Some Kind of Star Trek: VOY

Showing posts with label VOY. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 June 2023

Taken Care: That Final Eaglemoss Special

First of all... this is a bit weird... but this will be the 1000th published post on this site. It feels somewhat crazy that after 10 and a half years I'm still here and still writing about Star Trek. Thank you to anyone who has followed since the beginning, to all those who read and comment along the way. You've helped keep me going and I've loved meeting and talking to every single one of you. Here's to the next 1000....!!!!

We were excited, giddy even at the thought that Eaglemoss would be producing the Caretaker Array from Voyager’s pilot episode.

Hurrah! Prepare the pre-orders! Donate that final irrelevant lung and stand by the post box!

A year later and the landscape is quite different yet somehow, models find a way. That Caretaker Array did finally ship but via Master Replicas who have bought a considerable chunk of Eaglemoss' remaining catalogue including several of their unreleased models (see also XL USS Stargazer).

What is perhaps most surprising is the size of this special. Certainly the smallest space station in the series, the Array is only just twice the length of the familiar black base. It’s virtually all plastic with the two central rings acting as metal ballast. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting here nor am I sure what I actually got.

The detailing is pretty minimal and comparing what we have in the box to the item on screen is not the easiest of jobs. I’d even go as far as saying that this gives an air of being unfinished although it’s actually comparable to the station on screen.

Those antennae/sensor arrays are indeed skeletal if you watch the episode back so there is a decent level of accuracy when it comes to the station's extremities. In fact they're fairly well detailed too in terms of surface greebling if not that strong. There's a fair bit of give in the larger ones in particular yet it is as screen accurate as you would hope.

Both the outer arms and that central core do have a level of grubbiness to them indicating the grand old age of the array. Problem is, it's just not that exciting as a station or as a product.

The top and bottom assemblies aren't that intricate but do at least bear some resemblance to their vaguely seen "real" versions in Caretaker. I guess this one is a bit of a kicker though thanks to its size and the mix of well detailed elements to that rather plain central core. Yes, there is hull panelling but the single tone colour scheme lies a bit flat and the station feels somewhat lifeless.

As to the stand fit, this one's pretty good, clipping right around the lower elements of the central core and holding the whole station very firmly in place. Nicely constructed and provides a stable base.

Ok, it is just a model but Eaglemoss managed to successfully convey signs of life on many of their other products however it falls a little flat here. The lack of an accompanying magazine is conspicuous too and would probably have helped answer a lot of questions about the resulting build however that's one thing that concretely never saw the light of day.

For now the Caretaker Array rests as a tantilising glimpse at some of the possibilities that might have emerged in 2023 but also represents that final crumbling moment in what was once a huge part of the merchandising market.

Is it a "must have"? Yes if you're a completist or a Voyager fan but no in every other sense. It's only really gained notoriety because it's Eaglemoss' unreleased special. For me it might even rank below the stick that is Relay Station 47 and maybe as the weakest of the space station/stationary structures. Functional - absolutely but just super, super dull and a disappointing way to have closed down the specials series of models. Who knows what could have been next...

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Thursday, 15 March 2018

Rounding Up: The Graphic Novel Collection Issues 20 - 23

Next up in the ever growing Graphic Novel Collection comes the Classic UK Comics with more retro ‘50’s style shenanigans. Clive and Ian take a look...

I'll be straight up with this one, the UK Comics can be a bit of a drag to get through and while the Kelvin timeline and The Next Generation stories can be a one-sit-and-done these require a more dedicated span of attention due to the smaller story panels and even smaller text.

What you also find with these is that they tend to lean towards less that Star Trek relevant stories choosing to head into generic sci-fi story territory rather than pushing that envelope and doing something unique and different. It does make for some interesting dipping in and out on occasion,reading a story then dropping into something more recent for a rest. The illustrations are very similar to those in Flash Gordon and other more 50's sci-fi themed outings but they do seem to toe the line on tech and the sets a lot more than Gold Key ever attempted - at least the bridge looks like the bridge and the characters have at least more than a passing passing resemblance to their onscreen counterparts. Some great things to watch out for as you're reading through - lizard aliens, classical Rome and the most bizarre planet-fall landing of a Star Trek starship ever; I kid you not.

Second up in issue 21 is the first trip out to the depths of the Delta Quadrant and aboard Voyager. This collection is set during the third season of the show and prior to the Doctor receiving the holo-emitter meaning we get him confined to sickbay and the holodeck as well as the young Ocampan Kes.

The stories seem to try and keep in line with the televised episodes, returning both the Talaxians and the Kazon to the story as the former attempt to secure Voyager for the Trabe in what is a very fast-paced tale to open this volume. Graphically the stories do the ships some justice but their visual interpretations of the crew are sketchy at best. Fortunately the stories are compelling and do try and follow some sort of canonical references keeping them firmly placed within the Voyager timeline. While the artwork can be hit and miss at times with these stories they're as good a read as any and once I'd dived into a few pages I found myself easily swayed and totally hooked into some very well crafted adventures.

The Voyager stories are a little more gung-ho than you might have expected but they are all high on action and low (for once) on the technobabble which means you get a much better fill of story and can follow every line. It's not as overdramatic as the recent reprints of the Marvel and UK comic series but it's not as clean cut and crisply written as you would find in one of the Kelvin universe or The Next Generation volumes from the last decade.

Oddly this volume has a fascination with the Kazon/Trabe fracture in the Delta Quadrant with a good four fifths of the stories using this as its centrepoint. It definitely makes for an action packed narrative but maybe it overplays the phaser shooting and fist-fighting that Star Trek didn’t need to rely on to tell a story. These tales do keep with the nicey-nice Maquis/Starfleet unity and tow the line but it does feel a touch lifeless

Issue 22 slips us into the realms of Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation with Divided We Fall. Once again there's some tight storytelling, a mix of characters all thrown together and some little signs that mean you can place the time this was written precisely - Riker is clean shaven and there's a Trill officer at the Conn; yes, this was produced just after Insurrection was released and as such the events of Nemesis have no recrimination here.

It's a brilliant story, planned well and offering up one might-have-been moment in Star Trek lore. I love these kind of stories where what actually happened and what was envisaged are completely different because of the perspectives involved. The choice to use Verad from Invasive Procedures as the antagonist here might initially seem a bad idea since that's once of Deep Space Nine's weaker season two installments but it does actually work and by an even further twist we manage to pull in the first onscreen Trill, Odan from The Host. Not just that but Elias Vaughn and Thirishar ch’Thane from the Literary Universe are also pulled into the unfolding events making this one hell of a multi-format crossover spectacular. It really is a story that pulls out all the stops when it comes to both character and action with storyboards that are crisply executed with a decent likeness for the established roster of crew. Great from start to finish this is one of the greats of the collection so far however...

Issue 23 and Assignment Earth. Now this is our first real diversion away from the mainstream Star Trek content, taking us back to the final episode of the second season of The Original Series and the appearance of one Gary Seven, a transmorphic cat called Isis and his secretary Roberta Lincoln.

Now it does have a couple of cute crossover moments in here which ping us back again into Tomorrow is Yesterday to see it from a perspective not unlike that we experienced with Trials and Tribble-ations but on the whole these are a whole new set of adventures which revolve around this unique investigator. This volume gives a voice to a what could have been in much the same way that Divided We Fall offers a divergence into a Star Trek had Nemesis never happened. It's a lot more fun, more colourful and fast-paced than regular Star Trek adventures as it's not enforced to work to the same set of rules or formula even though it's set within the same universe. Could this be someone who could turn up in Discovery? I don't see why not but I would imagine Aaron Harberts and Ted Sullivan would want to tone him down and make his ethics and drives a lot darker than we get here.

Of the whole selection we're covering off here this was easily my favourite. It offered a new dynamic to the Star Trek universe through a series of quite un-Star Trek like tales set in the 1960's USA. These do feel a little more cartoonish in style but there's a lot of life and a lot to love about their content. An odd inclusion but a great one to get hold of and experience a series that never actually was!

On the flip side however my colleague Ian found this a little bit dull and pedestrian -which he has found to occur in previous works by the Tipton brothers. Also in this volume we have A World Gone Mad from Gold Key It has its usual wackiness that you would expect and you get Spock uttering the immortal line “That's no way for a sister to be acting”;I wonder why that one didn’t catch on!!

Backing up the latter three of the four editions is our old faithful Gold Key stories from the early 1970's. This time we have the joys of The Hijacked Planet, The Haunted Asteroid and A World Gone Mad, all of which take us into more Star Trek-foundation (and pretty much everything else) ignoring all the way. They do have a lot in common with the UK Comics editions more than anything although as we do get further into the back catalogue there are occasional signs that the writers and illustrators were starting to consider actually getting a shade nearer canon even if its just in uniform colours. Also a note from Ian on this one around The Haunted Asteroid in that it introduces Doctor Krisp who will turn up again in future stories - a first in the form of a recurring character created for the Gold Key series.

Right then - that's our first of three round robin catchups for the Graphic Novel series. Our next will cover issues 24 - 27...

Any of these floating your boat? What's been the highlight of the collection so far?

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Saturday, 24 December 2016

FCD Is Number One

It's Christmas Eve and the long awaited star guest announcement for First Contact Day 2017 has been revealed!

We can now announce that none other than Commander William T Riker (or Thomas Riker if you prefer) Jonathan Frakes will be landing in the UK for the three day event running at the Telford International Centre from March 31st to April 2nd 2017.

Seriously, yes, we said it - Jonathan Frakes - Riker; Number One, the guy who defeated the Borg, the man with the most unique style of sitting down in the known universe will be joining fans in Telford during the 30th anniversary year of The Next Generation. But hey, let's get the man to tell you himself...

Commented organisers Wil Ross; "FCD Out of the Ashes 2.0 represents our biggest challenge yet.

"After what happened to FCD 2016, we had so much love and support but we also lost a lot of credibility with fans. I'm sure they felt for us but when your talking about people thinking their had lost hard earned money on a postponed event, they would have been questioning our credibility and our ability to actually put on this show.............it's natural because I know I would be if the shoe was on the other foot."

While not quite what they had planned, FCD 2016 was still a great fan event run by fans with guests Claudia Christian, John Carrigan, Aron Eisenberg and JG Hertzler all appearing and helping make a great day.

"What people need to understand is that David [Limburg] and I have personally underwritten about 80% of the total cost of this event." said Wil, "The rest will come from early ticket sales etc. Our job now is to convince people that we really mean business and to that end we have upped our game in terms of guests."

Truly they have with a selection already announced and the "big one" held back for Christmas Eve.

Continued Wil; "We have a stunning line up from across the sci-fi universe - Aron Eisenberg (Deep Space Nine), John Carrigan (Star Trek: New Voyages and more), Claudia Christian (Babylon Five), Rainbow Sun Francks (Stargate Atlantis), David Blue (Stargate Universe), Robert Picardo (Voyager) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon Five, Tron). I mean come on, we couldn't top that surely - but we have!!

"So come on, get your tickets and let's have some fun!!"

The inclusion of actor/director Jonathan Frakes is simply huge and shows the dedication and belief that exists around FCD in that they can attract such big Star Trek alumni. Of course it's nice to have the guy who starred in and directed First Contact to be there for First Contact Day!

Get on over to the FCD 2.0 Out of the Ashes Facebook page now for more information and get your tickets booked - we'll be seeing you there!!!

Looking forward to FCD 2017? Who will you be getting an autograph from?