446 – ZEFilms, Picard Premiere, & Star Trek Online Legends | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One — We dive into Picard Premier Promp… and circumstance. Star Trek Online’s 10th Anniversary now live with missions, new ships, and new ways to spend your money!! Of course, in On Screen we reunite with old friends and talk about Star Trek Picard’s premiere episode: Remembrance…  And of course, we can’t sign off without sharing 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: What do you think Guinan has been up to since Star Trek: Nemesis?

AND

CQ: Did you enjoy the 10th anniversary episodes? Where do you think the Star Trek Online story is going now?

TREK IT OUT

by Shane Hoover

Executive Shuffle at ViacomCBS

It’s been a little less than two months since the formation of the new ViacomCBS, home to the Star Trek franchise. And now an article from The Hollywood Reporter gives us the rundown on a number of staffing shake-ups at the company. So far, one of the biggest impacts was felt in the CBS Ad Sales teams, which underwent a series of layoffs and promotions earlier this month. Also announced recently was the departure of Amy Doyle, who served as General Manager of MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo. Perhaps the highest profile change will be the arrival of George Cheeks, who leaves behind a co-chairman position at NBC Entertainment. Cheek’s move comes as a bit of a surprise to many, given that he was promoted to the co-chair position only three months ago. It’s speculated that Cheeks is arriving to be groomed as a replacement for CBS CEO Joe Ianniello. Ianniello was an ally of ousted CBS CEO Les Moonves, who fought Shari Redstone on the Viacom merger. When the merger was achieved, his position was placed beneath the authority of Viacom CEO Bob Bakish. So, the expectation is for Ianniello to head for the exit doors while Cheeks steps in as the head of the CBS house. 

It’s not unusual for corporate mergers to kick off a period of restructuring, so the changes aren’t really surprising. And while we can’t say what the shuffling at ViacomCBS will mean for Star Trek specifically, it certainly seems like the company has been putting its full weight behind the franchise with development and marketing efforts. With many Wall Street investment advisors listing ViacomCBS as a stock to watch for 2020, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic that Trek’s future is secure.

A Personal Invitation to Picard Season 2

Sir Patrick Stewart has teased invitations of a Season Two guest spot throughout the course of several interviewers this past week.  But if you’re a viewer of ABC TV’s “The View”, you may have seen by far the most touching invitation. Appearing on the show to promote his new series, Sir Patrick briefly took control of the conversation to declare that he had a formal invitation. Stewart addressed host Whoopi Goldberg, saying “Alex Kurtzman, who is the senior Executive Producer of Star Trek: Picard, and all of his colleagues – of which I am one – want to invite you into the second season.” The invitation was met with boisterous cheers from the studio audience and a joyful hug from Goldberg.  Whoopi Goldberg, well known to Trekkies for her role as TNG’s Guinan, was moved near to tears by the invitation. She told the studio that Star Trek was “One of the great experiences of my life”, adding “I had the best time ever!”

Picard Delta Popping Up

If you’re a Trekkie in New York or Los Angeles, you had a special chance this past week to participate in the buzz of the show. A large stage emblazoned with the show’s title and a huge Starfleet delta was set up in each city for fans to get photo ops. In New York, the pop-up appeared in Times Square, and in LA it appeared in The Grove. If you were a lucky fan in LA, you might even have bumped into one of the show’s stars, Jonathan Del Arco, who continues his role as Hugh from TNG. The star posted a photo of himself and his dog at the Starfleet Delta, along with a caption of “I’m an actor but I’m also a fan… also Roxy was hoping to meet Number One.”

There doesn’t seem to be a published schedule for the installation, so keep an eye on the @StarTrekCBS Twitter account to catch the Starfleet Delta when it lands somewhere near you.

Chateau Picard

Jean Luc wakes to the sound of songbirds and an enthusiastic greeting from Number One. Crossing the antique wood floors of the Chateau, he throws open the heavy curtains and gazes out across acres of wine grapes. The early morning sun sets a golden glow to the mists clinging to the hills of… Southern California’s Santa Ynez Valley?? Yes, Captains, that’s the truth behind the gorgeous filming of Star Trek Picard’s Chateau Picard winery. In the show, the family winery nestles in beautiful La Barre, France. In reality, the LA based film crew looked a little closer to home. So we’ve learned from a recent article published in Wine Spectator magazine. The magazine spoke to the general manager of the Sunstone Winery, Dave Moser, who said that the production team were looking for a location that resembled a real French chateau. The winery was a great fit, with the property’s villa built from architecture and pieces brought to the States from southern France. Naturally, the staff of the winery were bound to silence by Non-disclosure agreements until after the show was released. According to Moser, filming was achieved by overhead drones and a few shots of Picard and Data in the vineyard themselves. He described the cast and crew as humble, nice, and very accommodating. On the subject of expected interest from Trekkies, Moser said, “We encourage all the Trekkies and Trekkers to come visit us. It should be quite a few interesting weeks if not months.”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Anthony Cox

Star Trek Online: Legacy Launches

Star Trek Online’s Tenth Anniversary celebration is here with a brand new two part episode. Team up with Seven of Nine 12 years after the events of Star Trek Picard and bring Michael Burnham along for a series of trials that will span the game’s 10 year history. The action mostly takes place on or near the planet Excalbia, seen in the Original Series episode, “The Savage Curtain,” but through the Excalbian matter reorganizing abilities you’ll revisit several key moments in both Star Trek Online and Star Trek television. These episodes are a self proclaimed love letter to the past and future of Star Trek Online. We’re going to take a dive into all of the content released for the 10th anniversary, so if you haven’t had the chance to play along, you might have to save yourself from the spoil-pedos we’re about to fire.

Finally, You Can Play as the Borg. Kinda.

Also launching along with the 10th Anniversary celebration, was the Borg Lock Box. Inside is a chance to acquire some of the more requested items since the game launched. The lock box includes all of the standard R&D packs and boosts, but each box also contains a Borg Datacore that contains some information about the Borg collective along with a non-combat holographic Borg drone to accompany you on your travels. There are new captain’s traits for adapting your defenses and offenses in space and on the ground. Liberated Borg duty officers with interesting active duty abilities are also available. Borg technology kits frames and modules can give your captain all those fun Borg abilities we’ve seen in the television shows, and you can add to your arsenal with the Assimilated Plasma Weapons pack. Of course you’ll be able to complete your Borg look by checking out the Lobi store for the Borg Exoskeletal Frame for Borg costume and the Biological and Technological Distinctiveness Extractor weapon. And the grand prize of the Borg Lock Box is none other than the Liberated Borg Command Juggernaut, similar to the Borg ship seen in The Next Generation episodes Decent Parts 1 & 2.

Liberated Borg Command Juggernaut

This bad boy features a Commander Tactical/Command station and a Lt. Tactical/Miracle Worker Station. It also comes with the Universal Console, Disruptive Topological Matrix, which when activated deals plasma damage to nearby enemies and inflicts Viral Disruption for a short duration. This console also provides a boost to Plasma damage and Hull Regeneration. The starship trait is Enhanced Nanite Regeneration. If slotted, activating a captain or bridge officer heal ability on yourself will gain a significant boost to hull regeneration. The boost increases in value the more hull your ship is missing. The Borg Juggernaut comes with an innate ability, Plasma Disintegrator, which fires a massive plasma bolt at your target which explodes on contact dealing a devastating amount of plasma damage to everything nearby. Fun Fact: Any foe who comes into contact with this bolt or explosion will disintegrate when defeated instead of warp core breaching. For a full list of the lock box items and stats of the Borg ship, trek out the show notes.

Tenth Anniversary Legendary Starship Bundles

It wouldn’t be a proper Cryptic celebration without the need to talk yourself out of giving them more money. On February 13th, the 10th Anniversary Legendary Starship bundle will be available to purchase in the C-store on PC and then on March 3rd for console players.. Filled with some of the most sought after ships, this bundle includes new variations of the “hero” ships from the Star Trek universe. As of this recording only the Galaxy Class Legendary Command Exploration Cruiser and the Defiant Class Legendary Pilot Warship have been revealed, but rest assured that this pack will likely include many of the starships that have starred in our favorite Star Trek movies and tv shows across all of the multiverses. The Legendary Command Exploration Cruiser does come with the Enhanced Engineering Systems space set. Previously only available for Federation characters from the tier 4, 5, and 6 versions of the Exploration Cruiser. It also comes with the T6 cruiser ability and trait package along with a brand new account wide starship trait, “Make it so.” The Legendary Pilot Warship comes with the Stealth Fighter space set, again previously available on the tier 4, 5, and 6 versions of the Defiant. 

Again, this ship comes with the warship ability and trait package and comes with the “Overpowered and over-gunned account wide starship trait. 

Both of these ships come with all available visual variants including the new USS Ross variant for the Galaxy and the “nose art” variant for the Defiant. The “nose art” version allows you to add preset graphics to the nose of the Defiant, similar to old WWII bombers or the famous Defiant development patch designed by United States Air Force Top Gun artist Johnny Hawk for Doug Drexler’s DS9 Technical manual. 

The closer we get to February 13th the more ships that will be revealed as part of this bundle. Now you’re probably wondering how much it’s going to set you back for this bundle. Well, hopefully you’re sitting down, not driving, and no where near any sharp objects. 

The standard bundle, which includes 10 tier 6 ships, over 20 ship costume variants, including a new exclusive variant for each ship, all of the consoles and traits from previous versions of the ship, brand new traits, and 10 ship slots, is priced at 30,000 zen, with an introductory sale price of 19,500 zen. There is a premium bundle available, which includes everything we just mentioned, plus 10 master keys, 10 infinity R&D packs, 10 Enhanced Universal Tech Upgrades, 10 Phoenix prize packs, 100 Lobi, 1 Epic Phoenix Pize token, 10,000 Dilithium, and the exclusive title, “Legend of the Quadrants,” all for 45,000 zen, with an introductory price of 29,300 zen. If you’re still conscious after that sticker shock, be sure to trek out the show notes for more details and to see the newly revealed ships.

10 Year Infographic

Cryptic also released a fun infographic with some highlighted stats for the game. Of all accounts created, 41% are on PC, 33% are on Playstation 4, and 26% are on Xbox. There are 615 playable starships in the game. So far, close to 30 million tribbles have been bred. Captain Kurland “was here” over 62 million times, and Star Trek Online leeds episodic Star Trek with 183 playble episodes. That’s 5 more than The Next Generation. The infographic also featured all of the Trek celebrities to voice characters in the game. All but a few voicing the same characters they played on television.

Free Starfleet Uniform from Star Trek: Picard

If you haven’t already, be sure to claim your free 2399 Starfleet uniform in game. The uniform, as seen in Star Trek: Picard, is the latest on screen version of the iconic costume. Complete with matching combadge, this uniform will only be free for a limited time, to be sure to get yours from the promotions tab in the C-store.

Tagged as: MMo, Legends, Whoopie, Roddenberry, Goldberg, Chateau, STO, Wine, trek, inforgraphic, picard, Juggernaut, ZEFilms, Borg, ViacomCBS.