437 – Halloween, CBS Shakeup, and snoop | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One — We  trek out Toronto’s newest Admiral, who’s coming and going at CBS Interactive, George Takei’s early attempts at LGBTQ representation, and then Klingon’s get frozen? In Star Trek gaming, holograms have feelings too, Shalenak debriefs the players on Destination, and console captains get the Franklin!

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: CQ: What do you think of “Let it Go”  in Klingon? Do you another favorite Klingon Pop Warrior song?

AND

CQ: Would you like Snoop Dogg to voice a character in Star Trek Online? If so, would he be a Starfleet Admiral, Klingon General, or Romulan Agent? Tell us.

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Mayor Tory Beams Into a Toronto School, Discovery Style

Mayor’s log, stardate 47634.44. I find myself on a planet that is demonstrating – peculiar – customs. It appears the children, and in some cases adults, dress in costumes. Then they approach dwellings and ask for tricks or treats. In every case, treats are distributed, though more study may be required.

Trick or Treat! This past week, many people around the world celebrated All Hallows Eve – or Halloween! If YOU celebrated by dressing as your favorite Star Trek character, then you weren’t alone. Toronto Mayor John Tory donned a blue Discovery Admiral Uniform while visiting school children this year, later explaining his motivation to the just-happened-to-be-there news crew. ”This is the uniform of a Star Trek Admiral. It is really in tribute to the show Star Trek, which a lot of people of course are very familiar with through all of its generations. But also people may not know that Star Trek: Discovery, which is the present series on television, is being produced here in Toronto. And they’ve made a huge contribution to the success of our film and television industry. They’ve spent more than 250 million dollars in Toronto. They’ve created 4000 jobs in the three seasons that they’ve been here. So it was my pleasure to be able to put on one of the Star Trek admirals uniforms.”

The Motion Picture Association of Canada released an infographic of Star Trek’s impact on the Ontario economy, which included the creation of 4,199 local jobs and $257 million spent in local production costs! For a link to the interview and infographic, trek out the show notes!

CBS Interactive CEO Jim Lanzone Leaves His Post

Regardless of your feelings about CBS ALL ACCESS, or Star Trek’s residing on the platform, there is no denying CBS’s forward-thinking approach in instituting the service. Now the man in charge of overseeing the launch of the Video-On-Demand service, CBS Interactive CEO Jim Lanzone, is bidding the company adieu.

On Monday November 4th, news outlets reported the 48 year-old Lanzone, who’s contract with CBS expires at the end of 2019, will leave CBS Interactive to become an executive-in-residence at Benchmark Capital. Filling the role of CEO will be former Chief Operating Officer of CBS Interactive, Marc DeBevoise.

In a statement, Lanzone said ”It’s been an honor to lead the CBS Interactive team for nearly nine years, and I’m thrilled that Marc will seamlessly continue the great work we’ve done together. Marc was one of the first executives I hired back in 2011, and he has been central to our digital transformation of CBS ever since. We’ve been planning this transition together since early in the year, and I know our team is in great hands going forward.”

George Takei Explains Lack of LGBTQ Representation in TOS

George Takei is an icon. Whether he is spouting his famous “OH, MYYY”,creating a presence on social media, raising awareness about the internment of Japanese Americans by the US government during World War II, acting as a leader for the LGBTQ community, or portraying Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, it’s clear that Mr.Takei is tireless….and he always has been.

In an interview with PBS Newshour, Takei praised the original Star Trek for its bravery and diversity before recalling a conversation with Gene Roddenberry regarding the series tackling “the gay issue”. Takei said he stole a quiet moment with Roddenberry at a pool party, offering his suggestion as a liberal rather than a gay man, because he “was too closeted then”. “I said, You know, we’ve dealt with almost every social issue. Every civil rights, human rights issue and the gay issue is another important one. Have you ever considered addressing that? And he said, ‘you know you’re right.I’d like to do that but’, he said, ‘I’m walking a tightrope. The interracial kiss was very controversial […], and so I’ve got to keep the show on to tell the stories that I’m telling which aren’t being dramatized metaphorically on any other show. I’ve got to keep the show on. And that, as you say, may be a bridge too far’”

“Let it Go” + Klingon = Awesome

With fire and steel did the gods forge the Klingon heart. So fiercely did it beat, so loud was the sound, that the gods cried out “On this day we have brought forth the strongest heart in all the heavens. None can stand before it without trembling at its strength. But then the Klingon heart weakened, its steady rhythm faltered and the gods said, “Why do you weaken so? We have made you the strongest in all of creation.” And the heart said…

…The kids asked to watch Disney’s “Frozen” again.

But fret not Brothers and Sister, for we have a hero – Jen Usellis, The Klingon Pop Warrior!

Highlighted on Nerdist.com, The Warrior/Singer demonstrates how to make “Let it Go”, the song heard round-the-world, new-ish again. Take the diddy, originally performed by Idina Menzel, throw it in a blender, add a heavy dose of throaty Klingon pronunciation, and pour it into our Star Trekgoblets…no ice required!

The four minute and twenty six second song is a little more folksy – and a LOT more aggressive –  than the original release, but it is no less beautiful! If you can’t get enough of popular songs in Klingon, be sure to follow our link to the Klingon Pop Warriors YouTube page!

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Anthony Cox

Teaser Video from Star Trek Destination

Stamets and the Doctor Meet in New Lore Story Fiction

Star Trek Online Community Manager, Mike “Ambassador Kael” Fatum, has posted a new fiction blog. In this story titled, “Doctor’s Orders”, the newly created hologram Stamets meets with another member of Starfleet that has some insight into his current “condition.” The Doctor from Star Trek Voyager counsels Stamets on his newfound consciousness and existing in a foreign time period. We encourage you to trek out this new story by following the link in our show notes.

Destination Star Trek Birmingham Debrief with Shalenak

Star Trek Online’s European Community Manager, Shalenak, wrote up a wonderful reflection on his first convention as a Community Manager. He details many of the activities and announcements the STO Away Team were involved with over the weekend. Along with a few anecdotes including a luggage theft. To read Shalenak’s full Destination Star Trek Birmingham debrief, trek out the show notes.

Console Captains can Now Command the USS Franklin

The Tier 6 Ship promotion has returned to the R&D packs on console this week and now includes the new Freedom-class Exploration Frigate. Otherwise known as the USS Franklin starship from Star Trek Beyond. From now until November 14th when you purchase an R&D pack from the C-store you will receive either 10 Lobi Crystals or a Special Requisition Choice Pack for a Tier 6 ship. All of the previously ships are available along with the new Freedom-class.

EVENTS

PC: Tribble Notes

According to the new events tab in Star Trek Online, the next Featured TFO event will be Into the Breach. And according to the newest Tribble server update, the new 14-day reward looks to be a Universal Console. The Voth Power Subcore, which gives a passive increase to Shield Hit Points, an increase to Shield Resistance, and when activated summons Voth Combat pets, deals Plasma damage over time, and ends with a Kinetic damage core breach. Completing the 14-day progress will also reward players with 3 Featured Reward Boxes and 50,000 dilithium. Participating in this event should also continue your progress towards the Free Tier 6 ship coupon. As with the Mycelial Crisis event, you will have also have a choice in how you complete the daily progress. Needing 28 total progress for completion, participating in the TFO: Into the Breach will give you 2 progress while completing the Voth Encounters patrol will give you 1 progress each time. You can only earn a maximum of 2 progress per day. As of this recording, Cryptic has not officially announced this event, it says in the events tab that it will run from November 12th until December 3rd.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

Do you play STO on Playstation and want to get involved? The Priority One Armada Playstation has some openings in Senior Staff for anyone that wants to help out fellow fleetmates. Reach out to us on our website priorityonearmada.com if you are interested. Thanks so much to all our members – and don’t forget that the House of Martok fleet is even closer to its first Tier V Colony upgrade – so keep filling those projects!

WEEKLY TOP TIP

One of the most wonderful things about Star Trek Online is its ability to immerse us into the universe of Star Trek. Nothing accomplishes this more than the LCARS user interface with which we use to interact with the game. When you create a character and choose a faction you’re also choosing the LCARS style for that Faction. And sometimes it may not quite fit the theme you’re going for with that character, or you may just like a certain style of LCARS better. Well, you can, in fact, change the LCARS color palette. You can not only choose from the other LCARS faction palettes but also from specific races like Remans, Orions, Gorn, specific versions from TNG or Voyager, and even from classic versions of the Federation and Klingon palette. There is also an option to disable the Red Alert mode so the interface stays the theme colors when going into battle. But who would want to do that? This gives you some options when creating new characters or to spice up the experience on your trusty main character. You can find these settings in the options menu under “Basic” on PC and under “Options” then “Options” again on consoles. 

Other Gaming News

Does Snoop Dogg STO?

During the first episode of Netflix’s new Cardi B led singing competition, twitter user @justinhall spotted something trek-tacular. While guest judge Snoop Dogg was giving Cardi B a tour of his LA home, they walk past a wall-sized mural of an intergalactic space battle between Star Trek and Star Wars spaceships. And if you Star Trek Online players thought some of the images look familiar, well, you would be right. The Star Trek Online Twitter account confirmed in a reply that some of the starship images were in fact concept art for the game. Namely an STO variant fo the Sovereign-class. In the Tweet Star Trek Online asked if Snoop Dogg played the game and invited him on their live stream. Trekizzle bizzle, f’shnizzle.

Tagged as: Mayor, Franklin, Roddenberry, Discovery, Star Trek, STO, MMo, Snoop, Toronto.