Star Trek Online: I've Started

It's not official; it's rubbish; waste of time; pointless - and it's just shooting. That's not Star Trek. All accusations I've heard levelled at the Online universe since it's arrival four years ago.

With the announcement of Timelines however I thought it was about time I addressed the elephant in my Star Trek closet and tried out the Online experience. This blog article and more I suspect, are going to mark my first few hours online. No doubt I'll be dead in about 30 seconds but who cares. Let's see what all the fuss is about. Why precisely should I be playing it? I guess the best way to answer that is to have a go and take the hits like a man.

For those of you who have avoided it like the plague, lived under a rock only a Gorn could pick up or or whip yourselves silly whenever you hear the mention of the CGI offshoot, Star Trek Online is a vast online multi-player game developed by Cryptic studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment.


Now I'm downloading (yep, this is real-time), here's some blurb to fill you non-players in.

Set 30 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, the game has gone from being released on disc and subscription-based to being a free-to-play game which can be downloaded from the Star Trek Online website (lesson over). By the way it's a mega-huge download of 8469MB so grab a brew or three while you're waiting.

As the opening spiel reveals, the Klingons are back at their old, warring best, the Romulans are getting shirty over the destruction of their homeworld, the Dominion is on the move and lo and behold the Borg are back. Should keep you occupied for a bit.

Referencing lots of different stories from the past, the creators have even managed to pull in the vocal talents of Leonard Nimoy, the late Majel Barrett as the computer voice and most recently welcomed Michael Dorn and Tim Russ back to the fold as Worf and Tuvok respectively. Surely this is a sign of how well Online has been received by those who are associated by what we term as "official canon"?

Right. Download completed. Next step. What have I got to do now.

Next is making your first character. A fairly straight-forward process for anyone familiar with gaming. Choose your race, gender and specialization - whether it's engineering, science or tactical, make those little tweeks to give it the individual touch and you're ready to jump in and start the voyage into the Star Trek Online universe. Finally.

But why am I still hanging on after all this? What's the draw for someone who loves Star Trek but is more than just wanting to just pew-pew-pew a few dozen Romulans? 

The initial step into the Online universe is with kid gloves through a hand-holding tutorial mission which sees you dispatching (very unrealistically) a lot of Borg while rescuing a ship and resulting in some flash promotions that would make JJ-verse Kirk jealous. Fairly ABC stuff showing movement, the weapons controls, payloads, flight controls and the like. When you get past that, which all combined should just reach the end of the first hour of play.

Initial thoughts? It's better than I expected and I enjoyed the runaround. It's a bit Tomb Raider/Uncharted/GTA/Star Trek so it hits a lot of bases through the interaction, cut scenes, missions and in-game features. But what make me want to go any further? Intrigue is the answer - what's around the corner, what are you going to collect?

The problem is that once you start diving into the missions, as with many of today's games (and we'll probably see in Timelines), you need items - credits for warping to systems, credits to improve ships, credits to make your characters better. All well and good but it's going to get expensive because waiting to get those points through straight gameplay is going to take a long, long time. As I made my way into the first few missions it became fairly obvious that the gameplay is quite limited. Talk to a character (reminded me of Elder Scrolls), collect items, walk around, shoot things, back to the ship, have a firefight in space and repeat previous steps.

Maybe this is the voice of inexperience talking but this could well be any online RPG. Badging it with Star Trek ensures an audience but this isn't the kind of expanded universe I had hoped to find. A name it does share but as I walk into rooms or begin a mission it feels very, well, average. Of course it must be doing something right to still be going after eight seasons with a ninth a matter of days away but I am failing to see the excitement in sticking a ton of money into a game that will effectively bring me nothing in the long term. 

There just seems to be no depth and it's very much in the action/adventure mold of the JJ-verse that will take Star Trek into the next decade at the least. It's doing nothing wrong as games go and with the backing of Dorn and Russ it's certainly being accepted as part of the Star Trek universe however the morality, the personal stories and the originality that permeate every pore of the show and have done since 1966 are missing. It's gaming by numbers. I have to admit I loved getting hold of a phaser rifle, shooting an Orion or a Borg but after a while there's no surprise. Point, click, collect and go.

I quickly scurried through the first mission to rescue the crew of the SS Azura and see off a few Orion raiders. Easy stuff but you just know it's only going to get harder and require more time, funds and effort to knock down one enemy ship let alone a whole fleet. Finishing that first encounter and getting levelled up to Lieutenant (2) I chose to head off to Vulcan and some emotionless ambassador who needs me to give him a lift to P'Jem (the monastery from Enterprise no less). I dropped through the next few missions blasting Undine, Borg and Klingons in a few days, occasionally waiting for some credit to build up so I could warp off to the next sector (can be a drawback to getting anywhere fast but does stop me from spending hours at the laptop). This also led me to wonder about joining a fleet.

I know a few of you that do read SKoST are somewhere in the Online universe and if you are, drop me a line (Clivos79) and I might be a new recruit for you. Rest assured it will also mean future Online posts concerning my Noob activities will contain references to your fleet. Thanks already to +Hassan Thomas and +Martin Randell for their help. It seems that this in itself is not a two minute job due to the different natures of the fleets - hard-core, casual players, those focused on certain attribute levels....Any help and advice here is welcomed because at my tender old age it's all getting a bit over technical.

While I'm head-scratching and working out what I'm going to do here, if I am going to stick with it, why would I? I decided it would only be fair to list some reasons for those who might be tempted to give it a go and perhaps to justify my time online to myself in the process.

It's an alternative to the JJ-universe

Some of the concepts do follow the old point-and-shoot principle and are more based in the mindset of the 2009 feature however Online is set in the Prime Universe. It's familiar, there's LCARS all over the shop, you can even pick The Next Generation movie uniform. Unless you're a writer it's a great way to immerse yourself in the Star Trek universe and, initially, very cheaply. It's also the only new Star Trek in any form that you'll see set in that universe for the forseeable future.

There's Always Something New

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Nine seasons and counting. Welcome to the future. Dyson Spheres, Borg invasions and now the Legacy of Romulus. Those Perfect World people know how to keep the attention of their audience with new and interesting twists and stories in each season. Adding in the blogs and development information is a stroke of genius which means there are always teasers of what's being planned and what you'll be spending your hard-earned cash on in the next few months. Save up those pennies for your next tour of duty. Season Nine is already on the way and we're barely into the Season 8.5 stuff. Sadly being so lowly on the ranks I don't think I can get to the Good Stuff just yet. Need to blow up some more Klingon D-7's first and rescue a couple of Vulcans....

Interaction

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It's a superb way of meeting other Star Trek fans. Already just discussing fleets has opened up conversations with several fans that I've not spoken to previously. There will be some people on there purely looking at it from a gaming PoV but Online does give fans the chance to get into their favourite universe, fire a phaser, fly ships and interact with other fans as well as elements of the canon universe. Of course, the fleet system means you'll be involved in some elements of teamwork so make sure you schedule your tea and your job around those launches. That or jack in your life and be 100% connected to your PC for eternity. See you in Star Trek Online Season Fifty-Six.

Customise

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Not just your ship or your character as you voyage through the pixellated universe but in the fact you can design your own missions and build your own corner of the Star Trek experience. What a great opportunity! I'm not quite up to trying this at the moment but I've already made some minor alterations to the USS Restoration and added myself a couple of senior officers. I can see the attraction to this aspect of the game as it really can become your own ship/fleet with things that are specific to your preferences. It'll be a while before I can worry about the dizzying heights of captaincy or the admiralty but as long as I can have some impact over what it takes to get there aside from firing a few phasers and torpedoes then I think I'll be happy. Customising will, invariably lead you into the shop if you become a hardened player - ship sets, costumes, weapons are all at your disposal for a price.

Commitment

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I don't feel that when I'm offline I'm missing out on a chunk of stuff. Once or twice a week is fine and I hope to find a fleet that doesn't mind my flittering attention. I enjoy it but it's nice to play when I want to and have the time to rather than be committed to being around on a certain day and hour. I have a life, family and job. Not having to be committed to a cyber group and play at my own pace is great. Also I don't have to pay for anything unless I want to. Run out of funds? Turn off and come back tomorrow, you'll have enough to do a little bit more.

That's it for now - next time we'll see if I've found a fleet and mastered upgrading properly!

What else makes Star Trek Online such a great experience? What makes you play and keep going back? Let us know here and join me on my Noob journey into the online universe!

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The Lost Characters of Star Trek

Where the hell did he go?

A question that has perplexed many a fan - nearly as much as the classic "Where was Chekov?" we all still ask when watching The Wrath of Khan. There have been a few occasions where characters have mysteriously vanished/been reassigned/dropped off the face of the Earth. There's six in particular that immediately form an orderly queue. Let's see if any of you can remember at what point their presence was no longer required after their arrivals were made so prominent!

Ensign Sonia Gomez

Famous for being played by an actress who was also in Total Recall and for spilling hot chocolate on Picard in Main Engineering (seriously? Hot liquids in that environment?!). We should have seen her more but after just two appearances in Q Who and Samaritan Snare it was bye bye to the ensign. Gomez acted as a nice counter for Geordi but after a while it might have become excruciating to stand - and there was always Wesley to do her plot explanations or emotional turmoil where required.

Opinion? She was OK but a little too whiny and overactive for my liking. I'd be lying if I said we missed her presence after her two appearances but she did make an impression. I always find myself watching the Borg episode and going "Oh yeah - she's in this one!"

Lieutenant George Primmin

There to keep Odo in check - but again only for two episodes (The Passenger and Move Along Home) of the uneven first season of Deep Space Nine. One thing that always gets me with this character is that when it comes to the third season the creators introduced Eddington to fill exactly the same role that Primmin does here as though Starfleet had never been concerned to send someone out to oversee security matters until that point. 

While Eddington and Odo did clash a great deal and made for a lot better TV, Primmin and the Constable seemed much more able to work together - which may have been the downfall of the character; there needed to be an edge to the relationship and Eddington certainly achieved that in spades.

Sub-commander T'Rul

In charge of the loaned Romulan cloaking device installed on the mighty Defiant she, like Gomez, managed just two episodes before being conspicuously ditched. Somehow it wasn't that important that the crew knew all the workings of this top secret device after the two part story The Search. It's only when you watch this back (as I did recently) that you realise there is never another mention of her role anywhere else in the show. Clearly the secrecy of the cloaking device wasn't that important after all. Her position does seem like a glorified version of Uhura's "Open hailing frequencies" from The Original Series. Luckily Martha Hackett was more fortunate than her Romulan character, reappearing as Seska in Voyager. And then got killed off.

The Equinox Crew

One of Voyager's greatest injustices has to be the remaining fragments of the Equinox crew from the eponymous two-parter (and one of my favourites). One second they're all getting chewed out and demoted by Janeway to spend the rest of their time on Voyager cleaning the waste pipes and tidying up after Neelix attempts to cook something and the next minute...where did they go? I for one was hoping they would turn up again in season six and then seven but not a chance.

Clearly one of the biggest missed opportunities in the entire show - nay franchise - was to follow them a little more, maybe just the once - and see what happened to them. After all, Voyager did an excellent job of digging deep into the troubles between the Maquis and Starfleet as they integrated from Caretaker. Hang on...I think I got that wrong....

Naomi Wildman's mum

OK. This one is another from the Voyager stable and another cracker. Let's watch this woman go through expecting a baby, have the baby which dies in childbirth, introduce her parallel self in Deadlock where the child survived, have that child dropped over to another parallel Voyager ...and then totally ignore the mother for like, the next five years. Bless her, there's nothing like being appreciated is there? Samantha Wildman appeared, like Gomez before her, to have a long life of repeated appearances ahead but the arrival of her daughter wiped it out overnight. Samantha would appear four more times after the birth of her daughter but these would be sporadic between seasons three and six more than likely leading viewers to the old "oh that's where she went" scenario. Probably the most underused recurring character in Voyager.

This of course meant that Naomi could annoy the hell out of Janeway, Seven, the viewer and, heck, even Neelix for the remainder of the show. No wonder they were trying to get home so quickly.

Yeoman Rand

The original disappearing crew-member. The stories as to why she vanished so abruptly are well known throughout the Star Trek fanbase and any reference book detailing the history of The Original Series will fill it out if you haven't already uncovered the facts. Rand is actually the only one of these characters I've discussed who 1) returned later to some acclaim in the movies and Voyager's Flashback and 2) was resurrected by fan production Phase II with an increase in rank (and odd hair). While that latter show isn't canon it's good to note that Rand is still seen as a major part of the show even though she was unceremoniously scribbled out before Star Trek even made it to the end of season one.

Other Suspects

I'm certain that your mind has already wandered across to both Sito Lavell and Tom Riker by the time you've hit the bottom of this article. Why haven't we mentioned either? 

For the reason that their stories sort of ended - they were designed for a single episode (or two in each case separated by a few years) so no, we didn't forget them and I can say they will be featured in the future in something around guest characters but for now, it's not their time!

Is there anyone else we've not mentioned or have forgotten who should have made our list? Why not drop a comment below?

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Is There Life in the UK Yet?

We've been exploring, reviewing, discussing, analysing, whatever you want to call it, for 16 months now and one thing is becoming even more evident the longer that Some Kind of Star Trek exists.

In order to talk about it, I've brought in +Aaron Darkwood who I've discussed the UK "club" scene with previously to give his opinion/response to my concerns...Let's get talking...

UK Wasteland

It's probably a massive exaggeration but this topic seems absolutely right for now especially with the recent announcement of Destination Star Trek London for October 2014. That in itself proves that the fanbase in the UK is alive and hungry for a massive event in the heart of the capital. However, search the internet, look around and it's really, really hard to find any clubs or associations that are Star Trek-based in the UK or more specifically, around the Stoke area where I am. Hopefully just saying that has made a few people aim their mouse for our email button or the comments box below to prove me wrong but it feels like a ghost town on this side of the pond. I would love to see more groups sprout up or want to be discussed/featured on Some Kind of Star Trek as we want to support fandom not just in on-screen projects. Maybe the internet itself is what has caused a dearth of UK clubs because of the way in which we can now communicate with fans across the planet.

I do have a few friendships that have been formed outside of the SKoST Contingent and while they are excellent contacts, they seem to be the noticable minority. In fact I scanned through the net looking for a fairly local group but the only one I could find is the Manchester/Leeds club that seems to be impossible to contact.

What pains me is that if you do Google Search "star trek clubs staffordshire" or "star trek clubs stoke on trent" it's hard to find anything and what you do find isn't there anymore. It's actually a bit depressing and after the fifth or sixth page your will to live is packing its bags and heading for the transporter.

There was a club based in Stockport but this seems to have gone the way of the dodo about nine years ago. The USS Demeter website seems non-existent and their blog contains just two entries from 2005. Aside from that there's nothing and I'm not including any sci-fi clubs in this - just groups purely focusing on Star Trek. Some of those clubs that started as Star Trek groups have since evolved into groups that encompass all of sci-fi - actually something that happened to the small group I helped set up in my school in the late 1990's.

Has it really come to this? Now I love getting together with the guys from SKoST (reminder that we need to sort our next meeting out +Carl Thomson +Mark Thwaite +Alex Plant +Hayley Atherton +Joe Hardacre) but there have to be more of us out there and certainly in the local area. Checking out a few sites such as Starbase 24 and Starfleet Command there are clubs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Northampton, Ireland, Swansea, South Wales, Bristol and Northumberland however most of these sites were on Tiscali or Lycos and ceased to be something like five years ago.

The Social Media

Dropping through Facebook is almost as fruitless however there is the Manchester/Leeds group which is still in existence. Originally two "sister" clubs it now appears to work as a single unit with alternating meetings. The 150+ members of the online face of the club are keeping it going but from my perspective both Leeds and Manchester are not exactly close to pop out to on a Thursday evening after a full day at work. I know you MUST be out there (there's a UK fans page on Facebook which has over 500 followers) so why does it seem so quiet? What is happening with UK fandom because I would love to get beneath it's skin and truly know what we can offer on this fair isle.

What I want to understand is how and why these clubs are either under the radar or why they died out. Was it numbers, meeting places, lack of new Star Trek or that they just fell out of love with the show?  +Aaron Darkwood and I had a chat over Hangouts last year over just this subject and how we could look into building something here in the UK because we could do with something that could bring us all together. 

Chatting on the internet is one thing, sharing your thoughts via a forum is another but there's nothing like a face to face rant over the finer points of the Dominion War or just how many times Voyager landed. Risa, as a social network is a great start from a UK-based fan however we're all too happy to sit (just as I am now) behind the brightly lit laptop screen and shy away from proper good old talking. So why aren't we trying to sort this out? I'm sure just in Staffordshire there will be a ton of Star Trek fans (and even Enterprise fans(!!!!)) who would love to find others with a common interest. But what is it that has driven the interest "underground" so to speak especially now we're in an era where JJ has brought the franchise into the mainstream, even making it a certifiable summer blockbuster in 2009 and 2013?

If you are reading this and thinking that you were in one of those clubs or know of one that is still going strong in the UK (North West preferable) then get in touch. We would love to find out more about you and what makes you tick. What's the secret that's kept you going for however many years? 

Right - there's the challenge and I know it won't be our last. Let's see if we can create a rebirth and a bit of excitement around the UK fan scene, let's take over local cinemas for showings of HD Chain of Command and build our own UK-based replica Original Series bridge!!!

Who's with me?!

And In Response from +Aaron Darkwood 

"The Original Series bridge" hey, Clive? Well that's ambitious, although the Enterprise-A bridge, Star Trek VI era was always my favourite! But it is true what you say, the clubs have vanished. Clubs, now there's a word  I used to shy away from that very tone back in the day, as a Starfleet Command member in (thinks back) 1990 I think, when it was all snail-mail connected, although there were meet ups and it was well run.

You raised a few interesting points, but is it really that Star Trek isn't on our screens anymore? As a fan it is certainly on my screen at least on a monthly basis in some form or another. We were granted the two new Star Trek films, implying at least, that from a cinema point of view the name is being kept alive, but it is just that, just the name? 

I think the Star Trek films of late are not fan films, they are films aimed at the masses in order to capitalise on the franchise and make money. Sci-fi fans everywhere who accept and like Star Trek will argue they are great films, and as films in themselves, they are. But true dedicated Star Trek fans, and any of you mention the term "Trekkies" will encounter Klingon pain sticks rapidly, will tell you that the films were flawed in so many ways, destroying cannon and existing story etc etc etc that they are not films aimed or made for us.

Meet and Greet

As a Star Trek fan myself, I like the technology, the story, the direction and the ambiance of Star Trek. It's moral story telling, it's future vision and all of that. I have never been a person who wants to collect plates and mugs, or queue up for autographs  and ask actors what their favourite episode was. There are some actors who are fans, but not many, and I can see the cringe in their faces and the embarrassment as they attend conventions. I would like to meet Captain Picard, I don't have any urge to meet Patrick Stewart, that sort of thing. Now if they did a convention and all actors arrived and stayed in character, that would be great!

As a Star Trek fan I have dressed in costume, almost a necessity to be involved really, have attend film showings, charity events, live action roleplays on stage, Final Frontiers micro-machine board game events involving starship battles. I've designed LCARS board for such games, and even started building a bridge with friends once, but got stalled due to cost. Of all of it, the live action roleplay was probably the greatest fun. Donning the uniform, assuming your character, and engaging in a mission.  For a while, I did this as a written format, on the internet writing a character. That was fun too, and also something I miss.

So if a new "club" was formed today, what would I like to see?

In traditional ship format, so the club run as a ship, with people assuming roles. I don't want to be just another Trekkie talking about a fixation of a TV program. I want to live a role and immerse myself into it. Both feet in the water.

Actual face to face meet ups. And if this is a national group, that's going to be more difficult for some than others, but if its monthly, annually or something else, I would like people to actually meet every now and then.

A creative base for activity. Which in modern terms is going to be a website where people can interact, upload to, and add content. In the USA some "ships" managed this quite well, although a lot have dropped off, gone dead or quiet etc. But the ship would be designed, built upon, developed and discussed. The ship would have a roleplay story and a fictitious direction of where it was going, what it was doing at any given time. Design stats for engines, and other technology would be modified, tweaked and reviewed as engineering projects. And all departments would have an involvement in this. Everybody can contribute something.

Away missions held locally. As a National based group there are going to be people who live near each other. With the Captains permission, a designated officer could lead an away mission in some part of the country, either by transporter (everybody just turns up) or via shuttlecraft (a group go in a car to some event) and the story continued and written about afterwards and shared with the rest of the crew. It could just be a meet up down the pub, or attending a convention somewhere, a day in a shopping mall doing something for charity or something else.

Crew bonding. The purpose isn't just sharing a hobby, but developing a philosophy. Star Trek fans, ones who immerse themselves into it, tend to have the Star Trek outlook. The ones you share an affinity to are ones you will likely build a close friendship with. You may not be the clean cut UN loving peacekeeper that Starfleet academy churns out, you might be a bad tempered warmonger who will no doubt adapt a Klingon identity/character.

So if this was created, would you help to run it, be a part of it, show an interest or something else?

Are you in one of the UK clubs that DO meet up? Let us know you exist by emailing us or dropping a line in the comments below. Let's spread the word some more and talk about your successes or the difficult path to ensure you've stayed afloat.

SKoST Modelling 101: If You Build It...

A little later than usual, but here's +Christopher Whitford with his third installment of Modelling 101 and it's taking shape...

Well we have talked about choosing the model you want, and the tools you will need to build the model now it is time to actually dive in and build a model. 

The model I chose is the 18 inch USS Enterprise repop from Round 2/AMT. It's a model most people have built as their first Star Trek ship and should get your feet wet with gluing, sanding puttying and painting. 

This month’s article will consist of building the saucer section as well as filling seams and priming so let’s get started. Since the saucer section on this kit consists of three pieces it should not be hard to build and it’s not, so the main thing you have to worry about is the attached sprue to the upper saucer as it's thick and difficult to remove.  Use a hobby knife for this so you must be careful. You can use a pair of wire cutters to remove the sprue but be careful and don't cut into the saucer as that will leave a spot that will have to be filled later on!

After removing the sprue from the upper and lower saucer the next thing you want to do is dry fit the two halves together.  You are going to see a seam and that seam is what you will be filling later with putty. Dry fitting makes sure everything lines up and after checking it’s time to bring out your glue (I use a liquid glue) I  can mate the two halves together and brush on the liquid glue along the seam line. I'd recommend doing this twice for added reinforcement before setting it aside to dry.

After drying I then take a sanding sponge and sand around that same seam. From there I can use my sandable bondo to fill the seam. You will have to do this multiple times to completely fill the seam as bondo does shrink as it dries. After it dries, wet your sanding sponge and sand down the bondo until you get a nice thin red line where the seam is. 

From there you'll have more filling to do on the underside of the saucer where there are three indents.They represent the phaser banks but they are not present on the studio model so fill those in and sand flush but be careful as there is raised detail that you will lose some of because of sanding smooth those indents. 

After that's finished we move on to the final piece which is the impulse engine housing. Again, dry fit and then glue after which - that’s right - more filling with putty, allow to dry and sand once more. After all that is done it’s priming time which basically means all you are doing is laying a coat of paint to see if any of your seams need to be refilled and sanded. Most likely they will so putty, sand, repeat until there no seams present on your saucer - and that is!

Now we can set aside the saucer section and end for this month. Next time we'll be building the nacelles and pylon supports as well as sanding and puttying those.  

Until next time always remember Get Out There and Build Something. 

You can look back over any of Chris' monthly articles by clicking here

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Reanimating the Tribble - Star Trek Into Darkness One Year On

One year ago today not only did I receive the Revell USS Enterprise in the post but also went to the midnight showing of Star Trek Into Darkness.

Yes, seriously - 12 months have passed since the film that fans rate as the worst Star Trek movie ever was released on the unsuspecting public. Premiered on May 2nd, the UK became the first country in the world to receive Abrams' sequel into cinemas. 

As with Bond's Quantum of Solace there is the hope that this is just a faltering step in what could be the triumphant rebirth of Star Trek. Indeed, as with that 007 movie, the film to follow Into Darkness will be marking the 50th anniversary. While we know how Skyfall faired, we can only pray to the Prophets that Star Tr3k will manage to reverse the opinions of many in 2016.

Looking back, we'd got an inkling that this was going to be about Khan, there were going to be blatant homages to Classic Star Trek and that JJ Abrams would be heading further into action-adventure territory rather than a "more cerebral" take on the franchise.

We covered the buildup to the movie in fairly extensive detail - all the trailers, the virals, the rumours, the posters - just about everything and even in the final week, a daily digest of what was being gradually revealed to us. It was a masterful promotional campaign and for that we have to praise the team behind it. Each month we got more, the Enterprise rising from the sea, Harrison standing in a rubble strewn London, character shots, magazine features - I lapped up the lot and this might have been my downfall. Expectation on my part was in overdrive and far too high. It could, in no uncertain terms, absolutely fail to deliver. For fandom as a whole though, frenzy would be an understatement and there was more than a keen level of interest in the sequel. After all, the 2009 film had revitalised the brand, polarised fans and guaranteed the rejuvenation of Roddenberry's creation at least for a few years more.

Sadly at about 3am all I could muster to the other half as I dropped into bed was "It was OK..." and nothing more. I had been significantly underwhelmed in under three hours. Star Trek Into Darkness was enjoyable but there was something missing. Ironically three little viral trailers bore the answer - there was no soul, mind or heart to the movie; it was all out action with a rather impressive long range transporter to quickly fill in some irksome plotholes. It seemed to just exist and I have to say that I've only watched it three times since it's cinematic release. Once in 3D on the big screen and twice on DVD. 

I'd still rather watch Nemesis or The Final Frontier than Into Darkness even if only for the fact that it's not "Classic Canon" nor the Roddenberry Vision. I know that there will be those who are of the strict opinion that it's Total Garbage and won't hear anything to the contrary however, what were the successes here? What do we think that Abrams multi-million dollar sequel do right or do well? Surely there's something redeeming about last year's Star Trek offering?

Time for us to hit the DVD version and see what we can find that would keep our interest in the future...

Klingons

It took a bit of time for the full reveal here. We'd been teased with them in the deleted scenes from the 2009 movie but in Into Darkness we saw them face to face in full battlegear replete with armour, piercings, crinkly foreheads, batleths, d'k'targs and some mightly fine looking Birds-of-Prey. The fight sequence on Quo'noS is spectacular especially with Cumberbatch's arrival carrying some serious firepower. They did put up some resisitance but Khan turned out to be a one-man war machine.  These were brutal, pre-The Next Generation Klingons through and through where only honour and ass-kickings mattered. Well done to the writers for placing the action in the Ketha Province where one General Martok would be born in the Prime Universe. More of the same please.

USS Vengeance

We spotted her in the background of the trailers during the Kirk/Khan space-diving sequence as well as realising that it was this starship and not the Enterprise that was taking a dip in San Francisco Bay when fans started comparing nacelle configurations. The Vengeance was a totally different design, unmarked with a registry and bearing all the hallmarks of a stealthy hunter cloaked in black. The tell-tale Starfleet traits of a saucer/sec hull/nacelles were still there but this was the deadliest starship we'd seen in the fleet ever - it even had a menacing warp sound. Dwarfing the Enterprise emphasised it's venom before we even saw a single shot fired. Her decent and obliteration of a good portion of San Francisco is total overkill and rarely has Star Trek managed to fit so much death and destruction into one movie especially at the hands of one of Starfleet's own ships. Certainly if there's one thing we remember about this movie it's the Vengeance. We all wanted a model and luckily some were quick to market.

Admiral Marcus

Peter Weller made everyone else look amateur and, for me, stole the movie. Hardcore, a believer in the preservation of humanity and in taking the first strike, Marcus was the epitome of the slightly unhinged Starfleet admiral that popped up on more than one occasion over the years. Not exactly evil, more driven in his beliefs, Weller's experience shows through in droves every time he's on screen. His reaction of "Oh s**t you talked to him." when he realises Kirk has met with Khan and found out all the dirty facts was great and almost seemed off the cuff. True facepalm moment superbly executed. Weller is also one of the few to have featured in both aspects of the franchise, having guest-starred in the final Enterprise two-parter in it's final season from 2005. 

The Five Year Mission

After two movies they finally got to the point. We've not boldly gone at all so far and one of the big criticisms of the revamp was the fact everything was very, very Earth-focused. Embarking on the fabled mission does lend us to believe that the next movie will take place Out There but the hints of Klingon aggression in Into Darkness might indicate that will be the major plot line. It felt that we'd come to the end of a formation period in the life of the ship and crew - major foes had been faced down, Pike was dead and the slate was clean - we could even forgive Kirk being returned to the rank of captain after his rapid rise and demotion through the ranks. Maybe. 

The Descent of the Enterprise

Not necessarily something that was done right more of a "Wow" moment. The fall of the Enterprise into Earth's orbit was stunning both internally and externally. Whether you agreed with it happening in the first place is beside the point as we watched the ship literally start disintegrating before our eyes. Seatbelts were deployed on the bridge and Kirk and Scotty start running up walls to make it to Engineering. Watching all the background action here - the crew falling about the set, the shuttles crashing about in the hangar or seeing the great starship rise from the clouds all made this a well crafted visual experience. 

The detailing was immense on the crumbling ship and it just looked incredible to see her in such a state. The less said about the Star Trek II homage at the reactor room door, the better. The Enterprise probably took more of a pounding here than ever before and the signs are there when the mains comes back on line. Add in the nifty mini-refit at the end and you've got a whole new merchandise line for 2016.

London

Thanks to +Aaron Gallo for this one: "The one thing that I really liked about the movie was the inclusion of Section 31. The opening scenes with Harrison (Khan) and Harewood brought a very relatable, human, moment to the film. Having Section 31 operating in a secret location under a library was a great idea and presented a link between Star Trek from Enterprise to Deep Space Nine."

I do agree with Aaron - and from this point of view it did hit the mark on exactly what Roddenberry envisaged for Star Trek - linking modern day events into the future just as he did with the Vietnam War, racism, the US vs USSR; telling real issues through the forum of the future and science-fiction. Here Abrams did get it right, presenting a real danger in a capital city as has been the case in many terrorist attacks. The conclusion that it turned out to be an inside job so to speak did lessen the impact that might have been had it been revealed that the Klingons or Romulans had been responsible.

The Tribble with Darkness

It's easy to point the finger at Into Darkness for not being Classic Star Trek and being the summer action movie but here we've tried to show that there are a few things at the least which made it a success and showed the potential of this new timeline where anything is possible. Yes, there were some ropey homages and fans can lambaste that Abrams mined The Wrath of Khan far more than he should ever have done. At least there were a few nods to past glories (and the computer game linked to the production) with references to the Kelvin, Section 31, the Gorn, the NX-01 and other classic ships in the Marcus Office scene, a tribble...but not enough that was new. Bringing a tribble back to life with superblood (eh?!) was hardly the epic ending we were hoping for - there was a fist-fight a la Where No Man Has Gone Before (networks love 'em) but not involving, surprisingly, Kirk.

Star Trek II, the Meyer one, is THE Star Trek movie and should never be touched. Some bits were twisted but still, this should have been fresh and new not recycled. OK, new fans would have no idea what we long-termers were screaming about but stealing from the greats (while total flattery) doesn't bode well to keeping your loyal audience. 

Not only did JJ and Co touch it, they left mucky finger-marks all over. Let's hope that the changes in personnel for the next adventure help to reassure fans that this new extension of Star Trek has a bright future and we can be won back. Happy first anniversary Star Trek Into Darkness - let's hope to some degree that we can look back and know that this was the turning point to producing some new Star Trek of first class quality. Abrams is likely to just produce following his defection to the Dark Side and with all the rumblings around Kurtzman and Orci's involvement or lack of/writing partnership split, the intrigue is just beginning. Heck, Orci might even direct. Maybe some of that Khan superblood should be injected into the script for the third movie? Might just do the trick, no tribble required.

Was there anything else that made Star Trek Into Darkness redeemable? Have we missed something out or chosen something that you would never have considered? Let us know below right now!

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