Podcasts about captain riker

On this week's episode on our show, Captain Ingle and I set a course for the end of the 24th century and the misadventures of the USS Titan-A. In this particular outing, Admiral Picard and Captain Riker attempt to rescue Beverly Crusher as a mysterious vessel called the Shrike emerges hunting for young Jack Crusher. Against his wishes, Captain Liam Shaw of the Titan gets drawn in to the conflict, and things quickly spiral out of control. Join us as we go boldly!

Not all heroes love having powers. Such is the case for Lieutenant Fitzgerald--Fitz for short, in this week's Twilight Zone episode "The Purple Testament." This is a story of a soldier with an odd gift--or, perhaps, curse. Fitz knows when death is coming for his fellow soldiers--he can literally see it on their faces. Captain Riker, played by Dick York, does all that he can to help the lieutenant, but it isn't long until he himself begins to don the glowing visage. I won't reveal here how the story ends; you'll either have to watch my plot summery or watch the episode itself. If it were up to me, I'd say, go watch the actual episode. Then, come back and join us as we break down this episode of the Twilight Zone. We'll talk about why Rod Serling invokes Shakespeare's Richard II; we'll dissect what the supernatural effect does for our reading of the episode; and I'll reveal to you my moment of awe. Google form to rate this Twilight Zone episode: https://forms.gle/ozfTdgy6U7EpyJv6A Head over to thekeyofimagination.com to learn more about me, check out my Twilight Zone trinkets and collectibles, and to to continue the conversation. Episode outline: 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Plot synopsis 02:11 Episode Specifics 02:33 Episode tidbits 05:21 My initial thoughts 06:13 Question 1 17:04 Question 2 22:15 Question 3 19:47 Episode rating 23:27 Next episode and your questions 23:49 Closing 24:16 Listener shout-outs and messages from me 25:52 How to get involved and how to support the show No show did a better job than The Twilight Zone at generating awe and wonder within its audience. It just so happens that awe is exactly what we need in these difficult, divisive times. So, join me, Joe Meyer, and let's walk through the fifth dimension with Rod Serling. Along the way, we'll discuss big questions and relate them back to our Twilight Zone episodes. Opening and Ending theme: by Jacob Williams @jakeproduces on Fiverr #twilightzone #rodserling #scifi #zone #outerlimits #sciencefiction

NICE SHOT, da VINCI! Our animated spotlight for this season of Trek Marry Kill concludes with the final two episodes of Lower Decks' first season, and joining Bryan to discuss is Katie Hampton, who appears in Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix movie, Unfrosted, which debuts May 3rd, 2024. The penultimate episode might very well be the ultimate holodeck adventure as Mariner reprograms Boimler's sucking up to the Captain simulation into an exciting Star Trek-themed action movie called Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta. Does Boimler learn what he needs to in order to impress Captain Freeman during an interview or does Mariner go on a journey of self-discovery that shakes her to her very foundation? Meanwhile, in the season finale, Mariner's big secret gets out that Captain Freeman is her mom and now it's up to them to figure out how to deal with the fallout. And then Captain Riker shows up. Our animated spotlights will return in September.

In this week's episode, I rate the movies and TV shows I shaw in Winter 2024. This week's coupon is for the audiobook of GHOST IN THE PACT as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. You can get the audiobook of GHOST IN THE PACT for 50% off at my Payhip store with this coupon code: MARCHEXILE The coupon code is valid through April 5th, 2024, so if you find yourself needing an audiobook to leap into spring, we've got one ready for you! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 192 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is March 15th, 2024, The Ides of March, which we're traditionally told to beware, and today we are looking at my Movie and TV Review Roundup for Winter 2024. Before we do that, we will do Coupon of the Week, an update on my current writing projects, and our Question of the Week. So first up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon is for the audiobook of Ghost in the Pact, as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. You can get the audiobook for Ghost in the Pact for 50% off at my Payhip store with this coupon: MARCHEXILE and that is spelled MARCHEXILE. As always, the coupon code will be in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through April the 5th 2024. So if you find yourself needing an audiobook on this Ides of March, we've got one ready for you. So an update on my current writing projects. I am about 56% of the way through the first edit of Ghost in the Veils. That means the book should be on track to come out before Easter (which is at the end of March this year), if all goes well. I'm also 40,000 words into Wizard Thief, so hopefully that will come out before too much longer after Ghost in the Veils. I'm 11,000 words into Cloak of Titans. So that is where we're at with my current writing projects. 00:01:19 Question of the Week Now on to our new feature: Question of the Week. This week's question is inspired by the fact that I've spent a lot of the last few weeks setting up my new computer and getting it configured properly. So the question is: what is the first computer you ever used? No wrong answers, obviously. Joachim says his first personal computer was an Atari 1040 ST with 1 MB of RAM. I participated in the “religious war” with the Amiga 500 users, which was better and looked down at the MS-DOS PCs, which only has 640 kilobytes of RAM. Justin says: my first computer was a Timex Sinclair. It had two kilobytes of RAM and I forked out $50 for the 16 KB RAM extender module. The manual that comes with it says you will never need this much memory. I use a cassette tape recorder/player to record more programs and it ran a 300 baud. Todd says his first computer was in 1994. I purchased a 486 DX 2 8 megabytes of RAM for use in school. I believe the hard drive was about 250 MB. The monitor weighed a ton. I wrote a bunch of machine code and played Wolfenstein 3D like crazy. Tarun says in 1993 it was a 386 with four megawatts of RAM with Windows 3.1. I played a lot of Prince of Persia and got bad grades in school. Then the computer was locked up. In my educational defense, I did do some Pascal programming. AM says: my first computer was an Apple IIe at school. Getting to play Number Munchers or Oregon Trail on it was some kind of behavioral reward (and a very effective one at that). William says his first computer was a Macintosh SE in my parent's home office, though “using” is an overstatement since all I did was play a few simple preinstalled games. I also have fond memories of playing the original King's Quest with said parents and something like a Compaq Portable. Rich says Commodore 64 with cassette drive. Didn't have cassette the first day. Spent the whole day punching in code for a blackjack game. My sister walks into the room to turn the computer off, erasing everything. That is a bummer. Juana says: a Gateway. My whole family came to gawk at it, and me setting it up! It had 120 megabytes of RAM. Twice what was the ones that used in the college computer lab! I thought I was set for life. Venus says Commodore Vic20. We played Radar Rat Race and Mom gave us a stack of computer magazines and tape recorder, so we played every game that was in the magazines at the time after we typed in the programs and saved them to the tapes. You are the first person outside my family that ever heard also had one. More on that later. Cheryl says: we got our first computer in the early ‘90s: an Amstrad with an AWA printer. I was doing courses for work, so I needed something to print the assignments, but we also played games on it: Wolfenstein, Lemmings, and Stock Markets. They're the only ones I can remember. Craig says: Apple IIe. I'm oldish. With dot matrix printer and handheld modem, dial-up Internet access, the one you had the dial phone into the holding cradle after you called it in. Tracy says: at college we used the TRS80s. I think she may win the award for oldest computer mentioned in this topic. And Perry says: IBM PC clone at school, a friend's family had a Commodore 64. Our first family computer was a Commodore 128. For myself, I had the same first computer as Venus earlier in the thread. That would be a Commodore Vic20. It had 20 kilobytes of RAM and the Word file for the rough draft of Ghosts in the Veils, which I'm editing right now, is 355 kilobytes in size. So to load the Microsoft Word document of Ghosts in the Veils in Microsoft Word format, I would need about 18 different Commodore Vic 20 computers. That's like 1 computer per chapter and a half. So it is amusing to see how computer technology has changed quite a bit over time. 00:04:56 Winter 2024 Movie/TV Review Roundup Now to our main topic. We are inching closer to spring, so I think it's time for my Winter 2024 Movie Review Roundup. I got a Paramount Plus subscription to watch the Frasier reboot and since Paramount owns Star Trek and the Frasier reboot was only 10 episodes long, I ended up watching a chunk of modern Star Trek this winter. This was a new-ish experience because the last new Star Trek I watched was Star Trek Beyond way back in 2016. That was only eight years ago, but it's been a very eventful eight years, you know? I did watch a lot of Star Trek back in the 1990s. If you had held a gun to my head and demanded, you know, if I consider myself a Trekkie, I would say no, because I think Gene Roddenberry's socialist/utopian vision for the Federation that he put into Star Trek is fundamentally kind of goofy. The shows and movies were at their best when they stayed away from it or subverted it, like how the Federation can only be a utopia because Starfleet seems to have a Black Ops section that does all the unsanctioned dirty work and regularly runs amuck. Or like how Starfleet seems to have an actual mad science division that cooks up all kinds of nasty stuff. So anyway, these are the movies and shows I watched in Winter 2024, and as always, my ratings are wholly subjective and based on nothing more rigorous than my own opinions. We will go through these in order from least favorite to most favorite. So the first movie I watched was Now You See Me, which came out in 2013. Last year, I compared Adam Sandler's Murder Mystery movie to a C- student, but a fun C- student who everyone likes for his great parties and goes on to have a successful career as a regional sales manager. By contrast, Now You See Me is the sort of moody art student who always wears a black porkpie hat and thinks of himself or herself as deep and complicated, but in fact, they're just confusing. This is an apt comparison for this movie. Anyway, the plot centers around four sketchy magicians who are recruited by a mysterious organization called The Eye to carry out a series of high-profile heists using stage magic. I have to admit, that concept sounds even more ridiculous as I said the previous sentence. Anyway, after the first heist, the magicians become fugitives from the FBI but keep carrying on shows, sometimes staying ahead of law enforcement. The trouble is that nothing they do makes very much sense, and it all falls apart if you think about it for more than two seconds. Additionally, the movie overall feels very choppy since they rushed from scene to scene very quickly. The actors all gave very good performances that were entertaining to watch, but honestly, that was about the only thing the movie had going for it. Overall grade: D- Next up is The Marvels, which came out in 2023. This movie was logically incoherent, but actually rather charming and funny. It kind of reminds me of those ‘70s or ‘80s style science fiction movies that don't make much sense, though The Marvels was much lighter in tone than anything that came out in the science fiction space in the ‘60s or ‘70s. The movie got a bad rap because it didn't make back its budget, and apparently Disney rather shamefully threw the director under the bus. But to be fair, the budget for The Marvels was an enormous $274,000,000. To put this into context, the top three movies of 2023 (Barbie, Super Mario Brothers, and Oppenheimer) combined had a total budget across these three movies of $350 million, and together they grossed something like 15 times more than The Marvels did. Anyway, the plot picks up from the end of Ms. Marvel when Kamala Khan, Captain Marvel, and Monica Rambeau discover that their superpowers have become entangled. This means that if two of them use their powers at the same time, all three of them switch places randomly. This makes for a rather excellent fight scene earlier in the movie when the three characters don't know what's going on and are randomly teleporting between three different battles, much to the frequently amusing confusion of all participants. Once things settle down, Captain Marvel and her new friends realize that an old enemy of Captain Marvel is harvesting resources from worlds she cares about. So it's up to them to save Earth from this old enemy's vengeance. I have to admit, the plot of the movie didn't actually make much sense, but it was overall much funnier than Ant-Man 3 and Secret Invasion. The best thing about the movie was Kamala Khan and her family. Kamala, Monica, and Captain Marvel also had an entertaining dynamic together and the planet of space musicals was also pretty funny. I think the movie's biggest, unconquerable weakness was that it was the 33rd Marvel movie. There are all sorts of theories of why the movie didn't perform at the box office: superhero genre fatigue, everyone knew it would be on Disney Plus eventually, the lasting effects of COVID on movie theaters and the movie business, Disney throwing the director under the bus, Disney inserting itself into the US Cultural Wars, etcetera. All those reasons are subjective and subject to personal interpretation. What I think is objectively quantifiable is that The Marvels is the sequel to a lot of different Marvel stuff: The Avengers movie, Wandavision, Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Secret Invasion, and Thor: Love and Thunder. That's like 50 to 60 plus hours of stuff to watch to fully understand the emotional significance of all the various characters in The Marvels. 50 to 60 hours of watching sounds like almost an entire entire semester's worth of homework assignments at this point. As someone who has written a lot of long series, I know that you lose some of the audience from book to book. I think that's ultimately why The Marvels didn't make back its budget. The Marvel movies as a series have just gone on too long and are just too interconnected. Ultimately, I am grateful to The Marvels. Realizing and understanding the concept of Marvel Continuity Lockout Syndrome helped me decide to write something new that wasn't a sequel or even connected to anything else I had written, which eventually led to Rivah Half-Elven and Half-Elven Thief. Overall grade: B- Our next movie is My Man Godfrey, which came out all the way back in 1936. This movie is considered the progenitor or one of the progenitors of the screwball comedy genre. A homeless man named Godfrey is living in a trash dump in New York, though despite his circumstances, Godfrey remained sharp and quick on his feet. One night, a wealthy woman named Cornelia approaches him and offers $5 if he'll come with her. Godfrey is naturally suspicious, but Cornelia assures him that she only needs to take him to a hotel to win a scavenger hunt by finding a forgotten man, which was a term President Roosevelt used to describe people who have been ruined by the Great Depression and then forgotten by the government. I have to admit, Cornelia immediately reminded me of the way the more obnoxious YouTubers and TikTokers will sometimes pay homeless people to participate in dance challenges and suchlike. King Solomon was indeed right when he said that there is nothing new under the sun and what has been done before will be done again. Anyway, Godfrey is offended by Cornell's imperious manner but after he sees Cornelia bullying her kindly but none too bright younger sister Irene, Godfrey decides he'll go with Irene so she can win. A grateful Irene offers him a job as the family's butler. At his first day at work, Godfrey very soon realizes the reason the family has gone through so many butlers: they are all certified certifiably and comedically insane. In addition to these other problems, Cornelia is harboring a massive grudge against Godfrey for losing the scavenger hunt and wants payback. Wacky hijinks ensue. Fortunately, Godfrey has some hidden depths that he will need, which include being much smarter than his employers. Admittedly, this is not hard. 1936 was towards the second half of the Great Depression in the United States, so obviously the movie has more than a bit of social commentary. The characters joked that prosperity is just around the corner and wonder where they can find that corner. The rich characters are uniformly portrayed as some combination of frivolous, clueless, or malicious. I think the movie was pretty funny, if sharply so, but the big weakness was that the male and female leads were so clearly unsuited for each other but got together at the end of the movie simply because it was the end of the movie. Still, it was definitely worth watching because you can see how this movie influenced many other movies after it. I definitely recommend watching it with captions if possible, because while human nature has not changed in the last 90 years, sound technology has in fact improved quite a bit. Overall grade: B. Next up is Charade, which came out in 1963. This is a sort of romantic comedy, sort of thriller that has Audrey Hepburn playing Regina, an American living in Paris who is in the process of getting divorced from her husband. When she returns to Paris, she learns that her husband was murdered in her absence and it turns out that he was in possession of $250,000 he stole from the US government during World War II. Regina had no idea about any of this, but the US government thinks that she has the money stashed away somewhere. It turns out that her late husband also betrayed the men he worked with to steal the money and they're convinced that she has the money as well, and they're going to get it from Regina regardless of what they have to do. Regina's only ally in this mess is a mysterious man calling himself Peter Joshua (played by Cary Grant), who may or may not be one of the other thieves operating under an assumed identity. I liked this movie, but I think it had two structural problems. First, Regina wasn't all that bright, though she did get smarter as the movie went on, probably out of sheer necessity. Second, it had some severe mood whiplash. The movie couldn't decide if he was a lighthearted romantic comedy or gritty thriller, though finally snapped into focus as a pretty good thriller in the last third of the movie. Amusing tidbit: Cary Grant only agreed to do the movie if Audrey Hepburn's character would be the one chasing his character in their romance, since he thought their age gap would be inappropriate otherwise, because he was so much older than Hepburn at the time of filming. Overall grade: B+ Next up is the new Frasier series from 2023. I admit I had very, very low expectations for this, but it was considerably better than I thought it would be. My low expectations came partly because the original show was so good. Some seasons were stronger than others, of course, but the show had some absolute masterpieces of sitcom comedy throughout its entire run. Some of this was because I think the 2020s are a much more humorless and dour age than the 1990s, so I had my doubts whether the new show could be funny at all. Fortunately, my doubts were misplaced. The new Frasier is actually pretty good. It's interesting that the show's generational dynamic has been flipped on its head. In the original show, the pretentious Frasier lived with his working-class father. 20 years later, it's now Frasier who lives with his son Freddie, who dropped out of Harvard to become a firefighter and consciously rejected his father's love of intellectualism and cultural elitism. The inversion of the original dynamic works quite well. It has some moments of genuine comedy because, like his father before him, Freddie is more like his father than he realizes. The show also avoided the pitfall of bringing back legacy characters that Disney and Lucasfilm stumbled into with Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Disney brought back legacy characters like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones but made them into sad, old losers. Frasier, by contrast, while frequently an unsympathetic comedy protagonist who brings his own misfortunes onto his own head, is most definitely not a sad old loser. He's famous, respected, and wealthy enough that he can afford to buy an apartment building in Boston at the drop of a hat. If you know anything about the United States, you know that the East Coast is the most expensive area of the of the country. Despite that, he remains the same well-meaning buffoon that he always was, the sort of man who, as a colleague aptly says, always goes that extra, ill-advised mile. There's a story that when Ricky Gervais was advising the creators of the American version of The Office, one of his chief pieces of advice was that Michael Scott could not be as incompetent as David Brent was in the original UK version of the show. American culture, Mr. Gervais said, was generally much less forgiving of incompetence than British culture. I thought of this as I watched Frasier because all the characters were in fact extremely competent at their jobs. Even Frasier himself, when he finally gets out of his own way, is a very good psychiatrist and teacher. Anyway, the show was funny and I think it deserves a second season. We'll see if that happens or not. Overall grade: A- Next up is Star Trek: Lower Decks Seasons One through Four, which came out from between 2020 and 2023. As I mentioned earlier, I ended up subscribing to Paramount Plus for a month after I watched Frasier, so I decided to watch Star Trek Lower Decks, since I'm forever seeing clips of that show turning up on social media. Lower Decks is a pitch perfect, affectionate parody of Star Trek from the point of view of four relatively hapless ensigns on the Cerritos, one of Starfleet's somewhat less prestigious ships. We have the self-sabotaging rebel Mariner, the insecure and ambitious Boimler, the enthusiastic science girl Tendi, and cheerful engineer Rutherford, who nonetheless has a dark and mysterious past that he can't remember. Season Four also adds T'Lyn, a Vulcan whose mild expressions of carefully measured annoyance make her a dangerous loose cannon by Vulcan standards. The show is hilarious because it makes fun of Star Trek tropes while wholeheartedly embracing them. The ensigns run into a lot of insane computers, random space anomalies, rubber forehead aliens, and other Star Trek tropes, including the grand and venerable Star Trek tradition of the Insane Admiral. Starfleet officers always seem to go off the deep end when they get promoted to Starfleet Command. The senior officers are also varying degrees of insane and drama generators. Starfleet, from the point of view of the Cerritos crew, is a vast bureaucratic organization that veers between ineffective idealism, blatant careerism, and whatever crazy project the Insane Admiral of the Week is pursuing. Yet since American sitcom characters have to be competent (like we just talked about above with Frasier), when the crisis really kicks into high gear, the Cerritos crew can pull itself together and save the galaxy with the best of them. I did like how the show grows from an affectionate parody to its own thing, with all the characters experiencing struggles and personal growth in their arcs. I liked it enough that when the 5th season of Lower Decks comes out, I'll subscribe to another month of Paramount Plus (assuming Paramount Plus still exists and hasn't been brought up by Warner Brothers or Skydance or something). Overall grade: A- Next up is Predator, which came out in 1987. When Carl Weathers died in early February of 2024, I realized I had never actually got around to seeing Predator. So I did and I'm glad that I watched it. Predator was an excellent blending of thriller, science fiction, and horror. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Dutch, who commands a team of operators who do Black Ops work for the CIA. Since it's 1987, the CIA is up to its traditional shenanigans in Central America and Dutch is dispatched to help out his old friend Dillon (played by Carl Weathers), who has been ostensibly assigned to rescue a Pro-American cabinet minister from rebel guerrillas in the jungle. Since this is the CIA, naturally there is more than the mission than is apparent on the surface. However, the mission quickly becomes irrelevant when Dutch and his team realize they are being hunted by an unknown creature with capabilities unlike anything they have ever seen before. It turns out the creature is the Predator, an alien hunter who comes to Earth and takes human skulls as trophies. Soon the movie turns into a death match duel between Dutch and the Predator. The movie did a very good job of showing the Predator's capabilities such as stealth, heat vision, and his shoulder laser without explicitly spelling them out for the audience. It was a very well put together piece of storytelling and it is of course the source of the famous Internet meme of a muscular white arm gripping a muscular black arm and also Schwarzenegger's famous line of “Get to the choppa!” Also to quote a famous Internet meme, if you had a nickel for every future governor of a US state who is in this movie, you would have two nickels, which is not a lot, but even two is pretty weird, right? Overall grade: A. Now for the favorite thing I saw in winter 2024. That honor goes to Star Trek: Picard Season Three, which came out in 2023. Honestly, this was so much better than I thought it was going to be. I thought I would watch one or two episodes and then give up. Instead I watched the whole thing in like two days over the New Year's holiday. I watched the first episode of Picard Season One way back in 2020 was free on YouTube, but I didn't like it enough to subscribe to CBS All Access (or whatever the heck it was back then). The first episode also seemed more ponderous and dour in the sort of 21st century realistic prestige television snooze fest than I really wanted to watch. But Season Three of the show got high reviews from people whose opinions I generally respect when it came out in early 2023. Since I had Paramount Plus for a month because of Frasier, I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. How to describe the plot? You may remember that back in summer 2023, I watched the Battleship movie. Battleship is objectively a bad movie, but it does have one interesting subplot that would make a good movie all on its own. When space aliens imprison most of the US Navy, a bunch of retired veterans take a decommissioned battleship out to war to save the day. This basically is the plot of Picard Season 3. The plot kicks off when Doctor Crusher contacts Admiral Picard after they have not spoken for twenty years. Apparently, Picard had a son named Jack with Crusher that she never told him about and mysterious assailants are trying to kidnap Jack. On the original show, Picard and Crusher definitely gave off the vibe that they probably got romantic whenever they were alone in the elevator together. The fact that Doctor Crusher got pregnant with Picard's son is not all that surprising. Picard had always been adamant about his desire not to start a family and given that any son of the legendary Captain Picard would be a target for his equally legendary enemies, Crusher decided to keep the boy a secret. Picard, understandably, is shocked by the news, but teams up with his former first officer, Captain Riker, to rescue his son. Jack has an extensive Robin Hood-esque criminal history, so it seems that his misdeeds might have caught up to him. It turns out that deadly weapon is locked in Jack's DNA and the people pursuing him aren't merely criminals but powerful enemies intent on destroying Starfleet and the Federation. Jack Crusher's DNA will give them a weapon to do it, which means it's up to the crew of The Enterprise to save the galaxy one last time. This was ten episodes, but it was very, very tightly plotted, with not many wasted moments. Sometimes you see movies that seem like they should have been streaming shows, and sometimes streaming shows seem like they really should have been cut down to movie length. But Picard's Season Three does a good job of telling a tense story that we've been impossible either in a movie or the old days of network television. The show very quickly plunges into the crisis and keeps moving from new tension to new tension. The gradual reveal where Picard at first feels guilty that he has to ask his friends to help rescue his estranged son and ex-girlfriend like he's living his own personal version of some trashy daytime TV show, only to slowly realize that something much more dangerous and much, much bigger than his personal problems is happening, was put together well. The show was also another good example of how to bring back legacy characters right. All the characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation are older and have been knocked around by life or suffered personal tragedies, but none of them are sad old losers like in a Disney or Lucasfilm project. The new and supporting characters were also great. Seven of Nine returns as the first officer to Captain Shaw, a by the book officer who thinks Picard and Riker are dangerous mavericks. He has a point. Shaw turns out to be extremely competent in a crisis. Amanda Plummer was great as Vadic, a scenery chewing villain who has very good reasons to hate Starfleet and the Federation. Vadic's love of spinning directly in her command chair was a great homage to Amanda Plummer's late father, Christopher Plummer, who played a villain with a similar tic way back in Star Trek VI in the ‘90s. It is also great how the show wrapped up some of the dangling plot threads from the ‘90s, like Picard's strained relationship with his former mentee Commander Ro Laren or the brief return of Elizabeth Shelby, Riker's former First Officer. A few people have complained that Worf is now a pacifist, but he's a Klingon pacifist, which basically means he'll attempt negotiation before cutting off your head, but he is still probably going to cut off your head. Less Conan the Barbarian, more serene Warrior Monk. I think Data had an excellent ending to his character arc, which started with his character's very first appearance way back in the ‘80s and Brent Spiner did a good job of portraying Data's fractured personalities and then how they achieved unity. I'd say the weakest point of the show was how consistently dumb Starfleet command is. The plot hinged around Starfleet gathering its entire fleet together for a celebration and then putting all those ships under a remote control system, which seems both exceptionally stupid and very convenient for the bad guys. But to be fair, this is Starfleet, an organization whose high command regularly spits out insane Admirals and also has an unsanctioned Black Ops/Mad Science division that it can't control, so it definitely fits within the overall context of Star Trek. I mean, that's like half the premise of Lower Decks. And if you've ever worked for a large governmental, military, healthcare, or educational institution, you understand. We all know that working in a large institution under leaders who are either insane or dumb isn't exactly an anomaly in the human experience. I mean, the Roman Empire circa 190 A.D. was the most powerful institution on the planet and the Empire's maximum leader liked to spend his time LARPing as a gladiator in the Coliseum. Anyway, the emotional payoff at the end of Picard Season Three was very satisfying, and how the show wrapped up a lot of threads from Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager was pretty great. It's like the people who were in charge of Season Three of Picard watched the Star Wars sequel trilogy and thought, you know, we can do better and then they did. Overall grade: A So those are the movies and TV shows I watched in Winter 2024. If you're looking for something to watch, hopefully one of them sounds like it will catch your interest. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform or choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

Games in the Franchise: Star Trek: ResurgenceIt's been a few months since the release of the adventure game "Star Trek: Resurgence" from Dramatic Labs. Players control two different characters in this story-driven game: Commander Jara Rydek, a Kobliad first officer just joining the USS Resolute, and Petty Officer Carter Diaz, a young but experienced engineering technician. Players decide what actions these characters take in this epic story featuring Ambassador Spock, Captain Riker, other (surprisingly) familiar aliens, new species, and choices that could lead to deaths or saving lives. The trio talks about how this game is more story than game, but how the exciting events makes this (relatively inexpensive) game worth playing. From how to loyal be to a brink-of-retirement captain to how you might choose to sacrifice your friends or yourself. They talk about where someone might get stuck in the game to what parts marveled them as they played. And spoilers: They discuss the random Star Trek episode that serves as prolouge for this story.So step aboard the USS Resolute, brave the ion storm, and set course (via the gaming platform of your choice) for "Star Trek: Resurgence."

Uncle Jim and his Treksperts are joined by Chris Naylor, Actor, Stuntman, Writer and Producer. Best known for his work on Star Trek Picard season three. He appeared, most notably as stunt double for Captain Riker and Captain Shaw. He has also worked on Luke Cage, The Defenders, 9-1-1 Lonestar, Jumanji: Next Level, Westworld, Cobra Kai, Doom Patrol, and Runaways. Call (646)668-2433 with your questions, Let's see what's Out There...ENGAGE!

Season 2, episode 19 is here. Dominic, Connor, Erica, and Mark have an awesome conversation with living legend - Jonathan Frakes - Commander/Captain William Riker.Thunderbirds. The Star Trek Enterprise Finale. Picard Season 3. Directing. Acting. PANCAN. Picard Season 1. Star Trek The Next Generation. Captain America. This one could have gone on all day and still be great. Wash is out of uniform today, but looking good. Erica gets some fan questions in, we play a round of Star Trek Trivia, and we subject Frakes to being "Stuck on a Deserted Island with Connor Trinneer.” Get ready to have a laugh.The full, complete version of this conversation is available to our amazing Patreon Members.If you enjoy this show, please like and subscribe! It's so important and appreciated!We have merch! Check out our website. www.shuttlepodshow.comIf you'd like to contribute more to the sustainability of the show, please consider becoming a Patreon member. You will have access to significant exciting membership perks including extended unabridged episodes, live events priorities, behind the scenes access and much more. We are committed to building an engaging immersive community experience for our Patreon Members while remaining dedicated to our vision of making our interviews freely available to the public on YouTube. Your help makes that happen. Patreon: https://patreon.com/shuttlepodshowFollow us: Insta: @shuttlepodshow Twitter: @shuttlepodshow Facebook: @shuttlepodshow https://www.shuttlepodshow.com

Was für eine Folge. Wir stecken zwar in einer finsteren Lage, aber wir erfahren warum Captain Shaw ein A****loch und ein ganz wichtiger Faktor für die Rettung der Titan ist. Außerdem kommen sich Vater und Sohnemann Picard näher, während nebenbei Captain Riker aus einem tiefschwarzen Loch hervorkommt und wieder Licht erblickt und dies nur, weil er einen Stuhl bekommen hat. Ansonsten sind Beverly und Seven wahnsinnig kompetent. Wir sind begeistert von der Musik; Fanfaren und Titelmelodien lassen uns mitsummen und so kehren wir in gewisser Weise nach Farpoint zurück. Na? Seid ihr auf den Geschmack gekommen? Dann wünschen wir viel Spaß bei diese Folge!

Hier sind wir wieder! Ein letztes Mal begeben wir uns mit unserem Admiral Jean-Luc Picard auf eine neue Reise. Gemeinsam starten wir in die dritte Staffel von "Star Trek: Picard"! Hier werden einige alte Freunde anderen alten Freunden zu Hilfe eilen und dabei viel Unmut eines neuen Captains ernten. Aber was soll's? Wenn Admiral Picard und Captain Riker zu einem neuen Abenteuer aufbrechen, wollen wir natürlich dabei sein. Wir starten im Chateau, auf M'Talas Prime und auf der USS Titan-A. Aber Spaß werden wir dabei hoffentlich nicht haben, oder? Ihr, liebe Hörer:innen, werdet hingegen viel Spaß haben bei unserer Reise durch den ersten Teil von "Star Trek: Picard" Staffel 3!

In this episode, the panel — Chris and Rachael Clow. Cicero Holmes and Tyler Monaghan — are joined once more by KYLE SULLIVAN ("Trekspertise") to break down STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, episode 3: "Seventeen Seconds!" First, our panel reacts to the news that STAR TREK: DISCOVERY will come to an end in 2024 with the airing of season 5, discussing the nature of the news. We also speculate about what that show's legacy will be in the annals of Trek history in the years to come. Then, we break down the episode involving a more solid return for WORF, Captain RIKER finding himself back in the center seat, and the unexpected return of an old foe. Listen now!

I made the fateful decision of phoning my fiance to ask her why she thought there were rumors Captain Riker was being manipulated by an alien just because he and his wife Deanna Troi weren't getting along. Now part of the Starfleet Podcast Network! Discord: https://discord.com/invite/crAAceR75a Anchor: https://anchor.fm/thestarfleetpodcastnetwork YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheStarfleetPodcastNetwork --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beyondtrekpodcast/support

“The Next Generation“ After receiving a cryptic, urgent distress call from Doctor Beverly Crusher, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard enlists the help of Captain Riker and Seven—or rather Commander Annika Hansen—to attempt a daring rescue. Meanwhile, Raffi, working undercover as a Starfleet Intelligence operative, races to stop an impending terrorist attack by unknown thieves who stole deadly weapons from Daystrom Station. In this episode of The Artificial Tango, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing kick off our week-by-week examination of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 with the premiere episode, “The Next Generation." We discuss the passage of time for the characters, how the series is shifting tone while still honoring its first two seasons, and how the overall tone is a love letter to fans and the entire franchise. We also speculate on where the story may go and dig into the myriad Easter eggs scattered around by Terry Matalas and crew as they deliver the Star Trek that so many have been waiting for. Chapters Intro (00:00:00) The Title (00:01:53) A Love Letter to Star Trek (00:07:41) Full of Easter Eggs (00:10:53) Legacy (00:17:48) A Time to … Find Beverly (00:23:08) Son'a Pursuit? (00:28:37) Raffi's Handler (00:33:46) A Decade Has Passed (00:39:10) Loving Laris (00:44:22) The Titan Refit (00:47:53) If Jellico and Styles Had a Child … (00:53:52) Jeri Ryan Shines (00:59:44) Masterful Music (01:02:16) Final Thoughts and Ratings (01:15:49) Closing (01:20:46) Hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing Production C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Cornelia Reutner (Associate Producer)

“The Next Generation“ After receiving a cryptic, urgent distress call from Doctor Beverly Crusher, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard enlists the help of Captain Riker and Seven—or rather Commander Annika Hansen—to attempt a daring rescue. Meanwhile, Raffi, working undercover as a Starfleet Intelligence operative, races to stop an impending terrorist attack by unknown thieves who stole deadly weapons from Daystrom Station. In this episode of The Artificial Tango, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing kick off our week-by-week examination of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 with the premiere episode, “The Next Generation." We discuss the passage of time for the characters, how the series is shifting tone while still honoring its first two seasons, and how the overall tone is a love letter to fans and the entire franchise. We also speculate on where the story may go and dig into the myriad Easter eggs scattered around by Terry Matalas and crew as they deliver the Star Trek that so many have been waiting for. Chapters Intro (00:00:00) The Title (00:01:53) A Love Letter to Star Trek (00:07:41) Full of Easter Eggs (00:10:53) Legacy (00:17:48) A Time to … Find Beverly (00:23:08) Son'a Pursuit? (00:28:37) Raffi's Handler (00:33:46) A Decade Has Passed (00:39:10) Loving Laris (00:44:22) The Titan Refit (00:47:53) If Jellico and Styles Had a Child … (00:53:52) Jeri Ryan Shines (00:59:44) Masterful Music (01:02:16)   Final Thoughts and Ratings (01:15:49) Closing (01:20:46) Hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing Production C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Cornelia Reutner (Associate Producer)

GC: 063: TNG History - Future ImperfectWhen Future Imperfect first aired on November 12, 1990, we were introduced to a future with Admiral Picard, Captain Riker the father, Troi in a uniform, and Ferengi in Starfleet. What other predictions did this episode get right in its simulated future?Join us in the Federation Council Chambers on Facebook.Find us on Twitter:The Network: @UFPEarthThe Show: @GalaxyClassPodAmy: @MissAmyNelsonJoe: @joeyjoe77ukKevin: @TrueNorthNerdsUnited Federation of Podcasts is brought to you by listeners like you. Special thanks to these patrons on Patreon whose generous contributions help produce the podcast! David WillettTim CooperChrissie De Clerck-SzilagyiMahendran RadhakrishnanJim McMahonCasey PettittJustin OserVera BibleVictor GamboaJim StoffelTom Van ScotterGreg MolumbyKevin ScharfAlexander GatesTom ElliotVanessa VaughanThad HaitAnn MarieJoe MignoneJosh BrewingtonPeter H.William J. Jackson You can become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/ufpearth

Lower Decks season two rolls along with its second episode of the season, with stories this week onboard both the Cerritos and Titan.What happens when Mariner, Rutherford, and Tendi beam down to a station full of Trek easter eggs with Ensign Jet and new security officer, Lt. Kayshon?And what kind of trouble does Boimler get into when he goes undercover with members of Captain Riker's senior staff?Spotted Giraffe fills in for Ensign Brittany this week, as the crew gives their takes on this one. Also, find out why Giraffe is mourning.  All that, plus the Strange New Loop and mailbag this week on ASNP.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/astrangenewpod)

On this special extended Book Nook, we review the new novel, by James Swallow. DARK VEIL, Based on the hit series, Star Trek Picard, Dark Veil picks up with the USS Titan, under the command of Captain Riker, on patrol along the Romulan Neutral Zone. Nichelle Nichols shaped NASA, Jett Reno on Discovery season 4, Anson Mount on Strange New Worlds, plus, Star Trek B'Days, fan shout-outs, around the globe & top cities. Studio line will be open (646)668-2433. HIT IT!  

This week on Episode 503 of Priority One: We Trek Out some of the big announcements from First Contact Day, with teasers for new seasons of Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks, while Prodigy asks, “Please state the nature of the coffee emergency,” Oberth April Fools perhaps in Star Trek Online, a new study into the nature of lootboxes, and a quick look at Star Trek: Legends! This week’s Community Questions are: CQ: With all the new Star Trek updates, what was the biggest surprise for you? Was there anything you were hoping they were going to announce? CQ: Would a T6 Oberth be the greatest starship in the game, or the GREATEST starship in the game? What would be a fitting trait for such a fine ship? Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Star Trek: Discovery Reveals First Look at Season Four! By Rosko McQueen “We’re all living in uncertainty”. They are the first words from Discovery’s Captain Michael Burnham in the teaser trailer for season four.  And as is often the case with the series, it looks at the world now and works to provide a reflection back to us through a sci-fi mirror.   The first noticeable difference is the uniforms have a new splash of colour. The grey Starfleet uniforms of the 32nd century have been upgraded.  We now have tops of command red, science blue and engineering gold along with medical white, offset with a black vertical stripe. So now there is no mistaking which department is which.   Image: StarTrek.com In the trailer we hear about, potentially, this season’s universe-threatening problem: a gravitational anomaly five light-years across. Where is it? We don’t know.  Where could it turn up? Not a clue. Who can save us all? We’ll find out later this year, as season four is set to premiere in 2021.    Star Trek: Picard Returns for Season 2 in 2022 By Elio Lleo While Discovery focuses on the large-scale event to tie the story together, season two of Star Trek: Picard, coming in 2022, is all the more personal.   The camera moves slowly towards Château Picard, and we then transition inside the home of the retired Admiral, weaving our way through his study.  On a table in the centre of the room is a Bajoran tablet, cracked and broken, possibly from the lost city of B’Hala.  A painting of the Enterprise-D overhangs the mantle where a bronze sculpture of a farmer and horse-drawn plough rests in the centre.   Picard’s chair sits behind a desk, draped in a Mintakan tapestry. On the desk we see a model of the USS Stargazer, a teacup and saucer–decaf perhaps?–and a small Kurlan naiskos perched on the edge of the table.   We pass over a combadge, a Dixon Hill novel and a copy of Paradise Lost. When Picard’s voiceover talks of “what we wish we had done in a crisis,” the shot sits squarely on the hull of the Stargazer.  We then cut to a gaming table upon which sits a deck of cards and a solitary queen of hearts.  The card dissolves before our eyes until all that is left is one corner, and the letter that tells us so much–Q. Q-ed Up For The Big Reveal Patrick Stewart spoke with Wil Wheaton about the second season of Picard, teasing the different “times” that we will see that have never been seen onscreen before. John de Lancie then beams in from his boat, expressing his delight at the opportunity to return to the role and his amazing ability to age himself up for the part.   Sir Patrick also hints at the critical moment Q returns and teases the trauma surrounding it. While De Lancie remarks on the apparent ease he can slip back into character, describing Q as annoying and self-involved. Lower Decks Season 2 Teaser By Rosko McQueen Paramount+ also announced season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere later this year, and like any episode of Lower Decks, there's a lot of detail in a short amount of time. Image: StarTrek.com We see the Cerritos, with Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford hanging out. We cut to a Miranda class starship, the USS Macduff, activating evasive maneuvers.  Then out of nowhere, a mugato! Mariner shows off her sweet anbo-jyutsu moves, red suit and all.  Commander Ransom seems to have god-like powers, then–cut to a Pakled phaser party. A group of Cardassians get their butts kicked by Mariner wearing 80’s workout gear–THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!! All hell breaks loose when snakes grow arms and attack Tendi, then we relax with the Lower Deckers in the comfort of the brig. But where is Boimler, you ask? He’s staring into the void and screaming for all to hear. Captain Riker throws out some more jazz references, but sadly Boimler didn’t get the joke as the Titan moves into some sort of wormhole or spatial distortion while under fire from multiple craft.     Season two of Lower Decks will premiere on Thursday, August 12, 2021. Star Trek: Prodigy: More Info! By Cat Hough And finally, we received a brief synopsis about the other animated series coming out, Star Trek: Prodigy. Co-creator Dan Hageman confirmed the series is set in the Delta Quadrant in the year 2383. It features a group of young aliens who find a lost Starfleet vessel that happens to be equipped with an EJH–Emergency Janeway Hologram. This training hologram was designed to assist a crew that may have strayed too far off course and is probably programmed to locate coffee in any nearby nebulae.  Image: TrekMovie.com The animation for the Janeway hologram was also revealed during First Contact Day, with Kate Mulgrew noting that the Hageman brothers insisted on “...making the character so beautiful.” CQ: With all the new Star Trek updates, what was the biggest surprise for you? Was there anything you were hoping they were going to announce? STAR TREK GAMING NEWS April Fools...But Maybe Not? By Cat Hough It was a quiet Friday morning at Ambassador Kael’s house. Coffee had been achieved. The toast was buttered. Star Trek Online’s dutiful Community Manager opened up his Twitter feed and spit coffee all over his keyboard. At least, if his post from April 2nd is any indication that’s what happened. “Morning folks! Did anything interesting happen while I was WHAT THE F…” https://twitter.com/AmbassadorKael/status/1378010255716622336?s=20 What was all the fuss? Well, it was an 11:59pm April Fool’s Day post to the official STO Twitter account. If it’s not just an April Fool’s prank, then it might spell doom for Kael’s jokingly vocal anti-T6 Oberth crusade. The post in question sported two images of what can only be a 2411 treatment of the Oberth-class. The images were captioned “Kael’s asleep! Post it post it POST IT!“ https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1377878220712914945?s=20 Yes, it was still April Fools. But, consider… someone clearly spent the time to model this 2411 Oberth to what looks like at least late-stage Work-In-Progress. It’s worth remembering that on a recent live stream of his work, Thomas Marrone pointed out that they sometimes have the ship art done well before the systems designers have the ship built. So, perhaps that’s the case here. But in any case, it’s hope for those Oberth fans among you, Captains. CQ: Would a T6 Oberth be the greatest starship in the game or the GREATEST starship in the game? What would be a fitting trait for such a fine ship? Delta Recruitment Returns! By Cat Hough Announced earlier today, and starting April 15th on PC and May 13th on Xbox and PS4, you can create a new Delta Recruit character. However, this Delta Recruit event has been slightly modified. You’ll still earn extra rewards, and gain special account unlocks, but the devs have removed some out-of-date missions and added new goals with new rewards.  For example, reputation mark reward boxes have been updated so that you can claim all of the reputation mark options, not just the ones that were around during the first launch of Delta Recruitment. And, there’s now a reward for reaching level 60, which gives you even more marks, Reputation dilithium, as well as salvage. Plus, there’s new rewards for completing your faction’s Admiralty campaign, which features a very special Admiralty card: the U.S.S. Voyager! Existing Delta Recruits will be able to complete these new goals as well, and if you’ve already finished them, you can claim the rewards immediately. Remember, to become a Delta Recruit and gain access to the rewards, you need to make a new 2409 Starfleet character, a Klingon Defense Force character, or a Romulan Republic character during the event, then you have to complete the tutorial and receive the special Delta Recruit tesseract transceiver device. Once you receive the device, your character is a Delta Recruit and you can complete the goals any time and claim the rewards, even after the event ends. Image: Cryptic Studios. Gambling and the Future of Loot Boxes Written by Elio Lleo Lock Boxes. A recurring topic of conversation on this show since their introduction into Star Trek Online those many moons–in 2012. Nowadays, they’re so ingrained into gaming ecosystems–not just STO–that most people have accepted their permanence. But does that mean we shouldn’t continue to look at the relationship between STO’s Lock Boxes–and every other video game’s respective lootbox–and gambling?  No, because as the mechanic continues to become part of the mainstream, it’s important to understand the impact it can have. Even if we have been told it’s not gambling because you get a “reward in every box.” Image: Cryptic Studios. In an April 2nd article on Ars Technica, writer Sam Machkovech spotlights new research from four British Universities, commissioned by the gambling-protection advocacy group BeGambleAware. What does the research suggest? “[T]he authors determine that loot box purchasing has a statistically significant tie to problem gambling behaviors.” So… how can we mitigate the problem? The suggestion is to go cold turkey. “The report leans toward starting with outright bans of paid loot boxes in software—as in, the easily defined practice of ‘any game-related purchase with a chance-based outcome’—or at least requiring more fully transparent ‘odds’ statements about the likelihood of specific in-game items in those loot boxes.” Image: BeGambleAware, University of Plymouth, and University of Wolverhampton, via Ars Technica. The report itself says particular circles of gamers are more susceptible to the lure of loot boxes, stating there are groups which are particularly at risk. ”Those particularly affected include males and younger gamers, with our survey screen of over 14k gamers also suggesting that those with lower educational attainment and lower levels of employment may be disproportionately affected. These factors, however, are unlikely to be limited to loot boxes.” Fleet Command Charts Its Next Course By Thomas Reynolds It’s bedtime for those old scientists in Fleet Command, but Scopely’s already sharing where the rest of 2021 will go. Players have a number of developments to look forward to, including an entirely new Officer Away Teams system. Send your unused characters out on errands–sorry, special assignments, and receive goods should they succeed in their tasks. And if they can’t handle even that, well, you can always send them to Starbase 80. https://startrekfleetcommand.scopely.com/2021/03/30/roadmap-update-march-2021/ Cetacean Citation in Timelines By Thomas Reynolds George and Gracie are now crew members in Timelines. If this sounds like an April Fool’s prank, I assure you, it isn’t. George and Gracie are now crew members. Complete the three temporary achievement tiers before April 15th, and you can finally staff your ship’s Cetacean Ops facility. Assuming you have the transparent aluminum on hand, of course. Image: Disruptor Beam. It’s Time to Re-enter the Nexus with Star Trek: Legends By Rosko McQueen Load up your favourite Personal Access Display Device and get set to enter the Nexus. Star Trek: Legends has launched on Apple Arcade this week and we’ve had a brief look at the turn-based game. You are the captain of the U.S.S. Artemis, a ship designed to enter the Nexus and draw on the unique properties of the ethereal energy ribbon. Over the course of the game you build a crew of Trek favourites from across timelines and universes to take on missions, collect resources, and power up your characters.   The developers explain in a blog post on StarTrek.com their decision to base the premise of the game around the Nexus, as opposed to other ways of putting characters in a blender like the holodeck, or using Q or the Talosians. Instead they take the largely unexplored idea of the Nexus and expand upon it, incorporating the idea that it was made by design. In a familiar Ready Player One-type premise, each character has their own utopian reality sphere, which is also infinite. So, there’s lots of room to grow.   But How Does It Play? Image: StarTrek.com The gameplay is straightforward, tap the bad guy to target them. You can use Worf’s battle cry to lower morale (it’s super effective!), and there are your typical character class types; engineering, medical, security, etc.  I’ve only played a few early missions as it guides you through how to assemble your team, battle the bad guys and power up your crew using latinum, protomatter and bio-mimetic gels as some of the in-game currency.  But it’s also a brand new game on the platform, and it shows. I had to force quit a couple of times after the game froze at the same point.  The artwork and the attention to detail is excellent. The Cardassians look menacing and there are a few costume callbacks to Voyager and Deep Space Nine standalone episodes. So far so good, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the game grows over time.  

This week on Episode 503 of Priority One: We Trek Out some of the big announcements from First Contact Day, with teasers for new seasons of Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks, while Prodigy asks, “Please state the nature of the coffee emergency,” Oberth April Fools perhaps in Star Trek Online, a new study into the nature of lootboxes, and a quick look at Star Trek: Legends! This week's Community Questions are: CQ: With all the new Star Trek updates, what was the biggest surprise for you? Was there anything you were hoping they were going to announce? CQ: Would a T6 Oberth be the greatest starship in the game, or the GREATEST starship in the game? What would be a fitting trait for such a fine ship? Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Star Trek: Discovery Reveals First Look at Season Four! By Rosko McQueen “We're all living in uncertainty”. They are the first words from Discovery's Captain Michael Burnham in the teaser trailer for season four.  And as is often the case with the series, it looks at the world now and works to provide a reflection back to us through a sci-fi mirror.   The first noticeable difference is the uniforms have a new splash of colour. The grey Starfleet uniforms of the 32nd century have been upgraded.  We now have tops of command red, science blue and engineering gold along with medical white, offset with a black vertical stripe. So now there is no mistaking which department is which.   Image: StarTrek.com In the trailer we hear about, potentially, this season's universe-threatening problem: a gravitational anomaly five light-years across. Where is it? We don't know.  Where could it turn up? Not a clue. Who can save us all? We'll find out later this year, as season four is set to premiere in 2021.    Star Trek: Picard Returns for Season 2 in 2022 By Elio Lleo While Discovery focuses on the large-scale event to tie the story together, season two of Star Trek: Picard, coming in 2022, is all the more personal.   The camera moves slowly towards Château Picard, and we then transition inside the home of the retired Admiral, weaving our way through his study.  On a table in the centre of the room is a Bajoran tablet, cracked and broken, possibly from the lost city of B'Hala.  A painting of the Enterprise-D overhangs the mantle where a bronze sculpture of a farmer and horse-drawn plough rests in the centre.   Picard's chair sits behind a desk, draped in a Mintakan tapestry. On the desk we see a model of the USS Stargazer, a teacup and saucer–decaf perhaps?–and a small Kurlan naiskos perched on the edge of the table.   We pass over a combadge, a Dixon Hill novel and a copy of Paradise Lost. When Picard's voiceover talks of “what we wish we had done in a crisis,” the shot sits squarely on the hull of the Stargazer.  We then cut to a gaming table upon which sits a deck of cards and a solitary queen of hearts.  The card dissolves before our eyes until all that is left is one corner, and the letter that tells us so much–Q. Q-ed Up For The Big Reveal Patrick Stewart spoke with Wil Wheaton about the second season of Picard, teasing the different “times” that we will see that have never been seen onscreen before. John de Lancie then beams in from his boat, expressing his delight at the opportunity to return to the role and his amazing ability to age himself up for the part.   Sir Patrick also hints at the critical moment Q returns and teases the trauma surrounding it. While De Lancie remarks on the apparent ease he can slip back into character, describing Q as annoying and self-involved. Lower Decks Season 2 Teaser By Rosko McQueen Paramount+ also announced season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere later this year, and like any episode of Lower Decks, there's a lot of detail in a short amount of time. Image: StarTrek.com We see the Cerritos, with Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford hanging out. We cut to a Miranda class starship, the USS Macduff, activating evasive maneuvers.  Then out of nowhere, a mugato! Mariner shows off her sweet anbo-jyutsu moves, red suit and all.  Commander Ransom seems to have god-like powers, then–cut to a Pakled phaser party. A group of Cardassians get their butts kicked by Mariner wearing 80's workout gear–THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!! All hell breaks loose when snakes grow arms and attack Tendi, then we relax with the Lower Deckers in the comfort of the brig. But where is Boimler, you ask? He's staring into the void and screaming for all to hear. Captain Riker throws out some more jazz references, but sadly Boimler didn't get the joke as the Titan moves into some sort of wormhole or spatial distortion while under fire from multiple craft.     Season two of Lower Decks will premiere on Thursday, August 12, 2021. Star Trek: Prodigy: More Info! By Cat Hough And finally, we received a brief synopsis about the other animated series coming out, Star Trek: Prodigy. Co-creator Dan Hageman confirmed the series is set in the Delta Quadrant in the year 2383. It features a group of young aliens who find a lost Starfleet vessel that happens to be equipped with an EJH–Emergency Janeway Hologram. This training hologram was designed to assist a crew that may have strayed too far off course and is probably programmed to locate coffee in any nearby nebulae.  Image: TrekMovie.com The animation for the Janeway hologram was also revealed during First Contact Day, with Kate Mulgrew noting that the Hageman brothers insisted on “...making the character so beautiful.” CQ: With all the new Star Trek updates, what was the biggest surprise for you? Was there anything you were hoping they were going to announce? STAR TREK GAMING NEWS April Fools...But Maybe Not? By Cat Hough It was a quiet Friday morning at Ambassador Kael's house. Coffee had been achieved. The toast was buttered. Star Trek Online's dutiful Community Manager opened up his Twitter feed and spit coffee all over his keyboard. At least, if his post from April 2nd is any indication that's what happened. “Morning folks! Did anything interesting happen while I was WHAT THE F…” https://twitter.com/AmbassadorKael/status/1378010255716622336?s=20 What was all the fuss? Well, it was an 11:59pm April Fool's Day post to the official STO Twitter account. If it's not just an April Fool's prank, then it might spell doom for Kael's jokingly vocal anti-T6 Oberth crusade. The post in question sported two images of what can only be a 2411 treatment of the Oberth-class. The images were captioned “Kael's asleep! Post it post it POST IT!“ https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1377878220712914945?s=20 Yes, it was still April Fools. But, consider… someone clearly spent the time to model this 2411 Oberth to what looks like at least late-stage Work-In-Progress. It's worth remembering that on a recent live stream of his work, Thomas Marrone pointed out that they sometimes have the ship art done well before the systems designers have the ship built. So, perhaps that's the case here. But in any case, it's hope for those Oberth fans among you, Captains. CQ: Would a T6 Oberth be the greatest starship in the game or the GREATEST starship in the game? What would be a fitting trait for such a fine ship? Delta Recruitment Returns! By Cat Hough Announced earlier today, and starting April 15th on PC and May 13th on Xbox and PS4, you can create a new Delta Recruit character. However, this Delta Recruit event has been slightly modified. You'll still earn extra rewards, and gain special account unlocks, but the devs have removed some out-of-date missions and added new goals with new rewards.  For example, reputation mark reward boxes have been updated so that you can claim all of the reputation mark options, not just the ones that were around during the first launch of Delta Recruitment. And, there's now a reward for reaching level 60, which gives you even more marks, Reputation dilithium, as well as salvage. Plus, there's new rewards for completing your faction's Admiralty campaign, which features a very special Admiralty card: the U.S.S. Voyager! Existing Delta Recruits will be able to complete these new goals as well, and if you've already finished them, you can claim the rewards immediately. Remember, to become a Delta Recruit and gain access to the rewards, you need to make a new 2409 Starfleet character, a Klingon Defense Force character, or a Romulan Republic character during the event, then you have to complete the tutorial and receive the special Delta Recruit tesseract transceiver device. Once you receive the device, your character is a Delta Recruit and you can complete the goals any time and claim the rewards, even after the event ends. Image: Cryptic Studios. Gambling and the Future of Loot Boxes Written by Elio Lleo Lock Boxes. A recurring topic of conversation on this show since their introduction into Star Trek Online those many moons–in 2012. Nowadays, they're so ingrained into gaming ecosystems–not just STO–that most people have accepted their permanence. But does that mean we shouldn't continue to look at the relationship between STO's Lock Boxes–and every other video game's respective lootbox–and gambling?  No, because as the mechanic continues to become part of the mainstream, it's important to understand the impact it can have. Even if we have been told it's not gambling because you get a “reward in every box.” Image: Cryptic Studios. In an April 2nd article on Ars Technica, writer Sam Machkovech spotlights new research from four British Universities, commissioned by the gambling-protection advocacy group BeGambleAware. What does the research suggest? “[T]he authors determine that loot box purchasing has a statistically significant tie to problem gambling behaviors.” So… how can we mitigate the problem? The suggestion is to go cold turkey. “The report leans toward starting with outright bans of paid loot boxes in software—as in, the easily defined practice of ‘any game-related purchase with a chance-based outcome'—or at least requiring more fully transparent ‘odds' statements about the likelihood of specific in-game items in those loot boxes.” Image: BeGambleAware, University of Plymouth, and University of Wolverhampton, via Ars Technica. The report itself says particular circles of gamers are more susceptible to the lure of loot boxes, stating there are groups which are particularly at risk. ”Those particularly affected include males and younger gamers, with our survey screen of over 14k gamers also suggesting that those with lower educational attainment and lower levels of employment may be disproportionately affected. These factors, however, are unlikely to be limited to loot boxes.” Fleet Command Charts Its Next Course By Thomas Reynolds It's bedtime for those old scientists in Fleet Command, but Scopely's already sharing where the rest of 2021 will go. Players have a number of developments to look forward to, including an entirely new Officer Away Teams system. Send your unused characters out on errands–sorry, special assignments, and receive goods should they succeed in their tasks. And if they can't handle even that, well, you can always send them to Starbase 80. https://startrekfleetcommand.scopely.com/2021/03/30/roadmap-update-march-2021/ Cetacean Citation in Timelines By Thomas Reynolds George and Gracie are now crew members in Timelines. If this sounds like an April Fool's prank, I assure you, it isn't. George and Gracie are now crew members. Complete the three temporary achievement tiers before April 15th, and you can finally staff your ship's Cetacean Ops facility. Assuming you have the transparent aluminum on hand, of course. Image: Disruptor Beam. It's Time to Re-enter the Nexus with Star Trek: Legends By Rosko McQueen Load up your favourite Personal Access Display Device and get set to enter the Nexus. Star Trek: Legends has launched on Apple Arcade this week and we've had a brief look at the turn-based game. You are the captain of the U.S.S. Artemis, a ship designed to enter the Nexus and draw on the unique properties of the ethereal energy ribbon. Over the course of the game you build a crew of Trek favourites from across timelines and universes to take on missions, collect resources, and power up your characters.   The developers explain in a blog post on StarTrek.com their decision to base the premise of the game around the Nexus, as opposed to other ways of putting characters in a blender like the holodeck, or using Q or the Talosians. Instead they take the largely unexplored idea of the Nexus and expand upon it, incorporating the idea that it was made by design. In a familiar Ready Player One-type premise, each character has their own utopian reality sphere, which is also infinite. So, there's lots of room to grow.   But How Does It Play? Image: StarTrek.com The gameplay is straightforward, tap the bad guy to target them. You can use Worf's battle cry to lower morale (it's super effective!), and there are your typical character class types; engineering, medical, security, etc.  I've only played a few early missions as it guides you through how to assemble your team, battle the bad guys and power up your crew using latinum, protomatter and bio-mimetic gels as some of the in-game currency.  But it's also a brand new game on the platform, and it shows. I had to force quit a couple of times after the game froze at the same point.  The artwork and the attention to detail is excellent. The Cardassians look menacing and there are a few costume callbacks to Voyager and Deep Space Nine standalone episodes. So far so good, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the game grows over time.  

Introductory episode:-Even as 90s kids, we weren't clear on the differences between Babylon 5 (1993-9), Stargate SG-1 (1997-2008), & Farscape (1999-2004)-The aborted B5 computer game was developed by Sierra, the company famous for King's Quest (1980-2016) & Space Quest (1986-95)-B5 S1-4 was on PTEN, B5 S5, most of the latter tv movies, & the spinoff series Crusade (1999) were on TNT-Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-93) is a big touchstone for both of us, Matt likes “The Inner Light” (1992) episode, Captain Riker's adventures continue in the fun Titan novels (2005-17), but the proliferation of new Trek tv series set after the movie Nemesis (2002) have led to the announcement of a Coda trilogy of novels (2021) to end the extensive novel series that had continued the Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, & Titan crews' adventures-The first DS9 console game was Crossroads of Time (1995)-As kids we both played the Star Trek 25th Anniversary computer game (1992) & the sequel Judgement Rites (1993)-The B5 S2 episode Bob references is “Distant Star” (1994)

More than any other episode, this one makes me think about the title of this series. Second Chances is bold in that they keep Riker around and don't write him off as some kind of alien of the week. It's pretty beige in that they thought about shaking up the status quo without really changing their cast but didn't for what are essentially commercial reasons. So Will Riker goes on a shelf simply because people want him around, but don't particularly care if anything--y'know--GOOD is done with him. The man lives in a glass case watching any additional character development passing him by. In the beginning of Season 4, I pitched the idea of "Captain Riker, Ambassador Picard," imagining how season four would look if after Picard's assimilation by the Borg, Riker became the captain and Picard became an ambassador at large on the Enterprise. In that same spirit, I'm going to pitch "Chief of Operations Thomas Riker" for some of the episodes we have coming up. How will future episodes change if Thomas Riker takes over as Chief of Operations and Data becomes First Officer of the Enterprise? Will anything change? Will we have additional storylines to think of? We'll see. The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.

This week on this Star Trek News Podcast: We Trek Out news about Star Trek Prodigy, how a Cuban helped pave the way for Star Trek, Michael Dorn’s “Captain Worf” pitch, and Nichelle Nichol’s final appearance on screen. In Star Trek Gaming, the MMO Star Trek Online has launched its 11th Anniversary Celebrations, and we run down what you should expect! We Trek Out news about Star Trek Prodigy, how a Cuban helped pave the way for Star Trek, Michael Dorn’s “Captain Worf” pitch, and Nichelle Nichol’s final appearance on screen. In Star Trek Gaming, the MMO Star Trek Online has launched its 11th Anniversary Celebrations, and we run down what you should expect! Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages! Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Kate Mulgrew and Prodigy By Cat Hough We have some breaking news from Twitter regarding the Nickelodeon animated show, Star Trek: Prodigy. On Monday, January 24, Kate Mulgrew was asked about the show, saying that she has already finished recording for Prodigy season 1 and how much she enjoyed returning to the role of Kathryn Janeway. Mulgrew ended the chat, saying, “I think we are going into the next season very soon.”  https://twitter.com/jemabean1/status/1353379453913751553 Worf In The Captain’s Seat: The Sequel By Cat Hough On last week’s episode of Priority One, we just discussed the likelihood of Michael Dorn reprising his role of Worf in any of the new Trek shows. Coincidentally, in an interview with TrekMovie.com that was posted earlier this week, Dorn was asked if he was interested in playing Worf in Star Trek: Picard. He replied, ”It depends on the role...I don’t want to get in makeup and just stand around and scowl at people.” He also said he has not yet been contacted by anyone from Picard or Lower Decks, so I suppose we can draw our own conclusions.  Image courtesy of TrekMovie.com However, he did go into some detail about the script he wrote about Captain Worf, saying that he envisioned telling stories about the Federation and Starfleet from the Klingon point of view. Worf would essentially be more like an ambassador of the KDF trying to bring unity to the Klingon Empire. One Last Show for Nichelle Nichols By Tony Hunter It was just last week we were raising a glass to the memory of the Star Trek fan film ecosystem of the mid 20-teens. And then what do we find? It’s an article from WFMZ-TV out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, describing the Kickstarter for the sequel to the fan-produced “Star Trek Renegades” from 2015, directed by Tim Russ. The earlier film had quite a few notable appearances from Star Trek alums, including Walter Koenig as Admiral Chekhov, Robert Picardo as the Doctor, and Tim Russ as Tuvok, just to name a few. And seriously, that’s just a few. You can’t go 10 minutes in that show without saying “isn’t that the guy from…?” Yes, yes it is. Image courtesy of Star Trek: Renegades/Kickstarter Image courtesy of Star Trek: Renegades/Kickstarter The sequel, entitled Renegades Ominara, is boasting that they have lined up the “final performance” of Nichelle Nichols, but she will not be playing Uhura. And Walter Koenig will return, but not as Admiral Chekhov. Tim Russ is back in the director’s chair, leading a newer cast of stars with a few credits each on their TV CVs. The Kickstarter is sitting at just under $26,000 as we record, two-thirds of the way to its goal of $35,000, with 12 days to go. Lawyer alert! Lawyer alert! We’ll put links in the shownotes to the article and the Kickstarter, but a quick word of warning here from the spoilsport lawyers. This project, as it’s currently advertised, might not pass muster with the CBS legal eagles. For one thing, it’s advertised as “a full-40-minute show (which is a network hour-long television show)”, which does not work with the fan film limits of one single 15 minute project or 2 15 minute segments of a single project. Also, the participation of Nichols, Koenig and Russ seems to run afoul of the rule that “creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.” So, it looks like a fun project, so long as the fun police don’t shut it down. How a Cuban Helped Make Star Trek By Elio Lleo  If you fancy yourself a television history buff or have dived into the books and stories detailing the behind-the-scenes development of Star Trek, then you’ve probably already heard that if Gene Roddenberry is Star Trek’s father...then Lucille Ball would certainly be its mother. This–for the most part–is true. By the time Star Trek was ready to begin filming, Lucille Ball had taken full control of Desilu Productions. And, if you’ve read Marc Cushman’s These Are The Voyages, you’ll have read a fun little piece of lore that Lucy once swept the sound stage of Star Trek just to help keep the production on schedule and on budget. Image from Los Angeles Times photographic library/UCLA, courtesy of Wikipedia. But, the road to Star Trek was being paved years earlier with Desi Arnaz very much in the picture. In a recent episode of NPR’s Planet Money, the hosts give you a quick rundown of how this immigrant from Cuba helped shape television today. From abandoning the classic kinescope to introducing the three rolling cameras to insisting on a live-studio audience, Desi Arnaz's influence can be seen today in all your favorite sitcoms… from the Fresh Prince…to Friends…to Fraiser. And when Lucy got pregnant in real life and the I Love Lucy Show had to go on hiatus, well, Desi had an answer for that too. Reruns and syndication! For anyone looking to enhance their appreciation for the history of television–and if you liked watching I Love Lucy and are curious to learn a bit more about the loud-bombastic Cuban man who loves Lucy–TrekOut the shownotes. In Memoriam: Richard Arnold (1954-2021) Last, but certainly not least, it is with a heavy heart that we report the passing of Richard Arnold. For those of you not familiar with the name, Arnold was known as Gene Roddenberry’s “right hand man” during the production of the series and later went on the convention circuit as a “Star Trek Expert.” According to Rod Roddenberry, in a post on Facebook “Richard’s voice was the one my father most often listened to; because Richard listened to the fans." Our hearts go out to his and the Roddenberry family. Star Trek Gaming News by Thomas Reynolds & Shane Hoover Abandon Every Hope, Who Battle Here By Thomas Reynolds When we journeyed two-thirds of the Year’s way, we found ourselves within a blazing fortress, for we had kept Cryptic’s path that does not stray. It is hard to speak of what Gre’thor was, that hellish prison, cowardly and shameful, which even in recall renews my disgust––glorious death is ever more dear! Of course, you've not experienced Dante until you have...well, you know the rest. In the beginning, we fought to preserve the Empire as a warrior’s paradise. Together with its wayward son K’mtar, the House of Mogh endured the Warzone’s purgatory. Now we stand at the Gateway to Gre’thor–the inferno itself–to draw the Year of Klingon to its fiery conclusion. Cryptic’s yearlong revamp of the Klingon Starting Experience concludes with the launch of the Anniversary Event–and if the new Klingon hell doesn’t do it for you, nothing will. We could wax rhapsodic for hours about the new maps, environment textures, enemies, the Dishonorable Three, and hair options. But the link is in our shownotes, captains. You have to see the screencaps to believe them. Recruit First, Ask Questions Later By Thomas Reynolds With the starting Klingon experience refresh complete, this would be the perfect time to see the new sights with a new KDF toon. Also, the Klingon Civil War still rages on and both sides desperately need cannon fodd--I mean, brave warriors. But Sto-vo-kor’s eternal glory isn’t enough for some people: they want dilithium, ships, and shiny new ways to kill people. Starting with the Anniversary Event, Cryptic kicked off Star Trek Online’s fourth Recruitment Event: this time, for the Klingon Empire. Until February 25th, new Klingon characters (using the free character slot Cryptic’ll give you) will be officially dubbed Klingon Recruits. Like in previous events, Klingon Recruits get special rewards for meeting certain goals during the story and into the endgame. This includes (what sound like) the optional story objectives you completed with other faction Recruits, but naturally more violent. Enemies of the Empire abound, and whoever’s on the other end of your transponder wants them dead and gone. Happy hunting! Your other characters also get benefits from the Recruit’s progress like currencies, ship and ground traits, and “piezoelectric execution sceptres.” That alone sounds like it’s worth the effort--but if pain sticks aren’t your style, how about a ship instead? Yes, Klingon Recruits also get the M’Chla Bird of Prey of 2255, refitted for battle in 2411. Details for the scaling T6 ship, along with the other Recruit rewards, will be in our shownotes. As a side note, you can also play a Klingon from 2255 too. Discovery-era Klingons are now available as a KDF race, although identical to their modern counterparts other than looks and uniform. Fortunately no one’s ever had strong opinions about how the Klingons looked in Discovery, so this should be controversy-free. The Fire In Which Houses Are Reborn By Thomas Reynolds Are you dying to see the new Gre’thor (get it?), but don’t have time to start your Recruit right now? Well, the other massive Klingon story content drop timed to the Anniversary Event has you covered. House Reborn continues the Klingon Civil War arc, as J’Ula’s path to redeem the Empire brings us more familiar faces. Our proper review will come next week, once we have time to reflect and replay. But if you’re hearing this before playing, and you haven’t looked at Twitter in a while, here’s a slight spoiler. The title’s more appropriate than you might expect. https://youtu.be/lOKDrix1Nms Infinite Ships in Finite Factions By Thomas Reynolds Hoo boy, captains. Red Alert and brace for impact, because we’re about to hit the Wall. Or not! Because ships aren’t restricted to factions anymore! But they are. Kind of. Look, it’s a complicated discussion on in-game policies: exactly the Earl Grey tea that Priority One loves to spill. As of January 26th, having a level 65 KDF officer on your account will unlock both factions’ ships for all Fed and KDF officers on your account. Coming with the ships are their Admiralty cards, registries, prefixes, bridges, interiors, and any associated items like consoles or pets. Existing Zen Store purchases are reclaimable across the divide, so your Orion engineer can have the Presidio-class cruiser of their dreams. But your Fed-aligned Romulan won’t be getting their hands on a D4x anytime soon. The faction wall for ships still applies to Fed and KDF allies. or now, at least. Forever? Who can say? Ship availability across Red vs. Blue also means the end of other ways Cryptic’s tried bridging the divide. Cross-faction packs for ship-specific traits and consoles aren’t going away. You can still find them in non-Zen stores or on the Exchange. However you won’t be able to get new traits or consoles that way from here on out--get ready to pay for those in the Zen store instead. Fear the Temer-Class Alliance Raider By Shane Hoover We did say your Fed-Aligned Romulan still won’t be getting on the bridge of a D4x, but if that’s what you’re after then the brand new Temer-Class Alliance Raider just might make you smile. This year’s Event Grand Prize for the 11th Anniversary event is the account unlock of the T6 Temer-Class Raider. Carrying on the spirit of cooperation that was embodied in the Khitomer-Class Battlecruiser, the Temer is a joint Romulan and Klingon design available to all factions. The ship stats were published Saturday, January 23rd by Ambassador Kael, and they look pretty tempting. This is a T6 Raider with a 5/1 weapon layout, Enhanced Battle Cloak, Improved Raider Flanking, and Command seating. The Repulsor Blaster experimental weapon and the Sniper starship trait firmly establish the Temer as a maximum range torpedo boat. So prepare to decloak at 10km on someone’s flank, unload a volley of torpedoes, and watch the fireworks! All you need to do is earn 40 or more Daily Progress in the Anniversary Event, and the Temer-Class is yours. Zhat Vash Some Lockbox, Vashn’t It? By Shane Hoover It wouldn’t be a Star Trek Online content update without a new lockbox, right? And this time we’ve got a box inspired by CBS’s newest live-action Star Trek show, Picard. Specifically, the “Picard Zhat Vash” lockbox is inspired by the shadowy Romulan cabal that served as the antagonists for Picard’s first season. The lockbox has all of the lockbox offerings we’ve come to expect: Personal Ground and Space traits, Kit Modules, Duty Officer assignments, new Weapon packs, Lobi store items, a new Pit Bull pet, and a Grand Prize T6 ship, which we’ll discuss shortly. In every box there’s also something new to the game, The Impossible Device. This new consumable will instantly remove one injury status at random from any ground player or player starship not currently in combat. If used on another player, the device also applies an HP and outgoing healing buff for 30 minutes. To see the details of everything this new lockbox has to offer, Trek out the link in our shownotes. Oh! It’s That Romulan Ship! By Shane Hoover If you find yourself lucky enough to unpack a Grand Prize from the new Zhat Vash lockbox, you’ll get your hands on the brand new Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird. This new cross-faction Zhat Vash Warbird was last seen in Star Trek: Picard confronting Captain Riker and the U.S.S. Zheng He.The ship sports a 5/2 weapon layout, plus the experimental weapon slot, which are typical for the ship type. The Carbon Scorcher experimental weapon deals physical damage plus a heavy physical damage over time effect, with a bonus damage resistance debuff. Specialty bridge seats include a Command Tactical/Command seat and a Lt. Commander Universal/Intel seat. The new Universal Console, Bombing Run, passively boosts Plasma damage and Crit Chance, while clicking for a heavy Kinetic and Plasma damage attack. The ship’s trait, Commanded Singularities, adds a “micro singularity” hazard to the current target’s location whenever a Command or Singularity ability is activated. So tell us, Captains, are you going to give Riker an “excuse to kick your treacherous Tal Shiar ass”? The link to all of the ship stats and details is in our show notes.

This week on this Star Trek News Podcast: We Trek Out news about Star Trek Prodigy, how a Cuban helped pave the way for Star Trek, Michael Dorn's “Captain Worf” pitch, and Nichelle Nichol's final appearance on screen. In Star Trek Gaming, the MMO Star Trek Online has launched its 11th Anniversary Celebrations, and we run down what you should expect! We Trek Out news about Star Trek Prodigy, how a Cuban helped pave the way for Star Trek, Michael Dorn's “Captain Worf” pitch, and Nichelle Nichol's final appearance on screen. In Star Trek Gaming, the MMO Star Trek Online has launched its 11th Anniversary Celebrations, and we run down what you should expect! Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we'll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages! Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Kate Mulgrew and Prodigy By Cat Hough We have some breaking news from Twitter regarding the Nickelodeon animated show, Star Trek: Prodigy. On Monday, January 24, Kate Mulgrew was asked about the show, saying that she has already finished recording for Prodigy season 1 and how much she enjoyed returning to the role of Kathryn Janeway. Mulgrew ended the chat, saying, “I think we are going into the next season very soon.”  https://twitter.com/jemabean1/status/1353379453913751553 Worf In The Captain's Seat: The Sequel By Cat Hough On last week's episode of Priority One, we just discussed the likelihood of Michael Dorn reprising his role of Worf in any of the new Trek shows. Coincidentally, in an interview with TrekMovie.com that was posted earlier this week, Dorn was asked if he was interested in playing Worf in Star Trek: Picard. He replied, ”It depends on the role...I don't want to get in makeup and just stand around and scowl at people.” He also said he has not yet been contacted by anyone from Picard or Lower Decks, so I suppose we can draw our own conclusions.  Image courtesy of TrekMovie.com However, he did go into some detail about the script he wrote about Captain Worf, saying that he envisioned telling stories about the Federation and Starfleet from the Klingon point of view. Worf would essentially be more like an ambassador of the KDF trying to bring unity to the Klingon Empire. One Last Show for Nichelle Nichols By Tony Hunter It was just last week we were raising a glass to the memory of the Star Trek fan film ecosystem of the mid 20-teens. And then what do we find? It's an article from WFMZ-TV out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, describing the Kickstarter for the sequel to the fan-produced “Star Trek Renegades” from 2015, directed by Tim Russ. The earlier film had quite a few notable appearances from Star Trek alums, including Walter Koenig as Admiral Chekhov, Robert Picardo as the Doctor, and Tim Russ as Tuvok, just to name a few. And seriously, that's just a few. You can't go 10 minutes in that show without saying “isn't that the guy from…?” Yes, yes it is. Image courtesy of Star Trek: Renegades/Kickstarter Image courtesy of Star Trek: Renegades/Kickstarter The sequel, entitled Renegades Ominara, is boasting that they have lined up the “final performance” of Nichelle Nichols, but she will not be playing Uhura. And Walter Koenig will return, but not as Admiral Chekhov. Tim Russ is back in the director's chair, leading a newer cast of stars with a few credits each on their TV CVs. The Kickstarter is sitting at just under $26,000 as we record, two-thirds of the way to its goal of $35,000, with 12 days to go. Lawyer alert! Lawyer alert! We'll put links in the shownotes to the article and the Kickstarter, but a quick word of warning here from the spoilsport lawyers. This project, as it's currently advertised, might not pass muster with the CBS legal eagles. For one thing, it's advertised as “a full-40-minute show (which is a network hour-long television show)”, which does not work with the fan film limits of one single 15 minute project or 2 15 minute segments of a single project. Also, the participation of Nichols, Koenig and Russ seems to run afoul of the rule that “creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures' licensees.” So, it looks like a fun project, so long as the fun police don't shut it down. How a Cuban Helped Make Star Trek By Elio Lleo  If you fancy yourself a television history buff or have dived into the books and stories detailing the behind-the-scenes development of Star Trek, then you've probably already heard that if Gene Roddenberry is Star Trek's father...then Lucille Ball would certainly be its mother. This–for the most part–is true. By the time Star Trek was ready to begin filming, Lucille Ball had taken full control of Desilu Productions. And, if you've read Marc Cushman's These Are The Voyages, you'll have read a fun little piece of lore that Lucy once swept the sound stage of Star Trek just to help keep the production on schedule and on budget. Image from Los Angeles Times photographic library/UCLA, courtesy of Wikipedia. But, the road to Star Trek was being paved years earlier with Desi Arnaz very much in the picture. In a recent episode of NPR's Planet Money, the hosts give you a quick rundown of how this immigrant from Cuba helped shape television today. From abandoning the classic kinescope to introducing the three rolling cameras to insisting on a live-studio audience, Desi Arnaz's influence can be seen today in all your favorite sitcoms… from the Fresh Prince…to Friends…to Fraiser. And when Lucy got pregnant in real life and the I Love Lucy Show had to go on hiatus, well, Desi had an answer for that too. Reruns and syndication! For anyone looking to enhance their appreciation for the history of television–and if you liked watching I Love Lucy and are curious to learn a bit more about the loud-bombastic Cuban man who loves Lucy–TrekOut the shownotes. In Memoriam: Richard Arnold (1954-2021) Last, but certainly not least, it is with a heavy heart that we report the passing of Richard Arnold. For those of you not familiar with the name, Arnold was known as Gene Roddenberry's “right hand man” during the production of the series and later went on the convention circuit as a “Star Trek Expert.” According to Rod Roddenberry, in a post on Facebook “Richard's voice was the one my father most often listened to; because Richard listened to the fans." Our hearts go out to his and the Roddenberry family. Star Trek Gaming News by Thomas Reynolds & Shane Hoover Abandon Every Hope, Who Battle Here By Thomas Reynolds When we journeyed two-thirds of the Year's way, we found ourselves within a blazing fortress, for we had kept Cryptic's path that does not stray. It is hard to speak of what Gre'thor was, that hellish prison, cowardly and shameful, which even in recall renews my disgust––glorious death is ever more dear! Of course, you've not experienced Dante until you have...well, you know the rest. In the beginning, we fought to preserve the Empire as a warrior's paradise. Together with its wayward son K'mtar, the House of Mogh endured the Warzone's purgatory. Now we stand at the Gateway to Gre'thor–the inferno itself–to draw the Year of Klingon to its fiery conclusion. Cryptic's yearlong revamp of the Klingon Starting Experience concludes with the launch of the Anniversary Event–and if the new Klingon hell doesn't do it for you, nothing will. We could wax rhapsodic for hours about the new maps, environment textures, enemies, the Dishonorable Three, and hair options. But the link is in our shownotes, captains. You have to see the screencaps to believe them. Recruit First, Ask Questions Later By Thomas Reynolds With the starting Klingon experience refresh complete, this would be the perfect time to see the new sights with a new KDF toon. Also, the Klingon Civil War still rages on and both sides desperately need cannon fodd--I mean, brave warriors. But Sto-vo-kor's eternal glory isn't enough for some people: they want dilithium, ships, and shiny new ways to kill people. Starting with the Anniversary Event, Cryptic kicked off Star Trek Online's fourth Recruitment Event: this time, for the Klingon Empire. Until February 25th, new Klingon characters (using the free character slot Cryptic'll give you) will be officially dubbed Klingon Recruits. Like in previous events, Klingon Recruits get special rewards for meeting certain goals during the story and into the endgame. This includes (what sound like) the optional story objectives you completed with other faction Recruits, but naturally more violent. Enemies of the Empire abound, and whoever's on the other end of your transponder wants them dead and gone. Happy hunting! Your other characters also get benefits from the Recruit's progress like currencies, ship and ground traits, and “piezoelectric execution sceptres.” That alone sounds like it's worth the effort--but if pain sticks aren't your style, how about a ship instead? Yes, Klingon Recruits also get the M'Chla Bird of Prey of 2255, refitted for battle in 2411. Details for the scaling T6 ship, along with the other Recruit rewards, will be in our shownotes. As a side note, you can also play a Klingon from 2255 too. Discovery-era Klingons are now available as a KDF race, although identical to their modern counterparts other than looks and uniform. Fortunately no one's ever had strong opinions about how the Klingons looked in Discovery, so this should be controversy-free. The Fire In Which Houses Are Reborn By Thomas Reynolds Are you dying to see the new Gre'thor (get it?), but don't have time to start your Recruit right now? Well, the other massive Klingon story content drop timed to the Anniversary Event has you covered. House Reborn continues the Klingon Civil War arc, as J'Ula's path to redeem the Empire brings us more familiar faces. Our proper review will come next week, once we have time to reflect and replay. But if you're hearing this before playing, and you haven't looked at Twitter in a while, here's a slight spoiler. The title's more appropriate than you might expect. https://youtu.be/lOKDrix1Nms Infinite Ships in Finite Factions By Thomas Reynolds Hoo boy, captains. Red Alert and brace for impact, because we're about to hit the Wall. Or not! Because ships aren't restricted to factions anymore! But they are. Kind of. Look, it's a complicated discussion on in-game policies: exactly the Earl Grey tea that Priority One loves to spill. As of January 26th, having a level 65 KDF officer on your account will unlock both factions' ships for all Fed and KDF officers on your account. Coming with the ships are their Admiralty cards, registries, prefixes, bridges, interiors, and any associated items like consoles or pets. Existing Zen Store purchases are reclaimable across the divide, so your Orion engineer can have the Presidio-class cruiser of their dreams. But your Fed-aligned Romulan won't be getting their hands on a D4x anytime soon. The faction wall for ships still applies to Fed and KDF allies. or now, at least. Forever? Who can say? Ship availability across Red vs. Blue also means the end of other ways Cryptic's tried bridging the divide. Cross-faction packs for ship-specific traits and consoles aren't going away. You can still find them in non-Zen stores or on the Exchange. However you won't be able to get new traits or consoles that way from here on out--get ready to pay for those in the Zen store instead. Fear the Temer-Class Alliance Raider By Shane Hoover We did say your Fed-Aligned Romulan still won't be getting on the bridge of a D4x, but if that's what you're after then the brand new Temer-Class Alliance Raider just might make you smile. This year's Event Grand Prize for the 11th Anniversary event is the account unlock of the T6 Temer-Class Raider. Carrying on the spirit of cooperation that was embodied in the Khitomer-Class Battlecruiser, the Temer is a joint Romulan and Klingon design available to all factions. The ship stats were published Saturday, January 23rd by Ambassador Kael, and they look pretty tempting. This is a T6 Raider with a 5/1 weapon layout, Enhanced Battle Cloak, Improved Raider Flanking, and Command seating. The Repulsor Blaster experimental weapon and the Sniper starship trait firmly establish the Temer as a maximum range torpedo boat. So prepare to decloak at 10km on someone's flank, unload a volley of torpedoes, and watch the fireworks! All you need to do is earn 40 or more Daily Progress in the Anniversary Event, and the Temer-Class is yours. Zhat Vash Some Lockbox, Vashn't It? By Shane Hoover It wouldn't be a Star Trek Online content update without a new lockbox, right? And this time we've got a box inspired by CBS's newest live-action Star Trek show, Picard. Specifically, the “Picard Zhat Vash” lockbox is inspired by the shadowy Romulan cabal that served as the antagonists for Picard's first season. The lockbox has all of the lockbox offerings we've come to expect: Personal Ground and Space traits, Kit Modules, Duty Officer assignments, new Weapon packs, Lobi store items, a new Pit Bull pet, and a Grand Prize T6 ship, which we'll discuss shortly. In every box there's also something new to the game, The Impossible Device. This new consumable will instantly remove one injury status at random from any ground player or player starship not currently in combat. If used on another player, the device also applies an HP and outgoing healing buff for 30 minutes. To see the details of everything this new lockbox has to offer, Trek out the link in our shownotes. Oh! It's That Romulan Ship! By Shane Hoover If you find yourself lucky enough to unpack a Grand Prize from the new Zhat Vash lockbox, you'll get your hands on the brand new Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird. This new cross-faction Zhat Vash Warbird was last seen in Star Trek: Picard confronting Captain Riker and the U.S.S. Zheng He.The ship sports a 5/2 weapon layout, plus the experimental weapon slot, which are typical for the ship type. The Carbon Scorcher experimental weapon deals physical damage plus a heavy physical damage over time effect, with a bonus damage resistance debuff. Specialty bridge seats include a Command Tactical/Command seat and a Lt. Commander Universal/Intel seat. The new Universal Console, Bombing Run, passively boosts Plasma damage and Crit Chance, while clicking for a heavy Kinetic and Plasma damage attack. The ship's trait, Commanded Singularities, adds a “micro singularity” hazard to the current target's location whenever a Command or Singularity ability is activated. So tell us, Captains, are you going to give Riker an “excuse to kick your treacherous Tal Shiar ass”? The link to all of the ship stats and details is in our show notes.

Positively Trek 84: Picard: The Dark VeilWith Special Guest: Author James Swallow! The year is 2386, and the United Federation of Planets has been dealt a serious blow: synthetic lifeforms have attacked the Utopia Plantia Shipyards at Mars, derailing a massive relief effort to save the Romulan people from an impending supernova. The Federation, reacting to this tragedy, has turned inward, halting relief efforts in the Romulan Empire and instituting a ban on research and development of synthetic lifeforms. All of this serves as the backdrop to the situation facing Captain Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan as they respond to an urgent distress call from the Jazari, a species situated very near the Romulan Neutral Zone… In this episode of the Positively Trek Book Club, hosts Dan and Bruce welcome renowned author James Swallow to the show to discuss his latest novel, Star Trek: Picard: The Dark Veil. We talk about the genesis of the novel, the links to the Star Trek: Titan book series, Thaddeus Worf Troi-Riker, the situation in the Federation, the Romulans, the Jazari, easter eggs and continuity connections, and wrap up with where James can be found online and what he has coming next! Show page: http://positivelytrek.libsyn.com/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/positively-trek/id1501468628 Twitter: http://twitter.com/positivelytrek Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PositivelyTrek Take a Chance by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4457-take-a-chance License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. STAR TREK and all related marks, logos and characters are owned by CBS Studios Inc. Kertrats Productions is not endorsed or sponsored by or affiliated with CBS/Paramount Pictures or the STAR TREK franchise.

Over a Torrent Sea. In the aftermath of the devastating events of the Destiny trilogy, the Starship Titan is once again assigned to deep space exploration beyond the farthest borders of the Federation. Investigating an oceanic world of abundant and mysterious life, the crew unwittingly causes distress to the ecosystem and to the lives of the inhabitants of the world, nicknamed Droplet. Now, Captain Riker and Ensign Lavena, cut off from the rest of the crew, must convince their captors of their sincere desire to help the people of Droplet before the damage becomes irreparable. In their final episode as hosts of Literary Treks, hosts Bruce Gibson and Dan Gunther discuss the Star Trek: Titan novel Over a Torrent Sea by Christopher L. Bennett. They talk about Titan's new mission, the Squales of Droplet, Ensign Aili Lavena and her past, a difficult maternal situation for Deanna Troi, the unintended consequences of the crew's decisions, atonement for past mistakes, and wrap up with their final thoughts and ratings. At the top of the show, Bruce and Dan review the first issue in IDW's new Deep Space Nine miniseries, Too Long a Sacrifice. News DS9: Too Long A Sacrifice Comic Review (00:06:03) Feature: Over a Torrent Sea Deep Space Mission (00:19:57) Droplet and the Squales (00:24:36) Aili Lavena (00:28:16) Sexual Rendezvous (00:32:06) Far Off Delivery Ward (00:38:22) Unintended Consequences (00:48:06) Atonement (00:53:53) Ratings (01:04:56) Final Thoughts (01:16:36) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Production Bruce Gibson (Editor and Producer) Dan Gunther (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Justin Oser (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Greg Rozier (Associate Producer) Jeffery Harlan (Associate Producer) Casey Pettitt (Associate Producer)

Over a Torrent Sea. In the aftermath of the devastating events of the Destiny trilogy, the Starship Titan is once again assigned to deep space exploration beyond the farthest borders of the Federation. Investigating an oceanic world of abundant and mysterious life, the crew unwittingly causes distress to the ecosystem and to the lives of the inhabitants of the world, nicknamed Droplet. Now, Captain Riker and Ensign Lavena, cut off from the rest of the crew, must convince their captors of their sincere desire to help the people of Droplet before the damage becomes irreparable. In their final episode as hosts of Literary Treks, hosts Bruce Gibson and Dan Gunther discuss the Star Trek: Titan novel Over a Torrent Sea by Christopher L. Bennett. They talk about Titan's new mission, the Squales of Droplet, Ensign Aili Lavena and her past, a difficult maternal situation for Deanna Troi, the unintended consequences of the crew's decisions, atonement for past mistakes, and wrap up with their final thoughts and ratings. At the top of the show, Bruce and Dan review the first issue in IDW's new Deep Space Nine miniseries, Too Long a Sacrifice. News DS9: Too Long A Sacrifice Comic Review (00:06:03) Feature: Over a Torrent Sea Deep Space Mission (00:19:57) Droplet and the Squales (00:24:36) Aili Lavena (00:28:16) Sexual Rendezvous (00:32:06) Far Off Delivery Ward (00:38:22) Unintended Consequences (00:48:06) Atonement (00:53:53) Ratings (01:04:56) Final Thoughts (01:16:36) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Production Bruce Gibson (Editor and Producer) Dan Gunther (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Justin Oser (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Greg Rozier (Associate Producer) Jeffery Harlan (Associate Producer) Casey Pettitt (Associate Producer)

Jonathan Frakes, like all of us, hopes Captain Riker will return in Star Trek: Picard season 2, George Takei expresses support for anti-racist protesters, and Star Trek guest actor Mel Winkler has passed away at the age of 78. We're catching up on the weekend's Star Trek news! Today's Daily Star Trek News is sponsored by Podcorn. Connect directly with brands and start monetizing your podcast today at podcorn.com. Support Daily Star Trek News on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dailystartreknews Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts For more great Star Trek podcasts: https://podcasts.roddenberry.com Website: https://www.dailystartreknews.com Email: info@dailystartreknews.com Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @dailytreknews

Jonathan Frakes, like all of us, hopes Captain Riker will return in Star Trek: Picard season 2, George Takei expresses support for anti-racist protesters, and Star Trek guest actor Mel Winkler has passed away at the age of 78. We’re catching up on the weekend’s Star Trek news! Today’s Daily Star Trek News is sponsored by Podcorn. Connect directly with brands and start monetizing your podcast today at podcorn.com. Support Daily Star Trek News on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dailystartreknews Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts For more great Star Trek podcasts: https://podcasts.roddenberry.com Website: https://www.dailystartreknews.com Email: info@dailystartreknews.com Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @dailytreknews

Join Amy Nelson and Patrick Devlin as they discuss the first season finale of Star Trek: Picard. Picard willingly sacrifices himself to show Soji what is “real” and that sometimes it is necessary to kill a life to save a life. Just as Data sacrificed himself in Nemesis, to prolong Picard’s life - a true understanding and application of humanity. Plus, Captain Riker!United Federation Of Podcasts is brought you to by listeners like you. Special thanks to these patrons on Patreon who's generous contributions help produce the podcast! Kevin ParlagrecoTom ElliotYou can become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/ufpearth

Here it is, the much anticipated season one finale of STAR TREK PICARD.  Join Aron and Paulie as they pick the nits, poke the bare threads and complain as no one has complained before all the while loving the show.  Engage!

OK we've seen it all - Probing Wormholes, Narissa goes over the edge, The Sutra Switch-off, Elnor gets emotional, and Seven Holds hands... It's Episode 10 of Picard - Hey - Send us your comments! Go to Starfleet Underground.com and click that Contact Us button! -Brought to you by Section 31- Nathan Adams Heather Ferris Rocky Robinson Fred Buetler Patrick Hall Chris Kim Warning! Spoilers for Star Trek: Picard S01-E10 1:00 Extra Large Crew today 1:10 Patrick Hall 1:30 Chris Kim Everyday is a good day to cry 2:00 Heather - Fred's tribbles make a mess 2:20 Tribble droppings are bigger than tribbles? 2:45 Man-scaping or Tribble? 3:08 Rocky - Not speaking of Man-scaping 3:50 Klingon Bidets - Hold on tight! 5:20 News of the week - Captain gets the story (phoned in!)- we talk anyway. 5:44 Season 2 Picard Writers 6:45 Discovery Post Production now working from home. Delays? 7:10 Video editing nerds discuss working from home 9:50 Writers are very productive working from home 10:15 Zoom meetings this week? Don't become the meme! 10:30 Home snack food room vs Work snack food room 12:20 Rumors 13:18 Captain Riker! (Twitter spoilers?) 14:20 Star Trek: Tribble 14:39 Sitcom like Cheers, but Quark's! 15:22 Whoopi and Q? 15:30 What's next? We can't wait! 16:20 Avengers vibe? 17:00 Wormhole with worms 17:37 Borg Directions not traveled 18:20 Kirk reborn? In the books at least? 19:00 Insurrection Alternatives 20:40 Discovery is coming soon. 21:00 Episode went ways expected and not? 21:12 Fascinating Spock Nod 21:37 Seven un-official news 22:00 Space Boner! 22:30 Season length vs Cinematic Episodes 23:20 10 Episode Story Arc vs one-off episodes 23:40 Captian Pike show? 25:50 The Orville 27:00 Probing Questions vs Questionable Probing 27:30 Seven vs. Narissa...Oh not yet. 27:50 Narek - sneaky bastard. 28:10 Enor's XBs conversation 28:50 Where Narissa ended up...Over the Edge? 30:47 Narissa's interest in brother's sex life? 31:35 Spock's look vs Narek? 32:33 Vulcans and Romulans (Don't talk about the Remans) 34:55 Jurarti sneaking and Optical security locks Another (EYE saw it!) 35:45 The Eyeball fetish 36:15 Androids...Powered by Ring! 36:36 When Soong tells Sutra 37:10 Sutra gets turned off. 37:30 Narek, Derrick, Elron, Enron, Elnor, whatever... 38:15 Imaginative Repairs 38:49 Heather's new assignment 39:30 Whip it out again! 40:00 Universal Boy Scout Screwdriver? 40:40 Whip out the lack of imagination 41:20 Monkey Paw 41:40 NOW we REALLY talk about Seven vs Narissa. 42:00 You're kinda pretty...Too bad you're a half-meat. 42:26 Narek - Self serving 43:50 Villain Writing 101 44:02 Elnor vs. Narek...The look like he will gut you from...It taint funny. 45:13 The Picard Maneuver 46:00 Picard back in the chair 46:46 Driving Manual vs Auto 47:22 Romulans shoot like Stormtroopers? 48:00 Sutra, you lost your data plan, bitch! 48:50 Picard's last conversation with Soji 50:13 When Riker came back 50:38 Heather called it! You were right! 51:42 Say Enterprise! SAY IT! Awww. 52:09 Worf predictions 52:30 Oh's Linked In profile. Oh is out! 53:22 Getting all those Romulan Ships 54:15 How fast these ships are 55:05 Alien Tentacles 55:50 Send in the hole probes for feeling around? 56:43 Butterfly! Symbol of rebirth. 57:10 Devastating moment 57:30 Raffi and Elnor 58:42 Balls-out Full Android! (or not) 1:00:09 Everything works, right? 1:00:35 Immortality...A can of worms? 1:01:36 Giving Data an ending...Blue Skies. 1:02:30 Rip out your heart, plunge it back in, rip it out... 1:03:56 Completing his journey to Humanity 1:05:01 The ending bridge scene 1:06:42 I love you too? 1:07:35 Picard Opening putting it all together 1:08:30 They didn't give him hair?! 1:09:30 Star Trek: Picard-Free! Until the end of April 23!!! Code: Gift Email: thecollective@starfleetunderground.com Website: starfleetunderground.com Twitter: twitter.com/StarfleetUnderG Instagram: instagram.com/starfleetunderground Facebook: facebook.com/starfleetunderground

Nepenthe. The last time that we saw Will Riker and Deanna Troi together with Jean-Luc Picard was in Star Trek: Nemesis, when a newly married Captain Riker and Commander Troi were about to embark on adventures aboard the USS Titan. Twenty years later, the couple—now retired—returns in the series Star Trek: Picard for a heartfelt reunion with their beloved captain. Lending a helping hand, they provide Picard and Soji much-needed refuge at their peaceful home on the beautiful planet Nepenthe as they try to digest the dramatic events that have turned lives upside down. In this episode of The Line, hosts Brandon-Shea Mutala, Justin Oser, and Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi discuss the seventh episode of Star Trek: Picard, “Nepenthe.” We explore the much-anticipated meeting of TNG favorites, Will and Deanna's charming daughter Kestra and her friendship with Soji, and the dangerous turn of events for Elnor and Hugh back on the Artifact. We also discuss the worlds and languages invented by Thaddeus Troi-Riker, what may be happening with Rios, Jurati, and Raffi, and the disturbing images we see in a mind-meld between Commodore Oh and Jurati. We also share our predictions for upcoming episodes. Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Initial Thoughts (00:01:43) Favorite Moments (00:05:04) Scenes on Nepenthe (00:09:52) Jurati and Oh (01:02:20) Rios, Raffi, and Jurati (01:14:42) Elnor and Hugh (01:34:20) Canon and Book Connections (01:42:14) Chrissie's History Corner (01:50:04) Final Thoughts (01:54:19) Closing (01:57:45) Hosts Justin Oser, Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi, and Brandon-Shea Mutala Production Justin Oser (Editor and Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Producer) Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Tony Robinson (Show Art)

Nepenthe. The last time that we saw Will Riker and Deanna Troi together with Jean-Luc Picard was in Star Trek: Nemesis, when a newly married Captain Riker and Commander Troi were about to embark on adventures aboard the USS Titan. Twenty years later, the couple—now retired—returns in the series Star Trek: Picard for a heartfelt reunion with their beloved captain. Lending a helping hand, they provide Picard and Soji much-needed refuge at their peaceful home on the beautiful planet Nepenthe as they try to digest the dramatic events that have turned lives upside down. In this episode of The Line, hosts Brandon-Shea Mutala, Justin Oser, and Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi discuss the seventh episode of Star Trek: Picard, “Nepenthe.” We explore the much-anticipated meeting of TNG favorites, Will and Deanna’s charming daughter Kestra and her friendship with Soji, and the dangerous turn of events for Elnor and Hugh back on the Artifact. We also discuss the worlds and languages invented by Thaddeus Troi-Riker, what may be happening with Rios, Jurati, and Raffi, and the disturbing images we see in a mind-meld between Commodore Oh and Jurati. We also share our predictions for upcoming episodes. Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Initial Thoughts (00:01:43) Favorite Moments (00:05:04) Scenes on Nepenthe (00:09:52) Jurati and Oh (01:02:20) Rios, Raffi, and Jurati (01:14:42) Elnor and Hugh (01:34:20) Canon and Book Connections (01:42:14) Chrissie’s History Corner (01:50:04) Final Thoughts (01:54:19) Closing (01:57:45) Hosts Justin Oser, Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi, and Brandon-Shea Mutala Production Justin Oser (Editor and Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Producer) Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Tony Robinson (Show Art)

Wow. This was a fantastic episode. Bringing back Riker and Troi wasn't just a nostalgia stunt. These character were very well used to fantastic effect. This is a beautiful character episode that adds more depth to Riker and Troi's characters than was done by any of the TNG movies. This episode is packed with scene after scene that makes you feel a variety of emotions. Let's dig in and geek out over this wonderful piece of television. ----more---- This is episode 17 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about Star Trek Picard episode 7 - Nepenthe.  I’m away at Ulverstone in North-West Tasmania for a church family camp. So you might hear some rolling waves or even a fairy penguin or two in the background of this episode, because Star Trek waits for no one.  And wow, what an episode we have to talk about!  The description on Memory Alpha reads Picard and Soji transport to the planet Nepenthe, home to some old and trusted friends. As the rest of La Sirena's crew attempt to join them, Picard helps Soji make sense of her recently unlocked memories. Meanwhile, Hugh and Elnor are left on the Borg cube and must face an angered Narissa.  The episode was written by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon It was directed by Douglas Aarniokoski And it first aired on 5 March 2020.  And of course, it guest starred Jonathan Frakes and Marini Sirtis.  Make it so.  Man, I loved this episode. It exemplified what Star Trek Picard is, when it’s at it’s best. It was a slow-paced deeply character-driven story.  This week’s flashback takes place just 3 days ago, taking us back to Episode 3 of the show. We get to see a little of what went on between Commodore Oh and Agnus. She asks a few questions about what Agnus told Picard and then she says she’ll show Agnus what will happen if Synthetic lifeforms are allowed to exist. And she performs a mind meld with her. So up until now, my assumption has been that Oh is a Romulan posing as a Vulcan. But can Romulans perform mind melds? We know they are an offshoot of the Vulcan race, and we know that mind melds are a very ancient Vulcan practice, but to my knowledge we have never seen, in any canon or non-canon source, a Romulan perform a mind meld. Raffi and Maddox both believe there are Starfleet officers complicit with the Zhat Vash behind this whole thing, so maybe Oh really is a Vulcan, just working with the Romulans. It seems pretty obvious to me that she knows Rizzo is a Romulan. We don’t know exactly know what she showed Agnus. A few rapid flashes of images. I believe there was an exploding planet in there. We don’t have a full enough picture to see what exactly it was to change Agnus’s mind so completely, to drive her to betray Picard and murder Maddox. It had to be really compelling. So far, we haven’t seen any compelling motivation from the bad guys in this show, other than, “they hate synthetic life”, which is pretty weak. Did Oh convince her, or mind control her? We don’t know enough. In fact, this flashback doesn’t really tell us anything new, other than a mind meld was performed. Anyway, Oh gets Raffi to swallow a tracking device, which will come back later in the episode. Back in present day, The La Sierenna is caught in a borg tractor beam at the artefact. And poor Hugh is being interrogated by Rizzo. I am so ready for her to die! Rizzo says she can’t kill Hugh because as a Federation citizen, it would be a treaty violation. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who cares about treaty violations. Her real motivation here is to get Hugh to talk. She can’t get the information out of him that she needs if he’s dead. So instead, she starts killing ex borg. Knowing how much Hugh cares for them. When Hugh refuses to talk, she let’s the La Sierra go, but sends Narak out to follow them. Elnor stays behind to help Hugh. This is where he is needed. MY biggest question is, where was Elnor while Hugh was being interrogated. Why didn’t he just jump in and behead Rizzo right then and there. What I like here is that the people in this show are not stupid. Rios thinks that Raffi hacked the tractor beam, because that’s what she was trying to do, but within seconds, they realise that’s not the case. They know this is suspicious and they have their guard up from that moment on. That brings us to the planet Nepenthe, which is very earth-like. Looks like a bit of a paradise planet. Picard and Soji emerge from the Sakarian gateway thing and are immediately confronted by a warrior armed with a bow and arrow. Quick aside. Am I the only one terrified that the borg now have the technology to beam a drone onto a planet from lightyears away? One drone is all it would take to cause an apocalypse. And they’re using it solely as a means of escape for the queen. That seems … illogical. Anyway. I love how Picard points out that his heart is solid durateneum. I think this is the first time it’s been made clear to new audiences that Picard has an artificial heart. Of course, it turns out the warrior is a child, and that Picard knows her, and her parents. By this point, I’m sure we’ve all guessed that her parents are Riker and Troi. I love that they named their daughter Kestra, after Deanna’s older sister, who tragically died when she was just Deanna was just a newborn. That story is told in one of the few really good Lwaxana episodes that TNG did “Dark Page”. DS9 did several good Lwaxana episodes, and one bad one. Anyway, I Think that’s a wonderful tribute to her sister. We’ll learn later in the episode about Will and Deanna’s other child, who also has a significant name. Through a nice conversation between Soji and Kestra, we find that Soji trusts nobody, including Picard. After what she’s just been through with Narak, and the shock of finding out her entire life is a life, I really don’t blame her. The way Picard breaks the news to Soji that she’s an android was really sloppy. He should have handled that with a lot more delicacy. He should have put off Kestra’s question, and taken the time during the walk to break the news to Soji as gently as he could. Personally, I think that discovering you’re not a “real person” but are actually artificial, would be a massive shock, and quite a difficult thing to accept. But this is all another case of Picard being a good man, but not perfect. Sometimes he stumbles, even just on the little things. And I love that about this show. He kinda stumbles again when he tells her that Dahj WAS real. That implies that Dahj is dead. She assumes this whole thing is just another mind game. Again, I don’t blame her. And we get our first glimpse of Troi. I love the look of joy on her face when she sees Picard. She knows immediately he’s in trouble. And then she just clouds over as she senses the depth of what Picard has been through, and is still going through. Because, of course, she’s an empath. Marina Sirtis is absolutely fantastic in this episode. It’s a good reminder of what a great actor she is. Something Star Trek didn’t always give her the opportunity to show. When Picard introduces Soji and Dr. Soji Asher, she says “just Soji.” She’s just learned that her doctorate, and her surname are both lies. Nice touch. Then we get to see Riker for the first time. He may not have his wife’s empathic abilities but he can either see in Picard’s face, or just knows he wouldn’t show up for a social call. And so Riker says “Shields Up!” That’s such an iconic Riker line. Loved it. And I just love that Riker has shields on his house. He’s prepared for all eventualities.  I thought he said “we’ve had some problems with the Xindi, would have been a nice nod to Enterprise, but no, it’s the Kzinti. Have you heard of them? Top points if you recognise the name. I didn’t. But they’re a race of aggressive felines that were previously seen in Star Trek The Animated series. So that’s a pretty deep cut. Deanna recognises the emotion on Soji’s face and acknowledges that she’s been through genuine trauma. But she can’t sense those emotions. This makes me wonder if she could sense Data’s emotions once he installed the emotion chip. The movies never answered that question. Either way, Troi respects the truth of Soji’s emotions, artificial or not. Picard tells his friends that he is in over his head. I think this is the first time he’s slowed down long enough to truly realise that. He’s lost his crew, and his plan was not as fully formed as he’d thought. He was so focussed on finding and rescuing Soji, he hadn’t given any thought to what he’d do once he found her. He needs a place to regroup and formulate a new plan. And where better than he with his most trusted friends. Will Riker, his right hand, and Deanna Troi, his conscience. I’m loving the relationship the Rikers have with their daughter. It seems like a very happy family. And that’s probably, partly because of, rather than just in spite of, the tragedy we’ll learn about later. From what we see of it, Nepenthe is a beautiful world, but I would have liked it if it were just a little more alien. Apparently they have venomous animals called bunnicorns, but they look exactly like rabbits. The name bunnicorn is a bit on the nose. Actually, a lot on the nose. I know they don’t have infinite budget, but I’d have liked it if they’d used a CGI creature, just to add a little alien-ness to the planet. At least in TOS they put horns on the dog. Kestra is fascinated that Soji is Data’s daughter. She asks her if she plays the violin or likes Sherlock Holmes, two things we know about Data. That’s a very kid way to approach it. Kestra is more fascinated with the little human details about Soji, than the superhuman things. The fact that she has mucus fascinates her. This reminds me of the time Julian Bashir met Data. He wasn’t impressed that Data had super strength and speed. He was fascinated that Data breathed and had a circulatory system. Soji doesn’t understand in what sense Data could be her father. She was created long after Data died. Picard really needs to take some time to explain this whole neuronic clone thing to her. I like the relationship that is developing between Kestra and Soji in this episode. There are so many great character scenes. It’s just one after another after another. I like the subtle little moment as Deanna sighs before opening the door to Thad’s room. We learn that the Rikers had a son. Had being the operative word. Last week would have been his 18th birthday. So that’s a very sad development. I love the photo of Picard in uniform holding baby Thad.  Picard has such a smile on his face. By this point in his life, he’d mostly gotten over his fear of children, but this was just any child. This was the child of his dearest friends. Of course he’s gonna have a huge smile plastered all over his face. I love the acknowledgement from Picard that as Kestra’s aching for her brother slowly fades, it brings a whole different ache to Deanna and Will. I love the writing in this episode. Their son’s name was Thaddeus Riker. Thad was likely named after Colonel Thaddius Riker, an ancestor of Will’s. He fought in the American Civil War during the 1860s and was named Old Iron Boots by his fellow soldiers. Will knows this story well, and was shocked once to learn that Colonel Riker was rescued by a Q posing as a human. It’s doubtful he remembers this detail, however, as he was transported to the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant to give evidence in a trial against the Q, before being returned to the alpha quadrant with his memories erased. Rios has figured out that somebody is tailing them. Again, the crew are not stupid. Another thing Rios and Raffi are noticing is that Agnes is not herself. Agnes makes a comment about wanting to be the fun crewmember who suggests hiding in a comet that turns out to be a giant gormagander. This seems like a bit of a Star Wars reference, referring, obviously, to Empire Strikes Back, where the Millennium Falcon hides in a cave in an asteroid, that turns out to be a giant space worm. But it’s also a reference to something that was introduced into Star Trek lore by Star Trek Discovery. The gormagander is a space wale. A sentient animal that flies through space. They were on the endangered species list in the 23rd century, so the fact that Agnes is making this comment suggest that maybe they are a little more plentiful in the 24th. Which is cool. Agnus is really out of character at this point. She suggests abandoning the mission, abandoning Picard and abandoning Soji. She was so excited to meet a real living synth, and now she wants no part of it. She’s getting really bad at hiding her true feelings. I love the little shorthand between Rios and Raffi. With just a look, she says “Leave it to me, I’ll work on her.” And with a look of his own, Rios says, “Go for it, she’s all yours.” That demonstrates the shared history of two old friends better than Raffi’s use of JL as a nickname for Picard. Not that I particularly mind the JL thing. Next we get yet another wonderful scene. This time between Picard and Riker. Picard is still trying to protect the Rikers from all this and he thinks the best way to do that is to tell them nothing about his situation. Riker’s comeback is both stinging and heartbreaking. “I was just thinking about how great it would be if ignorance of danger was all it took to keep it away from the people we love.” It’s a very personal statement for Riker, as we see him choke up while he says it. The soil on Nepenthe has regenerative powers. Things grow really well here. It’s why they came here. It seems Captain Riker gave up his Starfleet career to move here to Napenthe for the sake of his son’s health. He and Deanna thought that maybe it would help. Soji is exhibiting more and more android traits. Now that she’s activated, she’s found she can read a 300 page book in a few seconds. And she gives a little head tilt. I recognised that as very Data long before Riker called it out. I’m sure you did too. Riker shows Picard how foolish he’s been trying to keep everything to himself, but essentially recounting the entire story of the show so far. He’s not an idiot any more than Rios and Raffi. And he reminds Picard that he’s not the captain of a starship anymore. He’s dealing with a teenager. Something Picard has no experience with. But Riker does. We get some interesting insight into Thad. He grew up on Starships, mostly, on the USS Titan presumably. He never felt like he had a homeworld. His mother was from Betazed. His father was from Earth. Thad didn’t feel like either of those planets was his home. He was a child of space. But he was fascinated by the idea of a homeworld and invented his own. Ardani. He came up with various different cultures and even whole languages. It’s very creative. I can so identify with that as a writer. Already, this boy that we’ve never seen on screen has so much more depth than half the characters on Discovery. Interesting that. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m bagging out Discovery. I like Discovery, but I must admit, I’m loving Picard more. Eventually, when they came to Nepenthe, for Thad’s health, it became his homeworld, and he loved it. He had Manadaxic neurosclerosis, a silicon-based virus. The heart-breaking thing is that it was curable, using positronic technology, which of course was banned after the synth attack on mars. The machine that could have saved Thad’s life was made illegal. I wonder if Riker and Troi tried to get their hands on it through illegal means to save their son. This ties into an interesting discussion which starts with a comparison of grown verses replicated food, and culminates in the question of whether real is always better than synthetic. You know what I love about this scene. It’s allowing Troi to be a counsellor again. Her character was used pretty badly in most of the TNG movies. She got to be a counsellor for one brief but fantastic scene in Generations, and then that was it. Voyager gave her the chance to do a little more, but it’s been a long time since we’ve really seen Troi being so awesome in her field. It’s fantastic. But Soji still doesn’t trust anyone. All these friendly faces, these people being caring, just when she needs that more than ever, it could just be another mind game like the one Narak played on her in the meditation chamber. Again, I don’t blame her. And yet I know these people. I know she can trust them. Picard responds to this with bluntness. As Riker said, Picard’s not so great with teenagers. He may not be up to the challenge. But then Troi calls him out and says he had it coming when Soji shoves him. “To you, the idea that this could be some kind of subterfuge or simulation is preposterous, but to her, it would be more of the same.” And then she makes a great suggestion. Pretend our dinner table is the ready room of the enterprise, or more accurately, the conference lounge. I really love Troi and Riker in this episode, but especially Troi. So Hugh is determined to take the cube from the Zhat Vash. He wants to protect the Xbs. As we established last week, they are victims. Hugh is one of the few people who care about them. Sadly, the stupid-face Rizzo appears at that moment. And here we run into that problem. No matter how good you are with a sword, you’re useless against a phaser. At least a lightsaber can deflect blaster bolts. But Elnor just carries a metal sword. Fortunately for him, the Zhat Vash have a duelling tradition of hand-to-hand combat against the Qowat Milat. If that weren’t the case, Elnor would be dead now. But in some ways, this is subterfuge on Rizzo’s part, and there is a cost. Tragically, that cost is Hugh. What sucks the most is that Elnor fails to kill Rizzo because she beams out at the last second. Oh man. I’ll be cheering when Elnor finally chops off her head. I can’t believe Hugh died. That’s so sad. This show has quite a high body count. At least died a hero, trying to save the Xbs from the Zhat Vash. I hope Elnor can fulfil his legacy by saving them in Hugh’s name. You know what upsets me the most about Hugh’s death here. We’ll never get to see him meet Seven. I was sure those two would share scenes together in this show. And we’ll never get to see him reunite with Geordi, his first friend. I feel like both Descent and now Picard have robbed us of that reunion. Which is sad. Raffi is trying to draw out what’s bothering Agnes. She thinks it’s just the pain of losing Maddox. But then Agnes absolutely breaks down. She can’t hold in all the stuff that she’s hiding. But before they can really dig deeper into this, Rios announces that Narak is back, still following them, which doesn’t seem possible. Remember that tracking device Oh had Agnes swallow? I like how Riker just casually calls Troi Imzadi like a pet name now. Back in TNG, they would use this term sparingly, only on special occasions. But they, they’re been married for 20 years. They’re extremely comfortable with one another. Imzadi seems a natural pet name to use at this point in their relationship. WE get a classic Star Trek conference scene, but it has pizza! I’ve missed these scenes. So having one again, with Riker and Troi, but also their daughter and Dahj. That was so cool. And did I mention pizza? I also like how Kestra makes a worthwhile contribution to the discussion, but not in a way that feels unrealistic for a child of her age. I really like Kestra. Rios is playing an interesting game with Agnes. I don’t for one minute think he truly believes that Raffi is being tracked, on purpose or otherwise. Given the strange way Agnes is acting, I think he suspects she has something to do with it, and he’s trying to draw her out by expressing his fake suspicions of Raffi. Remember, he already knows that Raffi was doing down on Freecloud, and why she returned to the La Sirena. And it kinda works. She admits, “it’s not her.” And then we get a very dark scene. Agnes replicates a neutron-toxin. It appears this is a suicide attempt. Is this just because she feels guilty, or does she think killing herself will stop Narak tracking them? Maybe this is part of her mission from Oh. I think she is probably trying to prevent Narak from tracking them, from the way she kind of psychs herself into it, saying “you can do this,” which was horrifying, by the way. I wanted to reach into the screen and stop her. But I couldn’t She injects herself. And then she collapses. And then she starts foaming at the mouth. This was horrific. And my theory is proven true, because once she starts to die, Narak suddenly loses the signal. The EMH gets reactivated and manages to save her life, but she’s stuck in a coma. I wonder what Rios’s idea was, the one Raffi wasn’t gonna like. We never actually get to find out. That’s an odd bit of storytelling. I wonder if that will come back later. If not, why include that line at all? Meanwhile Elnor finds a tag and presses it. It activates a Ferris Ranger SOS. I guess he’s calling Seven of Nine to come help him. Cool!. But what on earth was it doing hanging here in a Borg cube? That’s kind of weird. Now that they’re not being tracked, the La Sirena can finally meet Picard on Nepenthe. I kinda laughed when Picard said his new crew carry way more baggage than the TNG crew ever did. Because, of course, Rodenberry wouldn’t allow them to have baggage. Riker makes it clear he’s still on active reserve with Starfleet, but it would take a very good reason to get him back in uniform again. We have another nice scene between Picard and Riker as they sit by the pond. We do see an interesting rock formation in the background, that lends a little alien-ness to this planet. But then we get an awesome scene between Soji and Kestra. It seems Soji has lost one sister, only to gain another. And I LOVE how Kestra talks about what got her through her hard times was her parents. As a parent myself that affects me deeply. I think the hope of every parent is that their child might be able to say those words to someone. She urges Soji to let Picard be that support to her, a father figure. Those two have a bit of work ahead of them to really let each other in. In noticed in the credits that Jay Chattaway was credited as having written Lullaby #2 in this episode. Not sure what that piece of music was. Jay Chattaway was a regular composer on Star Trek back in the 90s. Especially on Voyager. Maybe it was just a little music queue that they referenced in the score of this episode. I’m really not sure. This was a phenomenal episode.  It gave me such a Star Trek: The Next Generation feel, and yet, it was very much not TNG. TNG only ever tried to do a character episode like this one. Family. This show takes the best of what we remember nostalgically, but does something very new and fresh with it. I’ve really enjoyed Star Trek Picard up until now, but if I didn’t already, Nepenthe has definitely made me love it. Well done to everyone involved in bringing this beautiful chapter of the story to our screens. Next week’s episode is called Broken pieces. I wonder what it will bring. A quest to find Soji’s homeworld, no doubt. It’ll be very exciting.   As for my walk to Mordor, I got a whole lot of steps in yesterday. Packing for our trip and then walking along the beach with my daughter.  I just encountered Old Man Willow, and my next milestone is Tom Bombadil’s house. That’ll be a trippy experience. Stay tuned for the next episode of the Nerd Heaven Podcast. Please consider giving the show a review wherever you listen to podcasts, or if you are watching on youTube, click that like button. Also, if you’d like to support what I’m doing here, you could buy me a hot chocolate. Just go to buymeacoffee.com/adamdavidcollings. Have a fantastic week. Live long and prosper. Make it so.

How is it going to end??? Well, spoiler alert, Star Trek: Picard means that the intrepid captain survives. However, Riker earned his 4th pip with his unorthodox strategy to rescue him. Part 2 of our conversation with Jamie Rogers on The Best of Both Worlds. Producer: Jamie Rogers Musical contributions: Captain Meatshield and David Kaylor

This Time Around, Melissa and Kate are discussing Roswell #113 The Convention. The Annual UFO Convention draws all sorts including some familiar tourists, a dangerously dejected man, and Captain Riker himself! When they’re not too busy with the out-of-towners, the boys in Roswell think about mud, which frustrates the ladies.   Artwork - Kathryn Olivieri Music - "Adventures of the Deaf Dreamer (INSTRUMENTAL)" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com

Can we count this as Star Trek's first three-parter? It's like the third part of the foundation that makes the most celebrated parts of the Star Trek franchise going forward. I rail against the continuity, but it's clearly one of the parts of Trek that people look forward to. They call up Wil Wheaton to do an acting exercise, Picard is cool as heck, and we learn that Worf apparently shares parents with Mike Warner. It's a good ‘un. “Captain Riker, Ambassador Picard”: Good idea or bad idea?

Michael A. Martin: The Red King. Searching for a lost Romulan fleet, Captain Riker and the Titan are swept out of the galaxy along with Commander Donatra and the Valdore. They find themselves in the Small Magellanic Cloud, an area of space visited nearly a century earlier by another Federation starship. An long-sundered offshoot of humanity has claimed this area of space, and when reality itself is threatened by an encroaching anomaly, Riker and his crew must save these lost children of Earth before the entire region is consigned to non-existence. In this episode of Literary Treks, hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson welcome author Michael A. Martin to the show to discuss Titan: The Red King, which he co-wrote with Andy Mangels. We talk about their experience in launching the Titan series, the origin of the Neyel, Tuvok and Akaar's troubled past, Donatra and the Romulans, religious belief vs. scientific fact, where Titan goes from here, and wrap up with what Michael is working on now and where you can find him online. At the top of the show, we review the latest Star Trek: Waypoint special issue and respond to listener feedback from the Babel Conference for Literary Treks 266: Bringing the Truth Out of the Shadows News Star Trek Waypoint 2019 Comic Review (00:03:46) Listener Feedback (00:26:19) Feature: Michael A. Martin Launching Titan (00:31:32) The Neyel (00:42:49) Tuvok and Akaar (00:53:15) Klingons and Romulans (00:58:42) Religion is Reality (01:05:15) The Sleeper Consequences (01:11:50) Frane Talks to Akaar (01:16:51) Author Collaboration (01:17:51) A New Project and Being a Fan (01:20:48) Final Thoughts (01:24:04) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Guest Michael A. Martin Production Bruce Gibson (Editor and Producer) Dan Gunther (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Justin Oser (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Greg Rozier (Associate Producer) Jeffery Harlan (Associate Producer)

Starfleet treated the USS Hathaway the same way it treats all its old starships, ditching it in a random, isolated orbit waiting for anyone passing by to discover. Fortunately for the old girl, it gets picked by Will Riker's dodgeball team for wargames. Will this be Captain Riker's first loss ever? Will Crewman Daniels vacuum all of the derelict ship's carpet in time? What would Will do if he was stuck in the delta quadrant?! So many questions, so little time!

Star Trek: Titan Pilot Episode. Star Trek fans hunger for the continuing adventures of the 24th Century. Many of those stories live on in the novels, including those with Captain William T. Riker and the starship Titan. However, Daniel, Darren, and Phillip decide to write and pitch their own television pilot for “Star Trek: Titan,” with new characters and some familiar faces. They fill in the senior officers with a diverse group of aliens, and a story that strikes at the heart of the United Federation of Planets. They propose a familiar villain acting in a new capacity, and Captain Riker will face a foe who may know him better than anyone.Who would you want on the crew of the U.S.S. Titan?

News DSC: Since the writer’s strike was averted, CBS higher ups are back to saying early fall. Hallmark Picard/Data Keepsake ornament coming this summer. $29.95 USS Franklin w/lights from Beyond $29.95. Convention-exclusive ornament Enterprise C will be available at various cons. Ten Forward: Chris on Twitter: How well do u think Captain Riker would perform compared to the other 5 series Trek captains? Star Trek in pop culture: Last Saturday on SNL - Chris Pine barely in an awful sketch playing Shatner’s Kirk. 00:14 Last week in Trek Episode insight: Voyager S5, Bliss Character insight - Sarah Sisko Subspace communications

News DSC: Since the writer’s strike was averted, CBS higher ups are back to saying early fall. Hallmark Picard/Data Keepsake ornament coming this summer. $29.95 USS Franklin w/lights from Beyond $29.95. Convention-exclusive ornament Enterprise C will be available at various cons. Ten Forward: Chris on Twitter: How well do u think Captain Riker would perform compared to the other 5 series Trek captains? Star Trek in pop culture: Last Saturday on SNL - Chris Pine barely in an awful sketch playing Shatner’s Kirk. 00:14 Last week in Trek Episode insight: Voyager S5, Bliss Character insight - Sarah Sisko Subspace communications

Picard/Riker Relationship.The Kirk/Spock relationship dominates all other depictions between characters in Star Trek. That said, the captain/first officer dynamic of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Commander William T. Riker created a unique and interesting command team for TNG fans. The beard-less, energetic, and fun-loving former first officer of the U.S.S. Hood that we met in "Encounter at Farpoint" was mentored by the senior commander, formerly of the starship Stargazer,  for seven years on television and throughout four motion pictures before earning the right to call him a fellow captain. Daniel, Darren, and Phillip discuss how Picard and his Number One learned to lead the Enterprise-D together, their ups and downs, and how a rocky introduction led to a wonderful relationship that would guide the ship and crew through several adventures.Earl Grey discusses moments of Picard versus Riker in episodes like "The Best of Both Worlds," "Peak Performance," and "The Measure of a Man," as well as times the two officers "pranked" one another in "Captain's Holiday" and "Gambit, Parts 1 and 2." The trio focus on Riker's pursuits of the Enterprise's center chair and Picard's mentoring of Will in order for him to finally evolve into the seasoned Captain Riker of the U.S.S. Titan.HostsDaniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren MoserEditor / ProducerDarren MoserExecutive ProducersNorman C. Lao, Matthew Rushing, & C Bryan Jones Production Manager Richard Marquez   Content Manager Will Nguyen Chapters Relationship Overview (00:03:30)Milestones (00:18:48)Picard vs. Riker (00:33:15) Pegasus (00:46:22) Final Thoughts (00:56:13) Send us your feedback! Twitter: @trekfm Facebook: http://facebook.com/trekfm Voicemail: http://www.speakpipe.com/trekfm Contact Form: http://www.trek.fm/contact Visit the Trek.fm website at http://trek.fm/ Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.com/trekfm Support the Network! Become a Trek.fm Patron on Patreon and help us keep our shows coming to you every week. We have great perks for you at http://patreon.com/trekfm

This week CT, Pax, and Jeeg are joined by blogger and Atomic Geeks superfan Chris Lockhart for a discussion of how Star Trek could have changed if some key events worked out differently.  What if Scotty was Irish instead?  What if Riker hadn't grown a beard?  What if Janeway's animal guide had been a lemur?  Actually we don't talk about any of those scenarios, but the possibilities of a Star Trek without Shatner, the 1970s Phase II series, and Captain Riker are all on the agenda.  In our Nerd To-Dos, we find out which nerd is already making plans for season 2 of Sherlock and talk more about the Ghost Rider sequel than anyone could have expected.

This week CT, Pax, and Jeeg are joined by blogger and Atomic Geeks superfan Chris Lockhart for a discussion of how Star Trek could have changed if some key events worked out differently. What if Scotty was Irish instead? What if Riker hadn't grown a beard? What if Janeway's animal guide had been a lemur? Actually we don't talk about any of those scenarios, but the possibilities of a Star Trek without Shatner, the 1970s Phase II series, and Captain Riker are all on the agenda. In our Nerd To-Dos, we find out which nerd is already making plans for season 2 of Sherlock and talk more about the Ghost Rider sequel than anyone could have expected.