Kelvin Counterparts: Attack Wing Mirror Universe Faction Pack: The Kelvin Timeline Part 2

We've covered the Enterprise and the alternate crew so let's turn our attention to Q'onoS and the Klingons for our second half of the Kelvin Timeline Faction Pack...

The two models included in this set are, frankly, excellent. Small scale they might be but the detail of the mould and the additional painted markings make for a great ship. Wizkids have crammed a lot in with the feathered panelling on the wings and the shoulder cannons (little out of scale these...) down to the vertebrae style neck connecting the command section to the main hull. Underneath is a little simpler with a flat hull complemented by some top notch detailing on the pair of warp nacelles hanging down from the wings of the engineering hull. For note, these ships and crew can be used either for the Mirror Universe or the Klingon Empire.

The influence of the classic D-7 is all too evident as it was on the larger and equally impressive version from Eaglemoss about a year back but I think this is just that tiny edge better because of the size of this one. It has to be one of the most exact reproductions from the franchise in the game and for once it's not let down by sloppy paintwork or misaligned engines. Instead we have a well presented Klingon vessel ready to take on the Federation.

Making a "second" appearance in the game is the IKS Amar last seen in its The Motion Picture guise as a K'T'Inga Class ship. The CG on the card shows it with purple tipped features  rather than the silver/greys of the miniature but we're not here to nitpick the image because it's all about the stats.

Now points-wise you at a disadvantage here because the Amar and the IKS Suvwl both rock in at 21 points versus the USS Enterprise's 28. Both ships pack four attack, one defence, four hull and three shield points plus the standard Actions of Target Lock, Battlestations, Cloak and Sensor Echo. They also mirror each other with slots for one Tech, two Weapon and a single Crew upgrade. Where they do differ is the Unique Action with the Amar able to fire its Primary Weapon if it receives damage while Cloaked (only once per game) and the Suvwl can add an extra attack die and reduce an opponent's defence by one should it be cloaked and not in the Primary Firing Arc of said enemy.

Both ships are geared towards dealing more damage leaving offence your best defence with these arrivals. Nor are they particularly quick with a top speed of four with full banking and 90 degree left and right turns at speeds two and three. The hard left/right at speed three as well as the reverse do incur the Auxiliary Power Token (red) penalty while the banking turns and forward of speeds two and one will get those removed (green). Considering the top speed there's a lot of manoeuvrability with these Klingons - even more surprising since these aren't more flexible birds of prey.

Kor is available as your highest skilled captain (seven) with a cost of four and the chance to equip an Elite Action as well. He has an interesting Action which wlll come in to play very well if you choose to employ it against your most powerful opponent. When attacking, Kor can add an extra die and then convert two Battle Station results into damage. If it's on the receiving end those Battle Station results can be converted to Evades and the ship gets to roll an extra defence die.

Kang is a little less flexible and will only be ever considered for use if you're going up against the Federation since his Unique Action specifically utilises one of that faction's ships. Should one be in your Forward Firing Arc then your captain skill increases from six to eight for that round. Kang too costs four points and can equip an Elite Action.

For two ships that can only add a single Crew upgrade you get a surprising four to choose from in this expansion. Koth could be a real asset to the ship costing two points and immediately disabling a Crew upgrade on an opposing ship. However, think a bit more and this could be a waste of resources since this is only used on Set Up and if your opponent is a half-decent player this will be reactivated sharpish. 

Also costing two points is Klingon Patrol. At the End Phase and as long as you;re not in the Forward Firing Arc of an opponent you can cloak. Admittedly this is nothing more than a Free Action completed at the back end of the round rather than the beginning - which will be all of two minutes in the real world.

Again for a cost of two is Klingon Guard. Offering a Combat Phase freebie of an Evade token, this one provides the chance to act after your opponents have made their move - or perhaps it'll assist you in a tight spot that you've noticed at the final moment. Low cost but with the potential to allow you an extra breath to get away. Simple but useful.

Finally, the most expensive of the Crew offerings is Klingon First Officer. It's a very unusual card in that it takes effect during the End Phase of the round and gives you a second chance to attack with the Primary Weapon. This in turn leads to the Captain being discarded and the First Officer being put in command with a skill of four which corresponds to the cost of the card. Slightly sacrificial however the chance to attack twice in the same round cannot be sniffed at if the opportunity arises.

Of the two Weapon cards, Disruptor Volley attaches an Auxiliary Power Token to an opposing ship within ranges one to three. Attacking with five dice there is no actual damage save this token although Attack Squadrons will lose an Attack Squadron token for each Damage or Critical Damage that is not cancelled out. For three points this is a very different type of attack than we are used to, reducing the opponent's tactical options for a short time and maybe reducing their speed choices next time round.

There's also the standard Photon Torpedoes card with again, the three point cost. Utilising the equipped ship's Primary Weapon +1, the Photon Torpedoes operate at all ranges and spends the Target Lock to fire. This one also has the benefit of changing all Battle Station results to Damage should the enemy shields be down. Brutal but effective, I'd never leave dock without this weapon option.

The Klingon Cloaking Device Tech card costs just two points to add on and offers two choices of action during the game. Either during defence you can convert one die result to an Evade (if cloaked) or you can drop three Time Tokens on it to cloak during the End Phase giving a second action to your go.

Finally the Elite Action, Overwhelm, is the only card that is offered up as just a Klingon option and costs you four points to equip. Featuring a pic of the Narada (?) it comes into play during the Attack phase allowing you to add one attack die to your roll for each ship that has attacked your target. One of the results can also be converted into a Battle Stations to just give that attack a bit more impact but you will have to disable it with two Time Tokens. Depending on when you play this will also determine if all or some or none of your ships will have attacked so best attach it to the ship with the lowest Captain skill so you will attack last.

So that's the second half of the Kelvin  pack and what a great assortment of alternative Klingon ships we have. This, along with the Federation ships not only gives you a two versus two scenario straight from the pack but also the chance to add all four ships into a Mirror Universe fleet which will be one heck of a mix and match. 

Wizkids have pushed the limits of the game here, trying new and unique card features alongside tried and tested favourites. The twin character cards as well as the Auxiliary Power Token attack are very distinct newbies to the game and provide some much needed variation that many of the later standard packs failed to provide. Looking forward to seeing what the Animated Series and Borg packs provide in the near future...

Check out more Attack Wing reviews in our online resource - and in the meantime let us know your thoughts on this expansion to the game - good choice? What else is missing?

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Rounding Up: The Graphic Novel Collection Issues 36 - 39

It only seems like a matter of days ago that we were talking about Khan: Ruling in Hell and here we are with our second bite of the Noonien Singh cherry with the monosyllabic Khan.

If you're following along you'll spot immediately that this edition is sporting the ever-so-British chin of one Benedict Cumberbatch and therefore is going to be set in the Kelvin Timeline. Before you grimace, complaint and throw things remember - the Kelvin Timeline issues actually tend to be the better presented, thought out and generally more smoothly executed outings for Star Trek. The art work from Claudia Balboni, David Messina, Marina Castelvetro, Luca Lamberti and Giorgia Sposito is as good as ever and I always rate a graphic novel by the ease at which I can follow the natural flow of the dialogue and here it's seamless.  What makes this parallels apart from the Khan: Ruling in Hell series is that Kelvin twist. 

Mike Johnson and Roberto Orci's story takes us back to the very origins of Khan (which would be unaltered as they occur before the Narada incident) in the 1970's through to his rise to power in the 1990's. As Orci was instrumental in the writing of Into Darkness it makes sense that he would be involved with the scripting of this origins story - and that it should therefore be considered as Kelvin canon. One of the criticisms of Into Darkness was that Khan did not appear to be of Indian descent and here we have the explanation however unnatural it seems. Khan explores a totally different window onto the character as he "works" for Admiral Harris and the development of the Vengeance and those 72 prototype torpedoes that would come into play in the second reboot movie. I sped through this one. It's incredibly immersive and a great story whether or not you're a fan of the reboot movie series. 

Khan truly unites the movies, brings in relevant backstory material and clears up a lot of issues that fans had raised around the mixed Into Darkness. Certainly watching it now after reading this gives me a new outlook on the plot. 


Issue 37 takes us aboard Deep Space Nine in Stowaway. A real mix of visual styles and story lengths in here that made it a little bizarre at times yet there's a real quality to the production and definite love for the show. Pitched in the first four years of the TV series, Stowaway is just one of the tales contained in this set which runs sequentially through the Malibu Comics releases from the 1990's. The Lurene Haines-painted Hostage Situation is a real departure from the artwork of the Deep Space Nine series and probably the graphic novels as a whole and feels a little disorganised. It's not that great a starting story either focusing on a simple incident involving some Klingon arrivals to the station.

Fortunately it's short and then we get into what I think are the better illustrated two-part Stowaway, Old Wounds and Emancipation Parts One and Two which close the book. These are much more in keeping with the theme and tone of Deep Space Nine. Stowaway does have slight similarities to The Alternate with a creature moving through the station but here it's not Odo - although didn't we have something not too dissimilar in the Lwaxana Troi story a few volumes ago? More than likely but there is a darker tone in this one thanks to the inclusion of a visiting starship captain which lifts the story. Fortunately this two-parter acts to build up to the better stories at the rear. Old Wounds does what Deep Space Nine did exceptionally by placing the Cardassians against Kira in a personal conflict. 

You can see the echoes of Necessary Evil bold as brass in this story and there are some canonical errors due to the later (and at the time of publishing not yet made) Things Past however you can see the writers have really embraced the shadowy past of Terek Nor rather than treading down an alien of the week path. It also illustrates the more continuous and evolving nature of Deep Space Nine due to its constant position by the wormhole. In fact the comics seem to have picked up on that (a bit) just before the show did with the Dominion. 

Emancipation offers up an escaped slaves versus their masters story and with some elaborate makeup, ships and events within the story you can see how the page is a better canvas than the TV as this would have made quite an expensive episode. It's a good read if at times a little too sedate for my liking although there is some fantastic artwork to laud over throughout the pages. It's a far cry from the initial sketchiness of Hostage Situation.

Voyager; Volume Two (should be?) gets renamed as Dead Zone and as with the Deep Space Nine tome, it's a compendium of several stories combined together from the comic run (which do actually link through) and brings in everyone including Kes and later Seven of Nine. The opening Dead Zone story will certainly trigger memories seeing as it almost carbon copies The Animated Series' The Time Trap and in turn Voyager's own The Void which both deal with an area of space which is seemingly inescapable. Here that scenario is once more with more extravagant aliens and an actual on-board battle between the Voyager crew and the rest of those trapped in the zone. Everything really kicks off in Ghosts which has Voyager encountering a temporal flashback to Wolf 359 and allows them to meet with crew from some of the doomed starships. 

When you're reading Dead Zone it seems like the story isn't going anywhere but the events do twist together to form the beginnings of the second tale. Hat tip to you dear writers. Ghosts is actually top notch since it ties in the past of the franchise and at the same time manages to do some deep delving into actual characterisation. I know, shocker. Plus there's the high concept of that temporal incursion which does, tragically, have to also be the big reset button for the story. Now that's a huge shame as I thought this could have gone somewhere but it can't interfere with TV hence everything that's outstanding has to be neatly tied up. Leviathan sees Voyager searching for a missing vessel which sees the Starfleet ship captured and almost assimilated by a huge craft/creature. I've got to say that the scope of these Voyager stories is just what I would have wanted from the show (with a bit more Maquis conflict perhaps) as it's all very high concept. 

Possibly all these stories would have been over-budget for the small screen but it explodes with potential on every page whether its proto-Jem'Hadar or Voyager being encased by the hull of the Leviathan. The vision in here from Jesus Redondo is spectacular. It's certainly more sketched in style than the clean cut lines of the more recent Kelvin Timeline stories yet these seem incredibly vivid and alive with steady plot development which is taking place not just across the single tale itself but also across the volume. Why say that? Because the Elessians they were helping in Leviathan are the next destination for the crew in Cloud Walkers wherein Janeway and co are embroiled in a pirating scandal involving some super-extravagant creatures in land and sea. Another out-of-the-box adventure here but not the best in the volume. 

Notably though it does finish with a link into Scorpion and Kes' visions before continuing in Survival of the Fittest which takes place after the fourth season opener/cliffhanger resolution. This two parter is a bit...meh. Retreading Psiren-esque stories which would later be touched on with the Orions in Enterprise, the crew are put under the spell of the Orsorians (who aren't what they seem). It's a tad risque visually but we do have the ship gradually taken over with even the usually unemotional Tuvok being compromised. Coming to the rescue as would be the norm for the later seasons of the show are the Doctor and Seven who remain unaffected by the hormonal powers of the Orsorians. It's a straight-forward take-over story that Voyager did a couple of times with the Kazon, nearly with the Vidiians, the Hirogen...I mean there were a lot of races that wanted to get their hands on the Starfleet vessel and this is another spin on that theme. 

Graphically it's another great looking story with quality vistas and some nice detail on the ship itself. Cleverly one stylistic choice which does run through the whole collection is the use of the rank pins and division colour to border "off screen" dialogue spoken by the crew. It looks cool and for fans it's another easy to follow tool which means that the story can avoid unnecessary panels.

Finally for this batch of four we have the third and final part of the Marvel Comics series. More in tune with the bizarre exploits of the now infamous Gold Key stories, the Marvel Comics adventures spin out of The Motion Picture with Kirk taken over by the spirit of a space Egyptian and the admiral and his senior staff disguising themselves to infiltrate an alien race. It's back into the realms of utter fantasy and boys own action that steps firmly outside the concept of the Star Trek mould. Not that thinking outside the box is bad but this doesn't make it very Star Trek in its roots.

Graphically it’s very, very sketchy and perhaps even less accurate than those Gold Key tales. The Enterprise especially gets a bum deal looking different in almost every frame and it’s all those visual inaccuracies that plummet these additions to the bottom of my list when it comes to the Graphic Novel Collection. 

Time has not been kind to this era and while it might have been the only way to get hold of some form of continuing Star Trek it’s bordering on painful at times. I do reckon though that with some better visuals the stories themselves would probably hold up a little better and not be seen as such pulp narratives. 

There are lots of cool things about the Marvel stories - they 100% go beyond anything that could be seen on TV or even in the cinema but the action content is still gripped in the 1950's serial style and the real heart of Star Trek is missing leaving the adventures feeling as though they could be transplanted into any other sci-fi franchise and we wouldn't be able to tell where they originally came from. 

Perhaps this is the benefit of seeing what's been produced since these late 70's adventures and also because of the little Star Trek that existed when these stories were written. Indeed, the Motion Picture isn't the best source for reference material on the characters and that shines through strongly in the very basic characterisation that echoes off every page here. If only Marvel had waited until after The Wrath of Khan - but by that point DC had a firm grip and that's another story for another time don't y'think?

Catch up with the Graphic Novel Reviews HERE

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Kelvin Out/31 In

SJ Clarkson is now assigned to the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel and with no resolution to the Pine/Hemsworth contract dispute (probably) among other things, Star Trek 4 is now officially shelved. 

I'm not hugely shocked by this news as it seems none of the puzzle pieces were fitting together well and there was zero sign of a script.

It means that the Kelvin Timeline may well become known as the Kelvin Trilogy and remain one of Star Trek's more unique spin off elements. 

But the influence of those films, or at least a key part of them will live on in the Kurtzman Era as the destruction of Romulus is set to have had a profound effect on Picard in his as yet unnamed series which will, along with the transference of Prime Spock over to that timeline, cement the three movies firmly as part of canon.

While it seems like the behind the scenes dilemmas are the reason for the seeming end to the adventures of alt-Kirk and co, it's been a pretty good run. While I openly admit that Into Darkness isn't a masterpiece and borrows chunks from another Star Trek movie you have to admit that the visual quality, the acting and the very feel of these three stories has been exceptional. 

The 2009 movie is one of the best Star Trek movies to have ever been made. Doing something that was a possibility back in the days of The Undiscovered Country, it took the crew back to the Academy and their first meetings. It reset our expectations of Star Trek while simultaneously and subconsciously updating it for a new generation of fans. In fact this would be a generation of fans that would have never seen The Original Series or heard of Deep Space Nine. At its heart it was just a damn good sci-fi movie that happened to be Star Trek at the same time. 

Beyond rounded out the three with the destruction of the Enterprise which kind of means these three films become the story of that singular ship but of the trilogy its probably the one closest to the feel of The Original Series in its look and feel. 

However as one door appears to have closed, another one has sprung open with the official announcement that we've all been expecting for a little while; that Michelle Yeoh is getting her own series as Mirror Georgiou in a new Section 31 show.

Hardly surprising which means there must be some meat on the bones that we'll be getting a second animated series plus something to do with Starfleet Academy in the (very close) years to come. Due to be produced by Discovery writers Yeon Kim and Erica Lippoldt who were responsible for the Saru episode Into the Forest I Go in season one. 

That now brings the confirmed series total to four including Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks. plus there are supposed to be seven in play by 2020. So...we're just over half the planned amount of shows which will definitely solidify Star Trek's place back on the small screen.

From chatrooms/boards it's clear that fans are naturally concerned about the number of shows online and are having flashbacks to the mid-'90's "Golden Age". If managed well then there shouldn't be a problem - but look at the diversity too.

In the '90's the style of the shows and movies were all very similar visually, in the way they told their stories and most notably in their focus on Starfleet. What we seem to be getting from the Kurtzman era is a galactic sandbox in which we are going to see different aspects of every corner of the Alpha Quadrant (and maybe more) with neither Picard nor Georgiou part of Starfleet directly. This new Section 31 show will certainly be exploring the darker corners of the galactic landscape away from the sharp, duty bound lines of the Federation.

But does this mean that our Star Trek is going to be less Star Trek? Will this massive expansion dilute the brand and the strength of the storytelling? If they are going to branch out I believe this will be a bold and brilliant step to offer something refreshing to the franchise. If every series was, as you might recall from 20 years ago, a Starfleet crew out exploring the galaxy then yes, we'd be in some serious trouble but this new approach has chosen to give each new show a completely fresh identity and path to travel. Wise move and a very sensible one to boot.

Which of the new shows are you looking forward to? Are you lamenting the potential end to the Kelvin Universe?

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Rounding Up: The Graphic Novel Collection Issues 24 - 27

Bringing us more up to date with the Graphic Novel Collection, here are the next four in our recap sessions...

The Newspaper Strips Vol 2 is another of those that I find hard to digest in anything less than a handful of reading sessions. The content itself though is way above that of The Classic UK Comic Strips using the source material much more closely and drawing on the past of the franchise to really fill out the action.

Set after the events of The Motion Picture and using the rather bland range of unitard uniforms, Kirk and crew are depicted returning to the unknown in some truly beautifully illustrated stories. 

Given their nature of being a newspaper comic strip each bite of the tale is punchy and leaves you on a pretty abrupt cliffhanging moment each time. The stories aren't too deep either with Klingon and alien attacks plus a par-for-the-course virus and the return of the mustachioed Harcourt Fenton Mudd to round out the adventures.

Honestly though, for me the artwork in this volume is just standout gorgeous flicking between colour and black and white but for something produced at such a pivotal time in Star Trek history, the way in which the artists have captured the likenesses of the crew and the ship is truly striking. It's also a lovely precursor to the more visually accurate material of the 80's and beyond and goes to show that Star Trek was being taken much more seriously as a product. It was finally getting the proper treatment it deserved on the page rather than being just a jaded knock off from 50's serials that had nothing to do with Roddenberry's vision. I'm not saying that these strips are perfect, far from it because they do still tend to lean towards the fantastical rather than the human condition (but then would you really want something that deep in a daily newspaper strip?) but they are at least heading in a familiar and grounded direction.

Star Trek After Darkness offers a chance to see what happened in the years between the end of the second JJ movie and Beyond. Including Carol Marcus, the Enterprise crew take on a series of new adventures as they, finally, go where no one has gone before.

Choosing not only to look into the future (as they thought then), After Darkness also flips back in time to give us the origin stories for both Chekov and Scotty which led them to their appearances in the 2009 reboot. As always the writing and artwork in these fairly recent offerings are magnificent and thoroughly engrossing giving much more depth to the JJ-verse which is sorely needed since its novel line was cancelled and there is a minimal amount of screentime to refer back to.

The third of these stories might cause a bit of controversy since it chooses to tackle Vulcan Ponn Farr and therefore effectively rewrite the events of Amok Time. This one heads into a lot darker corridors than Spock taking chunks out of Kirk with a giant cotton bud on Vulcan, pushing him right to the edge of sanity and back again. It's a brave choice to tackle such a reverred point in The Original Series but then these volumes have never shied away from a challenge as we've seen in reworkings of other classics such as Where No Man Has Gone Before and The Galileo Seven. Here though it's a big leap and I believe it pays off because it is such a different spin on events.

I continue to be a fan of these Kelvin Timeline stories because of their risk taking with recognised events and the different ways they have faced the change in circumstances following the arrival of Nero and his converted mining ship. Looking forward to the next one of these already!

Khan - Ruling in Hell is just a graphic novel masterpiece without question and one of the highlights of the whole damn series.

Storywise this covers everything from the moment Kirk and the Enterprise dropped the Botany Bay at Ceti Alpha V right up to the very end of The Wrath of Khan.  The artwork is brilliant, encapsulating the dangers and adventures that befall the genetic superhumans before the neighbouring sixth planet explodes and alters the orbit of their enforced home.

As with Assignment: Earth it also takes us ostensibly away from the Enterprise and her mission to something very, very different. We see Khan endure the highs of the challenge to colonise his new world through to the crushing death of his wife as well as internal attempts from his own people to overthrow him. 

The recreation of The Wrath of Khan is another classic comic strip that condenses the landmark Star Trek movie into a great read. The characterisation of Khan, Joachim and even McGivers is tremendous with some fantastic and very accurate artwork to back it all up. 

It took me about seven pages before I realised that I’d actually read issue one of the TNG: Beginnings collection back in c.1989 just when The Next Generation has launched on UK TV. In fact the back of the comic had been filled with a plot synopsis and pics from the upcoming episode, Datalore.

How did I remember? Because of the bloody annoying Bickering Bickleys. One of the worst things to ever grace any part of the franchise...so pretty fortunate that while they do turn up with more frightening regularity than I would like, they aren’t prominently featured in any of the tales contained therein. 

Beginnings is as odd a beast to the Star Trek graphic novels as the Divided We Fall crossover that was only released a few months ago in that it offers a perspective on familiar characters if things had developed a different way. To be honest things would have had to develop in a rather severe manner for these interpretations of the Enterprise-D crew to manifest so count yourselves lucky.

The stories here are somewhat fantastical with giant killer robots, festive adventures with baddies that look like the Grinch and the return of the Q Continuum. All in all these stories seem only a couple of steps away from some of the tales scripted by Gold Key!

You can tell how early in the development of The Next Generation this series came about because of the way that some of the crew are portrayed. Notably Data uses contractions all over the place, gets emotional and even starts a fight. Deanna seems to have varying abilities given the needs of the story from latent telepathy to full blown psychic waves. As for Wesley he’s even more super annoying than he ever was in the first season on TV, ranging from being a super nerd through to a precocious best at the other extreme.

Beginnings does have some bits right with Riker more in charge of away missions and Picard remaining on the Enterprise although everyone seems to have had an incredible workout regime looking like stars from a body building magazine including the captain. 

In all fairness some of the stories do drone on a bit but because of the inconsistencies between page and screen I did find this difficult to get into 30 years after I read the first issue. The artwork is far too stylised for me when it comes to the portrayal of the cast and their physiques plus the likenesses are far from accurate especially Data and Q is virtually unrecognisable. Actually on that count he’s unrecognisable in both form and character and while this story does parallel events from Deja Q I never recall De Lancie ever becoming this obnoxious even at Q’s worst moments.

What a lot of these graphic novel installments show are the various directions Star Trek could have gone in if onscreen events had transpired in a different manner. It also illustrates what the opinion of these writers was as to what the franchise stood for and what they understood it should be. Each of the stories is incredibly individualistic and Beginnings especially offers a perspective that we never even got slightly close to in the TV series of The Next Generation. These stories are as prolific as they are conceptual and getting into this batch really offers something new - perhaps not great - but definitely new to the Star Trek universe.

As ever these issues wouldn't be half the fun without the wonders of the Gold Key universe and its gradual - very gradual - work towards looking something like Star Trek. With these editions we can engage with the fantastical universe once again in The Mummies of Heitius VII, Siege in Superspace and Child's Play. For note, the Newspaper Strips volume does not contain a Gold Key story (phew - a break!). Utter escapism every time and none to serious. It's almost as if Gold Key realised it was in fact parodying itself through its own writing...

Next up we have issues 28 - 31 which brings us (almost) bang up to date. 

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Lord of the Rings: The Official Starships Collection Special Nine: USS Enterprise XCV-330

The specials are always a little larger than life, they're the big boys of the collection, the jewels in the crown - but this one really is, well...BIG.

One of the most desirable and yet most maligned and almost forgotten ships from any point in the Star Trek timeline(s), the striking ring ship has made only one - yes, ONE - speedy appearance in the franchise back at the beginning of the journey into the movies. The XCV-330 is a graceful animal, a huge special unlike anything else that has come from the collection. It's a pretty simple design and a direct homage back to the original concept drawings that Matt Jefferies did for the original Star Trek series. Indeed, this was what the Enterprise could have looked like in another world. Measuring a ridiculous xxcm in diameter, the Enterprise is spectacular in many ways but underwhelming in others. I shall explain.

The prominent double rings of the ship are plastic and therefore very lightweight. On the outside of both of them we have a decalled panel detail that is replicated across the whole blue/grey circumference of the craft.  The strips on the decal are all aligned to each other but there are a couple if you follow it round where you will spot them not running quite parallel to the set to their left or right - but then there are a lot of these stripes to get on on two rings, multiplied by the number of ships made...

The rings are very solid with very little flex in their form. They also have a very clean finish at the edges but the tragedy is that the interior of these surfaces are utterly empty of any hull detail. Both carry parts of the ship name and number in nice big, crisp print so at least you can’t miss that but there's not even the carry over of the small silver squares from one side onto the other which is shown in the magazine.

The stand clips to the bottom of the rear ring, hanging the ship in its (nearly) invisible grip to give the flying effect. Only concern for me here is that the weight of that central section might take a toll on the rings at some point.

Now, this beautifully simple craft is finished off with a central metallic section which hangs from the top of the midpoint between the two rings and gives the ship most of its weight in one lump. 

The panelled neck drops diagonally forward with very blocky colouring and red striping marking out the hull on the descent to the tubular neck. Well worth a look at that chunky engine to the rear which has some very nice edging detail worked into it and has depth around the fins and onto the engine exhaust rather than being a simple, flat unit.  Really loving how the coverings work in sections around that central piece and even have different coloured ends.

Moving forward of the engine there is some more slated, dark grey detail and what I think are the emblems for the Earth fleet running this craft. When you compare this to any of the CG work in the magazine (which I kinda take with a pinch of salt), it's evident that the disparity between the grey and the dark grey is nowhere near as severe as it comes across on the model.

Running forward we have a straight grey painted neck section which, as with the hanging metal body section has no tonal variations to it leaving the whole central section looking very bland indeed. Comparing to the magazine there's again a variation between the two versions of the ship with the model seemingly missing a longer grey callout section that runs almost the length of the neck section as well as the grey slats that are present halfway along. How this was missed or added I can't say but it is an odd omission if the CG is being taken as the reference.

OK, then we get to the head/command section and this, for me is where it falls apart. It's a bummer because the XCV-330 is damn gorgeous and will hold a prime position in my collection however the detail on this forward section is hopeless.

My main gripe is that this ship seems to have been made without the CG designer and the model maker ever managing to link up properly because there are so many little inconsistencies between the two and none more evident than on the front piece. The window alignment to the grooves is, yes, there once again but they don't then match up to the number of windows on the accompanying images. 

The only two areas of the grey hull plating sections that are apparently correctly aligned are the grey stripe to the bottom front and the grey indented circle on the port side. The others appear to be way off the mark. The model also seems to have gained a more dramatic red circle around the side of the module than on the mag pictures. In fact all of the red line detailing appears a lot thicker on the model than elsewhere.

However, the biggest grimaces are left for the front ends of the two cylindrical sections of the forward module. The top one is utterly blank without even the hint of a window, sensor assembly or anything to be honest and the lower one omits that the aerial which protrudes from its end is actually recessed into the structure. I would have thought both of these issues would have been easy enough to correct on such a big ship and the fact it looks unfinished makes for a a lot of dissatisfaction.

Into the magazine and the ship profile is the most minimal ever. Five lines which basically explain...nothing because that's all we know. The following eight pages provide original sketches and screen shots of the process which brought the ring ship to The Motion Picture and also later on Admiral Marcus' desk in Into Darkness. But the story of the design process also covers off how this ship wormed its way back into the Star Trek lore in licenced books such as the Star Trek Chronology and how its physical appearance was used as inspiration for the Vulcan ships in Enterprise.

Through its omission we also get the pics of the Enterprise lineage that hung in Archer's ready room on the NX-01 and Eaglemoss have included the image used on the Ships of the Line calendar as well as a painting that was used in the background of Enterprise.

Now this one is finished off with a real treat in the form of six pages covering the little known and very rarely discussed alien mix from The Motion Picture. These images and explanations give a great deal of background to these one-time-seen races and might answer a lot of fans' questions as to who all those individuals were that turned up, were never discussed and then vanished forever more into the Star Trek ether. Some terrible makeup effects in there from the test shots but give it some leniency since it was the late 1970's! 

Damn this is a Marmite model for me. I absolutely love and adore the fact that Eaglemoss have gone to the effort of producing this as a ship in the collection even though it was only ever seen for a fraction of a scene. The size is perfect, the choice of build materials for the different sections is perfect and the overall simplicity has to be admired but because the accompanying material and the ship do not line up when it comes to the finer details.

Fans will definitely want to get their mitts on this one but it will leave a slightly sour taste that it's not finished off to the top standard you would expect.

How did you get on with the XCV-330? Winner or sloppily executed?

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Second Half: Altman and Gross' 50 Year Mission Continues

Focusing on everything from The Next Generation onwards, Altman and Gross are back to finish their 50 Year Mission.

It's actually a little inaccurate to call this the second 25 years since it actually kicks off in 1986 but don't allow such a minor nit pick put you off because this is one killer book. 

While the substantial volume one took us from inception through to The Undiscovered Country and thereby a verbal history of the Kirk years, the second - and just as substantial - book explores the spin offs in all their brilliant and sometimes flawed ways. Picard's Enterprise and the four feature films clearly get the largest chunk of the book and rightly so because there's so much to tell and recount. William Shatner's recent Chaos on the Bridge might have unravelled the mess that was the first two seasons but Altman and Gross push even further into the challenges of seasons three through seven, the relentless pace of the show and the unforgiving challenge of maintaining the quality of The Next Generation in its later years. 

Once again no hold is barred here as everyone from Rick Berman down through the bucketload of constantly changing writers to the steady hands of the main cast are brought into play to explain their experiences for good or bad on the show and it's definitely an eye opening read. Usually these Star Trek histories are all nicey nicey and safely written but given that the authors are using material from decades of interviews, articles and convention appearances it allows a much broader and realistic story to be told. 

In the case of The Next Generation things generally were a team game on the studio floor while havoc reigned backstage but the real intrigue comes from reading about the three series that followed; Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.

With the space station-based drama it's clear how much cast and producers felt it became the forgotten child while producing some of the most brilliant and groundbreaking episodes of the entire franchise although being allowed to exist in the shadows meant it could do as it pleased for a good proportion of its years especially after the arrival of Voyager in 1995. Most revealing is how the cast of this show actually worked together and related to each other. It wasn't all  happiness and joy it seems but that's nothing in comparison to what Altman and Gross cover in their section on Voyager.

Truly this feels like a proper warts-and-all history of Star Trek as related by the people who were there at all levels of the production and it provides a much more intimate and at times uncomfortable read. There are certainly comments that will make you watch scenes of Seven and Janeway very differently and you will pay much more attention to any dialogue that Robert Beltran was given as the writing staff became more aware of inherent issues surfacing behind the scenes. 

Both Deep Space Nine and Voyager get a good share of the book here. Perhaps not as much as I would have liked but it's significantly more pages than they receive in a lot of other publications commemorating the 50th anniversary. Ironically their lack of coverage just backs up exactly what people like Ira Behr say within this very work. It also shows how much of a free reign the "forgotten child" of the franchise was given in comparison to the more controlled/restrained Voyager that was leading the United Paramount Network in 1995.

Even Enterprise is given a good deal here with only Phlox actor John Billingsley conspicuously absent from any comments. The final series is served well from Broken Bow up to its cancellation which you do find yourself begrudgingly agreeing with once you've understood the challenges it was already facing during the Xindi arc of season three. Agreeably though there is a lot of praise for the fourth and final season which was helmed by Manny Coto and really attempted to provide an origins series and some of the short-lived shows most memorable episodes. The conversations and relationships that developed during those spin off series are truly fascinating reads as they lurch from close working friendships in some cases through to barely manageable working relationships.

The most juicy parts of this oral history though are in fact the parts that you don't know too much about - the in between years from the end of Enterprise's fourth season to the rebooting of the seemingly ailing franchise under the direction of JJ Abrams. It's these lost years, the lost series, the attempted animated web series, J Michael Straczynski's 14 page treatment and all the suggestions stuffed in between which get the pulse pounding - what exactly could have happened if the franchise had taken one of those directions? If that's not enough there's even reflection on the lost novels that would have come out following the 2009 movie but were ditched after being written and edited because they might have jeopardised future movie plot options. Instead we were treated to the graphic novels from IDW which are also covered in skating detail here.

Keeping the book confined to short and sharp quotes and memories from key contributors is a massively effective way of retaining your attention over the course of 700 pages of which I read every single damn word it was that entertaining and informative. As this is the 50th, the book does acknowledge the reboot trilogy especially the ease of '09 and the torments of Into Darkness from both an internal and external point of view. This section uses perspective most effectively gleaning a good angle from the production side and viewer side which includes the thoughts of such Star Trek luminaries as Ronald D Moore and Brannon Braga.

The Fifty Year Mission in both volumes pulls out the stops to provide an intensive reflection on the ups, downs and strife that has affected the show over five decades of success and failure. Splitting it between original Star Trek and the second book focusing just on the spin offs and reboots was a sound call since not everyone will want every aspect but Altman and Gross have to be congratulated for the extensive work that has gone into accumulating all these stories from such a broad spread of individuals across the last 30 years. For note and for those that might think it's out of date before the print has even dried, there is discussion of both Beyond and the "2017 series" although it is not named (in the version I had) as Discovery. Reading quotes from Bryan Fuller in both this and volume one is quite insightful when you consider that he had no idea he would be doing the new series when he was talking about the show over the years!

Sadly not an official production but it is as near as dammit as you could get since every word is the viewpoint of someone who has been closely associated with Star Trek since (in the case of volume two) 1986. I cannot recommend this enough to fans of the show. Not only is it a superb read from cover to cover but one of those books that you can slip in and out of with ease. I would stick my neck out and say that these two volumes are the most important Star Trek works to be produced in its fiftieth anniversary year. Top marks. No question. 

Volume One and Volume Two of The Fifty Year Mission are available now...

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