The Visual Logs

Just popped by for a quick chat!

As some of you may know, I recently decided to head into the land of YouTube after a significant absence and have started to drop a few shorter reviews onto the much-neglected Some Kind of Star Trek channel.

At the moment there are a fleeting handful of reviews available including some from the good old days when we started (time flies...). In the last few weeks however we've added a couple of visual reviews of the latest Starships Collection arrivals as well as the Wave 15 and 16 Attack Wing expansions.


All I can ask is that, if you use YouTube, please pop by, have a watch, pass your opinion with the thumbs and subscribe to the channel - share it out along with this site if you can. The more people I see using it, the more I'll review. On that note as well, please let me know if there is anything you would like to see on the channel, perhaps send in a question for a Q&A session, whatever you like (within reason and the restraints of UK law please).

I'll try and dig out something more unusual for the next YouTube vid which should be up in the next week or so. Potentially on some bits I have from the 90's but there's not a lot since some of it was lost in a move about eight years ago.

Thanks again and also a big thank you to all those people who have chosen to follow Some Kind of Star Trek across our multiple social media platforms plus a huge level of respect and appreciation to the fan series, producers, merchandise creators, gamers, writers, friends, podcasts, vlogs, sites and anyone else who I've been in contact with. As long as you all want this I'll keep doing it.

Got a suggestion or an idea for a vlog post? How would you like to see them done? Let me know!

Star Trek Attack Wing Wave 16: All Sides But Starfleet?

The dust from trials of the Wave 15 ships has barely settled and Wave 16 is upon us.

These releases are suddenly coming thick and fast with waves 17 to 21 confirmed and arrival dates pinned until January 2016. One thing you do notice with the latest trio is the lack of a Federation vessel. Well...sort of.

Out of the box first is one of my favourite starships of all time, the USS Dauntless. Indeed a Starfleet ship that turned out not to be a Starfleet ship in a great Voyager episode. It's also the first expansion where you can get away with not applying a captain and instead using the Auto-Navigation option. 

As with the episode, Hope and Fear, your only captain option otherwise is sneaky vengeance-seeking Arthuris. Should you stick him on the Dauntless then you get a captain skill of eight but if you drop him onto any other ship he's a three. While the Doctor on the Prometheus relied on your die rolling to up his captain skill, this one sticks at that figure for the game duration making the Dauntless one to watch. Also Arturis allows you to target a ship within ranges two to three and disable either their captain card or two crew upgrades. Definitely one to have packed if you're going up against a Federation fleet.

Big point to note with the Dauntless is that it only has tech upgrade slots. Four if you're playing the unique class ship and three if you're playing the generic "class" ship and they are pretty cool in fact I'm looking at combining her with the Krenim Timeship as part of an independent fleet. She's also quick with a forward of five and some nice tight turns which might help you out in the pack's scenario.  

Those tech upgrades kick off with the unusual Auto-Navigation. It does bottom your captain skill out at two but once you reveal your maneuver you can change it over to one of the four green maneuvers available. Beyond that there are another five in this pack. The four point Navigational Deflector isn't new, being used in the game before most notably with the USS Equinox and works exactly the same, allowing you to discard the card to cancel a damage result or be disabled to roll a defence against obstacles and minefields. Costly for a discard but useful if you get someone who likes to drop a few surprises if you're in pursuit. Power Distribution is a turn on Arturis' skill allowing you to change your maneuver and perform a hard right or left turn (speed of three only) which are of course red and will incur an auxiliary power token. Being a speedy little thing I'm not sure if you'll need this however with very little defence it might allow you to get out of trouble quickly - although not as quickly as Quantum Slipstream Drive. 

As the most cost heavy upgrade with the Dauntless you know it's a serious piece of kit and certainly keeps with the theme of the Hope and Fear episode. If you're in danger of heavy damage this tech allows you to step out of the game and then go back onto the board out of range of any other ship. It is a discard and doesn't rid you of auxiliary power tokens but might allow you to regroup especially if coupled with Particle Synthesis which allows one hull damage or up to two shields to be repaired if you disable the card and discard one of your tech upgrades.Probably an essential for the ship and one that can only be used on a Dauntless Class vessel. I'll certainly be sticking that in my selection. 

Rounding out the tech options is Force Field giving players the chance to defend against an enemy attempting to disable or discard one of your upgrades. It can be used at the cost of additional five SP on another vessel type but most players will keep it on the Dauntless and avoid that waste. 

Just so you don't feel short changed on the options here you do get two new Elite Actions. Emergency Shutdown is neat for a discard to allow you to ignore your chosen maneuver and stay still at the cost of your round. It's OK but Lure is pure genius and one that I've heard a lot of players out there wanting to use in various combinations as it lets you change an enemy ship out of your range and change their chosen maneuver. It will backfire on you if that move takes them off the board or into a collision. In a one-on-one scenario you'll be lucky to get the chance to use this unless your opponent is super-slow but it means you could drag that ship into range and then hit it with an attack from yourself or another ship in your fleet or push it away to buy some regeneration time. Combine it with Quantum Slipstream Drive and Particle Synthesis and you could be back to full strength pretty quick.

The season four finale also provides the scenario for the pack named Revenge which I have actually played (yay!). A straight-up chase to Borg space the Federation player must save two crew from the Dauntless before it's too late. I chose Voyager and stuck Janeway, Seven and Harry Kim onboard. You do need a quick ship to keep up with the Dauntless but nothing that has a hull value higher than a four - hence my choice which it kinda indicates you should use since you also can't have any upgrades of five SP or higher. A nice introductory mission where you can play about with upgrade combos and also change the distance you have to cover to Borg space which will increase or decrease the difficulty of the game. 

You can also see this ship reviewed over on our YouTube channel now.

This ship has made me consider switching my fleet plans from Federation (good starter for anyone) over to the Independents. While they are last on the initiative scale, there is some serious hardware available and much less leaning on the crew upgrades bag which has made me think a little more about how to create an effective fleet. Think it's also pushing me to purchase either the Borg Soong, Vidiian Fina Prime or the Hirogen Hunter.

Second into the line of fire is the Ferengi Marauder, the Kreechta. Whoopy! For those of us who can't get to competitions it's the first retail release for the big-eared latinum lovers and will soon be followed by the Quark's Treasure which I suspect will include Quark, Rom, Nog and Odo as your crew and captain options. It also looks damn tiny. Anyway, drifting here. 

The Kreechta unique named ship costs a few points less than the Dauntless (26 versus 22) but not having a huge number of ships to pick from does mean it may be sitting in your storage box for a few months waiting for some friends if you're a Faction Pure kinda player. If not then it's a low cost option that's certainly a little cheeky. If you choose the generic Marauder you will lose a shield and a tech upgrade as well as the unique action as always.

Foregoing Battle Stations, you only get three options with the ship - Evade, Target Lock and Scan and it does give a slight nod to the Ferengi's less than combative nature. She also lets you re-roll the number of dice up to the amount of damaged shields (if applicable) on your opponent's vessel during the Modify Attack Dice step. Seeing as the Kreechta only has one defence die, knocking the opposition down quickly is going to be a good option here.

The Marauder does have four hull and three shields to remove before she's eliminated with a steady three for attack and your options aren't quite as limiting as the tech-heavy Dauntless we've already looked over. She's also no slouch with the reverse maneuver giving you the chance for a sly escape and hard turns at both speeds two and three giving you good opportunity to evade any hard action. 

For one there's also three captain options; one being the generic zero SP-er and then too low skill choices of Bractor who lets you add an extra attack die if you're attacking a ship with an auxiliary power token and Tarr who gives you a better chance to survive an attack from a ship coming at you in your forward firing arc by popping on a Battle Stations token and not using your Action. Tarr is certainly a useful defensive option but Bractor is a little too situational for me and not something you're going to see very often I suspect. Nice cock-up by WizKids in using a picture of Letek from The Last Outpost rather than Tarr for his card. Probably just so they could have Armin Shimerman show up twice.

There are two weapon upgrades available to your Ferengi brethren in the form of the almost always present Photon Torpedoes which work in exactly the same way as they always do but here they do mean you are gaining an extra two attack die which is a big jump for such a vessel. Missile Launchers is perhaps more useful letting your ship punch out two attacks from its forward firing arc  with critical results going straight to the hull. A big upgrade this one even though it costs less than the torpedoes there's something a lot more agile about it.

Your one crew upgrade comes in the form of a rather slimy little weasel of a Tactical Officer  whose ability lets you perform a three or four forward maneuver at the end of the Activation Phase. Certainly a benefit to either put you close to a target and pound them with a target lock and Missile Launcher or get the hell out of there before you end up as a debris field. Slimy yes, arse saving; absolutely.

Three tech upgrades have your interests covered and let's take Maximum Shields first. I reckon this could be good alongside that Tactical Officer as you can add two more shields onto your ship which will soak up damage but are only available for one round as they have to be removed in the End Phase and this is a discard not a disable. Ferengi Probe offers a "jackpot"-esque double bubble on your combat range bonuses if you chose to scan as your Action so that could - as I understand it - mean more dice at range one and less at range three? If I'm wrong here, please let me know but I think that sounds about right...?!

Both that and EM Pulse come with their own reminder tokens for your game with the latter letting you drop an auxiliary power token onto a ship within range one/two that's not in your forward arc and also forces it to use two less attack die in the round. Further proof right there that the Marauder is a ship worth dropping into a fleet just to mess up the opposition tactics and play around with their attack and defence rolls if nothing else.

Closing out the options with the Kreechta we have two Elite Actions. The less expensive is Marauder giving you Battle Stations as a free action only for a Ferengi ship with a Ferengi Captain. Very generic and I'm sure I've seen something very familiar in other expansions. The one which is more useful is Acquisition which allows you to discard the card and steal a non-Borg or weapons upgrade from an uncloaked and un-shielded ship at range 1-2. Nice because you can have anything even if it exceeds ship restrictions and there's no specification that it has to be an enemy ship so you could effectively trade upgrades between your fleet (Ferengi only ships can carry the card though).

The mission included in the pack follows the overall theme of The Next Generation's second season episode Peak Performance in that your Ferengi Marauder takes on two Federation ships which are unprepared for its attack. As the Ferengi commander you have twelve rounds before the Federation ships' weapons come back on line to take the opposition out. Should be a synch. Not tried this one yet but I think it'll be a lot of fun to try the odds. You can check out the vid on the Kreechta here.

Finally there's the USS Pasteur - a Starfleet ship! Yep - but here that's totally ignored and she's firmly added to the ranks of the Mirror/Alternative Universe faction. Why this couldn't have had a dual faction option as with the Soong Borg ship or the Krenim Time Ship I'm a bit puzzled because a lot of fans will want to play this as part of their Starfleet squad.

If you're a fan of mix-and-match it won't matter too much as you're going to be more interested what the benefits of using her will be. Tactically the Pasteur is a nippy little thing with a forward of six and a reverse of one plus some hard right and left turns at speed three. While the Marauder has a fair spread of stats across attack as well as hull and shields, the Olympic Class medical ship is limited in its offensive capabilities out of the box with some sturdy basics to keep her in the action for some time. Unusually she also loses Target Lock as an Action, has no weapon upgrade slots and has just two crew and two tech slots available for personalisation.

So to the pack and once we discount Captain Generic there are three new options. First you have Beverly Crusher. In All Good Things... she is referred to as Beverly Picard but I can understand that keeping the Crusher surname will stop players from having two versions of her. Although, with this being the mirror version that might not even be a consideration as you can field a Prime and Mirror version of the same character in the same fleet.

Beverly takes advantage of your green maneuvers in that if you use one you can convert a Battle Stations into an Evade should you need to defend - and you'll be doing a lot of that given your fairly decent hull and shield values versus your poor number of die for repressing attacks.

The only actual captain in the pack, Crusher comes with the lowest skill of five with Worf fielding a six and Riker a seven. Why we get Worf as a captain I'm still wondering but he does make your attack and defence a little more impressive for the sake of an auxiliary power token and he doesn't need discarding or disabling to use.

However, he does cost the same as William T Riker who gives you one more Captain Skill point. The future Riker gives you a Scan token and then either Evade or Battle Stations as a free action. This captain can also be flipped to act as your fleet Admiral allowing other ships on your team to benefit from his action.

Two new crew join your ranks here with the Parallels version of Alyssa Ogawa letting you remove a disabled upgrade token and then perform the Scan or Evade actions for free. Nor does she need to be disabled to do so which means this card could be invaluable. Cleverly you can't re-enable any weapons upgrades with this one. Secondly there's Nell Chilton who was the helm officer for the Pasteur in All Good Things... . Her action gives you the chance to escape with a green maneuver if you suffer one hull damage. This does recognise the rather fragile nature of the Pasteur and the likelihood that she'll be an opponent's first target.

One option for tech upgrades here is the Impulse Drive. At first it seems a bit "meh" however on closer inspection it does mean you can perform those red right and left moves and not receive an auxiliary power token and if you choose a white maneuver at speeds one, two or three they act as a green maneuver. Good choice to make this a disable rather than a discard so you can keep on using it making the Pasteur super-nimble.

The other tech choice comes directly from The Next Generation's finale in the form of the Inverse Tachyon Pulse which forces your opponent to defend with one less die should you have the Scan token active. Not too bad and probably more effective against smaller ships than your 30 or 40 pointers which will still have a chance to cancel out your minimal hits.

The Pasteur does seem a bit of a lame duck if I'm honest with low costs and fairly low return. Potentially this is going to be your first ship to go boom given her light armament and low to medium defensive capability. Her saving grace is the movement but I wouldn't want to rely on that too much if you last to the later stages of a game. Continuing this sense of avoiding doom is the Elite Action, Yellow Alert. While not important enough for a Red Alert, the Pasteur can discard this card and drop an Evade or Battle Stations token next to the ship even if there's one already there. Effectively it's a free action but one that might help cover your retreat. Starfleet Intelligence allows you to re-roll either any number of attacking or defending die at the cost of the card and it just doesn't get me away from the sense that this pack is all about covering yourself from damage.

Not a bad thing as there are ships which will provide you with ample attacking ability and it's nice for a switch to one which isn't weapons reliant but I still have that nagging feeling this is cannon fodder from the first move.

Finally, if you're looking to test out your medical ship before taking her into a more competitive situation, try out the Anti-Time Eruption scenario. Using the Pasteur and A. N. Other ship you get to take on two Klingon ships in a 70 point squadron with your second ship slightly delayed on arrival a la USS Enterprise-D from the finale. The overall idea is for your Mirror/Federation fleet to establish a tricky static warp shell while repelling those grumpy future Klingons with the whole game timed to six rounds. A dangerous mission? Given the stats on the Pasteur absolutely and one that will get players thinking about best tactics.

OK, an interesting trio of lighter ships this month. No 30+ pointers and certainly each with its own specific theme be it  tech, defence or evasion in the case of the Marauder. Would I play them? Yes to the Dauntless without question and would use a lot of the upgrades she comes with. Just need to add a ship or two to my independents! The Pasteur is a possible if I went Mirror Universe but I wouldn't be jumping to select her. With the Ferengi it's going to be a wait and see what comes with the Quark's Treasure and beyond. My biggest disappointment is that with the arrival of future Riker and future Worf we may not see the triple-engined Enterprise-D in this series. However...we still have Picard, Data and Geordi to mine if it does happen.

Wave 16 is available right now from numerous retailers but what's your take on these new ships? Are they worth adding into your fleet?

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A Final Insult: Nemesis?

About two years ago I started writing a post on Star Trek: Nemesis that never made it beyond a few straggly lines. It rested in Development Hell until +James Patrik happened to mention he fancied drafting up a piece on the tenth motion picture. Who was I to refuse so, with a major rewrite, James and I can finally present one of SKoST's Lost Posts seemingly perfectly timed as Beyond begins filming and I actually managed to watch this movie again over the weekend...

Nemesis.  In the thirteen years since its release, its very name has become an epitaph to a bygone era of Star Trek.  

Hammering the final nail into the “Prime” universe’s coffin, its critical and commercial failure signalled the end of the Berman/Braga paradigm and the start of a long period of hibernation for the franchise.

While painfully aware of its terrible reputation among fans, we are firmly in the minority who appreciate the film for the fantastically flawed piece of Star Trek that it is.  Released at a time when interest in the franchise was at an all-time low, Nemesis exists as a curious beast when compared with the rest of the film franchise. Perhaps it's one that deserves more attention than the lauded First Contact if only for its shortcomings.

Four years after the previous film, Nemesis gathers all the familiar faces for what Paramount’s marketing department was quick to bill as a ‘generation’s final journey’.  But right away, things don’t look right.  After such a lengthy break, the characters look noticeably older, and sadly, appear to be operating on autopilot.  Having Stewart and Spiner involved in the production ensures the movie rapidly degenerates into the Picard and Data Show perhaps giving only Frakes as Riker an opportunity to spread his action wings.  Much like Insurrection before it, the growing influence of its stars during production only served to dilute the original story and satisfy ego. That over-familiarity with the subject matter could well have been a major thread in the unravelling of the franchise as it hobbled into the 21st Century.

Indeed, it is in the film’s story that the most significant problems can be found.  An ardent Trekkie, John Logan (an otherwise superlative writer) proves that fanboys aren’t always the right people for the job.  Culling elements from The Wrath of Khan, Logan’s theme of mirror images is an intriguing one, rife with storytelling potential.  Tom Hardy delivers an able performance as Shinzon, but alas, never really feels like Picard.  Much like Nero after him, his motivations remain unclear, robbing the film of its narrative spine. For Data, the discovery of yet another Soong-type android in the form of B-4 feels contrived and tired. Almost as bad is the egregious dune buggy sequence in which he is discovered (supplanting the gimmicky ‘manual steering column’ of the previous film). B-4 might even be seen as a huge insult and the biggest deus ex machina ever to grace Star Trek. Kill Data but hey, if all fails we can still bring him back. This kind of stuff might have worked in 1987 season one of The Next Generation (cue synth score) but not in cinematic 2003 territory.

It has often been said that Star Trek’s main draw-card is its characters.  Nemesis is a film that finds these characters out of focus, lost to action sequences and scenes of boring exposition.  The film’s deleted scenes reveal the mindset of the film-makers in the kinds of edits that were made.  For those who own the Blu-ray or special edition DVD, you can see a proper scene with Wesley, a final farewell for Beverly, the arrival of Riker’s replacement and a poignant reflection on the passage of time between Picard and Data. But the cuts also reveal an even darker edge to the film which would have seen Troi encounter Shinzon in a terrifying telepathic attack and add weight to the flimsy story which gives the counsellor very little to do.

The blame for these unkind cuts is often laid at the feet of director Stuart Baird.  While clearly able to put together a cracking action sequence, Baird shows little regard for the beloved The Next Generation crew, excising the more character driven scenes in favour of action, action, action!  While he has never commented on the film in the years since, numerous cast members have publicly criticised his direction, citing on set conflicts (referring to LeVar Burton as “Laverne”) and a fundamental misunderstanding of what Star Trek was about.  The end result is a story that feels emotionally bankrupt.  Compared to Spock’s funeral service, Data’s wake (and Sirtis’ crocodile tears) lacks emotional punch. It's almost gut-wrenchingly bad and comes close to ruining 15 years of hard work in minutes.

There is no payoff for the audience, and the film simply sputters to an end. Tragically the closing moments have Picard and B-4 engaging in little more than a sing-along which, while it reveals Data is still around - somewhere - it's a bit limp given the significance of the hour and you're left hoping that there will be another movie to give the crew the send-off they richly deserve. Even numbered this may be, high quality it ain't.

For a film that makes so many mistakes, it does get quite a few things right.  Tonally, the film is refreshingly dark – enhanced by a foreboding (and excellent) score from Star Trek stalwart Jerry Goldsmith who deftly weaves electronic elements into an otherwise traditional sci-fi film score. Linked intrinsically to the franchise on both the big and small screen though it could be said that his involvement had been as overstayed as Berman's tenure at the top. Certainly one thing that can be applauded in the JJ-verse is that Michael Giachinno's score has brought a dynamic versatility to events. However, Goldsmith does solidly deliver with Nemesis, more aware of his material than the director may have been.

The climactic battle in the Bassen Rift is without a doubt one of the most exciting sequences in all of Star Trek.  Featuring the final on-screen appearance of the Enterprise-E, Nemesis makes good use of much improved CGI technology, delivering a battle unlike anything seen in Star Trek before.  For the first time, viewers saw redshirts despatched into the vacuum of space as the main bridge was blown apart, not to mention the Enterprise ramming the Scimitar in a sequence that is both exciting and terrifying. The Scimitar itself is a work of art. Rightly noted as a predator by Picard upon decloaking it's one of the most vicious, dominating and memorable ships ever and does get to bear her teeth. There is a great Attack Wing miniature available and hopefully we'll get to see an Eaglemoss entry in the Starships Collection soon when they manage to work out all the finer details. 

It is in this way that Nemesis points the way forward, offering Trekkies a sign of things to come; more action, faster pacing and huge set pieces (and ships).  After examining these high octane elements, one might speculate that at this point Berman had become aware of the shifting demands of modern audiences.  Was it too little, too late? Potentially but by the time he might have realised it was time to move on the final nail was in the coffin and the drastically diminished box office takings revealed how bad things actually were.

Alas, all speculation is moot. This film now stands as the final instalment in the “Prime” movie franchise, replaced in 2009 by JJ Abrams Nu-Trek.  Though the two films released thus far have been resounding financial successes, they continue to polarise the fan base in a way Nemesis never did.

Set in the year 2379, Nemesis represents the farthest point in future history depicted on screen.  With series Star Trek Enterprise scrapped in 2005, and the Nu-Trek films continuing, Star Trek has effectively been trapped in prequel-land ever since. Even the majority of the more well-known fan films tend to rely on the cheaper-to-produce classic era.

I have always felt that The Next Generation crew deserved better - a fonder, more definitive farewell. Before the film’s 2002 release, Patrick Stewart claimed that there were plans for a sequel; however those appear to have been consigned to the dustbin. With the third rebooted Star Trek film being released next year, and a number of dormant media properties being reborn (The X-Files, Heroes, Full House) there may still a slim chance that Picard and co will be seen on screen one final time.

Who can be certain?  It’s sci-fi.  It’s Star Trek.  And there are always possibilities - at least that's what Spock said...and he was right.

Have we got it right? Go on - you know you can't resist commenting about Nemesis...

21 Seconds of Screentime (approx.): The Official Starships Collection Issues 52 and 53

As a friend of mine noted on Instagram/Twitter (hi there Rob!), the USS Centaur must now hold the collection record of being the ship with the shortest screentime from all 53 issues produced.

The Centaur appeared in the season six premiere of Deep Space Nine chasing Sisko's comandeered Jem'Hadar fighter (looking forward to seeing some of those edits over the next few weeks) and was seen for the briefest flash of time however that doesn't mean Eaglemoss have pulled a fast one and given us a below-par starship.

Quite the opposite in fact. I'm already seeing a lot of love for this ship which also marks the first time we've seen one of the kit-bashed Star Trek ships within the series. She takes parts from both the Excelsior and Reliant to create a small, streamlined interceptor-type ship and because of that we get a lot of crystal clear detail for fans to pour over.

Of all the Starfleet vessels this is perhaps the one I've been the least fussed about yet when you get her out of the plastic and cardboard the Centaur truly is one of Eaglemoss' finest examples. Don't ever think that you're being "ripped off" since this is a combination of two ships because there's so much to like on this one even given it's modest origins.

The metal saucer is well detailed with a distinct two-tone near-Aztec paint scheme that almost gives her a weathered effect. Comparing her to the Excelsior is a must as you're going to get a much better view of the larger ship's saucer section by looking at what has been done here on the Centaur. Admittedly there have been some revisions including the four turrets sitting on top of the twin impulse engines and the inclusion of the forward-facing, golden painted shuttlebay but you can see the markings, the phaser banks and the layout of the primary hull much more clearly than on the Excelsior or the more recent Enterprise-B.

The underside of the saucer is something of a tiny disappointment as the raised features don't have precise definition and seem to slide into the paintwork of the hull. The paint-scheme and the registry are still there to complete the effect but it does appear that more work went into the upper side of the ship than the lower. However, understanding the processes behind the collection a bit more these days, you have to say that for cost and quality even having these features recognised on the Centaur is impressive.

Given the limited amount of bits here, I'd say over 50% of the ship is metal since the only parts that aren't are the nacelles, the pylons (rollbar from the Reliant) and the weapons pod. Those engines are very long in comparison to the saucer and seem to stretch out behind her forever - and they are very thin so beware of potential damage. Given their tender nature you'll spot that this is a rare Starfleet vessel without any of the translucent sections within the warp engines. Instead the vents are painted in their recognisable shade of blue, the impulse engines in red and the torpedo launchers in orange.

When you do compare this model to the one that its designer Andy Buckner still has there are a number of differences in the level of detail on the surface - for one the fins at the rear of the saucer have been removed for the one we have in the collection and the detail on the underside of the pylons is much more noticable. Fortunately the registry isn't on a piece of paper stuck to the hull so we have to be thankful!

The scale of the ship - smaller than an Excelsior Class ship - means that the USS Centaur benefits from the chance to do those little bits you might not have seen otherwise and especially with this being vessel having a fleeting few moments on the TV, Eaglemoss have certainly excelled. For sure she's become one of my favourites even though the Centaur is one of the simplest and most basic Starfleet starships we're likely to see in the whole of the collection. Mind, basic it might be but the build quality here is spot on - no obvious seams, no glaringly rushed or misaimed painting, no wonky nacelles - I had a clean checklist this month.

The issue 52 magazine will surely be seen as the "ultimate guide" to the one-off class ship with the ship profile not only covering its appearance in Time to Stand but also giving us the reasoning behind its existence and the reasons that the Centaur takes the shape it does "in universe". Since there's virtually nothing to say about the ship, it's fair to say that once that bit of background is covered the researchers can be forgiven for straying a little into information on the Dominion War within that profile and then later in this issue's special feature which covers the evolution of Deep Space Nine's antagonists first hand from executive producer Ira Steven Behr who effectively shaped the show into the brilliant work it became.

Sandwiched in between those two pieces is a nice section with exclusive images of the original Centaur model that still lives with Andy Buckner. The backstory around its creation and unlikely use within the Star Trek universe is a real treat and this is the kind of stuff I would have hope to see in virtually every edition. It makes the Centaur package one of the best all-round issues of the series, ticking every box in both the model and in the magazine. A near perfect production from start to finish and proof that some of the lesser known ships are the ones that you must get to know every nook and crevice of the franchise.

So to issue 53 and does this ever have a hard week since it's coming after such a wonderfully realised "guest star" ship.

The Klingon Augments' ship from the fourth and final season of Enterprise is technically another ship-of-the-week but it did manage to survive for a two-parter so it certainly had more screen-time than the Centaur by a country mile...and then some.

For some utterly bizarre reason I thought this was the ship that Arik Soong and his augments stole earlier in the season but opening the magazine I realised my foolhardy error. Let me off because it's been a long time since I even glanced at an Enterprise episode.

Having popped a few images on AV Forums and on Instagram there was a query as to how this ship looked without using camera flash. Well ladies and gents, I never used flash and every image of either the Centaur or the Klingon ship from this month (as always) is naturally lit. It really is that damn green.

While designed so as not to blatantly look like a Klingon ship, this small craft clearly has links to the Somraw which we saw a few issues back but is a few shades brighter and smaller "in universe" scale. I might put this one up for the award for "Most Luminescent Ship in the Fleet" as that shade is a step further than we've even seen on the Romulan Bird of Prey from Enterprise. It's got a slight sheen to it which almost traverses into pearlescent realms of green that I wouldn't expect on a Klingon ship, even a one off - but then again the audience wasn't supposed to immediately recognise the race this ship belonged to until the big reveal moment.

Aside from the engine venting at the rear of the Augment Ship it is totally green. Towards the outer edges of the wings and the guns there is a tinge of weathering grey which mixes back into the sparkling green of the main body. Ben and the Collection team have again heavily detailed the surface of the ship with the usual feathered pattern but nothing can take away from the screaming green colour here. I suspect on-screen it was severely toned down.

The warp engines are decked out with the translucent red plastic and fitted into the rear of the hull but some of the rear pod detail is missing (likely due to fiddly scaling) nor does the forward deflector seem to be the correct colour although that might just be an in-episode lighting effect. The challenge with Klingon ships though is that they always look too darn clean. There are signs of weathering and dirt in some of the grooves here but on the larger surfaces I would have expected a little more ageing to be evident. Also while the green is GREEN, the reds around the radiator baffles do seem subdued in comparison to the plan views in the magazine.

One of the nice touches here is that the whole body is metal with the impulse engines, forward cowling, wing struts and guns built onto the main frame which has allowed for much better surface detail. The underside isn't something I'm that familiar with but I would suspect Eaglemoss have replicated the model as specifically as they could given their excellent resources. Nice touch this month that both the Centaur and the Augment Ship have rear clip stands so no fiddling around to get your ship sitting correctly. For some reason though the clip to base on the Augment Ship is wobbly so it does list to one side dependent on its personal preference.

Can I get excited about this one? Erm. No. It's a good ship with no bad joins, a clean - if vibrant - colour scheme and a neat finish however it just doesn't excite me the way the Centaur has this month. Sadly this small runaround ship does get pushed to sidelines a little even though it was seen for a lot longer. The Augment vessel is very average in all honesty and almost as though they were running out of ideas what to do with Klingon ships. Not being able to clearly make this Klingon probably didn't help the equation at the time!

The magazine certainly refreshed the old memory on this ship as I can barely remember the fourth season let alone Affliction and Divergence which featured the Augment Ship. For once the plan views actually look more subdued in their colourings than the model of the ship itself but do reflect the surface detail and simplistic paint scheme pretty accurately.

The Klingons from Enterprise certainly had a sizeable fleet of ships to choose from - more so than the Federation did at that time according to the list included here and designing her seems to have been something of a challenge given the constraints of the story. John Eaves sketches and concepts are, as usual, great to pour over and wonder what could have been.  I have to agree that the final design and the distinct green paint makes it blatantly Klingon whether or not there were any markings on the hull.

Following that design section there is a brilliant section covering the matter of the Klingon forehead. I would never have thought of putting such a piece in here but it does seem like a stroke of genius and relevant to the episodes in which the featured ship appeared. Looking at every angle (briefly) from Trials and Tribble-ations throwaway Worf comment to the more "reasonable" explanation of the Augment virus, it is a fascinating read that newer fans will certainly appreciate.

The Augment Ship will be one essential for Klingon fans, completists and those with an affinity for Enterprise but other than that I can't see it being a must-have for the general fandom given its minimal appearance. I like the design and the model however it does slip into the mid-range of the collection being neither a huge disappointment nor a stand-out addition.

Next month's arrivals however are a different matter. I've been waiting for the Steamrunner Class since the very beginning and the model looks amazing. It's going to be a long, draggy month waiting for her to get here. Countdown begins!

Oh and just to finish off, Ben Robinson shared three great new previews this week via his Twitter feed so we're now a lot wiser as to what the Botany Bay, Romulan Bird-of-Prey and the USS Relativity look like. I'll just drop these pics here. The Botany Bay will come out darker but I'm pretty impressed with the first pass and the detail on the hull. The Bird-of-Prey has managed to pull that slight graining off and not look like the toy Ben said it might and the Relativity is certainly different for a Federation ship in the colour alone.  More are available if you follow the man himself!

Impressed with the Centaur, the Augment Ship or both? Let us know below!

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Fluid Movement in an Alien Domain

One more online Star Trek game has broken cover in the form of Alien Domain. 

Not just limited to the GameSamba site, it's also available to play via the wondrous portal that is Facebook and is currently in beta testing so it's not 100% finished but there's enough going to get a good idea of where this is heading. Be warned though, I'm in a grumpy mood after reading Savage Trade.

Let's nail off the backstory first. It seems that those naughty, naughty Species 8472 aliens from fluidic space weren't given the ass-kicking we thought in Scorpion, decided that we weren't that friendly after In the Flesh and have been amassing their forces ever since in anticipation of returning to the franchise - sorry - in anticipation of a larger attack. Forgoing their "Undine" moniker from Star Trek Online, Alien Domain is immediately setting itself firmly away from that gaming powerhouse but frankly that's where I think my dissatisfaction begins. Luckily though I realised early on I was in a negative frame of mind and contacted the Powers that Be to help give me a more balanced opinion on the game. You know why? Because everything has two sides and it's very important to me that we hear all the angles. While listening to me grumble might be super-entertaining, it's not very constructive. Check me out being all adult here.

Explained the very helpful GameSamba Vice President of Content, Brendon Lindsey; "The game has been in development since early 2014. In terms of the background/setting taking place in fluidic space, and after Voyager, that was a decision based on many factors. Ultimately, it came down to the idea that we could kind of work in a new area most other Star Trek games haven't really explored much, and as fans of the franchise working with the Star Trek team to craft a new story, a "new" setting, and come up with some of the new characters and species we have in the game was just too awesome to pass up. 

"For the game itself, we went with this style of game primarily because of its widespread appeal not only with players in the US and Europe, but also globally. Web-based strategy games like this are really popular worldwide, and to date there have been very few sci-fi themed ones that have been released; usually it's fantasy or medieval. It works well with Star Trek, as these types of games are about exploring new areas, and moving further into the unknown."

Alien Domain seems like a brilliant concept when you hear the background and therefore an experience that should grip social gamers across the globe so, let's skip forward a bit in time, use a handy wormhole and drop into fluidic space to start a whole new mission of exploration. This is gonna be "way cool" and we get to kick Species 8472's posterior into the bargain. Hand me the mouse, get me on the internet and let's be on with it. After registering and some fancy gubbins intro, you can pick to start out either as a Starfleet officer or a Klingon warrior. Game on people, I'm going Federation.

OK, so off I go on my continuing mission. The first system (1.1) is the expected hand-holding walk-through. You get a redesigned Constitution Class starship to start up your fleet and explore while various photogenic Starfleet officers walk you through the features of the game.

Now with Online I actually like the design of the characters and the environments. They're very expressive, clearly created by fans for fans and feel at least a little lived in. Here for some reason all the Starfleet characters are in skin-tight spandex variations on The Next Generation season one/two uniform and also look like they've been hired from the CGI modelling agency. That depletes its credibility and starts to make Alien Domain look like a cheap child of the franchise. Certainly in respect to the female characters there appears to have been some "sexing up". Why it's aiming for such a market is beyond me, I thought, as I wouldn't associate this image with Star Trek.

"Because of the setting of the game, there aren't any recognizable characters -- unless you count some of the ships." noted Brendon, "Later on we may introduce some in the form of simulation missions, but we didn't want to make the game rely on existing characters to succeed. 

"As for "sexing up" the guiding characters, I think that may be putting it a little too extreme. Yes, some of the main guide characters may be drawn attractively (in this case I'm assuming you mean Jenny Snow (right)), but we have a mix of old and young non-playing characters in the game. We also worked with CBS to stay within the guidelines of design, so we have nothing over the top. But in the end, we are trying to appeal to that grey space where fans and non-fans mingle, so some degree of attractiveness in art is part of getting players into the game."

As it progresses though there's a horrid sense of repetitiveness that doesn't abate. You reach a planet, you fight some ships, you gain some rewards, you travel to the next planet and start again. Early on this does happen a lot as you march through the first 20 or 30 level-ups. At that point you might start to fight real people rather than the computer's generated adversaries. The only times that you seem to do anything different is when you can return to your space base, collect resources and upgrade buildings in a similar way to a lot of games ever. The base does offer the chance to update your ships with technology - which in itself can also be individually enhanced - and also build additional ships and as you reach certain levels other options open up to improve your facility and abilities. Of course the resources you have access to (metal, crystal, deuterium and synergen) all vary in the amounts you can collect and store which makes managing that a delicate balancing act itself especially since yoou seem to accumulate metal and crystal at a ferocious rate.

It is a worthy note that the first few ships I've encountered in the spacedock included the Sabre Class and the Steamrunner Class both of which are canon as opposed to the initial provision of the rebooted/super-Constitution Class. That's where Online certainly has another advantage in that you have a lot of chances to interact with characters, space battles, away missions and the chance to really indulge in a Star Trek experience. Here the action is very two-fold and there really aren't any big surprises once you're into the flow of the game.

Clearly those behind Alien Domain have been reading their Freemium Handbooks carefully as a lot of the better features and abilities are limited to those who have forked out for the VIP Access or various packs available in the game store. There is a tidy little bonus which you can build up over the course of seven logins (and not necessarily seven consecutive days) and also you can pick up additional little aids by staying online for longer per daily session. This does, in fairness, keep you playing for the want of the next prize although I was easily swayed offline after several attacks.

Brendon totally understood my perspective on the game and certainly all the head-scratching which had led me to wonder what Alien Domain actually was. "With the game, our goal wasn't to create the ultimate fan game that encompassed everything Star Trek stood for, with lots of characters and stories from the shows." he said, "Other games are trying to do that, and it would have created too much competition for the same groups. What we wanted to do was to create a game that could appeal to a broader audience, and help introduce Star Trek to people and places it hasn't traditionally had a lot of fans in. 

"There's this stigma among non-fans or casual fans that if it's a Star Trek game (or really any super established property), they're never going to be able to enjoy it, or they're going to feel like they're missing out if they play. So we wanted to create something based on Star Trek that we felt could bring those people over the threshold, and serve as an easy-to-play, casual entrance to the brand from which they could later on explore other entities.

At the same time, we do know Star Trek fans are going to check the game out, and we do want them to enjoy it. That's part of why we created the setting and story the way we did -- to give fans something they can get out of the game. And even without the doses of nostalgia or the more subtle/political aspects from the series being really present, a lot of fans do enjoy the nature of Alien Domain."

To be fair this is perfect Facebook game fodder. There's not a lot to it and it's easy to get ensnared into the simplicity of the game after a very short time but it's just not got that Star Trek feel to it. Even the chat feature doesn't drive me to want to play this any more than I need to in order to review the game and I'm starting to grasp at straws to say why you should play it. The next kick was just how elitist I found the squadrons with notices specifically saying they didn't want anyone below a certain level and kicking anyone out that doesn't fit. I just found this another reason to turn off. I want to play and get more involved but if others want to get funny then I'm off. Surely these can't be true fans rather hardened gamers more interested in levels and numbers than the true Star Trek spirit. 

I approached Brendon over this and it's good to know they are very aware of their audience and what's going on; "I haven't seen a lot of instances of it, but like any game we have had our share of bad eggs. Our community and GM team is pretty active in monitoring the community interaction and responding to players, though, so if anyone is experiencing anything too bad I'd suggest to share with them and they can help you out. 

As for community reaction, so far overall it's been great. We have a large rate of new players staying in the game after they start, and many of them continue to play. As for the last part of the question, we do have a good proportion of Star Trek fans, but I would say most of them tend to be more casual fans (who have maybe watched the various series but only a bit here and there), or are from overseas and are fans of the newer movies but had only heard of the original shows existing in mentions. What's cool is we've gotten a lot of those types of people sending us messages after they start playing that they're now getting copies of the older series on DVD or digitally and are going to check it out because they want to learn more about Star Trek now that they're kind of involved with part of it.

OK OK, here's one - it might get people to take a second look at Star Trek. That's it. I just can't see hardcore fans touching this especially if they've already (just) tried  Online.

Brendon seemed to think along the same lines and I really did value his honesty when I asked him about the game and if it would be able to compete against the aforementioned Online; "Really if a game like Star Trek Online is your type of game, then there's no real reason to play this instead. 

"This is definitely a more casual type of game, and they aren't really competitors in terms of an audience. With client games, there's a higher barrier to entry, and also a higher need for a rig that can play it. Web-based games like this can be played on just about any Internet-enabled laptop or PC these days (and any device that supports Flash), and you can login and play instantly, no matter which device you're on."

So actually it's not for those of us who've touched Online. Perhaps it's something that fans who have joined the ranks since the arrival of the JJ movies could well enjoy with it's pacing, heavy focus on space battles and stylized game-unique characters. I believe this is probably the area it'll do the best business with the more hardcore remaining securely with their Online personas.

The game is currently in open beta testing so there won;t be any wipes and your data is perfectly safe if you fancy giving it a bash. Already there are lots of plans to improve the game and take it forward as Brendon closed off with some tempting morsels; "There's quite a few! We have some new faction PVP modes coming in the relatively near future, and we also have some cool things planned that pit players from different servers against each other. Moving forward we're definitely focusing on things for existing players and high level players to do to keep them entertained, and we are always monitoring new player activity to see what new features may be good to add for their enjoyment."

Even as I'm putting this together I've been dipping in and out of Alien Domain just to see what I can get and I suppose that does indicate that Brendon and GameSamba have "won" me over to some degree because it is very easy to drop in and pop out again during the day. You're not constricted to time and the chance to have a quick battle can be very tempting just to kick you up to the next level.

There is nothing revolutionary here. It's gaming by numbers but, as has been said, this is absolutely a casual gaming experience that might act as a gateway for new fans to explore the outer fringes of the Star Trek franchise before diving into the more intricate levels of the shows.

Star Trek: Alien Domain is available now to play either via Facebook or through the GameSamba website. Big thanks to Brendon Lindsey for his time in putting this article together.

Are you a big Alien Domain player? Are you already hitting past level 30 and taking the battle back to Species 8472? Let us know below and tell me where I've got it all wrong!

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