427 – U and I | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
We Trek out CBS’ Iannello going forward, Dorn on ST: Worf, Spock’s costume auction, “Galaxy Quest” Steelbook, STO’s UI changes, build testing, and warbirds!
This week on Priority One, we Trek Out images from the final shoot of Star Trek Picard, Jonathan Frakes talks about reprising Riker and the tone of Discovery’s third season, and Jason Isaacs takes on fan theories. Later, we tackle another big week in Star Trek gaming news, as we gear up for next week’s release of Star Trek Online’s “Awakening” story arch… and to help address player questions, We’re joined by Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al Rivera
Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages
This Weeks COMMUNITY QUESTIONS are:
CQ: Which approach to Star Trek story-telling do YOU prefer? Morality plays, an optimistic approach, a darker tone, action-packed, thoughtful? Let us know!
CQ: Would you pay 6,000 Zen to instantly unlock Event rewards? If not, what would you pay?
AND
CQ: Will you complete most of the Event progress using the episode, the TFO, or the Patrols?
Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!
TREK IT OUT
by Jake Morgan
“Star Trek: Picard” Wraps Filming
Star Trek is in a bit of a dry spell, but fear not! The proverbial-doppler is indicating also-proverbial-rain in our foreseeable could-be-but-not-intendly-proverbial-future!
On August 31st, “Star Trek: Picard” Writer/Showrunner Michael Chabon posted a photo from the legendary Vazquez rocks with the caption “That’s a shooting wrap on Season One of #startrekpicard. There have been so many incredible moments, so many life and career high points, but for a 45-plus-year #startrek fan, visiting the sacred Gorn-haunted grounds of #Arena was a peak”
“Star Trek: Discovery” Visual Effects Supervisor Ante Dekovic also posted to Instagram that same day, saying “That’s a wrap on Star Trek: Picard!!! …at least the filming part. All is left, months of post production. Thanks @startrekcbs @michael.chabon , Akiva, @alexkurtzmanofficial and of course @sirpatstew for the experience. .Also a big thank you to everybody who helped us on set with the VFX. Even that for most of the time, it was hard to imagine or understand the things that we do. 🖖 .Can’t wait for the world to watch the show and get their minds blown!”
Star Trek Picard is making progress!
Jonathan Frakes on Reprising Riker
That’s not the only Picard talk this week. Taking the stage at Fan Expo Canada, actor/director Jonathan Frakes spoke about his experience stepping back into the role of William T. Riker – And what he had to say may surprise you.
“I hadn’t acted in a long, long, long time. I hadn’t played Riker in 18 years, and I’ve been very fortunate to be busy directing. I acted briefly in a movie in Winnipeg about 10 years ago. And I had a major anxiety attack because, for whatever reason, I’d forgotten to act. I forgot how to act. I was not a pretty picture for a few hours. I got my s–t together and ended up doing fine. I had just directed two episodes of Picard with Sir Patrick and, as I said, his acting muscle was well-toned. And Marina (Sirtis) had just closed having starred in a play in the West End in London. So, I knew she was going to be in good form. So, I was a nervous wreck. It ended up going very well. But don’t let anybody tell you it’s like getting back on a bike. That’s bulls–t. That’s acting bulls–t.”
Frakes on “Star Trek: Discovery’s” Tone For Season 3
During Frakes’ time on stage at Fan Expo Canada, a fan asked about another Star Trek series – Discovery. More specifically, the fan asked if the darker tone of Discovery first season would continue going forward.
Frakes responded, saying “I can tell you this much about season three of Discovery: It is in fact much more optimistic. They’ve gotten themselves out of the Mirror Universe[…] After Gene died, some of the writers decided that Deep Space Nine should maybe take a different tone, which, I think, it did to certain degrees of success. The optimism that Gene infused in all of his shows and in all of us may not be as obvious as it once was, but it’s certainly the driving force of his vision and the franchise and [Alex] Kurtzman and all the people who run our shows are very conscious that that canon is important to all of you and all of us. JJ [Abram]’s movies, I thought, were very uplifting and wonderfully told stories. There needs to be conflict to make drama. So I’m here to share that Discovery certainly is taking a more optimistic, traditional Star Trek approach in next season.”
Jason Isaacs Reflects on Star Trek
Discovery’s first on-screen Captain, Gabriel Lorca, may be gone – or he may not be. Real-Life-Lorca Jason Isaacs sat down with Syfy Wire to talk about the cancellation of the Netflix series, “The OA”, as well as some of Isaacs other iconic projects.
When asked about fan theories, and whether he pays attention to them, Isaacs replied “The sensible and cool thing to say is, no, I just do the work and move on, but the answer is I read every single punctuation mark and syllable. It’s exciting to know that people are as engaged imaginatively in the show as we were when we were making it, and particularly the projects I care about. The last years, I’ve been blessed [to be] in a bunch of stuff I thought was great. I’ve been in plenty of stuff I thought was mediocre or instantly dismissible, but with Star Trek, and The OA, and the Potters and stuff, I’m continually excited and inspired by how much it’s engaged people.”
In regards to HIS thoughts on Lorca’s where abouts, Isaacs stated “people want to know where’s prime Lorca, because mirror Lorca swapped, so obviously prime Lorca’s somewhere. Did he die? Is he alive? Will we ever see him again? The answer is it’s Star Trek. If you know anything about Star Trek, everything is possible. It should happen when people least expect it.”
Star Trek Online and Gaming News
by Shane Hoover
Cryptic Announces the First of Awakening’s Patrols
Over the course of the last week, Cryptic have been sharing news about each of the five new Beta Quadrant Patrols that will launch with Awakening. At the time of writing, three of the five Patrols have been announced. Each of the new Patrols will become available to players after completion of the new “Beneath the Skin” Episode. Here are brief descriptions of those new Patrols.
Deploy defense satellites to protect an unarmed research facility studying P. Stellaviatori in the Donatu System.
Defend a Lukari research fleet from attack by House Mo’Kai near a Mycelial Rift in the Kern System, and deal with the unstable Rift.
Brave deadly Metreon Gas pockets to defend spore colonies in the Briar Patch from House Mo’Kai.
Cryptic Also Announces Awakening’s First TFO
Along with the new Patrol announcements, Cryptic have published the first information on a new Task Force Operation that will launch with Awakenings. It is called Mycelial Realm, and it sees Captains crossing over into the Mycelial Network to stop J’Ula from powering her Heeelical Torsion Weapon. Here’s what the blog has to say, alongside an image of several Elachi in the Mycelial Realm:
“In Mycelial Realm, our newest Task Force Operation, step through a rift and into the Mycelial Network, and shut down the Klingon probes that are gathering spores for J’Ula’s weapon. But the probes cannot be destroyed by conventional means – at least not without harming the Network itself – and you’ll have to use whatever, and whoever, you find in there to help you disable them.”
Halt the Mycelial Crisis!
Which brings us full circle to the details of the Event changes teased last week by Joanna Gianulis’ blog. Awakening’s new Event, The Mycelial Crisis, is a new type of Event which pulls together all of the new content and gives players the choice of how to progress. The core feature of the new Event system is the removal of Event tokens as a means of progression, replacing the tokens with automatically tracked Progress Points. Every time you play the Event episode “Beneath the Skin”, the Event TFO “Mycelial Realm”, or any of the five Event patrols under “Mycelial Operations” you will earn Progress Points. The episode itself rewards 45 points. The TFO rewards 30 points. And the Patrols each reward 15 points. Captains can earn up to 60 Progress Points every 20 hours, starting from the first Progress Points each day. Choose whatever combination of Event content you prefer to progress toward completion.
Earning 1200 Progress Points during the Event will account-unlock the Grand Prize, a T6 Elachi Qulash Frigate. Additionally, completing the Event will unlock the following items once per account: eight Elachi Disruptor Weapon Packs, as seen in the Elachi Lock Box, and three Ultimate Tech Upgrades, which instantly upgrade an item to max level and quality.
Once you’ve completed the Grand Prize, continuing to earn Progress Points will earn Bonus Rewards. Each time you reach the daily limit of 60 Progress Points, you will earn Dilithium Ore. The first Bonus Reward grants 5,000 Dilithium Ore, and each subsequent day’s reward scales upward from there.
Players who prefer to instantly unlock the Grand Prize rewards may be interested in the announced Zen Buyout option. This option will now behave slightly differently than in previous events, as the price of the buyout is scaled proportionally to your current progress in Event completion. Purchasing the buyout with no Event progress will cost 6,000 Zen in the C-Store. If you’ve earned 600 Progress Points, the buyout costs 3,000 Zen, and so on. Cryptic have also announced a second chance interface to preserve progress in the event after its end. Within this interface, Captains can choose to purchase the buyout option at any time after the Event has ended for the Zen price appropriate to their progress
Previous episode
Similar episodes
Post comments (2)
seannewboy on 2019-09-10
Excellent show everyone, great job. Thanks for joining us Al.
cq1) All of the above, a mix.
cq2) Not sure just how much, reward based, much less than 6k.
cq3) A mix, based on how i feel about the new content.
Tyler Maxwell on 2019-09-10
Which approach to Star Trek story-telling do YOU prefer? Morality plays, an optimistic approach, a darker tone, action-packed, thoughtful? Let us know!
All of the above. While lots of folks would likely highlight the first two options as signature Trek/’what the new Trek should just do instead of the other stuff’, I think the full Trek catalog (even the ‘happy cruise ship utopia’ of TNG) has plenty of examples of all of these kinds of stories, many well-done and others…erm, not so much. (Looking at you, TNG’s Force of Nature.) The key though is variety; if it’s all just heavy-handed morality dramas, or all dark and depressing, or all ‘Humanity is perfect and awesome now!’, it gets dull after awhile.
Would you pay 6,000 Zen to instantly unlock Event rewards? If not, what would you pay?
Probably not, but then again, I usually have the luxury of enough time to grind the STO events for free anyways. I am a bit puzzled by the choice to pad the reward pack with weapons+tech upgrades, which comes across (at least to me) like an attempt to boost the Zen price for some extra baubles that many folks would have been willing to do without. Seems like the pack could have just omitted those and lowered the price a bit to make more folks happy. (Maybe to 4500 Zen, or something a bit closer to the price of a T6 ship? I dunno, we’ll see how this event goes I guess.)
Will you complete most of the Event progress using the episode, the TFO, or the Patrols?
That remains to be seen. Depends on whether any-or-all of those methods are repeatably fun or a nauseating grind.
Comments are closed.