 This week on Episode 535 of Priority One: Content deals continue at ViacomCBS, so you’ll see what IP Bob can guarantee to be on TV.  A touching farewell to Tilly, with the character’s far future plans on the tip of Mary Wiseman’s tongue.  In gaming news, some fresh and refreshed games to add to your Trek catalog, and Mudd is back with a fresh Intel in a big ship bundle.  And before we review the most recent episode of Discovery, Dr. Robert Hurt tells us how we’re looking for planets not just around distant stars, but in distant galaxies!  TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Not Every Loss Is Eternal By Jake Cobb If you haven’t watched Star Trek: Discovery’s season 4 episode 4 “All is Possible” our next story contains spoilers. You’ve been warned. Still here? Good! Let’s get started! In the aforementioned “All is Possible”, Discovery said goodbye to one of its own: Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly. This week, TVInsider sat down with Tilly actor Mary Wiseman to talk about the episode, her departure, and the future of Tilly. Before going any further, let’s get the big question out of the way: will Tilly be back, and in what capacity? Wiseman answered (unsatisfyingly) ”I can say that you’ll see me later on in the season.” She continued (also unsatisfyingly) ”I’ll say that her hair is slightly different and she’s wearing a different outfit.” And she'll make new friends along the way! Image: ViacomCBS, via Tor. Being less vague, Wiseman recalled her on-screen goodbyes, telling TVInsiders Meredith Jacobs ”you tend to create a found family and that’s very much the story of our show, both on and offscreen, that we are a found family. So it felt really important to honor those relationships…[i]t kind of feels like...she’s going off to do this thing and all of these people show up for her to say, ‘we’ll still be here for you when you come back and we love you and we’ll miss you’.” It’s true, we’ll miss you–a lot. ViacomCBS: Deal With It By Cat Hough In some not very shocking news, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish confirmed that Paramount+ is moving towards exclusivity for its major IP franchises, by reducing the amount of third-party licenses...just like the recent buy-back deal for Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix. In a recent media conference, Bakish was asked about the third-party licensing deals and he said that while the company continues to bring in revenue for many deals cut before the launch of Paramount+, its priorities have definitely changed and that they are not likely to renew any prior third-party deals.   They are altering the deal. Pray they do not alter it further. Image: ViacomCBS/Trekmovie Bakish elaborated on this, saying, “as we increasingly transition to leveraging our particular franchises and original production for our owned and operated streaming assets, principally Paramount+…that, in turn, will create a decline in that third-party business over time as these deals roll off. I would note that as an example of that, we just took back Star Trek: Discovery internationally from Netflix. And so we now have that property globally. That’s clearly a core franchise for us, and it’s working.” It appears that these efforts are working for Bakish, as he stated that Paramount+ had its best week ever and best month ever in November. However, Discovery has yet to be confirmed for a fifth season. Historically, additional season pickups are announced around the time of the launch of a new season, which they did for Star Trek: Prodigy. Paramount+ Opens Revenue Channels By Cat Hough Speaking of Paramount+, it just announced the launch of 18 linear channels that let subscribers surf through dedicated-themed collections of shows called Live Channels. The content comes from all ViacomCBS properties including CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and the Smithsonian Channel as well as from other sources. The themed “live” channels, streaming 24 hours per day, feature the service’s most-streamed genres or specific franchises like Star Trek. Just think Star Trek Channel: all Trek, all the time.   Not like this. Not like this....Image: ViacomCBS, via Space.com Paramount+ Live Channels also will potentially provide a new bucket of advertising inventory for the streaming service to sell. At launch, there won’t be ads in the channels for either the Paramount+ Premium ($9.99/month) or the ad-supported Essential ($4.99/month) tiers, but eventually ViacomCBS may introduce ads for customers with the Essential package. Through Dec. 31, new subscribers can try Paramount+ for 30 days free by using the promo code “PEAKSALE.” Quick News Roundup A Star Trek Adventures-based audio play, Star Trek: Europa, is now available as a podcast with 10 episodes online.  The series follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Europa, a Luna-class starship with a new prototype positronic-bioneural computer system and an advanced AI. The ship’s mission is exploration following the Dominion War. It’s available on all of your favorite podcast apps.   In other audio news comes a cryptic tweet with very few details. Coming soon fresh outta spacedock is a new STO series, “Ex Astris: The Ships of Star Trek Online.”  The tweet comes from Daniel Orrett, writer and creator of the science fiction audio drama Sojourn HQ.  Which could imply an audio drama telling the story of STO ships?  With no release date, we’ll have to simply wait and see.   STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Mudd-Slinging Continues Unabated By Cat Hough Just in time for the holidays when you have all the extra money, a new bundle hits Mudd’s Market on December 22nd! Mudd’s Secret Intel Choice Pack will be available for 29,500 Zen, and you can choose any three of the following options:  Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer Son'a Intel Battlecruiser Elachi Sheshar Intel Dreadnought Cruiser Na'Qjej Intel Battlecruiser 50x Master Keys 1 Epic Phoenix Box Token 9x T6x Upgrade Tokens 10x Gold Tech Upgrades Image: Cryptic Studios. Or you can spend 60,000 Zen and get Mudd's MEGA Secret Intel Bundle: a one stop purchase to obtain all eight items in the pack at once! NOTE: Both packs are 50% off in the Zen store from December 22 through January 5.  Star Trek Faces A Resurgence By Ross McQueen Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative adventure game featuring dialog choices, relationship building, and exploration. Alongside dialog-driven role playing and rich branching storylines, you will also engage with the Star Trek universe in a variety of other gameplay styles, including shuttle piloting, phaser fights, tricorder scanning, stealth, and micro-gameplay mechanics. https://youtu.be/XNer-6JEJk0 Star Trek: Resurgence follows two principal characters through a single epic story, with gameplay switching between the characters, similar to Telltale’s Game of Thrones or Tales from the Borderlands. Star Trek: Resurgence is a single player experience without microtransactions, DLC or other additional monetization models.  The Armada Is Mobilized, Captains By Ross McQueen Grab yourself an energy drink or three, a bowl of your favourite snacks and let's LAN party like it’s 1999!  Actually, the correct temporal coordinates are 2000 and 2001, with Star Trek: Armada and Armada II now available on the GOG store. Anyone else here a Ressikan flute playing? No? Just me? Image: Activision, via GOG. This comes after GOG and Activision teamed up to celebrate 55 years of Star Trek, rereleasing six games including Voyager Elite Force and  Star Trek: Bridge Commander updated to work on modern operating systems. In Star Trek Armada, war is raging in the Alpha Quadrant with four races to command. The story is then expanded in Armada II, with Species 8472 entering the fray in Federation Space. Both games are available to purchase on the GOG store. A Dual Trilogy In Fleet Command By Ross McQueen The latest update has dropped for Star Trek Fleet Command, with Patch 37 bringing with it Part 3 of the Duality Arc, with three notable additions to the game as well as the usual collection of new officers, missions and bug fixes. Officer presets are now available, meaning you can create, name, and save specific sets of bridge officers which may then be assigned to your preferred ship.  Also a third permanent research queue is now unlockable through the in-game store. Kermit gotta get paid, son. Image: Scopely. On top of this, the Syndicate has now arrived!  The morally green Orions bring with them tiers to unlock, daily goal multipliers and an exclusive officer, Ghrush.  You can earn Syndicate XP from select events, a daily claim within the Syndicate menu, or from the Offers tab. ASTROMETRICS REPORT For this week's Astrometics Report, we go way past the final frontier to hunt for exoplanets--not just around other stars, but in distant galaxies. And we aren't just talking the homeworld of the Andromedans from the TOS episode "By Any Other Name." They're just from the Andromeda Galaxy, a mere two million light-years away. No, this tantalizing new discovery was found in the Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51, at a whopping distance of 30 million light-years. And this potential planet was found in a particularly wild system. So how do you search for exoplanets in other distant galaxies, when we've only barely started finding them in the nearby reaches of our very own Milky Way galaxy? It's a classic example of the scientific method at work: thinking about what we know, coming up with a hypothetical way to do a different kind of search, and being rewarded with an exciting detection. Now if you've been following exoplanet discoveries, you may already have heard of a search strategy kjnown as the "transit method." In a nutshell, astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars by looking for a small tell-tale dip in the star's brightness, that would happen when a comparatively tiny planet passes in front of its star--blocking a little bit of its light. This only works with planetary systems that, by the roll of the dice, happen to be aligned perfectly edge-on with our vantage point, allowing us to see the transits. Statistically that's a pretty small fraction of al the star systems out there. But it's been incredibly productive so far, leading to the discovery of nearly five thousand planets around other stars in the Milky Way. Since planets are small compared to stars, these dips in brightness may be only a fraction of a percent of the star's overall brightness. It works best with stars that are nearby and can be measured precisely. So the obvious question is how could you hunt for transiting planets in other galaxies, where the light of the stars gets mushed into an unresolved haze? X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. DiStefano, et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Grendler That very question prompted researcher Rosanne Di Stefano and her team to consider looking far past visible light to another part of the spectrum: namely, X-rays. Only the very hottest processes in the universes light up in this high-energy party of the spectrum, including an unusual kind of system called an X-ray binary. These are typically either a compact neutron star, or black hole, in a close orbit around another star. Gas spilling of the star gets swept up into a disc around the super-dense companion. the inner regions of the disc get heated to incredible temperatures. A large galaxy may gave at most a few dozen X-ray binaries that are so bright we can see them millions of light-ears away. but each one is a single compact source. So what if one of those has an orbiting planet that transits in front of the glowing disk? The team reasoned it would produce a transit signature that would briefly dim the X-ray light, so they went looking for one. And that's how they found the candidate planet in the Whirlpool Galaxy, using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. It turns out x-ray data sets are ideal for this kind of search. These telescopes typically have to sit and stare at a target for days, or even weeks, to collect enough x-ray photons to build up a picture. Those long staring observations are very similar to those used by exoplanet hunters searching in visible or infrared light. The transit they detected indicates a planet in an X-ray binary system called M51-ULS-1, where they saw the X-ray glow vanish for about three hours. They were able to rule out a variety of other factors that can cause X-ray variability, making a Saturn-sized planet the best explanation for what they saw. The signal was so strong because, in this case, the transiting planet would be much larger than the relatively compact part of the disc emitting the X-rays. So in X-ray binary systems, a planet would pretty much block all of the high energy light for a while. Image: NASA/CXC. Now I have to emphasize this is only considered to be a potential planet since confirmations require multiple transit detections. Unfortunately this planet likely has an orbital period of around 70 years or so, which means confirmation could take a very long time. However it points us towards a whole new way to search for other distant planets in the universe, and the awesome thing is that a lot of the data we need is already in hand. This research was carried out on archival data taken in other research programs--reminding us that our vast collections of research data in astronomy can be used to make new discoveries over time. You can bet scientists will continue searching data from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes for other possible planet transits. I should point out any planets in systems like this are not going to be at the top of the list for habitability searches. Such worlds are going to be flooded with deeply-destructive X-rays way past what you'd get in a doctors office. Our search may be restricted to stars a little closer to home. https://youtu.be/oR3Q7RBGmtc Finally I do have to comment on how excited the whole astronomical community is for the upcoming launch of NASA's Webb telescope on December 22. if you want to learn more about Webb, or the exogalactic exoplanet, make sure to check out Ask the Astronomers Live on universeunplugged.org. Every month our host Phil Lamar chats with a couple of astronomers about some of the coolest, or hottest, discoveries in the universe. You can even bring your own questions if you watch live on YouTube or Facebook. 

Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

535 - A Departure To The New Normal

 This week on Episode 534 of Priority One: Kurtzman talks crossovers and Nichelle Nichols dances the night away; in gaming, two new starships are available to add to your Star Trek Online collection! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Kurtzman's Crossover Qualifications By Rosco McQueen Considering the amount of new Star Trek series either on screen or in development, you may be thinking it’s more than likely there will be a crossover event of some kind.  Turns out Alex Kurtzman is thinking along the same lines.  Kurtzman and Sonequa Martin-Green were guests on the new episode of Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast speaking about Burham’s journey into the captain’s chair.  And its many, many detours. Image: ViacomCBS, via Deadline. But the conversation came around to the idea of crossovers, and if that is a real possibility.  Kurtzman says yes, but it’s got to be good. “Here’s the thing about crossovers; I think crossovers can be really, really exciting. But they have to exist for a reason. There has to be a great story reason to do it.” Kutman said he is yet to come up with the right idea for the crossover, as the volume of productions as well as each program’s individual identity are distinct, making it a challenge. “Because the flip side to doing a crossover wrong is that people are really disappointed and it impacts both shows. So it’s just not a gamble that I would want to take randomly. that being said, it’s certainly exciting to think about certain pairings that you’re like ‘Wow, what would it be like if those two characters were together or those two crews were together?’ But I want to be careful about it.” The same podcast episode asked about the status of the Section 31 series, which has been in development for some time.  The only answer Kurtzman would give was brief, saying “We’re in a very exciting place. I can’t tell you anything yet. But it’s still very much alive.” Go ahead. You tell her the show's not happening. Image: ViacomCBS, via Superhero Hype. Nichelle Concludes Her Mission To Earth By Cat Hough If you were watching updates on Twitter from L.A. Comic-Con this past weekend, you undoubtedly saw that Nichelle Nichols made her last-ever public appearance (this was also confirmed on her website).  NASA has released a touching Thank You video to Nichols recognizing her impact on the space program through recruiting women and people of color to NASA in the 1970s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wPMlKG16QY Quick News Roundup The story of William Shatner’s sojourn into space will be told in a one hour documentary special, aptly titled “Shatner in Space”. The documentary will screen on Amazon Prime as you might expect, seeing as Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon funded Bill’s flight.  It premieres on Wednesday, Dec. 13, in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. According to Prime Video, additional territories will launch in 2022. If you haven’t been keeping up with The Ready Room with Wil Wheaton on StarTrek.com, you really should. Last week featured the new uniform designs for Discovery Season 4 and an in-depth interview with David Ajala, who plays Cleveland Booker. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Great River Provides Us…with Nog! By Cat Hough Finally, the ship we’ve been waiting for…mostly because it’s not coming via lockbox and it’s free! The Eisenberg Star Cruiser [T6] was  announced as the Grand Prize award for this year’s Q’s Winter Wonderland Event. All you have to do is complete various activities available and gain enough Daily Progress to fulfill the Event’s overall quota. You can earn Daily Progress once per day, per account. https://youtu.be/8Yofx883hTc This ship features a 4/4 weapons layout and an Ensign Engineering / Command Specialist Bridge Officer Seat, and a Lt. Commander Universal/Miracle Worker Specialist Bridge Officer Seat. It also comes with the Great Material Continuum Universal Console.  This console uses a massive network of tight-beam transporter beams to strip away enemy hull at a molecular scale, briefly buffers that matter, then converts it into energy and project into a protective barrier that can be applied to allied starships even at a great distance. This console also provides a passive bonus to Starship Drain Expertise and All Subsystem Energy Levels. Also leveling up this ship will give you access to the Ingenious Tenacity Starship Trait. Using this trait and activating any Specialist Bridge Officer Ability (Intel, Command, Pilot, Temp Op, Miracle Worker) will briefly grant your starship the ability to redirect incoming damage from Energy Weapons into Shield Restoration. A portion of all Energy Damage received during this time (pre-Resistances) will be translated into Shield Restoration for the shield facing which the enemy weapon impacted. Just think of all the yamok sauce that thing could pack. Image: Cryptic Studios. Saturn Rings In The Holiday Season By Thomas Reynolds By the Prophets, has it been a full week since we got a new Infinity Lockbox ship? Never fear, Cryptic has us covered with another dip into the 32nd century Fed fleet registry. Now available on PC, the Saturn Intel Science Spearhead [T6] will run rings around–and through–your enemies. Assuming RNGsus hears your prayers, that is. Like most 32nd century vessels, the Saturn’s aesthetics are…challenging, to put it mildly. Consisting of just a flat ring-shaped “saucer” with trailing nacelles, it looks rather like the souvenir bottle openers in the Federation HQ’s gift shop. On the other hand, at least everything is attached with no floaty bits to be found. Dr. Hurt ought to be pleased [HA!–Ed]. Yes. I know what everyone else says it looks like. Image: Cryptic Studios. As a Science Spearhead with Intel specialization, the Saturn splits its focus between analyzing opponents and blasting the █████ out of them. Commander Science/Intel, Ensign Universal/Pilot, and Lt. Commander Universal Boff seats lend great flexibility in approaching challenges. The Enhanced Battle Cloak and Dual Cannon compatibility quickly turns those challenges into past tense–no temporal shenanigans required.  Come in Peace, Leave ‘Em in Pieces The Saturn’s Chakram Projector universal console leans into the circular theme even further, creating a spinning toroid of plot matter–excuse me, programmable matter to sandblast enemies in your vicinity. Ships caught within the death doughnut take kinetic damage with an additional kinetic resistance debuff. You, meanwhile, receive a passive buff to hull and shield penetration with all starship weaponry. Finally, the “Automated Triage” Tier 5 Mastery Trait kicks in a combined instant heal/heal-over-time to you or an ally within 5km whenever the subject dips below 50% hull health. Automated Triage immediately restores 10% of max hull, followed by another 20% of max hull over the next 10 seconds. The trait has a 60-second cooldown, but activating Science Team or an Intel Boff ability shortens it by 10 seconds. https://youtu.be/NeSc1s3fWQA Note that, although it literally says “Science” in the name, you really shouldn’t treat it as a science vessel. Everything about the Saturn may make it a hole-in-one for weapons builds. However only one of the mastery package traits improves your Exotic Damage, and neither the Chakram Projector nor Automatic Triage affect it at all. Expect to go cannons hot and leave the Gravity Wells at home. Quick Gaming News Roundup The United Earth Defense Force Vessel is now available in console Infinity Lockboxes. Now XBox and Playstation captains don’t have to avoid talking about the Elephant in the room–or not in the room, as the case may be. I bet you forgot about the Elephant. But the Elephant never forgets. And it never forgives. Image: Cryptic Studios. 

534 - Farewell, Nichelle, and Thank You

 This week on Episode 533 of Priority One: ViacomCBS tries to make amends to the world; First Contact celebrates 25 years; Badgey finally makes it into Star Trek Online; and we continue our S4 review of Star Trek: Discovery! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds How World War III Really Starts By Elio Lleo Before we left you for our Thanksgiving break, we reported that ViacomCBS had pulled Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix, leaving our friends outside of the US and Canada without a way to watch the latest season until sometime in 2022. Well, ViacomCBS has performed a massive international course correction. The fact that DSC was the fourth-most pirated series during Thanksgiving? Completely unrelated. Image: MUSO, via Deadline. Perhaps it was the international uproar. Perhaps it was because their poor planning was so misguided that it made headlines on news outlets like the BBC. Whatever the case may be, Paramount+ announced that Star Trek: Discovery will now be available internationally via Paramount+ or Pluto TV. You can find a detailed list of which platform in which country Discovery will be made available here.  Turbulence On Star Trek's Magic Carpet Ride By Elio Lleo It’s been 25 years since Star Trek: First Contact premiered in movie theaters. Widely regarded as one of the best films of the franchise, its production wasn’t entirely a walk in the park. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer Ronald D. Moore shares some behind the scenes stories about the film–including a clash with Sir Patrick Stewart.  According to Moore, Stewart wasn’t too thrilled about some of the writing so he convinced Rick Berman to replace Moore and his co-writer Brannon Braga with some of his own writers. However, those new writers didn’t quite work out…so Braga and Moore were brought back. Awkward. Even more awkward than this, apparently. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekNews. Moore shares the story: "I remember Patrick at the outset just said something like: ‘It’s good to see you. I hope that we can all move on from the things that have happened, and now let’s just concentrate on the work.’ And I took that in the spirit it was given: [He] wants to move on from this, he’s not going to apologize outright, but he kind of is apologizing. And it was never spoken of again. So we just moved on." The Moore You Know Moore also spoke with SyFy about his work on the film. In this interview, there’s more discussion about the actual development of the script and it’s production. For instance, did you know that one of the original drafts had Riker as the action star–facing off against the Borg aboard the Enterprise. But Sir Patrick wanted in on the action–recalling the episode “Starship Mine.” They even toyed with the idea of setting the film in medieval times! Another version had Picard trying to find affordable rent in San Francisco. Image: ViacomCBS, via American Cinematographer. When asked about scenes for stories that he wished hadn’t been cut, Moore explains: "There were just expanded sequences. There was just more action in general, more fighting the Borg in the corridors, and going into different places on the ship. And I think there was more humor. A lot of the jokes got cut down. I think we had more fun with Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Cochrane’s relationship on Earth, where he gets her drunk. We had more to that sequence scripted and that was fun to write, too. Rick might have made us cut it because he was always a little too–he was always kind of worried that maybe the humor would be too corny or something." The Other Kind of Star Trek Royalty One aspect of the film that Trekkies like to debate is the introduction of the Borg Queen. Well, Trekkies aren’t the only ones that debated her introduction. According to Moore: "...it was a choice that was also antithetical to the idea of the Borg. The whole concept of these villains was that they were a collection, and that there were no individuals. And that's what made them the faceless, implacable 'resistance is futile' enemy. But it also limited how to deal with them dramatically…[s]o we really went back and forth about it internally…[w]e decided that the story would be better if we had some individual to deal with." Comparing thee to a summer's day, you're making everyone overly sweaty. Image: ViacomCBS, via American Cinematographer. "To craft scenes around, to do an intimate kind of dialogue back and forth and help get inside characters’ heads–like Data in particular, and Picard. So what we came up with...a Borg Queen that controlled at least this collective of that particular ship, not necessarily that she was the queen of the whole Borg…" For more insight about the film and its production process, be sure to Trek Out both interviews. Whoopi Brings Trek Full Circle By Cat Hough Well, while we’re talking about Picard: the next season is premiering in February, and we’re getting bits of information about the upcoming season, including Michelle Hurd’s view on working with Whoopi Goldberg.  Michelle Hurd told a fan via Cameo what filming Picard Season 2 was like, saying “I pinch myself. I am a fan too, I literally pinch myself when on set or get to work with these amazing iconic creatures.” She was referring to both John de Lancie’s return as Q and Goldberg’s return as Guinan. Hurd went on to say that working with Goldberg was, “the bomb. She is SO cool. She is just cool, she is just Whoopi. That’s all you can say.” Of course, not everyone's working relationship was as cordial. Image: ViacomCBS, via Agony Booth. Not much is known about how Guinan may fit into Season 2 of Picard. We know that her character has demonstrated a special ability to sense changes in timelines, which could factor into the time travel and alternate timelines featured in the upcoming season.  Speaking of Whoopi, she interviewed Sonequa Martin-Green on The View recently, and if you haven’t had a chance to watch it, you really should. Martin-Green includes a very touching acknowledgement to Goldberg’s history on Star Trek and how she and Nichelle Nicols paved the way for her to take on the Captain role on Discovery. Martin-Green told Goldberg, “I am your accomplishment, and I thank you.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25gVG34L-0 Quick News Roundup Now, here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.  If you haven’t signed up for Paramount+ but have been eager to share Star Trek: Prodigy with your kids, then set your set-top-boxes and TiVos to record the Nickelodeon premiere happening Friday, December 17th at 8pm ET/7pm CT. Speaking of Prodigy, if you’re eager to continue the adventure, you’ll have to wait until January 6, 2022 for episode 6.  IDW Publishing announced it would release Star Trek: Klingons in February 2022. This comic book series will chronicle the legendary life of Kahless, the Unforgettable [wait, who?--Ed.]. This release will be the first installment in a series of extra-long one-shots spotlighting the Star Trek franchise's most iconic alien species. It’s written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and features artist Timothy Green II. In an excellent in-depth interview, featured as a part of Rolling Stone's Last Word series, LeVar Burton reflects on his Jeopardy! experience, the magic of Star Trek conventions, the lasting importance of Roots, and the advice he got from his friend Fred Rogers–so make sure to trek out the link in our show notes. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Has Q Found Some Chill At Last? (No.) By Cat Hough https://youtu.be/cJMGnx7_ZKA It’s that time of year again, again. Time to get those scarves and sweaters and head to Q’s Winter Wonderland, where you can participate in your choice of Winter Wonderland Activities and get a new Tier 6 Starship…that had yet to be announced at the time of this recording [It was announced as the cross-faction Eisenberg-class Star Cruiser on Cryptic's Ten Forward Weekly stream the following day, December 1st–Ed.] This means that, just like last year, Daily Progress toward earning your new starship can be obtained by participating in any of the following activities: Fastest Game on Ice Klingon Ice Fishing Tides of Ice The Fast and the Flurrious Cones of Conduct The Kramp’Ihri  That's not a mistaken date; 2020 will simply never end. Image: Cryptic Studios. Once you run one of those events to earn your Daily Progress, you will also get various Holiday Ornaments, used in different combinations to purchase things in the Winter Event store. New this year: Glacial Nanopulse Bat'leth, because revenge is a dish…well, you get it. The Warnog Rescue Targ and the Barrel of Warnog. Exactly what it sounds like: it's a barrel, full of warnog. Lower Decks-themed sweaters, including ones from the Chu Chu Dance, The Dog, Badgey, and everyone's favorite evil Jeffrey Combs computer, Agimus. This year’s epohh variant, the Glacial Epohh, is the same glorious glacial blue as the Bat'leth. Mmm. Minty. Image: Cryptic Studios. Well Someone's Going To Have A Blast A more surprising addition for this year’s event is a new Breen Ground Set. The set centers on cold damage, specifically a new Polar Blast ability: a cold damage AOE  centered on a single target. Breen Cryoshaper Armor [HP] [Mob] [ResEn] ∞ [Active] Ablative Ice Shield generates a shield of ablative ice, providing temporary Health] that grows each time the wielder deals Cold damage, with the extra Health based on Cold damage dealt. [Passive] Massive Control Resist grants very high fire and cold resist, moderate energy resist, and light physical/kinetic resist Breen Cryoshaper Personal Shield [Reg]x3 ∞ When the shield is broken, deals a Polar Blast to whatever broke it.  Breen Cryoshaper Universal Kit Frame +Kit Performance +Cold Damage Using a Cold Kit Module deals a Polar Blast to the primary target. Breen Cryoshaper Thermal Depletion Pistol [CrtH] [Dmg]x2 ∞ Deals Cold Damage Secondary fire: a Polar Blast to three targets in a cone Set Bonuses 2 Pieces +50% Temp Health gained from Cryobarrier Polar Blasts slow Foes and gain a 10% chance per Foe hit to spawn another Polar Blast 3 Pieces Dealing Cold Damage to an enemy debuffs its Cold Damage Resistance Rating 4 Pieces Cryoshaper Weapon primary attack gains 100% weapon firing cycle speed Plot twist: all four of these models are also Jeffrey Combs. Image: Cryptic Studios. Q’s Winter Wonderland will be available from December 7th, 2021 to January 6th, 2022. This event will run simultaneously across all platforms (PC and console).  STO Looks Into The Crystal Ball Sphere By Cat Hough In a recent interview with StarTrek.com, Design Director Al Rivera and Staff Writer Paul Reed discuss what it was like to incorporate Star Trek: Discovery into Star Trek Online. The two discussed their initial reactions to hearing about the new show and how having new content to draw from and how that has helped add more content to the game.  Because Captains in the game have gone to all four quadrants, made peace with the Founders, saved time itself, and even won, barely, a war against the ancient Iconians, having new Star Trek shows like Discovery gives the team that extra bit of inspiration. Reed already has an interesting idea for how to tie the lore into the far future setting of Discovery’s third and fourth seasons. “Say for example, are the Iconians still around in that time era? And if so, what are they doing? Have they evolved? Have they changed? Are they still mad? It's been a long time, but I'd like to go into some pockets of our lore in that far future and then tie in with the Discovery team in some way. So, seeing how the Iconians handled the Burn for example would be pretty cool.”  Then again, how can you possibly top this? Image: Cryptic Studios, via StarTrek.com Rivera had some of his own ideas for stories to tap into. “And they got all the Sphere data, what was that about? That's a perfect example of a story where we can jump off of and talk about what that was, or what's a gormagander? Let's talk about that. So there are opportunities there.” Well, we’re excited to play all of these stories in-game. Anytime now. Cheers to Club 47! By Elio Lleo In a recent tweet, Environment Artist Nick Duigid reminisced about the launch of Club 47 on ESD seven years ago! Nick says it doesn’t get much traffic these days–but the launch party looked like a really good time.  https://twitter.com/Tumerboy/status/1462211110514266112?s=20 

533 - Hell Is Frozen, And All The Sweaters Are Here

 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. 

532 - Why Can’t The World Have Nice Things?

 This week on Episode 531 of Priority One: News is sparse as we gear up for the next season of Star Trek: Discovery, but there’s plenty to discuss in the world of Star Trek gaming! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Power Seating on Star Trek: Discovery By Rosco McQueen Sonequa Martin-Green is on the interview circuit in the lead up Season 4 of Discovery. She spoke with SFXMagazine about the feeling of finally sitting in the captain’s chair, and the answer isn’t as simple as “soft and comfortable, and could they install a cup holder?” "It feels very humbling. But it also feels very emboldening. I’m grateful for it because you feel like you earned this position with Burnham. You feel like you were able to learn and grow and make mistakes and mature from them with her." It’s a new direction with a new captain, and the new series is set to premiere next week! Don't everyone cheer at once. Image: ViacomCBS, via GamesRadar. Time Enough For Mudd By Rosco McQueen Harcourt Fenton Mudd only appeared in two live-action episodes of Star Trek, and once in animated form, but he left a lasting impression [and I guess Rainn Wilson didn’t?–Ed.]. So much so that a spin-off was in the works, as revealed in an article from Fansided.  The article delves into the Starlog Magazine interview archives to discover that the pitch never got past the desk of the Great Bird of the Galaxy.  Gene Roddenberry told the actor, Roger C. Carmel, that the artists didn’t have time to develop the project, which would have seen Mudd take the lead in the series as a space pirate/intergalactic con-man. Carmel was supposed to reprise his role in a first season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the actor died before filming began.     

531 - On the Verge of a New Discovery

 This week on Episode 529 of Priority One: New Jersey settles the age old question–which is better: Star Trek or Star Wars; Star Trek wins several awards; Star Trek Online gets some quality of life improvements; and we’re joined by Star Trek: Discovery’s Noah Averbach-Katz! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Great NJ Debate! By Elio Lleo, Local Correspondent As we record this episode of our show, it’s Election Night in the United States for several important political positions throughout the country. One contest, however, rises above the rest here in my home, the Garden State [my condolences–Ed.]. Which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek? A recent poll conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton attempted to give us an answer. Lead by Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the school took to Twitter and Facebook to poll New Jersians on the issue. The results–well, they’re disappointing. According to the poll, Star Trek lost by double digits: 41% for Wars vs 16% for Trek among 18-34 year olds. Though the gap did begin to close, as ages started to rise. But that’s not where this ends…New Jersey website nj.com put together a debate featuring Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7) on Team Trek, and Rep. Andy Kim (D-3) and Ashley Koning, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton poll, on Team Wars. The debate is a little over 24 minutes long, but it's a delightfully lighthearted discussion about how both franchises can be applicable to current political topics. https://youtu.be/eKAoQhUv-nI Another No Win Scenario for the Kelvin Timeline? By Elio Lleo Can Star Trek 4 compete and succeed? That’s the question that Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com posed in an opinion piece about the franchise. You see, Dune has already been green-lit for its second installment due to release in October of 2023. But, the announcement of a sequel before production has even begun isn’t a first. Mendelson points to the Kelvin Timeline series of Trek movies as an example. "Captain, it appears to be the timeloop anomaly known as Production Hell." Image: ViacomCBS, via Forbes. It’s been announced time and again that we’re going to get a fourth installment, but Mendelson argues that 2023 may end up hurting the franchise like it did in 2016. You see, back in 2016 Star Trek Beyond competed against the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Fast and the Furious. Come 2023, it’s another round of competition with films like Fast & Furious 10, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Mission Impossible, and Shazam. So, can Star Trek really take a foot-hold in the box office battles? Robbins Takes Nickelodeon To Warp By Cat Hough Speaking about Star Trek films, in a recent interview Alex Kurtzman and CEO of Paramount Brian Robbins spoke about Prodigy and the future of Trek, including the films. Robbins, who continues to serve as president of Nickelodeon, believes Prodigy is a perfect fit with the Paramount+’s current Nickelodeon content and Kurtzman’s other Star Trek content. He enjoyed Prodigy so much, he said he had wished they had released it in theaters as a full-length animated film.  

530 - Trek's Better Than Wars? That's Debatable

 This week on Episode 529 of Priority One: We power up for Star Trek: Prodigy, with the cast and crew promotion peaking as the premiere prepares to play–plus we get some more details on the explosive new additions to Star Trek Online! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Star Trek: Prodigy Promotion Peaks in Premiere Preparations By Rosco McQueen This week the Trek universe welcomes a brand new adventure to our screens, with Star Trek: Prodigy to make its debut on Paramount+ on October 28.  A few sneak peeks have been filtering through, with Prodigy teasers tempting new fans during NFL Sunday Football. In the first clip, Dal can be seen making his escape from the mining facility in dramatic fashion. In the second clip, we are treated to the Protostar powering up, with characters Dal and Rok-Tahk finally being able to converse thanks to the universal translator.  https://twitter.com/StarTrekOnPPlus/status/1452347822049677315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1452347822049677315%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fstartrek%2Fnews%2Fstar-trek-prodigy-uss-protostar-sneak-peeks-nfl-sunday-football%2F Both scenes are fun and exciting, with the standout being the effort that has gone into the musical score which helps it feel very much at home in the Star Trek universe. The folks at Gizmodo felt that tiny moment highlighted something special about the Star Trek franchise—the ability of everyone to communicate freely, as well as not judging a book by its hulky rock-encrusted cover.   A Seat at the Grown-Up's Helm Station Prodigy executive producers/co-creators Kevin and Dan Hageman, and executive producer/director Ben Hibon, spoke with Trekmovie.com about the challenges around finding that entry point into the Star Trek multiverse, with Dan Hageman saying,   “We never really view it as a kid show. We view it as a show for people who don’t know Star Trek,  which could be young or old. And so we always had that perspective of the outsider and that freed us up. We wanted to keep the stakes real for an older audience. We never want to dumb things down for kids. Kids are really smart. They may have a learning curve in the show, but they’ll get there.” Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekMovie.com The creators go on to talk about how there was never any other option for the training hologram: it was always Captain Janeway from the start. They also mention she may not be the only hologram we see, and hint at real characters (like Captain Chakotay) making an appearance but not as holograms. As for Captain Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew has also been on the interview circuit, explaining to cinemablend.com if the character was going to appear on-screen, then it was always going to be her who would play the role.   “Well, I certainly needed to come back to this character if threatened with an imitation. I think that only I can voice this character, and only I should, because I’m the only one who knows who she is. I think that the young people would recognize that very quickly. That might be arrogance on my part, but I don’t think so. I think they have a very discerning imagination.” Voyager: The Next Generation Mulgrew says she hasn't been approached about reprising her role as Kathryn Janeway in a live-action series (outside of Star Trek: Nemesis).  According to the actor, hologram Janeway won’t be as fiery as her living counterpart–as she’s helping a ship of children navigate the cosmos.  The caring side of Janeway was echoed by the cast and crew at New York Comic Con in an interview with Gizmodo. COVID-19 restrictions meant the cast was unable to record together, so for Brett Gray who plays the role of Dal, finally getting together with Mulgrew was something else. “I got to sit next to her today at Comic-Con—and it is, it’s palpable.  There’s a majesty that she has, and you can feel it when we announced she was coming out today. Just to walk on stage for the panel was like—the audience was deafening. She is an icon. And so, I feel very lucky that the first iteration of Star Trek we get to be a part of has someone like that we get to model and watch. People who are incredible fans of Janeway and all of that get to now have a way into our show, too, and see what it’s like for people who know nothing.” For the final word on the series, Kate Mulgrew spoke about now being the perfect time to bring in a brand new audience. “It is an important time for Voyager, it’s an important time for Star Trek. I think in terms of pop cultural history, now is the time to target this young demographic and introduce to them the wonderful mysteries of Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s splendid philosophy.” And sweet ships. Don't forget the sweet ships. Image: ViacomCBS, via io9. Soong Long, Farewell, Altman Will Go Goodbye By Thomas Reynolds We knew that Brent Spiner will be returning for Picard Season 2 for some time now. You may have thought it would be as Altan Inigo Sybok…er, Soong, who was apparently just out of frame in every TNG scene with Data’s “parents.” After all, Data was really, truly, 100%-for-sure dead when the curtain dropped on Season 1. Well that’s not the case, according to Inverse magazine...Spiner’s role as Altan, that is. Data’s still dead. "Nothing is stranger to man than his own image." [Karel Capek, R.U.R.] Image: ViacomCBS, via Inverse. According to interviewer Ryan Britt, Spiner “know[s] they haven’t revealed much about me being in the show. I can tell you I’m a member of the Soong family. And, that I’m not playing a character I’ve ever played before.” Given Season 2’s central temporal shenanigans, it seems likely that Spiner will play a 21st century Soong ancestor. However, if you consider Data and his siblings to be Soong family members, then Spiner might be a temporally-displaced android instead. It’s definitely not Data, at least. He’s…yep, still dead.  What Goes Around, Khans Around By Rosco McQueen The third season of The Movies That Made Us has dropped on Netflix. Its creator, Brian Volk-Weiss from The Nacelle Company, spoke with comicbook.com about the possibility of a superhero-focused future episode, as well as some tasty Trek nuggets.  You might be thinking the ideal movies to cover in this documentary style would be 1989’s Batman or Christopher Reeve's first Superman movie. According to Volk-Weiss, he actually would go a little more modern and cover 2008’s Iron Man:  “It would be Iron Man, because Iron Man is the most important[. B]ecause if Iron Man had failed, nothing else would have happened. And also, I like that story of not just seeing a movie come together, but a universe come together." As for those Trek nuggets, surely a film like Wrath of Khan would be on their sensors for a future episode? Volk-Weiss confirms there was discussion, but in the end it came down to covering all four quadrants–of storytelling. “But usually, we want four-quadrant movies. And what that means is, for anyone who doesn't know, it's young people, old people, men, women, everybody. And that's what we try to do. And also multi-generational. My generation grew up with Home Alone, and the two generations afterward–including my children–they like Home Alone as much as I do, if not more. So that's what we try to do." Quick Star Trek News Roundup Last week, we discussed the History Channel’s upcoming documentary “The Center Seat.” Unfortunately, we didn’t yet know the release date. Well, we’ve got it now, and it’s slated to premiere on November 5th, 2021. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds The Guardian of Sometime Later By Thomas Reynolds First introduced with 2018’s Pop Culture Hero Coalition bundle, the Mirror Guardian brought sinister flavor to an otherwise-unremarkable T6 cruiser. Other than replacing the Lieutenant Engineering/Intel with a Lieutenant Engineering/Command bridge chair, the Mirror Guardian looked to be the same as its Prime counterpart. Once the bundle sold out, that was it: the Mirror Guardian was never seen again...until now, that is. https://twitter.com/i/status/1451579395525812224 With STO taking a good hard look in the Mirror (Universe), it’s the perfect time for this one-and-done vessel to stage its comeback. But rather than setting course for the Phoenix Prize Pack or Mudd's Market, Cryptic was all set to sell the Mirror Guardian Cruiser for the standard 3000 Zen in the Zen Store instead. As part of the re-release, the Prime and Mirror Guardian models were remastered to the current level of fidelity, like we’ve seen for a good number of ships by now. Players who already own the Mirror Guardian will receive these updates for free: just ready your Cruiser, visit the ship Customization Interface, and apply a preset. Both Type 1 and Type 2 hull models will be available, along with the Legendary Federation starship materials. https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1452736912150515716?s=20 Now normally we’d remind you to Trek out the link in our shownotes at this point. But we won’t. Because you can’t! On October 25th, Cryptic tweeted that “the release of the Mirror Guardian in the Zen Store has been delayed until December on all platforms,” and they’re “taking down the blog and any past references to it.” We can only guess what kind of skullduggery and intrigue is behind the delay. Because...I mean, it’s the Mirror Universe. There’s gotta be intrigue. Splosion! By Elio Lleo Well, while we’re on the topic of ships, the 10 year old MMO is always striving to improve! Most recently, Ship Artist and FX Artist Ian Richards decided to make an explosive change. The animations that occur as your ship receives damage in the game has been updated–including the grand explosion that happens when yer ship just canna take it anymore! It might seem like a small improvement, but boy is it glorious! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-QVLE01MV4 

529 - Prodigy Opens Frequencies To The New Generation

 This week on Episode 528 of Priority One: We delve into the whale-filled washup of the season finale of Lower Decks, Anson Mount discusses literally sitting in the captain’s chair, and is that a star on top of the Christmas tree or a Borg baby spray-painted gold? In gaming news, we take a closer look at Star Trek Online’s Halloween event, and roll for shield strength in a new release from Star Trek Adventures! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds What’s the Deal With All These Feels, McMahan? By Elio Lleo Mike McMahan, the creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks, isn’t resting on his laurels! Nope! After a (generally) well-received Season 2 of the Star Trek animated adventure, McMahan is making the rounds talking about the season–which wrapped last week on October 14th. Sam Stone of Comic Book Resource jumped right in and asked about its unusual villain: the Pakleds. McMahan’s explanation: When we were writing the first season, we were in the thick of a pretty dark time across the world–the re-rise of fascism across multiple countries, obviously a lot of politics happening in this country and, not to put too fine a point to it, things that had seemed like a joke in the first place suddenly becoming much more dangerous because we weren't vigilant about it. The Pakleds seemed like a perfect opportunity for that… [This sight gag doesn't work in a podcast app but I stand by it nonetheless–Ed.] Image: ViacomCBS, via Comic Book Resource. Really Be Careful What You Wish For, Mariner What about that incredible cliffhanger? Well according to McMahan, the goal of Season 2 was meant to show Mariner “grappling with themes of betrayal and being left.” Supposedly, Mariner’s got some past trauma that we haven’t been privy to yet. Nevertheless, McMahan explains that Mariner will start Season 3 struggling to deal with having her mother taken from her. [NOT JUST HER, MIKE–Ed.] When talking with StarTrek.com he explained, “...in the first season we were really creating a family, and in the second season we kind of tested them. And in the finale of the second season, we're dealing with the loss, the family breaking up.”  What about our other characters? Well, there seems to be something deeper going on with Rutherford. Something more than just a faulty cybernetic implant. MacMahan tells CBR.com, “... it's about Rutherford. There's stuff about Rutherford that he doesn't even realize and this is his second implant.” They go on to discuss some of the other character dynamics–like the “will they/won’t they” tension between Rutherford and Tendi–along with some takeaways McMahan learned from the first two seasons. Mainly that anyone you talk to could secretly be Jeffrey Combs. Anyone. Image: ViacomCBS, via Comic Book Resource. Center Chair, Hot Seat, Call It What You Will By Cat Hough If you have not had a chance to see the new trailer for the upcoming History Channel docu-series The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, you should definitely trek it out. According to the press release, The Center Seat will be “the ultimate Star Trek documentary that everyone has always wanted, and now they’re getting.” Each episode of the series will focus on a different chapter in Star Trek history, starting with the inception of the original Star Trek series at Desilu. But even the trailer features some pretty saucy quotes from the cast and crew of the various shows and movies. https://youtu.be/J_IOHcPuN3Q For example, we hear more from Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran about their less than ideal working circumstances and for Cirroc Lofton–we hear about his extreme dislike for having to wear the “onesie” uniform while also going through puberty. Nicolas Meyer, writer of The Undiscovered Country, speaks about how much William Shatner hated the script for the movie and the effect that had on, well, pretty much everyone else involved [yeah and you thought Final Frontier was a good idea, now sit down–Ed.] Mmmm. Taste that grain. Image: ViacomCBS, via Deadline. The show doesn’t cover any of the new Trek series, but definitely appears to be a comprehensive and detailed exploration of the Star Trek universe over the first 55 years of the show. Created by the Nacelle Company, who also produced Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us and The Toys That Made Us, the series is narrated by Dr. Beverly Crusher herself, Gates McFadden, and directed by Nacelle Company founder Brian Volk-Weiss. There’s not been an official release date given other than it should premiere sometime this fall. Festivities Will Now Commence By Rosco McQueen It’s the most wonderful time of year; when the nanoprobes gently come to rest on ornaments hanging from the boughs of a tree, and assimilation tubules shine in the festive glow of twinkling lights.  Christmas is soon upon us, and you can count down to festive assimilation with the 2021 Borg Cube advent calendar. The calendar features 24 Trek gifts behind alcoves (or windows if you prefer) and includes gifts of socks, coasters, and an espresso cup commemorating the first warp speed flight in 2063. It’s made by Eaglemoss, the same company who also made a TARDIS-shaped advent calendar for devout Whovians, and is available for purchase now. It could be just the thing to put you in the mood for Picard season 2, with the Borg Queen to feature as part of the time-travelling tale. And speaking of season 2… I hope one of those is an apology to Icheb and Hugh. Image: Eaglemoss. Soji’s Sojourn By Rosco McQueen In an interview with Trekmovie.com, Isa Briones spoke about where we find Soji in Picard season 2: a place where she can finally be herself, now that being an android is no longer outlawed.   “We’re definitely seeing a new kind of level of her evolution as she’s coming into her own. She’s finally allowed to be who she is and be accepted by the universe, the galaxy, whatever you want to call it. So yeah, we get to see her in this new, more certain place of who she is. And that’s very exciting.” The more certain place also has a pool? Jealous. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekMovie.com The interview covered working under strict COVID conditions, as well as the broader strokes of season two and how it connects to the world we’re living in. “There’s a big emphasis, I think, on mental health, for sure. We’re seeing these characters going through some hard moments and really leaning on each other and prioritizing their own mental health in order to save everyone else. And I think that’s a very relatable storyline and a storyline that we need right now.” Your classic Good Cop/Borg Cop dynamic. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekMovie.com We’re All Batty for Strange New Worlds By Rosco McQueen The hype train continues heading towards the station for Strange New Worlds–even Anson Mount starring as Batman in the new DC animated movie Injustice can’t stop interviewers from asking about the new series.   Either that, or they ask about his starship's extended warranty. Image:ViacomCBS, via SYFY. Mount will play the role of the Dark Knight in the animated adaptation of the video game Injustice, where a traumatized Superman turns evil.  In an interview with SYFY Wire, Mount talks about the recording process, and not being the first Christopher Pike to take a turn at Batman. (If you’re playing along at home, Bruce Greenwood has voiced Batman a couple of times, and was also the Kelvin Universe’s version of one of Starfleet’s greatest captains). But when the discussion turned to Strange New Worlds, Mount reinforced the episodic nature of the show, as well as a moment that would give every Trek fan goosebumps. “I was just there as Anson in my own clothes and I sat down in the chair and it was in that moment that I flashed back to playing Star Trek as my make-believe game when I was like eight years old. Something about it was just really strangely emotional for me, and I'm still doing that. I don't even know really how to articulate it, but it's surreal and it's weird... but it's something that I'm so grateful for.” STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Fanatical Devotion to the Many By Cat Hough Star Trek Online tweeted earlier today that the recent partnership with Fanatical offering in-game bundles to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of America raised more than $77,000. Well done, everyone who donated! Cat’s Tale of “Cat’s Tale” By Cat Hough Well, it’s been a week since the “Cat’s Tale” Halloween TFO was released, and while it took players a few days to get to know how to navigate the phases of the TFO, it seems that most people are enjoying the mission. As you and your team are first transported to the castle on Pyris VII (or is it Boreth?) the music and lighting definitely set the mood for battling skeletons, witches, skulls and Devidians. In a creepy surprise, you’re treated to some Bonnie-Kin voice-over as you make our way downstairs and through the hallways lighting candles–because it’s dark in this castle! In the first phase, you are attacked by skeletons, but you can only kill them when they are standing within the circles of candlelight. Some equipment that we highly recommend is the Universal Kit Module - Gravity Containment Unit Mk XII. You can get this kit module as a Tier IV reward from the Discovery reputation; if you use it while you’re standing in the circles, then you can just pull those skeletons over to you.  

528 - Unpacking Pakleds, and the Cat's Out of The Bag

 This week on Episode 527 of Priority One: William Shatner returns to earth, NYCC returns and includes some amazing Star Trek announcements, Los Angeles has a new Star Trek destination, and things get spooky in Star Trek Online– Plus our review of the season 2 finale of Lower Decks! TREK IT OUT Edited by Jake Morgan and Thomas Reynolds Shatner Slips The Surly Bonds Of Earth By Elio Lleo Space. The Final Frontier. And our first captain, James T. Kirk went on an incredible journey. Well, it was William Shatner who did the journey. On Wednesday, October 13th, the 90 year old broke records by joining Blue Origin for their second human space trip! At 10:30AM ET, all systems were a go and the Blue Origin rocket took off. Thankfully, the entire adventure went off without a hitch and upon exiting the pod, Shatner was visibly moved by the entire experience.  Photo Via TVLine.com After-Action Report: NYCC 2021 Star Trek: Discovery New York Comic Con returned to in-person events this year with phenomenal panels, incredible cosplay, and–of course–sneak peeks into the future of Star Trek. Our focus this episode is on the Star Trek: Discovery and Prodigy panels that took place over this last weekend. First, Star Trek: Discovery and its upcoming fourth season: this was a riveting panel with a surprising in-depth, yet spoiler-free, look into what we can expect from our intrepid characters. When asked about the general “theme” of this next season, Wilson Cruz had this to say: “I feel like the stakes that we were living in reads in that trailer...the stakes in the story were really high, but the stakes in which we were making and telling the story were also high. And the theme of the entire season is about uncertainty, and about how we come together to deal with it and walk through uncertainty, to lean on each other as we find a way through it. And we were doing that in life as well, so I'm excited for you to see it.” Showrunner Michelle Paradise followed up by explaining that in this season, “The Federation isn’t quite back together again….it’s continuing in Season 4.” For our first non-binary and trans characters, much was left wanting in Season 3. So, will Grey finally be seen? Wilson Cruz had this to say, “we find a way to make sure Grey is seen as promised, and we get to see just how vital he becomes to the story and our mission. And I’m just excited about the fact that we have–finally–an official trans character on the show, in Star Trek, in the universe. And he does an amazing job.” Now, things got a little spicy in the auditorium when Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala were asked if we’d ever learn about what happened between their characters during that fateful year. Here’s what they had to say: DA: “I think it was just...a period of time where they were in the right place at the right time, to help each other, and to bring out the best in each other." SMG: "Mmmhmm." DA: "And it was...y'all need to behave yourselves. And...I think there was a lot of growth." [Someone saying what we're all thinking–Ed.]: "How much growth was there? And what was Grudge doing when all this 'growing' was happening?" DA: "Grudge was minding their own business. The timing was perfect for Michael Burnham to[...]rejoin Starfleet, but to really find her own identity independent [of] Starfleet. And it was also good for Cleveland Booker to be part of a 'family.' Again, these two people met each other at the right place at the right time, and I think Cleveland Booker is a better man for it. And Grudge too–and Grudge says 'wassup,' by the way." Speaking of characters, if you’ve already watched the trailer–and you should have by now!– you can probably assume this is going to be a high-octane, high-stakes kind of season. How will Tilly be affected? Mary Wiseman had this to say,"that in combination with all the events of the third season similar to the way this pandemic experience, really kind of forced her to reinvestigate herself and her motivations. It kind of spirals her off into this personal journey, actually, which was very fun to play with.” Sonequa Martin-Green followed with,“I think a lot of us on the ship...I don't think any of us were expecting to have a threat this big soon after jumping to this future. Because that was huge. and then I know for Burnham, it's a lot, it's like 'man, here we are again with a threat of great, of great magnitude." And so of course, these people in this story, being the honorable people they are, their true character comes out at that moment of greatest pressure. It's beautiful stuff that comes out, as hard as it may be.” But, filming Season 4 during a pandemic was no small feat. When asked about how COVID impacted production, Michelle Paradise had this to say: “Discovery was actually one of the first producitons to go back. WE started back in November, and we were certainly the first show of this size to do it. There aren't enough words to talk about the tremendous, tremendous effort that our entire crew, our entire cast did to make the show this season. I cannot overstate how challenging it was, every step of the way, making sure we could make a show like this while keeping people safe. That being our focus, and then also making a show...it was tremendously challenging, and everyone came together, and worked together, and collaborated, and it was really beautiful to see and very difficult at the same time. The fact that we have this, that we can show you guys, it's really amazing. Our team is just incredible.” Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 premiers November 18th. Photo Via Heavy.com Star Trek: Prodigy Now, moving on to Star Trek Prodigy. Attendees of the panel were given an exclusive early screening of the first episode and an extended clip of HoloJaneway’s introduction to the crew is already online. But moderator Dawn Lewis–who plays Captain Freeman on Lower Decks–opened the panel with an important question: how will Prodigy stay true to the franchise? To which the Brothers Hageman replied, “they start way out in the Delta Quadrant...that was our way in: we wanted a bunch of new characters who knew nothing about Star Trek, just like our young audience. And then slowly (as you saw at the end of the pilot) they meet hologram Janeway, and then with every episode we get closer and closer into the Trekverse. We get to have so much fun taking our time, and introducing everything we love about Star Trek. For me, growing up, Trek was just so aspirational and I feel that, for kids today, not only they need that, I need that.” Now, what about the style of Prodigy? Why CGI animation? Well, Producer Ben Hibon explained, “we wanted the show to have great scope and this feeling of adventure to be immense and fantastical. But at the same time the characters and their stories are very intimate. So we wanted the freedom to shoot these characters as we would cinematic as possible–to be as engaging with all of us as possible, as we go on this adventure with them.” Not only did fans get a sneak peek but, we were also surprised to learn of new characters and actors being welcomed into the production. Daveed Diggs will voice Commander Tysess, an Andorian (Diggs is a Grammy and Tony-award winning member of the original Broadway cast of Hamilton). Jameela Jamil will voice Ensign Asencia, a Trill (Jamil is best known for her role in The Good Place), and Jason Alexander will voice Doctor Noum, a Tellarite (of course, we know George Costanza on Seinfeld, and Kurros in the VOY episode “Think Tank,”). And the big reveal…well, we’ll let the Hageman Brothers tell you,"oh wait, there's one other person. There's one small person named 'Captain Chakotay' [CAPTAIN?–Ed.] by Robert Beltran is coming on our show.” So will we see the Protostar traverse the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, as well as spending time in the Delta? Only time will tell–the series will premiere on October 28. Photo Via StarTrek.com I ? LA By Cat Hough Well, you may not have been able to attend a Convention this year but, the Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds exhibit opened at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center on Oct.  7 and runs through Feb.  20, 2022. It features rare props and costumes from the past 55 years of Star Trek, including costumes worn by Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols. There’s also a phaser from the original series, just one of two known to exist; a model of a Borg cube; and the head of the Gorn that Captain Kirk fought in the 1967 episode “The Arena.” The exhibit combines new Trek and old Trek, featuring both the open-chest Khan tunic worn by Ricardo Montalban in The Wrath of Khan as well as the less-revealing costume Benedict Cumberbatch [aka "RetKhan"–Ed.] wore in Into Darkness. But the centerpiece of the exhibit is a navigation console operated by Lieutenant Sulu in the original series. The console was badly damaged and missing most of its buttons after 50 years in storage, so the team had the assistance of a group of fans to help restore it. Visitors at the exhibit will get the chance to act with prop phasers and tricorders in a re-creation of the transporter bay. So if you’re headed to LA between now and February–be sure to swing by and trek out this exhibit. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. Lost In Space’s third and final season airs on Netflix Dec 1, 2021! https://youtu.be/SwBJv5A-bA0 Season 1 of Strange New Worlds has wrapped filming. Anson Mount thanks the fans because, without them [stop me if you’ve heard this one before–Ed.], none of this would be possible! https://twitter.com/StarTrek/status/1447653234969956352 STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Jake Morgan and Thomas Reynolds Kirk, To Boldly STO By Rosco McQueen It was a moment of pure joy and wonder in Season three of Star Trek: Discovery. The crew had finally made it to Starfleet Headquarters, and there was a fleet of future starships waiting to blow their 23rd century minds. Among the rainforest ships and speedy escorts was an imposing neo-Constitution style ship, the Kirk class, now making its debut in Star Trek Online. The T6 Kirk Temporal Heavy Battlecruiser will be available as part of the Research & Development Pack promotion from October 13.  When you purchase and open an R&D pack from the C-Store, you will receive either 10 Lobi Crystals or a Special Requisition Choice Pack - Tier 6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack in addition to the R&D Pack contents.   The Kirk class boasts a 5/3 weapon layout, and features a Commander Engineering/Temporal Operative Specialist Bridge Officer seat and a Lt. Commander Universal/Command Specialist Bridge Officer seat. The “Field-Replicated Buster Pods” Universal Console fires out large, enemy-seeking missiles that deal massive kinetic damage. The starship trait “Risk Is Our Business” grants captains a stacking amount of temporary hit points per foe within 5km. This also works in combination with Threatening Stance, generating a large amount of Threat toward nearby foes when active and further enticing them to attack you.  Nova and Rhode Island Get Ravishing Refreshes   By Rosco McQueen In other stylish starship news, the remaster project of the Star Trek Online fleet continues, with the Nova family getting a crisp new look.  The remaster is a ‘from the ground-up rebuild’ according to Lead Ship and UI Artist Thomas Marrone, who shared the before and after pics in a blog post. The plucky little science ships now have a new screen-accurate ship material, as well as access to all “legendary” starship materials. A Cat’s-Eye Review of the Mirror Gagarin By Cat Hough It’s been about a week since I’ve claimed the T6 Mirror Gagarin from the “Equal and Opposite” event running in Star Trek Online. I claimed the ship on one of my Tactical Temporal Recruits, who has been most recently flying the Mirror Warship with phaser cannons. But for this ship, because of the 4/4 weapons layout I decided to switch it up and try out the Agony Phaser beams that were also part of the reward from running the event. So far, I’m really enjoying the ship. It’s quite maneuverable: the base turn rate is 12, which can obviously be modified with traits and your skill tree. There’s definitely a tactical lean to this ship with a Commander Tactical station, so I probably would not recommend it for a science build. But the Projected Protomatter console is very interesting. I have noticed that you need to be facing your enemies for this to be very effective. It shoots protomatter at your enemies and causes a good amount of damage.   I’m still experimenting with the build, so I may end up swapping out this console for something else - but I wanted to give it a try. I’ve only just leveled it to Tier 5 last night, so I have not had a chance to try out the Protomatter Precursor trait. But to be honest I tend to stay away from shield-boosting traits, since there are other traits you can slot for increasing damage.  All in all, this is a very solid ship–especially for a ship that they give you for free! We may complain a lot about the ship economy [you don’t say–Ed.], but Star Trek Online gives out at least 2 top-tier ships every year to its players and this ship event was a pleasant surprise. Not to mention it’s a Mirror ship, giving you so many more opportunities for Space Barbie: when you claim this ship it comes with the Gagarin or Shepard skins–so fun to mix and match! https://youtu.be/XlkM4MrvSR0 

527 - New York Comic Con 2021

 This week on Episode 526 of Priority One:  the Next Generation of tours is in full swing at Ticonderoga, set photos from Picard Season 3, Star Trek Online gets spoOoOoOoky in their first Halloween special, and we review the latest episode of Lower Decks: "wej Duj"! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Touring the Next Generation in Ticonderoga By Elio Lleo Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of attending some phenomenal Star Trek themed events and exhibits [or seething with jealousy at it–Ed.], but few are as spectacular as what you’ll find in the sleepy town of Ticonderoga, New York. You see, James Cawley–who grew to fame as an Elvis impersonator–is also a die-hard Trekkie. His passion was so great that he decided to rebuild the sets for The Original Series where an old retail store used to be. He didn’t just want to build the Enterprise…he wanted to recreate the old Desilu Set. Closest we'll probably come to having a religious experience. Image: Star Trek Set Tours. Now, after 4 years of being open to the public, Cawley is expanding! As they work to acquire an adjacent building, Cawley and his team have begun diligently recreating the sets from The Next Generation. Local news station WCAX got a sneak peak of their progress: when speaking to reporter Cat Viglienzoni, Cawley explains he has all the original blueprints as well as a direct line to Star Trek’s legendary creators Mike and Denise Okuda. Star Trek: Picard Producer’s Sweet Sneak Peek Pics By Cat Hough If you’ve been following Star Trek: Picard executive producer and co-showrunner, Terry Matalas on Twitter, then you’ve seen the images he’s been sharing from the set of the show. If you are not following him, then you may want to. Since Season 2 has wrapped filming, the images he posted are likely sneak peaks from season three–either way, they are definitely interesting.  https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1442660363573465090?s=20 The images are all from what appears to be a Starfleet vessel from the late 24th century: the first image features the helm console for the ship, with Matalas noting the LCARS interface introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Also of particular interest: the replicator display and table setting that includes a 24th-century Starfleet emblem and some new sci-fi cutlery. We still don’t know what the second season holds, but we have been told that the Q storyline will wrap up in Season 2. It’s also very likely that Jonathan Frakes will return to direct some episodes of Season 3.  https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1445033217875070977?s=20 Episodic Season Habit (It Becomes Automatic) By Cat Hough Anson Mount recently spoke about Strange New Worlds, echoing Akiva Goldsman’s description of the show: “we wanted our show to be more or less a throwback in every way we could... which meant more of an episodic structure. And so every episode is a distinct story...but the star of the show is the ship and the big idea of the week.” Bridge to Astrocartography, figure out why we keep getting lost in those eyes. Image: TrekMovie.com As we’ve also discussed on prior episodes, filming for Strange New Worlds was done using Augmented Reality and Mount also spoke about that experience, saying, “It’s wild, man. Imagine an entire soundstage where the walls are all high-definition screens and there’s a ceiling projection...it’s really interesting to be in these environments because it’s a whole other level of filmmaking than I’ve ever seen before.”  A release date for Strange New Worlds has not been announced, yet. A big thanks to TrekMovie for sharing this exclusive interview from their coverage of Star Trek Day. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. In book news, the first novel in the Star Trek: Coda series has been released. This trilogy continues the adventures of characters from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. The three books in the trilogy are Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward, The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow, and Oblivion's Gate by David Mack. Moments Asunder is already available, with the two sequels following in October and November. The pre-order pages include synopses for the books, revealing a plot dealing in time travel. Plus, we got another glimpse at the upcoming Prodigy animated series. Nickelodeon recently tweeted a new trailer with the announcement that the show premieres on October 28. Finally, are you ready to take flight on a midlife crisis of cosmic proportions? Then you should definitely trek out the series idea from the creators of Saturday Night Live. This new show would be titled “Star Trek: Ego Quest,” following the voyages of the SS New Shepard and its crew of random weirdos. Its mission: to just...sort of fly around space goofing off in a ship that looks like a penis. https://youtu.be/XD66suMp3J4 STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds By the Spiking of My DPS, Something Wicked This Way Leaps By Rosco McQueen Replicate yourself a pumpkin spice raktajino and prepare to carve out a new experience in Star Trek Online:  the MMO announced this week it will hold its first ever Halloween event!   “Captains will find themselves transported to an ancient castle on Pyris VII. The classic aliens from the Original Series episode ‘Catspaw’, the Old Ones, have returned once again to study humanity–but their plans have been disrupted by the Devidians!” Honestly the idea of redoing "Knowledge is Power" is scarier. Image: Cryptic Studios. The three week event will be a single activity, where playing the event TFO “Cat's Tale!” every 20 hours rewards you with the usual one daily progress token. After 14 days of progress you unlock the event rewards: the Transmuter Wand Universal Kit Module, the Old One Vanity Pet, with the first character receiving 25,000 Dilithium Ore, and 3 Featured Episode Reward Boxes. The Universal Kit Module - Transmuter Wand will transform your target into a sentient black cat, complete with Bad Luck Aura! The aura disables shields and most powers to nearby allies, who will flee in fear from the frightful feline.   What every kid wants this Halloween, a subspace bubble wand. Image: Cryptic Studios. The event will be available on all platforms on October 13. An interesting note is that this will become a regular annual event, similar to First Contact Day. The article notes it begins with the one TFO, with plans to grow the event year-on-year with more content. 

526 - Sit Back And Zap Open An Old One

 This week on Episode 525 of Priority One: Jeffrey Combs speaks in evil robot about his appearance on Lower Decks, Prodigy showrunners drop some details about the series a month out from the premiere, and it’s confirmed - the TNG cast really are one big happy family.  In gaming news, a new T6 remaster of a classic workhorse starship comes to Star Trek Online, and finally we enter the holo-pod and look at the latest episode of Lower Decks “I, Excretus”.   This week’s Community Question is:  “Would you still play Star Trek Online if it wasn’t Star Trek?” Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website! TREK IT OUT Edited by Jake Morgan Weyooops...Jeffery Combs With i09 By Jake Morgan A great actor makes you feel. Whether joy, anger, love, hate - a truly gifted thespian makes you ache for their presence - be it revered or reviled. We Star Trek fans are graced with many such actors and characters. Nimoy’s Spock. Whoopie’s Guinan. Comb’s Weyoun. Comb’s Brunt. Comb’s Penk. Comb’s Shran. Comb’s...well, you get the picture. This week, i09 sat down with the prolific Star Trek trouper Jeffery Combs to talk about our latest favorite Comb’s role - the devious supercomputer Agimus! Comb’s had glowing things to say about the writing staff of Star Trek: Lower Decks, explaining to James Whitbrook of i09 what drew him to the show. ”I liked the script a lot and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I find it—the show—just to be really... witty. Rapid-fire. The joke is past you before you go, “Wh-wh-wha?” A different tone from any other Star Trek I’ve ever done. And I kind of like that. It’s refreshing. It doesn’t take itself quite so seriously as some of the other iterations.” While Combs was complimentary of Lower Decks, he wasn’t shy about his feelings towards the entertainment industry. When asked whether he’d return to a LIVE-Action version of the franchise, Comb’s said ”You have to be asked to dance. You have to be invited. It’s really not up to me. But I kind of feel I still have some gas in the tank. But you know, when it comes to commerce and entertainment it’s just like cereal: “New and improved!” [...]. So, I don’t really know what goes through decision-makers’ minds, but there always seems to be some sort of a disconnect between what the fans would enjoy and what they wind up doing. Not always. Not always.” To find out how Comb’s felt about playing an antagonist, his thoughts on Voice Acting, and much more, be sure to follow the link in our show notes at priorityonepodcast.com! One big happy TNG family By Rosco McQueen Some news that as Star Trek fans we’ve all known for a while, but is heartwarming to see it confirmed.  Yes, the cast of The Next Generation really do all like each other.  In fact, they’re all incredibly close. In an interview with The Express in the UK, Marina Sirtis confirmed that the cast do indeed see themselves as a family.  They’ve been friends since the early days of the series… and the producers hated it. "They hate when the cast like each other because they talk. Producers don't want you talking. They want us all hating each other and being competitive with each other, so that they can lie to you." Sirtis explains how after the death of her husband, it was the crew who were there for her soon after. Lavar Burton, Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn all immediately visited with Sirtis on the day her husband, Michael Lamper, died. She also spoke about the support she received from Gates McFadden. Akiva gets his Wish By Cat Hough Akiva Goldsman has been extremely busy of late, acting as executive producer and co-showrunner for both Star Trek: Picard and the upcoming series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If those two roles weren’t busy enough he also wrote and directed the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds. Goldsman told Trekmovie.com that it was really important to him to set the tone and style of the show, saying “I really wanted to make a show that would have appealed to the 12-year old me that went to that Star Trek convention in 1974. And it felt like the best way to do that would be to kind of help set the tone visually, and really more in storytelling.”  He also notes that the audience will notice some changes in the uniforms and sets from how they appeared in Discovery, since he wanted it to look more in line with the Original Series. As we have mentioned in previous episodes, Strange New Worlds will be episodic, and Goldsman expounds on that, saying “Our characters will carry with them what they suffer from, or what they learned, from episode to episode. But the stories are episodic.”  In addition to the show being episodic, Goldsman says that the show is meant to be an ensemble piece - so it won’t just be ‘The Pike Show’ and while it won’t go into every character’s backstory each episode, there will be a “focus” on different characters as the show goes on.  Starfleet snippets from Prodigy showrunners By Rosco McQueen Star Trek: Prodigy is a month away from its debut, and the showrunners are dropping some tiny trek nuggets in interviews.  In a chat with TrekMovie, Prodigy executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman and co-executive producer/director Ben Hibon reinforced the idea that this new series, specifically for kids, is an entry point to the franchise.   Kevin Hagemen said “While these are kids in our show, they’re in the adult world of Trek. And they’re gonna slowly discover it, and have their falls, and their victories and stuff. It really is a show for people who have not experienced Trek before.” The journey of the Prodigy crew starts in the Delta Quadrant, with many familiar races that Voyager came across. In the interview the producers mention there are very well thought out reasons why we will see so many Alpha species in the Delta Quadrant, but that no one has really got it yet. They also mention that the USS Protostar was launched after Voyager returned home, but then quickly halt the conversation around the prototype’s secret origins.  The show takes place in 2383, five years after Voyager returned home. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. If you’ve been on the fence about adding a new streaming subscription plan, perhaps ViacomCBS’s latest promotion might incentivise you. For $9.99 with commercials or $12.99 without, you can have Paramount+ AND Showtime! This is a permanent price for you so long as you take advantage of it before the October 20th deadline. Also, be sure to use our affiliate links in our shownotes! The Orville Returns March 10, 2022 STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Jake Morgan Spoooooky teaser… By Cat Hough Well, it appears something spppoooooky is going to happen in Star Trek Online on October 13….we don’t know what - but there was a cryptic tweet made earlier this week telling us to ‘Remember the curse!’ In the video we see some type of coat rack or a hat stand, a black cat, inserted images of a possible raven with a creepy clock ticking in the background. What does it all mean??   https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1442519570271584260?s=20 Steamrunner Bundle...because we must have more bundles… By Cat Hough The next installment of the ships of the line remastering and repackaging adventures: the Blockade Runner Bundle hits the Zen store on Friday, October 1 on PC. The price is 5,000 Zen, but you can get it for 35% off until  October 8! The bundle also includes: 1 Ship Upgrade Token (T5-U) 2 Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens T1 Blockade Runner Escort T5 Blockade Runner Escort Retrofit **NEW** T6 Appalachia Blockade Runner Escort But in what we hope is a new move for Zen store releases, the T6 Appalachia will also be available as a separate purchase in the Zen Store. This ship features 4/3 weapons layout and a Lt. Commander Tactical / Command Bridge Officer specialist seat, and a Lieutenant Universal / Intel Bridge Officer specialist seat plus it can load dual cannons.  And it comes equipped with Universal Console, the Tricobalt Tear Launcher plus an Experimental Weapon Slot, equipped with Hull Spike Battery. The Mastery trait is Piercing Projectiles, so when you activate a Torpedo or Mine firing mode Bridge Officer ability will grant a large Shield Penetration and Hull Penetration bonus for a short time. https://youtu.be/myFX7I4CU-g Combat Alert! Defense screens up! Arm the lasers! By Shane Hoover Prompted by a recent STO Reddit thread, website Massively OP dedicated their “Massively Overthinking” column on September 23rd to one question. “Would you play your favorite MMO without its IP?” Many MMO’s were on the table for discussion, but there were some interesting opinions on Star Trek Online.  Writer Andy McAdams pointed out “I started binging on Star Trek Discovery again and it made me want to play the game, so I downloaded it. But I know I don’t particularly enjoy the game and I’m only playing it for the IP. For me, I don’t think it would stand on its own.”Another writer, Tyler Edwards, says “I don’t think I’d ever have spent any significant amount of time on this game without the IP”.  But he hits an important note pointing out that “What makes the game work is the massive amount of love the people behind it clearly have for the Star Trek universe.” 

525 - Star Trek Online's Stunning Steamrunner

 This week on Episode 524 of Priority One: New York Comic Con is ready to Trek Out; the community rallies behind Wilson Cruz; Star Trek Online updates its minimum system requirements; mobile games cross to desktop; and we review Lower Decks’ “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”–but not before we chat with Cryptic Studios’s Content Creator Ryon and Environment Artist Gianna! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Trekking Out the Big Apple By Elio Lleo Convention season is in full swing and New York Comic Con is next. Starting October 7th and ending October 10th, this four day event usually has stuff for everyone! Unique to this year’s presentation is hybrid participation: not only are organizers reducing the total number of attendees, you can also purchase a virtual ticket that will give you access to some of the panels right from the comfort of your own home. But what’s so special about NYCC? As of right now, Paramount+ is slated to present at least two panels: on Saturday, October 9th at 12:45pm the cast and producers of Star Trek: Discovery take the Empire Stage. Then on Sunday, October 10, Star Trek: Prodigy will premiere its first episode along with a panel. Image: ViacomCBS/Nickelodeon, via TrekCore. But that’s not all–join the Roddenberry Podcast Network as we present a panel titled “Star Trek’s Guide to Community.” I’ll be there along with Kennedy and Sue from Women at Warp! That’s happening Saturday, Oct 9th at 2:15pm. There’s also a Hallmark presentation with new Trek ornaments, a virtual only panel with the folks behind the new Star Trek Magazine, and even Bill Shatner will be there on Thurs, October 7th.  Wilson Cruz Harassed During Star Trek Day By Elio Lleo When it comes to communities, even Star Trek’s can be incredibly divisive. The majority of the time, it’s about NuTrek vs older Trek, who the better first officer is, or which ship is cooler. However, there are times when things can get dark and people start to show their true colors–like one fan who was offered the privilege of attending the Star Trek Day celebrations in person. Long story short, at one point during the event, while Wilson Cruz was on stage, someone in the audience yield out a homophobic slur. According to reports, no one did anything about it. The guest was not removed nor have they been identified (yet). With incredible grace and patience, Wilson continued on and later took to Twitter to address the matter. https://twitter.com/wcruz73/status/1436333680880934927 Although he may not have wanted to draw so much attention to the matter, we want to take a moment to remind you–our listeners–that tolerance for the bigoted has its limits. When you see something, say something. Learn ways on how to be the best ally you can be for people who are marginalized on a daily basis. If you’re on social media and someone goes on a hate-filled rant, step up. It’s the inaction of those with the means to stand up to injustices that empower those who want to watch the world burn. [If you don't think this belongs in Trek, then there's the airlock. Help yourself.–Ed.] Image: ViacomCBS, via StarTrek.com IP Theft, the Sincerest Form of Flattery By Cat Hough On Monday, we were treated to the big uniform reveal by General Jay Raymond, Chief of Space Operations for Space Force who tweeted, "Every winning team needs a uniform!.I’m excited to share the new look with you today." And to no one’s surprise, the Twitterverse immediately noticed some striking similarities to some other uniforms that we are quite familiar with. They were described by one person as "a blend of the Star Trek Enterprise dress uniform, but with the Mirror Universe diagonal."  https://twitter.com/SpaceForceCSO/status/1440323962697752590 [I am voluntarily putting this into my own shownotes for your edification, dear listener. You owe me.–Ed.] Josh Weinstein, a veteran writer for The Simpsons and Futurama, said the uniform reminded him of the ridiculously tight outfits worn by Zapp Brannigan; Movies in Focus hopped on the satirical bandwagon with the image of an Imperial Star Destroyer officer from the original Star Wars trilogy. "These new Space Force uniforms are looking great," jokes the caption. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. Reuben Klamer, the designer of the original Starfleet phaser rifle for the original series of Star Trek, passed away at the age of 99, according to the Toy Association. Klamer also designed props for other shows, including a gun for the hit 1960s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  https://youtu.be/oWGNDoXG9R8 STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds PSA: She Canna Take Any More, Cap’ns! By Thomas Reynolds To every thing there is a season–and in Cryptic’s opinion, the season for Windows 7 is long past. Starting February 15, 2022, anyone still using the 10-year-old OS (seriously, not even Microsoft supports it anymore) won’t be able to patch or log into STO and Neverwinter. Only Windows 8 and 10 (with the superior 64-bit intellect) will have a home on the final frontier. DirectX 10 support is also getting ejected like a spent warp core on February 15th, with both games requiring Feature Level 11 or higher. That means your computer needs to have one of the following video card chipsets to play: NVidia GeForce GTX 400 or better ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5000 or better Intel HD Graphics 4000 or better Given all the fun and excitement of buying graphics cards these days, if your current card isn’t up to the task...well, godspeed. [Pictured: my rig next February.–Ed.] Image: ViacomCBS, via KVNF Public Radio. Aux2Bat Gets Boimed Out By Thomas Reynolds The aqueduct, the magnetic compass, the Aux2Bat. All of these simple technologies have withstood the test of time, but the last may be the most miraculous. Needing only three Technician doffs and one boff ability at minimum, the Aux2Bat ship build is easy to assemble, trivial to fly, and still keeps your bridge officers ready for whatever space wizardry you demand of them. Sure, it hasn’t been the meta in a sehlat’s age, but you know what? Aux2Bat does the job, it does it pretty well, and that’s pretty much all we ask...until now. Ever drop a Gravity Well, and notice your Tyken’s Rift is now off-limits for 15 seconds? That’s the Shared Category Cooldown kicking in, forcing you to pace yourself rather than let everything rip at once. When Cryptic first released the Boimler Effect trait, it provided a 2.5% percent chance of resetting every bridge officer ability to its Shared Category Cooldown, whenever you used a non-specialist boff ability. Great in theory, but one-in-forty odds just aren’t worth a 200 Lobi investment. Yeah, that's was also our reaction. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekZone.de So Cryptic did a little tweaking, like you do, and made it a 17.5% percent proc chance instead. As STO streamer @AugmentedDG declared on Twitter, “Boimler Effect is now as good as Aux2Bat...for cooldown reduction.” Bold words, to be sure, but there’s also a fairly convincing clip of him keeping eight of his escort’s twelve boff abilities concurrently running like an overambitious plate spinner. Trek out the tweet, scrape together that Lobi, and give your boffs more buffer time than they can handle. https://twitter.com/AugmentedDG/status/1438707179268284425 Is there in Screen Accuracy No Beauty? By Thomas Reynolds One of Trek cosplay’s hallmarks is its hair-splitting fidelity to what’s seen on screen, even when the creators themselves don’t quite pull it off. Combine that tendency with STO’s promise of personal immersion, and it’s no surprise that some players want their captain’s threads to look “correct.” To help make that a little easier, Cryptic released official in-game color guides for both the newly-available Lower Decks Starfleet jacket, and their original Khitomer uniform creation. However, rapturous Space Barbie enthusiasts should make sure they’re using the second released Khitomer guide, as the first one had incorrect pant color codes. https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1439020385572245509 The Sally Ride, the Ross, and You By Shane Hoover If you were a fan of the Star Trek Adventures web series “Shield of Tomorrow” or “Clear Skies”, you’re already familiar with the dangers and wonders of the Shackleton Expanse. If you weren’t, then be prepared for deadly spatial phenomena, ancient alien technologies, first contact with new species and lots of boldly going. It’s all there in Modiphius Entertainment’s newest STA sourcebook, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide. The new sourcebook is available for preorder at $60 now and is expected to ship in December 2021. This is your tabletop gaming crew’s chance to follow in the warp trails of the U.S.S. Sally Ride and the U.S.S. Ross. Adventure into a nearly uncharted region of space beyond Federation, Klingon and Romulan borders.  Image: Modiphius Entertainment. The new material includes five new playable alien species for STA including Orions. It also includes NPCs from Starbase 364 and around the Expanse, as well as stats for “hero” and NPC vessels. This sourcebook does require a copy of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, which is provided in PDF form with your order. The Ar-mod-a Returns By Thomas Reynolds Maybe 2000 feels like a long time ago to you, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, the Star Trek: Armada and Armada II RTS games that came out then still hold a place in certain PC players’ hearts. So much, in fact, that the Stellar Parallax modding group has finally released what Activision would not: Star Trek: Armada III. Starting as a one-person passion project back in 2012, Armada III is a full-conversion mod for 2012’s Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Stellar Parallax’s devoted faithful can now command the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Borg, or Cardassian Union at the beginning of the Dominion War. See, Kurtzman? You can have more than one kind of ship in a fleet. Image: Stellar Parallax. But really, how much demand is there for a nine-year-old game mod, following up on a twenty-year-old series? After its September 10th release, Armada III is the 51st most-popular mod on the ModDB site, out of over 46,000 entries across hundreds of games–so we’d say “a lot.” [Update: #21 as of publication. Damn.–Ed.] Quick Star Trek Gaming News Roundup A few weeks back we mentioned that the mobile game Star Trek Fleet Command was beta testing a desktop client for Windows. Well, they’re out of beta and it’s now available for download, with special perks being offered when you log in via desktop! Game maker WizKids announced a new combo-building game titled “Star Trek Missions” –according to their announcement, “your goal is to assemble the highest-scoring combos possible by drawing cards from the Galaxy deck, the Mission deck, or the discard area.” It’ll be available February 2022, but you can pre-order now. 

524 - Dress Uniforms For The Job You Want

 This week on Episode 523 of Priority One: the Roddenberry Foundation continues to promote a positive future, while Star Trek already wins some Emmys this year; in gaming, Star Trek Online takes us through a mirror darkly with “Reflections” and On Screen: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 6! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Star Trek Wins at the Emmys By Elio Lleo On the heels of the Star Trek Day event, the franchise had cause for more celebration. During the two-day Creative Arts Emmy Event this last week, Star Trek walked away with two wins. First up, an Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single episode for Star Trek: Discovery’s Season 3, “Su’kal.” Then, Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series for the Discovery episode, “If Memory Serves.” Now, Star Trek has been nominated for a total of 10 Emmys and the 75th Annual Awards show is set to air on Sunday, September 19th on CBS. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Star Trek takes home several more!  The 2321 Emmys will use photon torpedoes in place of play-off music. Image: Television Academy. Praise the Word of Rod By Elio Lleo As Gene Roddenberry’s centennial celebrations continue, his son and CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry, spoke with Forbes’s Simon Thompson about the last 55 years and the future of Star Trek. With the first four original movies being remastered in 4K UHD, Rod remarks about how great it is to see how there’s still a hunger for the original incarnations of Trek, saying: I think it makes Star Trek new again, especially for our new audiences. You’ve got the TV series now that has brought in a newer, younger demographic, and I think some people are resistant to look at older stuff. When it comes out in 4K, it looks fresh and new. I’m excited by them being introduced to Star Trek through the original movies. ...oh, UNITY, that's what the shirt says. Image: Paramount Pictures, via Forbes. What about NuTrek? Well, for Rod, it’s all about ensuring that any of the recent incarnations stay true to the core of what his father’s vision was all about saying: He wants people like J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman and others to come along and do that. He also wanted to make sure that it remains Star Trek… [a]s long as they are continuing the tradition and the idea of it making you think. Having it entertain is extremely important, absolutely, but let’s be considering different points of view on this as well. Rod goes on to discuss his own personal history with the franchise and how it was he grew to be so invested in his father’s legacy. What Escapes In Vegas...Stays In...Hmmm… By Cat Hough If you’re headed to Vegas anytime soon, you should definitely trek out the new Star Trek: Discovery-themed escape room launched by Escapology. The game is set during the third season of Discovery and has opened just in time to coincide with the 4th season premiere on Paramount+.  https://player.vimeo.com/video/599794944/ Your role in the game is acting as a civilian engineer tasked with inspecting the U.S.S. Discovery NCC-1031 as it undergoes the refit and upgrade to the 1031-A. However, sci-fi things happen during your inspection and Discovery collides with a quantum filament, causing major hull damage. The filaments' quantum resonance has also caused a polarity shift in the antimatter containment system, leading to a progressive degeneration in the containment field. If field strength falls below 15%, it will collapse, destroying the vessel and everyone aboard. Because sci-fi stuff happened, the main computer has closed emergency bulkheads across the ship and the turbolift control system has been disabled, leaving the bulk of the crew trapped and unable to begin repairs. In a convenient turn of events, your turbolift stopped near the Auxiliary Control section, so all you have to do is override its systems. At this point, you’re the best option for helping Discovery and its crew avoid this disaster. Another reason to hate this design. Image: ViacomCBS, via CBR. Then, you, and your team, must escape the turbolift and communicate with a senior officer. You can save everyone if you can just re-establish communications and work together to repair the antimatter containment field before the strength falls below 15% which is projected to be in precisely 60 minutes time. Or that’s how long you can book the room for: packages can be reserved at the Las Vegas Town Square location via the Escapology website and they currently show the price for 6 people is a little under $250.  Festivity Will Now Commence By Thomas Reynolds and Rosco McQueen It’s practically cliché at this point: the commercial Christmas season starts earlier every year, with candy canes and carols drowning out the trick-or-treaters and turkey dinners. But...what if December isn’t merely encroaching on the other months? Isn’t Christmas adding their celebrational distinctiveness to its own? Are they not being adapted to service Saint Nick? Yes, Christmas is assimilating the calendar–and your holidays, as they have been, are over. The Elf on the Shelf was the first to fall to the Collective; the angel tree topper is next. Image: Eaglemoss. Festivity may be irrelevant, but that hasn’t stopped Eaglemoss from creating a grim messenger of holiday cheer.  Invading Sector 001 on September 30th, the Borg Cube Advent Calendar brings 24 Trek accessories and gifts to all good little Trekkies. Socks, coasters, coffee mugs: each item included in the box also includes a short note with trivia and stories behind it. The Calendar sells for a considerable $149.95, so your bank account might look like New Providence if there’s more than one Trekkie on your gift list. However, if you’re after something a bit less “Sovereign-class”, then the California line of starships may be more your style.  Eaglemoss has revealed the new XL model of the USS Cerritos.  The model is 9.75” long and faithfully reproduces the Cerritos as it appeared in the first season. It’s due in January 2022, so not quite in time for Christmas, but it will soon be joined by a model of the U.S.S. Titan. Both models were made using the actual VFX files used in Lower Decks, with both ships looking a little more animated than the usual line of starships–like they could have leapt from the screen to your living room. Ejectable warp core not included. Image: StarTrek.com Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. For her efforts to help eradicate sexual harassment from the entertainment industry, Michelle Hurd was awarded the SAG-AFTRA President’s Award. Hurd (Raffi on Star Trek: Picard) is an actor, activist and National Board member who’s worked to provide resources to SAG-AFTRA members who experienced sexual harassment and assault. She also assisted in developing updated guidelines and policies to eliminate harassment and assault from the industry.  You can color your favorite Lower Deckers. The Star Trek.com website is still celebrating Star Trek Day and you can download and print pages to a new coloring book from season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks.  We want to remind you that you can participate in the Roddenberry Foundation’s “Boldly Go” campaign by submitting a video, photo, letter, poem, or even a simple selfie. The theme or question to answer, “describe your hopes for the next 100 years!” Visit BoldlyGo.com to learn more! STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds A Fanatical Devotion to Charity By Shane Hoover It’s policy here at Priority One that we love charity bundles (and if it isn’t, it should be). The latest effort from STO and Fanatical.com is no exception. Following the familiar format, players can select one of two reward tiers based on their donated amount: Tier 1 - $1 ($15 value) 32c Vanity Shield Overlay Rainbow Risian Caracal  ‘Charitable’ title Tier 2 - $7.99     ($82 value) All items from Tier 1 Narendra-class Support Cruiser (T6) Vor'ral Support Battlecruiser (T6) 1 Fleet Ship Module 1 Gold Tech Upgrade 30 Lobi Crystals Rarely is it this easy to support the needs of the many. Image: Fanatical. But the benefits don’t stay in-game: each purchase of any tier in the bundle earns you a chance to win the Grand Prize! Tier 1 purchases earn a single Grand prize entry, while Tier 2 purchases net you five entries. The winner gets a place on Star Trek: The Cruise V, a ticket worth over $5000. I don’t know if God needs a cruise ship, but I sure wouldn’t mind getting on this one. The winner also receives a digital copy of every expansion pack available for Star Trek Online. That’s Legacy of Romulus, Delta Operations, Temporal Agent, Gamma Vanguard and Discovery Operations. All told, that’s over $720 worth of STO goodies. You can also get one free entry into the Grand Prize drawing by visiting a link which requires you to sign up for the Fanatical newsletter. Nearly 90% of the sales price on these charity bundle items will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, providing children with safe and fun places to grow and thrive, and offering mentoring life-enhancing programs. STO Takes Another Hard Look In the Mirror By Rosco McQueen With the conclusion of the Klingon Civil War, you would think Starfleet and members of the Alliance would have time for a little bit of exploration in Star Trek Online. Think again!!  As a mirror universe admiral once said, “You haven’t seen the last of me!” https://youtu.be/krG7YUY9JNw This newfound peace is short lived, as a new danger emerges from the Mirror Universe. A former enemy, Admiral Leeta (voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star Chase Masterson) is being hunted by the Mirror Universe’s Kuumarke, a Terran Empire special agent. Players will team up with Admiral Leeta to stop Kuumarke and her Terran forces from using stolen information to bring destruction to the Prime Universe. Captains can investigate this looming threat in a new featured episode, Firewall, as well as participate in a new ground TFO, “Operation: Wolf.” Captains can also earn daily progress by playing the “Counterpoint” TFO and the episode “Jabberwocky” to work towards claiming the brand new T6 Mirror Gagarin-class Miracle Worker Battlecruiser.  It’s worth noting the first Captain on your account to claim the ship also receives 8x Terran Empire Agony Phaser Weapon Packs which each contain your choice of starship weapon type, and 3x Ultimate Tech Upgrade - Beam/Cannon/Projectile Tech which may be used to upgrade any starship weaponry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkM4MrvSR0&feature=emb_title The new Terran ship has a 4 forward, and 4 aft weapon layout, compared to the regular 5/3 layout of the Prime Gagarin. It features a Lieutenant Commander Command Specialist Bridge Officer seat, and a universal console - the Destructive Protomatter Wave Projector.  The wave projector targets multiple vessels, ripping apart their hulls. If they are destroyed then they send out a secondary shockwave, which may infect other targets in a chain reaction.   Carriers With Crossover Appeal By Thomas Reynolds For years, STO was a preeminent source for new Trek stories–and what’s a new Trek story without a ship? Cryptic’s designs helped progress the post-Nemesis state of shipbuilding art, establishing distinct aesthetics for a modern 25th century. Now 2021’s a different scene, with five different television series and other MMOs generating new ships of their own. That said, STO’s contributions aren’t going unnoticed. Yes. It's a cat carrier. Good job. Image: Cryptic Studios. The Continuing Mission blog for Star Trek Adventures recently posted fan-made guidelines for bringing Cryptic’s Atrox- and Aspero-class carriers into the tabletop world. The unofficial STO-to-STA ship conversion assigns stats and traits based on their online counterparts, so you can drag-and-drop them into your campaign. It’s an interesting look at RPG mechanic design, if that’s your thing (and if you’re listening to this podcast, that’s a pretty safe guess). But it also reflects Cryptic’s success in creating ships that become Trek characters in their own right. Quick Gaming News Roundup With Reflections taking us back into the Mirror Universe, STO’s original ships are getting some fresh new looks--looks that could kill, that is. Ten of Cryptic’s 25th century Federation designs, including the fan-favorite Pathfinder, have been touched up for the new arc, ranging from new materials to full-blown remasters. The Terran Empire is also getting their own versions of four ships–the Shran, Reliant, Andromeda, and Pathfinder–dressed to impress and distress. For fans of STO’s story blog posts, this was all related in a private communique from Vice Admiral Hemphill of Starfleet. Or is it Lord Baron Vice Admiral of Starfleet? The answer: yes. If you launch STO through the Epic Games launcher - or if you want to get a free Terran Incursion Pack that includes a Terran Empire Sonic Phaser Stun Pistol, an Elite Services Starter Pack and a Small XP Boost, then you’d need to download the game and launch through Epic Games. The pack can be claimed once per account, all items are bound to account and you must complete the tutorial in order to claim it.  The red tells you they're Evil ships, because they can't grow goatees. Image: Cryptic Studios. 

523 - Reflections In The Razor's Edge

 This week on Episode 522 of Priority One: Happy Star Trek Day! New trailers for Picard, Prodigy and Lower Decks, and a formal introduction to the Enterprise crew voyaging to Strange New Worlds. In gaming news, the Mirror Universe inspires a new TFO in “Operation: Wolf,” new gear on the way inspired by Lower Decks, and some good old Trek games get a PC refresh.   TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds 55 Years Of Trekking Across The Universe By Cat Hough This week marks the 55th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Star Trek and, according to all the memes going around, the world has never been the same. But when you think about it...that’s a pretty accurate statement. Without the vision of Gene Roddenberry and the production of the original series, we would not even have this podcast. So let’s just take this opportunity to appreciate the reason we are even here today.  Fresh New Faces For Strange New Worlds By Rosco McQueen There’s no trailer yet, but we were treated to an introduction to the crew of the Enterprise under Captain Pike, with some new faces and some familiar ones as well. We are reintroduced to Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn who reprise their roles as Captain Pike, Mr Spock and Number One.  From there we meet the new actors taking on classic characters, with: Celia Rose Gooding as Cadet Nyota Uhura, Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel, And Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga. New characters then come our way: Bruce Horak as Hemmer,  Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, And Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc7ZWdJY6ZY Shadows Of Things That Will Be By Cat Hough Let’s break down the Picard Season Two trailer. We see Q snap his fingers and send everyone into an alternate reality where Earth has descended into a totalitarian state. But only Jean-Luc Picard and his new crew (maybe with Guinan’s help?) know that time has been altered. Then they decide to travel back to modern day Los Angeles in order to get things sorted. To get there, however, they need the assistance of the Borg Queen, played by Annie Wersching--who, in this alternate reality, appears to be a captive on Earth. What else is in store for Picard? We don’t know yet, but we do know he’ll be back in February 2022; it was also confirmed that Picard was renewed for Season 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUhBOmtFYr8 But Will We Learn The Janeway Maneuver? By Cat Hough We also got a first real look at Prodigy as the first official trailer was introduced by Kate Mulgrew. This panel also included a pleasant surprise: the show will premiere on October 28 and the first episode is an hour long. The trailer shows us the crew of young aliens who happen to find an experimental Federation starship named the U.S.S. Protostar, but they’ve never heard of Starfleet or the Federation. So it’s up to Janeway’s hologram to teach them how to use the ship to navigate the cosmos, while the Diviner (John Noble) and Drednok (Jimmi Simpson) pursue the crew to get ahold of the ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBE7d8sH5Rg Lower Decks Hits The Halfway Mark By Cat Hough After a hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable first half of the season, Lower Decks continues it’s second season with more adventure, more exploration, and lots more sci-fi stuff. The second-season trailer (that series creator Mike McMahon says he edited to remove spoilers) gives us glimpses of Rutherford vs "fricking radiation," Tendi as a giant bug, and Mariner and Boimler on an away mission that goes sideways [...so like every other away mission, then---Ed.]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vkzjGBAcTM Looking Four-ward To Discovery By Cat Hough The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery premieres Thursday, Nov. 18, on Paramount+. The first image from the upcoming season was released during Star Trek Day. We also got to watch a panel featuring season four cast members Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Blu del Barrio (Adira), Ian Alexander (Gray), and showrunner and executive producer Michelle Paradise. The panel of mutual love and discussion of found family was moderated by Wil Wheaton. Most advanced ship in the fleet, and they couldn't even spring for seat warmers? Image: ViacomCBS. Taking Trek Back To School By Thomas Reynolds and Rosco McQueen With Labor Day on rearview sensors, the American student body is headed back to school–and so is the Trek franchise, if Kurtzman has his way. Back in Episode 519, we mentioned that a Starfleet Academy-situated series “aimed at younger audiences” was in the works. Since then, Eric Pesola at Heavy suggested that the new series concept is far older than it appears. Don't worry, it's safe for them to wear red shirts because they're named characters. Image: IDW Comics, via Heavy.com. Pesola draws parallels between JJ’s franchise “revival” in 2009, and Harve Bennett turning it around after The Motion Picture almost torpedoed it thirty years prior. Bennett helmed the next three series entries and more-or-less put Trek’s fortunes on the up-and-up. That said, after his Final Frontier almost finished it for good, Bennett pitched one more idea: a prequel film set at Starfleet Academy, with Ethan Hawke as Kirk and John Cusack as Spock. The studio went with a thinly-veiled Cold War analogy instead but, twenty years later, class might finally be in session. During the Star Trek Day celebrations, Wil Wheaton asked Kurtzman about the future of Trek on TV, Kurtzman said that with five ongoing series, he’s “not in a hurry” to launch any more. But he did bring up the fan enthusiasm for a series set at Starfleet Academy. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Legends Of Yesterday By Rosco McQueen Fire up the phase inducers, it’s time to start a new ‘toon in Star Trek Online. The Agents of Yesterday recruitment event is active: new characters set in the TOS era playing through the entire Agents of Yesterday mission arc, and becoming Temporal Agents with updated rewards.  As we covered previously, if you haven't created a Temporal Agent character, it’s a great opportunity with lots of bonuses for your whole account. You wish your family portrait looked this good. Image: Cryptic Studios. But if the idea of leveling up a new character from scratch isn’t bringing you joy, then the Legendary TOS Federation Captain's Bundle has dropped to immediately boost your new character to level 65.  The pack comes with equipment, services, and other resources to allow this newly-boosted character to be ready to enter the high-level content of Star Trek Online. Plus, you’ll get account-wide access to the Legendary Miranda Multi-Mission Cruiser [T6]. It includes all of the consoles, starship traits, and costumes from the entire line of Miranda and Malachowski starship families. The bundle is available for the price of 12,000 Zen, with 50% OFF from September 8th at 8am PT to September 20th at 10am PT! Parliament Is Now In Session By Rosco McQueen The next story arc is fast approaching, if this news item is anything to go by. STO announced this week that Lower Decks themed gear is making its way into the game. “Starting with the next story update which arrives on PC very soon, a brand new Tier-6 Starship will be added to the existing ship choices, and a series of exciting new Lower Decks-themed items will be added to the Lobi Crystal Store.” The items include:   Lower Decks uniforms, Portable Phaser Cannon  Multibarrel Phaser  Phaser Split-Beam Rifle  Phaser Sniper Rifle  T-88 Diagnostic Tool Kit frame - complete with purple stripe Lower Decks Personal Traits, two space and two ground,  And a new starship, the Parliament Miracle Worker Surveyor Cruiser [T6]. Oof. Not looking forward to the environmental impact statement on this one. Image: Cryptic Studios. The Parliament has a four front and four aft weapon layout, with a Controlled Gravimetric Demolition universal console, which deals “tremendous” kinetic damage. The console also provides a passive bonus to Kinetic and Physical Damage Resistance Rating, as well as Exotic Particle Generation and Structural Integrity. The items will be available for purchase upon the release of the next story update (no date confirmed as yet). Operation: Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing by Shane Hoover A brand new blog from Cryptic has announced a forthcoming Mirror Universe TFO for Star Trek Online. The new bit of fiction finds Admiral Quinn providing feedback to Admiral Leeta on a new Starfleet training simulation to test special operations into the Mirror Universe. It seems despite her cooperation, Quinn finds her bloodlust a bit much even for a simulation. I mean honestly, if a Captain can’t use Exocomps as cannon fodder anymore what are you supposed to do? And just forget about bumping off your Terran counterpart, I guess! So much for Plan A, am I right?  What I've always loved about the Terran Empire: its understated subtlety. Image: Cryptic Studios. Anyway, while details are obviously thin in this little teaser, it looks like Captains will get to beam their away team into a brand new Mirror Universe version of Earth Space Dock for some covert operations. So beef up those biceps, tone up those abs, and sharpen your daggers. We’re going Terran on the holodeck for “Operation: Wolf”! They Belong In A Museum! By Shane Hoover It’s also worth noting that in celebration of Star Trek Day, from September 8 to 22, on all platforms, there will be a special Starfleet Museum in orbit above Deep Space Nine and Earth Space Dock. The museum contains the starring ships from Star Trek movies, television, and more. Hailing each ship will give you words from their crew, and both in universe and behind the scenes facts about the ship and show. Hailing all ten of the ships will grant you a special title: Historical Documents Expert. "Ugh, people really use holodecks for that?" "Oh yeah, it's mostly that." Image: ViacomCBS, via TOR. Fleet Command Finishes TNG By Thomas Reynolds If TNG taught us anything, it’s that all good things must come to an end, and so it is in Star Trek Fleet Command. Patch 34 concludes Fleet Command’s first [nope, our bad—Ed.] foray into Prime Timeline storytelling, wrapping the TNG arc begun back in May while adding Tasha Yar to the officer roster. Meanwhile, your existing crew collection will gain Traits that boost the chance of Critical Success for Away Team assignments. And as for those assignments: as of Patch 34, assignments will automatically respawn once they are completed. Star Trek Through Rose-Tinted GOGgles By Thomas Reynolds and Rosco McQueen Remember last week, when we said about a half-dozen vintage Trek games were going to be re-released on GOG Galaxy? Well they’re on GOG Galaxy now in time for Star Trek Day! In a release the company has confirmed the games have been updated so they run smoothly on Windows 10, with some even offering a working LAN multiplayer option. I don't know what makes me feel older, the box art or the phrase "LAN multiplayer." Image: GOG. 

522 - All Trailers, No Tribbles: It's Star Trek Day!

 This week on Episode 521 of Priority One: Star Trek: Prodigy drops several news items just as Star Trek Day nears, Star Trek Online tries to entice new players and existing players to start a brand new character, and we throw a unicorn horn on a white gorilla suit in On Screen, with Season 2 Episode 4 of Lower Decks! TREK IT OUT Edited by Thomas Reynolds Prodigy Pulls Some Great Cast Gets By Elio Lleo The newest iteration of Star Trek, Nickelodeon’s animated series Prodigy, is making news this week with a couple of big announcements. First up: casting!  Two new actors have been added to the cast announcement with Jimi Simpson and John Noble both playing antagonist characters. According to Deadline’s Alexandra Del Rosario, Noble (The Lord of the Rings, FRINGE) will voice the character known as The Diviner: “a ruthless tyrant who controls the asteroids of Tars Lampora…and will stop at nothing in his hunt for the Protostar ship, no matter the cost.” Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Westworld, Breakout Kings) voices Drednok, “the Diviner’s deadly robotic enforcer…heartless and cold.” ...yeah, checks out. Image: CBS, via Deadline. Now, if talent isn’t enough, then be sure to watch the main title sequence for the show–available now on YouTube and other Star Trek social media channels.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm9Zv8D70hA Lining Up The Milestones By Rosco McQueen Panels, panels and more panels are coming your way for the Trek franchise's 55th anniversary.  On September 8, the Star Trek Day celebrations will be hosted by The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton and actress and host Mica Burton. It will feature back-to-back in person conversations with cast and crew members, with a focus at looking at what is ahead for the franchise.   https://youtu.be/mdknOoG6K4c One panel in particular features Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck from Strange New Worlds, with the trailer for the event casually showing off the logo of the series. Composer Jeff Russo will lead a live orchestra performance throughout the event, with Paramount+ saying to expect some surprise announcements and reveals throughout the program.   Another notch in the milestone belt of history comes after the airing of the Lower Decks episode “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”, marking the 800th episode of Star Trek television.  Now that commemorative plate makes even more sense! Now do you shorten it to Cer or Tos? Image: Paramount+, via ComicBook.com All The Star Trek News Fit To Print By Cat Hough If watching all the new Trek offerings and playing all the Trek games is still not enough Star Trek content in your life, well you are in luck! This November, Titan Publishing is re-launching the official Star Trek magazine and renaming it Star Trek Explorer. Titan describes this magazine as "the no. #1 destination for everything Star Trek–filled with in-depth interviews and features taking you behind-the-scenes of all your favorite shows and movies." The first issue showcases a fresh new design and features two exclusive Star Trek short stories. Plus, they plan on adding a 16-page themed "featurette" in each issue, with the inaugural issue featuring a guide to Captain James. T. Kirk.  There are two covers available for the first issue: one features a shot of Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery, while the second uses Tim Anderson's Star Trek: The Original Series tribute artwork. Image: Titan Publishing, via ComicBook.com Yearly subscriptions cost $29.99 for four issues and, as an added subscription bonus, you get an exclusive digital magazine that includes extra Trek nuggets. You can buy each issue separately for $9.99. Quick News Roundup Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. The documentary Woman In Motion has been uploaded to the International Space Station, commemorating Women’s Equality Day in the U.S. If you have not seen it already, the film shows how Nichelle Nichols spent 1977 campaigning across America to bring diversity to NASA. Woman in Motion is also available on demand and digital and is streaming on Paramount+. Voyager actor Tim Russ recently helped with the detection of Patroclus, an asteroid orbiting Jupiter. An avid amateur astronomer, Russ is part of a network of citizen astronomers who regularly contribute space observations. He says that contributing to NASA's mission is important because understanding where we come from, what our origins are and the fact that we are a few intelligent species in this galaxy is special. He reflec, he protec, but most importantly, he detec. Image: Tim Russ, via USA Today. STAR TREK GAMING NEWS Edited by Thomas Reynolds Time Is On Our Side By Cat Hough Well, the time has come at last [again–Ed.]! Star Trek Online announced the Temporal Recruitment Event returns on all platforms, just in time to celebrate Star Trek Day on September 8th. Since we’re playing through the Original Series-era content for this event, the devs have gone through and made some visual updates and updated cutscenes as well as improving the missions themselves. Plus, Temporal Agent goals have been updated to include some new ones, and removed some goals from missions that are no longer in the game, so you don’t have to worry about finding Temporal Probes in places that you can no longer reach. You’ll be able to earn bonuses for reaching level 60, marks for all of the reputations that have been added to the game, and rewards for engaging in R&D and specializations. Existing Temporal Agents will be able to complete these new goals as well, and if you’ve already finished them, you can claim the rewards immediately. Tell me they changed the prefix code, at least. Image: Cryptic Studios. Remember, to become a Temporal Agent and gain access to the rewards, you must make a new TOS Starfleet character, during the event, then you must play the tutorial until you receive your special Temporal Agent transceiver device. Once you receive the device, your character is a Temporal Agent and you can complete the goals any time and claim the rewards, even after the event ends. Good Old (Star Trek) Games Coming To Good Old Games (Galaxy) By Rosco McQueen Do you pine for the days when Star Trek games weren’t vast, expansive, massively multiplayer worlds?  Maybe you’re more of a LAN party player (as long as some else brings the snacks)? A number of classic Trek games, including Star Trek Armada 1 & Armada 2, Star Trek Bridge Commander, and Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and Elite Force 2 could be due for re-release on GOG Galaxy. Gamefront reports the game cards for titles on the platform recently being updated with new CBS copyright watermarks. Start a Star Trek Game Night for your retirement home today! Image: ViacomCBS/GOG Galaxy, via GameFront. Dancing Data in Fleet Command By Rosco McQueen Star Trek Fleet Command just dropped a new teaser featuring Brent Spiner loosening up for co-star LeVar Burton after playing “an emotionless android for years.” [same–Ed.] This continues Fleet Command’s ongoing efforts to bring in Trek celebrities for their promotions: earlier this year they had Sonequa Martin-Green and Karl Urban. Recent promos have leaned into TNG to showcase the latest updates to the game; in addition to Spiner and Burton, Jonathan Frakes also shows up in the promo.  

521 - Mugatos On The Left, Mariner On The Right

A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast providing a weekly report on all things Star Trek - Films/TV, Games, and more!

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Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

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