Star Trek Online: Drozana Station

Drozana Station in 2265

I do not play Star Trek Online, but I do lurk on their site and forums, mainly for inspiration for new starship and station designs. A friend of mine, Geoffrey, actually pointed me out to the Drozana Station featured in the game. I had just recently finished reading a TOS novel, the Shocks of Adversity, and was totally in the mood for creating stats for something related to the TOS.

I don’t want to spoil too much about the novel, but it takes place in the TOS prime timeline. The Enterprise under Kirk runs into a seemingly Federation-like civilization, at least on its surface. Sadly, the alien civilization is more like the Dominion from DS9 than it is the Federation. Our world seems to be moving more towards Democracy than any other form of government, but yet the rise of China seems to point to the ability of other forms of government to not only succeed in the world stage, but excel. I suppose time will tell which form of government will come to be the most successful at the world stage.

Without further ado, below are the CODA game statistics for the Drozana station:

Starfleet Drozana-class

Star Trek Into Darkness, living it Large

It’s another giant dark starship beating up the Enterprise!

I watched the latest Star Trek movie with a group of like-minded Star Trek fans. We all agreed it was a fast-paced action-packed movie with lots of homages made to the original series fans, and very entertaining to watch. That being said, there seems to be so much conflict between original fans and new fans. The former consider the new trek to be a Star Wars flick with the serial numbers filed off and replaced with Star Trek names and places. The latter consider the new trek to be a breath of much-needed fresh air for an otherwise now-stale and nearly dead franchise. I am not sure exactly where I fall, probably a little bit of both.

If I had to, I’d say either way you look at it, it’s a good thing for Star Trek. The new movies have generated more interest in Star Trek , and that’s always a good thing for keeping the franchise going. Despite this, some fans have some serious issues with the size of the new Enterprise. Fans of the “old” trek say the new Enterprise can’t be more than 300+ meters in length, while fans of the “new” trek say its as it was stated in various abodes on the interwebz, 700+ meters in length. All sorts of evidence is cited, from art designer quotes to meticulous pixel by pixel examinations. As far as enjoying the movies, does it really matter?

Again, I am not sure which is quite right, not without some definitive tech manual popping up from an official source saying, “The Enterprise is X meters long.” So without further ado, I give you this revised and updated version of the USS Kelvin, large and in charge! Stay tuned in the next few weeks as I will also be statting out the large and in-charge USS Vengeance from the latest Trek film!

Starfleet Kelvin-class large

Refitting our objectives

The Refit Polaris

Starships are like jobs, they both can involve a variety of activities or be limited to just one activity, they can both be dynamic and interesting or boring and staid, and in the end, they both will come to a conclusion. My sister recently lost her job, and we actually sat down in our local hobby shop to play a game of Star Trek Fleet Captains while discussing her thoughts on her ex-job.  In many ways she is now in that point in her life that Kirk and crew were in after the original Enterprise concluded its first five-year mission. Now what? Where do I go from here? What do I do? What my sister may not realize yet, is that though she is in that limbo-like portion of her life, the best is yet to come. Kirk refocused his life after the original Enterprise and went on to achieve greatness, and I have faith that my sister will do exactly the same, achieve greatness in her own life and career.

So here’s to refitting our starships to suit us!

P.S. Here’s the Starfleet Polaris-class refit.

 

Let the Odyssey begin!

The Odyssey-class U.S.S. Enterprise-F.

Happy New Year everyone!

It is fitting today that I bring to you the Starfleet Odyssey-class U.S.S. Enterprise, registration number N.C.C. 1701-F. Odyssey and Enterprise, those two words mean so much too Star Trek fans, particularly the latter. They represent voyages into the unknown, physically, mentally, and emotionally. For my wife and I, this past year has been a year that has included all of the above. In that time we have struggled with preparing our family of 2 (3 if you count the dog) for a child, and hopefully this new year will see our struggles come to fruition. We have seen couples break apart under the strain of marriage, and we have seen couples strengthen their ties and set out on a voyage towards marriage. We have seen close family members pass away and others struggle with their own lives, and we have seen other family members prosper as they nurture their newborns. We have gone from living to a cramped apartment to a house that almost seems too spacious for us. We have strengthened our own ties to family and friends, while also strengthening our ties to our own communities, both professional and personal.

This past year has been an amazing voyage, and though our struggles are only beginning, the rewards are ever worth it. May you all struggle and be rewarded as well in this new year!

Smirking Vulcans

Doesn’t he seem so smug?

In the Enterprise series episode, “Fusion“, we are introduced to a small band of Vulcans travelling aboard the Vulcan Vahklas-class transport. Without spoiling too much of the episode for you, what makes these Vulcans intriguing is that they are Vulcans that have found a balance between logic and emotion. This balance is something that we humans strive to achieve on a daily basis. Too far in the realm of logic and pure analytical reasoning, and we risk being unemotional and detached, isolating ourselves from our friends and co-workers. Too far into the realm of emotion and we risk letting our stronger emotions (whether hate or fear or happiness) run wild, possibly leading to similarly undesirable consequences.

So here’s to more balance in our lives, between the fire of our heart’s passion, and the cool logic of our minds.

Aggressive Vulcans

Administrator V’Las of the Vulcan High Command.

The Vulcans in Star Trek have always been known for their peaceable natures and their commitment to logic and a philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (IDIC), which advocated for tolerance and even acceptance of differing belief systems and practices. It came as somewhat of a shock to many Star Trek fans when the Enterprise series portrayed Vulcans as being far more militant than they’ve ever been shown before. The Vulcan government in the series was shown fielding starships designated as Vulcan D’Kyr-class combat cruisers, engaged in covert spying of nearby species (Andorians) as well as acting as Big Brother to humanity. Most shocking of all was the Vulcan governing body known as the High Command was willing to fire upon and kill those that disagreed with its policies, actions hardly congruent with the traditional Vulcan philosophy of IDIC. The Vulcans were justifying these actions using logic, but logic without reference to the morality of their founder, Surak.

We later discover that the Vulcans had strayed from their society’s founder’s core tenets and beliefs and eventually the Vulcans of the Enterprise series (22nd century) would morph into the peacenik Vulcans we know and love of later Star Trek series (23rd and 24th centuries).

It’s an object lesson to us that all societies change, but that we must be careful to look to the intentions, to the morality behind our laws when we go about changing them or creating new laws. Sometimes we get lost in the wording of our laws and lose sight of the intent behind them, and inevitably we marginalize viewpoints and perspectives that are abhorrent to the majority but sacrosanct to the minority.  Even scarier is when we adopt the language of a law whose intent was to marginalize the minority (whether racial, religious, ethnic, or other) and apply it to our entire society, without realizing that discriminating intent. We must be ever mindful of the intent behind our laws, for we are all affected by them whether we realize it or not.

Star Trek: The Re-Imagined Series

Pew Pew, all your borgified missiles belongs to us!

Love it or hate it, the Re-imagined Star Trek is here to stay. Many Trek fans know, or soon will know, that the next movie featuring the cast of the Re-Imagined Star Trek will soon be here with the uber-psionic Gary Mitchell as the big bad evil guy. I’ll go out on a limb and say that I enjoyed the new Trek. I know many fans find it distasteful, what with the change to the timeline, the freakishly large Enterprise, Kirk going from cadet to captain in a few days time, not to mention the destruction of the planet Vulcan. I’ll admit, those things bother me a bit too. But that’s good. We need change and evolution in our lives if we are to grow and live. The status quo and more of the same don’t work, it always leads to stagnation and ennui in both our personal lives and in our media. Sure the changes may be unpleasant, even unpalatable, but just look at the facts: Star Trek is likely more popular now than it has ever been in its history.

Whether they are cranking out Trek in the movies, in novels, in comic books, it’s all good to me, and I hope for you.

So without further ado, I present to you the Starfleet Constitution-class (alternate) Enterprise from the 2009 movie!