All Good Things... The Official Starships Collection Issues 178,179...and 180

But alas...here we are....

One hundred and eighty issues, .six years and eleven months later it's come to the last edition.  

As you might expect, it's a real mix of expectations and delivery with the Husnock Warship from The Survivors, the Vidiian Starship from Voyager's Deadlock and finally, perhaps fittingly and conspicuous by its very absence, the Borg Cube from First Contact. The Husnock ship from The Next Generation's pivotal third season might look a little familiar - and so it should since it's the original form that would be altered to become the Bajoran Freighter and the Smuggler's Ship from Unification among several others.

in terms of its detail, the original is probably this model in its simplest version. Coated in a plain grey with darker grey highlights, the Husnock Warship has a subtle aztec pattern across its surface with some small, raised details. Towards the centre the darker grey denotes the bridge module painted in with blue windows around two sides of the ‘v’ shaped unit.

In comparison to its later variants, the Husnock Warship continues to build towards the rear and Eaglemoss have accurately captured its simple but distinctively angular shape at the back end too. I always remember this one looking particularly "plasticky" on screen and I'm glad that they have kept that manufactured feel in the replica here. 

Everything about it seems almost too good to be true and too pure in form with only a series of blue and white dots, indicating the size of this craft, spread across the central piece to the rear. 

Out to the sides that clean, minimal finish has been maintained into the darker grey wings with each of these tipped with an underslung, pointed energy weapon. Both of the prongs to the sides are a little flexible but still feel sturdy. Indeed, the whole ship feels very solid thanks to its blocky structure. 

The rear of the warship is tonally even darker than the forward sections and carries a more condensed form of the aztecing seen elsewhere. The lines continue to be cleanly finished and the painting in of the engine is also crisp alongside what seems to be a small docking port just below it.

On the bottom, there's a fraction more detail to be seen. You get a better look at the greebling on the underside of the two weapon prongs which are more visibly attached into the main body of the ship. You also get a clearer view of the windows that line both sides of the hull almost right to the front.

There's a third weapon prong slapped in underneath and right in the middle which wasn't present during the Husnock's first attack during the Enterprise's first visit to the planet. This is noted a few times and lines up both the screen appearance with the model.

While you can see where this and the wingtip weapons fit into the ship, the main join line is hidden away below the overhang from the top of the hull giving an overall seemless impression.

The first of the three magazines in this delivery provides the usual ship overview as well as the customary plan views to compare against the model. In fairness they are very close perhaps on this occasion the CG and images contained therein are even more plain than the mode.. Issue 178 also includes a relevant section dedicated to the making of The Survivors especially in note to the location work that made this one such a memorable episode. Alongside the text are a good selection of photos from the story as well as behind the scenes from the time out of studio.

An excellent final piece for The Next Generation here allows Hans Beimler a chance to recount his memories from his time on the series including writing this episode and being involved with the many-handed Yesterday's Enterprise instalment from later in the same season.

The penultimate edition of the collection takes us into Voyager territory with the Vidiian Starship. It's only the second occasion that the race famed for its ravaging Phage has appeared in the series following issue 103's Warship which was actually used later in the series.

The overall design theme of them both is extremely similar although this later creation has a more golden coat but retains the "front heavy" concept tapering to the rear.

Certainly the colour difference is striking and actually out of character with keeping an aesthetic with alien ship continuity. Perhaps with the Vidiians though it was easier to retain a visual impression alone in the shape of their ships.At the front the starship features a pair of pincers arcing out to the front paralleled by the two warp engine humps on either side. 

The golden finish is speckled with white dots to indicate internal lighting and are painted onto the hull rather than sitting into indentations that probably wouldn't be aligned. Rather than an aztec look, the Vidiian ship carries distinct panelling across the whole surface .

Both the warp engines mounted as part of the wing design are tipped with a slightly orange glow before curving back into the larger "shoulders" of the ship and the assembled gubbings on top of the craft. It's not a stunner but the detail of the hull is well replicated from its limited outings and does come across as a model that more time was taken to complete given the texture of the hull, the colour and well, everything.

The structure around those main, prominent features are supplemented with well defined supporting sprues to the rear from the hull to the engine exhaust and then to the front, either side of the predatory pincers. It contrasts quite starkly to the Husnock Warship with its simple lines and plain finish, demonstrating once more the difference just six years of model creation and CG had made on the franchise.

Even out to the edges of the wings there are the geometric panel forms both top and bottom with the underside losing the spinal feature of the dorsal piece but retaining the finely painted engine in the centre back.The other less noticeable details that do reappear on both sides are the blacked out, recessed grilles on the engine pods, again with their painting precisely aligned with the indents. 

For a ship that, for once was used more than once but not more than twice, the Vidiian Starship is somewhat seductive with a smooth slimline shape and profile that Eaglemoss have done well to recreate. The stand positioning works very well with the negative space of the hull allowing for a central grip more evenly distributing the weight of the ship over the stand. It's a bit of a fiddle due to the length of the forks that grip the main hull from the back and how far the go back against the main hull but the end effect looks good.

This magazine is our last trip into the Delta Quadrant exploits of Voyager and focuses mainly on the second season. Opening by compiling the stats for the Vidiian Starship, the magazine suffers from not having that many good photos of this vessel to work with, leaving the visuals a little fuzzy or, at best, long distance. 

The CG here is better than the real thing, adding more texture to the ship than we received on screen or in the flesh. 

Starting out as another ship - that from an earlier season two episode, Parturition - the Vidiian ship made just two appearances in the excellent Deadlock and later in Fury before being replaced with the even more angular Warship.

Finally we take a look into the filming of the Voyager episode in which this starship appeared and it's one that took a lot to complete since there are two of the hero vessel, a challenging-to-film death scene and a sequence which saw Janeway meet Janeway. This probably provides more detail on the filming of the episode than the Voyager Companion (not the greatest series guide written) including how some of the pieces were successfully committed to film.

Deep breath now. 

Here we go - and forgive me if I stumble over this because we are now here...the Borg Cube and the end of the regular collection. Grab a hankie.

Now the last time we welcomed a six-sided addition to the series was the Tactical Cube in issue 58 from October 2015(!). Now we have our sixth Borg ship and the first "proper" Cube since we're not going to count the oh-so-well-remembered light up box that was among the initial free gifts way back when.

Unsurprisingly the whole thing is plastic so it's a bit of a double-edged finale since we would have sincerely loved this to be a true combo of the metal and plastic builds we've been used to since issue one.

But hey, there is one major redeeming feature which sets this one right above the Tactical Cube. That Borg craft cleverly repeated each of its sides meaning there were only three distinct elements combined in duplicate to make the threatening starship. Here, each side is unique, each piece carries its own markings and hull nuances and every surface is filled with technical detail including - and it would have been a major error to leave out - the hatch for the Borg Sphere on which the Queen makes her escape into the 21st Century.

Coated in a single dark grey, the hull of the cube is highlighted with marks of green to show the pulsing energy through the structure. This effect is a bit lost on a plastic model and it doesn't help that the depth of the craft that you see on the big screen is lost due to the nature of the building material which only allows for minor changes in the undulation of the detail. Final tip of the hat to Eaglemoss because I could swear point blank that the surface of the Tactical Cube under the added armour plating is almost identical to that of the First Contact cube - nice but of continuity/cheap option to reuse the mould...!

As for the fit together, the six sides are clipped into place internally with only a slight seam around two of the face to give any indication of the construction. As for the stand, it's the same principle as was utilised for the Tactical Cube - just sit it on a plastic shelf and attach to the base. Job. Done.

So to our last look into the magazines and we have a straight forward retelling of the opening battle sequence from First Contact  along with some crisp new CG of the distinctive craft and shots from the movie. As for designing the ship, it's a bit like trying to reinvent the wheel as we discover from the perspective of John Eaves.

Voyager introduced Borg Probes, the Queen's ship and the already hat-tipped Tactical Cube but it's odd to think that the lead alien vessel could have looked very different before the designers returned to the familiar - but even then it did look, initially, different to the screened version which even has its visual cues in the Artifact from Picard. 

Closing out this issue ahead of the Key Appearance is a brisk two page piece on how some of the Borg technology in the film came to be...you'll be surprised as to what was used so I won't ruin the surprise.

And that's it. 180 issues over and done. We've reviewed every one from the very beginning and it's been an utter pleasure to do so. As for the pick of the crop from these three, well, let's not select a top dog this time. All three have some great merits and are pretty damn screen accurate all round. The magazines have a right mixture of quality with, as we've come to expect, some articles being over long and others that merit more length getting a few paragraphs.

Apparently we will have more collections coming in 2021 - so that'll be Picard and Lower Decks at a minimum...but who knows what else. For now the binders on this one can be snapped shut and filed. Could there have been more issues? Yes, but what would we have been left with since this felt as though we were already starting to get the splinters from the barrel bottom. The Official Starships Collection has been a major game changer for the franchise and one would suspect, Eaglemoss/Hero Collector as well and that will never ever be surpassed. 

You did us fans proud. 

Thank you.

Read all our other reviews of The Official Starships Collection from issue ONE here.

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Voyager Season Three: The Big Reveal

The conclusion of Basics proved that Voyager could capably complete a two-parter and make it work over two seasons.

The loss of Lan Suder was perhaps inevitable but even a few years later I still wonder how he would have affected the ship if he'd survived. I mean the guy is a one man killing machine taking down a whole engineering team of Kazon to save the ship. I do enjoy Voyager's two-parters and the third season packs in this one plus Future's End which is another top notch 90 minute effort.

Let's start properly with Basics though. The shipboard scenes are great with the cat and mouse game being played out by the Doctor and Suder against the Ogla led by Cullah and Seska. It successfully closes off two years of Kazon antics and these guys are never seen again in an original episode. Many hurrahs for sure across fandom but there were definitely worse enemies in this show than the "short Klingons". The crew's encounter with the natives on their new home feels like filler and you are clock-watching for when Voyager will show back up.

Future's End drops the crew onto 90's (at the time present-day) Earth and provides the Doctor with the mobile emitter but it does more than that, introducing Captain Braxton and confirming that Star Trek is in an alternate universe since Chronowerx is blatantly a social comment on Microsoft/Apple. Filled with action, gadgets and a baddie who still makes me uneasy, it's a worthy double-length story slap-bang in the middle of the year. Anyone else wonder about the Eugenics War???

The early stages of the year are somewhat less spectacular than Tom and Tuvok chasing a truck in a VW camper, Sacred Ground and False Profits are left overs from the previous season and aren't that bad to be honest. Sacred Ground brings out the Prime Directive and the whole non-interference topic once again and is pretty effective with Janeway taking a prime spot to save Kes' life. False Profits brings the two Ferengi from The Next Generation's The Price back as we discover them taking full - and not unexpected - advantage of a naive race. Back on first-run these two cheesed me off no end. Filler, average and nothing interesting but 20 years later they are both signs that Voyager was getting better. It's about characters, it's about exploring the rich background of the franchise and answering the "what if's". In fact False Profits is a decent Ferengi episode where Neelix is useful and contributes to some great scenes. There are far, far worse than these two eps - in this season as we will see - but first there's Flashback.

Cards on the table, it's not Trials and Tribble-ations. Nowhere near. George Takei (who wasn't in The Trouble with Tribbles) and the late Grace Lee Whitney are back to replicate their scenes from The Undiscovered Country plus some extra bits in a story that seems like it's taped together around the 1991 movie. Seeing Sulu and Rand in Star Trek again is a feast for fans but I just don't think either is totally comfortable here and the model work isn't up to scratch either. I know the Excelsior isn't the same model as in The Undiscovered Country and adds another nail into this substandard anniversary show. Going up against Deep Space Nine's seminal episode was a Kobayashi Maru if ever there was one but at least they tried.

Worst Case Scenario might not draw on history that far back but it does take a leaf out of the Voyager Origins casebook with one of the show's clever "What If" episodes along the same lines as Living Witness and the two-part Equinox, (there's another but I'm coming to that...) offering a view of the ship had the Maquis managed to take control. Only a holodeck program that goes wrong (again) but one possible option we never got to experience. Bringing back Seska (she's back again in season seven's Shattered) works very well and even more chilling is her after-death "revenge" on Tuvok by re-writing the scenario. A great story, it gets lost in an otherwise average year.

The only other episode this year to really draw on the past of the franchise is The Q and the Grey, returning everyone's favourite omnipotent being accompanied by the ever-watchable Suzie Plakson. Now I've loved Plakson as Selar, as K'Ehleyr and as Andorian Tarah in Enterprise. I even love her here as she's one of my favourite guest actresses but as a Q episode this is barrel-scraping, so much so that when we get to Q2 in season seven (yep, four Q-free years after this garbage) I think the producers were on the verge of ordering a new shiny reinforced barrel. A civil war and Q procreation are awful concepts not too far off the Warp Five speed limit controversy of The Next Generation's final year. Gladly it's not repeated, just heaped on top.

Macrocosm attempts to do for Janeway what Starship Mine did for Picard and while it doesn't quite manage to turn her into the female Starfleet John MacClaine it's a valiant effort with a rare (at this time) CGI alien being that's a little bit terrifying and makes this episode a little bit of a guilty pleasure. It's pure action, moderate nonsense but very enjoyable as the captain suits up to kick some bacterial arse.

Season three seems to have a few episodes I either erased from my mind or never paid that much attention to in the '90's. There are two of those culprits later in the season, the first one being Fair Trade. Even the three line synopsis on the DVD gave me no clue as to which episode this was. Ten minutes in and I was none the wiser and even by the closing credits I was still wondering if I'd ever watched it in the first place. Now it's not a shocker, it;s probably one of the stronger Neelix episodes and it has something that actually shows that time - and space - have passed in that the Talaxian is starting to become "redundant". Great touch that I felt worked well for the development of the series and this maligned character. 

Neelix also has a prominent role in Tuvok and the Great Metal Elevator or Rise as it's titled here. A whodunnit in the classic confined space combined with one of sci-fi's biggest tropes. While Voyager was always seeking the concept angle it's heavily recycled here providing average season filler with little character exposition for the sake of some nice CGI.

Another one from the vault that my memory forgot is Coda. I remember there being a massive build up for this one which saw the return of the Vidiians and acted as a springboard for Jeri Taylor's Mosaic novel (which I managed to get hold of last year). Examining Janeway's character it's the strongest episode to focus on the character from the start of the show, opening up both her strengths and weaknesses in a so-so episode. 

Things don't tend to really kick into gear until the closing seconds of the Lets All Pon Farr episode, Blood Fever where the Borg finally turn up. We have to wait another ten episodes for them to actually prove a viable threat but even the hint of their presence in the show - something we had been waiting for since Caretaker - meant the remote possibility that this series was going to take it up a notch or three. On this note I was actually right but let's come to that in a moment.

To get to that season finale there's a ton of good and bad. The Borg-teasing Unity brings familiar Alpha Quadrant races back into the fold who want to be in a collective rather than have their total individuality. A good Chakotay story (yes, seriously) that places him in a very precarious role and at least the experience is something that the writers chose to reuse in the conclusion of Scorpion at the beginning of the following season.

Talking of underused characters, Ensign Kim is almost conspicuous in the third season after The Chute. That episode is one of my favourite stories of the year however and even knowing the twist on a rewatch didn't ruin it. There's a lot to like here and entrusting the bulk of the screen time to Wang and McNeill works really well. It is a lost situation for them as they try and survive as best they can and there are some very distinct religious and social overtones that are less than subtle throughout. Watch for the "Christ" moment if you know what I mean! 

Harry's other big story before he's attacked by Species 8472 in Scorpion is Favorite Son. Is Harry an alien? No; not a chance in hell and guess what - he isn't. Now if they had kept that in it would have been a moment of genius totally inspired and against all expectations but the fact that we just know there will be a reset and Ensign Kim is 100% human from the start takes all the emotional power from the tale. Voyager had a tendancy to do grandiose, dangle the carrot and then whip the rug out from under your feet on a few occasions - just check out the ending of Year of Hell if you want to see probably it's biggest offender or perhaps the final 30 seconds of Endgame.

The Doctor also gets a fair share of screen time to indulge in flippant wastes of ship resources especially in the torrid Real Life although his turn as something not far off Jack the Ripper in the earlier Darkling is almost inspired if a little predictable even before the "big" reveal not that far into the episode. Potentially that early epoch saves the episode from ruin and heavily relies on Robert Picardo - a trait that would continue with zest in the later years when coupled with Seven of Nine.

For me within that end of season batch there are a couple of stand out episodes. One is Before and After and the second is Distant Origins. I'll address the Kes time travel one first in that it might be standard temporal breakfast for Star Trek but it's a late blast of greatness from Lien given that her exit from the show would come so abruptly in the fourth season. It drops a few hints at what is to come from the Krenim in Year of Hell plus provides a glimpse of how Voyager might have evolved had the journey taken the lifetime it was suggested back in the first season. I think this is one of those stories we needed to see to tempt us with the future and the "could be" options just in the way that Parallels did very late for The Next Generation. One note though that the Krenim were originally supposed to have been the third season cliffhanger but Scorpion took that slot relegating Annorax and co to the following year.

To be fair it had been a pretty poor year for old Kes since her only other major starring role had been in the (equally good) Warlord chewing out cast and scenery in what should be a standard body-swap episode. This is fairly by numbers from start to finish but Jennifer Lien's swaggering performance does raise its profile but not enough that it's going to scar any top 20's.

As I said though, the end of the year also presented what I consider to be one of the show's classics; Distant Origin. Proving that Voyager could nail high concept once again, the episode is much more orientated to the perspective of the dinosaur-descended Professor Gegen and the Voth than it is the main cast. It's a good move allowing an unusual look at the human condition and contemplating just how we might be considered from another viewpoint. In fact our existence debunks their very idea of evolution. A good Chakotay episode again! Wow, they really screwed with this guy in the later years didn't they?

Season three does close with one of the show's biggest ever episodes that I would easily include in the same breath as Living Witness, Blink of an Eye, Timeless and Equinox - Scorpion. 

Returning the Borg to the small screen after their makeover for First Contact can't have been that easy and it's a finale that gets a lot right but isn't perfect. I still question the decision to give the Borg their own nemesis if you will but you can't fault the power of the pre-titles teaser nor the scope of Voyager's first Borg encounter proper.

Species 8472, Star Trek's first major CG baddie are a huge threat to just about everything and fortunately weren't overused by the show (although they still did a humanise-the-enemy ep which was unnecessary) and left Voyager to take on the Borg as its main threat. Scorpion showed the true opportunities that the series could explore - the real dangers of the Delta Quadrant and a storyline that could truly be ongoing. Of course we had no idea what the concluding part would bring - or who.

What was the highlight of season three? Do you think Voyager was right to bring back the Borg?

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State of Independence: Lone Starships in Attack Wing

With Wave 19 delayed due to some issue in the US, we've got a barren month when it comes to new Attack Wing expansions.

As it happens I was looking to expand my Independent fleet and added in two older ships to the numbers. Choosing which wasn't too hard as I'd heard some good things about both the Vidiian Fina Prime and the Hirogen Hunter.

The Vidiian ship (Wave 10) is one of the biggest - and ugliest - ships to come out of the game. It's also the only version available currently as the Starships Collection has still to slot it into the running order. It's certainly wide but size isn't everything and it's a shame that having a larger surface area doesn't make it any better than the other expansions. The paint scheme is very blocky, very basic and has an uncharacteristic shine to it that I wouldn't have placed on the Vidiian ship. It's an odd design and there's definitely nothing else like it in the Star Trek universe - and in Attack Wing there's certainly nothing similar in at least a couple of features.

Weighing in with 26 points, the named Fina Prime packs three in attack, two defence, five hull points and three shields with the option to add in two weapon and two crew upgrades. As standard for a lot of Federation ships at least the Vidiian vessel can perform Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations as standard actions. The Battle Cruiser unique action will force an opponent at range one to lose a shield token at the price of an auxiliary power token. A nice way to bring those shields down a little quicker and get to the hull. The generic version sacrifices one of those shield points and a crew upgrade to bring the ship point total to 24.

Being a battle cruiser there's a top speed of four but with most options at speeds two and three plus a handy 180 turn that will cost an auxiliary power token. With some of the options here that choice of maneuver over speed is an advantage we'll talk about later.

The Fina Prime pack does disappoint in one way however; it's one of the slimmest we've had in the whole range. There are only two captain options provided and one of those is a generic Vidiian for your Independent faction. The Vidiian Commander will cost four points with a skill of seven and enhances your attacks with the Grappler or the Hypothermic Charge or performing the action on the Boarding Party card. If you're playing any of these features he's a must for your ship, making great upgrades even more usable.

There are four crew alternatives to choose from though bringing back at least one familiar Vidiian from Voyager in the form of Denara Pel. Continuing the trend of the Commander, the ship and some other features, Pel offers close-range benefits with a ship at range one losing a crew upgrade at the cost of the Vidiian. One thing though, if you're grappling then it becomes a disable rather than a discard. Certainly one to use if you're facing a Federation opponent with their crew-heavy craft.

Sulan, who fans will remember from Faces as the Vidiian who captured B'Elanna, is your next crew card. Again his ability is at range one and allows you to discard a crew upgrade on your opponent's ship but if you're using the grapple feature you can also disable another two crew upgrades on that target ship. His increased cost over Pel shows that this is a stronger card but at least here you have the option to spend a bit less for a similar feature in Denara Pel. Third crew selection here is Dereth, a Vidiian taken from Phage in Voyager's first season. An organ harvester in the episode, Dereth operates here as a safeguard feature, allowing you to disable an opponent upgrade should they try and affect any of your upgrades. Nice that it's not a disable or discard card so you can keep on using it as the game progresses.

The Fina Prime expansion definitely conjures up a lot of problems for Federation players with those three crew options alone but the fourth, the more costly Vidiian Boarding Party card action is a killer. It is very situational, meaning that the target ship for this attack must be uncloaked, in range one and have no active shields before you can even think about using it. However it provides a four attack dice roll and for each damage or critical damage hit rolled a crew upgrade gets removed from the target ship. Effectively you could shut a Federation ship down completely in one move. Even worse is that if grappling this can be used as a free action so you can prep if the target ship decides to retaliate (although what with...).

The ship comes with nor has slots for any tech upgrades so you're pretty limited beyond those crew-upgrade-slaughtering crew upgrades to just two weapon options. Hypothermic Charges attacks with the same number of dice as your primary weapon (three) but only operates at range one to two. So why use it? Because it ignores your opponent's shields and goes straight for the hull, potentially providing some much welcomed critical damage to key systems. If there are shields active then the big news is that the attack lets you re-roll any number of dice. No target lock required here but you will need to disable the feature to use it.

To the final card here and the biggest unique point in the set which is Grappler. Again attacking with just the three dice and at that extremely close range one, you need to disable the card to take advantage and if you successfully inflict one hit through a regular attack then you get to lock on. Once this happens, the opponent ship, while it carries the red grapple token, attacks with one less die and defends with one less. It also can't move faster than two but if at the end of the Activation Phase it's moved out of range one to the Vidiian ship then the link is lost. During the Combat Phase the grappled ship can get out of the hold by rolling two damage or critical damage results using the same number of dice it would for a primary attack. Phew. Lot to remember there but quite specific to be able to be able to kick that one off in the first place.

There is a single Elite Action with Fina Prime; Decisive Orders that allows an attack dice re-roll (up to two of them) if your target ship has no active shields. It's a discard for four points so I'd be more tempted to leave it out or look at other options from other Independent ships. The mission here does come from a classic Voyager episode in the form of Deadlock. The Vidiian ship has to start with the Boarding Party card upgrade fitted while the Federation ship has only 35 points to start off with an additional 25 points of upgrades "sideboarded" for the mission. The Vidiians win if they either destroy the Federation ship or get to employ the Boarding Party card successfully. The Federation player wins by destroying its opponent or escaping with three or more mission tokens collected.

Hang on - escape? Yes, because you're in a subspace divergence which either damages the ship or removes an upgrade each round. However all those upgrades off to the side represent the alternate reality ship (just like the ep!) which you can use to help and that comes at the cost of one of your eight mission tokens. If you can escape with at least three still on board then you've successfully negotiated the situation.

The second ship I acquired was the Hirogen Alpha Hunter from Wave 11. A lot smaller model but actually much more impressively detailed given its size. The golden colouring is well done but size does mean that any more precise detailing is lost. The pack is a lot thicker than Fina Prime and the ship more primed for attack and to take more damage than the Vidiian cruiser although its SP is identical at 26. 

Offering four dice in attack, two for defence along with a hull value of three and four shield points, the Hunter carries the standard four actions of Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations plus its unique action allows you to perform the Sensor Echo action as a freebie even if not cloaked. On top of that there are two tech, two weapons and a crew slot to fill if you're looking to max her out. 

As with the Vidiian Cruiser the Alpha Hunter can hit a top speed of four and is blessed with a full range of movement at speeds two and three plus that key 180 turn. That's actually the only move that incurs the dreaded auxiliary power token so in comparison to those Vidiians it's not quite as restrictive. If you're choosing the generic ship version it will cost a shield point as usual plus one of your weapon slots for 24 points. Still a slightly better option than the Fina Prime perhaps.

As for captains there are two decent choices alongside the generic Hirogen card. Topping the stats with a skill of eight and a cost of five points is Karr, the commanding Hirogen from Voyager's The Killing Game two-parter. Unusually he offers two Elite Action slots as well as the ability to re-roll two attack dice every time you go into battle. If Karr's skill is higher than the opponent's captain you get to gain an attack die at the beginning of the phase.Truly a stupidly powerful card and one I just have to use even at the cost.

The Alpha Hirogen, represented by the hunter from Prey, allows conversion of a blank into a damage result. He's also able to use an Elite Action with a captain skill of six and a cost of four. With all those Elite Action slots flying around in this pack, WizKids do offer three choices to fill them with. Full Reverse allows you to change your revealed move to a one or two maneuver backwards without incurring an auxiliary power token. It's a cool one to mix up the Activation Phase but it does rely on you second or even third guessing your opponent to make it work. Costing a few more points but again allowing you to change your maneuver and receive a free Battle Stations action should an enemy vessel end up in your forward firing arc after you move. It plays more to the aggressive tendencies of the Hirogen than the retreating Full Reverse. 

The third and final Elite Action is Stalking Mode and is again a discard. Used as an Action, it reduces an opponent's captain skill by two points and gives you an additional attack dice . While the card might be discarded, the effects last for the duration of the game which will come in very handy and could work well to reduce the potency of an enemy capital ship. A very useful card well worth the five points it'll cost to equip it.

The Alpha Hunter includes just one crew upgrade with Turanj who lets you add another weapon slot to your bar and will allow you to discard your captain card if his/her skill is below four to add in an extra attack dice. Turanj then becomes your captain with a skill of seven. Very unusual feature this one and I don't recall seeing anything similar in the rest of the expansions I've experienced. 

As for weapons, the Hunter packs the usual Photon Torpedoes card utilising a target lock for five attack dice and the conversion of any Battle Station results to critical damage. The second, Subnucleonic Beam, inflicts normal damage but for each hit which is uncancelled you get to disable one of your opponent's crew upgrades. Costing an additional five points if used on a non-Hirogen vessel, it operates at range one to two. Certainly seems that there are a lot of extras in these Independent packs which are there to cause Federation players a whole ton of problems.

Finally thee are two tech upgrades Sensor Network takes its line from Message in a Bottle, letting you take a peek at an opponent's proposed move and then adjusting yours accordingly. Nor can your opponent change their move. Definitely works to help capture your prey or alternatively evade that attack. Last of all there's Monotanium Armor Plating to make sure you stand a half-decent chance of lasting the game. While it doesn't increase your hull or shield value it may stop opponents gaining a target lock if you can roll at least one Evade on two defence dice. It's able to be used everytime someone attempts that action and if they have managed to get a lock on you can disable the card to remove the effect.  Costing three points it's well worth the spend as I find target lock is an often-used feature that kicks you in the teeth over and over either for re-rolls or photons so having a defence against it is an enticing addition.

The Worthy Prey mission included here sees the Hirogen chasing an enemy ship (I'll be using Species 8472 I think) and for each round the Hunter attacks it receives one mission token. If the enemy is destroyed the prey is deemed worthy by rolling a number of dice determined by the amount of mission tokens collected. Deem it not worthy and the Hirogen lose.

OK - so how do these packs really operate? Fairly well. I have yet to really work the Hirogen pack properly but the Fina Prime ship was pretty decent against the Klingons. However, getting into a suitable position to use the Grappler card was near impossible without incurring a vast amount of damage. An Independent fleet definitely gives more variation to your game than with just a "standard" Federation fleet however it's quite an adjustment as I found when I was totalled by that Klingon squadron. What I lose in manoueverability I gain in upgrades and it's a delicate trade-off here. I think I still have some way to go to perfect it and will probably switch out either the Krenim Timeship or the USS Dauntless for the Hirogen Hunter. Trial and error, readers, trial and error!

Both ships are recommended to retail at £11.99 and you can find your local Attack Wing stockist HERE

Fan of the independent faction? Which are the best upgrades Squadron Points can buy? What should I be avoiding? 

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One of Seven: Voyager Year One – Part Two

Continuing a look back at Star Trek: Voyager Series One. A gourmet extravaganza of adventure helmed by Matt Goddard

 

In part one of this retrospective I looked at the premise of Star Trek: Voyager and its persistence in working against that in its first season.  It was unlucky, coming as the third live-action sequel, but its lofty mission was derailed by the perceived confines of the Star Trek series.  Now it’s time to look at the cast of Voyager, considering some of its strengths and mulling over the best and worst episodes before thinking long and hard about the worst season finale in Star Trek history.

Help! They've beamed out my lungs!

Novelty Characters

I completed part one of this retrospective considering how Voyager had simplified the Star Trek message.  An unfortunate an inevitable implication of this was that Voyager stuck religiously with the character of the week format.  As with other Star Trek series, that immediately put a lot of strain on characters who were difficult to warm to.  Novelty characters Neelix and Kes were hit the hardest.  Within three stories Kes’ nascent psychic abilities had emerged in the episode was (surely) wryly titled Time and Again.  Within five stores Neelix had his lungs transported out.  Neelix!  Sadly that episode wasn’t called They’ve Beamed out my Lungs! but that’s right - we were supposed to care about the Talaxian Morale officer’s fatal condition just five episodes in.  Both actors tried with their difficult and often blandly obvious characters.  Special mention should go to Jennifer Lien’s wonderfully level voice - but a nine year lifespan and insatiable swotting does not a likeable character make.  Fuse in the sudden telepathy - then ignored for several shows - and the comparisons with another counsellor are unflattering.

The show had strengths from the off though, don’t get me wrong.   Many of those weak points are shared with other Star Trek series.  The show was kept together by Kate Mulgrew’s sturdy performance and Robert Picardo’s brilliance. 

Picardo: A bargin at five times the size

Cast off

So, the crew of Voyager.  Mulgrew really is great.  She has that a distinctive voice and eye acting that fuses Picard and Sisko.  A good thing too, considering how central she is to the show.  Often the camera often just hangs around her, and unsurprisingly so.  Picardo plays a classic sci-fi trope but produces moments of great comedy that Ethan Phillips in his irritating role can only hope for.  The Doctor is instinctively funny from the off even if the concept doesn’t actually make much sense.  Elsewhere in the crew, Robert Duncan McNeill isn’t bad despite being given little to do except brat on about his piloting skills.  The result is a slightly more developed clone of The Next Generation season one La Forge. Kim isn’t too bad either...  Just a dull Star Trek trope that would be shown up far more in Enterprise when the same blandness was shared across several characters. Combine the two however, and their early exchanges relationships are excruciating.

The direction, budget and design were more sophisticated on Voyager than on earlier Trek series and that shone some unfortunate spotlights.   Robert Beltran puts in some great moments, but has a bit of a rough ride as a more spiritual Riker clone. It would be a few years before Beltran started to publically express his boredom with the show, but he seems a little distracted.  With every sweeping camera shot that keeps Kate Mulgrew’s nuanced performance in focus, his red decked form is slumping despondently in the background blur. That’s a bit of a shame. 

Full Klingon Torres: Mid sulk

In Voyager, the Spock archetype was fielded to Torres, who must contend with being both Klingon and human – despite reaching her mid-20s without doing so. It’s an episode like Faces that show the range that Roxann Biggs Dawson could bring to the show.  But as is probably realistic, the end result of the hybrid is a booming, glaring, mid-sulk teen.  Ah, but there’s a character arc with her and Starfleet you say?  Yes, at least three episodes of it.

Then there was Tuvok, good old reliable Tuvok.  There’s a reason that Spock was half human, why Romulans are great villains: full Vulcans are dull. Following Worf and ahead of Reed’s gung ho weapons lust in Enterprise, he really falls flat.  The position of confidant to the Captain is an interesting one, but worth so much less when the Maquis dynamic isn’t properly followed explored.  Tim Russ can’t be faulted for his performance which offers a slightly different Vulcan and even a hint of exasperated disapproval - if such a thing were possible.  It’s not a terrible thing that he has garnered more Vulcan screen time than anybody else.

It’s clear that all characters would have benefited from full serial arcs rather than the jumping between standard single episodes featuring the lesser characters – just as season three of Enterprise did.  

Seska: Not keeping up with Cardassians

That said, Voyager was a show was seeded more than many other Star Trek series.  Seska is interesting for one, creeping into the show in much the same way as O’Brien in The Next Generation.  Her reveal is a nice distraction late in the season, but draws another unfortunate comparison with Deep Space Nine.  While true to Cardassians’ stereotypical treachery, it’s a bit of a step back from Deep Space Nine’s subtly.  Just a few episodes later we see Tuvok attempting to discipline Maquis (yes, all four of them)...  And Seska’s name doesn’t even come up.  Chakotay’s inner-turmoil is a nice touch but it can only go so far as a metaphor for Maquis integration.  I can also see that Torres’ promotion scrap as a microcosm for the paperwork surrounding other Marquis crew members’ positioning (if I look really hard) but it’s all rather, to use a word, Basics.  Thinking about it, the fact there were so many Maquis on one ship in the Badlands seems very out of character.

The Best and the Worst

The first series has more than its fair share of generic Star Trek episodes, but there are glimmers.  An episode like Emanations really does go when no one has gone before; a believable, other quadrant conundrum. The two appearances by the Vidiians show that there are some good aliens on the horizon.  By Faces, they’re injecting some good old fashioned body horror into proceedings (poor old Durst, he’d only had one line before)

Ex Post Facto: Hercule Tuvok takes the floor

So, the best and worst:  A nadir has to be Ex Post Facto, where an interesting approach to a Star Trek Ex Post Facto’s a poor attempt at making a Voyager version of a Deep Space Nine ‘Give O’Brien Hell’ episode.  Aside from the monochrome flashbacks we also see Tuvok as Poirot – he even gathers the suspects in a room at the end! In retrospect a Vulcan is not the most charismatic of detectives, but there any strengths firmly end ...  We’re just weeks into a new quadrant and the Baneans are only the second civilisation that the Voyager crew meets.  Having initially sent off two scouts, Janeway then diverts the ship to free her man – Voyager's adherence to the Second Directive (the needs of the few) falls flat as soon as Paris and Chakotay make-up in Caretaker Part II.  There’s a cordial meeting with the alien race, with not a hint of translation issues. They even shake hands as standard and they let Tuvok into their prison facility with a phaser!  It’s incredibly sloppy but exposes where the creators’ interests lay.  They were willing to forgo consistency to pursue an idea. The episode collapses as if they completely forgot what they were making. Yes, it’s even worse than Neelix losing his lungs. Evoking a noir crime thriller at the beginning,

Eye of the Needle: Never trust a Vulcan Captain...

On the flip side, one highlight is Eye of the Needle. I’d been looking forward to it actually - I remembered its interesting temporal element and of course, it features a Romulan!  It is a neat, if slight 44 minutes.  It’s mainly let down by the delivery of its denouement.  Laugh a minute Tuvok chooses a rather un-dramatic (and illogical) time to check the Ship logs and tell the crew that the Romulan died some years previously.  “I thought I’d wait until the Romulan had gone before I ruined your day’” effectively. That said, it’s not a clean-cut story and although it’s narratively undermined, it’s the kind of science fiction that Voyager should strive for.

Special mention should also to the great holodeck romp Heroes and Demons.  Mainly because it’s a Picardo-centric episode and had the courage to draw parallels with one of the earliest works of the English language.  Brave.

No! Not Piller-filler...

Language and Legacy

It’s difficult to consider Voyager without thinking about its script and language.  That’s one thing that Voyager didn’t simplify.  Its use of technobabble is truly atrocious.  It really does feel like it was deliberately ramped up because that’s what viewers wanted.  I presume that the same would have happened in DS9 had they spent more time phasing anti-time and less time talking politics.  In Voyager, it’s off-putting and in Janeway’s case it diminishes her hands-on nature as a scientist.   It was a trick that The Next Generation never resorted to – or was it?  On that revered show, the cast called it ‘Piller-filler’ in reference to executive Producer Michael Piller.

The late Michael Piller is not just regarded as a legend of Star Trek.  The first episode of Best of Both Worlds remains one of the greatest pieces of television ever made.  But with Star Trek: Voyager, something went a little awry.  Was it him or co-creators Rick Berman or Jeri Taylor..?  Was the many producers including Braga and Biller?  It’s not just that the The Next Generation crew had split – for instance Klingon specialist Ronald Moore had jumped to Deep Space Nine and time fetishist Brannon Braga had been left to Voyager for the majority; split like Maquis and Starfleet.  Everyone involved has produced great film and television at points, but here the premise, the crew construction, the approach to the conceit... While it must have looked good on paper, it wilfully bucked growing TV trends.  

If anything Voyager was a show that looked back to the 1980s and not forward to the 21^st century.  There should have been the courage to commit to the innate drama of the series and not find a middle-ground by including at least ten stories that would look extremely average in any Alpha Quadrant set show.  Voyager would have been far better off finding a different solution to its pitch than the 75,000 light year trek.

A Simple Quest

As it is, Voyager took on one of simplest tales – the quest.  It’s The Odyssey, exactly The Odyssey.  It’s the search for the Grail. It’s the powerful, instinctively human quest story that has been told for millennia, the kind that Joseph Campbell’s eyes would widen at.  This was Star Trek’s only prolonged stab at something that monumental.  And they kind of missed. 

Sure, Enterprise’s stab at the Prometheus myth would later similarly flounder in its first season, but Voyager always niggles the most.   As I look on to Voyager’s following six seasons, I find one fact hard to avoid.  In the final episode of an admittedly shortened season one (16 episodes), just when you expect a cliff-hanger in true Star Trek style...  The antagonist turns out to be actual cheese.

"Get the cheese to sickbay"?  How did they let that one through?

Sadly, at the end of the first season it looked as though Voyager, unlike the villainous cheese, may take a long time to mature.

(NB - the actual season finale was supposed to have been The 37's but the last four episodes produced for season one were shipped to the beginning of season two. A shame as the ending of The 37's makes a hell of a lot more sense as a season closer than Learning Curve - Clive)

You can also read Part One of this article right now by following this link