445 – Picard Show, Voyager’s 25th, STO’s 10th| Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One — Well… it’s much like last week… with even MORE marketing hype behind Star Trek: Picard. Star Trek Online’s 10th Anniversary is right around the corner and what you can look forward to. And finally, we open hailing frequencies and receive all of your incoming messages.

Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages

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

This Weeks Community Questions Are:

CQ: Would you rather see Discovery Season 3 released first, or Lower Decks?

AND

CQ: What are you most looking forward to for Star Trek Online’s 10th Anniversary?

TREK IT OUT

by Shane Hoover

Picard Final Marketing Push

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting and marketing teases… Or were we just mentally trapped in a Kataanian probe full of Picard marketing for 20 minutes? Hey, either way it’s finally time! Star Trek Picard premiers on CBS: All Access this week. Whether you’ve already seen the series pilot or not, we’ve got a couple of fun stories from Picard’s final marketing push. 

For starters, CBS arranged a two day takeover of London’s Picadilly Circus Underground station. Star Trek branding adorned the tiled roundels in the station’s ticket hall, declaring it to be “PICARDilly Circus”. Signs and train line maps throughout the station carried the theme as well.  If you closed your eyes, you could perhaps imagine yourself in a Federation transportation hub as the PA announced “Please take care when using stairs, escalators or transporters.” Next stop – Earth Space Dock?

Our next Picard marketing tidbit comes courtesy of a Variety interview with the cast and crew at the show’s premiere event in Hollywood. When asked which Trek character each of them would most like to share drinks with, the answers were gracious, touching, and funny in turn.

Sir Patrick Stewart joked, “Your question suggests that that hasn’t happened yet.” before adding “There are a lot of new characters with me now. And they are, without exception, delightful people. So a glass or two of something pleasant with any of them would be a treat.”

Rod Roddenberry touchingly replied, “My dad. I know that’s not what you were asking, but that’s who I’d most like to hang out with.”

While several other cast and crew all agreed that Picard himself was their man of choice, new star Isa Briones offered an amusing reply, “I shouldn’t answer that because I’m not 21 for a few days! Hypothetically, Guinan, because she would get me drunk in the right way!”

And our last Picard marketing bit comes courtesy of Sir Patrick’s appearance on the BBC talk show The Graham Norton Show. The host asked Stewart if, given TNG’s heavy syndication, he ever found himself unintentionally drawn into watching the show.  While Sir Patrick declared that he doesn’t seek out the show, he shared a funny story about one night staying in a hotel. While channel surfing, Stewart came across an episode of The Next Generation.  After watching for a few minutes, he found himself hooked. It was at this point that his room service order was brought into the room, and the hotel staff person looked at him, looked at the television, and went away. Stewart told Norton, “I thought, he’s going to go away and tell the entire kitchen “It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. This guy is upstairs, alone, having room service,  watching himself on TV!”

Discovery Season Three and Lower Decks Nearing Release?

There’s still no official word from CBS on the release schedule for the rest of its forthcoming Star Trek shows.  However, a couple of Tweets were dropped this past week that give us hints that we may not have long to wait. First, back on January 14th, TrekCore.com’s twitter account posted a very brief chat with Executive Producer Heather Kadin. Asked if Discovery’s new season would be coming on the heels of Picard, Kadin had a surprising answer. She said, “It’s not up to me. CBS All Access schedules it. I’ll tell you that, come May, a lot of things will be ready. “Lower Decks” will be ready. “Discovery” Season 3 will be ready.” She added her expectation that the shows would be scheduled to ensure a steady flow of content. She also declared, “I can’t wait for people to see “Lower Decks”“

Just a few days later, on the 17th, another tantalizing Tweet appeared. Michelle Paradise, Discovery Season 3’s writer, tweeted a photo of one line of script boldly declaring “End of Season Three”. So with the writing on the show complete, and the Picard Executive Producer expecting the shows to be ready by May, maybe we won’t be waiting long after Picard’s finale for the next show.

25th Anniversary of Voyager

25 years ago, Captain Janeway and the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager began their adventures in the Delta Quadrant. In honor of the special day, many of Voyager’s cast members took to Twitter to celebrate.

The Captain herself posted a short video captioned “Thought I’d dust off my uniform (pips, badge & boots) in celebration of the 25th anniversary.” In the video, to the stirring tune of Voyager’s theme music, Kate Mulgrew has arranged her Starfleet uniform and a Voyager script atop a Voyager folding director’s chair.

Robert Picardo, who played The Doctor, shared a photo of his character in costume as the Emergency Command Hologram with the caption, “The ECH has issued an order: you’d better be celebrating 25 years of Voyager! Please don’t tell Kate Mulgrew I’m sitting in her chair again.”

Seven of Nine’s Jeri Ryan, now working on Star Trek Picard, posted a full cast photo captioned “Happy 25th Birthday, Star Trek Voyager! To the journey…”

And eternal Ensign Harry Kim, Garret Wang, posted two cast photos with a note saying “So, it was exactly 25 years ago, this evening, that Voyager first aired on UPN. Happy 25th Anniversary to the cast, crew and fans of Star Trek Voyager May we all live long and prosper!”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Anthony Cox

Omega Event Returns for Anniversary X

To many of us, Star Trek Online is the ultimate Trekkie experience. Being able to graduate from Starfleet Academy, rise through the ranks at Starfleet, and Captain our very own starship as we warp throughout the 50 plus years of the Star Trek Universe. This year alone we will see Voyager celebrate its 25th anniversary, we’ll see Captain Jean-Luc Picard takes to stars again, we will again have more than one Star Trek show to look forward to, and the game that has glued all our favorite stories together will turn 10 years old. For PC players beginning this Tuesday, January 28th, Star Trek Online beams down the party patrol, hands out the party poppers, and releases the Omega Particles. There will be two new crafting options for the Omega particles this year, you will now be able to craft mark OR rarity variations of the Omega upgrades. The party pooper this year will feature the greatest hits of past poppers. The anniversary pack is adding several new emotes including a Disco Dance, Tea – Earl Grey, Evil Plans, Organian Greetings, and Ta-dah! And of course you’ll be able to earn yourself a shiny new Tier 6 ship, The Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser.

Klingon/Federation Hybrid Ship for the 10th Anniversary

An amalgamation of design aesthetics from both the Klingon Defence Force and Starfleet, this formidable ship comes with the Aligned Antiproton Shielding Universal Console. Which when activated gives a temporary boost to Energy Weapon Haste, Shield Regeneration, and Shield Capacity that increases the more damage your shields take. Re-activating the ability afterwards will deal antiproton damage to each nearby enemy. Reaching level 5 in the Alliance Battlecruiser will unlock the Automated Shield Alignment Starship Trait. Slotting this trait will give a bonus to damage based on what percentage of your shields is missing. Defeating an enemy will restore a substantial portion of your shields.

New Task Force Operation Launching with 10th Anniversary

The task force operation, To Hell with Honor, was announced last week and featured on a recent Ten Forward Weekly live stream. The TFO has Captains taking the fight to J’Ula in a space versus ground forces battle on a barren moon. As John Hegner noted during the live stream, there are a couple of different strategies players can take when approaching the TFO. Stage one pits Captains against ground turrets while they make their way to J’Ula’s headquarters. During stage two, Captains will battle against both J’Ula’s forces and Elachi ground walkers. Any turrets not destroyed during stage one will help you fight the Elachi. There is a stage three, but not wanting to spoil anything, we’ll let listeners discover that for themselves.

Two Previous TFOs Return with 10th Anniversary Update

The 10th Anniversary update will also bring us two previous TFOs into regular rotation. Battle at the Binary Stars and the Mycelial Realm return to join the permanent list of regularly available TFOs. In Battle at the Binary Stars you’ll take on the role of a Discovery era starship involved with the famous battle we first saw in the premiere episode of Star Trek Discovery. Not only is this a beautiful map and exciting battle, but you’ll get to see cutscene recreated in game as they played out in Discovery. Then enter the Mycelial Realm in a ground TFO where you’ll team up with Tardigrade to fight Elachi and try to hinder J’Ula’s efforts.

Event Campaign Continues and Mudd’s Market Launches on Console

Console Captain’s can continue their campaign progress towards a free Tier Six ship coupon by playing in the Voth Breach event. Players have the choice of either playing the Into the Breach featured Task Force Operation or in any of the new re-imagined space patrols that were previously released on PC. Completing the daily progress with the TFO or two of the patrols 14 times will also earn you the Voth power Subcore console along with the usual Featured TFO rewards. This even runs now until January 27th.

The USS Ross Galaxy Variant Revealed on Clear Skies Show

On this week’s episode of “Clear Skies,” the Star Trek Adventures RPG from the creative minds behind “Shield of Tomorrow,” the crew of the USS Ross finally set out on their adventure and gave us our first look at the starship. The title sequence, put together by none other than ZEFilms, showcases the Galaxy variant which will be available as an in game variant for exploration cruisers. The show, “Clear Skies,” can be seen Monday nights on the Queue Times Twitch channel. That’s twitch.tv/Q-U-E-U-E-times.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

This week in Armada News:

Join us for TFO Tuesday – each Tuesday we team up with other Armada members to earn marks and dilithium. 

• Tribbles and Bits – new ongoing weekly event – we want to hear from you – so each week, we are going to ask a random question about Star Trek and about STO and we want your responses. Link posted on the website: https://www.priorityonearmada.com/forum/m/38628939/viewthread/33010253-tribbles-bits-weekly-random-trek-questions/post/138379909#p138379909

• Last week, we recognized some of our members that have gone above and beyond having made contributions to the Armada. We presented the “Outstanding Service Medal” to Capt Teymareux@lirimareux of the Priority One-Gamma Fleet, Capt Elsbeth@dthorpe1964 of the Priority One-Alpha Fleet, Capt Wyle@wylekyotie of the Priority One-Delta Fleet, Capt The Hawk@ocatvious#9172 of the Priority One-Beta Fleet, Adm Nicki@queenbetazoid#8547 of the Priority One-Gamma Fleet, and Adm Flextion@alefluke#6306 of the Priority One-Alpha Fleet.

• This is an extraordinary accomplishment and each of you have become part of a very distinguished group within our community and we are so grateful for your generosity and dedication to the Armada.

WEEKLY TOP TIP

With the Voth Breach arriving on Console as the featured TFO, we want to give you a couple of tips for completing it hastily. The first stage of the TFO is pretty straight forward, literally. You and your teammates fly at full impulse down the outside spine of the ship firing all around. Very much like the Death Star trench run in Star Wars. Occasionally you’ll slow down to take out some turrets and then in the featured version you’ll head straight down into the belly of the ship to take on the Subpower Cores. Here’s where the first tip comes in. Only one of the three chambers will have the correct subpower core. The other two will have a question mark in the name. Don’t attack these ones, heal yourself up and go to another chamber. Remember that a chamber will not have the correct subpower core twice in a row. After your team explodes the Subpower Core, head into the next chamber and start taking down the primary power core. This one has a rotating shield. You can either fly around the core keeping your ship broadsiding the exposed space between the shielding, or sit tight and buff up your ship when the shield blocks your firing arcs. It’s up to you. But make sure you get your pacing down or you’ll be wasting your buffed attacked on an immune shield.

Other Gaming News

Star Trek Timelines New Event and Celebrating Picard Premiere

Star Trek Timelines isn’t exempt from the Picard hype. Starting on the same day as the Picard premiere Timelines starts a new campaign that offers Irumodic Syndrome Picard and EV Suit Seven of Nine as rewards. 

Starting the same day is Timelines’ newest event titled, Right on Q. This event features Belle Q from the Q civil war episode, Augmented Riker, and Commander Shelby. Star Trek Timelines is available in the Google Play store, The IOS App store, the Microsoft store, and on Steam.

Tagged as: Kurtzman, ViacomCBS, MMo, Roddenberry, Piccadilly, STO, Voyager, Timelines, trek, picard, kadin.