429 – Awoked | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One, we Trek Out what fans can expect from the Star Trek Multiverse at NY Comic Con. We celebrate the franchise’s FIFTY-THIRD birthday with Alex Kurtzman; and Presidential hopeful Corey Booker talks about his love of Star Trek. In Gaming News we share our initial reactions to Star Trek Online’s newest update – Awakening – featuring Anthony Rapp as his holographic counterpart – Paul Stamets!

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: Has Star Trek inspired your career? If so, how?

CQ: Are you surprised to see Kelvin Timeline items make a return to Star Trek Online? What would you like to have from the new lock box?

AND

CQ: What did you enjoy most about Star Trek Online’s Awakening content?

Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Star Trek, CBS Set a Course for the Big Apple

The summer is coming to an end. San Diego Comic Con, STLV, bathing suits, and grilling may be behind us – but think of all the things we have to look forward to! Pumpkin Spice coffee, Pumpkin Spice beer, Pumpkin Spice pancakes, Pumpkin Spice candles, Pumpkin Spice sweatshirts, Pumpkin Spice deodorant – and New York Comic Con! And this year’s New York Comic Con will have as much Star Trek as fall has Pumpkin Spice!

On Saturday, October 5th, the teams behind Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard will take the Hulu stage at Madison Square Garden for an hour and a half to talk about their respective shows!  Starting at 1PM, Alex Kurtzman will be joined by Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz and David Ajala to “discuss the dramatic season two finale and what adventures lie ahead for the Discovery crew as they jump almost 1000 years into the future in season three.”

Next up, at 1:45, Kurtzman will ditch the Disco crew for the Picard party, welcoming Sir Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Harry Treadaway and Evan Evagora to the stage to talk about what’s in store for the anticipated new series.

If panels aren’t your thing, you will still have the ability to partake in Trek. From StarTrek.com “If you missed our U.S.S. Discovery Transporter Experience at SDCC this summer, never fear. It’s making the journey out to NYCC and will be set up from October 3 through October 6 (the length of the convention) in the Javitz Center’s Crystal Palace. Once again, you’ll have the chance to score one of our exclusive Star Trek pins at the activation until supplies run out. Exclusive Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard merchandise will also be available for purchase.”

Star Trek Turns 53!

On Thursday, September 8th 1966, US audiences were treated to a new Science-Fiction program – “Star Trek”. Fifty-three years later, Star Trek has spawned 5 spin-offs, 11 feature films,and has served as entertainment, inspiration, and motivation. Star Trek has literally changed lives.

To say Happy #StarTrekDay to – well – itself, Star Trek relaunched its website, StarTrek.com. Though the changes have been steadily implemented over the past few months, the site used Star Trek’s birthday to roll out the red carpet. To mark the occasion, Star Trek’s  Admiral – Alex Kurtzman – narrated a video celebrating the franchise, discussing its core values, acknowledging its fans, and officially launching the new website.

In the four minute video, Kurtzman talks about what Star Trek is, saying “The world we live in has changed, but Star Trek remains a very steady starship in the media landscape. Forever championing its core tenants of love, family, friendship, courage, sacrifice, and above all, grand limitless optimism”

Kurtzman closes the video by saying “So let’s move forward together into this amazing, inspiring, ever-growing universe that you’ve played such a huge part in building. Thank you all and welcome home.Happy Star Trek Day.”

Shatner, Takei Wish Star Trek a Happy Star Trek Day

Alex Kurtzman wasn’t the only person to acknowledge Star Trek Day. As a matter of fact, 2 of Star Trek’s pioneers blew out some of their own proverbial candles.

In a tweet, Star Trek’s first on-screen Captain, William Shatner posted a photo from “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, saying //QUOTE//Happy Anniversary @StarTrek (1966-2019)//END QUOTE//.

TOS co-star George Takei also joined in on the tweeting fun, “Happy 53rd anniversary to Star Trek! “Man Trap” aired 53 years ago today. Oh myyy.” Takei followed this initial tweet with a second, saying “Happy #StarTrekDay, friends. How far Star Trek has come in its LGBTQ representation since the first series”

And it wasn’t just TOS stars that got in on the fun. Kate Mulgrew tweeted one of our favorites, saying “Happy 53rd birthday to Star Trek! Continuing to defy age and redundancy. LLAP. 🖖🏻 Excellent graphic from @roddenberry #startrek #startrekday @startrek” The Roddenberry graphic in question is Janeway with a cake! Go Roddenberry!

How Star Trek Influenced Presidential Hopeful Corey Booker

It’s not rare to hear how Star Trek has inspired career choices. Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Astronauts – and possibly a US President?

Outspoken Star Trek fan, former Newark Mayor, and Presidential Hopeful Corey Booker sat down with the New York Times to discuss his love of Star Trek, and how it’s affected his run for US President. Booker said he has been a Trekkie since he was a young boy, thanks to his father, Cary Booker. Booker recalled why his father loved the series saying “It was hope. “Star Trek” was more than just an escape. It was a portal to say the future is going to be different. It’s incredibly hopeful and a belief that we’re going to get beyond a lot of these lines. We’re going to unite as humanity. It’ll be a place where your virtue guides you, the highest of human aspirations. I think there’s something about that he found really powerful.”

Booker also stated Picard was HIS Captain, explaining “/Besides his great haircut, I do love how profoundly intellectual he is and how reasoned and thoughtful. I was just rewatching the episode with him and Wesley Crusher, basically the one where Wesley is leaving and they get trapped and Picard is injured [Season 4’s “Final Mission]. He is incredibly affectionate toward him in a very restrained, British way. You could still see that he is still a nurturing leader. There’s something about his style that I’ve just found compelling”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

Cryptic Announces the Last Two Awakening Patrols

In the week leading up to the launch of Star Trek Online Awakening, Ambassador Kael posted the descriptions for the last two of the new Beta Quadrant Patrol missions. These new Patrols will be part of the “Halt The Mycelial Crisis” event, and will be the first set of Patrols to usher in the game’s new Patrol User Interface. These new patrols are:

The Ninth Rule

“Players deal with mercenaries working for the Ferengi Daimon Madran as he steals mycelial spores from the Kinjer System to sell on the open market to the highest bidder.“

Madran seems to have a knack for getting into no good and often caught by our Captains. You may remember this Ferengi from previous missions such as “Mine Enemy”, “Warehouse”, “Echoes of Light”, and even “Quark’s Lucky Seven”.

Ruins of Doom

“Investigate reports of House Mo’Kai activity in the Imaga System, believed to be a site where prototaxites stellaviatori grows.”

The Imaga System has been visited by players before, in the mission “The Doomsday Device”, where Captains stopped the Planet Killer device after it destroyed the planet’s moon.

The New Kelvin Divergence Lockbox

As usual with the arrival of new Star Trek Online “content”, comes a new lockbox.  Behold “The Kelvin Divergence Lockbox”. Once you get past the lens flare you’ll see the new Grand Prizes in this box are the T6 Kelvin Heavy Destroyer, for Federation-allied Captains, and the T6 Kelvin Timeline D7 Heavy Destroyer for Klingon-allied Captains. Alternately, players who win the Grand Prize choice can select the previous Kelvin Timeline T6 ships: the Heavy Command Cruiser, the D4x Pilot Bird-Of-Prey, or the T’laru Intel Carrier Warbird. The Kelvin Heavy Destroyer is recognizable as the same ship type as the U.S.S. Kelvin seen in Star Trek 2009, though it’s also known as the Einstein-Class. Other prizes available in the lockbox include two new consoles – The Swarmer Matrix and Hull Image Refractors. A new Starship Trait – Concealed Repairs. New Space and Ground Weapons – Altamid Plasma Weapons. Kit modules, kit frames, captain traits, and all the regular lockbox rewards. Each box also includes three transwarp beaming devices, which allow the user to beam an away team to a distant planet.

New items are also arriving in the Lobi Store. The Survival Suit costume, as worn by the Enterprise crew after being stranded in Star Trek Beyond. Jaylah’s Staff – a new weapon that combines a melee staff with a sniper rifle. And The Altamid Adaptation space item set – The 2 piece set bonus automatically fires a plasma energy strike against the enemy when you Critically strike or miss. And the 3 piece set bonus grants an active ability that massively reduces weapon cycle time.

Lobi Store and Key Sales!

And to get everything started there is will be sales in the Lobi store and for Keys in the Zen-store from now until Tuesday September 17th. For a full list of new items and their stat details, Trek out the show notes.

There are a ton of new Kelvin Timeline items coming into the game in time for the Awakenings release, and this is being recorded prior to release day. Do you think the Kelvin Timeline will somehow be tied into the new missions? Or do you think it was just a good opportunity for Cryptic to drop a new Kelvin lockbox unrelated to current content?

Arena of Sompek Event and T6 Voth Ships reach Consoles

But one final note …. In console news… This past Tuesday, September 10th, two new content sources reached Captains on Consoles. The Arena of Sompek Featured TFO event, that we previously described on the show, will run until October 1st, giving players the chance to earn the Section 31 Heavy Phaser Rifle and other prizes. At the same time, console players are getting an updated Infinity Lock Box which now contains two new Tier 6 Voth starships and prizes that were previously in the Emperor’s Lock Box, like the T6 Styx Dreadnought. To review all of the details, trek out the links in our show notes.

Tagged as: Awakening, NYCCC, Takei, Discovery, MMORPG, STO, trek, picard, booker, Kurtzman.