Podcasts about Dilithium

Dr. Dave Chatterjee and David Close discuss the implications of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) on cybersecurity readiness. David, a Chief Solutions Architect at Futurex, explains the evolution of cryptographic methods to counter quantum computing threats. He highlights the importance of NIST's role in standardizing quantum-resistant algorithms like Kyber and Dilithium. David shares practical examples, such as Google and Cloudflare's hybrid TLS implementation and a financial institution's use of PQC for data storage. They emphasize the need for organizations to develop roadmaps, inventory cryptographic assets, and ensure vendor readiness. Dr. Chatterjee stresses the importance of a proactive, holistic approach to cybersecurity governance.To access and download the entire podcast summary with discussion highlights -- https://www.dchatte.com/episode-83-future-proofing-your-data-preparing-for-the-post-quantum-era/Latest Articles and Press Releases on The Cybersecurity Readiness Podcast Series:Dr. Dave Chatterjee Hosts Global Podcast Series on Cyber Readiness, Yahoo!Finance, Dec 16, 2024Dr. Dave Chatterjee Hosts Global Podcast Series on Cyber Readiness, Marketers Media, Dec 12, 2024.Cybersecurity Readiness Podcast by Dr. Dave Chatterjee Reaches 10,000 Downloads Globally, Business Insider/Markets Insider, Dec 10, 2024.Connect with Host Dr. Dave Chatterjee and Subscribe to the PodcastPlease subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any new episodes! And please leave the show a rating if you like what you hear. New episodes are released every two weeks. Connect with Dr. Chatterjee on these platforms: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dchatte/ Website: https://dchatte.com/Cybersecurity Readiness Book: https://www.amazon.com/Cybersecurity-Readiness-Holistic-High-Performance-Approach/dp/1071837338https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/cybersecurity-readiness/book275712Latest Publications & Press Releases:“Meet Dr. Dave Chatterjee, the mind behind the CommitmentPreparedness-Discipline method for cybersecurity,” Chicago Tribune, February 24, 2025.“Dr. Dave Chatterjee...

YouTube: https://youtu.be/hcdk3u2R5Mo Yesterday, I gave two short presentations on PQC (Post Quantum Cryptography), and next week, I'm in London to give a more focused talk on the subject. And so, it's great to see that Samsung is driving forward the adoption of PQC methods in their new S25 smartphone. There are two companies that have a core focus on creating trusted hardware for consumers: Apple and Samsung. Apple has always had a core focus on making sure they use the best cryptography to not only secure their devices but also to make them privacy-aware. Samsung, too, has strived for improved security but, at times, has made a few slip-ups along the way, but always patched around them. Now, Samsung Electronics has integrated PQC into their Galaxy S25 series of devices. The need for this is that NIST will deprecate all our existing public key methods in 2030, including: RSA for public key encryption; RSA, ECDSA and EdDSA for signatures; and ECDH for key exchange. NIST will then remove them in 2035 from the NIST FIPS 140 standard. Given that a smartphone will have a life of at least five years, it makes sense to build the hardware to support the migration. Along with this, we see the rise of “harvest now, decrypt later” threats, where network traffic could be captured now and then decrypted sometime in the future. The main integration at the current time involved ML-KEM (FIPS 203, aka Kyber) and ML-DSA (FIPS 204, aka Dilithium). With ML-KEM we replace key exchange and public key encryption methods, while ML-DSA provides us with digital signing: These methods will be the Samsung Knox Matrix for enhanced data protection — this includes end-to-encryption for back-ups and the recovery of data from the Samsung Cloud. Overall, Samsung devices, like Apple hardware, have a secure enclave to store private and secret keys, and where not even Samsung can get access to them. The usage of PQC will mean that Samsung devices will be able to communicate with other devices in the future and which are using PQC methods. This ensures not only current compatibility but also future compatibility. An important advancement of the industry is that Samsung will support PQC methods for their backup system to their Cloud. Conclusions Of course, the integration will not force applications and services to use PQC, and in most cases, it will still use our traditional methods, as devices that it connects to must support PQC. Thus, we will see a migration towards PQC, rather than a hard switch-over. In cryptography, this is often the case, as we can typically negotiate the cryptography methods that are used in the secure transmission or storage of data. Once all the required services and applications support PQC, our existing public key methods will likely be switched off.

Alfred Menezes is a Professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.  In 2001, he won the Hall Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.  Alfred is the lead author of the Handbook of Applied Cryptography, and  which has been cited over 25,000 times. He has published many high impact papers, especially in areas of public key encryption and elliptic curve cryptography, and was the co-inventor of the ECDSA signature method. His website for online courses is https://cryptography101.ca. The "Cryptography101: Building Blocks" and "Cryptography 101: Deployments" courses are lectures from the undergraduate "Applied Cryptography" that he has taught at Waterloo since 2000. The former includes a five-lecture introduction to elliptic curve cryptography. He also has a course on "Kyber and Dilithium", and soon an intro to "Lattice-based cryptography".   Video recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5GWFAewQ80

6. Februar 1995: Kaum hat Neelix die Pforten seiner Kombüse eröffnet, tappt er auf der Suche nach dringend benötigtem Dilithium in die Falle einer bemerkenswerten Spezies des Delta-Quadranten, die Horror und Tragik miteinander vereint: die organklauenden Vidiianer. Während der Talaxianer um Atem und sein Leben ringt, ringen Simon & Sebastian erstmalig mit einer typischen "Janeway-Entscheidung". In Deutschland: Transplantationen, auf VHS am 1. Februar 1996, ausgestrahlt am 12. Juli 1996.

Returning champion Martin Albrecht joins us to help explain how we measure the security of lattice-based cryptosystems like Kyber and Dilithium against attackers. QRAM, BKZ, LLL, oh my!Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2023/11/13/lattice-attacks/Links:- https://pq-crystals.org/kyber/index.shtml- https://pq-crystals.org/dilithium/index.shtml- https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/930.pdf- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_integer_solution_problem- Frodo: https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/659- https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Events/third-pqc-standardization-conference/documents/accepted-papers/ribeiro-saber-pq-key-pqc2021.pdf- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermite_normal_form- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner%E2%80%93Fischer_algorithm- https://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~sgal018/crypto-book/ch18.pdf- https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/1161- QRAM: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10310- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenstra%E2%80%93Lenstra%E2%80%93Lov%C3%A1sz_lattice_basis_reduction_algorithm- MATZOV improved dual lattice attack: https://zenodo.org/records/6412487- https://eprint.iacr.org/2008/504.pdf- https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/302.pdf"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@davidcadrian)

And, so, we are moving into one of the greatest changes that we ever see on the Internet, and where we will translate from our existing public key infrastructures towards Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) methods. At the present time, NIST has approved one key exchange/public key encryption method (Kyber) and three digital signature methods (Dilithium, Falcon and SPHINCS+). The focus will now be on seamless integration, and where we will likely use hybrid methods initially and where we include our existing ECDH method with Kyber, and mix either RSA, ECDSA or EdDSA digital sigatures with Dilithum. Key exchange is (relatively) straightforward Overall, Kyber is fairly easy to create a hybrid key exchange method with ECDH, and where we would transmit both the ECC public key and the Kyber public key in the same packet. In fact, Google are already testing its integration in Chrome. With this, our existing key sizes are [here]: Type Public key size (B) Secret key size (B) Ciphertext size (B)------------------------------------------------------------------------ P256_HKDF_SHA256 65 32 65P384_HKDF_SHA384 97 48 97P521_HKDF_SHA512 133 66 133X25519_HKDF_SHA256 32 32 32X448_HKDF_SHA512 56 56 56 Thus, for P256, we have a 32-byte private key (256-bits) and a 65-byte public key (520 bits). Kyber 512 increase the key size of 1,632 bytes for the private key, and 800 bytes (6,400 bits) for the public key: Type Public key size (B) Secret key size (B) Ciphertext size (B)------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kyber512 800 1,632 768Kyber738 1,184 2,400 1,088Kyber1024 1,568 3,168 1,568 Thus, to use a hybrid key exchange method, we would include the ECC public key and the Kyber512 public key and thus have a packet which contains 832 bytes. This is smaller than the 1,500 byte limit for an IP packet and thus requires only one packet to send the public key from Bob to Alice (and vice-versa). A Hybrid method is defined here: https://asecuritysite.com/pqc/circl_hybrid and a test run is: Method: Kyber512-X25519 Public Key (pk) = 3BF9B5BB236AD036BA65B1B532E11927E20269D3CE74009E6C085F0D901F5CC9 (first 32 bytes)Private key (sk) = B96B644DE170BA19266AF32BFA4B3B22A4917888A2EE785C701B7252D6308573 (first 32 bytes)Cipher text (ct) = 0E54F37E171768318B45FD27FBDB08B33CD2204142C4B925BB395DA93AE26EA7 (first 32 bytes)Shared key (Bob): C0B27940D588EE1D0F8348F169BA04A48E0E7FA7DE5B8A091D5D1B59E70D577EEAC4180B076595B2EFCCE96E2271EEA3B20228FC3FD5B63114D32E9D20D9A2F2Shared key (Alice): C0B27940D588EE1D0F8348F169BA04A48E0E7FA7DE5B8A091D5D1B59E70D577EEAC4180B076595B2EFCCE96E2271EEA3B20228FC3FD5B63114D32E9D20D9A2F2Length of Public Key (pk) = 832 bytes Length of Secret Key (sk) = 1664 bytesLength of Cipher text (ct) = 800 bytes Digital Signatures and PKI is not so easy But, what will happen with the next part of the process, and where we need to digitally sign something with a private key and then prove with the public key? This is an important element in HTTPs, and where ECDH is used to exchange the symmetric key, and then digital signatures are used to verify the identity of the server. For this, we use digital certificates (X.509), and which contain the public key of the entity and which has been signed by a trusted entity (Trent). Well, at the present time, it is not quite clear yet, and a new IETF draft perhaps gives some insights [here]: The draft outlines how we could include two public keys in the same certificate: such as an ECC or RSA public key and a PQC public key. Unfortunately, it has been given a “Tombstone notice”, which means it will not progress. The reason for this is that it adds a PQC key — no matter if the host actually wants (or uses) it. Along with this, it does not give a mechanism for coping with two signatures on a method (with a traditional one and a PQC one), and where it is not possible to detect where one of the signatures has been removed — a stripping attack. Public key sizes for Dilithum Like it or not, the days of small public key sizes are coming to an end. In ECC, for NIST P256, we have a 32-byte (256 bit) private key, and a 64-byte (512-bit) public key. For Ed25519, we use Curve 25519, and which reduces the public key to ust 32 bytes (256 bits). For RSA 2K, we have a 256-byte private key (2,048 bits), and a 256-byte public key (2,048 bits). The equivalent security for Dililithum is Dililithum2, and which gives a much larger private key of 2,528 bytes (20,224 bits) and a public key of 1,312 bytes (10,496 bits). The Dilithium public key is thus over 20 times larger than the ECC key. This could be a major overhead in communication systems, and where more than one data packet would have to be sent in order to transmit the public key. Method Public key size Private key size Signature size Security level------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crystals Dilithium 2 (Lattice) 1,312 2,528 2,420 1 (128-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium 3 1,952 4,000 3,293 3 (192-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium 5 2,592 4,864 4,595 5 (256-bit) LatticeFalcon 512 (Lattice) 897 1,281 690 1 (128-bit) LatticeFalcon 1024 1,793 2,305 1,330 5 (256-bit) LatticeSphincs SHA256-128f Simple 32 64 17,088 1 (128-bit) Hash-basedSphincs SHA256-192f Simple 48 96 35,664 3 (192-bit) Hash-basedSphincs SHA256-256f Simple 64 128 49,856 5 (256-bit) Hash-basedRSA-2048 256 256 256ECC 256-bit 64 32 256 A hybrid scheme is defined here: https://asecuritysite.com/pqc/circl_dil2 For our existing signatures, we have: Method Public key size (B) Private key size (B) Signature size (B) Security level------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ed25519 32 32 64 1 (128-bit) EdDSAEd448 57 57 112 3 (192-bit) EdDSAECDSA 64 32 48 1 (128-bit) ECDSARSA-2048 256 256 256 1 (128-bit) RSA And in using a hybrid approach, we increase the signature size of 64 bytes or Ed25519 to 2,484 bytes — a 38-fold increase in size: Method Public key size Private key size Signature size Security level------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crystals Dilithium2-X25519 2,560 1,344 2,484 1 (128-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium3-X25519 4,057 2,009 3,407 3 (192-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium 2 (Lattice) 1,312 2,528 2,420 1 (128-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium 3 1,952 4,000 3,293 3 (192-bit) LatticeCrystals Dilithium 5 2,592 4,864 4,595 5 (256-bit) LatticeFalcon 512 (Lattice) 897 1,281 690 1 (128-bit) LatticeFalcon 1024 1,793 2,305 1,330 5 (256-bit) LatticeSphincs SHA256-128f Simple 32 64 17,088 1 (128-bit) Hash-basedSphincs SHA256-192f Simple 48 96 35,664 3 (192-bit) Hash-basedSphincs SHA256-256f Simple 64 128 49,856 5 (256-bit) Hash-based And, so, what about using SPHINCS+? That has a 32-byte public key. The downside is that Sphincs SHA256–128f requires a 17,088-byte signature. This would also overload the communication channel and require over 11 packets to send a single signature to prove the identity of a Web site. It is highly unlikely that SPHINCS+ will be used to replace RSA and ECC signatures in ECDH, but where it would be used in applications that did not have a communications channel. Conclusions And, so, the double public key draft has been sent back, and we are awaiting the next iteration. Learn more about PQC here: https://asecuritysite.com/pqc

This week Dr. Doug talks: Elon Throttling, Dilithium, Africa, Suse, Citrix, QR Codes, AI Meetings, and More on this edition of the Security Weekly News. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-319

Elon Throttling, Dilithium, Africa, Suse, Citrix, QR Codes, AI Meetings, and More on this edition of the Security Weekly News. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-319 

This week Dr. Doug talks: Elon Throttling, Dilithium, Africa, Suse, Citrix, QR Codes, AI Meetings, and More on this edition of the Security Weekly News. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-319

Elon Throttling, Dilithium, Africa, Suse, Citrix, QR Codes, AI Meetings, and More on this edition of the Security Weekly News. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-319 

Digital signatures are the foundation of our digital trust. With this, Bob has a key pair: a private key and a public key. In order to provide his identity, he signs a hash of a message with his private key, and then Alice proves this with his public key. Currently, we mainly use RSA, ECDSA and EdDSA for our signature methods, and where DSA signatures (which use discrete logs) have been dropped for their creation. For example, ECDSA is used with Bitcoin and Ethereum, and RSA is often used to identify Web sites. EdDSA is now on the rise, and is part of the FIPS-186–5 standard. Unforunately, we will need to replace these methods — as quantum computers can crack them. The other area that needs to be replaced is key exchange and public key encryption. These days we typically use ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman) for key exchange, and RSA for public key encryption. These will have to be replaced with quantum-robust methods — Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Goodbye RSA and ECC, and Hello to PQC And, so, using Shor's algorithm, quantum computers will be able to crack RSA, discrete logs and ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography), and so we need to remove RSA, ECDSA and EdDSA and replace them with methods that are quantum robust. For this, NIST has been running a competition for the last few years, and where CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+ were selected as the winners for PQC digital signatures. There are no other candidates that are being assessed from the previous round. Overall, Dilithium is a lattice-based method, while SPHINCS+ uses a hash-based signature method. But what if these methods are cracked? Well, it happened to two of the finalists for the NIST competition: Rainbow and SIKE, and where the methods were cracked in the final round of the competition. For KEM (Key Exchange Mechanisms) to replace ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman) and Public Key Encryption (PKE) to replace RSA, NIST has standardized CRYSTALS-Kyber, and is still assessing BIKE, Classic McEliece, HQC, and SIKE. Additional Signatures: Round 1 And, so, NIST is on the look-out for alternatives for Dilithium and has set up a new competition [here]: In the first round, we have: Code-based Signatures: CROSS (Codes and Restricted Objects Signature Scheme); Enhanced pqsigRM; FuLeeca; LESS (Linear Equivalence Signature Scheme) and MEDS (Matrix Equivalence Digital Signature Wave). Isogenies: SQIsign. Lattice based: EagleSign; EHTv3 and EHTv4; HAETAE; HAWK; HuFu (Hash-and-Sign Signatures From Powerful Gadgets); Raccoon; and SQUIRRELS (Square Unstructured Integer Euclidean Lattice Signature). MPC in the head: MIRA; MiRitH (MinRank in the Head); MQOM (MQ on my Mind); PERK; RYDE; and SDitH (Syndrome Decoding in the Head). Multivariate Signatures (Oil and Vinegar): 3WISE; Biscuit; DME-Sign; HPPC (Hidden Product of Polynomial Composition); MAYO; PROV (PRovable unbalanced Oil and Vinegar); QR-UOV; SNOVA; TUOV (Triangular Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar); UOV (Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar); and VOX. Symmetric-based Signatures: AIMer; Ascon-Sign; FAEST; and SPHINCS-alpha. Doing a quick count, we have: Multivariate: 11; Lattice: 7; Code-based: 5; MPC-in-the-head: 5; Symmetric-based: 4; and Isogenies: 1. So, multivariate seems to be leading the way, with lattice methods being popular too. But poor old isogenies only has one contender. This may be due to the crack on an isogeny-based method (Supersingular Isogeny Key Encapsulation SIKE), or that isogenies are better suited to key exchange techniques. And so, let's look at the basic methods and some previous examples. Multivariate — Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar (UOV) With multivariate cryptography, we have n variables within polynomial equations. For example, if we have four variables (w,x,y,z) and an order of two, we could have [here]: w²+4wx+3x²+2wy−4wz+2wx+6xz=387 Generally, this is a hard problem to solve, so we want to make it easy if we know a secret. In this case, I know that the solution is w=7,x=4,y=5, and z=6. Oil and Vinegar Makes A Hard Problem Easy Fixing The Hole In The Internet in a Post Quantum World medium.com   Lattice To understand lattice cryptography, you need to understand polynomials, as our bit values are converted into polynomials. Our operations are then conducted with polynomial multiplies and addition, and taken with a (mod p) operation (and where p will be the maximum value we generate for the polynomial values). The Magic of Lattice and The Eye of a Falcon To understand lattice cryptography, you need to understand polynomials, as our bit values are converted into… medium.com   Code-based This method was created in 1978 with the McEliece cryptosystem but has barely been used in real applications. The McEliece method uses linear codes that are used in error-correcting codes and involves matrix-vector multiplication. An example of a linear code is Hamming code [here]. McEliece and Rust: Edging Slowly To A NIST Standard for PQC We live in a world that is dominated by large (and faceless) corporations, but it is individuals who have often built… medium.com   MPC-in-the-head These methods use non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge and MPC (Multiparty Computation). With MPC we can split a problem into a number of computing elements, and these can be worked on in order to produce the result, and where none of the elements can see the working out at intermediate stages. The great advantage of this method is that we only use symmetric key methods (block ciphers and hashing functions). Let's Go For A Post-Quantum Picnic And then there were three: CRYSTALS Dilithium, Falcon and Rainbow. These are the finalists for the NIST standard for… medium.com   Symmetric These methods uses standard cryptographic methods such as symmetric key encryption and hashes. Typically they use AES and SHA3 — and which are quantum robust. Isogenies If we have two elliptic curves (E1 and E2), we can create a function that maps a point (P) on E1 to a point Q on E2. This function is known as an isogeny. If we can map this function, every point on E1 can be mapped to E2. Our secret key is then the isogeny and the public key is the elliptic curve. For key exchange, Bob and Alice mix their isogeny and the other side's curve to generate a secret curve. Isogenies? The End Game for Public Key Encryption? Well, we are now at the final stage of NIST's post-quantum cryptography standardization, and which started in 2016: medium.com   Conclusions Exciting times are ahead as the methods go up and against each. In the last competition, some of the methods fell because of a problem with their parameters (Rainbow — UOV) or because of a core weakness (isogenies). But, this time, they are all likely to come back strong and (hopefully) compete well against the lattice methods.

We live in a legacy world of money. Our transactions are often still based on moving paper money around, and we have basically scaled this into a digital world. At the core of this is the lack of any real cryptographic trust in digitally signing transactions. For this, the Bank of England is now discussing a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) [2]: And before you reach for Ethereum smart contracts and ERC tokens, there's a catch. This is not actually a cryptocurrency, but an electronic payment system. Basically, it will basically be a digital currency, and thus link these coins to a digital wallet which is held by a trusted payment entity (such as a bank or payment provider). The overall proposed architecture is to use a central bank ledger, which validates transactions. This would not contain any personal data on users and integrate at an API level. Access to this API for users would be through intermediaries — trusted and regulated payment providers. Users would not be able to interact with the core ledger without using an intermediary. Figure 1: Platform model [2] CBDC model To transfer funds in a traditional way, Alice contacts her bank and enables a transfer to Bob's bank. The transaction basically involves account numbers and sort codes and is transferred through a trusted payment gateway. This is identified with the purple line in Figure 2. In the CBDC model, Bob and Alice will own a digital wallet in their bank, and where Alice can move digital tokens from her wallet to Bob's. Overall, Bob and Alice can move money between their bank account and their digital wallet. The moving of their funds into the digital wallet gives lesser control of funds than the maintenance of bank accounts. Figure 2: Traditional payment v cryptographic payment In a traditional cryptocurrency system, Bob and Alice have a public blockchain wallet that contains their private key. In Ethereum, we transfer ERC20 tokens using a digital wallet. This digital wallet contains the private key to sign off the transaction. A smart contract then maintains a table of the owners of each of the ERC20 tokens issued. This relates to the wallet identifier as a hexadecimal address. This is identified as the red line in Figure 3. Figure 3: Cryptocurrency transaction using ERC20 tokens (red line) The state-of-the-art There are several existing models for a CBDC, including Project Hamilton, and which is a collaboration between the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Boston Fed) and MIT [1]: The targets are for a minimum of 100,000 transactions per second and for 99% of all transactions to be completed within five seconds. There should be no loss of funds in the event of a data outage, and privacy is a fundamental part of the design. An important element of the design is the use of intermediaries and custody. In terms of trust, we have intermediaries — such as banks, and payment service providers — and which are custodians of the digital wallet. But there is the opportunity for customers to own their own digital wallets — as with an Ethereum wallet. The model can then be “direct” — customer-to-central bank, or “two-tier” — central bank to intermediatory (Figure 4). Figure 4: Two-tier model — central bank to intermediatory The proposed method decouples fund checks with transaction validations. Funds are stored as a 32-byte hash value with an Unspent funds Hash Set (UHS) — Figure 5. The transaction has a similar format to Bitcoin. Figure 5: Unspent funds Hash Set (UHS) Economic concerns The speed of the transactions and the ease of access to digital currency could enable economic risks Reduced lending opportunities As the digital coins are moved to a wallet, they will thus be out of the control of a bank, which means that they could not lend the money to another person — which kinda defeats one of the main functions of a bank. If too much of this money was moved to wallets, it could cause the lending system to stall. Bank runs There have been many occurrences of runs on banks, including with Northern Rock. With this, customers queued to get access to the funds, and which generally slowed down the pressures on withdrawals. With a digital pound, this could be made much worse, as customers could withdraw their funds with a simple transfer. Banks could thus risk a run on their funds. Cybersecurity? Generally, we trust our banks to look after our money. With a digital wallet, attackers could target hacks, which could have lower levels of control on access to the wallet. A core part of the Bank of England's strategy for the digital pound is to develop resilience in both the technical and financial disuptions involved [2]: Technical challenges The enablement of a CBDC brings many technical challenges. Privacy and auditability There is a significant balance between privacy and auditabilty. The use of zero-knowledge proofs will allow for privacy within transactions, but this will hide the sender and recipient of a transaction. This privacy, though, can restrict auditability and reduce the opportunities for law-enforcement investigations. Programmability Most current models must have the full state transition of a transaction to be in-place for a transaction to go ahead (to avoid double spending). Within contract implementations, there may be intermediate states that allow for the digital pound to exist in an intermediate state awaiting an event. For example, Bob might commit to paying Alice for a new car, but she will not accept shipping the car until Bob commits the funds. Once she ships the car, the funds would then stay pending until Bob confirms its receipt. This smart contract associated with the transaction would thus need to store the state of the intermediary state, and not release the funds to Alice until there is a digital proof of receipt from Bob (Figure 6). Figure 6: Programmability Interoperability A major focus for the digital pound must be the interlinkage with existing Layer-2 payment channel networks. This would also support cross-border transactions but will require integration with other CBDCs in other countries. Offline payments In the likely model for the digital pound, there is an interaction between the central bank, and the transacting parties (Bob and Alice). In some circumstances, there could be no Internet connection, and thus there needs to be an offline transaction. This type of transaction will likely require a secret enclave to be setup on a hardware payment device so that the transaction could not be tampered with. Minting and redemption It is likely that the CBDC will be responsible for minting and removing the digital tokens. Each of these would be digitally signed by the issuing bank. But, the great risk here is the use of the private key to sign the transactions of the central bank. If an insider in the Bank of England gained access to this, then tokens could be issued or even removed by malicious entities — this is equivalent to printing forged bank notes. Productionization While models exist as prototypes, the scale-up to a national level would involve extensive design and implementation skills to make sure there were no ways to compromise the infrastructure. Denial of service attacks In a model where Bob and Alice own their private keys, there are no fees for a payment. This means there is no cost to support payment transactions, which means that it could be susceptible to a Denial of Service against the infrastructure — as it will not cost anything to flood the system with valid and invalid transactions. Likely mitigations here are rate-limiting, and the enforcement of a cool-off period before money can be respent on another transaction. Along with this, there could be proof-of-work transactions (such as computing a hash value of a given complexity for each transaction), or fees charged for a given volume of transactions. Quantum resistance Existing public key encryption methods — such as ECC and RSA — are at risk against quantum computers. The infrastructure that we create must be resilient to a medium-term attack against transactions. Currently, NIST has defined that Dilithium, FALCON and SPHINCS+ are the preferred solutions for digital signatures, and should replace RSA and ECDSA signatures. For key exchange, Kyber is recommended as a replacement for ECDH. It is likely that any digital currency will support these methods, alongside existing public key methods — but will migrate in time to the post-quantum robust methods. Conclusions It is an exciting time. A digital currency will open up new areas of innovation, but one slip-up could bring the whole of the financial infrastructure down in an instant. I repeat again, this is not cryptocurrency, but a trusted digital payment infrastructure. There are good opportunities to improve the detection of fraud and scamming, and truly move to a more trusted financial world. References [1] Lovejoy, J., Fields, C., Virza, M., Frederick, T., Urness, D., Karwaski, K., … & Narula, N. (2022). A high performance payment processing system designed for central bank digital currencies. Cryptology ePrint Archive. [2] The digital pound: Technology Working Paper, Bank of England, 2023.

“Well, double dumb-ass on you!” This week the boys are lacing up their roller skates, heading up the Coast and slingshotting around the Sun to revisit November 26, 1986 and STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME, THE MOSQUITO COAST, and SOLARBABIES.  Power up those Dilithium crystals, ‘cus it's time to beam up Episode 86 of OPENING WEEKEND! 

Star Trek: Age of Discovery is a fan podcast for the Star Trek Universe including Classic Trek as well as the Paramount + shows STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STAR TREK: PICARD, STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS, STAR TREK: PRODIGY and STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS.Subscribe to Star Trek: Age of Discovery in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or iHeartRADIO.Email the show at startrekaod@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @StarTrekAoD and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekAoD/. Visit our website at http://startrekaod.net where we offer additional articles on Star Trek canon, interesting sidebar issues, and aspects of the show.www.facebook.com/StarTrekAoD/. Visit our website at http://startrekaod.net where we offer additional articles on Star Trek canon, interesting sidebar issues, and aspects of the show.2022 © Star Trek: Age of Discovery

"Das Klima”, der Podcast zur Wissenschaft hinter der Krise. Wir lesen den aktuellen Bericht des Weltklimarats und erklären den aktuellen Stand der Klimaforschung. In Folge 64 geht es um Energie, Energie und nochmal Energie! Wir schauen uns die diversen Energiearten an und welche Rolle sie für das Klima und den Klimaschutz spielen können. Sonne, Wind, Kernkraft, Bioenergie, Wasserkraft, usw - ist alles mit dabei. Nur leider kein Warpkern und kein Dilithium, so weit ist die Wissenschaft offensichtlich noch nicht. Das Energiesystem der Zukunft, dass der IPCC-Bericht präsentiert sieht aber dennoch vielversprechend aus!

“Now hear this. Now hear this. On this week's episode of Kirking Off an away team comprising of Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, and Bones - in the process of beaming back to what they think is their Enterprise in their universe - find themselves materializing in the Jungian shadow version of their universe. There is more facial hair, more scars, more gold sashes, and a lot more treachery. The Federation does not exist here, but rather we have the Terran Empire, and empire built on fear, terror, and the assassination of superior officers. It does beg the question: how would an empire like this grow to be so powerful under these conditions? It becomes increasingly difficult to speculate as the episode goes on, but Brian points out that the Earth politics (read: Terran Empire) are likely less severe for ships on the fringe, than on the core planets. Comparisons to other treachery-ridden hierarchies are made like the mafia and the house vs house conflicts of Dune, and the lads imagine what it would be like if Tony Soprano was dealing with the Halkans. Speaking of the Halkans - are their moral values sensible? Is Tharn really willing to allow all his people to die rather than make a deal with Kirk to over Dilithium? Do the Halkans deserve to be annihilated? The discussion pivots between Gangster Chekov and utilitarian conclusions on murder, but the most interesting aspects of ‘Mirror, Mirror' seems to come from the dance that plays out between mirror Spock, mirror Sulu, mirror Marlena, and regular Kirk. There is deep intrigue present this week and Kirk has to watch his step, because at any moment the Vulcan brute squad could come for him. We present to you, ‘Mirror, Mirror' from Star Trek: The Original Series.” Season 2 - Episode 10 Connect with us! Dean - www.libertystreetgeek.net/dean Scott - www.libertystreetgeek.net/scott Matthew - www.libertystreetgeek.net/matt Support the show! Join Membership - www.libertystreetgeek.net/join Donate - www.libertystreetgeek.net/donate

Come on over to our STAR TREK compound in Guyana. It's your number one spot for Trek LARP! Live like a starfleet officer trapped on some strange version of past earth, and help us mine lithium! Or, as we call it, DIlithium! don't ask where we take it after it's mined! It's for the ship! Get back to mining now. Also, we discuss some trek and other media, like Idris Elba's big beautiful body. Follow us on twitter @DeadEnsigns Email your Star Trek opinions/questions/stories to deadensigns@gmail.com

S5EP15- Dungeons and Dilithium Uncut Video: Gently Edited Audio: Welcome to episode 15 of Season 5 of the Gateway Geeks …

Heute besprechen Peter und Tanja die essentielle Technik für all unsere Star Trek-Abenteuer, das Fliegen mit Überlichtgeschwindigkeit. Geordi, wie war das noch gleich? Wir gehen ins Praktikum...

Welcome to another Sorta-Christmas Special where we sorta talk about the holidays! We open these folk-punk festivities bearing gifts. Otherwise BYOB + $5 at the door. Our first gift doesn't need a special occasion to be a special occasion. Bradley Palermo returns to Thunder Talk, this time backed by The Shadow Queens! Brian Barclay, Alex Palermo and Matt Gonzalez have come to help make some of the darkest days of the year a whole lot darker with "Krampus"! IN TONY MONTANA'S VOICE: "First you get the Dilithium, then you get the Warp Core, then you get a sexual quid pro quo between Riker and Frasier's wife." As a holiday gift to our fans we're debuting the first segment off our upcoming, brutally Rated R Star Trek Podcast for the true Trek Junk Junkies - "Trek Marks". Now if you go look in your stockings… Mark and Beth talk television formatting both past and present, Wheatley and Anthony pick apart the finer points of the Prime Directive, Sexy Thor beats out Paul Rudd as the Sexiest Man Alive in the Nine Realms, plusKawika sticks it to the colonizers while Cis white boy Dan Klink expresses his boredom with cis white boys, especially himself. OH, and you know, Christmas! 00:00:22 Mario Kart: Tokyo Drift00:02:21 Merry Markmas00:03:04 Two Hundred Year Blood War00:04:20 And A Joyous Toyotathon To You00:07:31 Wheatley's Waterbed 00:08:30 Boujee Thor00:14:51 NX-Tony Montana00:21:47 Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens00:36:01 "Krampus"00:38:11 The Price Is Alright00:47:45 The Price Isn't Wrong00:50:28 Jeffery's A Movie Star00:59:12 We Want The Land Back!01:03:24 Ring-A-Ding Thunder01:08:16 Brian's Cut TOTAL RUNTIME: 01:09:02 #bradleypalermo, #bradleypalermoandtheshadowqueens, #krampus, #ringofthunder #sexythorforthunderdome #sexyforuudd #sexythorforuudd, #thebestsaturdaysofourlives #thundertalk #historyofcomicbookspodcast #nopelahoma #bethielala #ringofthunder #sexythorforthunderdome #sexyforuudd #sexythorforuudd #tbsool #thebestsaturdaysofourlivespodcast #markmccray Bradley Palermo & The Shadow QueensStream “Krampus” by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens on the platform of your choosing: https://song.link/us/i/1592040375Website: bradleypalermo.com Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/palermo_bradleyBradley Palermo on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bradleypalermo/The Shadow Queens on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bptsq/Bandcamp https://bradleypalermo.bandcamp.com/ released November 26, 2021 Bradley Palermo: vocals / guitar / sleigh bellsAlex Palermo: bassBrian Barclay: guitar / keys / programing TypesetterBandcamp https://typesetter.bandcamp.com/musicfacebook.com/typesettertypesettertwitter.com/typesetterchiTypesetter - Cheap Seats Bradley Palermo appears curtesy of Black Hearts & Pink Parts music The ESO Network esonetwork.comwww.patreon.com/esonetwork facebook.com/groups/esonetworkInstagram:@eso_networkTwitter: @ESONetworkfeedback@esonetwork.com#esonetwork Thunder Talk thundertalk.org Social Media: @thundertalkpod JOIN THE THUNDER FAITHFUL @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/578372072758335/ Emaill thundertalkpodcast@gmail.com #thundertalk Mark McCray - The Best Saturdays of Our Livesthebestsaturdaysofourlives.comtbsool.comtbsool.com/podcast Facebook: @tbsool ~ @tbsoolpInstagram: @MarkMcTBSOOL ~ @best_saturdays_of_our_livesTwitter: @MarkMcTBSOOLmarkmccray072@gmail.com #tbsool #thebestsaturdaysofourlives #thebestsaturdaysofourlivespodcast #markmccray Beth Ah Lo - Twitch Channel Nopelahomatwitch.tv/nopelahomaInstagram: @bethielalaTwitter: @nopelahoma#nopelahoma #bethielala Adam Whetston - The Ring of Thunder Podcast https://ringofthunder.podbean.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSEmUoGsm-OVQYhw632OKQ/featuredFacebook: @thundertalkthorInstagram: @thundertalkthorTwitter: @thundertalkthor Johnathan Wheatley - History of Comic Books Podcastwww.podbean.com/podcast-detail/7pasn-b6748/History-of-Comic-Books-PodcastFacebook: @johnathonw ~ @historyofcomicInstagram: @hoppynsv ~ @history_of_comic_books_podcastTwitter: @HIstoryofComic#historyofcomicbookspodcast Kawika Ah Lo - aka "The Muscle"Facebook: @ktseaInstagram: @kawika_ahloTwitter: @ktsearambleson Dan Klink - aka "Kawika Variant"Facebook: @Dan.M.KlinkInstagram: @dan_klinkTwitter: @TheRealDanKlink Anthoney Arbizo@tony_in_the_zoney CMD: Riker - Show DogTic Tok: #rikerthebrittanyInstagram: @rikerandfam#Rikerthebrittany

Ruthie & Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery S4E3, titled Choose to Live. We take a bit of a break from the anomaly story to go after a rogue Qowat Milat who has killed a Starfleet officer. It's up to Burnham, Burnham's mom, and Tilly to bring her in.

Ruthie & Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery S4E3, titled Choose to Live. We take a bit of a break from the anomaly story to go after a rogue Qowat Milat who has killed a Starfleet officer. It's up to Burnham, Burnham's mom, and Tilly to bring her in.

Dilithium Crystals have been around since the origins of Star Trek. They regulate matter and anti-matter in the Starship Enterprise's warp core. But what are they?

Ruthie & Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery S4E2, titled Anomaly. The crew of Discovery try to figure out this anomaly (a.k.a. space tornado) that could strike anywhere! Book tries to deal with his grief.

Ruthie & Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery S4E2, titled Anomaly. The crew of Discovery try to figure out this anomaly (a.k.a. space tornado) that could strike anywhere! Book tries to deal with his grief.

Discovery is back! Ruthie's back! Ruthie and Brian are here to talk through the season premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, S4E1 titled Kobayashi Maru. They both liked this one a lot! It's a very good start for this season.

Discovery is back! Ruthie's back! Ruthie and Brian are here to talk through the season premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, S4E1 titled Kobayashi Maru. They both liked this one a lot! It's a very good start for this season.

This week, on Episode 532 of Priority One: ViacomCBS upsets most of the world; Star Trek Explorer Magazine debuts; Star Trek Online introduces a new 32nd century starship–plus, we start our S4 review of Star Trek: Discovery. TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Sheer ****ing Hubris, ViacomCBS By Cat Hough Well, the news broke early on Tuesday the 16th that international fans of Star Trek: Discovery will have to wait until 2022 to be able to watch Season 4–and then only watch it on Paramount+. Under the terms of an agreement finalized today between Netflix and ViacomCBS, Netflix will no longer be streaming the show. ViacomCBS was most likely pleased with the agreement since, under the 2017 deal that Les Moonves had set up with Netflix, CBS had agreed to pay the bulk of the show's costly budget for the overseas rights.  All images: ViacomCBS, via Imgur user SaysThePenguin. This should not be a huge surprise, though, given ViacomCBS's efforts to incentive subscribers to Paramount+. Back at the end of September The Original Series, Voyager, and Enterprise all left Netflix–Paramount+ is the only platform to watch these series.  All images: ViacomCBS, via Imgur user SaysThePenguin. But now that Netflix is out of the picture, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland will be the first international markets to stream Discovery on Paramount+. ViacomCBS has said that as part of an accelerated expansion they anticipate being in around 45 markets within the next year or so. No news on the release date for our Australian friends, though.  Star Trek 4 Hopes For Holiday Magic By Elio Lleo While we're on the topic of disappointing news, the 4th installment of Star Trek set in the Kelvin Timeline is being delayed again. Now, the new release date is slated for a holiday release on December 22, 2023 (originally, it was scheduled for June 9th, 2022). Perhaps the marketing folks at ViacomCBS listened to our episode where we discussed the uphill battle Star Trek faces when released beside other (more popular) franchises. Or they just read the same industry articles that we do. https://priorityonepodcast.com/530-treks-better-than-wars-thats-debatable-priority-one-a-roddenberry-star-trek-podcast/ Either way Star Trek, along with other tiles like Transformers, are being pushed. Now, this could be a rarely well executed smart move on behalf of the suits in charge of these things. According to Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com, Paramount+ is betting that Star Wars: Rogue Squadron won't be able to stick to their holiday 2023 release date–especially when there's been little movement on that Star Wars installment. That leaves Trek to reap the benefits of the season. Mendelson writes, “the optimistic scenario is that Star Trek 4 positions itself as the Christmas event movie of 2023 and proves to be crowd pleasing enough to allow holiday legs to give the struggling franchise a kick in the butt after a disappointing third installment. That's what happened with Paramount's own Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol in December 2011 after J.J. Abrams' underwhelming Mission: Impossible III 5.5 years earlier.” Either way, it's still two years away and a lot can change. However the film still has WandaVision director Matt Shakman at the helm. Del Barrio And Cronenberg Take Explorer To The Future By Rosco McQueen On November 17th, Blu Del Barrio will return in Discovery Season 4 as the human host of a Trill symbiote, Adira Tal.  In an interview with new publication Star Trek Explorer, Del Barrio spoke about the positive reactions from fans in being the first nonbinary actor in the franchise, and bringing a non-binary character to the screen. Unfortunately for the actor, it meant they were also subject to some outdated attitudes, but they were few when compared to the overall welcome from the Star Trek community. “There are always people who are going to set out to be hateful, and set out to be transphobic. There's not a lot of Star Trek fans who are like that, thank God. It's not a universe where that fits. But there is also a lot of love, even from people who maybe don't know anyone who is trans. There are people who are asking questions, talking about things online, having actual conversations about it, which is really wonderful.” Image: ViacomCBS, via CBR. Also featured in the first issue of the relaunched Star Trek Explorer is an interview with director David Cronenberg who plays the role of Federation agent Kovich, who is returning for Discovery Season 4.  The interview covers his relief as an actor as opposed to a director, growing up watching the Original Series, and the specific role of Kovich in season three as the Terran-interrogator.  But Cronenberg was tight lipped on what's in store for Season 4: “I can only tell you I've been invited to be part of Season 4, and I was delighted with that. That's about all I can tell you, and it's not because I'm trying to be coy. It's because I don't know any more.” For the full interview, as well as feature interviews from Ian Alexander (Gray Tal from Discovery), be sure to trek out the first issue of Star Trek Explorer. Quick News Roundup Now, here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you.  Start applying for those passports and get your luggage ready, because we're going to China! Why? Because an $8 billion theme park resort is being built with a Paramount theme along the shores of Dianchi Lake in the Yunnan capital city of Kunming!  The complex will include six themed areas–one of which is a “Final Frontier–Star Trek” themed section! Fans of ‘Levar Burton hosting a quiz show' rejoice!  The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the actor will host a gameshow based on ‘Trivial Pursuit', produced by Hasbro and Entertainment One. No network is attached at the time of the announcement, with no information on when the program will debut.   Congrats to Star Trek alum Tracee Lee Cocco! She just announced that she'll be featured in an upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation book by Ian Spelling, due to release in the fall of 2022. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds That's What Phoenixes Do, Generally By Cat Hough The free Phoenix Prize Pack returns! From now until November 23rd, you can pick up a free Phoenix Prize Pack from Grym on Drozana Station or Onna on Deep Space Nine, once per day. If you are not aware, the Phoenix Prize Pack is a special pack, you can purchase with Dilithium or during this event you get one for free. Once you open it, you're granted a token of one of five rarities, and then you can redeem that token for a list of prizes on that specific rarity tier. Image: Cryptic Studios But wait, there's more! The Experimental Starship Upgrade tokens are also returning to the Phoenix Prize Pack during this event! If you've been hanging onto some Ultra Rare tokens, now is the time to redeem them for an Experimental Upgrade Token. Also on sale right now until the 22nd–Keys and Keyring Bundles are 15% off!  YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TOOTH By Cat Hough Hey, surprise! Another new ship is available via the Infinity Lock Box. The United Earth Defense Force Vessel [T6] was designed as a large, sturdy vessel built for planetary defense and doesn't at all look like a giant tooth–or an elephant. Even the four blind men think it's an elephant. Image: Cryptic Studios. This ship features a Commander Tactical/Command Bridge Officer specialist seat, and a Lt. Commander Engineering / Command Bridge Officer specialist seat. With a 4/4 weapons layout and 5 tactical, 3 engineering and 3 science consoles.  It features the Mobile Defense Net Universal Console. With this technology equipped, your ship will be capable of generating a large area of protection for you and your allies, centered a short distance behind your vessel. This area moves with your ship, though you sacrifice maneuverability–but you are able to deactivate the field if you need to. This console also provides a passive bonus to Max and Current Shield Subsystem Power, and Maximum Shield Capacity. Image: Cryptic Studios. And once the ship is leveled up, you gain access to the Interlaced Emitters Starship Trait. While this Trait is slotted, activating any Bridge Officer abilities that restore shields to yourself or an ally will also briefly apply an effect that automatically redistributes the target's shields, provides shield hardness, and renders shields immune to drain effects. This effect may not be reapplied to a target until it has worn off. The “Duality” of Terror By Rosco McQueen More effective surprise attacks are coming your way in Star Trek Fleet Command, with the second part of the Duality arc coming to the game from Scopely bringing enhanced cloaking effectiveness. “The Klingons and Romulans have ramped up their war machines in an effort to resolve their conflict over the mysterious hybrid, Roj. Time is running out, and the outcome rests in your hands. Part Two of the Duality arc expands on Ship Cloaking technology and its impact in battle. The Federation have found a way to acquire the highly controversial device, and are now prepared to run their own stealth operations..[n]ew research opportunities have been developed to further increase the effectiveness of Cloaking, allowing for ever more devious plots and schemes to be hatched.” Image: Scopely. Patch 36 includes a new Second Repair queue, four new Ship Cloaking Refits, twenty new missions, and three new officers, including two Epic ones. [Epic] Sela, with the Captain Maneuver: Hit Them Where it Hurts–Increase critical hit damage by X% when cloaked. [Epic] Eleven Of Eleven, with the Captain Maneuver: Efficient Crystal Acquisition–Increases Crystal mining speed by 60%. [Rare] Tomalak, with the Captain Maneuver: Patient Tactician–which increases all penetration stats by X% while cloaked. The update also contains a number of bug fixes, as well as improvements to the web store.

This week, on Episode 532 of Priority One: ViacomCBS upsets most of the world; Star Trek Explorer Magazine debuts; Star Trek Online introduces a new 32nd century starship–plus, we start our S4 review of Star Trek: Discovery. TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Sheer ****ing Hubris, ViacomCBS By Cat Hough Well, the news broke early on Tuesday the 16th that international fans of Star Trek: Discovery will have to wait until 2022 to be able to watch Season 4–and then only watch it on Paramount+. Under the terms of an agreement finalized today between Netflix and ViacomCBS, Netflix will no longer be streaming the show. ViacomCBS was most likely pleased with the agreement since, under the 2017 deal that Les Moonves had set up with Netflix, CBS had agreed to pay the bulk of the show's costly budget for the overseas rights.  All images: ViacomCBS, via Imgur user SaysThePenguin. This should not be a huge surprise, though, given ViacomCBS's efforts to incentive subscribers to Paramount+. Back at the end of September The Original Series, Voyager, and Enterprise all left Netflix–Paramount+ is the only platform to watch these series.  All images: ViacomCBS, via Imgur user SaysThePenguin. But now that Netflix is out of the picture, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland will be the first international markets to stream Discovery on Paramount+. ViacomCBS has said that as part of an accelerated expansion they anticipate being in around 45 markets within the next year or so. No news on the release date for our Australian friends, though.  Star Trek 4 Hopes For Holiday Magic By Elio Lleo While we're on the topic of disappointing news, the 4th installment of Star Trek set in the Kelvin Timeline is being delayed again. Now, the new release date is slated for a holiday release on December 22, 2023 (originally, it was scheduled for June 9th, 2022). Perhaps the marketing folks at ViacomCBS listened to our episode where we discussed the uphill battle Star Trek faces when released beside other (more popular) franchises. Or they just read the same industry articles that we do. https://priorityonepodcast.com/530-treks-better-than-wars-thats-debatable-priority-one-a-roddenberry-star-trek-podcast/ Either way Star Trek, along with other tiles like Transformers, are being pushed. Now, this could be a rarely well executed smart move on behalf of the suits in charge of these things. According to Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com, Paramount+ is betting that Star Wars: Rogue Squadron won't be able to stick to their holiday 2023 release date–especially when there's been little movement on that Star Wars installment. That leaves Trek to reap the benefits of the season. Mendelson writes, “the optimistic scenario is that Star Trek 4 positions itself as the Christmas event movie of 2023 and proves to be crowd pleasing enough to allow holiday legs to give the struggling franchise a kick in the butt after a disappointing third installment. That's what happened with Paramount's own Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol in December 2011 after J.J. Abrams' underwhelming Mission: Impossible III 5.5 years earlier.” Either way, it's still two years away and a lot can change. However the film still has WandaVision director Matt Shakman at the helm. Del Barrio And Cronenberg Take Explorer To The Future By Rosco McQueen On November 17th, Blu Del Barrio will return in Discovery Season 4 as the human host of a Trill symbiote, Adira Tal.  In an interview with new publication Star Trek Explorer, Del Barrio spoke about the positive reactions from fans in being the first nonbinary actor in the franchise, and bringing a non-binary character to the screen. Unfortunately for the actor, it meant they were also subject to some outdated attitudes, but they were few when compared to the overall welcome from the Star Trek community. “There are always people who are going to set out to be hateful, and set out to be transphobic. There's not a lot of Star Trek fans who are like that, thank God. It's not a universe where that fits. But there is also a lot of love, even from people who maybe don't know anyone who is trans. There are people who are asking questions, talking about things online, having actual conversations about it, which is really wonderful.” Image: ViacomCBS, via CBR. Also featured in the first issue of the relaunched Star Trek Explorer is an interview with director David Cronenberg who plays the role of Federation agent Kovich, who is returning for Discovery Season 4.  The interview covers his relief as an actor as opposed to a director, growing up watching the Original Series, and the specific role of Kovich in season three as the Terran-interrogator.  But Cronenberg was tight lipped on what's in store for Season 4: “I can only tell you I've been invited to be part of Season 4, and I was delighted with that. That's about all I can tell you, and it's not because I'm trying to be coy. It's because I don't know any more.” For the full interview, as well as feature interviews from Ian Alexander (Gray Tal from Discovery), be sure to trek out the first issue of Star Trek Explorer. Quick News Roundup Now, here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you.  Start applying for those passports and get your luggage ready, because we're going to China! Why? Because an $8 billion theme park resort is being built with a Paramount theme along the shores of Dianchi Lake in the Yunnan capital city of Kunming!  The complex will include six themed areas–one of which is a “Final Frontier–Star Trek” themed section! Fans of ‘Levar Burton hosting a quiz show' rejoice!  The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the actor will host a gameshow based on ‘Trivial Pursuit', produced by Hasbro and Entertainment One. No network is attached at the time of the announcement, with no information on when the program will debut.   Congrats to Star Trek alum Tracee Lee Cocco! She just announced that she'll be featured in an upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation book by Ian Spelling, due to release in the fall of 2022. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds That's What Phoenixes Do, Generally By Cat Hough The free Phoenix Prize Pack returns! From now until November 23rd, you can pick up a free Phoenix Prize Pack from Grym on Drozana Station or Onna on Deep Space Nine, once per day. If you are not aware, the Phoenix Prize Pack is a special pack, you can purchase with Dilithium or during this event you get one for free. Once you open it, you're granted a token of one of five rarities, and then you can redeem that token for a list of prizes on that specific rarity tier. Image: Cryptic Studios But wait, there's more! The Experimental Starship Upgrade tokens are also returning to the Phoenix Prize Pack during this event! If you've been hanging onto some Ultra Rare tokens, now is the time to redeem them for an Experimental Upgrade Token. Also on sale right now until the 22nd–Keys and Keyring Bundles are 15% off!  YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TOOTH By Cat Hough Hey, surprise! Another new ship is available via the Infinity Lock Box. The United Earth Defense Force Vessel [T6] was designed as a large, sturdy vessel built for planetary defense and doesn't at all look like a giant tooth–or an elephant. Even the four blind men think it's an elephant. Image: Cryptic Studios. This ship features a Commander Tactical/Command Bridge Officer specialist seat, and a Lt. Commander Engineering / Command Bridge Officer specialist seat. With a 4/4 weapons layout and 5 tactical, 3 engineering and 3 science consoles.  It features the Mobile Defense Net Universal Console. With this technology equipped, your ship will be capable of generating a large area of protection for you and your allies, centered a short distance behind your vessel. This area moves with your ship, though you sacrifice maneuverability–but you are able to deactivate the field if you need to. This console also provides a passive bonus to Max and Current Shield Subsystem Power, and Maximum Shield Capacity. Image: Cryptic Studios. And once the ship is leveled up, you gain access to the Interlaced Emitters Starship Trait. While this Trait is slotted, activating any Bridge Officer abilities that restore shields to yourself or an ally will also briefly apply an effect that automatically redistributes the target's shields, provides shield hardness, and renders shields immune to drain effects. This effect may not be reapplied to a target until it has worn off. The “Duality” of Terror By Rosco McQueen More effective surprise attacks are coming your way in Star Trek Fleet Command, with the second part of the Duality arc coming to the game from Scopely bringing enhanced cloaking effectiveness. “The Klingons and Romulans have ramped up their war machines in an effort to resolve their conflict over the mysterious hybrid, Roj. Time is running out, and the outcome rests in your hands. Part Two of the Duality arc expands on Ship Cloaking technology and its impact in battle. The Federation have found a way to acquire the highly controversial device, and are now prepared to run their own stealth operations..[n]ew research opportunities have been developed to further increase the effectiveness of Cloaking, allowing for ever more devious plots and schemes to be hatched.” Image: Scopely. Patch 36 includes a new Second Repair queue, four new Ship Cloaking Refits, twenty new missions, and three new officers, including two Epic ones. [Epic] Sela, with the Captain Maneuver: Hit Them Where it Hurts–Increase critical hit damage by X% when cloaked. [Epic] Eleven Of Eleven, with the Captain Maneuver: Efficient Crystal Acquisition–Increases Crystal mining speed by 60%. [Rare] Tomalak, with the Captain Maneuver: Patient Tactician–which increases all penetration stats by X% while cloaked. The update also contains a number of bug fixes, as well as improvements to the web store.

This week on Episode 520 of Priority One: the week belonged to Gene Roddenberry in celebration of his 100th birthday, the Star Trek Online community gets stirred up by some recent changes, and we look On Screen to Season 2 Episode 3 of Lower Decks! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds One Hundred Years Of Gene By Elio Lleo This week, the Star Trek community celebrated what would have been Gene Roddenberry's 100th birthday. If you've been following the Roddenberry social channels, you will have seen daily quotes from celebrities, writers, influencers, and more–each reading a different quote from Gene Roddenberry. We also reported on the development of a full digital archive of his works. This week, it's been announced that a biopic is in the works with Adam Mazer penning the script. Also at the helm of the film's development are Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth. Image: Roddenberry Entertainment, via Deadline. While we're on the topic of celebrating Gene's centennial, be sure to catch Rod Roddenberry on an interview with Fox11 Los Angeles. During the interview, Rod explains the point of the “ThinkTREK” initiative that has been going throughout the summer along with some personal anecdotes about his father. And if that wasn't enough, even NASA got in on the celebration by hosting a conversation with scientists, engineers, and special guest George Takei, moderated by Rod Roddenberry. They even sent one of Gene's quotes into space by beaming the recording out towards the final frontier via their Deep Space Network. The panel is a little over 40 minutes long and spotlights the importance of infinite diversity in infinite combinations for the betterment of human-kind. https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1428010802443923467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1428010802443923467%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2021%2F08%2Fstar-trek-gene-roddenberry-birthday-movie-biopic-adam-mazer-writing-you-dont-know-jack-1234817916%2F Vintages Of Future Past By Cat Hough If there's one thing we all enjoy around here, it's drinks [drink!–Ed.]. So when Star Trek Wines announced the addition of Andorian and Cardassian wines to its now six-bottle lineup, we could not be more excited to try them...unless the Cardassian one tastes like hot fish juice.  Please drink responsibly. Ushaaning everyone in sight is not "responsibly." Image: Star Trek Wines. Even if you're just a collector of really cool bottles, the Andorian Chardonnay is a lovely shade of blue and comes in a bottom-heavy clear bottle that is also festooned with a United Federation of Planets metal medallion. The Cardassian kanar bottle has a bit more pizazz [certainly one way to put it–Ed.]. Star Trek Wines states "the team conducted a rigorous multi-year search for an original Cardassian Kanar bottle, a unique, serpent-shaped vessel, originally utilized in the 1950s through the 1970s in Europe.” They then rendered those bottles in 3D for accuracy, resulting in one of the “most fascinating bottles in the Galaxy.” Of course Cardassians would make a bottle you feel uncomfortable just looking at. Image: Star Trek Wines As for the wine itself, the Andorian Chardonnay, priced at $50, is listed as premium Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands "aged 12 months prior to bottling" and has “delicious notes of citrus, peach and apricots." The Cardassian Kanar Red Wine Blend, priced at $60, is described as a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, and Petite Verdot. They say these combine into "a dark, rich wine with notes of ripe blackberries and juicy blueberries, velvety tannins, and a long, delightful finish.” Both of these new wines are available for presale at StarTrekWines.com and expect to ship sometime in November. Or, if you want to buy the whole six-bottle collection–what they call "The Full Armada," it's currently available for $299.  Logic And Honor: Collect The Whole Set! By Rosco McQueen The team from Topps and Mego toys, known for their scale figures have teamed up in the most logical way as part of their ongoing collaboration, with the release of the new Mr Spock 8 inch action figure.  Spock is outfitted in his screen accurate Starfleet Command uniform and accessories as seen in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The figure comes complete with phaser pistol, tricorder and an emotionless, logical facial expression (Vulcan nerve pinch not included.)   The 90-100 day shipping lead time is almost as long as the spacedock scene. Image: TOPPS. But if your display shelf is looking a little too Federation vanilla, time to spice up the Breget lung with some grapok sauce!  The legendary Dahar Master himself, Kor, son of Rynar can now be added to your collection, in 8 inch figure form.  Also in a screen accurate uniform and accessories, the Kor figure is as seen in the 1967 episode of Star Trek, "Errand of Mercy". Both are individually available for $19.99 US. Lamé is a good way to die. Image: TOPPS. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you. Via her Twitter account on August 23rd, Michelle Paradise announces that S4 of Discovery has wrapped!  George Takei will lend his vocals to a Star Wars project in Visions. He had previously voiced Separatist General Lok Durd in The Clone Wars. Takei joins an already impressive English-speaking voice cast, which includes David Harbour, Karen Fukuhara–and Boba Fett himself, Temuera Morrison. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Mars, The Slip'N Slider Of War By Cat Hough The Infinity Lock Box returns and contains an all-new Tier 6 Starship, the Mars Pilot Escort [T6]. This ship features a 5/2 weapon layout and, since it is a Pilot Escort, a Commander Tactical/Pilot Specialist Bridge Officer seat, and a Lieutenant Universal/Intel Specialist Bridge Officer seat. The U.S.S. Le Guin, NCC-325060. Image: Cryptic Studios. It also comes equipped with a Universal Subspace Cavitation Matrix Console, which creates a subspace shockwave in normal space that will damage foes out to 5km from the impact point. This console also provides a passive bonus to Current and Maximum Engine Subsystem Power, as well as an increase to all weapon damage to foes within 5km. This ship also introduces a new Experimental Weapon, the Subspace Pocket Projector, capable of forming localized distortions in subspace that are then propelled toward a nearby foe. This distorts hull and shields, and slows their ship's ability to maneuver in normal space. Getting a piece of the action: three pieces, to be precise. Image: Cryptic Studios. Finally, leveling your Mars Pilot Escort will unlock the Improved Lock Trajectory Space Trait. While this trait is slotted, the recharge time of Lock Trajectory is reduced to zero, allowing the ability to be immediately re-engaged after it is turned off. [If they're not attached, does it matter which way it's pointing?–Ed.] Plus, you will be able to gain a reduction to the recharge times on Pilot Abilities, Cannon: Rapid Fire, and Cannon: Scatter Volley, whenever you deal Energy Weapon damage to a foe that is within your forward 90' firing arc (max once per 5 sec). Dilithium Sinks Keep (Re)Rolling Along By Rosco McQueen In an effort from Cryptic to provide players with options for their stockpiles of dilithium, a new permanent way to spend dilithium has been added to the game. STO Staff Systems Director Jeremy “BorticusCryptic” Randall explained that starting on August 24, Personal Endeavor Reroll Tokens and Admiralty Assignment Pass Tokens are purchasable for 2,500 Dilithium apiece. This change will appear on console platforms on September 8. One simple button couldn't be too controversial, right? Image: Cryptic Studios. Previously players could earn the tokens through the respective systems as random rewards.  That method has now been disabled.  The hope is to balance the game's Zen exchange to a more sustainable level.

This week on Episode 520 of Priority One: the week belonged to Gene Roddenberry in celebration of his 100th birthday, the Star Trek Online community gets stirred up by some recent changes, and we look On Screen to Season 2 Episode 3 of Lower Decks! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds One Hundred Years Of Gene By Elio Lleo This week, the Star Trek community celebrated what would have been Gene Roddenberry's 100th birthday. If you've been following the Roddenberry social channels, you will have seen daily quotes from celebrities, writers, influencers, and more–each reading a different quote from Gene Roddenberry. We also reported on the development of a full digital archive of his works. This week, it's been announced that a biopic is in the works with Adam Mazer penning the script. Also at the helm of the film's development are Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth. Image: Roddenberry Entertainment, via Deadline. While we're on the topic of celebrating Gene's centennial, be sure to catch Rod Roddenberry on an interview with Fox11 Los Angeles. During the interview, Rod explains the point of the “ThinkTREK” initiative that has been going throughout the summer along with some personal anecdotes about his father. And if that wasn't enough, even NASA got in on the celebration by hosting a conversation with scientists, engineers, and special guest George Takei, moderated by Rod Roddenberry. They even sent one of Gene's quotes into space by beaming the recording out towards the final frontier via their Deep Space Network. The panel is a little over 40 minutes long and spotlights the importance of infinite diversity in infinite combinations for the betterment of human-kind. https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1428010802443923467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1428010802443923467%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2021%2F08%2Fstar-trek-gene-roddenberry-birthday-movie-biopic-adam-mazer-writing-you-dont-know-jack-1234817916%2F Vintages Of Future Past By Cat Hough If there's one thing we all enjoy around here, it's drinks [drink!–Ed.]. So when Star Trek Wines announced the addition of Andorian and Cardassian wines to its now six-bottle lineup, we could not be more excited to try them...unless the Cardassian one tastes like hot fish juice.  Please drink responsibly. Ushaaning everyone in sight is not "responsibly." Image: Star Trek Wines. Even if you're just a collector of really cool bottles, the Andorian Chardonnay is a lovely shade of blue and comes in a bottom-heavy clear bottle that is also festooned with a United Federation of Planets metal medallion. The Cardassian kanar bottle has a bit more pizazz [certainly one way to put it–Ed.]. Star Trek Wines states "the team conducted a rigorous multi-year search for an original Cardassian Kanar bottle, a unique, serpent-shaped vessel, originally utilized in the 1950s through the 1970s in Europe.” They then rendered those bottles in 3D for accuracy, resulting in one of the “most fascinating bottles in the Galaxy.” Of course Cardassians would make a bottle you feel uncomfortable just looking at. Image: Star Trek Wines As for the wine itself, the Andorian Chardonnay, priced at $50, is listed as premium Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands "aged 12 months prior to bottling" and has “delicious notes of citrus, peach and apricots." The Cardassian Kanar Red Wine Blend, priced at $60, is described as a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, and Petite Verdot. They say these combine into "a dark, rich wine with notes of ripe blackberries and juicy blueberries, velvety tannins, and a long, delightful finish.” Both of these new wines are available for presale at StarTrekWines.com and expect to ship sometime in November. Or, if you want to buy the whole six-bottle collection–what they call "The Full Armada," it's currently available for $299.  Logic And Honor: Collect The Whole Set! By Rosco McQueen The team from Topps and Mego toys, known for their scale figures have teamed up in the most logical way as part of their ongoing collaboration, with the release of the new Mr Spock 8 inch action figure.  Spock is outfitted in his screen accurate Starfleet Command uniform and accessories as seen in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The figure comes complete with phaser pistol, tricorder and an emotionless, logical facial expression (Vulcan nerve pinch not included.)   The 90-100 day shipping lead time is almost as long as the spacedock scene. Image: TOPPS. But if your display shelf is looking a little too Federation vanilla, time to spice up the Breget lung with some grapok sauce!  The legendary Dahar Master himself, Kor, son of Rynar can now be added to your collection, in 8 inch figure form.  Also in a screen accurate uniform and accessories, the Kor figure is as seen in the 1967 episode of Star Trek, "Errand of Mercy". Both are individually available for $19.99 US. Lamé is a good way to die. Image: TOPPS. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you. Via her Twitter account on August 23rd, Michelle Paradise announces that S4 of Discovery has wrapped!  George Takei will lend his vocals to a Star Wars project in Visions. He had previously voiced Separatist General Lok Durd in The Clone Wars. Takei joins an already impressive English-speaking voice cast, which includes David Harbour, Karen Fukuhara–and Boba Fett himself, Temuera Morrison. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Mars, The Slip'N Slider Of War By Cat Hough The Infinity Lock Box returns and contains an all-new Tier 6 Starship, the Mars Pilot Escort [T6]. This ship features a 5/2 weapon layout and, since it is a Pilot Escort, a Commander Tactical/Pilot Specialist Bridge Officer seat, and a Lieutenant Universal/Intel Specialist Bridge Officer seat. The U.S.S. Le Guin, NCC-325060. Image: Cryptic Studios. It also comes equipped with a Universal Subspace Cavitation Matrix Console, which creates a subspace shockwave in normal space that will damage foes out to 5km from the impact point. This console also provides a passive bonus to Current and Maximum Engine Subsystem Power, as well as an increase to all weapon damage to foes within 5km. This ship also introduces a new Experimental Weapon, the Subspace Pocket Projector, capable of forming localized distortions in subspace that are then propelled toward a nearby foe. This distorts hull and shields, and slows their ship's ability to maneuver in normal space. Getting a piece of the action: three pieces, to be precise. Image: Cryptic Studios. Finally, leveling your Mars Pilot Escort will unlock the Improved Lock Trajectory Space Trait. While this trait is slotted, the recharge time of Lock Trajectory is reduced to zero, allowing the ability to be immediately re-engaged after it is turned off. [If they're not attached, does it matter which way it's pointing?–Ed.] Plus, you will be able to gain a reduction to the recharge times on Pilot Abilities, Cannon: Rapid Fire, and Cannon: Scatter Volley, whenever you deal Energy Weapon damage to a foe that is within your forward 90' firing arc (max once per 5 sec). Dilithium Sinks Keep (Re)Rolling Along By Rosco McQueen In an effort from Cryptic to provide players with options for their stockpiles of dilithium, a new permanent way to spend dilithium has been added to the game. STO Staff Systems Director Jeremy “BorticusCryptic” Randall explained that starting on August 24, Personal Endeavor Reroll Tokens and Admiralty Assignment Pass Tokens are purchasable for 2,500 Dilithium apiece. This change will appear on console platforms on September 8. One simple button couldn't be too controversial, right? Image: Cryptic Studios. Previously players could earn the tokens through the respective systems as random rewards.  That method has now been disabled.  The hope is to balance the game's Zen exchange to a more sustainable level.

We talk go and when to use it (you can probably guess what we think at this point), we unpack some Star Trek lore, and best of all, you can go watch it on our Youtube channel!

This week on Episode 515 of Priority One: the Federation Headquarters finds a new home in Ohio, the USS Steve Jobs–I mean, Kelvin–might have a reason for why it looks so flashy, and in gaming Star Trek Online's new time currency sink might have worked. Later Dr. Michael Chan looks OnScreen with an analysis and review of the Short Trek “Children of Mars.” This week's Community Questions are: Do interviews with creators ever come across your radar, outside of listening to podcasts? Do they help fill in continuity gaps for you? And What service in Star Trek Online do you keep coming back to over and over? Would you like it to be made available for purchase with dilithium?  Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Federation's Housewarming Party By Elio Lleo One thing that can be said about Star Trek fans is that they work hard to celebrate their passions for the franchise–often by donating their time and talents for labors of love. The fan group known as The Federation is one such organization. For over 36 years the group's goal has been to:  “...provide, promote, and support education and positive legal activism in the area of human rights, racial and sexual equality, environmental causes, and space exploration. To promote a more positive impression of Star Trek fans as intelligent, socially conscious, active individuals who are aware and concerned about the real world today.” Image: The Federation. Having worked directly with Gene Roddenberry in its early years, the group boasts over 2,000 members with over 30 chapters. Now, the group is settling down at its official headquarters in Huron, Ohio. Joining them to christen the new location will be Nichelle Nichols–known best as Lt. Uhura in the Original Series. Money raised during this event will go to Nichelle's retirement fund. So, if you're in Ohio the weekend of September 10th, be sure to grab a ticket to one of Nichols's final appearances.  It's Kot'baval in July! By Rosco McQueen What to get your favourite Trekkie for Christmas? It's the question you have six months to ponder, and thankfully we at Priority One are here to help. Unfortunately, for the Captain Picard fanatic, I have terrible news. In the Prop Store's most recent auction, the original flute from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Inner Light, sold for $190,000.  It was sold among other items including the original Statler and Waldorf puppet heads from The Muppets, Harry Potter's glasses, and Indiana Jones' fedora as worn in The Temple Of Doom, which sold for $375,000. https://twitter.com/propstore_com/status/1409981682841624579 If those items were a little outside your budget, then Hallmark has previewed its exclusive offerings coming to the home version of San Diego and New York Comic-Cons.  They'll be offering limited quantities of a few exclusive ornaments, including a Star Trek Klingon Bird of Prey ornament. Released in honour of the 35th anniversary of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Klingon Bird of Prey ship comes complete with the HMS Bounty paint stylings from the movie. It will set you back $35, with only 3,750 available. Or give them an empty box and tell them it's phased. Your call. Image: Hallmark Licensing LLC, via Slashfilm. Trek Different By Elio Lleo Occasionally the creators of Star Trek throw the fans a curveball. Whether it's giving Klingons a complete make-over, using a Rod Stewart song as a theme, or...giving Klingons another make-over. But one change that really stirred the pot was the bridge redesign in the Kelvin Timeline. For all intents and purposes, JJ Abrams put an Apple Store on the bridge with lots of additional lens flare. But, one intrepid fan over at DenOfGeek wants to try and help fill in those canonical gaps with some of his own thoughts and observations. There's no way AppleCare's covering that much liquid damage. Image: ViacomCBS, via Geek Agent Media. You see, according to Ryan Britt's headcanon, it all makes sense. First, it starts with an explanation from screenwriter Roberto Orci and director JJ Abrams. Orci  seems to have explained that Starfleet reverse-engineered the Narada's tech from scans taken by the USS Kelvin. Britt goes on to point out that this might be a plausible explanation given that nuTrek on Paramount+ has finally embraced and acknowledged the existence of the Kelvin Timeline. So, there you have it: the USS Steve Jobs explained(?). That leads us to our first community question this week:  Do interviews with creators ever come across your radar, outside of listening to podcasts? Do they help fill in continuity gaps for you? Let us know in the comment section for this episode at priorityonepodcast.com or by replying to our community question post on our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Dilithium Sink Soars By Rosco McQueen The past week in Star Trek Online has seen a changing fashion scene. Summer is definitely in, with short shorts, shorter bikinis and transcendent tribbles adding colour to the beautiful Risa rainbow at sunset. In orbit and in sector space, starships across the galaxy are sporting their shiny new vanity shields, as players take advantage of the commodity now being available for purchase with dilithium. They're high-cost premium items, and making them available this way is designed to lower the cost of dilithium on the exchange. This week Star Trek Online community manager Mike Fatum posted a question to twitter, asking the community for their feedback on other items that players would spend their hard-earned dilithium on over and over, more like a service than a one-off purchase. https://twitter.com/AmbassadorKael/status/1412452222894366720 That leads us to our next community question this week:    What service in Star Trek Online do you keep coming back to over and over? Would you like it to be made available for purchase with dilithium?  Star Trek Adventures On The Macro Scale By Thomas Reynolds Ah, technobabble: the true universal language of the future. Reversing polarities, phase inducers going out of alignment, better run a level 4 diagnostic–this plausible nonsense makes us go. Without it we wouldn't have Particles of the Week, Engineering would have no miracle workers, and there would never be Some Kind of Anomaly. So if you want your Star Trek Adventures campaign to feel truly Trek, you'd better be ready to **** like Starfleet's finest–or let the computer handle it for you. Or not. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekCore. On June 25th, Continuing Adventures shared STA fan Mirco's instructions for making a Roll20 virtual tabletop technobabble generator. Mirco's macro script pulls technobabble terms from random roll tables, according to a [do] the [sciencey] [science] [thing] template. Players and GMs can use the in-game macro to come up with gems like “oscillate the positronic flux membrane” with a single click. However, figuring out how much buffer time you'll have for replicator margaritas still falls to you. Scopely's Game Board Written by Rosco McQueen Scopely, the publishers of Star Trek Fleet Command announced this week they have added two people to their board of directors: initial public offering adviser Marcie Vu and former Activision Blizzard president Coddy Johnson. Venturebeat reports that Vu is a former executive at Qatalyst and Morgan Stanley, where she was an adviser on IPOs for companies like Alibaba.com, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Zynga. Johnson was the No. 2 executive at Activision Blizzard, which has a market value of $74 billion.  Walter Driver, the co-CEO at Scopely said in an interview “[a]s we think about building more player-centric views of our player experiences versus platform-centric views, I think that experience is really valuable. (Coddy Johnson) has operated at a tremendous scale. Very few people have had that kind of vantage point of leading such a large organization both in terms of people and revenue.”

This week on Episode 514 of Priority One: LeVar Burton shares some personal insight in a New York Times interview, there's a shakeup happening at ViacomCBS, Galaxy Quest might happen as a TV Series; in gaming, Star Trek Online's summer event gears up! This week's Community Question is: CQ: What do you think about using promo item sales to moderate Star Trek Online's dilithium economy? Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds LeVar Burton's A Sign Of The Times By Elio Lleo Several Star Trek alumni have gone on to lead remarkable careers, but one in particular has been such a cultural icon, he is affectionately known as one of the Four Horsemen of Wholesomeness. Like Bob Ross, Steve Irwin, and Fred Rogers, LeVar Burton is an institution not just to his Star Trek fans but to children. In a recent interview with The New York Times's David Marchese, LeVar opens up about his career and his latest adventure as the guest host of Jeopardy!. To whom it may concern: you're welcome. Image: Los Angeles Magazine. The interview is very personal and Marchese asks thought-provoking questions. When Burton was asked why he wants the Jeopardy! gig, Burton replied: Look, I have had a career for the [expletive] ages. “Roots,” “Star Trek,” “Reading Rainbow.” Won a Grammy. Got a shelf full of Emmys. I'm a storyteller, and game shows are tremendous stories. There's a contest, there's comedy, there's drama. If you don't know your [expletive] on “Jeopardy!” you're sunk in full view of the entire nation. The stakes are high. I love that. And Geordi will be disappointed in you. Do you want that? Do you? Image: Slashfilm. Burton goes on to discuss the balance between his celebrity and private personas and how he best engages with his fans---both in person and online. He also goes on to discuss how he approaches opportunities that might have come, or others that he might have missed.  Comcast Joins The Stream Team By Cat Hough In case anyone out there was not aware, the Streaming Wars have begun. Now, Comcast is joining the battle. It has been said by “sources” that Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts, has been wrestling with whether to build or buy to become a streaming powerhouse. He's considering a move similar to how ViacomCBS, Disney and Amazon, have struck mergers meant to supercharge their streaming efforts. Mr. Roberts, known as an aggressive deal maker in his two decades leading Comcast, has told people close to him that he doesn't feel a need to seek a merger. But he is scoping out options, and ideas on the table include a potential tie-up with ViacomCBS Inc. or an acquisition of Roku Inc. Now every network and content provider wants to be a streaming powerhouse, and in an effort to better prioritize streaming, executive teams continue to be reshuffled---including the team at ViacomCBS. Another restructure within the company was announced this week that included several promotions. The new exec team will focus on content groups rather than specific network oversight, with each newly promoted executive having greenlight power in order to keep supplying programming to Paramount+. The reorg will see ViacomCBS shift from a legacy model where networks had dedicated executives in favor of a structure that puts executives in charge of specific genres across the company. This move is fairly significant for ViacomCBS, since none of the four legacy media companies have similar exec structures.  Fair Use, Or Not So Fair? By Cat Hough There are some new and interesting limitations in place if you want to claim Fair Use as a defense to copyright infringement claims. This week, the Supreme Court refused to review a 9th Circuit's December decision that author David Jerrold and ComicMix LLC's were liable for copyright infringement because their mashup of Star Trek elements with Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! did not make fair use of Seuss's work. The issue in this case came down to whether the new version transformed the original version enough to be considered fair use, and the court says no, it did not. Now, a brief lesson in copyright law: if you are a holder of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to protect your work from other people from using it. If someone wants to use your work, then they need to ask permission, which is known as getting a license. However there are situations in which someone does not have to get permission to use someone else's work, like news reporting or teaching. There are other ways, too - but those are just an example. The thing with fair use is that it is a defense to copyright infringement, so you actually have to get sued first in order to prove that you are not guilty of infringement. If you use fair use as a defense, you are basically saying, “yes, I used your protected work, but my use is an exception to the normal rules.” Image: Brendan McDermid, via Reuters. Oh, The Cases You'll Go (To Court For) In this case, Mr. Jerrold and the publisher, ComicMix LLC took Dr. Suess's book, Oh, the Places You'll Go! and published a version based on Star Trek. Now it's very clear that the underlying work is Dr. Suess's book, but the 9th Circuit went through an entire analysis of each element of a fair use defense - which we won't go into here, but eventually they found that the mashup was copyright infringement because the publisher and author did not give any new context to the original work or the work was not transformative enough. If you're interested in other case law about fair use, the essential case to read is the “Oh, Pretty Woman” case brought against 2 Live Crew by the publishers of the Roy Orbison/William Dees song [actual citation: LUTHER R. CAMPBELL aka LUKE SKYYWALKER, et al., PETITIONERS v. ACUFF ROSE MUSIC, INC---Ed.].     But Don't Take Our Word For It Priority One's legal analysis, as always, is good for educational and entertainment purposes only---for actual legal advice, consult a practitioner licensed in your jurisdiction, and pay for your own content. And if you are planning on using other people's work in your own creative way, it's best to err on the side of caution and get a license. Even if some guy on the internet told you it's fair use. Yeah, he seems trustworthy. Image: ViacomCBS, via HeroCollector. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you. If you need a chuckle, Facebook user “Spock Pointy-ears Vulcan” created a video montage of the famous Picard Maneuver (you know, the one where SirPatStew tugs on his uniform). In this interpretation though, each time he does it, his com-badge pops off. Captain Pew-card, if you will. One of Star Trek's greatest films might be getting a made-for-television adaptation! Well, OK---it's not Star Trek, it's one of Trek's greatest love letters: Galaxy Quest. In an interview with The Times, Georgia Pritchett let slip that she and Simon Pegg are working on a new Galaxy Quest project. Unfortunately, there are no more details to share. Noah Averbach-Katz (Discovery's Andorian Ryn and Mary Wiseman's husband) is raising funds in support of the non-profit organization T1International, and their mission to make insulin freely available to all who need it. Visit his website to find special #Insulin4All Starfleet combadges and signed photos for sale and help support this important cause. Image: Noah Averbach-Katz. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds A Top-Tier Luxury Cruiser By Cat Hough Last week, Star Trek Online announced this year's Summer Event ship will be the T6 Risian Luxury Cruiser. We now have more information about this upgraded version of the ship. First, this ship features a Lieutenant Commander Universal/Temporal Operative Bridge Officer Seat, and is also equipped with Solar Sails, which allow its Quantum Slipstream Drive to travel at increased speeds for twice as long as normal. Image: Cryptic Studios. Also, the Risian Luxury Cruiser can be equipped with a Soliton Wave Generator console.  This allows the ship to generate a powerful, but stable, Soliton wave that will draw nearby enemy ships toward the Cruiser and deal minor radiation damage.  During this time, the Soliton Wave Generator is building up a powerful charge that is released after a short time and will damage nearby foes---plus briefly knock their engines offline. This console also provides a passive increase to Current and Max Shield Subsystem Power, and Reduced Recharge Times for Temporal Operative Bridge Officer Abilities. Image: Cryptic Studios. As befitting a T6 ship, the Luxury Cruiser also has the Leisurely Pace Starship Mastery Trait. While at or below 25% Throttle, Exotic Particle Generators and Control Expertise get a stacking bonus once every 5 seconds (4 stacks max). Once you have at least one stack, activating any Control Bridge Officer Ability will cause up to 5 foes within 5km to suffer a Debuff to their Flight Speed and All Outgoing Damage for 5 seconds. The severity of this debuff is increased by additional stacks of this trait's buff, gained by remaining at Low Throttle. This effect may only be triggered once per 5 seconds. D.R.E.A.M. (Dilithium Rules Everything Around Me) By Thomas Reynolds A key part of humanity's future in Star Trek is the end of the scarcity-based economy. Money is nothing and chips are free (on Earth, at least). So to be honest, when we start talking about manipulating currency economies in STO, it feels just a bit weird. On June 25th, the official STO Twitter account acknowledged that the Dilithium Exchange was apparently not showing offers anymore. But rather than a display bug, there was simply no offers to show: “any offer to buy Dilithium is *instantly* filled, leaving nothing to display.” https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1408497068742561794?s=20 Cryptic's solution to balance the economy? Sell more stuff, of course! To sink a lot of dilithium out of the game---fast---Cryptic is temporarily adding ten previously promo-only Vanity Shields to the Dilithium Store. That sweet Section 31 aesthetic you've craved for so long? Just drop 280,000 dilithium between now and July 8th, and it can be yours.  SHUT UP AND TAKE MY CRYSTALS. Image: Cryptic Studios. Cryptic's goal is to rebalance the economy without raising the dilithium cap, which it reportedly has no plans to do so. On the one hand, that makes this special shield offer feel somewhat like a stopgap measure. Then again, it also makes promo items accessible to players without sacrificing on the altar of RNGesus: something we strongly support. That brings us to our community question this week: CQ: What do you think about using promo item sales to moderate Star Trek Online's dilithium economy? Magic: Legends Exits Play By Thomas Reynolds For years the STO community voiced concerns that Magic: Legends was drawing development resources away from our own big-name licensed MMO. That turns out not to be the case. On June 29th, former STO EP Steve Ricossa announced that Magic: Legends will be shutting down on October 31st. This might not be a surprise given Legends' troubled development history, rough open beta launch, monetization controversies, and recent lack of player engagement. Still, going from beta launch to shutdown in only seven months is a grim trajectory–especially for those who put so much effort into it. With Legends headed off into the serene sunset, Cryptic simultaneously laid off about 40 people associated with the project effective immediately. Ricossa promises that Cryptic “learned several valuable lessons along the way, and...will use them to improve Cryptic's future development efforts,” but it'll be with fewer faces around. Image: Cryptic Studios.

This week on Episode 514 of Priority One: LeVar Burton shares some personal insight in a New York Times interview, there's a shakeup happening at ViacomCBS, Galaxy Quest might happen as a TV Series; in gaming, Star Trek Online's summer event gears up! This week's Community Question is: CQ: What do you think about using promo item sales to moderate Star Trek Online's dilithium economy? Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds LeVar Burton's A Sign Of The Times By Elio Lleo Several Star Trek alumni have gone on to lead remarkable careers, but one in particular has been such a cultural icon, he is affectionately known as one of the Four Horsemen of Wholesomeness. Like Bob Ross, Steve Irwin, and Fred Rogers, LeVar Burton is an institution not just to his Star Trek fans but to children. In a recent interview with The New York Times's David Marchese, LeVar opens up about his career and his latest adventure as the guest host of Jeopardy!. To whom it may concern: you're welcome. Image: Los Angeles Magazine. The interview is very personal and Marchese asks thought-provoking questions. When Burton was asked why he wants the Jeopardy! gig, Burton replied: Look, I have had a career for the [expletive] ages. “Roots,” “Star Trek,” “Reading Rainbow.” Won a Grammy. Got a shelf full of Emmys. I'm a storyteller, and game shows are tremendous stories. There's a contest, there's comedy, there's drama. If you don't know your [expletive] on “Jeopardy!” you're sunk in full view of the entire nation. The stakes are high. I love that. And Geordi will be disappointed in you. Do you want that? Do you? Image: Slashfilm. Burton goes on to discuss the balance between his celebrity and private personas and how he best engages with his fans---both in person and online. He also goes on to discuss how he approaches opportunities that might have come, or others that he might have missed.  Comcast Joins The Stream Team By Cat Hough In case anyone out there was not aware, the Streaming Wars have begun. Now, Comcast is joining the battle. It has been said by “sources” that Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts, has been wrestling with whether to build or buy to become a streaming powerhouse. He's considering a move similar to how ViacomCBS, Disney and Amazon, have struck mergers meant to supercharge their streaming efforts. Mr. Roberts, known as an aggressive deal maker in his two decades leading Comcast, has told people close to him that he doesn't feel a need to seek a merger. But he is scoping out options, and ideas on the table include a potential tie-up with ViacomCBS Inc. or an acquisition of Roku Inc. Now every network and content provider wants to be a streaming powerhouse, and in an effort to better prioritize streaming, executive teams continue to be reshuffled---including the team at ViacomCBS. Another restructure within the company was announced this week that included several promotions. The new exec team will focus on content groups rather than specific network oversight, with each newly promoted executive having greenlight power in order to keep supplying programming to Paramount+. The reorg will see ViacomCBS shift from a legacy model where networks had dedicated executives in favor of a structure that puts executives in charge of specific genres across the company. This move is fairly significant for ViacomCBS, since none of the four legacy media companies have similar exec structures.  Fair Use, Or Not So Fair? By Cat Hough There are some new and interesting limitations in place if you want to claim Fair Use as a defense to copyright infringement claims. This week, the Supreme Court refused to review a 9th Circuit's December decision that author David Jerrold and ComicMix LLC's were liable for copyright infringement because their mashup of Star Trek elements with Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! did not make fair use of Seuss's work. The issue in this case came down to whether the new version transformed the original version enough to be considered fair use, and the court says no, it did not. Now, a brief lesson in copyright law: if you are a holder of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to protect your work from other people from using it. If someone wants to use your work, then they need to ask permission, which is known as getting a license. However there are situations in which someone does not have to get permission to use someone else's work, like news reporting or teaching. There are other ways, too - but those are just an example. The thing with fair use is that it is a defense to copyright infringement, so you actually have to get sued first in order to prove that you are not guilty of infringement. If you use fair use as a defense, you are basically saying, “yes, I used your protected work, but my use is an exception to the normal rules.” Image: Brendan McDermid, via Reuters. Oh, The Cases You'll Go (To Court For) In this case, Mr. Jerrold and the publisher, ComicMix LLC took Dr. Suess's book, Oh, the Places You'll Go! and published a version based on Star Trek. Now it's very clear that the underlying work is Dr. Suess's book, but the 9th Circuit went through an entire analysis of each element of a fair use defense - which we won't go into here, but eventually they found that the mashup was copyright infringement because the publisher and author did not give any new context to the original work or the work was not transformative enough. If you're interested in other case law about fair use, the essential case to read is the “Oh, Pretty Woman” case brought against 2 Live Crew by the publishers of the Roy Orbison/William Dees song [actual citation: LUTHER R. CAMPBELL aka LUKE SKYYWALKER, et al., PETITIONERS v. ACUFF ROSE MUSIC, INC---Ed.].     But Don't Take Our Word For It Priority One's legal analysis, as always, is good for educational and entertainment purposes only---for actual legal advice, consult a practitioner licensed in your jurisdiction, and pay for your own content. And if you are planning on using other people's work in your own creative way, it's best to err on the side of caution and get a license. Even if some guy on the internet told you it's fair use. Yeah, he seems trustworthy. Image: ViacomCBS, via HeroCollector. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn't discuss but might interest you. If you need a chuckle, Facebook user “Spock Pointy-ears Vulcan” created a video montage of the famous Picard Maneuver (you know, the one where SirPatStew tugs on his uniform). In this interpretation though, each time he does it, his com-badge pops off. Captain Pew-card, if you will. One of Star Trek's greatest films might be getting a made-for-television adaptation! Well, OK---it's not Star Trek, it's one of Trek's greatest love letters: Galaxy Quest. In an interview with The Times, Georgia Pritchett let slip that she and Simon Pegg are working on a new Galaxy Quest project. Unfortunately, there are no more details to share. Noah Averbach-Katz (Discovery's Andorian Ryn and Mary Wiseman's husband) is raising funds in support of the non-profit organization T1International, and their mission to make insulin freely available to all who need it. Visit his website to find special #Insulin4All Starfleet combadges and signed photos for sale and help support this important cause. Image: Noah Averbach-Katz. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds A Top-Tier Luxury Cruiser By Cat Hough Last week, Star Trek Online announced this year's Summer Event ship will be the T6 Risian Luxury Cruiser. We now have more information about this upgraded version of the ship. First, this ship features a Lieutenant Commander Universal/Temporal Operative Bridge Officer Seat, and is also equipped with Solar Sails, which allow its Quantum Slipstream Drive to travel at increased speeds for twice as long as normal. Image: Cryptic Studios. Also, the Risian Luxury Cruiser can be equipped with a Soliton Wave Generator console.  This allows the ship to generate a powerful, but stable, Soliton wave that will draw nearby enemy ships toward the Cruiser and deal minor radiation damage.  During this time, the Soliton Wave Generator is building up a powerful charge that is released after a short time and will damage nearby foes---plus briefly knock their engines offline. This console also provides a passive increase to Current and Max Shield Subsystem Power, and Reduced Recharge Times for Temporal Operative Bridge Officer Abilities. Image: Cryptic Studios. As befitting a T6 ship, the Luxury Cruiser also has the Leisurely Pace Starship Mastery Trait. While at or below 25% Throttle, Exotic Particle Generators and Control Expertise get a stacking bonus once every 5 seconds (4 stacks max). Once you have at least one stack, activating any Control Bridge Officer Ability will cause up to 5 foes within 5km to suffer a Debuff to their Flight Speed and All Outgoing Damage for 5 seconds. The severity of this debuff is increased by additional stacks of this trait's buff, gained by remaining at Low Throttle. This effect may only be triggered once per 5 seconds. D.R.E.A.M. (Dilithium Rules Everything Around Me) By Thomas Reynolds A key part of humanity's future in Star Trek is the end of the scarcity-based economy. Money is nothing and chips are free (on Earth, at least). So to be honest, when we start talking about manipulating currency economies in STO, it feels just a bit weird. On June 25th, the official STO Twitter account acknowledged that the Dilithium Exchange was apparently not showing offers anymore. But rather than a display bug, there was simply no offers to show: “any offer to buy Dilithium is *instantly* filled, leaving nothing to display.” https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1408497068742561794?s=20 Cryptic's solution to balance the economy? Sell more stuff, of course! To sink a lot of dilithium out of the game---fast---Cryptic is temporarily adding ten previously promo-only Vanity Shields to the Dilithium Store. That sweet Section 31 aesthetic you've craved for so long? Just drop 280,000 dilithium between now and July 8th, and it can be yours.  SHUT UP AND TAKE MY CRYSTALS. Image: Cryptic Studios. Cryptic's goal is to rebalance the economy without raising the dilithium cap, which it reportedly has no plans to do so. On the one hand, that makes this special shield offer feel somewhat like a stopgap measure. Then again, it also makes promo items accessible to players without sacrificing on the altar of RNGesus: something we strongly support. That brings us to our community question this week: CQ: What do you think about using promo item sales to moderate Star Trek Online's dilithium economy? Magic: Legends Exits Play By Thomas Reynolds For years the STO community voiced concerns that Magic: Legends was drawing development resources away from our own big-name licensed MMO. That turns out not to be the case. On June 29th, former STO EP Steve Ricossa announced that Magic: Legends will be shutting down on October 31st. This might not be a surprise given Legends' troubled development history, rough open beta launch, monetization controversies, and recent lack of player engagement. Still, going from beta launch to shutdown in only seven months is a grim trajectory–especially for those who put so much effort into it. With Legends headed off into the serene sunset, Cryptic simultaneously laid off about 40 people associated with the project effective immediately. Ricossa promises that Cryptic “learned several valuable lessons along the way, and...will use them to improve Cryptic's future development efforts,” but it'll be with fewer faces around. Image: Cryptic Studios.

Join us on this week's episode as we debate whether Gul Dukat (Former Prefect of Bajor) is the ultimate Anti-hero of Star Trek. We hear from both sides of this argument and eventually the Doctor of Dilithium issues a verdict on one of the most complex characters in all of sci-fi. Join us this week as we embark on another journey into podcasting excellence!      Check out jasontalksmovies.wordpress.com for the best TV & Movie reviews this side of the Alpha Quadrant! 

Patreon Discovery Season 3 Wrap-Up! We’re back!!! We actually recorded this episode three weeks ago as a Patreon Discovery Season 3 call-in show, but now we bring it to the rest of our listeners. Recorded on February 6, 2021, this version has a few minor audio glitches in it. The audio is taken from Zoom, so the quality isn’t quite up to spec, but I don’t think you’ll really notice a big difference. There are a few sequences where you can tell that the conversation got misaligned a bit, but it’s only in a couple of places. We also had some audio interference in a few places as well but most of the recording sounds good otherwise. Listen to us discuss Discovery Season 3 with our Patrons! Joining Ruthie and me are patrons Laurence Todd (a.k.a. LT from NC, and co-host of The Walking Dead Talk Through), Kim Voegele (co-host of Re-binge DS9), Fred Petrij (a.k.a. Fred from the Netherlands), Geoff Gentry (Geoff XForce11), Jeff Baiocco, and Robert Kaiser. We mostly discuss Discovery Season 3, with a little bit of Lower Decks. We plan to go back to monthly Patreon episodes, so you should start seeing more content coming soon. Speaking of our Patreon… This was originally released to our Patreon supporters on February 10th (and this corrected version on February 11th). If you want to listen to it when it comes out, sign up for our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/brianandruthie for as little as $1/month and you’ll get access as soon as they’re released AND can participate in call-in shows, like this one! Subscribe to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to catch our Discovery episodes! Make sure you have subscribed to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to get these episodes when they come unless you listen to us on the All-Inclusive feed, or on YouTube. Check the Facebook group for any updates. Your feedback is SO important to us!!! Links to us… Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And follow us on Twitter! And don’t forget to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts! While you do, we’d appreciate it if you can leave us a review, hopefully, a 5-star! Or, if not, a rating will do!!! You can do the same on Podchaser. You can leave us a review on several different platforms here. Also, you can leave us a review on the Talk Through Media Facebook page. And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon to get access to our Patreon episodes. Sign up to CBS All Access! Help support the podcast! If you sign up from this link, you’ll help support the podcast, as CBS gives us a small referral fee, and it costs you nothing! Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on CBS All Access! Click this banner to sign up, and you’ll help support the podcast! Become a Patron! Watch this episode on YouTube!

Patreon Discovery Season 3 Wrap-Up! We’re back!!! We actually recorded this episode three weeks ago as a Patreon Discovery Season 3 call-in show, but now we bring it to the rest of our listeners. Recorded on February 6, 2021, this version has a few minor audio glitches in it. The audio is taken from Zoom, so the quality isn’t quite up to spec, but I don’t think you’ll really notice a big difference. There are a few sequences where you can tell that the conversation got misaligned a bit, but it’s only in a couple of places. We also had some audio interference in a few places as well but most of the recording sounds good otherwise. Listen to us discuss Discovery Season 3 with our Patrons! Joining Ruthie and me are patrons Laurence Todd (a.k.a. LT from NC, and co-host of The Walking Dead Talk Through), Kim Voegele (co-host of Re-binge DS9), Fred Petrij (a.k.a. Fred from the Netherlands), Geoff Gentry (Geoff XForce11), Jeff Baiocco, and Robert Kaiser. We mostly discuss Discovery Season 3, with a little bit of Lower Decks. We plan to go back to monthly Patreon episodes, so you should start seeing more content coming soon. Speaking of our Patreon… This was originally released to our Patreon supporters on February 10th (and this corrected version on February 11th). If you want to listen to it when it comes out, sign up for our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/brianandruthie for as little as $1/month and you’ll get access as soon as they’re released AND can participate in call-in shows, like this one! Subscribe to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to catch our Discovery episodes! Make sure you have subscribed to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to get these episodes when they come unless you listen to us on the All-Inclusive feed, or on YouTube. Check the Facebook group for any updates. Your feedback is SO important to us!!! Links to us… Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And follow us on Twitter! And don’t forget to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts! While you do, we’d appreciate it if you can leave us a review, hopefully, a 5-star! Or, if not, a rating will do!!! You can do the same on Podchaser. You can leave us a review on several different platforms here. Also, you can leave us a review on the Talk Through Media Facebook page. And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon to get access to our Patreon episodes. Sign up to CBS All Access! Help support the podcast! If you sign up from this link, you’ll help support the podcast, as CBS gives us a small referral fee, and it costs you nothing! Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on CBS All Access! Click this banner to sign up, and you’ll help support the podcast! Become a Patron! Watch this episode on YouTube!

Ruthie & Brian talk through S3E12 of Star Trek: Discovery, titled There Is A Tide... Osyraa arrives at Federation Headquarters and has a surprising deal to offer Vance: Peace. Burnham and Tilly work separately to take back Discovery.

Ruthie & Brian talk through S3E12 of Star Trek: Discovery, titled There Is A Tide... Osyraa arrives at Federation Headquarters and has a surprising deal to offer Vance: Peace. Burnham and Tilly work separately to take back Discovery.

Ruthie & Brian talk through S3E12 of Star Trek: Discovery, titled There Is A Tide... Osyraa arrives at Federation Headquarters and has a surprising deal to offer Vance: Peace. Burnham and Tilly work separately to take back Discovery.

Ruthie & Brian talk through S3E12 of Star Trek: Discovery, titled There Is A Tide... Osyraa arrives at Federation Headquarters and has a surprising deal to offer Vance: Peace. Burnham and Tilly work separately to take back Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery – Season 3 Episode 13 – That Hope Is You, Part 2 We’re back!!! Ruthie and Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3 Episode 13, titled That Hope Is You, Part 2 This episode was written by co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, and it was directed by executive producer Olatunde Osunsanmi. Please forgive us for taking so long to get this one out. This one is our second longest recording and because we are releasing it as a single episode, our longest episode to date. I am glad to take several weeks off before podcasting again. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! If you haven’t seen this episode of Star Trek: Discovery, stop right now!!! Go watch it, then come back!!! We’ll be here for you! Like the last episode, we have another split vote. Brian loved it, and Ruthie didn’t like it very much. Chapters That hope is you part 2 Subscribe to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to catch our Discovery episodes! Make sure you have subscribed to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to get these episodes when they come unless you listen to us on the All-Inclusive feed, or on YouTube. Next, we will be discussing Season 3 Episode 13 of Star Trek: Discovery titled That Hope Is You, Part 2 (formerly believed to be titled Outside). The deadline for the rest of the season will be Saturday, 6 AM Eastern/5 AM Central. Check the Facebook group for any updates. Your feedback is SO important to us!!! Links to us… Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And follow us on Twitter! And don’t forget to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts! While you do, we’d appreciate it if you can leave us a review, hopefully, a 5-star! Or, if not, a rating will do!!! You can do the same on Podchaser. You can leave us a review on several different platforms here. Also, you can leave us a review on the Talk Through Media Facebook page. And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon to get access to our Patreon episodes. Sign up to CBS All Access! Help support the podcast! If you sign up from this link, you’ll help support the podcast, as CBS gives us a small referral fee, and it costs you nothing! Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on CBS All Access! Click this banner to sign up, and you’ll help support the podcast! Speaking of our Patreon… We have released eight Patreon calls so far. We were hoping to schedule a Patreon this weekend, but we were unable to due to the power outage. If you want to listen to it when it comes out, sign up for our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/brianandruthie for as little as $1/month and you’ll get access! Become a Patron! Watch this episode on YouTube!

Star Trek: Discovery – Season 3 Episode 13 – That Hope Is You, Part 2 We’re back!!! Ruthie and Brian talk through Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3 Episode 13, titled That Hope Is You, Part 2 This episode was written by co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, and it was directed by executive producer Olatunde Osunsanmi. Please forgive us for taking so long to get this one out. This one is our second longest recording and because we are releasing it as a single episode, our longest episode to date. I am glad to take several weeks off before podcasting again. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! If you haven’t seen this episode of Star Trek: Discovery, stop right now!!! Go watch it, then come back!!! We’ll be here for you! Like the last episode, we have another split vote. Brian loved it, and Ruthie didn’t like it very much. Chapters That hope is you part 2 Subscribe to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to catch our Discovery episodes! Make sure you have subscribed to the Star Trek Discovery Podcast feed to get these episodes when they come unless you listen to us on the All-Inclusive feed, or on YouTube. Next, we will be discussing Season 3 Episode 13 of Star Trek: Discovery titled That Hope Is You, Part 2 (formerly believed to be titled Outside). The deadline for the rest of the season will be Saturday, 6 AM Eastern/5 AM Central. Check the Facebook group for any updates. Your feedback is SO important to us!!! Links to us… Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And follow us on Twitter! And don’t forget to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts! While you do, we’d appreciate it if you can leave us a review, hopefully, a 5-star! Or, if not, a rating will do!!! You can do the same on Podchaser. You can leave us a review on several different platforms here. Also, you can leave us a review on the Talk Through Media Facebook page. And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon to get access to our Patreon episodes. Sign up to CBS All Access! Help support the podcast! If you sign up from this link, you’ll help support the podcast, as CBS gives us a small referral fee, and it costs you nothing! Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on CBS All Access! Click this banner to sign up, and you’ll help support the podcast! Speaking of our Patreon… We have released eight Patreon calls so far. We were hoping to schedule a Patreon this weekend, but we were unable to due to the power outage. If you want to listen to it when it comes out, sign up for our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/brianandruthie for as little as $1/month and you’ll get access! Become a Patron! Watch this episode on YouTube!

This week, Dan, Bill, Sara and Kasey discuss the amazing season finale of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, "That Hope Is You, Part II". Osyraa will stop at nothing to get the commandeered Discovery to the Dilithium Planet even if that means torturing Book to death!  The crew fight to stop her plans in a possible suicide mission while Burnham sets up for an epic battle with Osyraa before time runs out! Meanwhile in the Verubin Nebula, Saru tries to form a connection with Su'Kal to come up with a way to save themselves and along the way finds the true (and very emotional) cause of The Burn.  In addition, thanks to the Kelpien ships computer, Gray can be seen by everyone and he and Adira instantly form a very special family bond with Culber! Will Osyraa get the information she needs from Book? Will the Discovery crew die trying to save the ship? Will Discovery get to the Dilithium planet in time to save their friends!  And who will be the new Captain of the good ole NCC-1031-A??  We discuss it all, and we  hope you'll join us for a great discussion on Discovering Trek! FIVE YEAR MISSION Music for Discovering Trek is provided by Five Year Mission. They’re writing one song for each episode of The Original Series! Plus, check out their podcast right here on the Trek Geeks Podcast Network! Find out more and download all 6 of their current albums at FiveYearMission.net

This week, Dan, Bill, Sara and Kasey discuss the amazing season finale of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, "That Hope Is You, Part II". Osyraa will stop at nothing to get the commandeered Discovery to the Dilithium Planet even if that means torturing Book to death!  The crew fight to stop her plans in a possible suicide mission while Burnham sets up for an epic battle with Osyraa before time runs out! Meanwhile in the Verubin Nebula, Saru tries to form a connection with Su'Kal to come up with a way to save themselves and along the way finds the true (and very emotional) cause of The Burn.  In addition, thanks to the Kelpien ships computer, Gray can be seen by everyone and he and Adira instantly form a very special family bond with Culber! Will Osyraa get the information she needs from Book? Will the Discovery crew die trying to save the ship? Will Discovery get to the Dilithium planet in time to save their friends!  And who will be the new Captain of the good ole NCC-1031-A??  We discuss it all, and we  hope you'll join us for a great discussion on Discovering Trek! FIVE YEAR MISSION Music for Discovering Trek is provided by Five Year Mission. They’re writing one song for each episode of The Original Series! Plus, check out their podcast right here on the Trek Geeks Podcast Network! Find out more and download all 6 of their current albums at FiveYearMission.net

The season finale of Star Trek Discovery Season 3 is here, aptly titled "That Hope is You Part 2." We learn the full and complete truth behind the cause of the burn, and we see a resolution to the Emerald Chain / Osyraa plot. My response is mostly positive to this episode. I was happier with the cause of the burn than I think a lot of people will be, but let's dig in and talk about the episode. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars And I am a Nerd   This is episode 50 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the season finale of Star Trek Discovery Season 3. That Hope is You Part 2.   The last 13 weeks have been a wild ride. I certainly feel this has been a strong season, the best that the modern Trek era has given us so far.   The description on Memory Alpha reads   As the Emerald Chain tightens its grip and the mystery of the Burn is finally solved, Burnham and the crew have one last chance to save themselves – and the Federation. (Season Finale)   This episode was written by Michelle Paradise It was directed by Olantunde Osunsanmi And it first aired on the 7th of January 2021.   Make it so.   While I was watching the teaser to this episode, before the opening titles had even shown, I turned to my wife and said “I know who directed this episode.” First time I’ve ever picked up on a director from their style. Olantunde Osunsanmi likes to do weird things with the camera, film stuff upside down and have the camera rotate around as the scene goes. Sometimes it’s a bit much for me. I feel that if the filmmaking draws too much attention to itself, it pulls me out of the story. But there were some moments in this episode where I found it effective.   We open with a beautiful shot of a gormagander flying through the skies of the simulated environment on Su’kal’s planet. We saw them in the background two episodes ago, but we get confirmation here that they are actually gormaganders. Space whales. I think they look awesome. We encountered them in season 1 but didn’t really get to see them in full flight like this.   The holographic narrator explains that gormaganders have spent more time on the Federation’s endangered list than any other species. However, this image is of a pup found in 3052, so that gives me hope that the species may be starting to recover by the 32nd century.   Su’kal is still unwilling to listen to Saru talk about his true nature.   Saru has to tread very carefully with him. If he causes Su’kal too much emotional distress, he may trigger another burn, and that could destroy what remains of the Federation. It’s a tricky situation. Saru’s greatest resource in this struggle is his Kelpien nature. But how does he convince the young man of his true species, when the holodeck has made him look human? (and I talked two weeks ago about how illogical it was that the holodeck made him look human, assigning seemingly random species to everybody.)   And then Adira shows up. This is the first time Culbert and Saru have seen her, so we’re backtracking a little in time, this is probably happening whiler Michael and Book are hurtling through the transwarp corridor at the start of last week’s episode.   The holodeck has made Adira look Xahean. Nice little callback to season 2. Adira gives them the medicine. It won’t cure them but it’ll buy them time until they can be rescued.   And then the real shock. Gray appears - looking like a Vulcan. And Culbert and Saru can see him. The holodeck recognises Gray as a separate independent lifeform, which is fascinating. The nature of Gray is still a big mystery, and it’s not resolved in this episode. We’ll have to look forward to season 4 for further exploration of this. But the fact that the holodeck recognises Grayt as a lifeform tells us something. It’s very interesting.   And I love the way Culbert and Gray react to each other. Gray is so thrilled to be seen. And Culbert embraces him like a long-lost son. It’s pretty cool.   It’s so weird so see him in full Vulcan makeup, but with blue hair and a big smile on his face. It seems that Gray can experience some form of sensation because when Culbert hugs him, he feels it. 32nd century holograms would be much more advanced than those we saw in the 24th century, so I can buy that.   Meanwhile, a battle rages at Starfleet headquarters. The Veridian is bombarding the shield. I imagine it won’t hold forever.   Voyager is ordered to fire on the Veridian. Nice to hear it referenced again. All other ships are ordered to fire on Discovery. IT seems Vance is very willing to sacrifice that ship and crew to safeguard the rest of Starfleet. And as horrible as it is, I do understand that. Even taking the spore drive into account, it’s a numbers game.   All hope for negotiation is gone at this point. As soon as Booker told Osyraa about the dilithium planet, she no longer needed the Federation.  Book is no longer willing to help her get to the planet, because she killed Ryn last week. It was sad to see him go, but he was the logical choice to die. Not a regular or semi-regular, but not a redshirt either. That meant his death hurt more. Osyraa has a truth serum so she doesn’t need Book to be cooperative.   So because Vance wouldn’t accept her proposed peace, and because she no longer needs them, she’s gone from wanting to ally with the Federation, to wanting to obliterate them completely. Out of spite.   Tilly and the bridge crew’s rebellion is going well, but it’s short-lived because Osyraa is turning off life-support on their section of the ship. Not much they can do about that.   Starfleet headquarters are about to lose their shield. Stammets appears, begging Vance to let him return to Discovery so they can rescue Saru, Culbert and Adira. Sadly for him, Vance agrees with Michael. They have to keep Stammets far away from Discovery, to ensure Osyraa doesn’t learn the secrets of the spore drive.   I’m not sure Vance speaks with enough compassion when he says “I know what you’re sacrificing here. I’m sorry.” But then he’s in the middle of a desperate battle and the shield is going down. He did well to be able to speak with Stammets at all given the circumstances.   And that’s when the Vulcans arrive. A fleet from Ni’var. I called it last week. Michael sent a good-bye message to her mother, so Gabriel got Ni’Var to send the cavalry.   Michael convinces Osyraa to let her hail Vance. She tries to talk Vance into letting them go. They can afford to lose the spore drive as long as Stammets is safely hidden away.   The way she locks eyes with Vance through the viewscreen and says “Trust me” suggests some hidden communication between them. Michael has a plan. She needs him to let Discovery go so she can implement it.   Vance isn’t happy, but he lets them go. But Osyraa won’t give the bridge crew their life support back. “They had their chance,” she says.   Osyraa needs Aurellio to provide the truth serum. He’s not so willing to cooperate. He’s seen what Osyra is capable of. And the use of the drug, combined with Book’s empathic abilities, will make the experience excruciating. Aurellio doesn’t want to inflict that kind of pain on Book. Autellio is a good man.   We learn a little about how Orion physiology differs from human. Like a lot of characters in sci-fi TV, they may look similar to humans, but under the skin, there are a lot of differences. But all of this is a metaphor for Osyraa’s feelings. Her moral compass. It’s much more complicated than Aurellio’s. In other words, she can find ways to mentally justify all sorts of horrible things in her mind.   I suspected, last week, that Aurellio was Osyraa’s husband. That seems not to be the case. She refers to “his family.” Not “our family.” She’s fond of him, but she keeps him around because he’s useful to her. Zareh says this is a no-win scenario for Michael, but she replies that she doesn’t believe in those, which is a direct reference to Kirk. It was a little bit on the nose for me. That’s Kirk’s thing. Give Michael her own thing.   This is when Michael starts to implement her plan. She pretends to give in, to want to convince Book to tell Osyraa what she wants to know, but as soon as she’s close to him, she attacks the regulators, taking their phasers and activating a forcefield. She and book are now separated. And they run off into the ship.   To reboot the ship’s computer, and restore the crew’s command codes, somebody has to be present at the data core. Not sure that makes sense, logically, but it works for dramatic tension.   We learn why Michael couldn’t beam with her com badge last week. The emerald chain have got transport inhibitors on the ship. Okay. That makes more sense. And I see why they’d do that from a story-telling perspective. If Michael could beam anywhere, she wouldn’t have had to crawl around the ship, and that was half the fun of last week’s episode. Michael sends a cryptic message to Tilly. She wants the crew to set off an explosion on the warp nacelle. It’ll knock Discovery out of warp. The dots can’t do it because of reasons, so it has to be done by a human.  We learn that Owo can hold her breath for a long time. Growing up on her home planet, she used to dive for abalone in the underwater caves. I believe they dive for abalone here in Tasmania. Anyway, that makes her well suited for this mission.   Meanwhile Michael and Book are gonna head for the data core. But annoyingly, we get yet another reference to people consuming synthahol a century before it will be invented.   Saru speaks to Su’kal of Kelpien cuisine. He admits he is a Kelpien, but has no proof to offer. But you can see in Su’kal’s face that he’s mulling it all over. Su’kal admits he has noticed that the Holo sometimes changes things.  We learn why Su’kal is so hesitant to talk about the outside. The holo told him the Federation would come from outside to rescue him. But they never came. It’s almost like he’s lost his faith because he feels let down. Of course, the Federation have come now. Just not as soon as Su’kal was hoping. This gives Saru an opening to explain the burn to him. Now he has Su’kal’s attention. He wants to understand because this is his life.   Saru can relate to Su’kal’s hesitance to leave the only world he’s known. He had to choose to leave Kaminar all those years ago. He’s getting through to him in a way that nobody else could. Whatever is behind the locked door that terrifies Su’kal, he has to face it. The monster from the folk tale is trying to help him. To encourage him to face his fear.   But Su’kal isn’t ready to believe that. He wants to see the elder.   Culbert and Adira need to explore outside the edge of the simulation but the radiation is too strong out there. Lucky for them, they have holo-gray. Radiation can’t hurt him because he doesn’t have a real body. Of course, he’s also holographic, so his body shouldn’t work outside the simulation. Bit of a plot hole there. But maybe it works. The ship they’re on has holographic emitters. Holograms can probably be sustained anywhere on the ship, not just within the confines of the simulation.   Culbert explains his theory about Su’kal. He believes that because he was born on this planet, his body was adjusted to be able to interact with dilithium in unique ways. Dilithium has a subspace component. Su’kal’s scream traveled at the resonant frequency of dilithium’s subspace components. That’s what hit every ship’s warp core during the burn.   Whatever happened to him 125 years ago was much worse than whatever upset him today.   Gray learns that the ship is falling apart. They need Su’kal to help them, and they need him to do it now.   Unfortunately, the elder is gone. The program is degrading. The Elder’s stories calmed Su’kal. But he doesn’t have that anymore. In a nice tender moment, Saru explains “you have us. You are not alone.”   Michael and Book are still making their way to the data core. We get an extended action sequence through the turbo shafts.   Discovery’s shuttles don’t travel through a shaft as such, they float through open space, through rings that kinda appear and disappear as needed. It looks pretty cool. But is it logical?   My issue with this is there is so much wide empty space inside the ship for the turbolifts to fly through, that just isn’t needed.   This whole sequence felt very Star Wars. Star Wars favours what looks cool over what is logical. You know, you’ll have characters fighting with lightsabers, surrounded by all this cool looking technology which looks awesome but doesn’t appear to have any meaningful reason to exist. Think of the duel between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and Darth Maul in Episode 1.   This turbolift sequence looked great. It was cool and fun, but I had to suspend my disbelief a bit more than I feel I should when watching Star Trek.   Anyway, Michael arrives at the data core. But Osyraa has gone there to meet her. So we get our obligatory season finale fist-fight between the hero and the villain. And it’s another great action scene. We get to see Book kill Zareh while Michael takes on Osyraa. Meanwhile, Owo makes it to the nacelle and sets off the explosion. The dot rescues her just before the explosion, essentially sacrificing itself. The episode plays the loss of the dot as a significant thing. But it’s just an avatar. It’s not like the destruction of this robot is gonna mean the death of the sphere data AI.   We see last year how impossible it was to completely destroy that data. The reboot Michael is trying to perform won’t do it. If it were that simple, they’d have just reboot the computer last year, rather than travelling into the future.   Osyraa almost kills Michael by pushing her into this weird well of programmable matter. It reminded me of Superman 3 actually, that scene that seemed so creepy when I was a kid, when the woman gets eaten by the computer and turned into a cyborg. Completely ridiculous of course. And way, Michael shoots out of the wall, kills Osytraa and escapes. It was an odd ending to the fight, but again, it looked cool.   So the ship is rebooted. Starfleet are now in command again, life support is back up, and the ship is out of warp, so reinforcements can catch up.   They still have a problem, though. Discovery has been sucked inside the Veridian.  Michael has an idea about that, and Tilly tells her to implement it, effectively putting Michael in command. She is the ranking officer on the ship. Even though Tilly is first officer. She’s gonna blow up the Veridian by ejecting Discovery’s warp core. But how will Discovery not be destroyed as well? The only way is to jump away. Stammets can navigate the jump because he has tardigrade DNA. But Aurellio thinks Book can do it as well, because of his magic nature powers. Makes sense. It’s a nice little development, in my opinion.   Book gives us a little hint as to his back-story. We learned weeks ago that Cleaveland Booker isn’t his real name. Apparently, it was the name of his mentor. He took that name and tries to live up to it every day. Interesting.   Jumping the ship is proving harder for Book than they’d hoped. Michael keeps telling him to jump, but nothing happens. Then the Veridian explodes. This is fake tension. We know they’re not gonna destroy the discovery and kill all the crew. So I kinda wish they’d just shown discovery jumping away. Don’t get me wrong. The lead-up to the explosion was wonderfully tense. But the fake-out didn’t work for me.   We learn what Su’kal is really afraid of. It’s turning off the holo. Behind the door are the holo controls. He hasn’t been in here since he was a child. Gray is afraid. Once the holo is turned off, he’ll disappear. Adira will still be able to see him, but that’s not enough for him. Again, I like how Culbert comforts him. “We’ve got you gray. We’ll find a way to help you be truly seen”   This moment, as Su’kal goes to deactivate the holo is the emotional heart of the episode, of the season, really. Once the program has ended, we find that we’re not in a holodeck as such, just a normal room on the ship. I understand that in the 32nd century, holograms can be projected anywhere, so in one sense, they don’t need a holodeck as such, but it’s still practical to have a dedicated room. I mean, shouldn’t they have been tripping over chairs and things? The holodeck uses force fields to keep you in a confined area during the simulation. I suppose this could be done anywhere on the ship but it just seems a little impractical. But for story-telling reasons, it makes sense for them to be here. Where they can immediately see Su’kal’s mother. (although it would have made sense for her to have died in the holodeck, as she activated the program for her son.) Su’kal’s next order is a brave one. “Computer, show me what happened here, so I can be free.” But his new friends have prepared him for this moment. So Su’kal’s mother had already put him in the simulation. So he didn’t have to watch her die. She told him not to touch the controls until the federation arrive. But he turned off the simulation. He saw everyone dead but his mother. And she was really sick from radiation poisoning. The poor kid watches his mother die in front of him, and he screams like he’s never screamed before. He sends out the shockwave that causes the burn. I suspected this would be the case.    Saru tells him he is no longer alone. And then Su’kal turns around to see Saru in his Kelpien form. It’s a beautiful moment. Saru just gained a brother.   So. Now we know the full complete details about what caused the burn. What do I think about it? I suspect many will not like it. Two weeks ago, many were saying “is that it? A Kelpien child screaming?”   And I can understand that from a certain perspective, it could feel anticlimactic. Like a weak payoff. But you know what. As I think about it, I think there’s a real poignance to the entire galaxy being ripped apart by the heartfelt anguish of a child seeing its mother die. And the sentimental family man in me really likes it. So … I’m good with this. I like it. This is definitely the best pay-off that Star Trek Discovery (or Picard) has given us. So this is very much a positive response from me. It’s very emotional. Very character-focussed.   Anyway, Discovery arrives just in time to rescue them. And they return to Starfleet headquarters. The epilogue of the episode kinda ties together everything into a common theme. The human need to connect. Gray feels that very strongly. Su’kal felt that need growing up all alone with nothing but holograms to keep him company. The various scattered worlds have felt it on a global scale, the need to connect with the rest of the galaxy.   This is hit home at the very end with a quote from Gene Roddenberry. “In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.”   Stammets is very happy to be reunited with Culbert and Gray. He gives Michael a look. It’s not quite a complete forgiveness of what she did, but I think there is some genuine gratitude that she rescues them. I think it’ll take a while for these two to regain their former friendship. But I think it’ll happen.   It was nice to see little glimpses of Doctor Pollard and Jet Reno.   The emerald chain has fractured without Osyraa. That kinda feels a little sudden. But thinking about it, a fractured chain could be worse. A whole lot of independent mercenaries out there just looking to their own interests.   But it’s nice to see the Federation beginning to rebuild. The Trill have returned and the Vulcans and Romulans of Ni’var are considering it.   Saru is taking some time off, helping Su’kal settle in on Kaminar. He is reportedly wanting to consider his future, which I suppose means he’s not sure he wants to remain in Starfleet. I’m not sure I buy that. He loves his homeworld and he’ll be very happy to see it again. He’ll always have a bond with Su’kal, but Starfleet is his life. His passion.   And it’s wonderful to finally see Sahil, the lone guy on the Federation outpost from the first episode of this season. He’s now been commissioned as a Starfleet Officer with the rank of Lieutenant. I really wanted to see him again. It would be nice if we see more of him next season.   And that’s when Vance has a heart to heart with Michael. First, nice to know Vance is a family man. He has a wife and daughter, off somewhere else where they’re safe. I love that. Vance has come to respect Michael’s unique way of doing things.    Michael, and the other Discovery crew have had to wrestle with how to live in this new time more than the people who are native to it, because she came from a different time. That allowed Michael to see new ways of doing things. And she has taught Vance a thing or two.   Now I have very mixed feelings about what happens next. Vance offers Michael command of Discovery. Apparently it’s Saru who wants Michael to be the captain. But Vance agrees.   She’s a little hesitant, but Vance needs somebody commanding that ship now. There is an important job to be done. The dilithium from that planet needs to be distributed around the galaxy to those that need it. Only Discovery can carry out that mission.   So Michael accepts.   So we now have captain Michael Burnham of the USS Discovery.   Now on one hand, I like this. Michael has what it takes to be a captain. She wasn’t ready when Georgiou first suggested it back in The Vulcan Hello, but she’s learned a lot since then. She’s grown up a lot.    And this effectively solves what I’ve been calling the Michael Burnham problem. The idea that we have a lead of this show, who isn’t the captain of the ship, so they have to make everything be about her, because they have to constantly justify the fact that she is the lead character. With her in the captain’s chair, well, it works just like any other Star Trek show.   his is good for Michael’s character. It’s the next logical step for her arc.  So I like that.   But what about Captain Saru. I’ve loved Captain Saru this season. His arc throughout the whole season has been him learning to be a better captain. If he’s no longer going to be captain then it feels like that was all for nothing. And I hate that. I don’t want Saru to leave the show. And I know he’s returning for season 4, which they’re filming right now. And I definitely don’t want him to get demoted down to serving under captain Burnham. So where does that leave his character? Command of another ship? That could work, but it would probably mean we’d see less of him next season as the show would follow Burnham on Discovery.   This leaves me with great concerns for how Saru’s character will be treated next season, and I’m not happy about it.   So like I said. Mixed feelings.   It IS cool to see that the Discovery crew are finally wearing the new Starfleet uniforms. So looking at the crew’s colours, Culbert is in white for medical. MAkes sense. Stammets is in science blue. Obviously. Tilly is also in science blue. She was technically engineering when she first started, I believe. I wonder what this means for her position as first officer. Will she serve as Michael’s number one? If so, she should probably be in command red. Although maybe she’ll be like spock and have a joint position as science officer and first officer. If they do keep her as first officer, that should at least promote her to Lieutenant. Realistically, she should be at least Lieutenant Commander to be first officer. Detmer and Owo are both in engineering yellow, which is kinda weird. Owo might make sense, as operations tends to be yellow. But I’d expect Detmer, as helm officer, to be in red.  But maybe the colours work a little different in the 32nd century than they did in the 24th. It has been a very long time.   And another surprise. Adira is in Starfleet uniform. So have they been fast-tracked through Starfleet academy given prior experience in the earth defence force? Maybe. Maybe Adira will be a cadet serving on Discovery kinda like Tilly was in season 1.   Book is also on the bridge, but not in uniform. The episode, and the season, ends with a classic Star Trek fanfare, and then the TOS theme playing over the ending credits.   I’m not sure ths TOS theme fits as well here as it did with the last two seasons, but I think it’s meant to signify that Starfleet of the 32nd century are returning to former ideals of exploration and peaceful coexistence.   Next season should prove interesting. I’m very keen to learn what it will be about. I wonder when we’ll get our first trailer. Not for a while. But I assume we’ll get a few verbal tidbits from Alex Kurtzman or Michelle Paradise at some point.   So that was Star Trek Discovery season 3. As I said at the start, I thought it was a very strong season. The best so far. I really enjoyed it. Discovery has well and truly established itself as a Star Trek show next to all the others at this point. I nitpic things from time to time, but no Star Trek show has ever been perfect. But the last 13 weeks have been a wonderful experience. Well. That was quite a ride. It’s been a lot of work putting together weekly podcasts in a timely manner. I’m glad I moved my release date from Saturdays to Mondays, because it just took a little of the pressure off.   But I’m looking forward to taking it a little bit easier now that I won’t be covering a show airing for the first time.   I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before, but starting next episode, I’m going to begin covering Stargate Universe. It’s a show that not a lot of podcasters or youTubers have talked about. It’s actually a pretty divisive show, a little like Discovery.   I’m going to move back to a fortnightly schedule. I’ll do my first Stargate episode next week, and then I’ll be back the week after as well, because I’ll be covering the 3-part pilot over a course of two episodes, But then I’ll be taking my first week off. From that point, we’ll be on the fortnightly schedule.   I hope you’ll continue to join me into the future, but if Stargate isn’t your thing and you want to part ways here, then thank you very much for joining me through Star Trek Discovery. This certainly won’t be the last time we cover Star Trek on Nerd Heaven. I’ve always loved Star Trek. It’s my primary fandom.   Anyway, There’s a lot of very cool stuff to talk about in Stargate Universe. In a lot of ways, it was ahead of its time. It feels very much like a modern sci-fi show. It was heavily influenced by Battlestar Galactica, which, in a way, has shaped all sci-fi TV ever since, including both Discovery and Picard.   I’ll be here next week to talk about the episodes Air Parts 1 and 2.   Until then, have a great week. Live long and prosper.   Make it so.

Episodes ReferencesStar Trek: Deep Space NineS3, Ep. 21 - ExplorersS4, Ep. 27 - AscensionMovies ReferencesStar Trek II: The Wrath of KhanStar Trek IV: The Voyage HomeStar Trek: InsurrectionStar Trek: Age of Discovery is a fan podcast for the Star Trek Universe shows including CBS All Access shows STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STAR TREK: PICARD, STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS, and STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS.Subscribe to Star Trek: Age of Discovery in Apple Podcast by CLICKING HERE. Also, the show is available on Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, and iHeartRADIO.Email the show at startrekaod@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at @StarTrekAoD and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekAoD/. Visit our website at http://startrekaod.net where we offer additional articles on Star Trek canon, interesting sidebar issues, and aspects of the show.How to watch Star Trek: Lower DecksStar Trek: Lower Decks is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. Currently, it isn't available anywhere else in the world.How to watch Star Trek: PicardStar Trek: Picard is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Amazon Prime everywhere else in the world.How to watch Star Trek: Discovery:Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else in the world.2020 © Star Trek: Age of Discovery

[embedplusvideo height="343" width="560" editlink="http://bit.ly/1cAaufg" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/euyzXzy8NQQ?fs=1&hd=1" vars="ytid=euyzXzy8NQQ&width=560&height=343&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep9886" /]   On this episode of The AIE Podcast... - Autumn and Halloween Events Abound! - More Blizzcon News - Abovan and Jehdai come to chat with us about Final Fantasy 14, A Realm Reborn! All that and more coming up right now on Abovan's Favorite Podcast...   AIE NEWS In STO news, Cap'n Hunter has let us know that they recently hit tier 3 with the Starbase, and are building up the Dilithium mine. Fleet activity seems to be up with the recent return of the Crystaline Entity and STO is going to add Voths to the game (the Dinosaur species from Voyager).   We mention this quite a bit as the date gets closer, but to paraphrase our favorite anchorman “It's Kind of a Big Deal”, for AIE in WoW, the Craft Faire gets ever closer! Check the thread for how to donate, help out, or just participate!   We're getting a few responses in the thread about Book of Heroes but we'd love some more! It looks like currently we possibly have Dignitas, Liberates and Verendus, but condensing these down to 1 strong guild seems to make the most sense! More news as we have it!   The winged guardian mount (AKA Falcor the amazing flyin' lion) is on sale! You can save 33% until October 22nd, which means that he costs 16.75 instead of the usual 25.00!   Blizzard has stepped up their blizzcon news today! To get us all tons more excited for the upcoming convention, they released their schedule of events and map of the show! so if you want to start planning which panels you want to attend or your travel route around the convention (To maximize your time at the guildhall of course!) the information is up on their website!   Rift has started their autumn harvest event! This event includes special holiday rifts, costumes, quests, a new area to explore and all the amazing stuff you come to expect! The event is running until november 4th, but why wait? Log in to rift (it's free!) and join the fun!   Not to be outdone, guild wars 2 is also having a halloween event! (You'd think this was some sort of major holiday or something!) They are calling it ‘Blood and Madness' there are open world events, two story instances, new achievements, a mad king and tons of awesome stuff for players to check out!   GAME NEWS   Abovan  Settlement Leader Jehdai Officer   Settment Officers   Abovan Settlement Leader   Senior Officers Pelell Max Watoolfa (Bofbir)   Officers Jehdai - Xerryx in game Kelseer Bonroku   Settlement Phase in the GERP.   Settled on a server. UMAMI is active.  Playing and grouping up.  As of 8pm on 10/17, 139   UMAMI may be slightly different than other games.  Since FFXIV does not have public chat channels (chat channels, or linkshells are moderated, as in invite only), we will be using the Jabber channel ffxiv_lfo to manage invites.  Using the pre-configured client on the main aie page, it has proven to be a very easy and successful way of getting an officer for our member's invites.   About FFXIV.   Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn   Square Enix's 2nd crack at FF XIV.  First one was a steaming pile of moogle poo.  It was universally looked upon as a flawed game.  However, the folks at Square Enix changed teams, and re-wrote the game from the ground up.  The plot events in the previous game, did happen, but it's knowledge is not required for understanding in the previous game.  All you need to know is the end of the era video, the now textbook way of showing how to end a mmo. :) This plays when you first open up the game.   The game has been rebuilt into a very defined modern MMO.  The zones are new, and feel like MMO zones.  Places to explore, little nooks and crannies, zone variety, and adventure around every turn.  The Engine was re-written from scratch to run on a much wider array of machines.

[embedplusvideo height="343" width="560" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/MMOH2m4OjMU?fs=1&hd=1" vars="ytid=MMOH2m4OjMU&width=560&height=343&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=1&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep5379" /]  LEAD IN On this episode of The AIE Podcast, - Nerds are running amok! - Another SWTOR officer is in the hotseat! - Come meet Ghomus in person! All that and more coming up right now...  We've got a great show today, with special guests Ratto Zatto and Capt Hunter  standing by to talk to us about Star Trek Online -  but first, the news...   AIE NEWS A meetup in my own Backyard! Well, close to, anyways. There is going to be a raid on the Harry's Hofbrau in San Jose, CA in 2 weekends! The time is not set in stone, but I know there are a few people in this area, that I'd love to meet up with you. Shout out to Oakdragon for trying to get this organized!   And it looks like Emperor Pellpatine, on April 1st, (no joke!), has put up another SW:TOR officer for you to ask all your crazy questions to! This month? Sema! Be nice folks!   Nerdtacular tickets are NOW available! Head on over to Eventbrite to pick em up! Keep in mind that if you happened to get such through Kickstarter you should have already gotten an email which will tell you how to pick up your tickets!   Speaking of Nerdtacular, it looks like Max (from last week's show) and a bunch of others are trying to get organized for a Running of the Nerds! There were of course concerns that Salt Lake City IS at altitude (around 4400 feet!), so keep that in mind, but a few die hard folks ARE going to be doing at least a few runs while there!   Not sure if we want to call it a reboot, or if we want to call it a new chapter in the life of CapStable, but the podcast brought to you by AIEU has returned to the airwaves! Er...spacewaves? Anyways, if you have any interest in EVE you should check it out!   The ever-talented Andrew Allen, the composer of our new show theme, has reached the 15 day mark for his Kickstarter and he's 83% of the way there! Tell your friends, we know how many people listen to this podcast, and how many of you like video game music! Support a Frogpants regular and get this album funded early!   And finally, we'll end with a little rumors and scuttlebut. Apparently some details of Blizzard's mysterious game, code named Titan, have been leaked. We don't know how true it is, but someone who knows someone who might know something says Titan will be based on Earth history, and will include everything from modern weapons to magic, time travel and  heavy use of Greek, Roman, and Viking myths.   For more information on everything we covered in the news, you can find links in our show notes on our website at www.theaiepodcast.com. And of course, read the AIE Forums!   And with that, let's welcome our guests, Ratto Zatto and Capt Hunter on the show to talk to us about AIE's adventures in Star Trek Online GAME NEWS   Hunter and RattoZatto introduce themselves.  Our positions in AIE STO.   How free is free?  We'll explain what's accessible.  http://sto.perfectworld.com/about/freetoplay/features-matrix What's Zen & Dilithium?   New expansion and that Romulans are like Panderians (Kinda, sorta, not really, except that they are).   Current state of the fleet and where we are with Starbase expansion.  Starbase level 5, tier 2 starbase unlocks, tier 2 tactical and science unlocks, tier 1 Recruitment unlocks and what's on the horizon.   What end game content there is.  Special Task Force, New Romulus.  (plus the fact you can replay missions and the rewards scale with you, so high replay value)   Personal experiences (missions we particularly liked, memorable moments, etc.) In particular, the "Trekiness" of it all, from seeing familiar faces to walking the decks of places you've seen in the shows.   The Foundry (player created missions) CLOSE   And that's our show for tonight. Big thanks to Ratto Zatto and Capt Hunter for joining us!