Takei - as in Okay

How have I missed this?

To Be Takei might not be your standard movie offering but I genuinely had no idea that there was a film purely focusing on the diverse life and experiences of Enterprise helmsman and Excelsior captain and all round top guy, George Takei.

Back in the nineties I grabbed a copy of his To the Stars autobiography and was surprised at the diverse ways in which his life had turned. I wasn't as enamored with it as I had been with both of Shatner's Memories books but I still found it to be a great read and full of wonderful anecdotes about George Takei.

Directed by Bill Weber and Jennifer M Kroot, the initial release of this biopic was January 2014 but it will now receive a universal release with the USA opening on (provisionally) August 22nd 2014

To Be Takei looks to place a lot of the material in that book onto the screen as well as more intimate details about Takei's life with partner Brad and more on the events that have taken place since the original publication of the book. George's rise to even greater levels of fame are clearly going to be explored here and I'd say that's the biggest change since he originally put pen to paper. The focus on his sexuality is a major piece here since it had to be "closeted" to ensure his career was a success in the early years while now it is openly and happily acknowledged.

As with Wil Wheaton, the coming of the digital age and the explosion of social media has provided George with a whole new audience as well as the ability for long-time Star Trek fans to follow his tweets, Facebook musings and Google+ highlights - damn it even my step-son follows him and he won't ever be found watching the teaser of a Voyager let alone the titles or anything thereafter. His material on any platform is very accessible to all ages and George has 100% hit the mark and the button which makes people interested in what he has to say whether it's over a weird meme or on gay rights for which he has become a major voice in the USA and dare we say, globally.

This trailer gives a fantastic journey into the original Sulu's life seeingly intercut with interviews from Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, Bill Shatner and even the current Enterprise helmsman, John Cho, giving their thoughts on the popularity of Takei. Aside from the cast there are critics and journalists who join the fray to talk about his life from internment during the Second World War right up to today.

It looks like a stunning story and much expanded since the commitment to paper a while back and I'm genuinely excited to see the result which looks to hit just about every emotional tick-box you can imagine from pulling at your heart over his formative years through to the possibly comedic interactions we see with his partner, Brad at several points in this two minute trailer. 

Considering George Takei's meteoric rise in popularity in the last decade this could well be as surprise a hit as Star Trek (2009) but with a larger appeal to the general public who have warmed to the former Star Trek actor because of his seemingly endless and tireless activity and ambassadorial nature for gay rights in particular. Also, who can resist any of those memes he posts which reveal a very "smart humour" or some of the more hard hitting material that we see him share on his sites? For those people who aren't familiar with his background, To the Stars autobiography or his life away from Star Trek I guarantee this will be an absolute eye-opener and you'll instantly love the guy and follow his posts on whatever platform you choose to frequent.

Some time back there was a disproved rumour that Takei didn't operate his pages himself. The release of this movie should reinforce that he is behind the keyboard and takes a keen interest in his fans. As it's noted here in the trailer, no-one gets more positive reactions than Mr Sulu and this will be the icing on that very cake.

We'll be hoping to review the full movie as soon as it's released. Until then, here's the trailer...

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The Adversary: The End of the Beginning for Deep Space Nine

Season three of Deep Space Nine closes with one of the show's most famous lines; "You're too late; we're everywhere."

Easily topping Sisko declaring that the station would be ready for a Dominion attack a year earlier in The Jem'Hadar, The Adversary is one of the most significant year-ends of the entire franchise. A lot of fans will now be citing Call to Arms or The Best of Both Worlds as other examples but hear me out on this one - and then give me both barrels.

Let's quickly  place the episode into context first. It's 1995 and Voyager has just launched. First Contact is in production and the franchise is hitting the pinnacle of what I've previously termed it's "Golden Age". Everything is in place and running smoothly. Time to take it up a notch with a stronger presence for the intended Big Bad of the show.

The Adversary is the traditional kick-in-the-teeth story we would expect from a season finale but it's build up was quite muted. The Dominion took something of a backseat for the majority of the third season, popping their heads above water on a couple of occasions to cause a few inconvenient challenges for the crew of Deep Space Nine but nothing more. That conspicuous presence is what helps push this episode into the realms of the show's key moments.

These 44 minutes mark a step up in the activities of the Dominion in the Alpha Quadrant. They barely broke a sweat obliterating the Obsidian Order and Tal'Shiar in The Die is Cast but here we see their first major attempts to destabilise the Federation by starting a war with the Tzenkethi. While they become one of the show's infamous "unseen enemies" (effectively replacing the Breen in this role), it's the importance of this change of tactics which drives the shift that would encompass the whole show from the beginning of the fourth series.

Aside from the magnificent late season two-parter, the Dominion only grace the screen in The Search, The Abandoned and Heart of Stone while the impact of their existence is alluded to several times elsewhere.  The Way of the Warrior just an episode later (opening season four) is a great example of just that - the paranoia of the Dominon soaks every scene however they are never seen. In this sense The Adversary more than paves the way for seasons four through seven, replacing the pioneering, adventurous spirit that we've taken in week after week with a very real sense of concern and impending darkness. We've known this moment would come but it's been an underplayed build up over two years. The tension oozes through the deckplates of the Defiant as suspicion reigns and even Bashir becomes the victim of changeling attentions - not for the last time either. 

While Deep Space Nine has never been a cozy, comfortable place with everyone the best of friends, here the cracks show as the lack of trust increases the nearer they potentially come to war with their unseen foe. The Defiant effectively becomes a microcosm for the Federation and we can see within this handful of characters what the meddling of the Changelings could do to the fabric of all that we know about Star Trek. While the Borg had one singular goal and went on the offensive from Q Who, the Dominion are just as happy to play the long game and use all the tricks in the book and not necessarily using the heavy hand of the Jem'Hadar. In fact in The Adversary blood tests and phaser sweeps play a larger part than blasting away at their shape-shifting enemy. 

The build up to inevitable war here has, significantly, not taken a whole season. Yes there were the suggestions that season three would be the turning point back in The Jem'Hadar and with the arrival of the Defiant in The Search, Part I but the real rolling stone only started gathering moss after The Die is Cast. There were milestones to reach in season three which led to the next tipping point in a cascade style while with the previous season there was one thread in that the Dominion existed and waiting for their appearance was what drove the bulk of that batch of episodes. Perhaps there is one theme which does complete a season-long arc here in that Odo does indeed harm another changeling. That notion was borne in The Search and resurfaced in Heart of Stone as well as from Commander Lovok in the final scenes of The Die is Cast. There's a sense of inevitability that only the security chief could play out with such style.

Nor can we ignore Sisko's promotion in the teaser. It is a huge moment not just in the fact that a commanding officer is given an extra pip but in that it effectively shows the closing of a chapter in the life of the show. All the elements to prep the show for the imminent war are there (except Worf) and the phase of building bridges and preparing Bajor to enter the Federation are coming to a juddering halt. All of the threats that have been faced so far have been done and dusted in one or at least less than a handful of episodes. 

The Adversary emphasises that the two year build up is over and the greatest threat since the Borg is now knocking on the door. The less concerning opposition from the Romulans and Cardassians has been removed and all their attention is now turned to the Federation and, as we get to see shortly hereafter, the Klingons. The comfort blanket of the station too is removed, placing the action in the confines of the Defiant and two new standing sets (mess hall and engineering), heightening the tension to a level we've never experienced. There is a very real terror amongst the characters here with everyone from Sisko down to his Bolian crewman (Jeff Austin) second-guessing each other at every step. I think that Bolian should have come back in season four without a doubt even if it was just to help bump up the psychosis levels for a few episodes.

The usual "make you think" story is totally overridden with the hunt on board the Defiant as everything else takes a backseat to the impending threat of war with the Tzenkethi. There isn't even a "B" story here to allow you a breath outside the confines of the tough little ship. The teaser point of Sisko's promotion is soon forgotten once he starts his captain's log after the titles and Krajensky starts hacking into the Defiant. In the case of the faux ambassador come Changeling infiltrator we can all guess there's going to be something major involving him from the off and once Dax starts scanning crew it's not hard to work out who is responsible for the sabotage. In that respect The Adversary is definitely not a "whodunnit" or leaving anything hanging. The threads of the episode clearly lead from start to finish with action and  suspicion at the forefront.

The removal of the "B" story is a departure from the norm again it does signal the change in tack that we will come to see in the next four seasons as well as the harder edged Sisko who will go all out to keep the peace - or drag another party into a war as we will later experience.

Now I know The Adversary for many is not one of the greater moments of Deep Space Nine especially when you take into account the bulk of seasons five and six which are some of the greatest Star Trek ever committed to the big or small screen but at this time, at this point in the history of the franchise it was a major game-changer. The events here and the notion that all is not well nor has it been well for some time sparks some of the best episodes we would ever see The Way of the Warrior, Call to Arms, Sacrifice of Angels, In the Pale Moonlight and more. OK so it doesn't deal with any of the Bajoran elements raised from Emissary et al but all those have to be placed on a backburner to some degree. This threat actually does help that section of the show in that Sisko has a commitment to defend the Federation and Bajor from the Dominion when (not if) they choose to go on the offensive.

Episode 26 of season three ends the dream and begins the hard reality that the Dominion are no longer confined to their section of the galaxy. Season four in counterpoint is darker and more cynical. The optimism of the first three years as the relationship between the Federation and Bajor grew becomes subdued and guarded while the threat of the Gamma Quadrant's major power grows rapidly. Episodes such as Hippocratic Oath, Homefront, Paradise Lost, To the Death and Broken Link hammer in the nature of the opposition before the main event. If you look through the run of season four in comparison to the previous year the stories are less hopefully, more insightful and a harder take on the crew than before - and it suits. While not a particularly Odo-heavy finale, the big payoff from this episode would take another year to come to fruition and does close the door firmly on the possibility of Odo returning home for the foreseeable future. The Adversary ends the exploration, introduction and establishment of the show and from here on in it's personal.

Did you think The Adversary was key to Deep Space Nine? Is it one of their game-changing episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Trek Modelling 101: Warp Engines and Body Building

Last time we covered building the saucer on the AMT USS Enterprise and now we're going to move on to the warp nacelles.

Bear in mind since there are two of these so you will repeat the same steps for both. With building the nacelles you will notice the supports are already attached and lining everything up can be tricky that is where your clamps and rubber band come in real handy. 

First you will need to dry fit basically put the two halves together without glue and see if any adjustment is needed; if not you are good to glue. I recommend trimming the fitting pegs off and lining it up by hand and eye, after which tape them together and glue a little bit at a time just remember you want everything lined up squared and true. 

From there it's back to sanding again and here is a tip - while sanding a round surface be sure to sand back and forth as to not sand flat spots on the nacelles as they are supposed to be round in shape. After your first time sanding, shoot some of your handy primer on it to see if you need to putty and sand. 

Here's a tip from a friend of mine (maybe you have heard of him his name is Trekworks) for when applying putty to seam. Take two pieces of tape and lay them parallel to the seam, then take your putty and use your finger to smear it onto the seam.  Let the putty dry, remove the tape and there is your putty line for sanding all nice and neat! 

Since this kit is pretty old you will need to putty, sand, prime and repeat a couple of times until your seams are all gone. From there you just need to put it to the side and wait for the engineering section which we'll be covering now...

Secondary Moves

The Engineering section is arguably the worst piece of this kit. It has five pieces but it's the sides where the seams are that will have you screaming. 

First thing you want to do is glue the top section of the engineering hull which is in two pieces but the important thing here is the line up of the two halves so do several dry fittings first and when you are satisfied then glue. 

From there, glue the seam underneath as well to provide extra reinforcement I would also recommend taking some strip styrene and gluing it to the joint for extra extra reinforcement as this seam is known to bust time and time again. Then sand that seam smooth. 

It will take a while and you know you are done is when you take your pinky finger and run it over the surface it is smooth no stair step. Then it’s the gluing of the shuttle bay door which is really simple so just line it up and glue in place, allowing it to dry. 

Now come the time to attach the bottom to the top and this is where the nightmare comes in. 

As you are dry fitting you will notice huge seams down both sides where the top meets the bottom. Try to line it up as best you can and when you get it where you like it glue the parts together. Next comes the hard part as you will be sanding, puttying and priming several times until that seam is smooth.  When you finish, use the pinky test as described above and from there it is the front of the engineering section again as before. Line it up, glue it in place and with more puttying and sanding that ends the engineering hull.

Next time we'll be painting and detailing. Until then Get out of here and build something.

You can catch up on all Chris' modelling tips and techniques by clicking back through the Trek Modelling 101 Archive and if that's not enough, check out the Google+ Sci-Fi Fans and Modelers' United Community

No Trek to Netflix - Is it Time to Get Real?

Even now the internet never ceases to amaze me with it's ability to blow things into ridiculously big proportions.

While I've taken the decision to stop the end of month round-ups on news because they're pointless (and you're going to be reading startrek.com for that stuff anyway), I do love a good misquoted rumour but they are taking the spotlight away from more worthy stories.

Sadly the mouth from which it wasn't uttered and was allegedly wrongly understood was Star Trek afficionado +Larry Nemecek. Quite rightly, Larry quickly dropped a post on Trekland to refute the claim and very well played there, sir. Recently on the Starfleet Escape Podcast I pretty much said the same thing - a Star Trek show is unlikely to end up on Netflix. Sorry to those of you who might be following the superb Enterprise fifth season campaign but I just don't see it being a feasible idea unless it's backed by a network and right now I seem to get the feeling CBS, Paramount et al are backing another movie-making horse right now. To ensure the maximum audience, to get the biggest revenue this will have to be a network-based series; in fact the costs of producing such a show now would virtually ensure that is the only way to proceed. 

2016

For another thing, how many column inches were given over to talking about one line on a studio press release confirming Star Trek 3 for 2016? I think we'd gathered it was going to be on the 50th anniversary but seriously, it was dragged out a lot more than it needed to be. That said, I have noted one or two stories in the last couple of days declaring that Robert Orci has said he will be taking the franchise back to the feel of The Original Series more than the 2009 and Into Darkness managed. 

This sounds like good news but is he just setting himself up for a massive fall when it turns out to be much in the same line as JJ's two blockbuster movies and his statement is more about easing fans concerns before a single roll of film has been shot? The frenzy around Into Darkness was nuclear and a superb marketing campaign that failed to deliver as a lot of fans would have hoped. In fact after all the hype there was probably no way on Earth or Quo'noS that it could have. 

Declaring this so early on as well as reinforcing the ending of Into Darkness with the announcement that we will be in deep space on the five year mission could be a masterstroke of course, perhaps that Orci is trying to distance himself from the Abrams vision of the alternative timeline and restore at least some sort of "normality" to the Star Trek franchise. Defining that will be the challenge and let's hope it involves something deeper than a few explosions and some nifty CGI. Also let's just accept that the Abrams universe does exist. It happened, it's alternative and at least it got a few more rears on seats - and thanks for finally getting round to releasing a decent blu-ray.

I digress. What annoys me about these rumours is that they ended up detracting from some of the much more newsworthy items about Star Trek that were around at the time. For one, Star Trek Continues' brilliant third episode was released but found itself in the shadows a bit over the overblown Netflix story as did the news that Phase II have begun shooting Mind-Sifter after a lengthy delay then there's Nestle who are supposedly looking to build a working replicator! These are some great articles, superb media creations that lost the limelight because of a "might be". Usually when we get some good fan-produced material the internet lights up and my news alerts shine brightly with reviews and opinion on the latest episode - this month it was severely underwhelming.

Distractions

I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that we have to be on the button with Star Trek at the moment. There really isn't a lot out there and it seems we're clawing at every word just to find something to talk about. There is a lot to talk about but clammering at throwaway lines just won't sustain the franchise and we need to be looking at the fan productions, the official novels, Destination Star Trek and the tangible things that are out there right now for us in Trekdom. I might add that these rumours could have been thrown in for exactly the reason to detract from the offerings of Mignogna and the Continues cast and crew.

We keep drifting back to a land of eternal hope and if I read one more line about that Captain Worf or Captain Sulu series I swear I'll begin sharpening my bat'leth - let's stop living the fantasy (ironic line) and check in to the JJ Reality. Any new show will be in his universe but if Orci keeps to his word then we might see a show that will make us think for a bit more than the closing credits.

We've also had those great The Next Generation season six blu-rays this month including Chain of Command in movie form and while all the upgrades are stunning, we still appear happy to dwell on material from the mid-1990's and churning over old news instead of grabbing the wealth of new Star Trek episodes, movies and materials being produced across the worlds by passionate fans.

Yes, they are great episodes and the only Prime Star Trek we can get is that - now firmly restricted to the years 1966 to 2005 so we have to make do with whatever we can get in that form. However, those fan films are in a sense sticking to the old (mainly due to cost) but they are importantly expanding the stories, using affordable new technologies to do amazing things and being original. If we keep looking over our shoulder we'll miss some great stuff that's coming soon - Axanar, Horizon, Futures, Equinox, Ambush and a whole host of others that offer great promise as potential webseries such as the Tim Russ/Walter Koenig led Renegades. In that respect, who out there hasn't heard of Farragut and or the tragedy that Starship Exeter took a while to get the final act of its second and final episode finally online. I'm gutted we won't get to see any more of that show and we need to keep them alive if we do care as much about the Prime Universe as we do. 

The imagination used for these shows is boggling and instead we choose to pick out literally one liners in the news. Are we hanging on to hope or keeping up the level of anticipation to see some new, big budget Star Trek? Let's remember that while movies are sporadic and incredible sights, the show was designed for TV and that's it's true home.

With all these stories flying around and being debunked in hours it reminds me that back in the 1990's we had to rely on magazines and TV entertainment spots to get some news on what we could expect - if at all. Those rumours could take weeks to solve and there was no chance to discuss because, well, the internet didn't exist in anything like the form it does today.

Seems like an eternity ago but it did happen and I remember getting very excited over the upcoming Voyager series and the possibility of Riker turning up in Deep Space Nine's third season and no-one apart from my dad and a couple of friends to discuss it with. Now those stories would be across the internet in seconds and have been refuted by teatime however now we seem to drag even the smallest one line rumour out.

But these were always stories worth hearing and there was always a decent amount of evidence behind them before they went to print. Now one throwaway line becomes the next big thing. Let's wait until we get some more substance on these Star Trek 3 stories and see what Orci has in store for fans before we get too worked up. For now look to YouTube and the fan communities - there's enough there to keep us all interested for a long time coming.

So are we looking at the wrong parts of the Star Trek universe? Are we ranting about the parts we hate but might as well accept rather than giving more time to the good work of the fan community? Let us know your thoughts....

Did you know you can now join up with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or even +1 us on Google+? If you didn't why not drop over there now!

Small Additions: Hot Wheels Starships

For a while we've known that Hot Wheels were releasing a small version of the USS Vengeance as part of their HW City range.

After several months of waiting it's finally arrived and I stumbled on it by chance in Tesco of all places this week. Now before going any further, remember, THESE ARE NOT BIG REPLICAS!

Usually the confines of the toy aisle are restricted to visits with my two year old son to increase the ranks of his own car collection (never more than a foot away from a Hot Wheels car in this house) but when the addition of a new Star Trek ship was announced there was another reason to hunt through the die cast range.

I had suspected it would be one of the rarer models however there were at least three in the box which means it won't be too much of a fight to get hold of one. Anyway, while we're waiting for the inevitable Eaglemoss replica (special number three I bet), this will have to do and for those on a tight budget or with a low amount of house space, it's recommended.

I already had the JJ Abrams USS Enterprise which was released around the same time as Star Trek Into Darkness last year but the 2014 USS Vengeance is definitely a step up in production quality as you'll be able to see straight away.

With both ships the main body and saucer are metal while the nacelles and struts are a particularly pliable plastic which means they're less prone to immediate destruction once out of the packaging and into junior's active hands.

By no means are these super-accurate replicas designed to be glass-cased alongside your Polar Lights NX-01 but for less than £2 you can't go wrong. The engines on NCC-1701 are super bendy and minimally decalled with some impressionistic battle damage on show as well as atop the saucer. 

For a small model it's quite heavy at the saucer end which also is very basically detailed with the ship name, registry and raised sections. What does let it down is something they rectified with the Vengeance - the stand is a little loose and this tough little ship ends up swinging around all over the place. Now I have road-tested the Enterprise with my sub-three year old son (under supervision of course) and aside from a cheeky bend of the nacelles it survived intact so as a toy it's nice and robust. Good work there, Hot Wheels, but fortunately he's more inclined towards items in your range with four wheels!

The Vengeance is easily a better mini-model with a "key/lock" style stand which keeps her straight, steady and firmly upright. Oddly for a smaller ship the stand is actually bigger. This time the upper primary hull has the aztec paint job and the unusual cut out section around the bridge however the secondary hull does lose a lot of detail due to the scaling of such a large vessel. You can make out the odd "stealth" style bodywork and the deflector dish but being grey/black means it all ends up in shadow under the primary hull. I'll just make sure I'm viewing her from above in the future.

She is smaller (irony) than the Enterprise Hot Wheels toy but the end result still seems to be better - joint lines are hidden and the nacelles don't look anywhere near as out of place as those on the flagship and the detail on them is a step up - and not a spot of fake battle damage anywhere. The underside of the saucer does disappoint on both the Vengeance and the Enterprise with both receiving minimal detailing in favour of model details and copyrighting information. The undersides of the secondary hulls also suffer from some big securing pins which are a necessity and hard to conceal in something this size  - but hey, these aren't collectors items and that's the big point.

For little more than pocket shrapnel you can pick up a teeny tiny model of both ships from Into Darkness and for the young fans who might (and of course shouldn't have due to age restrictions) seen the Abrams movies these are great little tasters to get them battling in their imaginations. I suspect both of mine may well end up being parked on the top floor of Joshua's car garage and I suspect they won't be the only ones that will.

Personal view? They're kind of cute but not brilliantly constructed and are absolutely made to take a bit of a battering at the hands of younger fans looking to recreate the final few scenes of the latest movie. It might also keep wandering hands off those slightly more expensive Eaglemoss or Hot Wheels collectors models that are sitting on nearby, reachable shelves.

The USS Vengeance Hot Wheels model is available in shops. Some shops...Good luck!

Get to the Escape Pod!

As you might have gathered by now I do like to discuss Star Trek.

Usually it's through the forum of Some Kind of Star Trek but occasionally I've been known to stray from the written word into other formats and last week was one of those opportunities. 

Back in April 2013 we reviewed the 18th and 19th episodes of the Starfleet Escape Podcast and immediately struck up a great relationship with the team behind the production, +Aaron Gallo +Marty Hogan and +Eric Berry . I've been an avid listener and question-answering contributor ever since and on many, many email conversations there has been the suggestion that at some point I could join the crew and lend my voice to their discussion.

Well, after more than a couple of failed attempts (more due to me than anything) we managed it - even though I had to stay up well past my bedtime to link in with the Boston-based segment who are about seven hours behind the UK and it was worth it. 

Sadly I was only able to talk Trek with Aaron but it was still a fantastic experience and one I hope they will allow me to repeat in the not too distant future. If you're not familiar with the show, here's a brief summary - the team run through the latest Star Trek news, voicing their opinions on a range of topics which this time included Phase II, medical tricorders and Jonathan Frakes continued directing career as well as a featured product which this time were The Original Series ceramic shot glasses.

After that we got into the nitty gritty of All Good Things... since we've recently marked it's 20th anniversary. You might recall that I dropped a piece on the blog about that finale a few weeks ago but this conversation took it to a whole different level and even managed to divert off into tangents of Red Dwarf, cult movies and Doctor Who which were totally unplanned but meant it was a great free-flowing conversation from start to finish. No question we left a lot of stuff untouched but we still managed to get into a lot of areas of All Good Things..., pass an opinion or two and reveal some of our real thoughts on The Next Generation's final TV story. It was great to have a chat with someone whom I've been emailing or messaging in some form for a good year and a bit and it's strange to think that when All Good Things... was originally aired, a Google+ Hangout conversation was a thing of dreams and we'd have had to make do with snail mail. A podcast certainly wouldn't have been possible.

From all the threads and diversions we managed to pull out an hour and three quarters on the news and main topic. Rounding it out were listeners opinions on whether they would use time travel or not and Aaron's grumble - or as it's better known, the Quantum State of Flux. It was a shame I didn't get to bounce our thoughts off Marty and Eric this time which does give me some leverage to go back for a second attempt but we'll leave the fans and the Podcast team to decide if that's such a good idea. I loved every second of the show as you'll be able to tell from a touch of over-exuberance and have to thank the team for letting me into their audio lifeboat this time round.

In the mean time I can 100% recommend that you get yourselves over to the Starfleet Escape Podcast website and download the latest installment as well as have a run through their back catalogue of both main episodes (totalling 41 now) and supplemental slots. I guarantee you won't be disappointed with the rich variety of topics and opinions which have acted as a companion for many a long road journey. A lot of work has gone into the show and when I found out that the recording is only a fraction of the work behind the scenes I was even more impressed (especially since I could go to bed!!!)

Keep up the great work guys - looking forward to the next installment.

Take a trip right now over to the site and check out the team's work TODAY!

You can also find the Starfleet Escape Podcast on Facebook, Twitter and Risa. No excuses.

Marc's Second Term - These are the Voyages Season Two

We loved the first season and they just keep getting better.

But before we dive into the review just a quick note - we have an audio interview still to publish - this will be coming shortly now we have resolved some technical issues. We had hoped to release both together but this has not been possible although we tried...hence the delayed review of Season Two.

Photo by Albert L Ortega

The main concern for those looking to make a purchase here is that there won't be an expanded second edition as there was with Season One. Surely this alone will make a lot of fans breathe a great sigh of relief knowing that their hard earned cash isn't going to get split across two books when one, complete edition will more than suffice. Marc Cushman told me himself there won't be and I, for one, believe him (minor note that no doubt in about ten years a whole chunk of stuff will appear and...yep...we know where that's going...!)

But let's just hold for second because there's some great news for the author as Marc Cushman will be receiving a Special Achievement honor at the 40th Annual 2014 Saturn Awards for this comprehensive series. Robert Holguin, president of the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films who are hosting the awards, said that Marc's books constitutes "one of the greatest achievements in the world of literature [in] the past year. The level of research in writing these books are of the highest order."

So here we are, at book two with it now being recognised at the highest level and it's been a long wait for the sequel. My first season copy has been getting very lonely, more so since the release date of it's followup was delayed from the end of 2013 until the start of 2014 and with good reason. Admittedly dropping this review now has been a lucky hit because only this week we've seen the arrival of Star Trek Continues latest offering Fairest of Them All which acts as a sequel to the classic second season episode Mirror, Mirror. Secretly all this coincidence was planned. Promise...(!) Honest.

Compiled in their original production order, this is the essential companion to the most reverred season of The Original Series. While the first year packs in heavyweight episodes such as The City on the Edge of Forever, Arena, Space Seed and Errand of Mercy, the 1967-68 shows were a step up even though all was not well behind the scenes and don't we get to know about it here.

This could easily slip into a big nostalgia-fest and laud glory on all but Marc has never intended this to be just a simple reference guide to the episodes, their stories and a smattering of pre-production footnotes. This is every breath, heartbeat and drop of sweat that went into the production of everything between Catspaw and Assignment Earth. Each page is a slice of Star Trek history with much of it never printed or glimpsed before. Here we get to find out why Gene Coon left, how John Meredith Lucas came on board, how high emotions really were running when it was announced that the show was being cancelled, then reprieved short-term and finally just what it meant for fans, the cast, crew and the network mail-room when Star Trek was renewed for the swansong third year.

Allan Asherman and Stephen Whitfield's work which have been on my shelves for a fair few years are, among others, referenced throughout but Cushman doesn't just regurgitate their valuable literary editions but builds on it. He's carefully sourced information compiled from Roddenberry's own extensive archives, talking to cast and crew who have never (repeat, never) been interviewed about their part in the show and attempts to fill in the blanks that so many publications have left open.

It's clear from this that I'm a total fan of Marc's series, the first volume of which has come in for some factual criticism. All I can say here is that devoting a good six years of your life to something is never going to be an easy and relaxing task. Sure there might be a few typos and errors but on the whole this is a work that will stand the test of time and prove to be one of the three most valuable resources on The Original Series. The other two will be the volumes that sit on either side of the number "two".

All well and good, but what else is here? What am I getting for my cash and why would I want season two? 

Easy answer; because this reveals the dirt under the nails in our favourite stories (although I have to wait another season for The Tholian Web). I could find something new on every single page as you read through the story of each episode from inception through development, filming, post-production, viewing figures and even letters received by the studio once the shows had aired. It feels that there is no frame of film left untouched by this book - every (major) decision seems to be noted or discussed from model shots to cast entrances, story lines through to wardrobe decisions. With each episode there is always something different or a point that is being grumbled over for a quick resolution.

Take a couple of fan favourites  - The Trouble with Tribbles for instance; originally not a comedy nor Tribbles but the pages here chart an extraordinary evolution, the changes, the reasons why and how they came about. Sometimes it was more from a fluke thought than a huge idea-bashing session or a spark came from the mind of a more experienced story editor such as Gene Coon (Gerrold did a big edit that ensured he kept the main credit for the episode). How about the fact The Doomsday Machine - one of the ultimate classics of the show - came in under budget and in a record number of days for the second season? What about the hotch-potch stories that got stitched and moulded together into Patterns of Force that you might not have known about? Maybe you're just interested in finding out about the torrid events and dealings that went into the making of the aborted series pilot that was Assignment: Earth? It's all in here and there's so much more to discover as you go. Get reading. That's an order.

Every episode will at some point have you uttering the word, "Really?!" or the phrase; "I did not know that." In fact your opinions on a few episodes might just change when you read what took to get them to the screen. While you might not like what ended up on TV, the journey there was more fraught than you might care to imagine; The Omega Glory can take a bow for that. I loved the narrative that accompanies this episode - one of the three original ideas for the second pilot.

Here Marc's own voice is quite strong in support showing that there is definitely a degree of passion and support to ensure we appreciate every frame of the series and what went on. With The Omega Glory though it's slated by those who worked on it but by the end of that section you genuinely feel that it's one of Star Trek's all-time misunderstood episodes. It's a mark of the depth to which Cushman has researched that there is such a level of evidence in each chapter that you are called upon to examine every aspect of the show from the ground up not only in each chapter but after each watching of the series and then, most likely again when you head back to cross-reference in These are the Voyages.

The additional sections within the book are essential to getting your feet under the Star Trek table and knowing what influenced the show's background evolution - whether it be ever-increasing levels of infighting, the Hollywood press rumour mill or true stories of how-it-happened-on-that-day, it's all here and explains why the legendary show turned left instead of right or hired one person rather than another. Rarely do I leaf through an appendix but here the story assignment list is a must see. While we get to know how and when a story was planned and assigned, there are a number which fall by the wayside for a variety of reasons. These are covered in their own chapter but here the true extent of how many were unused, unworthy or too expensive can be easily visualised. I suspect that if we clustered all the unmade episodes from '66 to '69 there would be enough for one more (over-budget) season without another idea being submitted.

Even more inviting are the viewing figures which are more than pleasing but were no help to Gene Roddenberry as his relationship with the network went from bad to worse to downright catastrophic over the course of the year. To tell you the truth I came out of reading this book with a mixed view on the show's creator as well as a totally different perspective on Gene Coon - neither of which I expected when I started the season. Marc's style makes this ever more accessible and easy to understand. 

This isn't a book to sit down and read from cover to cover either. I found it much more beneficial to dip in and out of the chapters, reading each episode as a section rather than overloading the old grey matter with line after line after line of new and surprising information. We covered some of these points in our audio interview recently but there are loads more to discover. In fact let me expand on that.

Each evening I chose at random an episode or a section to read and this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the overall product. In some way the weaker or less well known episodes provide more layers to the overall picture and the epilogue as is provides a key link to the third year. I had expected the letter-writing campaign and subsequent resurrection of Star Trek to be featured as the opening to the final These are the Voyages but there's something that feels so right about using that event; that pivotal fan-led mission, as the final chapter here.  Actually the work Cushman does here does indeed open up the true story - the volume of letters, what actually happened, how narked the network were that they got a vast amount of "Thank You" letters once the show was picked up for the '68-'69 season.

Marc's six year research project is now two-thirds complete and, even with the criticisms that were levelled against book one this is an absolute essential for your Star Trek library. The other books which exist will always have their place - they are part of the history of the show and reflect the views of the last fifty years through the eyes of fans and those involved. Marc Cushman may well be the last person to document the stories of those who were there at the time; those people who were in front and behind the camera for those defining years in TV history and it would have been criminal if their stories had never been properly documented. Many of them have never been interviewed before in regards to their involvement with Star Trek but their observations and recollections are now secure for generations of fans now and in the future; new and existing.

Go out, get a copy and barricade yourself into a room with a DVD player, TV and this book. You won't regret a second because afterwards you'll know all that there is to know about the second season. Just make sure you resurface to purchase the third volume.

These are the Voyages is available right now from Jacobs Brown priced $29.95. You can purchase your copy by dropping over to the site HERE.

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