Very Short Treks: Very Short Patience?

The 50th anniversary of Star Trek's original Animated Series should be a time for celebration.

It was the first spin off from Star Trek, coming four years after the cancellation of the show and return the majority of the classic cast to their roles albeit vocally.

So what better way to honour those memories with the arrival of five mini-episodes in the same visual style as the Filmation series. Not only that but Trek alumni including Doug Jones, Ethan Peck, Gates McFadden and Jonathan Frakes have lent their voices to the shorts.

Imagined from the mind of Casper Kelly, the non-canon stories are shall we say distinct in their vision. Opening with Skin a Cat, the story here openly tackles the limits of political correctness, Holiday Party has Spock introducing a cringe-worthy blooper reel aboard Pike's Strange New Worlds USS Enterprise and Worst Contact places Riker and Dr Crusher into a rather sickly encounter with a recently warp capable race.

Sounds good? In principle the idea of these Very Short Treks seemed perfect but each week has brought disappointment and dismay. Each has utterly missed the mark and thank goodness for the non-canon safety net.

Take Skin a Cat. Including the vocals of Ethan Peck as Spock, everything the captain says manages to offend someone on the bridge and creates a new and (even for Star Trek) far-fetched bats-arse alien race purely as a punchline. Initially the "cat" reference offends the (brilliant to see) M'Ress before each line angers the Ass Face, Screwhead and Knickersonian bridge crew. Yes, seriously. It's that kind of comedy level.

Those things might be dealt with in the first 90 seconds before the ship captain realises a politically correct way to save his vessel from Klingon attack but these totally override the twist completely. I had to rewatch it just to be reminded of what happened for the closing 90 seconds for that reason.

Holiday Party is a slight improvement with at least the imagining of the SNW crew in this 70s animation style as well as Bruce Horak taking a turn as Hemmer and Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura.  Spock's misunderstanding of humour and the probably outdated concept of a blooper make for uneasy and uneven viewing. Spock saying "fart"? Why not here. More accurately... why? This isn't the way to nod to the past and at just over three minutes it's still too long.

The bloopers chosen are themselves somewhat grim with disembowelling to ice that proverbial cake. Worst Contact draws level with the snotty, hygiene unaware species coming off as annoying clown parodies. McFadden and Frakes deliver the dialogue as best they can and easily have the stronger lines and verbal relationship but the jokes just fall flat and firmly in the territory of "gross". Walls covered with boogers, microwaved rotting fish and eyeball licking are the orders of business for these aliens and certainly not for Starfleet.

Ok, so there are underlying "serious" issues in here. Political correctness, appreciation of humour and acceptance and understanding of different peoples and customs but they get lost under the bizarre way in which the animated skits have been written. I find American humour an acquired taste and for me a lot of Trek's humour can be miss rather than hit however this has gone very far of the mark in almost every sense.

The visuals and music cues are perfect however and truly reflect the nature of that series' style and essence. At times the Animated Series could be off the wall but it felt right for the show and the time as well as pushing the limits of Star Trek as restricted by a live action budget and era.

The shots of the SNW and TNG Enterprises are lovingly created as are the visuals of characters such as Riker, Saru and Spock but the parts are far off making a greater sum. We still have Holograms, All the Way Down and Walk, Don't Run still to go and I'm not holding out for a massive change in tone. These are shorts worth checking out for the visual style and then probably only the once. The tragedy is they just emphasise how great a loss it is that Prodigy failed to get its second season on Paramount.

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Chrono-Trek: Play History for Your Own Ends...

What happens when you take Star Trek, mix in some of the great elements of Looney Labs' Fluxx series and then mash it all together with a clever spin on the wonders of the timeline?

You might be thinking one hell of a headache but I can assure you it's not - and if you're looking for a stocking filler at this time of year, look no further than Chrono-Trek.

Here's the spiel - you play as a (randomly) selected character from the Star Trek universe with a mission to correct the timeline and thereby win the game. Each character has a difficulty rating (one to four) and are assembled from the corridors of everything from The Original Series to Enterprise as well as The Animated Series (well done for that by the way). Each character has a series of three goals to achieve to win which might involve ensuring particular events play out or that they have acquired certain artifacts not limited to but including Data's Head, Janeway's coffee cup and Porthos. 

Then there's the timeline itself. Comprised of 36 cards, these are laid out in four rows in front of the players running from A1-D9. The timeline covers a lot of events from the franchise and through playing you can change how it looks for your benefit or to stop other players from achieving their goals through some clever manipulations.

The timeline is made up of three elements essential to the game. The five Anchorpoints represent the anomaly from All Good Things... and travels back in time. If all five Anchorpoints are flipped (there are cards which will direct you to do this) it's Game Over unless you were lucky enough to pick Q as your character in which instance you're the winner! Then there are Linchpins which are cards that can be flipped and will then affect other points in the timeline called Ripplepoints.

Amazingly these Ripplepoints are collected from events in the Star Trek timeline from the beginning of the Universe, passing through First Contact, seeing the Enterprise-C lost, the arrival of Starfleet at Terek Nor and beyond - but changing Linchpins can skip the timeline off into many new directions, some of which will be to your advantage. Ripplepoints are the very events that you will need to command to win the game. Studying the timeline and seeing what can turn which other card is essential.

Play starts out with each player in turn drawing a card from the deck and then using one from their hand; draw one, play one. Containing Action Cards, Power Cards (super Action Cards), these might provide you with a glance at your opponent's cards, allow you to play another, some will swap your hand, another will "erase" your character from the timestream meaning you have to pick a new persona - which dominoes into your goals for the win changing completely and there's even more beyond that guaranteed to make every game different and challenging.

Players might even choose to take on an Assignment and collect items to trade in order to give them more cards to choose from in their hand, you could even draw a Fracture Card and properly lock down the timeline, spinning it out into a third, more terrifying scenario - unless you're playing with a four "pip" character in which case, Fractures are a good thing!

Chrono-Trek does seem quite daunting at the beginning although I found having the existing knowledge of Fluxx was a huge advantage because some of the card principles are replicated. The biggest piece of the game to get your head around is how to manipulate the timeline for your own advantage. Working out which Linchpin to flip to influence other events is as key to victory as the tactical playing of your Artifacts to keep everyone guessing just what you're planning. 

This is another excellent and ever-changing card game from Looney Labs with an insane ability to be replayed and replayed and replayed with a different path to victory each time. Initially it's best to start playing with the one pip characters and working up the difficulties before throwing all in and just seeing what you get. Approaching it this way will help you progressively understand the more in depth parts of Chrono-Trek in stages rather than blitzing everything because you fancy playing as Q or the Borg on day one. 

I've found through the games played so far that keeping hold of hand-change cards or ones that can affect an opponent's path are instrumental towards the more climactic moments plus always pay special attention to which Linchpins are being turned and what events they then change as this will indicate where your "enemies" are likely to be striking!

One more great thing to it is the inclusion of so much fan love. The art and flow of the timeline itself is incredible, recognising so many key parts of the franchise and weaving them into a playable sequence that just works with whatever is thrown at it.

Chrono-Trek is well worth purchasing for yourself or any aspiring Star Trek fan, not only giving hours of good fun franchise entertainment away from a flickering screen but also to refresh that historical knowledge of the timeline - but that's really a matter of perspective if you need something different to be happening.

Chrono-Trek is available now to buy from decent Star Trek game selling shops and websites. 

What's your favourite take on the game? Any good tips and tricks? Drop a comment below!

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DC Fontana 1939 - 2019

One of the lights of the galaxy has faded.

News has broken today that Dorothy Catherine "DC" Fontana, one of the key members of the original Star Trek writing staff from The Original Series has passed aged 80 on December 2nd.

Meeting Gene Roddenberry while he was making The Lieutenant, Fontana would follow him across to Star Trek and act as story editor for the first two seasons and was involved with writing ten episodes in total - Charlie X, Tomorrow is Yesterday, This Side of Paradise, Friday's Child, Journey to Babel, By Any Other Name, The Ultimate Computer, The Enterprise Incident, That Which Survives and The Way to Eden. The latter two were written under her Michael Richards pseudonym as a freelancer.

But her association with Star Trek would not end there and Fontana would return not just to write the rather excellent Yesteryear for The Animated Series (acting also as associate producer and story editor) but later step onboard for The Next Generation when Roddenberry reunited some of the original team for a second stab at success. 

As associate producer Fontana oversaw story editing once again, penning the first version of Encounter at Farpoint as well as The Naked Now, Lonely Among Us, Too Short a Season and the first true Klingon story of the series, Heart of Glory before moving on due to disagreements and differences that were brewing during the early days of the show. In a sense, DC Fontana is also responsible for the very genesis of The Next Generation, taking it and scripting the pilot episode to launch the series and bring the delicious set of characters to life for the first time on paper.

Her final scripted episode of Star Trek however would be the Deep Space Nine courtroom episode, Dax from its initial season in 1993. She would also go on to write for the fan series New Voyages for their 2006 episode To Serve All My Days which would return Walter Koenig to the role of Pavel Chekov one more time. 

DC worked again in Star Trek on video games Bridge Commander, Tactical Assault and  Legacy but her work was not solely confined to the Star Trek universe seeing her writing for productions for series such as Babylon 5. 

Fontana's footprint on the Star Trek franchise is certainly far and wide, stretching from 1966 and the first season into computer games and fan series. She is responsible for some landmark events in the show such as the introduction of Spock's parents as well as the birth of one Leonard James Akaar (Friday's Child) who is still now used as a character in the ongoing Star Trek novel series as the head of Starfleet. Fontana also managed to create one of the more memorable (for the right reasons) episodes of Star Trek's third and final season with the return of the Romulans and the plot to steal a cloaking device. One more notable point that the Romulan commander would be another character reused later by Star Trek Continues. In that instance the actress' real life daughter would play the role. 

As for Yesteryear, it is regarded as one of the few animated episodes that strongly resonates even 40 plus years later and many regard as canon due to its insight into the early years of Spock's life on Vulcan. This episode works in much the same way that Dax does or Heart of Glory, in that Fontana has brought background and depth to important characters within the franchise and built believable and memorable facets that are turned to again and again, forming the backbone to many a performance across six decades.

Truly a sad loss to the Star Trek universe. 

Drawn Out Game? Attack Wing: The Animated Series Faction Pack, Part II

On with the concluding part of the Animated Series Faction Pack and as promised, let's turn our attention to the Klingon and Romulan elements that make up a good portion of this set. (PART ONE HERE)

The three D7s included alongside the tiny USS Enterprise are intended to be used for the Klingon and Romulan craft represented and are identical, carrying the silver base coat, the yellowed, feather detail on the wings and engines that are the correct alignment versus some of the earlier waves. 

Annoyingly there’s no difference to the Romulan variant because all three also carry the Klingon crest on their bellies meaning that they will probably end up,doing double duty when picked out of storage. The IKS Klothos and the IKS Devisor both offer three in attack, one defence, three hull and two shields plus slots for up to a Crew, Weapon and Tech upgrade. This is however the only real similarities between these two named Klingon craft as the Klothos is capable of cloaking and the Subspace Echo sidestep alongside Evade and Target Lock whereas the Devisor lines up Battle Stations with the Evade and Target Lock features. 

The Klothos’ cloaking ability is fairly key to the game as well since it is entwined with the ship’s unique ability. When attacking and if cloaked, the D7 Class ship can add in an extra attack die OR if it's not within the primary arc of the ship it's attacking one Battle Station result can be converted into a Critical Damage and any others can be changed to Damage.

Once more an unusual card with lots of repeat and varied ways to put it into action. This one does trump a lot of the existing D7s thanks to the features and the reduced cost. The Devisor's unique action will require some keen attention to the game - if the enemy performed a three or greater speed maneouver in the round then she gets to add a Critical Damage hit to the rolled attack result. I would think that this would be likely in a retreat scenario or perhaps once the battle has become more close quarters. As a repeat though it does assist in guaranteeing at least one hit to defend against every dice roll.

Generically both ships - and their Romulan counterpart all move with a top speed of four and a full range of banks and turns at speeds two and three plus an always welcome but red 180 turn at speed three. Banks and forward moves at speeds one and two will counter this as they are green. 

It's fair to say that the D7s have a surprisingly agile maneouver ability given their rather clunky form but with a combination of 180s, cloaks and these impressive Unique Actions, these are two ships that might be hard to deal with.

Who better to have lined up for the captaincy than two Star Trek legends in cartoon form with Kor and Koloth. The former carries the greater Captain Skill of eight and costs five points to equip to your ship. Functioning as a way to maintain the cloak and also fire, Kor incurs two Time Tokens (not three unusually) meaning you keep stealthy and you also get to add an extra attack die into the mix on that round. Oh - and that's not all Kor does because if this card is on a Klingon ship (and why the heck wouldn't it be?) then add in a Damage result too... Is Kor potentially the most lethal Klingon captain in the game with this Action?

Koloth (skill of seven and cost of four) also uses that two Time Token feature, disabling himself for two rounds which in turn disables a Captain or Crew card on the opponent's ship when attacking and if that's not possible then they'll have to take on an Auxiliary Power Token. Both captains can field the useful but usually expensive Elite Actions however there might not be a lot of opponents left after using these cards initially.

The minimal Crew requirements of the Klothos and the Devisor are realised in their inclusion of just two new personnel. Three point Kali works at range one and will be a card for later use in the game. A one use discard, Kali allows you to flip a Damage card on the opposing ship over to the Critical Damage side (your choice which card) and forces you to resolve the script. Of course, there is a high chance of this being a game winner, knocking an enemy out in one swift dice roll...

Kaz is much more operational than curveball offence. For two points you can ditch him off rather than using a more effective and useful Crew upgrade on this vessel or one at range one. I'm still not a fan of these kinds of cards. While they defend your better abilities they are a waste of points where you could use this space for a stronger card.

Devoid of Tech options, the Animated Series pack does have two Weapon cards to bolster the arsenal aboard your starship. Magnetic Pulse carries the same dice attack as the primary weapon value of the ship it's attached to and costs a meaty five points to equip.

By disabling one of your Shield tokens and targeting a ship at range two or three you can roll an additional two attack dice. Weirdly it specifies that these dice can only be added if it's armed on a D7 - however, it doesn't say if there's a way to use it on something that's not a D7... That aside this one allows Critical Damage to ignore Shields and be converted to Damage which does affect Hull points instead. Crafty move and linked with some of the other Klingon features here it's another combo waiting to happen.

Disruptor Blast can be equipped to either a Klingon or Romulan starship and costs three points. Attacking at ranges one or two with three dice, this card is disabled with three Time Tokens and allows two attacks on your target vessel.

While Magnetic Pulse indicated it should have a feature if/if not a D7, this one does manage to specify as D7s can convert one blank die result into a Battle Station during each attack. Another odd one but it will offer additional support should that defender decide to take a swipe.

Last up for the Klingons is their Elite Action, Worthy Opponent which provides, perhaps a little out of character for the formidable warriors, a chance to extend their survival in the game. It's only applicable if your ship is carrying a Damage card but it does mean that attacking Critical Damage, Damage and Battle Station results all get turned blank. Certainly a way for the Klingons to escape a pasting but only once since this one gets binned after use. I can see this getting a lot of mileage as, although situational it's not one that needs several different things to happen to function.

But let's not forget about those duplicitous Romulans. Their IRW Talon carries the same stats as its Klingon cousins and costs 14 points with space for a Tech, Crew and Weapon upgrade alongside Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo.

In fact the Cloak is a key part of the Talon's distinctiveness allowing it to perform a bank or forward one or a Sensor Echo move before revealing its dial. Suddenly the Talon becomes able to dodge attacks or place itself in an optimal firing position in a blink of an eye. The generic version loses the Tech upgrade (not a bad idea since there's no Romulan Tech upgrade in the box) as well as a Shield point but comes in at a very affordable 11 points. 

Larus is the animated command option with this one with a skill of seven, the chance to equip an Elite Action and will cost you four points. He's just as useful as the Kor and Koloth as Sensor Echo (remember it's a Free Action on the Talon) can lead you to place a Battle Station token in play and it increases the ship's attack by one - and this doesn't specify it has to be the primary weapon. 

Joining Larus is the wiry Vendorian Spy, here in a Crew capacity and classed as a Romulan upgrade. Operating up to range two, Wizkids have duplicated the character from the series again - since it can mimic a Crew upgrade on a friendly ship within that sphere of influence. Costing four points there are no restrictions on use for the Vendorian Spy which does mean you can take full advantage of the best Romulan Crew upgrades there are to offer - twice and with no limit.

Two missions are also included with the rather superb Animated Series Faction Pack are The Practical Joker and Assault on Caleb IV. 

The Practical Joker pits a 60 point Federation player against a 60 point Romulan opponent in a straight two player set up with the winner being the last one standing. However, due to some "interference", instead of performing an Action, an attack die is rolled and the result indicates what the player will be doing. When any Crew or Captain abilities are used they incur two Time Tokens and finally each player has the chance to veto ONE attack per game.

Standard it may seem but this one could be decided more on pure chance than anything since you have no idea what will be coming with each Action roll - and that final big attack could be the one that gets cancelled.

Assault on Caleb IV goes a step further with the Federation player fielding a 50 point set up versus 80 from the Klingons. Using the objective tokens from the Starter Set, the odds are actually more in the Federation player's favour as the Constitution Class ship gains two attack dice by being in range one of the space station objective token. The derelict ship tokens represent sensor arrays and will give a Scan Action as a free Action if within range one and finally the Debris picture represents damaged parts of the space station under repair. As such this provides the chance to remove a Mission Token from that objective token to repair a shield on your ship. 

The Federation player needs to repel the attack while the Klingons are tasked with destroying the objective tokens and expand the Empire ever further. It's another neat twist and spin to what has proved to be an exciting and different Faction Pack. The Animated Series has proved to be a big, colourful Star Trek vault to unlock and the cards here are, in some respects, very closely linked in to their onscreen counterparts.

Some of the Captain and ship cards are ridiculously overpowered and give some of the most incredible options to try on your fleet especially if you happen to be playing as the Klingons - Kor and the Klothos have to be a couple of the most electric cards from any set - wonder how they would fare against the Gorn?

Of the two Faction Packs released at the end of 2019 this has to be my favourite. The Borg are a powerhouse where any upgrade just places them that step ahead of anyone else in the game. The Federaton, Klingon, Romulan - and that cheeky Harry Mudd Independent card - widen the playing field and could even provide a three-way battle straight out of the packet. Well worth getting if you have one pack to choose!

Have you tried out any good combinations of cards and ships from either of the recent Faction Pack releases? 

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Drawn Out Game? Attack Wing: The Animated Series Faction Pack, Part I

If the Borg weren't exciting enough for you then this should get those fires burning.

Wizkids have already pulled the unexpected with the Kelvin Timeline pack just over a year ago but now they're gone and spun in another brilliant move to keep the game alive with a foot into the little explored/mined Animated Series from the mid-1970's.

Featuring the USS Enterprise, Starfleet are fairly heavily outnumbered with three opponents included here in the form of two Klingon and one Romulan D7 Battlecruisers. 

Packaged as resplendently as ever, the Faction Pack also comes with the usual array of tokens, dials, stands, upgrade cards and missions to be able to launch a new group of ships into the game straight from the box (as long as you have the Starter Set!).

Starting out, let's tackle the USS Enterprise. Costing two points less than the "regular" version, this ship still carries up to four Crew ]and a Weapon slot plus the standard Actions of Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations. It also has three dice for attack, one for defence and four hull and three shield points which again matches the previous version. 

Aside from the point difference of 20 here to the 22 of the original the Enterprise can repair up to three shields as it's Unique Action. This will keep you going for a much longer game through the ability to rebuild the ship. 

The generic Constitution version removes two Crew slots and a shield point plus that Unique Action for a 16 point cost. Without the features of the legendary starship though, this one does seem little more than cannon fodder.

As for movement, it's fitting given the ship's point in the timeline that she tops out at speed four with full banks and turns at speeds two and three. One's forward and banks plus forward and banks at two offer green maneuvers. At least for the sacrifice of speed she can turn a bit however there s a noticable absence of reverse so you'll only be boldly going forward. 

Captaining the USS Enterprise in animated form can be either James T Kirk or the first commander of the legendary starship, Robert April. Both cost five points, bear a skill factor of eight and have the chance to field an Elite Action.

Usefully, Kirk lets you place a Scan or Battle Stations token next to your ship and perform the Action on a Crew card as a freebie. The chance to play a Battle Stations and then something else does take some pressure off your ship and brings in even more defense than just one die.

Robert April can be fielded as an Admiral as well as a Captain. As a further benefit, April will up his skill to nine if he's put in command of a Constitution Class starship. April will also take one for the team so to speak, allowing you to transfer any Time Tokens on one of your Crew upgrades aboard his vessel to be transferred to him. As part of the Action, you can then use April to "activate" that Crew member's Action. The chance to transfer Time Tokens is very useful. Double-hitting with a decent Crew upgrade in less turns than expected could well spin the game around and means the chance to utilise a feature potentially while n opponent is still within range.

Five new Crew cards will help fill out those four slots on the USS Enterprise. Stalwarts Spock (four points), Christine Chapel (three points) and Montgomery Scott (three points) are joined by their animated buddies, M'Ress (three points) and Arex (two points) with Sulu and Uhura oddly absent from this line up.

Spock provides a storming opportunity to cripple the enemy by spending an in-play Scan token attached to your ship so that an attack cannot be defended against nor can you be stopped from attacking. It's one more element to make the seemingly underpowered Enterprise a real force to be reckoned with in this game.

Scott does what you would expect with his card being disabled to repair up to one Hull and one Shield point on your ship, again increasing your chances of survival. Chapel is well worth using in conjunction with virtually any Crew upgrade that needs disabling since she can herself either be disabled or Time Token-ed to remove either a Disabled Token or all Time Tokens from your chosen card. I love the point that there's no specification that it's like for like or which you have to do with this - it all depends on your strategy - do you need that upgrade next go or are you prepared to wait?

Then we have two classic Animated Series characters. M'Ress is another that could line up nicely with Chapel as she can remove a Disabled Token from a Crew card when there's a Scan in play. This isn't specified as an Action either nor does it lead to discard or disable meaning that you can utilise her again and again. 

Arex is perhaps not quite as useful but still could be effective if you're moving later in the Phase. He gets disabled to allow you to change the type of move you're performing as long as it's at the same speed as the one you revealed on flipping your Maneuver Dial.  It is also specified to be a white or green move to qualify.

Arex will at least provide a chance to get yourself out of the way and could be well used in conjunction with Chapel or M'Ress should you end up in a critical situation.

Along with these more than welcome Crew additions, the set offers up one Weapon upgrade (twice!). Full Power Phaser Barrage costs a hefty five points and is good to use at ranges two and three. Taking the Enterprise as the base ship, this card would mean that it would roll five dice in attack just to begin with. If there are two uncancelled Damage and/or Critical Damage you get to roll another THREE attack dice to add to your already decent roll. 

Hold up - because not only does this give you a potential eight dice attack from a Constitution Class ship but it's only limited by Time Tokens and NOT a disposal. In three turns this could be active again. Now, if you could add in a Target Lock for a re-roll...?

Even if you don't use this card with a Constitution Class vessel, the uncancelled element will still operate and the enemy ship will also receive an Auxiliary Power Token which in turn will have effects on future rounds. This is a behemoth of a card - who wouldn't add this one?!

The first of two Elite Actions is Legacy of the Name which can only be attached to a Unique Named ship and can effect an Evade or Battle Stations as a Free Action with the penalty of three Time Tokens. If it's the Enterprise (and there's no specific version) then ANY Action can be completed as a Free Action which would mean that this could be very effectively used alongside Full Power Phaser Barrage by activating a Target Lock and all for the cost of three points to your fleet!

One more thing with this pack...Harcourt Fenton Mudd. Ok...this is a long winded one so here we go. Costing thee points and effective only at range one, Mudd gets disabled so that you can use his Love Crystal feature. This means that you can place a Crystal Token onto two Crew upgrades on an enemy ship.

Cleverly mixing in the Mudd element from The Animated Series, Mudd's reference card details that if one of those upgrades marked with the Crystals are disabled, the person who placed the token gets to disable another Crew upgrade of their choice - the same applies in the case of Crew upgrades discarded or disabled with Time Tokens utilising those features on another Crew card. 

With no faction penalty for equipping him, Mudd is a fine nightmare of a card to add to your ship since his actions will inflict double the trouble and prove just as annoying as the original character was in his three classic appearances (yes, I'm including The Animated Series).

With the second half of this pack review we'll be focusing on the Romulan and Klingon options plus overall impressions of how the pack plays out.

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Somewhat Animated

It's back! Again!

Discovery, Picard...and now CBS All Access has announced that Mike McMahan will be helming Lower Decks, the next Star Trek series to boldly go in the Kurtzman era.

But what makes this any different from the multitude of series before it? Well this one won't be live action and for the first time since 1974 we'll be seeing an animated Star Trek.

The title itself might also suggest where this is going to be set - away from the bridge and senior staff just as we experienced with the classic The Next Generation episode of the same name. 

Press for the show has confirmed that it has been ordered for two series and will focus on the support staff of a particularly unimportant starship - and it's going to be a comedy. It will be produced by CBS Eye Animation along with (of course) Alex Kurtzman's Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.

My affinity for Star Trek's lighter moments is not well publicised - because it don't exist - so I'm quite unsettle by this announcement today. What does sway in it's favour is that Mike McMahan was responsible for the @TNG_S8 Twitter account and the subsequent Warped book which was a mighty good read and also the rather excellent Rick and Morty TV series. It does suggest that there's going to be a top level of quality plus a creative mind that knows its Star Trek which does give me hope.

Star Trek's history with animation is limited to its brief dalliance in the mid-70's which saw the original cast (except Walter Koenig) reprise their roles vocally. The results were mixed with one highlight certainly being the time-travelling Yesteryear that filled in some of Spock's backstory as well as the first mention of Tiberius as Kirk's middle name and even the appearance of the Enterprise's first commanding officer Robert April. 

Now the original animated run was not considered part of canon which might suggest this will also be held outside of the timeline but at this stage we don't even know what point in the Star Trek universe it will even be set. My guess is that it will be in the 24th Century with McMahan's previous works being set in that time period rather than adding anything else into the 23rd Century. 

I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of characters, ships and adventures we're in for although the comedy element still sits tapping away for attention on my shoulder annoyingly.

Have a look back through Star Trek history and there have been a few attempts to resurrect Star Trek as an animated series. Final Frontier was one example that could have made it in the post-Enterprise pre-Kelvin universe with Captain Alexander Chase and his crew facing off against the Klingons in the far future where the Federation has crumbled following war with the Romulans. It piqued CBS's interest but a certain 2009 film stopped it dead in its tracks which is a shame because there's a whole host of characters developed and a lot of great material available at the developers' website. Go take a look, there's scripts an' everything!

A second could have been a Captain Sulu series on the Enterprise-B battling the Kzinti (ironically a baddie from The Animated Series in the '70's) but again nothing really happened and details are a a little slim on this one. A third might have come from Kurtzman and Orci off the back of the 2009 reboot but allegedly it was early in the game and securing the movie series was the first thing that needed to be done before Star Trek could spread its wings wider.

Other question - will this mean we are at peak Star Trek saturation? Will the quality here wain because there will be three shows - each with a very distinct personality - but they will be running concurrently and it'll be the first time three such stories will be on air at the same time. The nearest it's been to this was the year in which we had Voyager, Deep Space Nine and First Contact being made.

Personally I'd LOVE to see it set in that missing era between Generations (Kirk era) and Encounter at Farpoint - retro, filled with movie era uniforms, chunky starships, armoured up Klingons and all aboard something really small like a Sydney Class or an Oberth Class ship. Could this be the crew going in to "clean up" after the "big boys" have been in and completed first contact? I think that would be a great line to take.

But now we have confirmation that an animated Star Trek series is not too far away - certainly closer than 1973-74 and means that there are now two shows in pre-production to get excited about. Let's hope that it stays strictly in the Star Trek mould however with a sprinkling of humour in there to lighten the tone and make it more accessible to a younger audience. This could be the start of something even bigger and I think if this is done right then there's a whole truckload of merchandise that could be coming off the back of it.

Fun times ahead!!!

What would you want to see from a more humourous Star Trek?

Let us know below and like and share to spread the SKoST word!

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