shirt Kirk
5. Medical bay Kirk kicking that wall monitor device
6. San Francisco Star Trek IV Kirk
7. V'Ger away team Kirk
8. The Wrath of Khan bloodied uniform Kirk
9. Rura Penthe Kirk from The Undiscovered Country

While that was a mental minute and we could have included a ton more, Rich was clear to note that some characters may have one iteration, others perhaps three and maybe some more but it will depend on who they are. According to a reply I had from Mr Gallup on Twitter we're going to attempt 10 Picard's next time (!).

Certainly when we talk about character variants, one of the biggest has to be Spock. The Timelines blog has indicated we will get several versions of the Spock character including his later ambassador role but the one we were privvy to here is skilled as though he's just setting out on the five year mission with Kirk et al. Very, very exciting to see this reveal since Nimoy is foremost in a lot of fans thoughts given his recent passing.

Seven of Nine wearing her blue attire from the later seasons of Voyager also popped up in previews and what we do know about her abilities is that she will be skilled in Sciences and Engineering while she'll be prone to "ignore irrelevancies" which sounds very close to her on-screen character. But just who is responsible for these great images we're seeing?

Well his name is Mike Gardner, "We keep feeding him more and more and more characters and each one if better than the last." noted Rich, "It's been fun challenging him as we're making hundreds of these characters so how do you make each one distinct? The character and the costume is one thing but how do you give them personality and how do you make sure they're not all using the exact same pose? That was a lot easier to do when we were getting started but now we're so far into the game it's amazing to see the stuff he's coming up with!"

We even had two Quark's and two Sulus, notching up different attributes for both characters. While their "generic" versions are pretty cool I was far more impressed and genuinely surprised by the announcement of Naked Time Sulu with his fencing sword and Klingon Quark from Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places. "Everyone needs to have shirtless Sulu!" noted Rich, revealing that the design team, led by David Heron as the main designer, are the ones coming up with the character variants along with Tim Crosby and Jessica Sliwinski. I did ask if there might be a Mirror Sulu and a USS Excelsior captain Sulu to which there wasn't a 'No' but neither was there a 'Yes'!

Uhura has also been granted two versions in the opening salvos of Timelines with a classic look (as a lieutenant) and also one that fans will instantly remember from The Search for Spock where she's faced with putting "Mr Adventure" in the closet. Again the graphics are just sublime and the chosen quotes work exceptionally well with the images. The movie-era Uhura also gives us our first look at how the team have recreated the jacket-style uniform. I've swung the pic in later so you can take a look but I think it looks really good as does the Type II phaser - yep, even got the right weapon type for the right movie. OK Clive, stop fanboying out over this stuff. Now....

"It's a tricky balance because up front you need all the characters everyone loves. we'll have most of those but we do need some back for post-launch content. Then we have the skills and traits which we build onto the core characters. Then we look beyond those and look at what we need. Using variants means we can fill those holes and make sure each character feels distinct. The trait system means that there might be a mission where you need a Ferengi mixing it up in a fight which would be the Klingon version of Quark. We discussed a second Quark and who that second Quark was going to be."

Rich asked me if there was another version of Quark I could have suggested and with a quick head-scratch I was a bit stumped on the spot however I did state that it was best Timelines avoided the Profit and Lace variant. I have begged for it to be struck. "I did suggest to David that it could have been a little different and gone to Kahless Quark," added Rich, "as in the episode there's a moment where Quark and his love re-enact the great Klingon myth and he's dressed as Kahless. There is the possibility that that might come in later!"

The more I see of this game, the more I'm desperate for Autumn (Fall) to get here and this to be released. As a Star Trek game it looks stunning but the real test will be in the gameplay, how your characters work together and how they affect the path you choose to take on missions. Timelines certainly is promising a lot - locations, ships, duty stations, away missions, a plethora of characters I can only begin to imagine, individual stats...and that's just off the top of my head. I would think that there's a heck of a lot more we're not being told with this drip-fed info keeping us from asking some of the more in-depth questions!

But hey, that's not all. Heading to the Las Vegas convention the Timelines team managed to acquire the services of one John de Lancie to help them promote the soon-to-be-released game and showcase their ship battles element. 

The first mission we've seen is the one demoed at Las Vegas and featuring the vocal tones of De Lancie and opens with Q greeting you at the anomaly which bleeds all the timelines into one thanks to the intervention of some pesky Romulans. As a starting level it'll be very hard to get yourself killed but choosing the wrong option could well make your game end in tears, "As you progress you will need to level up and if you're attempting a level where you're not powerful enough you'll lose and have to do it again."

Later into the demo the player heads up against the Mirror Universe Worf so instead of matching wits with Q and the Romulans there might well be more fisticuffs in that part! Given that a lot of mobile/Facebook games only tend to focus on a single factor be it characters or ships, the combination of the two is a master-stroke. It could also have been very dangerous to tackle so many different parts of the Star Trek universe but the initial vids we're seeing offer evidence contrary to that possibility.

"Each ship has different stations and you can assign different crew to them," continued Rich, "These show up as actions in your action bar and determine how your ship acts. The best way to upgrade your ship will be to upgrade your crew and slot them into the appropriate spot."

The latest reveal of the USS Defiant was, well, revealing, showing us the detail the team have gone into ensuring that she has her trademark pulse phase cannons plus that all important cloaking device. From the video on their channel it's apparent that the team have made sure they are giving fans what they want - even down to the correct number of photon torpedo launchers and colour of the phaser beams. What all the gubbins around the screen represent I can't say but finding out is going to be a lot of fun! The Defiant is my favourite ship from the franchise so to see her so painstakingly recreated here is brilliant to see. Also a cool touch that she's the only one in her class with the cloaking ability if we go by the comments from the Facebook page. Again, it's all about that essential attention to detail which is keeping me hooked.

One thing that fans and followers of Timelines have picked up on was a one-off joke that you could assign Locutus of Borg to Ten-Forward. I can assure you this is still possible, heck you could make Martok your Chief Medical Officer (one-eyed or Changeling version?!).

Martok is one of my favourites but I also can't wait to see what they do with Sisko. "David Heron our chief designer is a big Deep Space Nine fan," said Rich, "so you can be assured that every main character is well represented in our launch package."

Reaction has been really good to the game so far, "People love it to the point that makes me nervous!" joked Rich, "We have a vision to achieve and it's been great to show people early versions of the game. I think they can see the promise of it and really hope they love it as much when we show the final version! Hopefully what they picture  is what we picture. We hope we have good game-play and a variety of game-play and a ton of Star Trek for all fans."

"All our testing has been on mobile devices as that's our lead platform but we will be porting it onto the web in some way; definitely Facebook. Game of Thrones Ascent started as a Facebook game and we ported it over to mobile and found that both player bases are equally competitive and viable. It has been as challenging as other projects," continued Rich, "but we won't know if all the work has paid off until we reach Beta (testing) and more people have played the game."

In comparison to Timelines I've felt that Alien Domain or Trexels have focused on one aspect of the Star Trek universe be it space combat or away missions but here in this game there is a serious mix of a lot of elements. "A lot of that came from John Radoff," explained Rich, "He wanted this game to look absolutely gorgeous and he wanted to be able to explore 3D space. That led us down the path to make sure the game looks as good as it does. In terms of the game-play that was through a development project and we wanted to be very true and authentic to the original material. 

"We wanted impressive ship battles but we also wanted other methods for solving problems because Star Trek isn't just about space combat. That's why we have conflicts which is a much more abstract/choose-your-own-adventure style where you can choose to resolve matters with a combination of individuals through a series of trials. We tried a lot of different game-play systems and variations for types of skills and we felt that that was spreading us very thin. Eventually it led us to the current system which ties it all together."

Rich noted that players will want to replay missions again and again to open up different paths determined by which crew members they assign to which challenge and therefore open up more parts of the game tree. "We always wanted a lot of options," verified Rich, "because we know that the Star Trek fan-base is incredibly diverse and we want to make sure that everyone can not only find their favourite characters but can also resolve situations in a way that they would prefer."

There will be a lot of scenarios available at launch with more to come later; "This won't be a game you can complete in half an hour," reassured the exec producer, "We want you to be playing it for hours and hours and as soon as possible we will release new content. For example, Game of Thrones Ascent has been out for two and a half years and we're been releasing new quest content every week. We know how to produce good content consistently. I can't say how much there will be for Star Trek or how often because Timelines plays very differently."

What about Rich's biggest success and at the opposite end, his biggest challenge? Is there something that's been keeping him awake at night? Causing hot sweats (OK I took that to an extreme)?, "It's making a game that Star Trek fans love because we're approaching 50 years of it being around and we've only been making this game for less than two. We've been trusted by our friends at CBS and challenged by the community to make something that is worth their time, love and attention. It's a little terrifying but I think we've been the team to take it on and from the reaction we're proving that we can be trusted to make the next great Star Trek game."

BIG thanks to Rich Gallup and the team at Disruptor Beam for their help with this article and for all the images used.

Are you as excited as I apparently am over Timelines? Which character are you most anticipating? Which ship?

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