Going Rogue with Riker in Takedown

I'm right getting into these novels at the moment (and yes, well aware I'm a few months behind with this one but bear with me...)

The Fall was amazing, The Missing was a joy to read and now I've clamped my hands around the pages of John Jackson Miller's Takedown. Yep, it's one of those posts likely to be chocca full of SPOILERS.

While the Deep Space Nine novels have the unfortunate fact that they are more about a location than a set team of characters, The Next Generation novels have managed to retain Picard, La Forge, Worf (Beverley when she's not off-ship) and here, Troi and Riker. Actually, the crew of the Sovereign Class USS Enterprise hasn't changed that much in a good while with security chief Smrhova and Glinn Dygan at helm once again. Shame there's no Data but he's taking a very different line at the moment which, truth be told, I'm not totally getting.

So, to Takedown. It's a story that starts out pretty simply with a conference and a secret Federation mission which allows our regulars to be joined by Captain Ezri Dax and the USS Aventine then things seem to take a very rapid downward spiral centred around the respected admiral.

Takedown itself is allegedly a weapon which eliminates sub-space communications as the first step in a military offensive meaning that the enemy force can't talk to each other. Initially it's destruction seems to be the reason for Riker taking control of the Aventine but events escalate and soon it's the Aventine that's taking the offensive against key installations belonging to allied powers across the Alpha Quadrant.

This makes Takedown part thriller, part chase, part action movie as Picard and the Enterprise-E come back once more from their exploratory missions to go face to face with their former shipmate. It's an effective mix coming from an author I have not read anything by but Miller does seem to have grasped the Star Trek universe very effectively. There are a couple of precursory nods to days of the past, the Khitomer conference being one lined up very closely against the actions taking place here but it fits perfectly with the story. 

Oddly at times it seems that the Enterprise crew are nothing more than guest stars in this novel with a fair weight of the first half of the book occupied with Riker's actions and the events engulfing the Aventine. Given once the flagship arrives it becomes a more integral part of the story but I would now question the need for subtitles on the novels due to the mix of characters that has occurred since Nemesis. As with those Deep Space Nine novels, the boundaries have become somewhat blurred in the last 15 years. There's no Beverly, very little Troi and zero Data. 

Examining the characters it's difficult not to give too much away but needless to say that Jackson has done a steady job of bringing the cast to life. However,  even though I like his work I still can't take Ezri Dax as captain of one of the Federation's most advanced starships that seriously. I have real difficulty seeing past that green lieutenant from Deep Space Nine's seventh season.  In The Fall the Trill worked because she wasn't having to act in that senior authority role of starship commander and was playing off Bashir's renegade doctor role but here with her ship in dire peril the character fails to deliver the gravitas I would hope to expect. 

The Riker/Picard friendship continues to be well explored and switching their hierarchical relationship around with Riker as the more senior officer does add a new perspective to The Next Generation and Miller has both very well laid out here so it's easy to hear Stewart and Frakes in the roles. There were a couple of out of place colloquialisms that would be more suited to the 21st Century than the 24th but I ignored those since they were insignificant over 350+ pages.

The manner in which Takedown unfolds is perfectly paced, creating tension and danger from the first page and putting Admiral Riker right at the centre of a mortal dilemma. The peace summit he attends is key to proceedings and while the story is "narrated" by the admiral, his motivations and reasoning are unpicked very, very slowly. Indeed, the exposure of what is actually going on is intermingled with the activities of Dax and her crew attempting to regain control of the Aventine. 

The issue I do have with Miller's work is his choice of protagonist. While initially it might seem that it's going to be the rather sappy Romulan senator Bretorius there's a Higher Power working behind the scenes and while his involvement with the story are a good part of the story they aren't as major as you might be expecting. This Romulan isn't your run of the mill ruthless military-experienced leader, he's had a fairly poor career, less than distinguished and Takedown provides an opportunity for him to take advantage, becoming perhaps more than he might have expected and gaining a Warbird along the way. While the attention on Bretorius does detract from the other powers summoned to the Far Embassy for a mysterious summit his path through the novel is immersive and I did will him on for something more diabolical.

Trouble is, the Higher Power that gets the big reveal actually made he halt for a second because it seems to go against everything that we learn in the first half of the book about Takedown and all the knock-on effects of this apparent subspace super-weapon. I'm definitely not saying that it obliterated the second half of the book but it did feel like an under-delivery on the story. If the set-up from the first half of Takedown had been continued and there was a much darker exposition then this could well have been one of the best Star Trek books I've read for years. 

Due to what does happen, the novel takes an abrupt change in direction which means that there is something of a reset at the end for all but our unfortunate Romulan senator. I would have preferred there to be more serious repercussions considering the actions that occur even if there is foreign influence but you can't have everything and there has to be a point where you stop screwing over whoever gets to write the next novel in the series (!) which I believe is Armageddon's Arrow and will be reviewed by Dan Adams shortly (damn good cover there).

As a result Takedown has some great ideas, is very solidly written but left me a bit in the cold since it felt as though there was a brilliant opportunity to get gritty with The Next Generation. Mind, I am looking forward to Miller's next novel because if there's one thing he did manage it was to keep me turning the pages and wanting to see where it was all going to go.

Also a little additional note - I'd like to thank @kvreads from Simon and Schuster for her support in the last three years. I'd like to offer our congratulations on her new role in the business and wish Kate all the best! Keep in touch and thank you!

Takedown is available now from Simon and Schuster ISBN 9781476782713 priced £7.99

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On the Other Side of the Mirror: Attack Wing's Wave 14 Opponents

Your opponents will be taking your fleet a little more seriously with two great additions to the Attack Wing range.

Taking us, firstly, to the 22nd Century we slide into the Mirror Universe and encounter the ISS Avenger. A sturdy little NX Class starship the model is very good given the size with a moderate level of detail all over.

Thing is you could make the model out of platinum but if the cards and stats are a bit rubbish then it would be utterly useless.  Now the ship itself isn't the highest powered ship available with zero shields and a maximum move of three but this means that HeroClix have accurately noted the difference in generations of the franchise and the nuances between ships.

It wouldn't be good to have the Avenger up against the Sovereign Class for example but in its own era it would hold its own. Comparing her against other ships in this wave though you might stand a chance since her stats are similar to those of the USS Pegasus - albeit a bit lower. Her movements are also a little more restricted with only a maximum of a three and some of those restricted and in need of auxiliary power to make them happen.

Looking into the crew and upgrades,  you have a choice of four captains. One is a nondescript Tellarite but the other three all have their benefits. Black can be utilised as either an Admiral or ship commander, allowing you to make a sensor echo maneuver whether your ship has a cloak or not but does mean you gain an auxiliary power token for your sly efforts. 

Gardner looks very angry and his special feature does back up his scowl with you gaining an attack die but losing one in defence on the round you choose to utilise him. Then there's the token goatee-wearing Vulcan in the form of Soval. who has a cracking little benefit that you can stick any upgrade you want onto the ship he commands and there's no penalty. Both he and Black will also allow you to keep your tech upgrade card.

The Avenger comes with a nice set of upgrades too. The Andorian Helmsman allows an additional movement during the combat phase of the game while the Orion Tactical Officer lets you pull either Weapons Malfunction or Munitions Failure from the Damage Deck, dealing severe consequences on your enemy should they be hit with a critical damage icon on the defence die. Both are low points draining upgrades that will certainly make a lower ranked ship stand a fighting chance - the question is will you relinquish that faster, larger vessel for more devastating attacks.

That bigger, faster and generally nastier ship certainly isn't the Krenim Timeship or, as it's known here, Kyana Prime. This thing turns like a truck but with a six on hull and a four on your shields it will take some beating. It can execute small reverse maneuvers under auxiliary power (red moves) which does give a slight advantage over the clunky Avenger. Yet it won't go down without a fight especially when you check out what it's packing. Model-wise it's OK with some nice purple/black colouring and a fairly good reproduction from the two-part Voyager classic.

The Krenim can play as either an independent race or as a part of the Mirror/Alternative universes faction. While everyone else is relying on quantum torpedoes, that silly thaeleron weapon (!) or a phasing cloak you can take on the whole universe by erasing it!

There's a choice of three captains as per usual with one of those being the generic, low point-using officer as well as Kurtwood Smith's calculating Annorax and his first officer, Obrist. Annorax provides an extra tech slot for your upgrades and allows a dice reroll if you disable one of your upgrades so there's a good two-for-one offer with him as captain. His right hand man costs less but doesn't have the flexibility with his action but through the use of the card and disabling a secondary weapon upgrade you can stop a nearby ship from taking a pot shot.

Those are your only "person" options with the timeship as the remaining six cards all focus on the unique temporal aspects of this expansion. Temporal Core reduces the number of attack dice that can be rolled against you in a phase while Temporal Wave Front gives you the chance to disable upgrades on ships within your forward weapons arc. I'm a fan of the Chroniton Torpedoes too which act just as they did in Year of Hell and ignore any shields that may be in operation, causing damage directly to the hull of the opposing vessel. Yes it requires a target lock and disabling the card but it's a game-breaker for sure, using five attack dice instead of the standard four.

Spatial Distortion is a different take on "Get Out of Jail Free", letting you remove the ship from play and reset her out of weapons range and remove all active tokens except for any auxiliary power ones in operation. This is a really neat action and could save your skin at the last minute turning a defence into a deadly offence. Causality Paradox costs an opponent one of their upgrades to reactivate one of yours but none of these comes close to the timeship's signature move, the Temporal Incursion. Costing a huge nine points to upgrade your ship, this feature allows eight attack dice to be rolled at the expense of a target lock and the card itself. For every critical hit you make the opposing vessel also loses an upgrade and for regular damage one upgrade is disabled. 

This could leave that Klingon, Federation or Romulan vessel without it's finishing move and the Krenim ship in command of the game. I'd say pairing this with Spatial Distortion could win you the game as there's nothing else I'm aware of that has this kind of potential to wreck your opponent's chance of victory.

This pack's special mission, entitled Temporal Incursion sees the Krenim player attempt to erase a planet from existence with a Federation ship out to stop them. Ideally you're going to want Voyager (got that one) equipped with all that funky Borg tech that came in the expansion and should fit on board given the 80 point limit. Ablative armour and transphasic torpedoes first please.

Combined with the USS Pegasus, Wave 14 has a wide range of abilities and faction opportunities with Starfleet, Independents and the Mirror Universe covered. The quality of the models certainly varies and I wouldn't go for this series purely if you're looking at a ship collection. For one thing Eaglemoss produce much more finely detailed craft (no offence WhizKidz) and this is much more about the features, actions, crew and tactics than the ships. They are merely there to represent your situation. I can live with their lower level of detail given their nature and the tiny scale. Wave 14 has an interesting and certainly varied selection to choose from. While there's no "super" ship here, these will give your fleet a neat trick or two extra if you're planning to mix and match your elements.

The reduced stats for the Avenger make perfect sense given its placement in canon. Likewise I recall the Timeship being flaky once you got past all the temporal science that shrouded it so the figures add up. In battle the Timeship is definitely a secret weapon and well worth holding back using your upgrades until later in the game as they provide a heavy blow. Using them early could leave her open to general attack and a quick exit.

The Avenger and the Krenim Timeship (I can't call it Kyana Prime, it just feels wrong) are my only recruits from alternative universes so far but getting any more seems a waste of funds since the other releases so far are all duplicate models with different cards. I might push to a couple but my main focus remains Federation/Klingon/Romulan. The next few waves in that case will be peaking my interest no end.

Wave 15 sees the arrival of the USS Prometheus (must have), the Bajoran Ratosha and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey Ning'tao. Wave 16 brings the USS Pasteur, the Dauntless (independent and Starfleet options perhaps?) and the Ferengi Kreechta.

Wave 17 in August adds the Akira Class USS Thunderchild, Klingon D7 IKS T'Ong and IRW Vrax. September's 18th wave Quark's Treasure shuttle from Little Green Men, the Species 8472 Bioship Beta and the Nebula Class USS Phoenix although pics suggest it actually looks more like the Sutherland due to the shape of the rear pod. 


Checking out the boadgamegeek page it also suggests we have four more waves planned beyond that with the IKS Rotarran, the Delta Flyer and the Constellation Class USS Hathaway all set to feature as well as a variety of other alien vessels.

Fan of Attack Wing and added these to your fleet? How have you been using them? What advantages do they give you? Let us know below!

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Starships Updated: Issues 66 - 70 Revealed

Sunday morning and we got some new ships for the Official Starships Collection!

Just about to reach it's 50th issue in July, we already have the numbers up to 65 but with his birthday upon us and after reaching 1,701 followers on Twitter, series master Ben Robinson has revealed the next few vessels set to adorn many a collector's already creaking shelves. Best order another cabinet now folks.

Earlier than expected, issues 66 to 70 are unlocked from the vaults of Eaglemoss so here's a quick overview for your day...There's some good, some unusual and certainly something for everyone.

66 SS Raven

One fans have been asking about - the Hansen family's Borg-investigating starship first seen in bits in season four's The Raven and again in season five's Dark Frontier in better shape. A one-off design and not a Starfleet ship I would definitely put this into the "must-have" league. 

67 Klingon Battlecruiser

The original, unchanged and as we saw her in The Original Series. No remastering, no new panels, all 1960's all the way. In comparison there's likely to be less detail than the movie version from issue seven. Officially classed as the D7 but never mentioned on-screen. Sure to be a big winner and a damn hard model to review....! Oh - and talking of not mentioning the classification on the show...

68 Federation Fighter

Never named on-screen as the Peregrine Class fighter, she's the small attack ship most commonly seen either in battle during the Dominion War or in the hands of the Maquis. Good addition and should turn out highly detailed considering it's a small ship.

69 Breen Warship

Another from the Dominion War as Ben indicated yesterday on Twitter. Lots of detail potential in this ship which was only ever seen in the final ten episode arc of Deep Space Nine but caused more than enough problems for the Federation and their allies. Seeing which bits are metal and what is plastic will be intriguing since there's a lot of angles and fiddly bits to play with. Certainly going to be one of the more difficult to produce? Not the first model out of this one but Eaglemoss will be almost certain to detail this beyond anything that has come from the (smaller scale) Whizkidz catalogue.

70 Voth City Ship

Curve-ball! Yep - the big Voth ship from Distant Origins. Only a few issues after Professor Geigen's vessel too if you're keeping up (that will have been issue 62)! Not one I would have expected but that's what the collection is about - variety. Looking forward to this as the more unusual ones seem to turn out being the best (see Fortunate for details!).

So to recap - that's one from The Original Series, two from Deep Space Nine and two from Voyager. No Enterprise (rare!) or The Next Generation this time people!

What are your thoughts on these new arrivals? Impressed? Something missing? Let us know below!

You can drop by the Starships Collection official site here or see the official announcement on Hero Collector here. You can also search our resource for reviews of every released issue to date here.

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Fleet Orders: Two Tough Little Ships

Being a few months behind meant that the USS Defiant model had to make its way from across the pond to join my expanding fleet.

Seeing as Dan did such a great job on his recent Deep Space Nine post it'd be rude not to talk about the ship that spent a lot of time there during the series. Alongside that I'd also like to discuss the recent release of the Oberth Class USS Pegasus.

The Defiant's first outing was a round alongside the Enterprise-E taking on the Negh'Var and Chang's Bird-of-Prey with an admirable performance although I wasn't expecting too much from this small 24 point ship.

Coming with command options of Sisko, Kira and Admiral Ross (bit random and the always included generic card) she doesn't seem to be that amazing on paper with only additional quantum torpedoes for attack and the ability to deploy a minefield (as in Call to Arms) however it's the superb cloaking device that really makes a difference. Being the only Federation starship with this option and not killing the points totals, it did come in handy on a couple of occasions adding five die to defence.

Sisko does allow for re-rolling one defence die but with a six score he's still mid-field and certainly below Kirk,  Picard and Janeway in value. Kira costs less and can be used on a Federation ship without a points penalty for being Bajoran militia. She also helps counter any attempt to remove upgrades which might be more beneficial than Sisko.

Jadzia Dax allows you to make an additional "2" maneuver but removes your attack function, Worf reduces the defence of a ship in range one and O'Brien lts you repair two shield tokens again at the expense of an attack.  There's also two attack patterns with Omega letting you search out the "Warp Core Breach" card if you critically damage an opponent's hull while Alpha allows you to re-roll all your die in defence. Both are only available once so careful, timed use is essential.

But is Defiant really a must-have ship for your fleet? I would argue yes due to the quantum torpedoes and cloaking device coupled with the low cost of 24 points for the ship initially. The challenge is that when you compare her stats with Voyager or the Enterprise-E for example, she is clearly less maneuverable has less firepower and has a lower hull value which means that she is a bit of a chance.

Taking her into battle is another thing. On her own I'd question the Defiant's effectiveness but as an accompanying ship she's superb. Being able to cloak and uncloak again aligned with your use of the quantum torpedoes is a deadly combination and at the bitter end of combat against the Klingons it was the Defiant which made the last hit on the disabled Negh'Var and secured victory. Hard fought it was because the Defiant took some heavy damage being that little bit slower meaning she took the brunt of the attacks while the Enterprise-E could get out of range and make use of its dorsal phaser array which didn't limit her to the main forward firing arc. Note though that the Defiant can do a full about maneuver which can really disorientate your opponent. The Bird-of-Prey never saw it coming I have to say although it does gain you an auxiliary power token (tut tut)

I would have liked to see some sort of advantage to using the Defiant's phaser systems in contrast to the dorsal array that came with the Enterprise-E but there is some give in the manoeuvrability. Having straight-forward phasers isn't what I expected - there could have been a limited use variant for this ship or something that maybe widened the firing arc given the nature of the ship and her firepower capabilities.

As to the one-off mission you get with the Defiant, it's time to revisit Call to Arms and mine the wormhole. Yep, you're tasked with blocking the arrival of the Dominion fleet from the Gamma Quadrant - defeat comes with either the Starfleet player laying all the mines or the Dominion player kicking your ass into the Beta Quadrant. Nice again to see Heroclix focusing on episodes to draw on for their mission ideas.

In the future if I were using two ships I might side for Voyager and the Enterprise-E based purely on their stats but with the Defiant having eight points less against her name than the Intrepid Class ship I would plump for her if only to beef up the features of both ships and have a better fighting chance. 

It might sound that I've got a bit grumbly here and that could be as I had to import Defiant but I do like to use her although I doubt I would want to expand and have a fleet of these escort ships as there are better options around. As a part of a fleet she's a good little skirmisher, decent power but can end up as cannon fodder if you don't use the cloak. Personally, I'd take the chance with her any day.

Second up is a slightly newer arrival, the Oberth Class USS Pegasus. When I think Oberth my first port of call for the choice of ship would usually be the USS Grissom from The Search for Spock but look a bit deeper and you can see that actually using the ship featured in one of The Next Generation's best episodes is a very, very good decision. In comparison to the Defiant model she's a gem. In reality there's still a fair amount of detail missing but given the scale that's not surprising and I don't tend to analyse the models since this is about the package you get with them.

Being an experimental testbed for Starfleet tech, the Pegasus offers not just advanced shields but that treaty-ignoring phasing cloaking device which both Admiral Pressman and the Romulans were after. These features certain lyrics enhance what could have been a fairly dull entry to the game. Certainly these cards make up for the terrible movement that this vessel have -  which is a trend that runs across the whole of this wave and I'll cover more in a follow on piece. The Pegasus doesn't have any red maneuvers and can perform 180's on both 2 and 3 moves but 3 is as fast as you're going here so prepare to take a lot of damage from the larger opposing ships.The ship itself allows your upgrades to cost one service point less and she's not equipped with battle stations in her actions bar leaving you only evasive, target locking and scan as your standard options.

The Pegasus also features another William T Riker, sans beard, alongside Admiral Pressman who can act as either captain or in a fleet command position. Strangely he's only the third Starfleet admiral in the game along with Kirk and Dougherty from Insurrection and only one of those turned out to be trustworthy - hang about - and even he got demoted....

Ok - so the selection of admirals isn't that brilliant but there's still the rest of the crew to try out, picked from the finest production staff in the quadrant. Yep, this time around we get the back room staff from The Next Generation posing as your available upgrades so let's take a glance at what everyone can do for you. Pressman is a good card here allowing you to either disable or discard service upgrades for an additional one or two attack die per round. With such a low powered ship it might be wise to stock up on only service upgrades with this in mind!

Riker offers a boost to your ship and the chance to avoid critical damage which effectively makes him a sub-captain here, much in the same way as he acted in the episode itself. A second captain, Ronald Moore is available for the Pegasus allowing you to add a tech token to your ship. he's a one on your points so technically a zero if you;re using the Pegasus action. Walter Keel is your freebie commander with the ship and carries no beneficial features. The four other crew available are Dawn Velazquez giving you the chance to discard your captain card for an additional maneuver which also puts her in command; Eric Motz allows a third tech upgrade; Phil Wallace lets you reduce your speed by one point after flipping your maneuver dial and Andy Simonson lets you get a peak at an opponent's movement plan before that phase of the game.

So pretty nice so far and the benefits are there if you want to take a - slow - chance but there are three kick-ass features here that make the Pegasus a tempting morsel. The phasing cloak does give you the advantage of being able to go anywhere in the game board, even if it's occupied by another vessel. The shields allow the re-rolling of one defence die and would be essential when coupled with the ship's low starting hull and shield figures.

The final and very neat twist on the Pegasus is the escape pod. If you lose the ship - which is a distinct possibility given it's low stats - then you can make a last stand and drop the captain plus a maximum of two upgrades aboard which can be picked up by a friendly ship within range one. That is if you make it because the pod can't attack, can barely move and has a hull value of one. Just be sure you're not going up in flames anywhere near a Borg Tactical Cube. It's a cool little tweak on the game effectively meaning you can save a couple of your best bits and then, with no implications, add them onto another ship. 

My first thoughts on the Oberth Class were less than favourable however WhizKidz have made her a tempting fleet addition thanks to the low hull value specific upgrades and one more thing; a bonus mission which you can play solus.

For those times when you've defeated everyone else repeatedly and need to hone your tactics just that bit more, take command of the Pegasus with both Pressman and the Phasing Cloaking Device onboard and navigate a safe path through the Devolin asteroid field. If you succeed then you've done better than Pressman but make sure that you have both the captain and that top secret bit of tech still equipped by the time you escape the danger. Great addition and one that's a lot of fun to play. However, the rules on dealing with asteroids are a little evasive. How do you deal with them and when do you get damaged if under the phasing cloak? Also moving the space debris takes longer than planning your move through the rocky field.

That's my two latest Starfleet additions covered but I'll be talking about the Krenim Timeship and the ISS Avenger shortly which comprise Wave 14 with the Pegasus very soon. These two are pretty different to my usual choices so it'll be good to see how they go on in the field!

Fan of Attack Wing and a keen player? What did you think of these two Starfleet ships?

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A Voyager in Shining Armour and Deep Space Truckers: The Official Starships Collection Issues 48 and 49

Having debated the missing impulse engine on the Enterprise-C last month we were sure to avoid any such intrigue in June.

Nope. Because this month's hot topic with issue 48 is whether or not the deflector dish on the ablative armour-clad USS Voyager should be red rather than the standard blue or yellow. It was a nice little exchange with @bobmat343 on Instagram over this and we're convinced it was never red nor can I find any images where it is that colour. In fact even in a couple of blurry screenshots from the show finale it's most definitely blue.

So this might be a big misstep on an otherwise fantastic model because, although simple it's a well reproduced starship. 

Seen in the Voyager finale Endgame for the last few scenes, the armoured starship is the first repeat of a vessel already featured (issue six in the UK) but with a significant spin although whether this will convince casual buyers to part with their cash will be interesting to see.

So onto the model. Virtually the same size, width etc etc as the issue six Voyager, it's all about the finish here. Top to toe in silver, the ablative armour only leaves the glimpse of a bussard collector, warp engine vent and deflector dish to colour the surface. Otherwise this is certainly Voyager+, fully encased in it's Borg-beating battle-suit. It's a little shame too that the whole of this model wasn't "metalised" considering what it represents however the majority of the saucer and the nacelle struts have the familiar cold touch while the 

She is perhaps a little smoother than you might have expected with raised detail highlighting the panel separations and weapon ports as well as a rather cool Starfleet insignia on each side of the secondary hull. That surface detail is faithfully reproduced in virtually every way and I think the only way it might have been improved is through the differences in the depth of the panels and some of the deeper recesses which don't quite get carried off here. Given the scale though this is forgiveable however that red deflector dish (also blue in the magazine!!!) is still bugging me. In fact I'm sure one pic on the views also shows the armour fully closed around the deflector dish. Still. Bugging. Me.

Effectively telling the story of Endgame, the magazine this month does have some great shots of the armoured Intrepid Class vessel (but not from the front too often) including one of the ship mid-transformation. Add in the expected plan views with which you can compare the model and her onscreen appearances and you have a nice complimentary section for your new ship. 

This publication does keep in-episode with a whole section devoted to the two actresses who portrayed the Borg Queen from First Contact right through to the explosive Voyager series finale. It's a good view into the production world that is rarely experienced and with the point that the armoured starship only featured for fifteen minutes at most, it's credit to Eaglemoss that they turned issue 48 into a companion to a Voyager episode. 

To issue 49 in Star Trek's 49th year and we have the ECS Fortunate. Featured in the season one Enterprise episode, Fortunate Son, it's the workhorse of the 22nd Century, delivering cargo to here, there and everywhere. Here's something to note as well. Although armoured Voyager was in the final episode of its series and Fortunate Son was set 200 years earlier right at the start of the prequel show, these two models were created within 12 months of each other in production terms. Fact.

Each Enterprise model is like a treasure waiting to be unwrapped because they sound dull when announced but I always have to back-track. It's a stone-cold fact. Our last Enterprise arrival was the Intrepid just five issues ago and again this one is another precision creation. 

The first challenge you actually face is with the stand for the Fortunate. While Voyager's slips nicely over the rear section between her nacelles, the guidance for the placement on the freighter is to drop it between the second and third pairs of cargo pods with the clip sliding over the arms connecting  the second pair onto the main spine of the ship. My recommendation is to do this BEFORE attaching the stem to the stand since the warp nacelles on the underbelly make it a tight squeeze and near-vertical angle to get it into place.

Once you've performed this feat it has to be said that the Fortunate is very well secured and no amount of day-by-day vibration in your home will shift her off the stand (for bad examples please see Romulan Warbird; issue five). When I did open the box my mind was already on the oh-really-not-fussed-over-this attitude but in about five seconds I utterly changed my opinion. This is a great ship. In fact it's better than Voyager. 

Gasp. I'm not blaspheming here, just doing what SKoST does best and telling the truth; the Fortunate is a more satisfying model than the armoured Voyager and not just because of that annoying red deflector dish. Every surface here is finely detailed from the numbering of each individual cargo pod and the ship name through to the  panelling and windows. There's not a lot of surface but what there is has been well-crafted however there are a couple of fitting issues with the plastic to metal. 

The lower fun on the bridge unit is slightly off-centre and the underbelly aerial set is also a bit bent but the pods and the warp nacelles are perfectly parallel and that's a more important point. There are some minor details that don't make the model due to the scale of the Fortunate and are evident when comparing the magazine cover to her. Eaglemoss have even managed a little bit of aztec paint scheme across the top of the central spine as well as some colour differentiation across the pods (note that they are all absolutely identical except for the numbering!). 

The full 360 degree detailing here is some of the best in the series on a ship I would never have expected to like. Sadly given the scale we do lose the blue deflector hue from the bridge module and I can let it go basically due to that scaling point - who knows how fiddly that might have been to paint in. The nacelles do retain their "blue-ness" in paint rather than transparent plastic and I would think that it's, once again, due to the scale which restricts. Saying that, the larger details are covered and it's only those minute details which get omitted. However, I can't complain since she looks very fine.

Issue 49 itself is a bit blah. Why so?  Because we've trodden the Fortunate Son path once before with the Nausicaan Fighter almost 20 issues ago. There are littered facts on the freighter although I did feel I'd read some of this before. Passing over that you do get into a good design section analysing the creation of the Fortunate with some great sketches from the process. I think there's only one picture duplicated from the Nausicaan Fighter issue but I got the sense it was a bit of a scramble for new info here. 

Finishing off the issue is an in universe article on space travel in the 22nd Century. A more unusual entry it's one more aspect of the Star Trek universe that has managed to be covered in the collection and does remain linked to the starships theme of the collection. You'll get a good refresher on some of those killer journeys at warp 1.8 as well as a high level info splurge on Federation travel history up to the arrival of that warp five engine on the Enterprise. A nice addition and just relevant enough to the ship given how trips could take months that the NX Class could do in weeks or even days.

Which brings us to the end of this time's coverage. This month's offerings, bar one blip, do make up for the errors of the Enterprise-C and the Negh'Var and although I didn't need my faith restoring, these two have been a bit of a revelation and an unexpectedly good pairing - perhaps moreso than the last (???) and certainly prepare us for the eagerly awaited 50th issue which will be in shops on 9th July 2015 in the UK and potentially with subscribers as early as the 4th July. For those who have been living under a rock or on a distant asteroid, issue 50 will see the legendary NCC-1701 in it's original glory followed by issue 51 featuring one of my favourite races, the Hirogen from Voyager. A big month and one not to miss.

In other news, Ben Robinson has revealed via Twitter that we can expect the Borg ship from Descent at issue 73, the Insurrection Captain's Yacht (and by default the scoutship), possibly the Gorn ship and Orion ships from the remastered The Original Series and that they may well do the Voyager aeroshuttle as well as a few one and two man ships that have been dotted through the series. Plus via a conversation with @Theirishtrekkie we now know the Mirror Universe ISS Enterprise will have Pike-era nacelles. No news on when we in the UK will get to see the elusive and dribble-icious shuttle collection which do include some nice cutaways from Star Trek legend Mike Okuda...Can we get these soon please Ben???!!!

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Haunted by the Memories: Dreadnought Dominion Leaves Dock

While investigating the wonders of Exeter Trek I managed to get word on another fan series that's just kicked off.

Dreadnought Dominion has gone into production with a nice 20 minute bite-size episode entitled Haunted. If you're waiting for the arrival of Star Trek Continues' fourth episode to go live on 30th May, I'd certainly take a shot at this show.

Fans will immediately know the USS Dominion from the Starfleet Technical Manual researched and compiled back in the 1970's by Franz Joseph with that distinctive third nacelle, double deflector dishes and forward-facing shuttlebay. 

But let's find out a bit more about the series - for one thing, where did that spark of inspiration come from?

"Frank Parker Jr. was an extra and set builder for the web series, Starship Farragut." explained series producer Gary Davis, "It got a lot of folks, and him, REAL excited about The Original Series.

"Both Frank and I were also members of a Star Trek fan club, Starfleet International. Chapters were formed into ships and were mainly Star Trek: The Next Generation themed. Frank petitioned the club to change eras and reformed as a The Original Series chapter. He wanted something different for the Dominion fan club, so chose the Franz Joseph design for the Dreadnought Class for the chapter. After that, he then took it a step further, and asked the producers of Starship Farragut if we could use the Farragut Studios sets in Kingsland, GA to bring the adventures of the Dominion to life."

Thus was born Dreadnought Dominion. Looking for a plot for the adventure, Frank took a short story written by Gary and gave it to Randy Wrenn for a script treatment which turned into a near-total rewrite but eventually became Haunted and the episode we get to to see today.

It's been 19 months since the Dominion began her refit following a disastrous mission which saw the deaths of several members of her crew and Commodore Samuel Grissom (Frank Parker Jr) is still feeling the effects. This is very much focused on the commanding officer, tackling his feelings over the loss of so many crew and his own ability to lead the ship. Visited by the vision of his deceased first officer, Commander Don Chamberlain (Dan Scanlan) as well as a disturbing nightmare in which he is taunted and scorned by the bridge crew, Grissom does regain some of his confidence. So begins the new voyages of the USS Dominion.

Haunted is, not surprisingly, confined to the ship although there is a great intro sequence with Commodore Grissom and his Chief Engineer Stephen Denson (David R Wrenn) arriving at spacedock onboard their shuttle. This gives us a great first look at the Dominion but the problem is aside from that external titillation of this large starship, the physical differences pretty much stop on the surface. The interior shots all take place on sets that fan series followers will identify in a split second and unless you knew that it was supposed to be the Dominion you would be forgiven for expecting this to be another web-series based onboard the Constitution Class. 

"When Frank asked Randy to write the first episode, he knew that Randy was a fan, but he isn't a walking Star Trek encyclopedia." said Gary, "He definitely wanted to stay true to the original series in many ways, but wasn't interested in more of the same that we saw on The Original Series or other fan productions for that matter. That pretty much is what we are about. Our goal is to produce exciting, funny, and touching episodes. If we're really lucky, we might even make you think!

"You probably won't see episodes in which we continue, or refer back to a classic episodes either. We will just be making our vision to present a new and different crew while in the same venue of the 23rd Century Star Trek. 

"Star Trek Continues and Star Trek New Voyages/Phase II chronicle Kirk and company’s years which missing from the Enterprise’s five year mission. However, as mentioned and shown in The Original Series, there are other starships out there, other crews, and certainly other adventures. The popularity of shows like Starship Exeter and Starship Farragut, we see that folks do enjoy seeing other crews as well.."

If they do make more - and I really keep my fingers crossed that they do - there need to be some subtle changes or even some big changes in what we see on the screen - maybe additional bridge consoles, different seat placement, or more references within the script to the superiority of the Federation Class over the twin-nacelled Constitution Class. The availability of sets rather than building expensive new ones for this pilot would, understandably, mean that there is restriction initially yet with the intention to give a Dominion spin in the future. What I do think is a great point made by Gary is that they purposely won;t be making reference to The Original Series and will be, effectively, going it alone in their own way.

"We know that there are differences between the Dreadnought and Heavy Cruiser class ships, such as the location and number of turbolifts that open onto the bridge." said Gary, "We would have loved to have made the changes to make our sets canon, but the sets we used were existing sets and were being used by three other productions at the time. So, due to the complications of sharing the sets and the prohibitive expense of modifying them, we decided to forge ahead with the amazing sets that we had access to and hope that the fans would understand. 

"The studio has been since sold to the producers of Star Trek Continues, and are therefore unavailable for any future shooting. We have been in contact with another group of set builders to see if we could visit them and shoot another segment on their sets which are equally amazing sets. Again, these sets are shared by other productions in the venue of The Original Series, so altering them will not be possible. However, we don’t think that its actually necessary to be distinctly different in sets being that the starships from The Original Series were standardized and the look and feel is what makes this so exciting. 

"It's that feeling of familiarity with the sets and lighting that makes folks enjoy the shows all the more. The differences lie in the characters using those sets and the uniqueness of our stories. We do have our own commissioning plaque and the red diagram of a Dreadnought Class next to the bridge turbolift doors. Both these tiny differences play into the fact that while we’re on identical sets, however, it’s the Dominion…"

As to the cast, it's mainly Frank Parker who gets to shine here as Grissom since it is about his mental recuperation to a major extent. While the rest of the main cast dip in and out during the episode we really only get to know the commodore mainly due to the 20 minute run time. I know that this is something that will surely be corrected as we go forward. As it is, all involved give steady performances and there's nothing here that will make you wince or turn off - all is good on the Dominion.

"Haunted was a centrepiece show highlighting the captain’s struggle overcoming his guilt and gaining his confidence again to get back in the centre seat to continue the mission." continued Gary,  "It was a bit focused on that character in that it was his internal struggle, and literally his nightmares, which were the centrepiece of the story. Our third outing will continue the story that was introduced in Anchors Aweigh and Haunted, therefore more focused outward on the action. If we get the opportunity to do future episodes pas that, we hope that we would focus on other characters and other aspects that would prove interesting and entertaining. We definitely do not want our stories to be predictable. 

"Some episodes will concentrate more on being funny, while and others may lean more toward action or even romance. We do not want to constrain ourselves to a specific episode length. They could be anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour. It just depends on the story. Some stories are short stories, and some are novels."

"Our first episode, Haunted, was released on the internet in April. Our second episode, which was actually the first thing we shot, is very near completion and could be released within the next few weeks. We could have released these in chronological order, however, we felt that Haunted was much more polished and would serve better as an introduction to the series.

So far the team have mainly had positive reactions - apart from one which wasn't meant as mean-spirited trolling, but rather for constructive criticism concerning the sound levels. What receiving this kind of feedback does mean is that the team can improve, make changes and understand what things maybe didn't turn out just as they might have hoped.

Continued Gary; "We are fortunate that we have a ready made audience who enjoy fandom productions such as ours. Fans know of and watch Star Trek Continues, Star Trek New Voyages/Phase II and Starship Farragut. They know the sets that these are shot on are just plain DEAD ON to the real thing and when they watch Dreadnought Dominion, it’s a feast for the eyes."

Gary has always joked that the performances won’t win any Academy Awards, and even bad acting is improved by delivering lines on those awesome sets! Sometimes just looking good scores you points!  However, it's great that we had good story writing, great costumes, and folks who did gave a good performance in that they delivered their lines with feeling and were really into their characters. We even had some professional actors and those with performance experience in the past. You can tell who they are and they really added a shine to the production.

"Anchors Aweigh touches on the inquiry into the incident that damaged the Dominion as well as bringing our characters together for the first time. We have a script for our third episode which we are very excited about. It really serves as the completion of a larger story arc that began with the first two episodes. It is by far our most ambitious episode yet, with more action, more special effects, more aliens, and more fun."

What we do know is that the series already has another two instalments in the making - one which will premiere later in 2015 and a second lined up for 2016. Certainly there's no grass growing under the feet of this team and you can take a look at their progress and updates by visiting their website. We can look forward to Anchors Aweigh - a vignette which takes place two weeks before Haunted and Redemption at Red Medusa, both written by David R Wrenn who co-write the pilot with Frank Parker.

"It has taken us a great deal of time to get the initial productions together to where we could release them. We shot Anchors Aweigh in December 2013, and Haunted, January 2014. We released Haunted just this April of 2015, so that was a GREAT deal of time to get through post production." explained Gary,  "Our delays were incurred just trying to find the right group of talented folks who had the time and opportunity to DO the work. We had a GREAT SFX guy, Ken Thompson, who had all our opening credits, as well as ship exteriors, done very early into production. 

"For Haunted, we had to wait for an editor to put the live action shots together, and finally, to have sound and music added. Along the way, Randy and Gary taught themselves how to do the latter, and are now both versed in sound, music, and video editing. We are so excited to take on this work in addition to Executive Producers for our third shoot, and we fully expect to have that production much faster than our initial ones. In fact, we even did a sneak peek of Anchors Aweigh when we released Haunted. The production hadn't had music added yet, Randy and Gary took a night and in tandem to make a great music track using existing The Original Series music. We thought it came out great. We just have to tweak the audio and we’ll have our second production ready for release."

The Dreadnought Dominion team are planning on fundraising when they release Anchors Aweigh our prequel vignette. Gary noted that they have released what they consider to be the better product first, and hope that fans will tune in, watch the prequel and see that Dreadnought Dominion is really committed to provide an entertaining production. 

That fundraiser will help to fund the trip to a studio to complete filming. However, the team are committed to their shoot regardless, and if so, will foot the bill just as they we did with the two previous shoots. 

"Everyone involved just thoroughly enjoyed producing Dreadnought Dominion," recalled Gary, "I mean.. WHO wouldn't?! Putting on those costumes, stepping onto the bridge, walking those corridors.. While the special effects aren't added until later, when the doors open and close, you can really hear the WHOOSH WHOOSH in your head. When I sat in that captain’s chair for SIX hours doing two scenes one weekend, and even though the set was 40 degrees, there was no other place on Earth I wanted to be!"

You can see Haunted now by heading to the Dreadnought Dominion website HERE where you can also keep up to date with news on the show. Thanks to Gary Davis for his time in compiling this article and we wish the team every success!

Have you seen Haunted? What did you think?

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