This week, we’re Trekking Out Tig Notaro’s appearance on The Late Show. Then we head to Twitter for a few interview shorts, and Alex Kurtzman gives TV Insider a look into the future of Discovery.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re catching up on the latest that the gaming world has to offer...and in our On Screen segment, we’re discussing the Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, Episode 11 "Perpetual Infinity".

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

This week, we’re Trekking Out Star Trek’s newest offering, and it’s coming to Cable Television! Then, we talk about CBS and Viacom reintegrating - again, what the cast of Discovery thinks about trekking nearly 1000 years into the future, and Ira Steven Behr’s thoughts on “What We’ve Left Behind”

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we discuss the newest details for the upcoming Rise of Discovery update.

This week, we’re digesting that announcement from STLV that Patrick Stewart will be reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, a rare trademark application from CBS has set fans’ chins wagging, and CBS’s goal of making Star Trek a year-round offering for CBS All Access. And in movies, we’re Trekking Out the news that negotiations between Paramount and Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth have broken down, ahead of the planned Star Trek 4.

In gaming news this week, we’re bringing you an interview from STLV with Holly Amos and Josh Singer from Star Trek Adversaries, and later our science adviser Dr. Hurt is here with another report from the Astrometrics Lab.

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

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Sir Patrick Stewart Reprises Jean-Luc Picard
  • CBS Trademarks "Star Trek: Reliant"
  • Star Trek Year-Round?
  • Possible Miss For Chris and Chris...and Star Trek 4?
• Star Trek Gaming News
  • Star Trek Adversaries interview
• Astrometrics Report with Dr. Hurt

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST! Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM.

Did you miss any of our great blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! You can also follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say hi! Or check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff. We're also on Instagram @PRIORITYONEPOD.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 524 of Priority One: New York Comic Con is ready to Trek Out; the community rallies behind Wilson Cruz; Star Trek Online updates its minimum system requirements; mobile games cross to desktop; and we review Lower Decks’ “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”–but not before we chat with Cryptic Studios’s Content Creator Ryon and Environment Artist Gianna!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Trekking Out the Big Apple

By Elio Lleo

Convention season is in full swing and New York Comic Con is next. Starting October 7th and ending October 10th, this four day event usually has stuff for everyone! Unique to this year’s presentation is hybrid participation: not only are organizers reducing the total number of attendees, you can also purchase a virtual ticket that will give you access to some of the panels right from the comfort of your own home.

But what’s so special about NYCC? As of right now, Paramount+ is slated to present at least two panels: on Saturday, October 9th at 12:45pm the cast and producers of Star Trek: Discovery take the Empire Stage. Then on Sunday, October 10, Star Trek: Prodigy will premiere its first episode along with a panel.

Image: ViacomCBS/Nickelodeon, via TrekCore.

But that’s not all–join the Roddenberry Podcast Network as we present a panel titled “Star Trek’s Guide to Community.” I’ll be there along with Kennedy and Sue from Women at Warp! That’s happening Saturday, Oct 9th at 2:15pm.

There’s also a Hallmark presentation with new Trek ornaments, a virtual only panel with the folks behind the new Star Trek Magazine, and even Bill Shatner will be there on Thurs, October 7th. 

Wilson Cruz Harassed During Star Trek Day

By Elio Lleo

When it comes to communities, even Star Trek’s can be incredibly divisive. The majority of the time, it’s about NuTrek vs older Trek, who the better first officer is, or which ship is cooler. However, there are times when things can get dark and people start to show their true colors–like one fan who was offered the privilege of attending the Star Trek Day celebrations in person. Long story short, at one point during the event, while Wilson Cruz was on stage, someone in the audience yield out a homophobic slur. According to reports, no one did anything about it. The guest was not removed nor have they been identified (yet). With incredible grace and patience, Wilson continued on and later took to Twitter to address the matter.

Although he may not have wanted to draw so much attention to the matter, we want to take a moment to remind you–our listeners–that tolerance for the bigoted has its limits. When you see something, say something. Learn ways on how to be the best ally you can be for people who are marginalized on a daily basis. If you’re on social media and someone goes on a hate-filled rant, step up. It’s the inaction of those with the means to stand up to injustices that empower those who want to watch the world burn.

IP Theft, the Sincerest Form of Flattery

By Cat Hough

On Monday, we were treated to the big uniform reveal by General Jay Raymond, Chief of Space Operations for Space Force who tweeted, "Every winning team needs a uniform!.I’m excited to share the new look with you today." And to no one’s surprise, the Twitterverse immediately noticed some striking similarities to some other uniforms that we are quite familiar with. They were described by one person as "a blend of the Star Trek Enterprise dress uniform, but with the Mirror Universe diagonal." 

Josh Weinstein, a veteran writer for The Simpsons and Futurama, said the uniform reminded him of the ridiculously tight outfits worn by Zapp Brannigan; Movies in Focus hopped on the satirical bandwagon with the image of an Imperial Star Destroyer officer from the original Star Wars trilogy. "These new Space Force uniforms are looking great," jokes the caption.

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• Reuben Klamer, the designer of the original Starfleet phaser rifle for the original series of Star Trek, passed away at the age of 99, according to the Toy Association. Klamer also designed props for other shows, including a gun for the hit 1960s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

PSA: She Canna Take Any More, Cap’ns!

By Thomas Reynolds

To every thing there is a season–and in Cryptic’s opinion, the season for Windows 7 is long past. Starting February 15, 2022, anyone still using the 10-year-old OS (seriously, not even Microsoft supports it anymore) won’t be able to patch or log into STO and Neverwinter. Only Windows 8 and 10 (with the superior 64-bit intellect) will have a home on the final frontier. DirectX 10 support is also getting ejected like a spent warp core on February 15th, with both games requiring Feature Level 11 or higher. That means your computer needs to have one of the following video card chipsets to play:

• NVidia GeForce GTX 400 or better
• ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5000 or better
• Intel HD Graphics 4000 or better

Given all the fun and excitement of buying graphics cards these days, if your current card isn’t up to the task...well, godspeed.

[Pictured: my rig next February.–Ed.] Image: ViacomCBS, via KVNF Public Radio.

Aux2Bat Gets Boimed Out

By Thomas Reynolds

The aqueduct, the magnetic compass, the Aux2Bat. All of these simple technologies have withstood the test of time, but the last may be the most miraculous. Needing only three Technician doffs and one boff ability at minimum, the Aux2Bat ship build is easy to assemble, trivial to fly, and still keeps your bridge officers ready for whatever space wizardry you demand of them. Sure, it hasn’t been the meta in a sehlat’s age, but you know what? Aux2Bat does the job, it does it pretty well, and that’s pretty much all we ask...until now.

Ever drop a Gravity Well, and notice your Tyken’s Rift is now off-limits for 15 seconds? That’s the Shared Category Cooldown kicking in, forcing you to pace yourself rather than let everything rip at once. When Cryptic first released the Boimler Effect trait, it provided a 2.5% percent chance of resetting every bridge officer ability to its Shared Category Cooldown, whenever you used a non-specialist boff ability. Great in theory, but one-in-forty odds just aren’t worth a 200 Lobi investment.

So Cryptic did a little tweaking, like you do, and made it a 17.5% percent proc chance instead. As STO streamer @AugmentedDG declared on Twitter, “Boimler Effect is now as good as Aux2Bat...for cooldown reduction.” Bold words, to be sure, but there’s also a fairly convincing clip of him keeping eight of his escort’s twelve boff abilities concurrently running like an overambitious plate spinner. Trek out the tweet, scrape together that Lobi, and give your boffs more buffer time than they can handle.

Is there in Screen Accuracy No Beauty?

By Thomas Reynolds

One of Trek cosplay’s hallmarks is its hair-splitting fidelity to what’s seen on screen, even when the creators themselves don’t quite pull it off. Combine that tendency with STO’s promise of personal immersion, and it’s no surprise that some players want their captain’s threads to look “correct.” To help make that a little easier, Cryptic released official in-game color guides for both the newly-available Lower Decks Starfleet jacket, and their original Khitomer uniform creation. However, rapturous Space Barbie enthusiasts should make sure they’re using the second released Khitomer guide, as the first one had incorrect pant color codes.

The Sally Ride, the Ross, and You

By Shane Hoover

If you were a fan of the Star Trek Adventures web series “Shield of Tomorrow” or “Clear Skies”, you’re already familiar with the dangers and wonders of the Shackleton Expanse. If you weren’t, then be prepared for deadly spatial phenomena, ancient alien technologies, first contact with new species and lots of boldly going. It’s all there in Modiphius Entertainment’s newest STA sourcebook, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide. The new sourcebook is available for preorder at $60 now and is expected to ship in December 2021. This is your tabletop gaming crew’s chance to follow in the warp trails of the U.S.S. Sally Ride and the U.S.S. Ross. Adventure into a nearly uncharted region of space beyond Federation, Klingon and Romulan borders. 

Image: Modiphius Entertainment.

The new material includes five new playable alien species for STA including Orions. It also includes NPCs from Starbase 364 and around the Expanse, as well as stats for “hero” and NPC vessels. This sourcebook does require a copy of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, which is provided in PDF form with your order.

The Ar-mod-a Returns

By Thomas Reynolds

Maybe 2000 feels like a long time ago to you, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, the Star Trek: Armada and Armada II RTS games that came out then still hold a place in certain PC players’ hearts. So much, in fact, that the Stellar Parallax modding group has finally released what Activision would not: Star Trek: Armada III. Starting as a one-person passion project back in 2012, Armada III is a full-conversion mod for 2012’s Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Stellar Parallax’s devoted faithful can now command the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Borg, or Cardassian Union at the beginning of the Dominion War.

See, Kurtzman? You can have more than one kind of ship in a fleet. Image: Stellar Parallax.

But really, how much demand is there for a nine-year-old game mod, following up on a twenty-year-old series? After its September 10th release, Armada III is the 51st most-popular mod on the ModDB site, out of over 46,000 entries across hundreds of games–so we’d say “a lot.” [Update: #21 as of publication. Damn.–Ed.]

Quick Star Trek Gaming News Roundup

• A few weeks back we mentioned that the mobile game Star Trek Fleet Command was beta testing a desktop client for Windows. Well, they’re out of beta and it’s now available for download, with special perks being offered when you log in via desktop!
• Game maker WizKids announced a new combo-building game titled “Star Trek Missions” –according to their announcement, “your goal is to assemble the highest-scoring combos possible by drawing cards from the Galaxy deck, the Mission deck, or the discard area.” It’ll be available February 2022, but you can pre-order now.

This week on Priority One --- We trek out a deleted scene from Discovery Season 2, catch a glimpse of Captain Pike, and celebrate Anthony Rapp’s engage-ment! In Star Trek gaming, we enter the Breach, Strike Wing Escorts are available, and are you ready to step onto the Holodeck.

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: Have you seen the new Short Trek, "Ask Not"? What did you think?

AND

CQ: Would you pay $48 to experience the Star Trek Discovery Away mission for 26 minutes? Do you plan on going to the VR experience in the future?

TREK IT OUT

by Shane Hoover

Discovery Season 2 Deleted Tilly Scene

The second season of Star Trek Discovery released this week on Blu-Ray and DVD.

In a teaser last week on the IO9 website, CBS released an exclusive deleted scene featuring Tilly and her Mycelial parasitic pal, May Ahearn.

The scene opens on Tilly trying to ignore the mysterious May by reading a PADD. May peeks around the edge and grins. Tilly, exasperated, tries to flee to the bathroom of her quarters, only for May to suddenly appear in that room. Clearly on the edge, Tilly declares that she can't be in the Starfleet Command Training Program if she's mentally unsound, to which May quips "Well that hardly seems fair!". May argues that Tilly's mind works in “Fascinating ways. I'm inside it, feeling the throb of your neurons, the rush of hot oxygenated blood coursing between hemispheres.” To which a confused Tilly responds, "Are you coming on to me?" 

May convinces Tilly to help her in her quest to observe and speak to the Captain. She promises that she can help Tilly reach her ultimate potential and change the universe for the better. Once she's gotten her message to the Captain through Tilly, May swears she'll be gone. And the scene ends. 

The Season Two Blu-Ray release boasts over four hours of special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes, cast and crew insights, and two of the show's Short Treks - "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star". If this deleted scene is any indication, some great material from Season Two wound up on the cutting room floor!

Captain Pike Short Trek Teaser

StarTrek.com dropped a sneak peek at the upcoming Captain Pike centered Short Trek, "Ask Not" this week. As Pike narrates that the Enterprise has picked up a distress call from the U.S.S. Bowman, we see a young Starfleet officer in red working frantically at a console. Suddenly, the two wall displays behind her explode in a shower of fire, smoke, and glass. The scene fades to black and announces that the Short Trek would release on November 14th. Next, we see Pike himself declaring to someone offscreen, "I need you to let me out of here." We see an officer in gold, presumably Pike, being led by two guards through a bulkhead door in restraints and a black hood. Next, we see a dark-haired young woman declare that he's a prisoner whose orders carry no weight. An angry Pike barks "Cadet! I am giving you a direct order to release me!" The cadet refuses, and Pike warns that she will never see the inside of a starship again. Ominous music swells as the scene cuts to the Short Treks logo and the date November 14. 

There are plenty of sudden cuts and one-sided conversations in this teaser.  So it's possible, even likely, that the relationship between the captive Pike and this cadet will not play out entirely as it seems. What's certain, though, is that Anson Mount's Pike will find himself in chains and in peril aboard another Starfleet vessel. Is he the victim of a trap? Was there a mutiny or piracy aboard the U.S.S. Bowman? What are Number One, Spock, and the Enterprise doing to rescue their Captain?  If you haven't already, check out the Short Trek now on CBS All Access.

Star Trek: The Animated Series Leaving Netflix

Streaming giant Netflix announced this week that all seasons of Star Trek: The Animated Series will be removed from the service on December 1, 2019. This announcement applies only to Netflix viewers in the United States, for now. The show, which aired for 22 episodes over two seasons, has been carried by Netflix since 2016. Though there has been no announcement, it seems likely that the show will be moving to CBS All Access after it leaves Netflix. While not widely considered essential Star Trek viewing, the Animated Series carried on the tales of the U.S.S. Enterprise where TOS left off. Almost the entire original cast returned to voice their characters for the show. If you're a Trek completist who hasn't yet seen it, or if you just enjoy the wilder side of Trek explored by these animated stories, you can still catch it on Netflix for now.

Anthony Rapp's Engagement

Star Trek Discovery actor Anthony Rapp took to Twitter this week to make a big personal announcement. He tweeted “So something happened tonight. I asked Ken if he would marry me and he said yes. I am so very happy, and I'm so very thrilled to share this news” The tweet was accompanied by a smiling picture of the happy couple. Voices of actors and fans from around the Star Trek world chimed in to share their best wishes. Everyone here at Priority One Podcast would also like to send our very best wishes and congratulations to Anthony and Ken!

Captain Spock Statue

Are you a die-hard collector of Star Trek merchandise? Then you might be interested in a brand new exclusive Captain Spock statue announced for pre-order by Sideshow and Darkside Collectibles Studio. According to the announcement it is “Recreated from original CBS Studio Inc. archived materials and through a thorough examination of the original filming costumes the statue features a breathtaking likeness of actor Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock of the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE as he appears in the Paramount Pictures STAR TREK II The Wrath of Khan film directed by Nicholas Meyer in 1982.

Leonard Nimoy, posed in the official Starfleet salutation, measures over 25 inches and is presented in an authentically sculpted detailed captain’s costume. The statue captures the noble feeling and character of Spock and is accompanied with the United Federation of Planets flag.”

The statue is truly amazingly detailed, capturing one of Nimoy's greatest performances as Spock in one of the most beloved Star Trek films. Two versions are available, one with Spock's hands behind his back, and another depicting Spock in the act of the famous Vulcan salute. The statue's $1299 price tag might deter all but the most determined collectors, though.

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Anthony Cox

Into the Breach TFO Announced and The Patrol System Adds Three New Delta Patrols

As we reported last week, the next Featured TFO, Into the Breach, has begun. With it, a new Universal Console and an opportunity to make more progress int he Free Tier 6 campaign. We told you that there would be a daily choice between running the Featured TFO once or the new patrol twice. Well, now that Cryptic has officially announced the event there are three reworked Delta Patrols added to the Patrol System and that will count towards your Event Campaign progress. “Tempting Targets” in the Kinbar System finds you and the Voth escorting some Turei ships on a trade mission with The Hierarchy. Ships carrying supplies can make for some Tempting Targets in the Delta Quadrant. In “Aftermath” you’ll need to protect a Borg co-operative ship from some attacking Voth in the Nassordin system. And in “Blockade Runner” you’ll help some Krenim colonists Espace a Vaadwaur attack. These patrols are meant to offer a fast-paced and exciting way to play the game and to earn rewards. The Featured TFO and these new patrols are live in-game now. And the “Into the Breach” event will run until December 2nd.

The Strike Wing Escort Bundle

The Strike Wing Escort Bundle of starships is now available in the C-store for Federation and Klingon characters. This new bundle includes the Earhart Strike Wing Escort and the Sech Strike Wing Escort. Each ship comes with a squadron of fighters to help it eliminate threats. Class-C shuttles for the Earhart and Mo’kai fighters for the Sech. These ships also come with the Universal Console, Cascading Gravimetric Disruptions. This console can emit a pulse that will seek out up to five enemy warp core powered ships dealing damage until destabilizing. This console also boosts energy damage and control expertise. Also included is the experimental weapon, Subatomic Field Disruptor which deals Electrical Damage over time. And finally leveling up each ship’s mastery will earn you the Starship trait, Target that Explosion. When slotted activating any command or torpedo ability will cause allies to fire addition torpedos at your next torpedo target. Fleet versions of these ships are also available.

The Kobayashi Maru and Gamma Recruits is Live on Console

Console captains can now put their academy training to use in the famous no-win scenario. The Kobayashi Maru Featured TFO is live for PS4 and Xbox One with the Kobayashi Maru transponder reward. A reminder that this is the first event in the Tier 6 ship coupon campaign. Players can earn 50 progress daily by participating in one of three required featured events and once they reach a total of 2,100 progress they will earn a free Tier 6 ship coupon. And as expected, captains can also create new Jem’Hadar captains to join the Gamma Recruits.

EVENTS

PC: Dilithium Bonus Weekend

PC players should dust off those Dilithium drills for a Dilithium bonus weekend running now until Monday the 18th. Then from the 21st to the 25th gain bonus technology points in an Item Upgrade weekend. Following that will be a Bonus Marks weekend from November 28th to December 2nd. And according to the in-game calendar Q’s Winter Wonderland is scheduled to start on December 3rd and run until January 2nd

PC & Console: Hearts and Minds

And for any of those captains on both PC and console that weren’t able to run the creepy Hearts and Minds mission the two previous times it was available this year, you’re in luck. December brings us another Friday the 13th and another opportunity to get your reward exclusive to that mission. Don’t worry though. 2020 will bring us two more Friday the 13ths.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

• The Priority One-Gamma fleet is just days away from its final tier 5 upgrade on cooldown for the Colony World fleet holding.
• The Priority One-Ferengi Alliance fleet is a couple upgrades away from level 70. 
• Moving onto the KDF side, The House of Mogh completed now has it’s Tier 5 upgrade for the Industrial Fabricator online and it still needs Fleet Marks and Dilithium.
• Finally The Klingon High Council fleet has unlocked it’s first Tier 3 Upgrade on the Colony World fleet Holding. Between all of the current upgrades and projects that are now online, there are over 45,000 Fleet Marks needed for the Klingon High Council. So this is a great opportunity for members to earn Fleet Credits. If you’re interested in joining The Klingon High Council fleet, you can submit an application to join on the armada website.

Other Gaming News

Beam Into the Star Trek Discovery Full-Body VR Experience

Holodeck, run Star Trek Discovery Away Mission program. *Program complete. You may enter when ready* Well, you may enter if you’re on the West coast of North America or in Southeast Asia anyway. The company Sandbox VR has teamed with CBS to bring a near 30 minute away team mission in immersive full-body, free-roam virtual reality. Featuring the voice of Mary Wiseman as Cadet Sylvia Tilly and taking players from the bridge of the USS Discovery all the way down to a frozen alien planet. Using VR goggles, body vest, arm and feet sensors, and handheld equipment to mimic phasers and tricorders, the experience will cost you $48 a person for about 26 minutes of the Starfleet experience with up to 5 of your friends. IGN recently tried out the experience and has a lengthy video review about their experience. Sandbox VR currently has locations in Vancouver, San Fransisco, and LA. Along with several locations in Asia. Their website does advertise other locations coming soon to major US cities.

This week we’re Trekking out the massive Star Trek Discovery panel from Wondercon, Simon Pegg talks about Star Trek Beyond… and Beyond…. And CBS/Viacom merger talks heat up. In gaming news, we’re catching up on the latest of what the gaming world has to offer, and later, we’re joined by Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al “Captain Geko” Rivera to talk about X4 - Victory is Life. And of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages. messages. TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Simon Pegg talks “Star Trek: Beyond”...and Beyond
    • Simon's Cryptic Tweet
  • SURPRISE: CBS/Viacom Talks Heat Up
  • “Star Trek: Discovery” Warps to WonderCon
    • The Panel (via YouTube)
    • After-Panel Round Table (via BleedingCool)
  • ¼ Vulcan and A Trill Get Married...

• Star Trek Online News
  • Interview With Lead Designer Al "Captain Geko" Rivera
  • "The Redemption of the Steadfast"
  • (PC) New Featured Episode: The Renegade's Regret
  • (PC) The Evolution of the Infinity Lock Box
  • (PC) The Elachi Return to Threaten the Galaxy!
  • (PC) The Constable Secondary Specialization!

THIS WEEK’S COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

• What did you think of the deleted scene and the reveal that Section 31 is playing a role in Star Trek Discovery?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST! Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff. Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show! Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We’re Trekking Out what John Cho knows (or doesn’t know) about the upcoming Star Trek 4, Star Trek: Discovery is available to pre-order on Blu-ray, and the Deep Space 9 documentary “What We Left Behind” is raising more money for more HD. And Anthony and Elijah go on an away mission to Trekonderoga and report back!

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re catching up on the latest that the gaming world has to offer, and Anthony will be doing a very special review of the new game, Star Trek Fluxx.

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

THIS WEEK'S COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

1. Would YOU pay to see a stand alone Sulu, Uhura, Spock…. Or other SOLO film?
2. Will you be picking up Star Trek: Discovery on Blu-ray?

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Cho Don’t Know (About Star Trek 4)
  • Discovery Season 1 on DVD/Blu-Ray
  • “What We Left Behind” Pushes for More HD
• Star Trek Online News
  • Exclusive STO Pin Available at PAX West
  • Zen Charge Bonus
  • Ship Sale
• Other Gaming News
  • Star Trek Fluxx Review

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook: facebook.com/priorityonepodcast
• Twitter: twitter.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)
• Instagram: instagram.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)

JOIN THE PRIORITY ONE ARMADA AND GAME WITH US!

• YouTube: Priority One Network
• Twitch: twitch.tv/priorityone
• Chat with us on Discord!

HELP WANTED

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. All of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few samples to incoming@priorityonepodcast.com.

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 529 of Priority One: New Jersey settles the age old question–which is better: Star Trek or Star Wars; Star Trek wins several awards; Star Trek Online gets some quality of life improvements; and we’re joined by Star Trek: Discovery’s Noah Averbach-Katz!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Great NJ Debate!

By Elio Lleo, Local Correspondent

As we record this episode of our show, it’s Election Night in the United States for several important political positions throughout the country. One contest, however, rises above the rest here in my home, the Garden State [my condolences–Ed.].

Which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek?

A recent poll conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton attempted to give us an answer. Lead by Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the school took to Twitter and Facebook to poll New Jersians on the issue. The results–well, they’re disappointing. According to the poll, Star Trek lost by double digits: 41% for Wars vs 16% for Trek among 18-34 year olds. Though the gap did begin to close, as ages started to rise.

But that’s not where this ends…New Jersey website nj.com put together a debate featuring Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7) on Team Trek, and Rep. Andy Kim (D-3) and Ashley Koning, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton poll, on Team Wars. The debate is a little over 24 minutes long, but it's a delightfully lighthearted discussion about how both franchises can be applicable to current political topics.

Another No Win Scenario for the Kelvin Timeline?

By Elio Lleo

Can Star Trek 4 compete and succeed? That’s the question that Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com posed in an opinion piece about the franchise. You see, Dune has already been green-lit for its second installment due to release in October of 2023. But, the announcement of a sequel before production has even begun isn’t a first. Mendelson points to the Kelvin Timeline series of Trek movies as an example.

"Captain, it appears to be the timeloop anomaly known as Production Hell." Image: ViacomCBS, via Forbes.

It’s been announced time and again that we’re going to get a fourth installment, but Mendelson argues that 2023 may end up hurting the franchise like it did in 2016. You see, back in 2016 Star Trek Beyond competed against the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Fast and the Furious. Come 2023, it’s another round of competition with films like Fast & Furious 10, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Mission Impossible, and Shazam.

So, can Star Trek really take a foot-hold in the box office battles?

Robbins Takes Nickelodeon To Warp

By Cat Hough

Speaking about Star Trek films, in a recent interview Alex Kurtzman and CEO of Paramount Brian Robbins spoke about Prodigy and the future of Trek, including the films. Robbins, who continues to serve as president of Nickelodeon, believes Prodigy is a perfect fit with the Paramount+’s current Nickelodeon content and Kurtzman’s other Star Trek content. He enjoyed Prodigy so much, he said he had wished they had released it in theaters as a full-length animated film. 

Whatever you say, Beebop. Image: ViacomCBS/Yahoo.

Robbins and Kurtzman say they are already developing projects that may include Prodigy merchandising and an animated feature film, as well as other live-action features. Robbins said, “We don’t know enough yet. We’re working on several fronts and obviously Alex is the key for the franchise [on Paramount+]. J.J. has been the keeper of the franchise on the film side. We hope that as a company that we do what’s right for the franchise altogether.”

When pressed for more specific details on said live-action film, Robbins said, “There’s a lot going on and I’m just going to leave it at that.” But even with all that he and Kurtzman go on to say that they are planning out the next decade of the franchise. 

Quick News Roundup

Now, here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you. 

• According to industry trade paper Production Weekly, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has already been renewed for a second season and will begin production in February of 2022.
• Star Trek: Discovery was shown some love at the 46th annual Saturn Awards- the show won Best Science Fiction Television Series and Doug Jones won for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series.
• And speaking of the merchandising future of Trek...Bandai UK has licensed toys and collectibles, from classic Trek and Prodigy, for Europe and Mexico.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

STO Certified Agile In 2411

By Rosco McQueen

Star Trek Online is continuing to roll out Tier Six updates to starships, going back to refresh and upgrade some of the classics of the game. This week it was announced two starships are coming your way in a new Zen store bundle called the Agile Classics! The bundle contains the new Equinox and Da Vinci classes, which are tier six updates to the Nova and Sabre classes respectively. For 6000 Zen you’ll receive the two starships, as well as two Fleet Modules and two Experimental Ship Upgrades.

Image: Cryptic Studios

The Equinox Pilot Scout departs from the ship's origins, as it’s a science vessel in name only.  It sports 5 science console slots, a 4/2 weapon layout, a Commander Science/Pilot Specialist Bridge Officer seat, and can equip dual cannons. The Universal Console - Nucleogenic Ignition creates a radiation-like energy that is harmful to that ship's connected EPS conduits, damaging nearby foes and boosting hull and shields for nearby allies.  The Starship Trait–Synthetic Good Fortune boosts global Critical Hit Chance, along with increases to Starship Control Expertise. This Starship Trait also provides a passive boost to travel speed in Sector Space.

The Da Vinci is a compact starship with a 4/3 weapon layout. Classed as an escort, it’s also a Miracle Worker starship sporting a Commander Tactical/Miracle Worker Specialist Bridge Officer seat. The experimental weapon on the Da Vinci is a gatling emitter which spins up continuous fire on a targeted enemy ship until it is destroyed or can no longer be targeted.  The ship may be one to consider if you’re a fan of Beam Overload, with the new Starship Trait–Energy Overdrive. Activating Beam Overload, Fire at Will or Exceed Rated Limits will increase Beam Weapon Damage, Speed and Turn Rate for 10 seconds. At close range, a 50% Beam Weapon Damage bonus can be achieved, but even at long range, this trait still gives a 10% bonus. 

When the horseshoe crabs come for their revenge, this is what they'll roll up in. Image: Cryptic Studios.

The universal console delves deep into beta-canon, drawing inspiration from the Star Trek: Destiny novels. In the novel Lost Souls, the USS Da Vinci, a Sabre-class starship crewed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, saves the planet Troyius from a Borg invasion by making the planet disappear. The Universal Console - Troyius Protocol, causes the starship to shunt additional power to weapons systems before activating a cloak-like effect, with a quick boost of hull and shield regeneration.

Suited To The Purpose

By Cat Hough

Announced earlier today, players are getting a much appreciated quality of life upgrade! Your captains and bridge officers now have a new Environmental Suit slot in their inventory. This will be the only place EV suits can be equipped. So, if your character was wearing an EV suit as their main armor, it has been automatically unequipped and placed in your inventory. Just place the suit in the new spot to have access to it. You’ll be able to switch between your standard armor and the EV suit at any time, choosing which stats, passives, set bonuses, and other effects you use. 

For the views that (literally) take your breath away. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekBBS.

Also, your EV suit automatically equips itself when you enter a hostile environment. If you do not have an EV suit equipped, then a default one will activate. However, this default suit has no stats at all, so you will likely wish to equip a suit in the new slot. While you’re in a hazardous area, you will be unable to manually deactivate the EV suit. But now you will also be able to activate and deactivate the lights on your suit.

This week, we’re Trekking Out the start of the end for Star Trek Continues, some upcoming Star Trek comic releases, and Discovery has been officially renewed for a second season!

In Star Trek Online news, Season 14 - Emergence - has been announced for consoles, and we’re bringing you up to speed on all the weekend’s events.

In this week’s On Screen, we’re tackling Star Trek Discovery’s sixth episode, “Lethe,” including Vulcan extremists, Sarek’s relationship with Burnham, and Captain Lorca’s intimate relationship with Admiral Cornwell.

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

• Trek It Out
  • Star Trek Continues – Episode Ten – Part One
  • October is a Star Trek Month for Comics with IDW Publishing
  • The Starfleet Academy Experience returns to the New York area
  • Star Trek: Discovery renewed for a second season
  • Shazad Latif responds to rumours that VoQ could be Ash Tyler
• Star Trek Online and Gaming News
  • (Console) Season 14 announced for consoles
  • (Console) Lifetime subscription sale - 26 Oct to 23 Nov 10am PST
  • (PC) Patch Notes 26 October
• On Screen
  • Episode 6: "Lethe"

• Are you excited about Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery? What would you most like to see the show tackle after the current arc is finished?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 475 of Priority One --- We ‘Trek Out’ Alex Kurtzman’s big feelings on Short Treks - AGAIN, a few good men - and a woman - talk Star Trek litigation, another convention gets postponed, and we shouldn’t necessarily give up - or surrender. In Gaming news, Star Trek Adventures raises a ton of money, Timelines introduces “Whistles and Canaries”, and Fleet Command brings the small screen to the smaller screen!

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 Question Is:

CQ: If you’re not already playing Fleet Command will this update entice you to start playing?

AND

CQ: Now that Lower Decks has three episodes out, are you enjoying the show? Why or why not?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Alex Kurtzman Talks Short Treks - AGAIN

Alex Kurtzman and Deadline go together like the proverbial peanut butter and jelly, or is it peanut butter and chocolate, or is it chocolate and milk. Regardless, Kurtzman once again sat down with Deadline to talk turkey about Short Treks, the franchise, and his old friend. Turkey and gravy?

Kurtzman discussed the birth of Short Treks, telling Deadline they had wanted initially to drop Season 2 before we would be ready to deliver everything we needed to for Season 1, and I said, ” Okay, well how about this? If you delay the drop of Season 2, what we can do is some Short Treks. We’ll use our sets, and try this interesting experiment and see if it works, and it will buy us some time for Star Trek awareness to remain in the cultural conversation.” They said, “Sure, okay. Let’s try it,” and we started out doing five, and people really liked them.

When asked about what was the most difficult aspect of Short Treks, Kurtzman pointed to animation, but spoke highly of old friend Michael Giacchino - and how the composer's knowledge of the medium helped. what was great about working with Michael was that because he had done this already, he was very prepared for the process, and gave me a headline up front about, “Okay, you’ve got about three or four off-ramps along the way, and then we can’t change it. So, let’s make sure that we have these regular check-ins that allow us to make sure we are agreeing, and heading down the right road, so that when we get to what will become an irreversible moment, we’re feeling great about it.” And that was awesome. That was really helpful for me to understand.

I Know The Law!

Please don’t tell me what I know and I don’t know...I KNOW THE LAW!! Well, maybe I don’t, but we have a couple of law type people here, so this conversation should be interesting!

In a story that broke last week, Video Game developer Anas Abdin lost his Second Circuit Court case against CBS and Netflix. Our script isn’t going to deep-dive into this, because frankly the writer doesn’t know as much as the two experts currently present. In short, the first filing of the suit - which alleged Abdin’s in-development point-and-click space-faring adventure game featuring a gay couple and intergalactic tardigrades was infringed on by “Star Trek: Discovery”’s first season story line and characters - was dismissed by the court for the Southern District of New York. 

On August 17th, Abdin’s second go at litigation was as successful as his first, with the judge saying in part “Abdin’s space-traveling tardigrade is an unprotectable idea because it is a generalized expression of a scientific fact—namely, the known ability of a tardigrade to survive in space […] By permitting Abdin to exclusively own the idea of a space-traveling tardigrade, this Court would improperly withdraw that idea from the public domain and stifle creativity naturally flowing from the scientific fact that tardigrades can survive the vacuum of space.”

Do you want to know the law? The ancient concepts in their own language? Learn the intent of the men who wrote them, from Moses to the tribunal of Alpha III? Ask Tony and Cat!

Destination Star Trek Germany Cancelled

“Now, isn't that a thought? Here we are, antibodies of our own galaxy, attacking an invading germ. Be ironic indeed if that were our sole destiny, wouldn't it?” Well staying home, socially distancing, and wearing a mask is our way of destroying a disease, and Destination Star Trek Germany agrees.

“Europe's Official Star Trek Convention” - Destination Star Trek Germany - has been postponed from October 2020 to June 25th through June 27th of 2021. In a Statement on their website, Destination said in part Due to government restrictions it is with sadness we must postpone this October's Destination Star Trek Germany event in Dortmund. [...] We still plan to centre [OUR NEXT CONVENTION] around Voyager’s anniversary, since it’s not fair that we were not all able to celebrate it properly this year and we know they are still really looking forward to seeing you, as you are them!

In regards to tickets, the announcement said Tickets already purchased will be automatically valid for the new date. In line with the government's policy, if you cannot make the new date then you can get a voucher from us that you can use for any Destination Star Trek event, in Germany or the UK, or on any DST product, up until December 2022.

If you’re thinking “no biggie, I’ll just head to London in November”, you may want to wait before booking tickets. On August 19th, Destination Star Trek posted on their facebook page We are just reviewing and evaluating things at the moment and we will have an update on Destination Star Trek London in the next few weeks for you all. We really appreciate your patience in this turbulent time and hope that you have all managed to stay well and look after yourselves!

More Info on the Now Cancelled “Galaxy Quest Series

Finally this week, we go Star Trek adjacent. WAY BACK in Priority One Podcast episode 344 we talked about the possibility of a Galaxy Quest television series. Those hopes were dashed with the unfortunate passing of the great Alan Rickman. This week, Collider talked with would-be showrunner of the Galaxy Quest series - Dean Parisot - about his upcoming “Bill and Ted” sequel, but the conversation took a turn towards Galaxy Quest.

Parisot confirmed the series was in planning, and that Alan Rickman’s passing was the reason for the shows cancellation - but he was vague about whether it was REALLY cancelled or mostly cancelled, saying “We couldn’t go forward after that because we loved Alan, who was the sweetest, most generous person on the planet. We just couldn’t see it without him. We’re still talking about it all the time. Who knows.”

Later, Parisot discussed the general plot of the film, telling Collider “It was finding these guys, they’re even more pathetic because it’s 15 years or 20 years later. Tim Allen’s character lets it go that he really went to outer space and have been mocked ever since, they lost their TV show and they’re even more of a disaster. It was a great opening because they were asked to go to Comic Con and they think it’s because they’re going to reinvigorate the series but instead they’re going to hand it off to a younger group of actors. So Jason Nesmeth [Allen’s character] gets in a horrible fistfight on stage and it went from there.”

Rumor Report

We’d also like to take a quick second and note that - from James Cawley Facebook page - The Very Large Enterprise Model that greeted fans at the entrance of the old STAR TREK THE EXPERIENCE will be warping it’s way to STAR TREK: ORIGINAL SERIES SET TOUR for permanent display! After a round of restorations, she will be flying high inside our facility! More updates as we progress The post is only viewable by Facebook friends of Cawley, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on upcoming news and announcements. Thanks to our fearless leader Elio for the tip!

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Adventures: This Far, Still Farther

The Star Trek Adventures RPG Book Bundle came to a close on August 19, with 17,423 bundles sold and $274,434.09 raised for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Priority One Podcast congratulates Modiphius Entertainment on their successful campaign, and its contribution to social progress for all. We’re always glad to see Star Trek license holders help build the better future our favorite franchise promises.

Star Trek Timelines: “Whistles and Canaries”

The Capitoline Wolf Mega-Event for Star Trek Timelines continues this Thursday, August 26th with "Whistles and Canaries". In this Galaxy Event the Maquis, Section 31, and Dominion factions will vie for the new 5-star Captain Erika Hernandez ranked reward crewmember, with the 5-star Jhamel, new 4-star Ransom Shran, and returning 4-star Alidar Jarok as event crew. Of course the enigmatic 5-star Humanoid Figure returns as event crew as well, no doubt with their own nefarious agenda in mind. The Capitoline Wolf ends next week with the “Restoration” Hybrid Galaxy/Skirmish Event.

Star Trek Fleet Command: Oh Yeah, TV, That’s A Thing Isn’t It

Launched almost two years ago, Star Trek Fleet Command lets players continue the continuity established by the Abrams Trek films–or the “Kelvin Timeline,” if you’re feeling formal. Since then, twenty-one updates have built out a detailed world for an otherwise narrowly-defined narrative. But in the near future, players might look through the lens flare and ask “new content, who Dis?”...Discovery, that is.On August 24th, game developer Scopely announced outcomes from a recent discussion with ViacomCBS about Fleet Command’s success as a game. “The important news was that Star Trek Fleet Command will soon welcome all of Star Trek’s past, present, and future. That includes the film and TV series from the Star Trek Original Series, Next Generation, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise....Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and more to come.” Fleet Command intends to release content arcs focused on one TV series at a time, though a narrative path through the end of this year has yet to be determined. Interactions between story arc elements will depend on the choices that players make when assembling their crews.

This week on Priority One --- ViacomCBS tease more Star Trek in development and some changes to how we’ll consume them; Frakes talks about Directing Star Trek Picard; and a deep fake video emerges with Star Trek flare. In Gaming news, we go deeper down the rabbit whole and focus on a handful of Legendary Starships in Star Trek Online…. Then, we look On Screen to episode 5 of Star Trek Picard - Stardust City Rag

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: How do you feel the new Legendary ships perform, compared to their existing T6 variants? Has your favorite STO ship changed?

AND

CQ: What do YOU want Star Trek’s next two shows to be?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Bob Bakish Hints at 2 New Trek Shows in the Works

ViacomCBS has big plans for streaming. But we’ll get to that in a minute, because they ALSO have big plans for Star Trek! In a live-tweeted earnings call held on Thursday February 20th, ViacomCBS Captain - Bob Bakish - said of the IP ”Take Star Trek as an example – a globally enduring franchise that we'll make even bigger. [...] On the heels of Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access– which broke our records for total streams & subscriber sign-ups – we’re now taking the Star Trek franchise & extending it across the house. [...] Building on Discovery & Picard, we now have 2 additional series in production at CBS All Access & Nickelodeon, & 2 more series in development; plus, a series of Picard novels being rolled out at simon and schuster, & a highly anticipated new StarTrek film at Paramount Pictures”

Woah. Okay, let’s parse this. The series’ in production are likely Michelle Yeoh’s “Section 31”, Mike McMahon’s animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the Hageman Brothers’ animated Nickelodeon series, rumored to be named “Star Trek:Prodigy”. But what about the 2 series that are “in developement”? Well, rumors continue to swirl that Anson Mount will take the center seat for a Pike-led series...and evidence continues to...mount? When asked earlier this month what she has been up to, Pike’s number One - Rebecca Romijn - let slip to the Daily Front Row ”I’ve also been working on Star Trek here and there, but I can’t really talk about that.”. Then this week, gossip site Giant Freakin Robot reported that the Pike rumor was confirmed by 2 different sources - but you’ll  need to take that report with a side of salt.

So even if Pike IS one of the two series, what is the other? Starfleet Academy? Khan? Something else entirely?  And the movie - is this Trekantino or the Noah Hawley led maybe-reboot-maybe-Kelvin Star Trek IV? So. Many. Questions.

ViacomCBS “House of Brands”

ViacomCBS’ Bob Bakish announced the company’s newest streaming initiative, its three-pronged  “House of Brands”. The company will leverage its ad-supported VOD service PlutoTV, along with its “broad pay” CBS All Access and premium Showtime offerings to bolster its streaming offerings. From the previously mentioned earnings call ”We will add significant content from Nickelodeon, ComedyCentral, MTV, BET, and the Smithsonian Channel – in addition to popular films from the Paramount Pictures library. And we will do this at scale -- to the tune of approximately 30,000 episodes of TV & up to 1,000 movies. [...] This differentiated offering will provide the powerful combination of live linear via over 200 local CBS stations, plus on-demand content spanning news, sports, films, dramas, reality, kids, & more.”

So what does that mean? Well, it means that ViacomCBS has the ability, and the interest, in leveraging all of its combined properties to bolster its All Access, PlutoTV, and Showtime streaming services. Now, the question - what will it cost US. We don’t know yet, but rest assured we’ll be watching for details.

Frakes on the Scene Roddenberry WOULDN’T Have Approved Of

This week on Star Trek: Picard’s fifth episode, “Stardust City Rag”, there was torture, murder, and revenge. But Star Trek royalty - and the director of the episode - Jonathan Frakes  thinks that the late Gene Roddenberry would have had a problem with something else altogether - Interpersonal Conflict

Frakes spoke with the Hollywood Reporter about the episode, and in particular the scene in which Picard and Seven discuss how they never fully regained their humanity after assimilation. ”We never could have done [a scene like] this on our show”

Frakes clarified that he felt Picard honors “Gene’s Vision” [UGH], saying ”In this new version of Star Trek, which honors what Roddenberry laid out — in terms of the optimism and respect toward themes like racism — all of those elements are sort of strongly rooted in this show, but the notion of self-doubt, the vulnerability — especially for a [character] like Picard — the damage of past experiences, are so much more compelling to watch … It's a denser show than Next Gen, I think that's fair to say. Pushing Picard to these places, watching Patrick act that out -- and he was in the writer's room as they developed this story — it's all so rewarding to see”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

STO Legendary Ship Side-By-Side Comparisons

Captains, it’s a remarkably quiet week in gaming news. So let’s spend a little time looking at just how Star Trek Online’s new Legendary starships compare to their other T6 C-Store counterparts.  This week, we’re going to look at two of them, so let’s dive in.

The T6 Assault Cruisers

First up, let’s look at Elijah’s favorite Star Trek ship - the Sovereign-class. This was released in the Legendary bundle as the Legendary Miracle Worker Assault Cruiser. And we’re going to compare it to the Tier 6 Fleet Intel Assault Cruiser, which is the highest tier version of the Sovereign you can buy from the C-Store. The weapons layout on both of these is 4 forward and 4 aft, so no difference there. The turn rate of the Legendary Sovereign comes in at 8 to the Fleet Intel’s 7, while both carry an inertia value of 40. So the Legendary ship handles a little more tightly. It’s also a little sturdier, with a slightly greater hull and shield modifier. Both ships have identical console item layouts, but the Legendary ship offers an extra Universal console slot.

Now, we get to the maybe more interesting differences in these ships. To begin with, the Legendary Sovereign comes with a total of +30 bonus subsystems power, split evenly between Weapon and Engine power. The Fleet Intel Sovereign, instead, comes with +20 bonus subsystems power, with +10 to Weapon power, +5 to shields, and +5 to Auxiliary. 

Next, let’s look at those Bridge Officer layouts.  Both ships' primary slots are Commander level Engineering slots, but the Legendary ship’s slot is also a Miracle-Worker specialized slot. The Legendary ship further carries a Lt. Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Engineer/Pilot, Lieutenant Tactical, and Lieutenant Universal slot. The Fleet Intel Sovereign’s other Bridge Officer slots are Lieutenant Commander Universal/Intelligence, Lieutenant Commander Tactical, Lieutenant Engineering, and Ensign Tactical.  So, besides the specialization changes, the Legendary ship swaps a Lieutenant Commander slot down to Lieutenant in order to upgrade the Ensign slot to Lieutenant.

And, of course, the Legendary Miracle Worker Assault Cruiser comes with the Miracle Worker “Innovation” mechanic.

The T6 Defiants

For our next comparison, we’ll look at a favorite for all of our Captains out there who are Niners. Let’s compare the T6 Legendary Pilot Warship to the T6 Fleet Defiant Tactical Escort. This might be the biggest rework of a ship in the Legendary Bundle, because they’ve changed the entire type of the ship.  Where the Fleet Defiant is an Escort, the Legendary Defiant is a Warship. That’s most obviously reflected in the weapon layout. The Legendary Warship has a 5 forward, 3 aft layout, compared to the Fleet Defiant’s 4 forward, 3 aft layout plus 1 experimental weapon. The older Fleet Defiant, as an escort, is a bit more nimble when compared to this Legendary Warship. The Warship, though, is a “tougher little ship” with an improved hull modifier; though, you sacrifice on some shielding when compared to the Fleet Escort.

In terms of consoles, the Legendary ship has 5 Tactical slots, 4 Engineering, and 2 Science, compared to the 5 Tactical, 3 Engineering, and 3 Science slots of the Fleet Defiant. 

Both ships have Commander Tactical Bridge officer slots, with the Legendary ship’s slot specialized with Pilot skills. Both ships have a single Lieutenant Commander slot - Engineering on the Legendary ship, and Tactical/Pilot on the Fleet Defiant.  The remaining three slots on each ship are Lieutenant seats. On the Legendary ship, these are Universal/Pilot, Tactical and Science. On the Fleet Defiant, they are Universal, Engineering, and Science.

The Legendary Warship also (FINALLY) gives the Defiant the Pilot Maneuvers abilities, and several optional bits of cosmetic Nose Art.

EVENTS

PC players can enjoy a Borg Red Alert event this weekend, February 27th through March 2nd.

And if you need to start a new Captain to fly any new ships, then next weekend is a great chance. From March 5th through March 9th, STO will have a Bonus XP weekend, with double payout available for skill points and experience. 

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

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

• We are on Discord! The Armada made the official move to Discord last week. So far it’s been great, there’s been a lot of people joining the server - we’ve even combined the podcast and Armada into one server. 

• The House of Martok 3nd Tier V Colony is available - just needs provisions and dilithium. 

This week, we’re Trekking Out some new information about the Jean-Luc Picard series - and it IS the title - but we also get a look at Picards “Upfront” clip and on-set photos. Then Discovery sings Sir Patrick Stewart’s praise and a giant Enterprise sells in Canada.

In our Star Trek gaming segment, Star Trek Online lead designer, Al “Captain Gecko” Rivera, stops by to talk about the newest Discovery missions featuring Rekha Sharma and Jason Isaacs and what he took away from the CBS Global Partners Summit.   

This Weeks COMMUNITY QUESTIONS are:

• What do you think of the “Star Trek: Picard” News, including the title and uniforms?

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

This week, the Kelvin timeline actors are doing the rounds, stirring up rumors about Star Trek 4, and visiting fans. Star Trek: Discovery makeup artists Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page made one young Trek fan’s wish come true, and soon YOU could tour the sets of Discovery yourself! Maybe.

In Star Trek Online news, the summer event is upon us and we’ve got more details of the finale episode of Expansion 4 “Victory is Life”.

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

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Quinto Teases Star Trek 4
  • Zoe Saldana Loves The Fans
  • Discovery Made A Wish
  • Touring Toronto?
• Star Trek Online News
  • It’s Time to Go Home
  • 2018 Risa Lohlunat Festival
  • Vorgon Ytijara Dreadnought Cruiser Stats
  • Junior Officer Weekend on Console
  • Infinity Duty Officer Promotion
  • Lifetime Subscription Sales

THIS WEEK’S COMMUNITY QUESTION

• What are your thoughts on the final episode of Star Trek Online’s Expansion 4: “Victory is Life”?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK NEWS PODCAST!Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINKand see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCASTand say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twittervia @PRIORITYONEPODfor show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT USvia our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by:Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode of Priority One is brought to you by Eaglemoss Hero Collector and the brand new Official Star Trek Online Starship Collection.  Check out all the exclusive ship models – including the U.S.S. Gagarin and the U.S.S. Chimera – at priorityonepodcast.com/ships and use code PRIORITY10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase with FREE SHIPPING.

This week on Episode 486 of Priority One - We ‘Trek Out’ Stream Dreams, LGBTQ representation, Tuvix gets political, and Roddenberry is recognized. In Star Trek gaming, we talk about Star Trek Online’s discount of a lifetime, Legendary package of a not-so-lifetime, and how a 10 year old game stays funky-fresh - Hint: it’s Quality of Life Improvements! Then we head On Screen to watch Star Trek: Discovery’s newest episode - “Forget me Not”

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 Week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: Was Janeway justified in splitting Tuvix to save Tuvok and Neelix? Did she murder Tuvix?

AND

CQ: Has the shift in content release models affected how often you play Star Trek Online?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

ViacomCBS’ Plans For 2021...and BEYOND

This week, ViacomCBS presented their Quarter 3 earnings call to the media. Exciting,right? The call might not have sparked as intense a debate as new chairs on the Cerritos, but there was enough information shared to get us excited. It’s Earning’s-Call-Time

According to an article on “The Verge” outlining the November 6th call, ViacomCBS’ plan is to streamline its streaming platforms - with a focus on Paramount+ and Pluto TV - continue to push its original content, and license some of its many properties to the competition. We talked about this plan a bit in episode 472 of Priority One, so trek it out if you need a refresher! The long-and-short of it - ViacomCBS believes they have enough content to draw in subscribers, retain them - and can still viably license out the rest!

Star Trek was referred to several times throughout the call. Most notably, ViacomCBS President and CEO Bob Bakish had praise for the franchise, saying ”Star Trek, [...] [is] arguably the original proof of concept for CBS All Access, there are now multiple variance of it on All Access, it works well for us.”

Kurtzman, Paradise, del Barrio, and Alexander Talk the Importance of Representation

Hey you. Yeah you. Stop right there! If you haven’t seen Star Trek: Discovery season 3,episode 4 - “Forget Me Not" - skip this story! You’ll get your Trek nuggets covered in sauce.

SPOILER ALERT

Okay, for those still here, this week's episode of Star Trek: Discovery introduced us to Ian Alexander’s ‘Gray’. We’ll certainly talk more about Adira and Gray in this week’s “On Screen”, but in the context of this story it’s important to note that Gray’s appearance was Star Trek’s first unquestioned inclusion of a trans character. In honor of the historic event, Alex Kurtzman, Michelle Paradise, Ian Alexander, and Adira actor Blu del Barrio spoke with Variety  about LGBTQ representation in Star Trek.

Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise talked about the discussion to introduce a non-binary and trans character to the series, saying ”We really wanted to look around and see what sorts of new stories we could tell. ‘Star Trek’ has always represented a myriad of voices. Who are the voices that we are not hearing from? Which are the characters that we are not seeing? Right now, what’s an important voice that we want to hear through these characters?”

LGBTQ Inclusion

We discussed Blu del Barrio’s introduction last week - so we don’t want to rehash that conversation - though del Barrio did reiterate their comfort on set during the interview. Ian Alexander echoed those feelings, recounting a story in which the Discovery team had a binder ready for his use before a request was made.

Though Alexander notes that ”any trans storyline should have a trans writer” he was comfortable with the way his story unfolded in season 4.  ”I haven’t had any concerns about Gray’s character yet, because it’s just been such a collaborative process from the very beginning. I really do trust Michelle, that she’s putting in the work of being a good trans ally and checking in with me, and also making sure to always include Gray in the storyline in a way that’s not alienating or othering them. They want to have trans characters existing in this universe and to not have to struggle or to suffer. They’re just simply existing.”

AOC on Tuvix?

If you aren’t sick of Politics by now, you may have the patience of a saint. Or maybe a Vulcan? But if you are FED up with the back and forth of the two opposing sides, rip yourself away from them and talk Star Trek with us - and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

That rambling madness is a lead-in to a twitter exchange that happened this week. New York Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to Twitch. The newly re-elected Ocasio-Cortez made her debut on the streaming platform to mobilize young voters. Playing the popular “Among US”, AOC hit an amazing 435,000 viewers, putting her in the top 20 Twitch streams EVER. On November 4th, Ocasio-Cortez received a request to stream again - to which she suggested she would ,before asking for requests. 

The US Representative received a response from Star Trek community member Trekonimics saying ”We need to talk about justice for Tuvix, I understand it's a very niche issue but it matters in so far as it raises the delicate and dare I say, eminently *political* question of whether ends justify means.”

To which AOC replied ”This one is deep. Would definitely have to rewatch it but this is solid”

It Gets Better

Cool, right? But wait, there’s more! The Captain herself - Kate Mulgrew - had a few things to say about the matter.  ”Willing to hear the crew’s thoughts, as always. However, shouldn’t Tuvok and Neelix have the biggest say...oh wait, they couldn’t! I stand by my decision to restore them to their lives. Rewatch and report back, AOC - and congrats on your win!”

One of the men she saved, or the actor who played him - Tim Russ - also joined the show, saying ”Thank you Kate...I appreciate that!  and thank you for the positive message AOC.

“Live Long and Prosper””

We WILL let you know if US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez goes to Twitch to talk Star Trek! In the meantime, trek out our show notes for links to the tweets!

Young Artist Academy Honors Rod Roddenberry

Finally this week, we’d like to congratulate our friend Rod Roddenberry on his 2020 Special Merit “Contribution to Science” Award from the Young Artists Academy. The Young Artists Academy is Hollywood's longest running Youth Awards Show since 1978.

Social Activist and Star Trek legend George Takei will present the award to Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. Fellow Star Trek Alumni Sir Patrick Stewart will also be honored. He will be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by friend and colleague Jonathan Frakes.

From the Young Artist Academy Press Release, ”The 41st Young Artist Academy™ awards will be a first-ever digital show, streaming on YouTube Premieres Saturday, November 21st at 4:00pm PST, and available on VivaLiveTV. Ticket holders will have VIP access to a virtual Red Carpet Pre-show + Member/Press Lounge, and have opportunities to interact with fellow attendees durring the awards show with video, messaging, trivia, games and prizes.”.

Join us in sending sincere congratulations to both Sir Patrick Stewart and our very own Rod Roddenberry on their well-deserved accolades!!!

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Doing 200 to Life(time

By Thomas Reynolds

“Life--time!

The less-expensive Life-time!

Two hundred for a Life-time!

Yes--it’s--true!” [beepadeepaabeepaboop]

The year 2020 is mercifully drawing to a close, which inevitably means one thing: the holidays are upon us. And that, in turn, inevitably means two things: family gatherings and holiday sales. But if the former fills you with dread, PC captains, Cryptic has your back with the latter. From now through December 10th, Lifetime subscriptions for Star Trek Online are on sale for US$199.99--a significant 33% discount. A hold-over from the pre-F2P era, purchasing a Lifetime subscription unlocks over a dozen enhancements and services for the game. Some appeal to very specific parts of the player base, like the playable Talaxian and Liberated Borg character races. However automatically refining 8000 dilithium/day on all characters, and 500 free Zen/month, are benefits everyone can get behind.

Boosting Ambition

By Thomas Reynolds

Discovery season 3 is bringing the Crossfield-class crew to the strange new worlds of future year 3188. But being stuck in the less-future year of 2411 doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the action. Captains will also be able to launch their Discovery-era characters far into the future with the Legendary Discovery Captain Bundle. This bundle is available on PC November 12th (day of recording), and sometime before 2021 on console. Like this summer’s Legendary Romulan Captain Bundle, the new bundle lets you advance one Discovery-faction character to level 65. In fact, other than your hologram boffs representing Discovery show characters, the new bundle’s boost content is identical to the last… the list is long… but here some of our favorites:

• 1,000,000 Energy Credits
• 1,000,000 Expertise
• 250,000 Reputation Dilithium Vouchers
• A set of five Bridge Officer Specializations (one for each type)
• 5 Enhanced Universal Tech Upgrades
• 36 inventory slots
• 12 account bank slots
• 6 Bridge Officer Slots
• 2 starship slots
• Very Rare Mk XIV ground and space equipment for a complete captain build
• 6 Commander-rank Very Rare Discovery Photonic Bridge Officers, with all basic abilities trained and Very Rare Mk XIV ground sets

As a Legendary bundle, it also includes the new Legendary Walker Light Battlecruiser for all Federation-aligned characters on your account. We’ll get to it a moment, but great discoveries come with great costs and this one’s no exception. The Legendary Discovery Captain Bundle will hit you for an eye-watering 12,000 Zen, or 6,000 at release. It’s a major investment for one toon, ship notwithstanding–you’d better plan to get a lot of mileage out of them. Priority One Podcast asked our social media followers what they thought about the bundle, and oh did they have opinions:

Feedback

• @brianetters: “i'll think about it when they give us the lvl 65 token separately”
• @selig_joshua: “I will try to be civil, but seriously, do the Devs not realise that we are in a pandemic, that the world economy has in effect tanked and a lot of people can barely hold it together mentally or fearful for their jobs and then they charge this are they on a different planet?”
• @zeuslegion: “I'd buy the more expensive ships if they included a ‘LaForge Modular Engineering Systems’ mechanic that let me live out the dream of getting 96% engine efficiency by mixing, matching, and tweaking 9 to 12 components on a slotted grid.”
• Joye McCaster on Facebook: “Hate it, would buy the ship at a normal c-store price or even for 5$ extra because of the account skill. But the bundle is just way too overpriced. I don't see a single thing in it that gives that kind of value. If you have bought any of the prior packs that had anything related to the walker class you will already have the skins, or the t4 ship which really cheapens their value and purpose of buying them.”

Walk(er) It Back Now, Y’all

By Shane Hoover

Okay Captains, let’s reign in the hyperventilating by taking a closer look at that new Legendary Walker Light Battlecruiser. We’ll cut straight to the important question here and ask “How does this thing compare with the T6 Walker we’ve already got?” The biggest differences players will care about are the changes to the Bridge Officer Stations. Rather than the T6 Walker’s Ensign Engineering/Intel station, the Legendary Walker sports a nice Commander Engineering/Command station. So that Rank 3 Concentrate Firepower ability is tempting. It also drops a Science station to Lieutenant, while raising an Ensign Engineering station to Lieutenant. The Legendary ship’s console layout bumps up Tactical and Science slots while dropping two Engineering slots. Like all Legendary ships, the Walker comes with the Universal console from its T6 predecessor.

It also comes with the Cyclical Polarity Modulator and Antimatter Spread consoles.  These consoles do not constitute a set, though, unlike many other Legendary ships’ consoles. In fact, the Antimatter Spread console is part of a completely different three piece set. 

Thoughts

If you ask us, strictly in terms of ship stats, this isn’t really a huge improvement over the T6 Walker. If you already love the Walker you’ve got, you probably don’t need to rush for this. And if you want a solid Battlecruiser, there are cheaper high quality options on the C-Store like the Gagarin or Arbiter.

But there is one other wrinkle worth consideration here. The T6 Walker Light Exploration Cruiser is a Lobi ship, which is Character-bound. This new Legendary Walker Light Battlecruiser is an account-wide unlock for all Federation aligned characters. So if you want a Walker on two, three, or a handful of characters, then you’re definitely in the market for this. The $60 on-sale price is significantly better value than multiple Lobi ship unlocks.

Hallelujah, We Have Traits In Loadouts!

By Thomas Reynolds

Traaaits in loadouts! Traaaits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in looooaadouts!

Weeee have been WANting this! Almost seven years (traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!)

Eeeeeever since Season 8-point-5 lauuuunched them (traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!)

Noooo more forgEh-ehtiiiing to slot Hooonored Dead

Aaand you shall be! Ready! for all random queues (traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!)

Soooo that Gravity Kills doesn’t suck as bad (traits in! Load! Outs!)

The active rep trait slooooots shall be no moooooore

Instead you shall have ten: five for space traits, and five for ground!

And now they REspect Vis-u-als Onnn and Off

Yes now they REspect Vis-u-als Onnn and Off

LOAD! OUT! TRAIIIITTS (traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!)

FOR SPACE! MAP! BUIIIIIILDS! (traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!)

Shall be on P-C soon and consoles laaaaater!

Soon on PC! Consoles later!

Soon on PC! Consoles later!

Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts! Traits in loadouts!

TRAAAAAITS IIIIIIIIN LOOOAAAAADOUUUUTS

Keeping It Fresh on the Final Frontier

By Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Online’s content release model has dramatically--and intentionally--changed in the last three years. Previously each “season” introduced a mission arc that, with over a dozen episodes, felt like a season of television. In addition, it seemed we could reliably expect a new reputation to grind with every other release or so (The Sphere, Legacy of Romulus, Delta Rising, Agents of Yesterday, and so on). Now, however, a “season” release is considered one or two mission stories and one or two new TFOs, spaced apart with special events. This isn’t an indictment, mind you--we’re not J’accuse-ing any one at Cryptic--but it’s definitely changed how we feel logging in day after day, if not week after week. When grind events take up the vast majority of the calendar, how do you keep the game feeling new and interesting?

This week on Priority One: We trek out Rosario Dawson’s Star Trek ambitions a couple of Star Trek alum hope to return to their former roles, and homages galore! Star Trek Online lifts our spirits with a second helping of the Winter Event, STO honors medical professionals, and a favorite federation ship gets a facelift. Then we open hailing frequencies for 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 want Rosario Dawson to play Q? What other roles would Dawson be great in?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Rosario Dawson’s Favorite Letter -- or Character?

From Christopher Lloyd to Christopher Plummer, Chris Pine to Chris Helmsworth - boy that’s a lot of Chris’s - Star Trek has attracted some outstanding talent. Chrisitian Slater’s cameo in Star Trek VI - another Chris - and Whoopie Goldberg’s recurring role as Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation proved to Hollywood stars that a little pushing could land them in their favorite franchise; and Rosario Dawson has taken notice.

Dawson sat down with “Variety After Show”’s Audrey Cleo Yap to talk about her role as Allegra Dill on USA’s “Briarpatch”, but the 40 year-old Actor also talked about her desire to be in Star Trek. Dawson is rumored to be playing a part in Disney+’ s popular Star WARS series, “The Mandalorian”, and while she couldn’t confirm the rumor, she mentioned the 2 Star-franchises are bucket list acting jobs.

LeVar Burton Gets Coy About Geordie on Picard

LeVar Burton is amazing. Whether playing the inspirational Kunta Kinte in the “Roots” miniseries, taking us on a reading adventure via “Reading Rainbow”, or soaring through the galaxy as Geordi LaForge, there isn’t much he can’t do. Well, except maybe keep a secret.

Much like his former co-star and close friend, Jonathan Frakes, Burton may have let slip details for an upcoming appearance on Star Trek. Sitting down with ET’s Lauren Zima, Burton all but guaranteed an appearance on “Star Trek: Picard”

Anson Mount Talks Pike with Space.com

You want a Pike series. We want a Pike series. And yes, Anson Mount wants a Pike series. In an interview with Space.com, the unabashed Trekkie Anson Mount recounted being cast in the role of the iconic Captain,reiterated that actors aren’t decision makers,and didn’t waffle on his thoughts about reprising Pike.

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

Winter is Coming…. Again

The days are getting longer again. The birds and the budding trees welcome the sun’s warmth. We gaze out our Shelter-In-Place windows and… “Snowmen are coming down Blue Lozenge lane!”

In a completely unexpected move to help players distract themselves from cabin fever, Q’s Winter Wonderland is returning to Star Trek Online. From April 24th to May 4th, on all platforms, players can head back into the Winter Event for all of the usual festive activities. There’s even great news for players who didn’t complete 2019’s Winter Event.  Those players can take this opportunity to continue earning Daily Progress toward the T6 Fe’Ihri Fe’Range Dreadnought Carrier. Just for this special event, though, another prize has been offered. By turning in Ornaments collected in Event activities, players can earn a Lobi Package of 200 Lobi Crystals. This Lobi prize is claimable once per account.

Polish up your frosted boots and sharpen your Klingon Ice Fishing Gauntlet, captains. We’ll see you on the snow!

STO Honors Medical Workers

This past Saturday, April 18th, Star Trek Online invited all players to show their gratitude to medical workers around the world. Players responded by the hundreds, cramming instances of Deep Space Nine’s upper promenade. Decked out in every Star Trek medical uniform you can imagine, and a few you probably can’t, players stood shoulder to shoulder to hold a torch for those risking their health to help the suffering. To see screenshots from many players who joined the demonstration, Trek out Star Trek Online’s Twitter account via the link in our show notes.

Hector Ortiz draws the Summer Ships

Over the past few weeks, four Star Trek Online development team members tested their skills at designing a Risian Science Vessel for the 2020 Summer Event. On April 15th, concept artist Hector Ortiz finally got his hands on those drawings. On a two hour live stream, which you can now view on STO’s YouTube channel, Hector turned those rough sketches into more polished concepts. While two hours may not be enough for even Hector to create four fully complete concept art drawings, the results were amazing. If you’re looking for something interesting to watch while you’re at home this week, Trek out the video link in our show notes. And keep your eyes on STO’s social media channels. When Hector has finished his concept drawings of all four ships, the final designs will be opened up for community voting.

Ships of the Line: Akira

On Tuesday,  Ambassador Kael posted a news blog announcing both a new type of C-Store bundle and an updated ship model to launch it. A brand new model and material for the Akira-Class Heavy Escort will be the first ship offered in the new “Ships of the Line” bundle. The bundle, which will cost 6000 Zen, will contain the T6 Alita Heavy Strike Wing Escort, the T5 Armitage Heavy Strike Wing Escort, the T3 Thunderchild Heavy Escort Refit, and one Fleet Ship Module. The new look for the Akira-Class is the most detailed and screen-accurate look for the ship yet, bringing it closer to its appearance in the film Star Trek: First Contact. For a short time, from April 23rd to April 30th at 10am Pacific Time, the new Akira bundle will  be 35% off in the C-Store. For those who already own one of these ship classes, the updated model is available freely in the Ship Customization screen.

Thomas Marrone Talks with QueueTimes

Thomas Marrone sat down recently with Eric Campbell from QueueTimes, the team that produces the Star Trek Adventures RPG show “Clear Skies”.  For an hour and a half, Cryptic’s Lead Ship and UI Artist chatted about the game, his work, and the process of designing a brand new Galaxy-Class variant for “Clear Skies”. The interview is well worth a watch, so just follow the link. But towards the end of that stream, Thomas took a moment to tease STO players with the reveal of a brand new model for the beloved Klingon Bird of Prey. The new model looks far more detailed and accurate than any Bird of Prey currently in game, even including Klingon script of the ship’s name on the wing. If you’re in a hurry to see the new Bird of Prey, skip ahead in the video to the 1 hour 30 minute mark.

EVENTS

Starting on April 30th, PC players have an “Item Upgrade” weekend through May 4th. During this event, item upgrade tokens provide 100% more Technology Points.

And a special three week Bonus XP Event has just begun on all platforms. Until May 15th, earn double XP throughout the game.

Due to the issues with the event, we are extending the First Contact Day celebration until April 30th on PC and May 7th on Xbox One and Playstation 4.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

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

Tribbles and bits - cannibal tribble edition.

• Mirror Month! 

We’re trekking out makeup designers Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page’s latest Q and A session about character design in Star Trek: Discovery. There’s a Star Trek opera coming to Orlando, Florida, and a rare Ralph McQuarrie Star Trek model fails to sell at auction - but it’s still up for grabs if you have the cash.

In Star Trek Online News, the latest expansion “Victory is Life” is now live - and we’re bringing you our first impressions.

Later, Jake and Cookie are here with another look at some great Trek merchandise in The Promenade, and after that, we’ve got a very special interview with the organizers of Treklesque - a Star Trek-themed Burlesque show.

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

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Designing Discovery: With Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page
  • Stewart in the Disco?
  • Star Trek Opera in Orlando
  • Ralph McQuarrie’s Enterprise up for Auction...didn’t receive a bid

• Star Trek Online News
  • Victory is Life is now Live on PC
  • Star Trek Online's Recommended DS9 Episodes
  • Victory is Life Wallpaper
  • Defiant Wallpaper
  • Gamma Recruits
  • 15% Key Sale!
  • Delta Recruitment on Console
  • Upgrade Weekend on Console
• Other Gaming News
  • TNG Joins TOS in Popular Tabletop Miniatures Game

• The Promenade
  • Mega Construx Heroes
  • Skants!
• Interview with Greta Grenade and Jaeda from The Enterprise Strips Back: A Star Wars vs. Star Trek Burlesque
  • Get tickets

THIS WEEK’S COMMUNITY QUESTION

• What character do you think is being revived by Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page for season 2 of Discovery? And if you’re not sure, who would you LIKE to see?
• What are your first thoughts of X4 - Victory is LIfe in Star Trek Online?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINKand see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCASTand say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twittervia @PRIORITYONEPODfor show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT USvia our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by:Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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.

This episode of Priority One is brought to you by Eaglemoss Hero Collector and the brand new Official Star Trek Online Starship Collection.  Check out all the exclusive ship models – including the U.S.S. Gagarin and the U.S.S. Chimera – at priorityonepodcast.com/ships and use code PRIORITY10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase with FREE SHIPPING.

This week on Episode 488 of Priority One, we ‘Trek Out’ Noah Hawley’s thoughts on the future, Tartantino’s beef with Pegg, Dan Curry’s artistry, and MEGA PUBLISHERS. In Star Trek gaming, there’s Klingon Adventures, Star Trek Online’s Winter Wonderland, and Grudge! Later, Dr. Robert Hurt joins us for an Astrometrics Report and joins us for “On Screen” to review Discovery’s Season 3 episode, “Unification III.”

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!

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Hawley Trek Hardly Likely

If you were looking forward to “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley’s vision for Star Trek, then we have some bad news. According to the creator, “it doesn’t appear to be in the immediate future."

The 53 year-old Hawley sat down with Deadline this week to talk about the aforementioned “Fargo” series 4 finale, a possible “Aliens” series, and Star Trek. On the latter, Hawley told Deadline that ”It doesn’t appear to be in my immediate future. I think when Emma came in, she took a look at the franchise and wanted to go in a different direction with it. But you know, life is long, we were very close to production but in this business that doesn’t mean much. You got to get out of the gate to be in the race if you know what I mean.”

Nothing definitive, but it doesn’t sound great.

Is Tarantino Mad, Bro?

Moving on to another likely-dead Star Trek film, is there a feud between director Quentin Tarantino and star Simon Pegg. Back in July of 2019, Tarantino told Deadline ”I get annoyed at Simon Pegg. He doesn’t know anything about what’s going on and he keeps making all these comments as if he knows about stuff. One of the comments he said, he’s like “Well, look, it’s not going to be Pulp Fiction in space.” Yes, it is! [laughs hard]. If I do it, that’s exactly what it’ll be. It’ll be Pulp Fiction in space. That Pulp Fiction-y aspect, when I read the script, I felt, I have never read a science fiction movie that has this sh*t in it, ever.”

But was Tarantino mad, bro? According to Simon Pegg, no. In an interview with Radio Times, Pegg said ”I was just saying the opposite of what people were assuming it was going to be. Then I heard this story that Quentin was mad at me! I haven’t read his treatment [of Star Trek], but I’ve heard it’s very ‘Quentin Tarantino does Star Trek’, you know. And it’s everything you would hope from that.Actually, I saw him at a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood thing. I was like ‘You’re not mad at me, are you?’ He was like, ‘No, man, no! The press are blowing it all out of proportion!’ We had a good laugh about it.”

So...good?

The Artistry of Star Trek with Dan Curry

Releasing on the day of this recording, December 1st, a new book outlining the visual beauty of Star Trek, titled Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry will hit bookshelves. The creator of the art, Dan Curry,  sat down with Space.com to talk about his time with Star Trek.

Curry reflected on his time with the Peace Corps, and how his travels through Asia affected his designs ”when you see exteriors of Klingon cities or Klingon outposts, most of them were matte paintings by the great Syd Dutton. I'd work with him on evolving a style that was a composite of Thai, Lao, and Nepali architecture. I did some of the matte paintings myself, like the Klingon Lamasery, which is a Tibetan-looking building on a mountaintop inspired by a train trip I took through the Canadian Rockies.”

In regards to his on-set memorabilia, Curry says ”It was frowned upon. Anything I wanted, I'd ask the producers for. I do have Bat'leth #1 and Mek'leth #1 and I have a little hand prop from "Deep Space Nine," a Cardassian device like an alien iPad that has my face on it as a deceased mad scientist. I have some of the shards left over when we'd blow up a model. Sometimes I'd make space debris made out of plastic parts melted over a candle. If we came upon a destroyed spaceship, the random plastic parts would be the debris that would fly by. I did keep a lot of my storyboards and concept sketches.”

To read the article, or for a link to purchase “Star Trek: The Artistry of Dan Curry” - written by Curry and Herocollector’s own Ben Robinson - you can follow the link in our show notes.

Simon & Schuster Sold to Penguin

If you’re a fan of Star trek novels, listen up! ViacomCBS has struck a deal with publisher Penguin Randomhouse to sell its publishing arm - Simon and Schuster. The deal was struck on Wednesday, November 25th for a whopping $2B dollars, which according to the New York Times creates the first “megapublisher."

The deal will certainly shake up the publishing world, giving Penguin Randomhouse access to authors like Stephen King and Doris Kearns Goodwin, as well as the Star Trek catalogue - but what does it mean for the Star Trek novels?  Penguin Randomhouse CEO Jonathan Karp said in an interview ”This is a company that respects the creative autonomy of publishers.  We’ll all still be competing against each other. Publishing is a business driven by individual passions for books and for writers.”

Best case scenario - the books keep coming, but get more push from the megapublisher. Worst case - the books stop all together. For now, it's a waiting game. Stay tuned, we'll bring you more as we hear it!

ASTROMETRICS REPORT

by Dr. Robert Hurt and Thomas Reynolds

Via con Dios, Arecibo

On December 1st, the Arecibo Observatory's main telescope suffered catastrophic structural failure when its instrument platform fell into the 305 m dish. Footage from the main control tower and an aerial drone captured the collapse, as one of the three support cable sets failed and the falling platform pulled the rest down into the dish.

https://gizmodo.com/drone-video-shows-dramatic-moment-of-arecibo-collapse-1845799543

Severely damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017, and subsequent earthquakes in 2018 and 2019, the telescope was slated for controlled deconstruction mere weeks ago. The Observatory's visitor center, secondary radio telescope, and LIDAR array were fortunately left undamaged and are expected to continue operations.

https://gizmodo.com/gut-wrenching-photos-show-damage-at-arecibo-observatory-1845790190

Mergers & Astrometrics: The Blue Ring Nebula

For the better part of two decades, the enigmatic Blue Ring Nebula has been a picturesque astronomic puzzle. Invisible to the human eye, ultraviolet imaging from the NASA GALEX satellite showed a thick dust ring around the structure's central star (thus the name). For all purposes it looked like a dead star's remains, but with an active star in the center that shouldn't be there. So...what gives?

According to simulations by Hoadley et al., it's actually wreckage from a head-on stellar collision from thousands of years ago. Stars crashing into each other is nothing new in our galaxy, but until now we've only had examples that are hundreds of times older. Therefore the Blue Ring isn't just the most recent stellar merger for astronomers to study, it's also one of the most valuable.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

by Thomas Reynolds

Tokens of Our Aggression

The virtual role-playing tabletop endures, now more than ever, but there’ll always be something satisfying about physical space. And if Klingon warriors understand anything, it’s getting physical. No, not like...well actually, yes like...anyway, Modiphius understands as well, and has the tools of violence to accommodate. Preorders are open for the Star Trek Adventures Klingon Empire Dice Set and Gamemaster Toolkit, with expected release next February. The Dice set includes four Star Trek Adventures-branded d6s and two d20s for $19.96 US. For $46.59 US, the Toolkit combines PDF and printed and GM screens, player reference sheets, and a 20-page one-shot story. The Toolkit also offers double-sided maps of Klingon space and Alpha/Beta Quadrants, but in the original Klingonese. Good thing you have until February to learn the language.

The Winter of Our Disco-Content

Everyone knows what’s the best temperature for serving revenge. But what about holiday cheer? Is it the steamy heat of a mug of mulled bloodwine? The thrilling chill of a full-impulse snowball to the face? The searing torment of Grethor’s flames? Who knows? The omnipotent Q does, and he’s oh so ready to share with you. Hang the gummi fish and prime your snowblowers: Q’s Winter Wonderland approaches.

The 2020 Winter Event runs from December 8th to January 7th on all platforms. This year, all your favorite activities contribute to daily progress towards the new T6 Gok’tad Carrier. We only have a beauty shot of the flaming Fek’Ihri boat to go on for now.

Until ship stats are released, let’s journey through the catalog of this year’s wonderful new toys:

• The Purple Nanopulse Discovery-Era Bat’Leth finally bridges the so-called Red vs. Blue divide in Star Trek Online. Sort of.

• Be the pride of the Quadrant with rainbow winter coats and faction-appropriate winter sweaters

• Judge friends and family this year, with the one chair that outranks the Captain: the consumable Q’s Chair, specifically

• Sing holiday carols of ice and fire with Grethor-themed training manuals and kit modules

• Help is always on the way with the Rescue St. Bernard ground pet, which--oh who cares about holiday theming, IT’S A PUPPY

Tweetwatch: Feline Fine in Star Trek Online

Closing out this week’s news with some light frivolity because, dang it, we’ve earned some. On November 30th, the STO Twitter shared a picture of Grudge, Discovery season 3’s break-out star, in NCC 1031-A’s captain’s chair. Cryptic mused that they’re “Wondering what her VO rate is like,” but it’s undoubtedly worth it. Grudge’s vocal performances are second only to Morn’s, and would only enrich the game further. No word on how Captain Killy (remember her?) might react, should they cross paths in-game. But consider this, captains: Grudge is already a queen. Might she, dare we suggest, be an Emperor as well?

This episode of Priority One is sponsored by Eaglemoss Hero Collector – who invite you to BUILD THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-D! Officially Authorized by CBS Studios, this is an incredibly detailed die-cast metal replica of
the legendary Star Trek starship that you actually build yourself! Subscribe today for only $4.95 for your first two model kits with a step-by-step assembly magazine – plus Free Shipping – when you go to: priorityonepodcast.com/1701D

This week on Episode 502 of Priority One: We Trek Out what ViacomCBS has planned for First Contact Day on April 5th, how the Voyager Documentary is off to a great start, and what some cities are doing to honor Leonard Nimoy. In gaming, Star Trek Online has a bunch of ships it wants you to buy while some devs showcase their works-in-progress on Twitter. Plus, learn to play tongo!

This week's Community Questions are:

CQ: Which panel did you enjoy most during Star Trek’s First Contact Day Celebrations? Other than the event, how will you be celebrating the day?

CQ: Did you back the Voyager Documentary? What perks are you excited to get? Do you plan on attending any of the premieres?

CQ: Does the Legendary KDF Captain Bundle include enough goodies and perks for you to pick it up? What other Legendary Bundles do you hope Cryptic releases in the future?

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

TREK IT OUT

First Contact Day 2021

April 5th, 2063. Built from the remains of old nuclear missiles, Zephram Cochrane boards his faster-than-light ship named the Phoenix and ushers in a new era of space exploration for all human-kind. But of course, this is nothing more than a fictional date set in our Star Trek multiverse. That’s ok, though: there’s no reason why we still shouldn’t celebrate it, and celebrate it we shall!

StarTrek.com has announced that on Monday, April 5th, Paramount+ will host a virtual celebration honoring and commemorating the date with exclusive panels with cast and creatives, announcements, episode marathons, and the return of the #StarTrekUnitedGives initiative. Panels featuring guest appearances by several notable and fan-favorite Star Trek personalities will start at 12pm Pacific Time. So mark your calendars because this is NOT an event you’re going to want to miss. Links to the announcement and the list of events planned for the day can be found at startrek.com/firstcontact.

Funding Goes To The Journey

The Star Trek: Voyager documentary on Indiegogo has become the most funded documentary crowdfunding campaign of all time, slipstreaming past the $1.1 million mark this week. And the 455 Films documentary on March 24 announced the name of the feature, To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager. On their campaign page, the production team confirmed the Delta Quadrant documentary has reached all of its stretch goals, including remastering all Star Trek: Voyager footage in high definition and "an exclusive, never-before-seen Voyager surprise."

455 Films is the production team behind other recent Star Trek-related documentaries, including What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek Deep Space Nine, For the Love of Spock, and Chaos on the Bridge, a look at the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Boston Celebrates Nimoy

Commemorating what would have been his 90th birthday, the city of Boston has heralded March 26 as Leonard Nimoy Day. It was also announced that a 20-foot “Live Long and Prosper” statue in the shape of the Vulcan salute has been commissioned and will be placed at Boston’s Museum of Science. 

Accolades for Culpepper

And lastly: before we wrap up the general headlines from the Star Trek multiverse, we want to take a moment to congratulate Hanelle Culpepper for winning the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for her work on Star Trek: Picard!

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

by Thomas Reynolds

Warriors of Legend(ary Zen Cost)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the final frontier: Klingons! Yes, the Year of Klingon is supposedly over, but like sketchy all-you-can-eat gagh, they just keep coming back up. Now the KDF’s getting the same Legendary Captain Bundle treatment the Romulans and Discovery Feds have enjoyed, boosts and all. Most of it looks the same, down to the 12,000 Zen price tag and temporary 50% discount. However buried in the contents list is the never-before-released Stasis Field Projector.  This Universal Console can "severely debilitate up to 3 nearby targets with the press of just one button!"

The Legendary D7

Until now getting a Tier 6 D7 required either RNGesus’s blessings, or ten figures on the Exchange. Worry no more, warriors: for only 6,000-to-12,000 Zen, the KDF Captain Bundle also includes the Legendary D7 Battlecruiser! It includes the Ominous Device and Magnetometric Generator; if you’ve been waiting for this ship, you probably already have them.

What is new is the “Shall We Not Revenge” Legendary Ship Trait. When this trait is slotted, "activating any Hull Healing Bridge Officer Ability or Intelligence Bridge Officer Ability will cause you to begin reflecting incoming damage from Energy Weapons back at your attackers as Disruptor Damage. While this reflect mode is active, additional activations of this trait will increase the percentage of reflected damage, instead of extending its duration." Finally, the Legendary D7 includes the “Gorkon’s Qo’noS One” skin seen in The Undiscovered Country (pink blood splatter sold separately).

#tweetwatch: the Andromeda Stans and Inner Change

A complete, from-the-stem-bolts-on-up rework of the Andromeda-class Exploration Cruiser is coming to STO sometime soon. Our source? Thomas Marrone, Lead STO Ship/UI Artist and friend-of-the-show himself. Go to his Twitter page @thomasthecat and find in-progress screenshots and his next Twitch stream for the new model.

Speaking of reworks and twitter posts, Star Trek Online’s Environment Artist Nick Duguid is also working on some new hotness! It looks like they’re updating some Federation interiors to reflect the 2410’s and Nick shared a few “works in progress” of Federation hallways taking advantage of that amazing lighting 2.0 they introduced a few years ago. 

Tongo Where No One Has To-gone Before

The Ferengi game of tongo isn’t unique to STO, having been around ever since Bashir had a change of heart. However, the poker/craps/mahjong lovechild is a central framing device for one of the game’s best missions. Therefore it’s worth Trekking out Certifiably Ingame’s 8-minute YouTube clip, explaining how to play the bafflingly capitalistic game. Or a best guess of it, since even DS9’s hoo-mon writers didn’t know what was happening at that table. 

This week on Episode 509 of Priority One: Kate Mulgrew reveals how the Janeway Hologram is introduced in Star Trek: Prodigy; Rod Roddenberry begins celebrating his father’s centennial with a new social media campaign; and Star Trek Online introduces tech from the 32nd century in its latest Lock Box. 

This week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: Got kids? Will you be watching Star Trek: Prodigy with them? What do you hope will be their biggest takeaway from the new series?

CQ: As we reflect on Gene Roddenberry’s legacy over the next 100 days, tell us–what does Star Trek mean to you? 

CQ: Are you looking forward to Fleet Command’s new Next Gen-era content? Does the Away Teams minigame make you want to spend more time in-game?

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

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Kate Mulgrew’s Hologrammatic Appearances

By Elio Lleo

With Star Trek: Prodigy set to debut sometime this year on Paramount+ and later on Nickelodeon, Kate Mulgrew continues to sing praises of its development, the story it hopes to tell children, and the overall mythos that is the Star Trek franchise. During a recent episode of Dennis Miller+1 to spotlight her latest project on the streaming service Peacock (Mr. Mercedes) Mulgrew not only spoke about the impact Star Trek has had in popular culture but she also shared some information about how Janeway’s Hologram will appear in the new series.

"Me and my hoooolo, strolling down the avenue--oh god, it's Q? Me and my hooooolo..." Image: ViacomCBS via TrekCore

That leads us to our first community question this week: 

CQ: Got kids? Will you be watching Star Trek: Prodigy with them? What do you hope will be their biggest takeaway from the new series?

Let us know in the comment section for this episode at priorityonepodcast.com or by replying to our community question post on our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Discovery Season 4 Is Scripted, Picard Season 2 Is Shooting

By Roscoe McQueen

It’s official. The I’s have been dotted, the T’s have been crossed, and the nacelles have been detached.  The script for season four of Star Trek: Discovery is complete. The sign-off was confirmed this week by showrunner Michelle Paradise on social media, posting “A long journey to type these words. But here they are..." Paradise attached a picture of the final words of the season four finale script "End of season four."

It’s not as catchy as “Let’s fly” but I’m willing to see how it plays.

In other production news, Star Trek: Picard is filming in the Santa Clarita area this week.  SCVNews.com reported that the city’s film office has 9 productions filming in the Santa Clarita Valley beginning the week of Monday, May 17, 2021, including Star Trek: Picard.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Blu-Ray and DVD

By Shane Hoover

What hits shelves on May 18th and packs more Star Trek Easter eggs than Beckett Mariner's crate of contraband? The answer, of course, is the Star Trek: Lower Decks Season One DVD and Blu-Ray set. Bonus features include a trailer for Mariner's Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta movie, U.S.S. Cerritos crew profiles, and a catalogue of the show's many many Easter eggs.

The show's creator and executive producer Mike McMahan sat down for some promotion interviews, and he had some very interesting thoughts to share. Speaking to Screenrant.Com about his goals for Season 2, McMahan said “we have a lot of bills to pay. We've got Rutherford's memory issues, we've got Mariner and her mom working together, we've got the Pakleds being a real threat out in the world, we've got Tendi worried about her friends not remembering her from the first season and what does that mean for their friendship. And we've got Boimler on the Titan!”

Tooting his own...well, I guess it's not his own horn, is it. Image: ViacomCBS via CinemaBlend

They also asked McMahan about Mariner's backstory, and he answered “I mean, I know everything about Mariner... but there's a backstory to Mariner that we don't want to mine so quickly and just have everybody know.” He also suggested that attentive viewers are probably already piecing together the show's hints about Mariner's past.

The website CinemaBlend.com asked about a Lower Decks live-action Boimler crossover to Star Trek: Picard. McMahan offered that he “can't imagine why not. I mean he's a capable Ensign as we've seen. He has that promotion to the Titan. You see Riker and Troi in Picard. You'd have to imagine if he doesn't run into too many Crystalline Entities that Boimler would still be bouncing around the quadrant.”

...does anyone know what that ringing sound is? Image: ViacomCBS via CinemaBlend

But he doesn't see much likelihood of Picard crossing over the other way, telling ScreenRant “Look, would I love to work with Sir Patrick? Obviously! But is there any reason he would ever meet our Lower Deckers aboard the Cerritos? Not really.” Mike McMahan shared some great thoughts, and we have links to three of his interview stories in the show notes. Trek them out for all of the details!

Peace and quiet was never an option. Image: ViacomCBS via ScreenRant.

#thinkTrek - Gene Roddenberry’s Centennial

By Elio Lleo

Captains, last week we discussed an interview with Rod Roddenberry on “The Credits” where he spoke about the impact his Father had on popular culture and the vision of the future that was shared with us. Now, as the weeks move on, Roddenberry.com has launched a social media campaign celebrating Gene roddenberry’s Centennial. Using #thinkTrek and #talkTREK, Rod Roddenberry hopes to spotlight some of the philosophy that his father tried to share with us, a future that gives us a “chance for us all to be better, to act kinder, to be more inclusive, and to basically Think Trek.”

Taking part in the celebration, filmmakers, actors, notable fans and more will be recording readings of some of Gene’s most inspirational quotes. 100 quotes, 100 days, all coming to a close on Gene’s birthday: August, 19, 2021. Already, we’ve seen readings from folks like Bill Nye, Kevin Smith, Scott Bakula and more! So be sure to follow Roddenberry on all their social media channels to get your daily dose of Roddenberry wisdom!

But you can also take part in the celebration by sharing images, photos, videos, whatever you might spot in your daily lives that remind you of Star Trek. Just use #thinkTrek and tag @roddenberry when you post!

That leads us to our next community question this week: 

CQ: As we reflect on Gene Roddenberry’s legacy over the next 100 days, tell us–what does Star Trek mean to you? 

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

By Thomas Reynolds

To Gain The World And Lose The Soul

All good things must come to an end–and if you’re a Klingon, war tops your Good Things list. Unless it’s a civil war between J’Ulla’s and J’mpok’s partisans for the future of the Empire. Maybe it’s less good, then. But it cannot last forever. It never could, when politics and honor demand your enemy’s complete destruction. And as birds of prey come home to raze, as shattered Praxis looks down on a world on fire, this phrase–this edict–will be on every warrior’s breath and heart: remain Klingon.

Image: Cryptic Studios.

On May 14th, Cryptic declared STO’s next TFO, “Remain Klingon,” to be the Klingon Civil War’s final battle. Captains will lead the fight over Qo’noS in this space-based TFO as the First City roils with disruptor fire. Cryptic also notes that captains should play “A Day Long Remembered” before queuing for “Remain Klingon”. But wait, what’s “A Day Long Remembered”? Sure sounds like a mission title, but I guess you’ll just have to wait to find out. Until then, be ready. Be fearless. And as always, remain Klingon.

Star Trek Online Forecasts Icing Conditions

Announced today and launching Soon™, the Discovery: Far From Home Lock Box hits high notes from Disco’s third season. Headlining the potential prizes is the Crossfield Science Spearhead Refit [T6], better known as the U.S.S. Discovery-A. Players who don’t get one can just chill out with the Parasitic Ice Containment Vessel Universal Console. (Yes, it’s a Vessel but it’s a Console. Just work with us here.) Other drops include the Beast Mast–sorry, Bond With Animals Ground Trait, Personal Transporter kit module, and a randomly transporting Saurian. There’s a lot of fascinating new items in the box; trek out the full list.

The Trial Never Ends, The Lens Flare Never Stops

September 1987: the Star Trek multiverse returns to TV anew, when the Enterprise-D has its encounter at Farpoint. May 2021: Fleet Command returns to the Prime Timeline, as the Enterprise-D plows into some random Kelvin Timeline planet’s surface. It’s a rough introduction this time, no better for the lack of crew–only the amnesiac android Data is on board. Why is the Federation flagship of 2364 tilling soil more than a hundred years before it was built? Where did its 1,011 other crewmembers go? And can you put it together–ship, crew, and sinister plot behind it all–before those responsible come to finish the job?

Welcome to Star Trek Fleet Command Patch 30.

Image: Scopely.

Scopely resumes its continuing mission bringing Prime Timeline content to its Kelvin-only game with TNG storylines, battle passes, and collectibles. Familiar faces from the series are now potential crew picks, particularly a Rare-tier Beverly Crusher and Epic-tier Data and Geordi. But the most significant addition is the new Away Teams game mode. Unlocking your station’s Shuttle Bay building opens up lists of short-term assignments to complete for resource rewards. Players with STO or Timelines experience will recognize a way to put idle crewmembers to work based on relative strengths. Of course, if you get Q as a crewmember you can just clear all the tasks off at once. Or your entire roster will turn to salamanders. Who knows?

That leads us to our final community question this week:

CQ: Are you looking forward to Fleet Command’s new Next Gen-era content? Does the Away Teams minigame make you want to spend more time in-game?

This week, we’re Trekking Out the creative process of “Star Trek: Discovery”’s behind-the-scenes stars. Then, we hear from plain, simple Andrew Robinson, and William Shatner has some thoughts about returning to the Captain’s chair

In our Star Trek Online and gaming news, there’s some major changes coming to special events in the game, and Star Trek Timelines is launching a new mega event.

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

This Weeks COMMUNITY QUESTIONS are:

• Do you think Star Trek: Deep Space Nine went further than other Star Trek series in dealing with “Hot Button” issues? 
• What do you think about the changes to special events and future Featured TFO?

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

This episode of Priority One is brought to you by Eaglemoss Hero Collector and the brand new Official Star Trek Online Starship Collection.  Check out all the exclusive ship models – including the U.S.S. Gagarin and the U.S.S. Chimera – at priorityonepodcast.com/ships and use code PRIORITY10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase with FREE SHIPPING.

This week on Episode 485 of Priority One - We ‘Trek Out’ Shaved heads on the set of Discovery Season 4, Blu del Barrio’s Star Trek debut, David Ajala’s mischievous costumers, and  Doug Jones catches up with Collider. In Star Trek gaming, Star Trek Online joins the Vendor’s haul, the Prometheus gets a fresh coat of paint, Scopely gets paid, and we discuss the similarities of Klingon culture and cold soup! Then we head On Screen to watch Star Trek: Discovery’s newest episode - “People of Earth”

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 Week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: Are you shipping Burnham and Book? What’s their ship name?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Star Trek Discovery Production Has Begun!

Take a trip through time with us, to an era vastly different than today. The year - 1990. The fall of the Berlin wall, the re-unification of East and West Germany, Poland's 1st direct presidential election. The western world felt like it was ending decades of Cold War hostility. Today - well today feels different. But at least we don’t have to wait a grueling three months to find out if Star Trek was going to return!

In those dark-trek-times, no one knew whether Patrick Stewart would reprise the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Today we have word that Discovery is shooting it’s fourth season! And we’re only three episodes into its third! We reported in episode 483 that production for season 4 would start on September 2nd, but reports were confirmed via Twitter on Monday. Star Trek: Discovery Showrunner Michelle Paradise tweeted ”Day One of season 4! So proud of our room - breaking and writing from corners, kitchens, garages, & home offices. And our production team - prepping a new season is a lot, esp. in a pandemic. They've done INCREDIBLE work to get us here and keep everyone safe. #StarTrekDiscovery”

Out of an abundance of caution, we’re going to hit the *SPOILER ALERT* klaxon for this next bit. Okay. Shortly after Paradise’s tweet, Saru’s Doug Jones tweeted a video shaving his head. Later, Jones shared a before and after photo. Soooo - that means, unlike in 1990, we’re SURE to be getting our current Captain back on-set!

Blu Del Barrio Talks About Star Trek's Adira

In the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery - “People of Earth” - we were introduced to the newest member of the Discovery crew - Adira. This week, Adira actor Blu del Barrio sat down with several news outlets to talk about her experience as Star Trek’s first non-binary star.

Throughout del Barrio’s interviews with SyFy, StarTrek.com, and Entertainment Tonight, it was clear that del Barrio understood the importance of their representation - both in regards to Star Trek and more broadly to television audiences. When asked by Riley Silverman of SyFy.com why Adira was referred to as she/her instead of they/them in “People of Earth”, del Barrio responded ”Yeah, so that will definitely be addressed. And Adira is non-binary. Even when people are using she/they pronouns, for Adira, because they have not shared their identity with the Discovery crew. Yes. And this was basically the case because I still wasn't really out to my family and I didn't want to be out on screen as a character who was out until I was.”

Breaking Star Trek's Trill Stereotypes

Later in the interview, Silverman mentioned the importance of the Trill in the Trans and non-binary communities, despite cis actors playing those roles; and how Discovery is seemingly subverting the implication that the Trill are only Trans or Non-binary because of the symbiote. Del Barrio responded, saying in part ”There is definitely a lot of the queer community that attached itself to the Trill species. But not because the Trill were necessarily like “oh, you know because they are a host of multiple consciousnesses, they must be trans.” [...] Adira is non-binary, has always been non-binary before they were a host. It wasn't that having the symbiont brought out something else in them. But I do like how they've brought in the Trill species into Adira’s storyline, which kind of validates, maybe, a lot of what queer Star Trek fans have seen in the past and their identifying with the Trill in some ways.”

We’ve only quoted from one of the three articles mentioned earlier in the story, but each is well worth a really - and really gives context to what we’ve talked about here.

David Ajala With Entertainment Tonight

Another of Star Trek: Discovery’s new additions - Booker’s David Ajala - also sat down with Entertainment Tonight to talk all things Star Trek. During the conversation with ET’s Philiana Ng‍, Ajala praised his character - Book - working with series star Sonequa Martin-Green, and the two cats that play his queen - Grudge.

When asked by Entertainment Tonight about a possible romantic relationship between Book and Burnham, Ajala was a bit uncomfortable. ”I don't know what you are talking about. It's absolutely platonic. Absolutely, absolutely platonic. No idea what you are talking about. Sorry, nope. (Laughs.)”. Ajala expounded later, clarifying ”Those two characters definitely have an undeniable connection, which is special, and [...] the foundation of that connection is literally the two of them on many occasions have trust the other person with their life [...] But in terms of a romantic relationship, I don't know. We're going to phase out because it feels very platonic to me, but stranger things have happened.”

Ajala also spoke about his experience wearing the starfleet uniform, saying ”Yeah. That was horrible, only because it was so tight. [...]when I did my costume fitting it was okay. I thought, "This looks pretty cool. I like it." And on the day of filming, I am convinced the costume department took in a half-inch or a lot of the seams on my costume. So when I'm wearing that costume in the scene and I'm complaining, it was freaking tight. I'm convinced that's what they did, absolutely convinced.”

Doug Jones Sits Down with Collider

An old-time Discovery cast member ALSO hit the media circuit. This time, the incomparable Doug Jones sat down with Collider Connected to talk about his career, his future, and Star Trek!

Jones discussed what’s ahead for the Discovery crew, and how the 900 plus year jump into the future will affect the series going forward. Jones later discussed the Federation, and how finding them could - but likely won’t - affect who’s in Discovery’s Captain’s chair. 

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Online Takes A Dive for Science

By Thomas Reynolds

During Star Trek’s more-than-50-year history, its relationship with real-world science has been...contentious, at times. I mean, take your pick: transwarp salamanders, weekly mystery-flavor particles, and the JJ-prise plummeting a quarter of a million miles to Earth in three minutes, just to name a few. Clearly Trekkies don’t find it bothersome--if anything, it’s part of the franchise’s charm (seriously though, three minutes???). That said, we’ll always appreciate verisimilitude whether we see it on screen or feel it in-game. Even if we need Dr. Hurt to point it out for us plebs.

On November 7th, Star Trek Online is hosting a panel for the Vendor’s Haul Virtual Convention with some serious scientific star power. Franchise science advisor Erin Macdonald, “Bad Astronomer” Phil Plait, and Senior Content Designer Jesse Heinig will put the “Gravity Kills” TFO under the scope for both science and entertainment. How do you pull a story out of something so dense that light can’t escape it? Is spaghettification possible with the game engine? Join the panel at 10 AM PT to find out.

Prometheus Bundled

By Thomas Reynolds

If escort carriers or science vessels aren’t your thing, then the Ships of the Line series has likely left you feeling left out. But we have good news, as long as you’re a fan of tactical escorts! The Prometheus is getting the Bundle treatment, including a remaster of the Prometheus ship model and material. The Bundle combines the T5 and T6 variants and tosses in a fleet module for 5,000 ZEN, and will be on sale for 35% off (so 3250 ZEN) until November 12th.

Revenge: Back for Seconds

By Thomas Reynolds

Revenge is like gazpacho. No, it’s not because revenge is traditionally prepared with a mortar and pestle. Nor is it because modern variations of revenge might include seafood or watermelon. No, revenge is like gazpacho because it’s zesty. It’s refreshing. Most importantly, it is best served cold….and captains, I do hope you brought your appetites.

The “Best Served Cold” TFO returns to all platforms on November 12th for the latest three-week special event. As usual, foiling Aakar’s prison break 14 times during the event will earn the Grand Prize, marks, and dilithium. Also, a Featured Episode Weekly Reward Box will be given for the first time the TFO is completed each week. However, characters on different platforms will get different Grand Prizes. Console players who defend the Empire will receive Molor’s Flaming Sword, which is obviously what it says: a Gre’thor-branded flaming sword. Less obviously, it also features a chain-pull attack, helping you bring enemies close and share the love. Or pain. Or both.

Meanwhile, victorious PC players will receive the cuddly, blood-curdling Nanopulse Targ Combat Pet first seen in the “House Shattered” story mission. However, it’s not the only spicy porcine powerhouse making an appearance. The magma Targ of Gre’thor charges into the Zen Store on November 12th, with a temporary 20% discount off its normal 500 Zen price. Fireproof oven mitts not included.

Interestingly, equipping both combat pets at the same time yields the Targ Handler Bonus proc. Activating one pet will automatically summon a shorter-lived version of the other pet at the same time. Now cry havoc, and let slip the targs of war.

Scopely Get Paid 2 Win

By Shane Hoover

Star Trek: Fleet Command publisher, Scopely, has been doing business that even the Ferengi Commerce Authority would envy. According to a recent VentureBeat report, the mobile game publisher behind such titles as Marvel Strike Force, Scrabble Go and Yahtzee with Buddies recently secured a fifth round of venture capital funding worth $340 million. Commenting on the news, CEO Javier Ferreira said "We had a really successful year, and we will close the year with more than $900 million in revenue. "

I think I just heard Quark choke on his root beer. The funding deal values Scopely at a remarkable $3.3 billion, and positions the publisher to continue its strategy of liberal application of Rules of Acquisition number 95 and number 3. Meanwhile, according to Ferreira, Star Trek: Fleet Command has just wrapped its eighth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. With the September expansion of the game to include all of the Star Trek film and TV multiverse, it’s safe to assume Fleet Command will endure significantly longer than Quark’s stint as Grand Nagus.

Discussing Star Trek Online Experimental Ship Upgrades

By Shane Hoover

The Priority One Podcast team have had time to use our first few Star Trek Online Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens, and we’d like to discuss our first impressions for our listeners. If you’ve been trapped in a transporter buffer for an extended time, let us remind you how the Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens work. Purchased from the Zen Store for 1000 Zen each, or 3 for 2000 Zen, the tokens can be applied to any T5-U or Tier 6 starship. Upon application, the upgrade unlocks an additional Device slot, Universal Console slot, and Starship Trait slot on that specific Ship Class across your entire account. So, what’s the verdict on how these upgrades affect your gameplay?

In our official (it’s not official) and extremely scientific (it wasn’t scientific) study, here’s what Priority One team members thought. The most basic impact we saw was the value of another Tactical Console, like a Fleet Vulnerability Locator. On our Tactical builds, this was a very noticeable jump in combat performance. With a bit more variation, the same is true for Science builds. With an additional Exotic Particle Focuser console, for example, your Exotic damage build can crank out even more Space Magic hurt. You might also find yourself able to stack 3 and 4 piece set bonuses that weren’t in your build before T6-X. 

Starship Trait Slot

The additional Starship Trait slot is also pretty powerful. The diversity of available Starship Traits means that how you use this slot, and how it affects your performance, will vary pretty widely. You might find that you can now add something like Honored Dead to your build to increase survivability without giving up any of your previous DPS. Or you might prefer to drive your damage output even higher with something like Emergency Weapon Cycle or Target Rich Environment. Remember, the only other way to add a Starship Trait slot to your build will cost you 250,000 Fleet Credits and 100,000 Dilithium.

T5-U!

The other big area of impact for these X Upgrades is the opportunity to bring your favorite T5-U ship’s performance up to levels that let you keep flying it even though it’s not Top-of-the-Line. Quite a few captains we’ve talked to have done just this. If your favorite ship is a T5 Tempest Patrol Escort or T5 Dyson Destroyer, these upgrades might just breathe new life into your enjoyment of it. Just remember, if you upgrade your T5-U ship to T5-UX, the upgrades won’t carry over when a Tier 6 refit of the ship comes down the line. 

To get to the bottom line, these Experimental Upgrade Tokens seem to be worth the cost, whether you spend Zen or EC to get them. One of the best parts of Star Trek Online is taking your FAVORITE Trek ship out into the Universe. And improving the performance of your favorite ship just makes it more fun again.

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO COMPLETE OUR LISTENER SURVEY

This week, we’re Trekking Out Alex Kurtzman’s vision for Star Trek: Discovery’s second season, how Discovery’s cinematic nature could affect Star Trek on the Silver Screen, and CBS has plans for what’s after “After Trek”.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, the Ninth Anniversary of Star Trek Online has arrived and we’ll give you all the details. And Star Trek Timelines is also celebrating an anniversary with new Borg content.

In our On Screen segment, we’re discussing the Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Debut: “Brother”, and as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages!

THIS WEEK’S COMMUNITY QUESTION

• Does Star Trek still have a place on the Silver Screen, or have advances in television production made Star Trek movies a thing of the past?

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Kurtzman and Martin-Greene Discuss Season 2
  • Star Trek: Discovery’s Cinematic Take, and How That Affects Star Trek Films
  • No More “After Trek”, Replaced with Facebook LIVE Videos
• Star Trek Online News
  • Star Trek Online’s Ninth Anniversary
  • The T’Pau T6 Vulcan Scout Ship
  • Adopt a Tardigrade from the Lobi Store
  • Patch Notables
  • Borg Red Alert Weekend
  • 15% Key Sale
  • Double XP Weekend on Console
  • Phoenix Prize Packs Return
  • Star Trek Timelines 3rd Anniversary
  • Deep Space Nine Fluxx

  FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook: facebook.com/priorityonepodcast
• Twitter: twitter.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)
• Instagram: instagram.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)

JOIN THE PRIORITY ONE ARMADA AND GAME WITH US!

• YouTube: Priority One Network
• Twitch: twitch.tv/priorityone
• Chat with us on Discord!

HELP WANTED Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. All of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few samples to incoming@priorityonepodcast.com. Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 463 of Priority One --- We ‘Trek Out’ Akiva Goldsman’s Batman and Robin apology and what he has to say about Discovery, Bryan Fuller gets candid, and the cast of Star Trek Voyager reunite for a good cause! In Star Trek Gaming, Star Trek Online’s No-win Scenario re-emerges, and says “To Hell With Honor,” and lastly we welcome Fazri Zubair of Lucid Sight’s Crypto Space Commander!

• CQ: Would a season long “Year of Hell” be something you’d want to see as dedicated Star Trek Series?

Akiva Goldsman Chats with Collider

Last week, we told you about a Collider interview with Star Trek producer, director, and writer Akiva Goldsman. On Friday May 29th, the video of that interview was posted to Collider’s youtube channel, and it contained a slew of new information. Goldman apologized for “Batman and Robin” - it was heart-felt, but we’re not sure it was enough...BUT...he also talked a bit more about Star Trek. Strap in, because this week we’ve got AUDIO!

Goldsman told Collider he was not involved with Discovery’s third season, but did have some information on what’s to come, saying

“So Alex [Kurtzman] has really been deeply involved in the building out of what season three looks like and what that post-Federation future is. I have seen some of it because, you know, we all work together in the same - or we did - place with lots of Star Trek pictures on the wall and editing bays and things, you know. It seems awesome to me. It’s not a final frontier but it is a new one.”

- Akiva Goldsman

Goldsman also revealed an interesting tidbit about Discovery’s jump to the distant future:

“We all helped build that idea, all the way back to season one. Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, the original showrunners from season one, that idea dates all the way back to that. I think it is a spectacular idea, which is to go post the timeline we know.”

- Akiva Goldsman

Bryan Fuller Talks “Voyager”

Bryan Fuller is to Voyager what Jonathan Frakes is to Next Gen. Every time the man speaks, he leaves juicy audio clips in his wake. This week, the former-Voyager staff writer sat down with the la “Inglorious Treksperts” podcast to celebrate Voyagers Silver Anniversary, and sprinkled trek nuggets all up in our sauce.

Fuller discussed the push-and-pull between Voyager’s creative team and then-Trek-Head-Rick-Berman, saying:

”I think what was interesting in the evolution of the show, which you could sense the creative struggle. And I witnessed the creative struggle when I was working there. And there was an appetite for these bigger, bolder science fiction stories. And there was a lot of resistance from Rick Berman in embracing them because he was chasing The Next Generation and was not allowing Voyager to be the show that it could be.”

- Bryan Fuller

But Fuller wasn’t done. He went on to describe the writer’s room’s plan to make one of Star Trek’s best two-parters - “Year of Hell” - a season long arc, and Berman’s reaction.

"The “Year of Hell” and the behind-the-scenes drama around trying to craft not only that episode, but that season, was fascinating because we wanted “Year of Hell” to last the entire season. We wanted to see Voyager get its [EXPLETIVE] kicked every episode and through that season was going to be marbled the story of Annorax and the time ship that was changing things. So, we would go back to it every once in a while to remind the audience that’s  the larger story. But because Deep Space Nine had made Rick Berman allergic to serialized storytelling, violently so [we did not]”

- Bryan Fuller

When asked why Fuller thought Deep Space Nine was able to get away with things Voyager wasn’t, Fuller pulled no punches.

"Ira [Steven Behr] didn’t give a [EXPLETIVE] what Rick Berman said, and Brannon [Braga] did. Ira was like, “I don’t care, you’re wrong. This is what we’re doing and fire me if you want to.’ He was always like ‘Fire me. If you don’t like what I’m doing, fire me, but this is what we’re doing. So if you’re not behind it, then I suggest you find someone else to do my job’”

- Bryan Fuller

“Stars in the House” Voyager Reunion

After 25 years, a reunion is in order! And that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday, May 26th. The cast of Star Trek: Voyager met via Zoom, along with Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley - hosts of “Stars in the House” - to talk Trek - but more importantly - to raise money for “The Actor’s Fund” charity.

The one hour meeting - which was organized by the “Stars in the House” hosts and Voyager’s Robert Picardo - was a fun way to look at Voyager’s behind-the-scenes dynamic.

Robert Duncan McNeil - portrayer of helmsman Tom Paris and He-Man pal Kevin Corrigan - talked about Kate Mulgrew’s first day on set. Mulgrew put on the jumpsuit after the departure of Geneviève Bujold: Voyager’s first Captain Janeway.

"There was a lot of uncertainty, I guess, when Geneviève left. There was a lot of uncertainty. Was the show going to get made? You know, were they going to make it a male captain? Maybe they couldn’t find a female who they felt could do this. And the moment you said the first line on the bridge, personally I felt like ‘this shows going to work. We’re going to make it. Now it’s is all together.’”

- Rober Duncan McNiel

Mulgrew, who has expressed interest in returning to the role of Janeway, was eager to ask former co-star and current Picard actor Jeri Ryan about what’s going on with Star Trek’s newest series. "What’s the plan, now, going  forward. Nobody knows anything” to which Ryan replied:

"We were originally supposed to start shooting in the middle of June, but they would have had to started building the sets in the middle of May, which we can’t do So we’re just waiting.They’re hoping that  we can start shooting in the beginning of fall. I don’t know.”

- Jeri Ryan

BLACK LIVES MATTER

This week, Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast did not record its 463rd episode live.

It has been our weekly goal to entertain and inform our listeners of the goings-on in the Star Trek Multiverse. We like to consider ourselves an enjoyable distraction to your everyday lives; but, sometimes, it’s irresponsible to ignore what is happening in the world.

This week in the United States, protests and rioting erupted when George Floyd was murdered by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. Floyd’s death, centuries of oppression, systemic racism, police violence, and discrimination of Black and Brown Americans have sparked protests at home and abroad.

On June 2nd, Star Trek.com showed its support for the Black Lives Matter movement. A three minute clip of Deep Space Nine’s “Far beyond the Stars” starts with a simple message:

“Black Lives Matter. Black Culture Matters. Black Communities Matter.
We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, creators, partners and audience and condemn all acts of racism, discrimination, and senseless acts of violence.”

In the article accompanying the video, there is a link to Black Lives Matter's call for a sustainable transition in our communities.
We have included a link to the Black Lives Matter petition below.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Additionally, we're teaming up with trekmovie.com as #TrekkiesUnite against those same injustices and inequalities.

Tonight, we cannot pretend to overlook what is happening in the United States.

Tonight, we stand with our brothers and sisters fighting against injustice.
Tonight, we reflect on #BlackOutTuesday

Tonight – and every night – we must remain attentive, we must continually educate ourselves with facts, and we must unite in solidarity to protect this nation – and others - against injustice, tyranny, and oppression.

Live Long & Prosper through Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

No-Win Scenario

by Advisorypanda

The Event Campaign II resumes on June 4th for PC, and on June 30th for console, but at the greatest cost. Apologies to Captain Kirk, but the No-Win Scenario is real and it is here.

Playing either the "Arena of Sompek" or "Kobayashi Maru" TFOs every day during the 21-day event will grant you honor and glory, along with 50 Event Campaign Progress and Daily Progress towards the No-Win Scenario Event grand prize. The grand prize includes 3 Featured TFO boxes, 25,000 dilithium ore, and a new account-unlocked ship with Admiralty card: the scaling T4 Kobayashi Maru Freighter for Fed and Fed-aligned characters, and the Tong’Duj Freighter for KDF and KDF-aligned characters.

While Freighters are as well-suited for combat as a Ferengi with an ear infection [Ferengi scream here], they offer on-board access to amenities like the Exchange, Bank, expanded Transwarp, and special Trade duty officer missions. Even better, you can go to and from your Freighte’s interior from any other ship rather than fully switching between the two. Link to the stats in the show notes.

Note that, while it’s possible to do everything right and still lose in life, that’s not quite true for the event. The event TFOs now have designated end points (Maru at level 6, Sompek at level 7) and cannot be failed before reaching them. Which makes them "Always-Win Scenarios," if we’re being honest.

Also, the TFOs’ untimed/infinite versions will also be disabled but the event TFOs will not have cooldowns. So will you find an honorable end as you fly into the face of certain doom? How many petaQs will you take with you, as the dread tyrant’s lighting turns your teammates into scorch marks? You’ll have plenty of chances to find out.

Pray that today is a good day to die, for you will not see another.

To Hell With Honor

by Advisorypanda

While PC captains are facing their own mortality, console captains will confront J’Ula and attempt to end her spurious sporulation spree. "To Hell with Honor" pits players against the temporally-displaced Klingon matriarch and her Elachi pawns, as they race to destroy House Mokai’s ship bases and mycelial rifts on the Beta Lankai moon. The TFO premiered with the 10th Anniversary Event on PC, and is finally making its way to XBox and PS4 from June 2nd through June 30th as its own To Hell with Honor event.

This will also be part of the Event Campaign II for consoles, with daily play netting captains 50 Event Campaign Progress and one Daily Progress. The R2-D...sorry, DOT-7 ground drone pet and kit module will unlock for all characters on an account after acquiring 14 Daily Event Progress, along with the usual 3 Featured TFO Boxes and 25,000 dilithium ore.

I hope you love Klingon Wagner and the smell of mycelium in the morning: smells like victory.

Khitomer Alliance Kit Arrives!

by Shane Hoover

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11450753-join-the-khitomer-alliance%21

The galaxy united to fight off the Iconians. Then it united again to defend itself against the Hur’q onslaught. And only recently that alliance came together to design the Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser. Now your Star Trek Online captain can proudly wear the uniform and the ship livery of the Khitomer Alliance. As announced via news blog this week, STO are freely giving away the new cross-faction Khitomer Alliance uniform and the new Khitomer Alliance vanity shield until June 16th. To see how you think the Alliance factions may have influenced the new uniform, Trek out the blog link in the show notes. Grab your free giveaway in the Promotions tab on PC now, and soon (TM) on Consoles.

Top Tip

by AdvisoryPanda

In an effort to lend a hand to new players --- or even surprise the most veteran captains in Star Trek Online -- here’s our top tip!

Control ship builds will frequently center around the Gravity Well ability, drawing enemy ships together to create a cascade of warp core breaches. However, some ship weapons do not play well with this tactic and should be avoided. The Dark Matter Quantum Torpedo and Omega Heavy Plasma Torpedo launchers will cause ships to disintegrate upon defeat, rather than detonate. Avoid these torpedos or your deliciously destructive chain reaction will be over before it begins.

Lucid Sight's Crypto Space Commander

https://store.steampowered.com/app/895040/CSC__Space_MMO/

https://www.csc-game.com/

EXCLUSIVE TO PRIORITY ONE LISTNERS!

• PRIORITY-ONE-20

Save 20%-Off of currency purchases (GFC) in game!

Good until June 13th, 2020

This week, we’re Trekking Out what could be Nvidia’s answer to the Holodeck, what scientists are doing to try and design a real-life deflector shield, and where you can see some great cast reunion pics from Deep Space Nine.

In Star Trek Online news, there’s new content available on Xbox One and Playstation 4, and we’re getting excited over the new Miracle Worker ship mega-bundle.

Later, our science adviser Dr Robert Hurt is here talking about the EPIC new discovery of gravitational waves, and finally we’ll be jumping on THAT F-bomb and more, in our review of the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery.

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

• Trek It Out
  • Nvidia Holodeck
  • William Shatner appearing on the Star Trek Tour 2018
  • Real-life deflector shields
  • DS9 photoshoot for 'Variety'
• Star Trek Online and Gaming News
  • Beyond the Nexus now available on console
  • Champion of Sompek event for console
  • Free Discovery uniforms and Type 7 shuttle on console
  • Miracle Worker Mega Bundle
  • Winters's Top Tip
    • Transferring energy credits between characters
• Astrometrics Report
  • LIGO video from Caltech
  • LIGO press release
  • NASA press release
  • LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave news panel (part 1, part 2)
• On Screen
  • "Choose Your Pain"

• When was the last time you bought a new ship in Star Trek Online? And will the new Miracle Worker ships convince you to buy again?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The 2019 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention has come to close but, Priority One Podcast was on site to help keep you up to speed with all the news from the Star Trek Multiverse.

In this first episode, we present the Star Trek Online: Awakening panel featuring special guest Anthony Rapp. Later, Elio conducts a few post-panel interviews with Cryptic Studios about the upcoming events coming to the MMORPG!

This week on Episode 474 of Priority One --- We ‘Trek Out’ Alex Kurtzman’s big feelings on Short Treks, where “Strange New Worlds” is heading, how you can get some free Trek, and WHO wants to be part of the Star Trek Franchise. In Gaming news, Timelines launches “Plateau of Tomorrow” and Star Trek Adventures proposes that it’s Good to be Bad!

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 Question Is:

CQ: During the COVID Pandemic, how are you listening to Priority One Podcast?

AND

CQ: What was your favorite Season 2 Short Trek? Which was your least favorite?

AND

CQ: If you could cast David Tennant in any role in Star Trek, which role would it be?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Alex Kurtzman Talks Short Treks

As the idiom goes - “Good things come in small packages”. Jewelry boxes - small. Puppies - small. Priority One Producer - small. Emmy nominated Star Trek program - small - or more precisely, Short. 

This week, Star Trek Admiral Alex Kurtzman sat down with Deadline Senior Editor and Chief TV Critic Dominic Patten to talk about the Emmy nominated Short Treks “The Girl Who Made the Stars” and “Q&A”. In general, what Kurtzman likes about Short Treks is the series ability to explore things that would otherwise go unseen in the Star Trek multiverse - sometimes using different mediums. With regards to the animated “The Girl Who Made The Stars”, Kurtzman wanted to take the opportunity to emulate another animation house - Pixar.

Talking about “Q&A”, Kurtzman pointed out his love of “Waiting for Godot” and Hitchcock’s “Rope” and “Lifeboat”, citing the limited sets and how that challenge has the opportunity to ramp up the drama. He then told an interesting story about Picard Season 1 showrunner Michael Chabon, the writer of “Q&A”

Finally, Kurtzman talked about the challenges of making Short Treks, as well as what’s to come in future seasons. We’ll of course have the full video in our show notes, so be sure to trek it out!

Then Kurtzman Talks Strange New Worlds!

During Kurtzman’s sit-down with Dominic Patton on Deadlines “Contenders Television: The Nominees”, the conversation shifted from the Short Trek “Q&A” to the highly-anticipated “Strange New Worlds”. For those that don’t remember, “Strange New Worlds” is the recently announced live-action series that will focus on Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck’s Mr. Spock, and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One aboard the Enterprise, pre-Kirk. The bad news is that Kurtzman didn’t talk long about the upcoming series - but if we’ve learned anything from the previous segment, content doesn’t necessarily have to be long to be good!

Kurtzman minced NO words when he gave a synopsis of the show - and may we just say...SQUEEEEE!!!! And one more time for the people in the back - SQUUUEEEE!!!!

Excuse me.

Kurtzman then spoke to Pike and the crew’s optimism, and how Pike’s trauma could open interesting story-telling doors for the series.

Watch Short Trek Season 2 for Free!

If you haven’t seen any “so-called” NuTrek - that is to say any Star Trek launched on CBS All Access - and you are feeling a little left out, then we may have some good news. As a “For Your Consideration” Emmy push, CBS has made its entire second season of Short Treks available - absolutely free!

Reported by CNET, who’s parent company is ViacomCBS, the second season is free to view on CBS.com and youtube and includes “Q&A”, “The Trouble With Edward”, “Ask Not”, “Ephraim and Dot”, “The Girl Who Made the Stars”, and “Children of Mars”. We’ll link the Youtube videos to our show notes, so you can give them a watch from the comfort of Priority One Podcast.com! But don’t wait, you’ll only have access to the episodes until August 31st!

David Tennant Wants A Shot At Trek

Star Trek, in the United States particularly, is one of the founding fathers of nerd-pop culture. Even if you haven’t seen an episode of the original series, you probably know who Spock is or that Scotty will beam you up. In England, the same is likely true, but there is a franchise even older - even more popular than Trek - WHO knows what it is?

Doctor Who, of course. The series which first aired in 1963, three years before Star Trek, follows the adventures of a rogue time lord - known as the Doctor - and his companions. They travel through space and time using the TARDIS, a blue police box that was common in England in the mid-60’s. So why are we talking about Doctor Who on our Star Trek podcast? Because the tenth Doctor, and one of the most popular, wants a go at Trek.

In a Reddit AMA thread, David Tennant - who played the tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010 - was asked which franchise he would most like to “Cross off his acting bucket list, Tennant responded ”Star Trek would be great. After talking to George Takei for the podcast I’ve got a bit immersed in it.”. According to SyFy.com, the podcast Tennant was referring to was “David Tennant Does A Podcast With....”.  

There were several suggestions on who the former Who should play, but Trelane and Q both received quite a bit of Buzz. Q would be apropos, as SyFy points out. The Borg - which were introduced in the episode “Q Who” - were based on Doctor Who’s Cybermen.

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Timelines: “Plateau of Tomorrow”

From Thursday, August 20th to Monday, August 24th, Star Trek Timelines plumbs the darkest depths of the 20th century with the “Plateau of Tomorrow” Faction Event for the Dominion, Terran and Klingon Empires. The second part of The Capitoline Wolf story, this event features the new 5-star "Brigitte" Torres, 5-star Alicia Travers, returning 4-star Incognito Kirk, and recurring 5-star Humanoid Figure event crew. Equally new is the 5-star Aenar Jhamel faction reward, which will feature in the following week’s “Whistles and Canaries” Galaxy Event.

Star Trek Adventures: It’s Good to Be Bad

There are no villains who don’t have their reasons, said Mr. Welles–and now, there are eight fewer villains who don’t have stats either. The latest release for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures, “Iconic Villains,” turns eight of Trek’s most celebrated baddies into fully playable non-player characters. The 15-page PDF-only document sells for US$5.22 for your tabletop gaming needs, and the accompanying miniatures set will set you back US$52.34 once Modiphius has more of them to sell. However one of the featured foes is none other than Q himself, which makes us wonder: what does God need with a stat block?

Check-Out Time for Trexels II

If you’ve been interested in developer YesGnome's Trexels II mobile game, but never got around to playing it, you have until the end of this month to get it in gear. On August 14th, YesGnome announced on Facebook that “the time has come...to part ways.” Trexels II will no longer be available on the Google Play or Apple App Stores as of September 1st, but it is not going away entirely. The game servers will still be maintained after that date “until further notice.”

We’re Trekking Out a new Star Trek-themed language to hit the language-learning app Duolingo, Star Trek: Discovery makes a splash at a couple of awards shows, Simon Pegg weighs in on a Quentin Tarantino Trek film, and Connor Trinneer reflects on the ups and downs of Star Trek: Enterprise.

In gaming news, we’re catching up on the latest of what the gaming world has to offer, and later, Jayce is here with another Trek Lit 101.

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

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Duolingo: We Wish We Knew This LAST WEEK
  • The Saturn Awards
  • [EXPLETIVE] Star Trek
  • Jason Isaacs IS the Empire...Winner!
  • Cancellations are Hard to Do

• Star Trek Online News
  • STO: Expansion 4 - Victory Is Life
  • Double XP Weekend
  • 20% Off Services Sale

• Star Trek Gaming News
  • Star Trek Timelines honors David Ogden Stiers
  • Elijah on Mission Log Live: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
  • DON'T FORGET: Join us on Discord!

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST! Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 523 of Priority One: the Roddenberry Foundation continues to promote a positive future, while Star Trek already wins some Emmys this year; in gaming, Star Trek Online takes us through a mirror darkly with “Reflections” and On Screen: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 6!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Wins at the Emmys

By Elio Lleo

On the heels of the Star Trek Day event, the franchise had cause for more celebration. During the two-day Creative Arts Emmy Event this last week, Star Trek walked away with two wins. First up, an Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single episode for Star Trek: Discovery’s Season 3, “Su’kal.” Then, Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series for the Discovery episode, “If Memory Serves.” Now, Star Trek has been nominated for a total of 10 Emmys and the 75th Annual Awards show is set to air on Sunday, September 19th on CBS. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Star Trek takes home several more! 

The 2321 Emmys will use photon torpedoes in place of play-off music. Image: Television Academy.

Praise the Word of Rod

By Elio Lleo

As Gene Roddenberry’s centennial celebrations continue, his son and CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry, spoke with Forbes’s Simon Thompson about the last 55 years and the future of Star Trek. With the first four original movies being remastered in 4K UHD, Rod remarks about how great it is to see how there’s still a hunger for the original incarnations of Trek, saying:

I think it makes Star Trek new again, especially for our new audiences. You’ve got the TV series now that has brought in a newer, younger demographic, and I think some people are resistant to look at older stuff. When it comes out in 4K, it looks fresh and new. I’m excited by them being introduced to Star Trek through the original movies.

...oh, UNITY, that's what the shirt says. Image: Paramount Pictures, via Forbes.

What about NuTrek? Well, for Rod, it’s all about ensuring that any of the recent incarnations stay true to the core of what his father’s vision was all about saying:

He wants people like J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman and others to come along and do that. He also wanted to make sure that it remains Star Trek… [a]s long as they are continuing the tradition and the idea of it making you think. Having it entertain is extremely important, absolutely, but let’s be considering different points of view on this as well.

Rod goes on to discuss his own personal history with the franchise and how it was he grew to be so invested in his father’s legacy.

What Escapes In Vegas...Stays In...Hmmm…

By Cat Hough

If you’re headed to Vegas anytime soon, you should definitely trek out the new Star Trek: Discovery-themed escape room launched by Escapology. The game is set during the third season of Discovery and has opened just in time to coincide with the 4th season premiere on Paramount+. 

Your role in the game is acting as a civilian engineer tasked with inspecting the U.S.S. Discovery NCC-1031 as it undergoes the refit and upgrade to the 1031-A. However, sci-fi things happen during your inspection and Discovery collides with a quantum filament, causing major hull damage. The filaments' quantum resonance has also caused a polarity shift in the antimatter containment system, leading to a progressive degeneration in the containment field. If field strength falls below 15%, it will collapse, destroying the vessel and everyone aboard.

Because sci-fi stuff happened, the main computer has closed emergency bulkheads across the ship and the turbolift control system has been disabled, leaving the bulk of the crew trapped and unable to begin repairs. In a convenient turn of events, your turbolift stopped near the Auxiliary Control section, so all you have to do is override its systems. At this point, you’re the best option for helping Discovery and its crew avoid this disaster.

Another reason to hate this design. Image: ViacomCBS, via CBR.

Then, you, and your team, must escape the turbolift and communicate with a senior officer. You can save everyone if you can just re-establish communications and work together to repair the antimatter containment field before the strength falls below 15% which is projected to be in precisely 60 minutes time. Or that’s how long you can book the room for: packages can be reserved at the Las Vegas Town Square location via the Escapology website and they currently show the price for 6 people is a little under $250. 

Festivity Will Now Commence

By Thomas Reynolds and Rosco McQueen

It’s practically cliché at this point: the commercial Christmas season starts earlier every year, with candy canes and carols drowning out the trick-or-treaters and turkey dinners. But...what if December isn’t merely encroaching on the other months? Isn’t Christmas adding their celebrational distinctiveness to its own? Are they not being adapted to service Saint Nick? Yes, Christmas is assimilating the calendar–and your holidays, as they have been, are over.

The Elf on the Shelf was the first to fall to the Collective; the angel tree topper is next. Image: Eaglemoss.

Festivity may be irrelevant, but that hasn’t stopped Eaglemoss from creating a grim messenger of holiday cheer.  Invading Sector 001 on September 30th, the Borg Cube Advent Calendar brings 24 Trek accessories and gifts to all good little Trekkies. Socks, coasters, coffee mugs: each item included in the box also includes a short note with trivia and stories behind it. The Calendar sells for a considerable $149.95, so your bank account might look like New Providence if there’s more than one Trekkie on your gift list.

However, if you’re after something a bit less “Sovereign-class”, then the California line of starships may be more your style.  Eaglemoss has revealed the new XL model of the USS Cerritos.  The model is 9.75” long and faithfully reproduces the Cerritos as it appeared in the first season. It’s due in January 2022, so not quite in time for Christmas, but it will soon be joined by a model of the U.S.S. Titan.

Both models were made using the actual VFX files used in Lower Decks, with both ships looking a little more animated than the usual line of starships–like they could have leapt from the screen to your living room.

Ejectable warp core not included. Image: StarTrek.com

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• For her efforts to help eradicate sexual harassment from the entertainment industry, Michelle Hurd was awarded the SAG-AFTRA President’s Award. Hurd (Raffi on Star Trek: Picard) is an actor, activist and National Board member who’s worked to provide resources to SAG-AFTRA members who experienced sexual harassment and assault. She also assisted in developing updated guidelines and policies to eliminate harassment and assault from the industry. 
• You can color your favorite Lower Deckers. The Star Trek.com website is still celebrating Star Trek Day and you can download and print pages to a new coloring book from season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks. 
• We want to remind you that you can participate in the Roddenberry Foundation’s “Boldly Go” campaign by submitting a video, photo, letter, poem, or even a simple selfie. The theme or question to answer, “describe your hopes for the next 100 years!” Visit BoldlyGo.com to learn more!

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

A Fanatical Devotion to Charity

By Shane Hoover

It’s policy here at Priority One that we love charity bundles (and if it isn’t, it should be). The latest effort from STO and Fanatical.com is no exception. Following the familiar format, players can select one of two reward tiers based on their donated amount:

• Tier 1 - $1 ($15 value)
  • 32c Vanity Shield Overlay
  • Rainbow Risian Caracal
  •  ‘Charitable’ title
• Tier 2 - $7.99     ($82 value)
  • All items from Tier 1
  • Narendra-class Support Cruiser (T6)
  • Vor'ral Support Battlecruiser (T6)
  • 1 Fleet Ship Module
  • 1 Gold Tech Upgrade
  • 30 Lobi Crystals

Rarely is it this easy to support the needs of the many. Image: Fanatical.

But the benefits don’t stay in-game: each purchase of any tier in the bundle earns you a chance to win the Grand Prize! Tier 1 purchases earn a single Grand prize entry, while Tier 2 purchases net you five entries. The winner gets a place on Star Trek: The Cruise V, a ticket worth over $5000. I don’t know if God needs a cruise ship, but I sure wouldn’t mind getting on this one. The winner also receives a digital copy of every expansion pack available for Star Trek Online. That’s Legacy of Romulus, Delta Operations, Temporal Agent, Gamma Vanguard and Discovery Operations. All told, that’s over $720 worth of STO goodies. You can also get one free entry into the Grand Prize drawing by visiting a link which requires you to sign up for the Fanatical newsletter.

Nearly 90% of the sales price on these charity bundle items will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, providing children with safe and fun places to grow and thrive, and offering mentoring life-enhancing programs.

STO Takes Another Hard Look In the Mirror

By Rosco McQueen

With the conclusion of the Klingon Civil War, you would think Starfleet and members of the Alliance would have time for a little bit of exploration in Star Trek Online. Think again!!  As a mirror universe admiral once said, “You haven’t seen the last of me!”

This newfound peace is short lived, as a new danger emerges from the Mirror Universe. A former enemy, Admiral Leeta (voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star Chase Masterson) is being hunted by the Mirror Universe’s Kuumarke, a Terran Empire special agent. Players will team up with Admiral Leeta to stop Kuumarke and her Terran forces from using stolen information to bring destruction to the Prime Universe.

Captains can investigate this looming threat in a new featured episode, Firewall, as well as participate in a new ground TFO, “Operation: Wolf.” Captains can also earn daily progress by playing the “Counterpoint” TFO and the episode “Jabberwocky” to work towards claiming the brand new T6 Mirror Gagarin-class Miracle Worker Battlecruiser.  It’s worth noting the first Captain on your account to claim the ship also receives 8x Terran Empire Agony Phaser Weapon Packs which each contain your choice of starship weapon type, and 3x Ultimate Tech Upgrade - Beam/Cannon/Projectile Tech which may be used to upgrade any starship weaponry

The new Terran ship has a 4 forward, and 4 aft weapon layout, compared to the regular 5/3 layout of the Prime Gagarin. It features a Lieutenant Commander Command Specialist Bridge Officer seat, and a universal console - the Destructive Protomatter Wave Projector.  The wave projector targets multiple vessels, ripping apart their hulls. If they are destroyed then they send out a secondary shockwave, which may infect other targets in a chain reaction.  

Carriers With Crossover Appeal

By Thomas Reynolds

For years, STO was a preeminent source for new Trek stories–and what’s a new Trek story without a ship? Cryptic’s designs helped progress the post-Nemesis state of shipbuilding art, establishing distinct aesthetics for a modern 25th century. Now 2021’s a different scene, with five different television series and other MMOs generating new ships of their own. That said, STO’s contributions aren’t going unnoticed.

Yes. It's a cat carrier. Good job. Image: Cryptic Studios.

The Continuing Mission blog for Star Trek Adventures recently posted fan-made guidelines for bringing Cryptic’s Atrox- and Aspero-class carriers into the tabletop world. The unofficial STO-to-STA ship conversion assigns stats and traits based on their online counterparts, so you can drag-and-drop them into your campaign. It’s an interesting look at RPG mechanic design, if that’s your thing (and if you’re listening to this podcast, that’s a pretty safe guess). But it also reflects Cryptic’s success in creating ships that become Trek characters in their own right.

Quick Gaming News Roundup

• With Reflections taking us back into the Mirror Universe, STO’s original ships are getting some fresh new looks--looks that could kill, that is. Ten of Cryptic’s 25th century Federation designs, including the fan-favorite Pathfinder, have been touched up for the new arc, ranging from new materials to full-blown remasters.
• The Terran Empire is also getting their own versions of four ships–the Shran, Reliant, Andromeda, and Pathfinder–dressed to impress and distress. For fans of STO’s story blog posts, this was all related in a private communique from Vice Admiral Hemphill of Starfleet. Or is it Lord Baron Vice Admiral of Starfleet? The answer: yes.
• If you launch STO through the Epic Games launcher - or if you want to get a free Terran Incursion Pack that includes a Terran Empire Sonic Phaser Stun Pistol, an Elite Services Starter Pack and a Small XP Boost, then you’d need to download the game and launch through Epic Games. The pack can be claimed once per account, all items are bound to account and you must complete the tutorial in order to claim it. 

The red tells you they're Evil ships, because they can't grow goatees. Image: Cryptic Studios.

This week, we’re Trekking Out Jonathan Frakes's latest spoiler, and what actor James McAvoy would do if he got to play young Picard. Heather Kadin and Alex Kurtzman chat in The Ready Room about upcoming Short Treks, and Paramount top-brass discuss the future of Star Trek on the Silver Screen.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re talking about the Mirror of Discovery mission episodes featuring Captain Sylvia “Killy” and the mysterious planet Pahvo.

This week on Priority One --- we trek out what updates came from a Star Trek Picard panel in Brazil; Viacom and CBS merge; expansions are coming in Ticonderoga; and the Star Trek community was devastated by another loss this week; In Star Trek Gaming, we’ve received a “Cryptic” message regarding the mycelial network and we take a closer look at the new Winter Wonderland Bridge Officer abilities in Star Trek Online; and Anthony takes us back in time for another retro Trek game spotlight. Then, we're joined by two of Star Trek Online's artists to discuss 2019 milestones and take a glimpse into 2020

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: Now that ViacomCBS is a reality, what do you think it means for Star Trek?

AND

• CQ: Have you ever played Star Trek: 25th Anniversary? Do you have any favorite old Star Trek video games?

This week on Episode 493 of Priority One: We Trek Out several interviews happening around the Trek-verse, Star Trek Online gears up for it’s 11th Anniversary celebrations, while other mobile games spin up their own Trek-themed celebrations, and Dr. Robert Hurt explains why space is darker than we thought… much darker.

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!

TREK IT OUT

Michael Dorn May Play Worf Again

By Elio LLeo

With Picard now starting to film its second season in just a few weeks, many of us are eager to learn about who - of the OG TNG cast - might make an appearance. We’ve already seen Brent Spiner reprise his role as Data… Our hearts were warmed by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprising their roles… What about Gates McFadden? LeVar Burton?.... Michael Dorn??
Well, we’ve got an update from Mr. Dorn via an interview with the podcast Literary Joe’s Inner Child. In the short segment of the podcast - which is under 7 minutes - Dorn pulls no punches when expressing his disdain for the makeup process.

Patrick Stewart on Picard S2

By Cat Hough

So how far along is Season Two of Picard? Well, Sir Patrick Stewart tells us in an interview posted on January 11, 2021, by goldderby.com that, “I’ve got the first five scripts of the show and different drafts of those scripts. I spend hours every day with them." So even though getting a production rolling during a pandemic is a whole new experience, Stewart has been keeping himself busy writing his memoirs, reciting Shakespeare’s sonnets, watching “Schitt’s Creek, and putting together jigsaw puzzles.” He says of jigsaw puzzles,"That’s one of my passions. I finished the Last Supper two nights ago and it was one of the best moments of my life!” He chuckles, but then gets serious. “But all the while inside, I know I have to work. That’s what I’m here for. That’s my job. I want a script in my hand. I want actors in front of me.”

Interview with Mary Wiseman

By Cat Hough

Now that Discovery Season 3 has wrapped, StarTrek.com recapped some recent in-depth conversations with some of our favorite Discovery characters. The first was Mary Wiseman, and although the audio glitched during her interview, thanks to an enterprising YouTuber who can read lips, it was later confirmed that Wiseman said she was not straight. When asked for confirmation, she said “I did say this! It’s not a big deal at all. I just didn’t want to say I’m straight when I’m not! Before Noah [Averbach-Katz, Wiseman’s husband who played Ryn the Andorian], I dated and loved people of all genders. I never liked it when straight-presenting women dominated conversations about bisexuality/pansexuality when I was with women, so I try not to do it now, but I also don’t want it to feel like I’m hiding anything because I’m queer and proud!”

Wiseman goes on to deliver a personal message to fans who defended her on social media when she fell victim to online bullying and body-shaming, saying “I just want to say that all the people who step in, to back me up like that, your presence is like little angels, blocking out these little trolls. It means something to me. I see those things and they hurt me because I'm a person. I'm a human being, you know? And to have somebody step in and defend you is really meaningful.”

The close relationship between Rapp and del Barrio definitely comes across on-screen with Stamets taking a fatherly role towards Adira. 

Also helping to build bonds in real-life between cast mates, many of the actors, including new-comer, Ian Alexander who plays Gray, have been playing Dungeons & Dragons via Zoom. Production is underway for Season 4 of Discovery. 

Galaxy Quest Sequel

By Elio Lleo 

Our last interview -- although not specifically Star Trek related -- does touch on one of Star Trek’s greatest films… Galaxy Quest!!! Now, for several years, there have been rumblings and rumors about a potential sequel to the film or perhaps a small screen adaptation. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tim Allen was asked about the status of the film replying “I haven't reached out to anybody in the last week, but we talk about it all the time. There is constantly a little flicker of a butane torch that we could reboot it with. Without giving too much away, a member of Alan's Galaxy Quest family could step in and the idea would still work.”

James Cawley On Phase II

By Tony Hunter 

Long time listeners of the show may remember the glory days of the early-to-mid-teens, when there were literally dozens of fan-film productions of star trek stories. Spanning the timelines from post-Enterprise pre-Federation, all the way to post-Nemesis pre-JJ-Verse, the quality bar that each show cleared was as varied as the eras they were set in. I’ll give you a minute on that one. But some of the highest quality efforts belonged to James Cawley’s New Voyages and Phase II productions. And until certain lawsuits were filed, they were busy filming and editing new episodes. Unfortunately, CBS’s fan production guidelines, which were released in 2016, basically killed productions like Cawley’s.

Origins: The Protracted Man

However, one of those productions, a TOS prequel named, appropriately, Origins: The Protracted Man, just escaped into the wild. I say escaped, because to say it was released would be a gross overstatement. There are effects shots missing, and we know this because there are little cards telling you what you should be seeing. Sound is sometimes iffy, and the whole thing is squashed horizontally. It’s very clearly not a finished product. According to the article at fanfilmfactor.com, the two files containing the rough cut were up on YouTube temporarily, and then taken down. However, while it was online, the movies were downloaded and then reposted anonymously. Even short-time listeners of the show will know that Cat is now rolling to a slow boil on the intellectual property problems all this implies – and we’ll certainly get to those – but there’s more to the story.

One of the screenwriters, Trek novelist Dave Gallanter, recently died of cancer. Mr. Gallanter had worked on several of the Phase II projects, and this one – co-written with Tribble creator David Gerrold – may have been release… uh “liberated”… as a final farewell to a cherished member of the old crew. So, as we are about to discuss – why, listeners, you know this is illegal – maybe the proper answer is “now, don’t be a prig.”

Star Trek Gaming News

by Thomas Reynolds & Shane Hoover

STO Outlines the 11th Anniversary Event

By Shane Hoover

Finally putting an end to our breathless antici... pation, Cryptic released a new blog to announce some details of the upcoming 11th Anniversary Event. This year’s event is scheduled to kick off for PC players on January 26th and it will wrap up on February 25th. As with other recent events, players will collect daily progress points through missions, TFOs, and patrols. Upon collection of 40 progress points, players will receive the brand new account-unlocked Temer Class Alliance Raider. No stats are available for the new ship yet, but it’s a Klingon/Romulan hybrid raider carrying on the spirit of the recent Khitomer class. And, as always, the anniversary event brings us those sweet sweet Omega Tech Upgrades! So get ready to get busy collecting Omega Traces, captains

Sam Witwer Plays Kenneth Mitchell Playing Tenavik

By Shane Hoover

The Anniversary Event also means that if you’re like us, you’re probably most excited by the imminent arrival of brand new story content! In another blog released this week, Ambassador Kael announced two forthcoming new missions with contributions from two new stars. The new missions are called “Knowledge is Power” and “Leap of Faith”, and they’ll take us back to the Klingon monastery on the planet Boreth. Visited by Captain Pike on Star Trek: Discovery, the monastery is home to the mysterious and powerful Time Crystals. Kael’s blog has teased that Boreth’s secrets will bring about a “new era” for STO’s Klingons, and it will be up to players to pursue them. That means meeting with Tenavik, the guardian of the Time Crystals. On Discovery, Tenavik was played by Kenneth Mitchell. He was originally going to reprise the role for STO, but circumstances prevented him from that. Instead, he’s personally chosen friend, veteran actor, and STO super-fan Sam Witwer to lend his voice to Tenavik. With Mitchells’ coaching and Witwer’s talents, it should be exciting to see what surprises Tenavik has in store for us.

Five-Year Missions, Five Years of Timelines

By Thomas Reynolds

Elsewhere in the gaming world, Star Trek Timelines passed its fifth anniversary with no signs of slowing down. Associate product manager WRGBen took to the Wicked Realms official forum on the 14th, saying they’re "proud of what we’ve built throughout the years, and of what the game means to so many of our players. With that in mind we’re looking forward to the years ahead". Looking to the future, WRGBen also promised a “big new feature” in the game later this year. Timelines’ longevity is nothing to dismiss: mobile gaming has been fickle and unrewarding to the Trek franchise before. Of the nine games released for mobile platforms, only Timelines and Fleet Command remain in business (Trexels II launched in 2018 and shut its doors to new players only last August). 

Jetpack Joyride Star Trek Event

If you’ve spent even a nano-second browsing through your phone’s app store you’ve probably noticed the popular fast-paced, endless running, side-scrolling mobile game, Jetpack Joyride. In it you play as Barry Steakfries, a down-on-his-luck gramophone salesman who has snuck into a jetpack lab, stolen the machine gun jetpack, and now needs to escape. Why does any of this matter in a Star Trek podcast? Because just like the Borg, the mega marketing machine at CBS assimilates everything in its path. From now until February 3rd, Jetpack Joyride is running a Star Trek event. By playing the event you can earn Star Trek themed items for the game including, but not limited to, Starship jetpacks, Uniform jumpsuits from Discovery, Voyager, Enterprise, and more. Character replacements like Michael Burnham, Janeway, Picard, and Kirk. And much more. And what free to play mobile game wouldn’t be complete without a way to buy everything. You can also purchase the items from the event singly or in bundles from $2.99 to $29.99.

TOS Event in Star Trek Fleet Command

Staying on the mobile device, Star Trek Fleet Command is continuing its Prime Timeline content rollout with a TOS event which started this month. During the first part of the event players can earn recruit tokens for Original Series crew. Epic Kirk, Epic Spock, and Rare Uhura. Part one of the event runs from now until January 29th

This week on Episode 521 of Priority One: Star Trek: Prodigy drops several news items just as Star Trek Day nears, Star Trek Online tries to entice new players and existing players to start a brand new character, and we throw a unicorn horn on a white gorilla suit in On Screen, with Season 2 Episode 4 of Lower Decks!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Prodigy Pulls Some Great Cast Gets

By Elio Lleo

The newest iteration of Star Trek, Nickelodeon’s animated series Prodigy, is making news this week with a couple of big announcements. First up: casting!  Two new actors have been added to the cast announcement with Jimi Simpson and John Noble both playing antagonist characters. According to Deadline’s Alexandra Del Rosario, Noble (The Lord of the Rings, FRINGE) will voice the character known as The Diviner: “a ruthless tyrant who controls the asteroids of Tars Lampora…and will stop at nothing in his hunt for the Protostar ship, no matter the cost.” Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Westworld, Breakout Kings) voices Drednok, “the Diviner’s deadly robotic enforcer…heartless and cold.”

...yeah, checks out. Image: CBS, via Deadline.

Now, if talent isn’t enough, then be sure to watch the main title sequence for the show–available now on YouTube and other Star Trek social media channels. 

Lining Up The Milestones

By Rosco McQueen

Panels, panels and more panels are coming your way for the Trek franchise's 55th anniversary.  On September 8, the Star Trek Day celebrations will be hosted by The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton and actress and host Mica Burton. It will feature back-to-back in person conversations with cast and crew members, with a focus at looking at what is ahead for the franchise.  

One panel in particular features Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck from Strange New Worlds, with the trailer for the event casually showing off the logo of the series. Composer Jeff Russo will lead a live orchestra performance throughout the event, with Paramount+ saying to expect some surprise announcements and reveals throughout the program.  

Another notch in the milestone belt of history comes after the airing of the Lower Decks episode “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”, marking the 800th episode of Star Trek television.  Now that commemorative plate makes even more sense!

Now do you shorten it to Cer or Tos? Image: Paramount+, via ComicBook.com

All The Star Trek News Fit To Print

By Cat Hough

If watching all the new Trek offerings and playing all the Trek games is still not enough Star Trek content in your life, well you are in luck! This November, Titan Publishing is re-launching the official Star Trek magazine and renaming it Star Trek Explorer. Titan describes this magazine as "the no. #1 destination for everything Star Trek–filled with in-depth interviews and features taking you behind-the-scenes of all your favorite shows and movies."

The first issue showcases a fresh new design and features two exclusive Star Trek short stories. Plus, they plan on adding a 16-page themed "featurette" in each issue, with the inaugural issue featuring a guide to Captain James. T. Kirk.  There are two covers available for the first issue: one features a shot of Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery, while the second uses Tim Anderson's Star Trek: The Original Series tribute artwork.

Image: Titan Publishing, via ComicBook.com

Yearly subscriptions cost $29.99 for four issues and, as an added subscription bonus, you get an exclusive digital magazine that includes extra Trek nuggets. You can buy each issue separately for $9.99.

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• The documentary Woman In Motion has been uploaded to the International Space Station, commemorating Women’s Equality Day in the U.S. If you have not seen it already, the film shows how Nichelle Nichols spent 1977 campaigning across America to bring diversity to NASA. Woman in Motion is also available on demand and digital and is streaming on Paramount+.

• Voyager actor Tim Russ recently helped with the detection of Patroclus, an asteroid orbiting Jupiter. An avid amateur astronomer, Russ is part of a network of citizen astronomers who regularly contribute space observations. He says that contributing to NASA's mission is important because understanding where we come from, what our origins are and the fact that we are a few intelligent species in this galaxy is special.

He reflec, he protec, but most importantly, he detec. Image: Tim Russ, via USA Today.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Time Is On Our Side

By Cat Hough

Well, the time has come at last [again–Ed.]! Star Trek Online announced the Temporal Recruitment Event returns on all platforms, just in time to celebrate Star Trek Day on September 8th.

Since we’re playing through the Original Series-era content for this event, the devs have gone through and made some visual updates and updated cutscenes as well as improving the missions themselves. Plus, Temporal Agent goals have been updated to include some new ones, and removed some goals from missions that are no longer in the game, so you don’t have to worry about finding Temporal Probes in places that you can no longer reach.

You’ll be able to earn bonuses for reaching level 60, marks for all of the reputations that have been added to the game, and rewards for engaging in R&D and specializations. Existing Temporal Agents will be able to complete these new goals as well, and if you’ve already finished them, you can claim the rewards immediately.

Tell me they changed the prefix code, at least. Image: Cryptic Studios.

Remember, to become a Temporal Agent and gain access to the rewards, you must make a new TOS Starfleet character, during the event, then you must play the tutorial until you receive your special Temporal Agent transceiver device. Once you receive the device, your character is a Temporal Agent and you can complete the goals any time and claim the rewards, even after the event ends.

Good Old (Star Trek) Games Coming To Good Old Games (Galaxy)

By Rosco McQueen

Do you pine for the days when Star Trek games weren’t vast, expansive, massively multiplayer worlds?  Maybe you’re more of a LAN party player (as long as some else brings the snacks)? A number of classic Trek games, including Star Trek Armada 1 & Armada 2, Star Trek Bridge Commander, and Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and Elite Force 2 could be due for re-release on GOG Galaxy. Gamefront reports the game cards for titles on the platform recently being updated with new CBS copyright watermarks.

Start a Star Trek Game Night for your retirement home today! Image: ViacomCBS/GOG Galaxy, via GameFront.

Dancing Data in Fleet Command

By Rosco McQueen

Star Trek Fleet Command just dropped a new teaser featuring Brent Spiner loosening up for co-star LeVar Burton after playing “an emotionless android for years.” [same–Ed.] This continues Fleet Command’s ongoing efforts to bring in Trek celebrities for their promotions: earlier this year they had Sonequa Martin-Green and Karl Urban. Recent promos have leaned into TNG to showcase the latest updates to the game; in addition to Spiner and Burton, Jonathan Frakes also shows up in the promo. 

This episode of Priority One is brought to you by Eaglemoss Hero Collector and the brand new Official Star Trek Online Starship Collection.  Check out all the exclusive ship models – including the U.S.S. Gagarin and the U.S.S. Chimera – at priorityonepodcast.com/ships and use code PRIORITY10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase with FREE SHIPPING.

This week on Episode 489 of Priority One ~ We ‘Trek Out’ Mike McMahan’s new deal, the start of Star Trek-ish-y filming, Manny Coto worship, and Star Trek actors get - wait for it - political *gasp* . In Star Trek gaming, we preview the new synth ship - but not the one you think- and we trek out the tribble giveaway. Then we look “On Screen” to review Discovery’s Season 3 episode, “Sanctuary.”

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

This Week’s Community Question is:

CQ: Are you more excited for Star Trek Discovery Season 4, Picard Season 2, Lower Decks Season 2, or The Orville Season 3?

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

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan & Elio LLeo

Star Trek Gets Political *GASP*

By Elio Lleo

Although the United States General Elections happened a month ago -- and Joe Biden is our President Elect -- all eyes are focused on the state of Georgia where a critical run-off election is about to take place in January. Two seats are up for grabs in the Senate… two. very. important. seats. So, just because you might have already voted, your state’s been counted, and recounted, and counted again… that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about what’s going on in Georgia… Especially when Star Trek gets involved.
On December 12th, a virtual event will take place with guests that include fan favorites from all generations of Trek. TOS’s George Takei. TNG’s Frakes, McFadden, Burton, Spinner. NuTrek’s Pill, Cruz, Rap, Cabrera, Martin-Green. That’s just naming a few. Headlined by one of Georgia’s leading activists and former gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, the goal is to raise funds for the two Democratic Candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
For more information on how you can watch the event and show your support visit the ActBlue website and donate! According to Deadline  “Tickets start at $5 per person, at the “Tribble” level, and rise to $500 per person at the “Vulcan” level. Proceeds go to the Georgia Senate Victory Fund.” 

Mike McMahon Inks a New Deal With ViacomCBS

By Elio Lleo & Jake Morgan

So -- Star Trek: Lower Decks has had a couple months to simmer in the grander lexicon of Star Trek television. It turns out, the show, and its creator, are nowhere near being done. Variety’s Will Thorne reports Mike McMahan has just signed a two-year deal with Paramount/CBS. The announcement was made by CBS Studios Senior Vice President Alec Botnick, who said of the signing ”We feel so fortunate that Mike chose to partner with us for this next stage of his career. He is a true savant whose passion for and knowledge of animation is inspirational. Being able to be a part of his journey and helping him realize the stories he wants to tell, and how he wants to tell them is the reason many of us got into this business.”.

The deal locks up the creator/writer for two years, and includes exclusive rights to produce all of McMahon’s TV content. McMahon expressed his feelings on the signing, saying ”I’m so excited to continue my television journey with my friends at CBS. I’ve always wanted to be allies with a corporation whose logo is a giant, unblinking eye. I think we’ll be able to make some truly weird stuff together.”

The Orville Restarts Production

By Jake Morgan

If Star Trek: Discovery or its counterpart Star Trek: Picard aren’t reaching your nostalgic Star Trek itch, The Orville is likely your go-to back-scratcher - and if that’s the case, we’ve got some good news for you. Season 3 has begun filming!

The Orville’s official twitter handle tweeted on December 4th ”And we’re back! Season 3 filming has officially started. #TheOrville 💫”.

The show’s senior editor and co-executive producer Tom Constantino joined the Twitter fun, giving us a behind the scenes image of a personal-protective-equipment wearing crew hard at work.

Later, a mask-clad Chad Coleman - the one and only Bortus - hit Instagram with a video message proclaiming ”Even Mockled’s mask up!”

While no official announcement regarding release dates have been made, it is likely that we won’t get to watch The Orville’s third season until the end of 2021 - at the earliest. But it’s nice to know it’s coming!

Manny Coto Reflects on His Time With Enterprise

By Jake Morgan

If you’ve listened for any length of time to this podcast, you probably know our feelings on Star Trek: Enterprise’s fourth season - right Tony? This week, the man responsible for some of that season 4 magic - showrunner and writer Manny Coto - sat down with Looper to talk about his prolific career, and reflected on his time with Enterprise.

Coto recalled that the series was all-but cancelled prior to his taking the reins, and he used the opportunity to tell stories he felt were worth telling. ”my goal wasn't to really patch anything up; it was simply to kind of do the episodes that I would want to see because I knew this was going to be one season. [...] I knew and everybody knew that it was not going to come back. And Paramount was already thinking of the next incarnation. So, I just set about trying to have as much fun and do as many interesting episodes as I possibly could.”

But did the experience of Captaining a damned ship sour Coto’s possible return to the franchise? Would Coto return to Star Trek? ”Oh, definitely. I would jump on it. I mean, Trek was what got me into the business as a kid and it's what... "got me in" meaning it's what I fell in love with that made me want to do this. And so, it's in my genes and I will never really properly escape it.”

Star Trek Gaming News

by Thomas Reynolds & Shane Hoover

The Doctrine of Original Synth

By Thomas Reynolds

As the Angel’s Wake Lockbox pops back into the far future, the Infinity Lockbox gains a new old ship with a somewhat checkered past. The Deimos-class Pilot Destroyer [T6], possibly familiar as a “synth frigate,” reflects the 2411 Federation’s focus on restoring older classes for duty. True, these ships took part in the 2385 Mars attack, but they were being piloted by suborned Soong synths at that time. Alliance engineers have retooled them for squishy organic hands now, so it’s fine. It’s fine! This is fine, everything’s fine.

The Deimos sports the standard 5/2 Destroyer weapon layout with 3 device, 5 tactical, 4 engineering, and 2 science console slots. For organic commanders, it hosts stations for Commander Tactical/Pilot, Lieutenant Commander Tactical/Intelligence, Lieutenant Commander Engineering, Lieutenant Science, and Ensign Universal bridge officers. As a Destroyer it supports Experimental Weapons like the Kinetic Feedback Matrix, hitting targets hard and buffing Energy Weapon Haste with every hit. Like you’d expect, the Deimos’ console is another weapon: an Immolating Phaser Lance that stores and fires off in charges like the Omega Torpedo Launcher. Finally the Deimos’s Ship Mastery trait, “Formation Flying,” summons two allied Destroyers that fire their Lances in time to yours, because the real treasure were the shipyards we destroyed along the way. Maybe.

Note that the Deimos-class isn’t the “synth frigate” we blew out of the Martian sky during the “Synthwave” TFO event. That synth frigate may or may not be part of the game in the future. Be sure to follow the link in our shownotes to see the proper ship model.

Winter Tribble Giveaway

By Shane Hoover

What’s red and white, furry all over, and probably killed Edward Larkin? That’s right, it’s a Tribble! And from now until December 22nd, Cryptic and TribbleToys are running a sweepstakes to give a large Winter Tribble to twelve lucky winners. Each winner also receives a PC-Only code for an in-game Black Alert Tribble. Head on over to STO’s tweet announcing the sweepstakes via the link in our show notes. Rumor has it Winter Tribbles are especially fond of peppermints and gingerbread. So keep it away from your holiday candy stash or you’ll be up to your Santa hat in Tribbles.

This week, we #TrekOut the BIG NEWS - Viacom and CBS have finally re-merged and what that means for Star Trek. Tony and I are here to give you OUR perspective - not only as trekkies - but as LAWYERS...and Henry will be there too!

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we look at Star Trek: Online’s “Awakening”, the upcoming episode “Beneath the Skin”, and talk about how much we LOVE temporal mechanics!

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: What do YOU think the newly formed ViacomCBS means for Star Trek?

AND

CQ: Which of the upcoming changes to existing STO T6 ship classes are you most excited about? Why?

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

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Viacom and CBS Merge to Become  - ViacomCBS

There are stories that we cover here on Priority One Podcast that tend to keep popping up. Star Trek Kelvin IV, Tarantino Trek, how Guard Frequency is a pretty good show and you should check it out. But one story that has popped up for years, the reunification of Viacom and CBS, may finally be getting a conclusion!

It had been suspected that talks were “Heating up” between the two National Amusement properties back in April, when CBS Acting Chief Executive Joe Ianniello’s contract was extended through 2019. It was believed that Ianniello, who had been serving as former CBS CEO Les Moonves’ replacement since September 2018, was both amicable to - and necessary for - a re-unification of CBS and Viacom. On May 30th, CNBC reported that merger negotiations were set to resume in mid-June. Then, on July 15th, both CBS and Viacom announced that they would present their financial earnings reports on the same day, August 8th, for the first time in “many quarters” - sending the industry into a state of rampant speculation. Finally, on August 13th, the deal was announced. 

The new entity, known as ViacomCBS, will merge assets from both companies - including Showtime, Nickelodeon, CBS Television Studios, and Viacom’s newly acquired streaming service Pluto TV. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish will serve as President and CEO of the newly merged company, and former CBS interim-CEO Joseph Ianello will serve as a chairman and CEO of CBS. Board Chair, and orchestrator of the merger, Shari Redstone said in the official announcement “My father once said ‘content is king,’ and never has that been more true than today. Through CBS and Viacom’s shared passion for premium content and innovation, we will establish a world-class, multiplatform media organization that is well-positioned for growth in a rapidly transforming industry”

Star Trek was specifically cited as an asset by CEO Bob Bakish in an investment press presentation, expanding on the release by saying “We will have one of the largest libraries of iconic intellectual property, including more than 140,000 premium television episodes and over 3,600 film titles. Notably, this library reunites TV and film rights for some of our most popular franchises, including Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. And we see significant potential to better leverage these and other properties across platforms and assets, including film, television, live events, recreation and consumer products.”

While much of the excitement centers on the combination of intellectual properties - including “Mission Impossible”, “NCIS”, “Transformers”, “South Park”, “The Twilight Zone”, and of course “Star Trek” - a big factor in the merger seems to focus on “Direct to Consumer” video-on-demand services. In an investor call made on August 13th, Ianello said “Just think about adding content from Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central to CBS All Access, and Paramount movies to Showtime. And also imagine our [ad-supported video on demand] properties like CBS Sports HQ and ET Live being added to Pluto [TV]. Plus, all of this will increasingly be done on a global basis.”. When asked whether the price-points of ViacomCBS’s current VOD services will be affected by the merger, Ianello said ViacomCBS would take a “slow and steady” approach to any changes.

STAR TREK ONLINE AND GAMING NEWS

by Shane Hoover

Awakening: Beneath the Skin!

Previously in Star Trek Online, the villainous J’Ula unleashed her fearsome Mycelial weapon upon the Federation, catapulting her fleet of 23rd century Klingons into 2410, along with your Age of Discovery player Captains. Awakening: Beneath the Skin will be the next episode in the story, releasing on PC September 10th and later this year on consoles.  Joined by Star Trek Discovery’s Anthony Rapp, voicing a holographically reconstructed Paul Stamets, your Captain must venture into the Mycelial Network itself to stop J’Ula before she turns the power of her weapon on the planet Andoria.

Putting the “Temporal” in “Temporal Starships”

A number of frequently requested changes will be coming to Star Trek Online soon(™)!

First, the entire collection of T6 Temporal Destroyers and Science Vessels originally released with the Temporal Lock Box are being brought up to date with the Temporal Specialization. These ships will now boast a Temporal Operative specialization on the Commander bridge officer seating, and will gain access to the Molecular Reconstruction game mechanic.

Second, ships formerly called “Flight-Deck Cruisers” are being uniformly updated to “Flight-Deck Carriers”. As such, they will retain the 8 weapon configuration of Engineering cruisers, while boasting 2 hangar bays as carriers. All ships of the type will also have access to the Shield Frequency Modulation and Attract Fire cruiser commands.

Lastly, not unlike the changes to Flight-Deck Carriers, current Escort Carriers are also being updated. To reinforce the differences between these ships and other true carriers, these ships will be reclassified as Strike Wing Escorts. Additionally, their Quick Deployment ship mastery will be replaced with Enhanced Weapon Systems.

XMPP Sunset

As of September 19th 2019, Star Trek Online will end support for XMPP client connections to its internal chat systems. This change has been explained in a Cryptic blog as a measure taken in order to cut down on gold spamming activity over in-game chat channels.

PC EVENTS

Arena of Sompek Featured TFO

The currently running Featured TFO, Arena of Sompek, will be wrapping up on August 29th.  This event is also the last chance to finish collecting T6 Ship Coupons for a free T6 starship from the C-Store, so be sure to reach 3000 Coupons before the Event ends!

Console Events

Bonus Marks Weekend

Console Captains can take advantage of a Bonus Marks weekend. From August 22nd to August 28th, missions and event that reward the player with Rep Marks will be rewarding extra marks.

Combined Events on both PC and Console

Red Alerts Weekend

From August 29th through September 2nd, the galaxy is under triple threat. Engage in Red Alert actions to defend against attacks by the Borg, the Elachi, and the Na’Kuhl.

WEEKLY TOP TIP

Time for the Lightning Round

Are you lying in a smoking sprawl on the floor of the Sompek Arena again? Tired of being blasted by high voltage? If you find yourself having a hard time staying ahead of the Sompek Lightning strikes while battling your way through the Arena, don’t worry! By sheltering in the walkways beneath the Arena ramps, you can avoid the lightning strikes. Be warned, though, if a lightning strike targets you before you move under cover, you still have to move away from the blast radius to avoid being struck.

ELIO
Well, here we are… at the end of another year. Despite a concerted effort to try and rush towards a return to some form of pre-pandemic life, the impact of this global catastrophe will ripple for years to come. In one way, shape, or form - all our lives have been changed.

Now, many of us are looking ahead and thinking of what’s to come in 2022. Cautiously optimistic and hopeful that things will gradually continue to improve and change for the better. On behalf of the entire team at Priority One: We wish you nothing but the best in this New Year and years to come – that you live long and prosperous lives.

Narrowing our focus on our little corner, 2021 was a monumental year for Priority One. In March of 2021, our production celebrated its 500th episode and 10 years of weekly podcasting. That is no small endeavor. To celebrate the occasion, we were privileged to host several Trek Stars - new and veteran - and with donations from listeners like you, along with a matching gift by Rod Roddenberry - we raised over $4,000 for The Poor People’s Campaign. I can think of no better way to celebrate such a milestone than to work towards finding ways of giving back.

Now, here we are - having just wrapped our 535th episode. As I look back over the last 10 years, I find myself in complete awe over all the things we’ve accomplished. The conversations we’ve had with each other and special guests. The panels we’ve participated in. The events we’ve attended and hosted. The places we’ve been. The laughs we’ve shared. The friendships we’ve forged.

But… as the saying goes… All good things must come to an end.

You're listening to the final broadcast of Priority One Podcast!

I realize this announcement may come as a surprise to most - if not all - of you. With so much going on in the Star Trek Multiverse, why would we stop covering the latest from our favorite franchise? I wish I could give you a simple and satisfying answer but, there isn’t. Behind the scenes, we’ve had long conversations about the future of the show, our goals, our hopes. In the end, we came to the conclusion that now was the best time to jump on our horses and ride off quietly into the sunset – leaving behind an incredible legacy of passion and love for an I.P. that has touched so many of our lives.

CAT
It’s been such a fantastic experience being part of the podcast for the past few years. I’m truly amazed at the talented group of people that work behind the scenes that edit and assemble the show. Also to Elio and the other co-hosts and guest hosts that we’ve had - thank you so much for putting up with my dogs and allowing me to join you each week. Getting to discuss Star Trek on these shows has been one of the most enjoyable experiences and during the pandemic - it’s been a lifesaver. 

With that said, we want to continue to support our Patrons since they have given so much to support us. We will be pausing all Patreon charges until further notice - but we are considering still continuing our after-hours show for you all. If you are a Patron - please reach out and let us know your thoughts. 

So, even though the main podcast is ending, we still want to keep in touch via Patreon- or come and play Star Trek Online with the Priority One Armada - you know we are not going anywhere. We’ll still host our livestream every Saturday - everyone is welcome! 

ROSCO
I was the most recent addition to the crew. I am one of the many people on this podcast who went from listener to being part of the team.  I think I said yes because I felt welcome, and that was just by listening to the podcast.  

What I soon realized was that I had found my people. I had found like-minded people who were passionate about one of the things that has been a huge influence on my life. I got the chance to talk about Star Trek EVERY WEEK!!  What a dream job.

And although it’s coming to an end and we may not be producing any more episodes, you'll still find our entire back catalogue on our website and wherever you get your podcasts.

I want to add my own personal thanks to my co-hosts for making me feel welcome, my respect and admiration to the team that works behind the scenes to put this show together, and to thank you for listening.  We’re an amazing community to be a part of, it has been a privilege to share the news about it.

ELIO
Before we leave you, I need to thank the team that has made this possible. Over the last 10 years, we have had a remarkable group of people volunteering their time and talents to this production. Fans of Star Trek from all over the world who decided to come and play with us each and every week. From as far as Australia, the UK, from Germany, Canada, from Argentina, and the US, Priority One was brought to you by a global team of amazingly talented people.

Whether it be our website and social platforms, our livestreams, the copy written for our weekly shows… to the weekly undertaking of editing our ramblings – no single person is responsible for this production. I encourage you to visit our website and look over our cast and crew page to learn more about these remarkable individuals… because without their incredible dedication over the years, this show would not have been made possible.

I also want to thank some of our most influential collaborators and contributors. To folks like Al Rivera at Cryptic Studios who always supported and believed in the work we did to share in the joy that Star Trek Online has brought over the years. To John Champion and Rod Roddenberry, for recognizing our work and welcoming us into the Roddenberry Podcast Family. I will forever cherish the words John and Rod shared with me when I informed them of our decision. It has been an honor.

But, most importantly, a big thanks to you. Our listeners – our friends — our extended family. Over these 10 years, you have been our driving force for producing this weekly show. The team and I are forever grateful for your dedicated and loyal support. For joining us and welcoming us into your weekly routine. It has been an honor to produce this show for you and I am grateful to each and every one of you.

As sad as this may be, it’s important for us to hang on to the best parts of our lives. With that in mind, let’s remember some of those moments and share some laughs with you… Take care.

Signing up for CBS-ALL ACCESS? Use our affiliate links to help support the show! Click here or visit our website and click the banners!

This week, we’re Trekking Out some big names who might have been cast as Commander Sisko, but weren’t; TV Guide brings us a closer look at the sets of Discovery; we get a sneak preview of the new Star Trek theme song; AND of course there’s controversy over press coverage of the Discovery premiere.

In Star Trek Online News, we’ve got details on a new ship bundle in the C-Store, more about that new fleet holding coming with Season 14 - Emergence - and we’re taking a spoiler-free look at the latest featured episode “Beyond the Nexus,” which brings Geordi into STO.

Later, Jayce is here with another Trek Lit 101.

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

Don't forget! Starting next week, with Episode 336, we will be switching our release date to Fridays! That way, we'll be able to bring you more Discovery news, more Star Trek Online news, and just in time for the weekend! Keep an eye on our social media channels for more details.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • The Doctor or The Sisko?
  • Four-player Star Trek Bridge Command VR on ONE PC
  • TV Guide tours the set of Discovery
  • Discovery press embargo
  • Discovery theme tune preview
  • Robert Picardo sings farewell to Cassini
  • Discovery has not killed God, FYI
• Star Trek Online News
  • (PC) Allied Flight Deck Cruisers
  • (PC) Dranuur Colony Fleet Holding
  • (PC) "Beyond the Nexus" Featured Episode rewards
  • Winters's Top Tip
    • Tribble carcass
    • Cannibal tribble
    • Assignment: Tribble bounty

COMMUNITY QUESTION

• Was it a good move for CBS to embargo the show from reviews prior to the global premiere?
• What do you think of the Star Trek Online featured episode Beyond the Nexus, and Geordi’s debut in the game?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 506 of Priority One: We #TrekOut the latest news about a new Jeopardy! guest host (we’ll take “Enterprise Engineers” for $200, thanks LeVar).  John De Lancie teases more on Picard, and we really do mean teases.  And in Star Trek gaming, the “Worf returns mystery” is finally solved, plus a screen-perfect pilot ship to power your season three Discovery dreams. 

This week’s Community Question is:

CQ: If you were writing for Geordi’s return in a show like Star Trek: Picard, how would you set it up?

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

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Mounting Anson-tipation

By Rosco McQueen

The warm embrace of Trek fandom is something truly unique.  When you finally find it, it turns out it can change your world---one episode at a time. At least, that’s the case for Anson Mount, who is currently filming the first season of Strange New Worlds. In an interview with Collider promoting his new film The Virtuoso, the new Captain Pike was asked about the episodic nature of the new series and explained how a misunderstanding from Akiva Goldsman started it all.

“All (Goldsman) had heard about [Discovery] was that it was going to be a pre-Kirk show, so he assumed it was a show about Captain Pike. He gets in the writers' room and he's like, ‘Wait, what?! This is a different show. Okay, all right. We can play with this, but we've gotta do another show.’ So, he was lobbying for it and lobbying for it and lobbying for it. I got lucky enough to be cast in the role for Season 2 of Discovery…I just thought it was a one season gig and that was it.”

...does anyone else hear Gilbert & Sullivan? Image: ViacomCBS via Collider.

Mount goes on to talk about the episodic nature of Star Trek, and how he feels there is room for both serialized stories like Discovery and big-idea-of-the-week episodes. It’s quite the impact the character has had over only one season, as Mount goes on to express his gratitude for the welcome he received from fans.  

“Honestly, I've never felt such embrace from a fan base, on anything I've done. It is really night and day, and I'm very thankful to everyone with Gene Roddenberry and CBS, and Alex [Kurtzman] and Akiva for putting a huge amount of trust in me to be able to do it.”

Let us know in the comment section for this episode at priorityonepodcast.com, or by replying to our community question post on our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Your Anomaly Must Be In The Form Of A Question

By Cat Hough

Remember all the way back to Episode 504 of Priority One? You know, the one where we encouraged you all to support LeVar Burton becoming the host of Jeopardy!. Well, the powers-that-be heard you---and the 246,000 other people who signed the petition. It was announced that Burton has been included in the latest slate of guest hosts for the 37th season of the show. 

But who'll play him in the inevitable SNL sketch? Image: Variety.

According to the producers of the show, their goal for this season was to showcase a wide variety of hosts with “different skill sets and backgrounds on our path to finding a permanent host.” As part of each guest host’s appearance, a charity of their choice will receive a donation. Burton’s episodes air the week of July 26. The other guest hosts on the list are:

• Good Morning America and This Week With George Stephanopoulos anchor George Stephanopoulos (the week of July 12)
• Fellow GMA anchor Robin Roberts (July 19)
• CNBC Squawk on the Street co-anchor and former Celebrity Jeopardy! champ David Faber (Aug. 2)
• three-time National Sportscaster of the Year award winner sportscaster Joe Buck (Aug. 9), who is known for covering NFL and MLB games on Fox. 

A View To Star Trek History

By Cat Hough

Celebrating the guest host announcement, Burton appeared on The View earlier this week where he confirmed to Whoopi Goldberg that he will not be appearing in season two of Star Trek: Picard. However,  he still leaves fans with some hope that he might appear at some point in future seasons, stating “I believe it is reasonable---in fact practical---to assume that Picard still knows these people. They’re his friends. I think we might see more of his friends. At least I hope we do before this is all over.”

The interview covered a variety of topics, including Burton’s acting history. The two discussed his role as Kunta Kinte in Roots which aired to more than 100 million people around the world in 1977. They continued with Reading Rainbow, of course Star Trek: The Next Generation, and ending with his current podcast project, “LeVar Burton Reads.” 

If you want to imagine it happening like this, we won't stop you. Image: ViacomCBS.

Goldberg and Burton also spoke about inclusivity and the impact of Nichelle Nichols’ role as Lt. Uhura, saying “because what it said was when the future comes, there’s a place for us. And that’s a huge message to send. I believe it’s difficult if not impossible to grow up with a healthy self-image, unless you can see yourself in popular culture.”

Ginning Up Support For Geordi

By Cat Hough

Obviously we, and those other 246,000 people who signed the petition, can’t get enough of LeVar Burton. Even Ryan Reynolds recently sang Burton’s praises. Well, he didn’t literally sing, but in a new ad for Aviation Gin, Reynolds says he wants to prove how great a host of Jeopardy! that Burton would be and he announces that Burton is stepping in for him as the spokesperson for the gin. The scene then cuts to Burton sitting by a pool sipping a “out of this world” gin and tonic made with Aviation Gin. The two banter back and forth, with Reynolds proclaiming that Burton is a “goddamned national treasure.” The ad ends with Burton telling Reynolds “this isn’t going to work out, Ryan.” If nothing else, the ad shows that Burton is definitely an excellent host. 

That leads us to our first community question this week:  

CQ: If you were writing for Geordi’s return in a show like Star Trek: Picard, how would you set it up?

Let us know in the comment section for this episode at priorityonepodcast.com or by replying to our community question post on our Social Media channels like FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram!

De Lancie Makes A Q-meo Appearance

By Jake Morgan

We may be grasping at straws with this story, but it features one John De Lancie---talking at us---so it’s worth a mention (if ONLY to enjoy the thespian’s charisma). In a post on the r/Television subreddit dated April 20th, user u/whatagirlygirl shared a Cameo video from Q himself. De Lancie seemed to be answering a few questions posed by the Cameo submitter---in particular “Please tell us Q gets to harass Picard?” To which the 73 year old De Lancie replied, with great fervor, ”I do”.

Had the exchange ended there, it probably wouldn’t have made the show---though it still would have been well worth a watch. But---and you had to know there was a but---De Lancie continued: ”And please tell us if Whoopie comes back you’re going to harass her as well” “I will.”

De Lancie didn’t back-pedal, he didn’t expound. He just left the possibility of a Q/Guinan reunion there, beautifully, in the ether. What does this mean? Well...nothing, really. But it’s interesting. De Lancie addressed the question---which he could have avoided altogether---and answered it with gusto. Only time will tell.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Going To Pieces For Book’s Ship

By Elio Lleo

Captains, if you love barrel-rolling your way through the galaxy in your favorite pilot warship in Star Trek Online, but all of the available options feel a bit too connected, then this is the story for you.

Announced this week via social media, Grudge’s ship… ahem… former-courier Cleveland Booker’s ship, the Kwejian Pilot Frigate will be available in-game for PC players from May 4. It’s agile! It’s versatile! And its five forward facing weapons will destroy your enemies with style! (Extra cat friend not included. Available only through the Infinity Lockbox. Universal Console limited to this ship.  Phaser cannons not upgradable.  Consult your Chief Medical Officer to ensure this ship is right for you.)  

This Tier 6 pilot warship also has an innate ability---that being, something you don’t need a console for---Morph Reversal!! Much like Book’s ship in season three of Discovery, this starship is highly maneuverable due to the detached…everything.  Using the ability means you can swing your ship into the opposite direction using the morphing mechanisms. But the shuffling of the components will cost you: your weapons and auxiliary subsystems will be briefly disabled.  

So IKEA makes starships now, I guess? Image: Cryptic Studios.

Other highlights include some sweet muti-part animations when performing Pilot Maneuvers, and a suite of 32nd Century Phaser cannons that have a chance to recover recharge time for your bridge officer abilities. The blog post also announced that the contents of the Angels Wake Lockbox have been rolled into the Infinity Lockbox.

...Ohh, That’s What That Tweet Was About

By Elio Lleo

Last week we reported that Michael Dorn kinda broke the #StarTrek Twitter Community with a cryptic post about some kind of return to Starfleet. Well, not long after, we learned what it was all about!! In a tweet posted to his account on April 23rd, we learned that Mr. Dorn has lent his voice to Tilting Point’s newest mobile game Star Trek: Legends. In the marketing post, we hear Worf sending out a distress call from within the Nexus.

So, at least we know for certain what that tweet was about now! But, why introduce a new starship to set the stage for the game? Well, during a press event, ComicBook.com reports that Executive Producer and Creative Director Amir Lotan explained “...we had to kind of set up that the Federation of Planets created this unique starship that's the only starship in the fleet that can go into that realm…we didn't want a starship that would be associated specifically with one of those shows or one of those eras.”

So, if you’re interested in trying out the game it’s currently available exclusively via Apple Arcade for US$4.99 per month or US$49.99 annually. No word yet if we’ll ever see an Android version on Google’s Play Pass.

This week, we’re Trekking Out “Star Trek: Picard”’s First Official Teaser Trailer! Then we’re trekulating about Picard’s filming schedule, what Marina Sirtis knows about her former Captain’s series, and the Orville gets a VR tour.

In our Star Trek Online and gaming news, we speculate on what changes might be coming to Star Trek Online.

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

This Weeks COMMUNITY QUESTIONS are:

What do you think is the big change coming to Star Trek Online that Al talked about?

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

This week on Episode 511 of Priority One: John de Lancie continues to drop some Picard Season 2 hints. In Gaming, we continue our review of the missions that brought the Klingon Civil War to an end in Star Trek Online. We also introduce a new contributor to the show: Dr. Michael J. Chan, with his analysis of “Chain of Command.”

This week’s Community Question is:

Which deep cut character would you like to see in the next season of Lower Decks?

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

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Just Call It Q-meo Already

By Elio Lleo

We told you that you should keep an eye out for Cameo videos recorded by John de Lancie! Once again, he might have spilled the beans and potentially spoiled some character appearances in season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. In one Cameo, he shares what was scheduled to happen on the next day of filming, saying:

"...I've already been shooting, I've had some wonderful scenes with Patrick [Stewart]. It was nice, it was nice working with him again...and tomorrow, I'm...working with Brent. So, I'm really looking forward to that."

So, when he says he’s working with Brent…does that mean we might see Alton Soong? A past version of Data? Remember, Captains, you can join de Lancie’s Cameo Fan Club for free and watch the videos he records for fans!

No Small Parts In Lower Decks' Future

By Cat Hough

Mike McMahan, the creative force behind Star Trek: Lower Decks, has been offering up some interesting tidbits about Seasons 2 and 3 while promoting the recent Season 1 release of Lower Decks on Blu-ray. He told IGN that Season 2 picks up immediately with the fallout after the glorious battle of Riker vs. the Pakleds, Boimler’s promotion to the Titan---and how Mariner, Rutherford and Tendi are dealing with all that. Speaking about his overall vision for the four main characters, McMahan says, “I know where I want them to end up. Let’s watch together how they get there.”

I see Shaxs and Kirk went to the same tailor. Image: ViacomCBS, via IGN.

McMahan also promises there are more cameo roles coming up, but he also indicated some of these could be deeper cuts from Trek canon, saying “So there are some legacy guest roles in the second season and in the third season as well but I think it’s people you’re not going to expect when you get them.” Maybe we will finally get that sweet, sweet Roga Danar cameo?

But we we know who's the most important one. Image: ViacomCBS, via IGN.

That leads us to our first community question this week:   

Which deep cut character would you like to see in the next season of Lower Decks?

Let us know in the comment section for this episode at priorityonepodcast.com or by replying to our community question post on our social media channels like FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram!

McNamara Makes Her Exit

By Rosco McQueen

It could be one of those tapestry-type moments, where you pull at a thread and a whole different world would appear. In terms of enjoying Star Trek on the small screen and with new series in development, one of those threads that had a big impact was Julie McNamara.

Image: ViacomCBS, via Deadline.

For the last 15 years Ms McNamara has worked with CBS and ViacomCBS, her most recent role being head of programming at Paramount+. Deadline reported this week that she is stepping down from the role. In terms of the impact on Star Trek, Ms McNamara has been overseeing the original content strategy for the streaming service. Tom Ryan, ViacomCBS President & CEO, Streaming, announced the exit, saying “Julie’s work and strong relationships with creators and talent led the way for the very first originals on CBS All Access, many of which are still top performers for Paramount+, including Star Trek: Discovery.”

During her tenure at CBS All Access, which she joined as Executive Vice President of Original Content in 2016, she shepherded the new Star Trek universe (Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and the upcoming Strange New Worlds). We can only hope that her replacement works as hard to bring new seasons and series of Star Trek to the screen in the future.

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• If you’ve ever wanted to see Bill Shatner get punched in the face...well, now you can(?)! In a new commercial for CopperGel, Shanter squares up against the one and only Mike Tyson, begging to learn what it’s like to be hit by a heavyweight champ: the heavyweight champ.
• If you’re a fan of Doug Drexler’s work, you might be interested in reading a short interview featuring the Academy Award Winning special effects arts over on Air&Space Magazine. In it, he talks about his influences, his favorite Trek, and more!
• Some exciting news for our sister show, Women at Warp, who just dropped an interview with Gates McFadden to discuss the launch of her podcast, Gates McFadden InvestiGates: Who Do You Think You Are?

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Long Remembered, Soon Repeated?

By Thomas Reynolds

"It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws."

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

The day of judgment dawns, as four would-be leaders face the slings and arrows of their outrageous doings. J’Ula leads the orbital assault of Qo’noS in the crosshairs of her own mycelial nightmare. J’mpok’s dash for the throne turns his servitor races on each other–regicide is a booming industry in First City, and the player gets in on the ground floor. L’Rell races to the Great Hall before the mad Emperor can use “her” hydro bomb against “his” people. And Aakar probably wishes he got his hands on those personal transporters before the final bat’leth comes down. Ah well.

“A Day Long Remembered” ends the Klingon Civil War arc with the Empire under new management and a new face. Or an old face? Cloning is weird. Anyway, J’mpok’s career (and life) ends after J’Ula and L’Rell make a disarming argument in favor of new leadership. Having made good on her deal with Fek’lhr–two conniving schemers for the price of one!–J’Ula hands the Chancellor’s bat’leth off to L’Rell, picking up the Torch for her instead. At the final party, they talk about working closer with the Alliance of 2411–not a promise we’d expect from Klingons of 2255. Their mood is optimistic, but we’ve seen how easily the Empire shatters under the strain of remaining Klingon. And it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’ll be back here, knives in hand, all too soon…

Image: Cryptic Studios.

A Command-ing Market Share

By Shane Hoover

Website PocketGamer.biz has run a short article in an ongoing series that examines market trends in mobile gaming. While the article is a sponsored piece by analytics platform App Annie, it nevertheless shares some interesting metrics that would impress even the Ferengi Commerce Authority.

Image: App Annie, via PocketGamer.

According to the article, the “City Battle Strategy” mobile gaming sector has raked in $2.5 billion in worldwide consumer spending in the first quarter of 2021. That represents a 60 percent growth over last year’s first quarter. If you’re talking about the U.S. market alone, the growth was 90 percent over 2020’s first quarter. Of the top 10 intellectual properties in the City Battle Strategy category, Star Trek Fleet Command is sitting pretty in the top spot. So there’s no denying that Fleet Command is raking in more gold-pressed latinum than Quark’s shady schemes ever dreamed. 

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.

Donate now to Make-A-Wish America!

Captains, we welcome you to join us in our coverage of Creation Entertainment's 2018 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention!! In this first part of our publication, we share with you the audio from Star Trek Online's Age of Discovery panel featuring Mary Wiseman and Rekha Sharma! Then, for a follow-up, Lead Systems Designer Jeremy Randall and Lead Designer Al Rivera join us to answer questions about the upcoming Age of Discovery in Star Trek Online!

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK NEWS PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, "Hi!" Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff. Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week we Trek Out how Black Mirror’s first episode of the new season might end up spinning off to be its own show, Seth MacFarlane with wee baby-face in his home-made Star Trek Fan Film, and we celebrate 50 years of the ToS episode “Trouble with Tribbles.” In Star Trek Online news, we review what players can accomplish during the first part of the new year and In other gaming news, Star Trek Bridge Crew drops the VR requirement! When we visit the Promenade, Jake and Cookie review some hidden gems from the Star Trek and Roddenberry shops! Then, as always, we open hailing frequencies to see what’s incoming! TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • "Black Mirror"'s "U.S.S. Callister" Spinoff?
  • A young Seth Macfarlane's "Star Trek" fan film
  • "The Trouble With Tribbles" Celebrates 50!

• Star Trek Online News
  • (PC) 20% sale on service items in the C-Store
  • (PC) R&D Weekened
  • (PC) Fleet Holding "Colony Beautification" Statue
  • (Console) Marks Weekend
  • (Console) Dranuur Colony Space Traffic
• Star Trek Gaming (OTHER)
  • Star Trek Timelines Anniversary
  • Star Trek Bridge Crew - Not just for VR
• PRIORITY ONE on DISCORD
• The Promenade
  • Star Trek Pride T-shirts
  • Saurian Brandy Glass Set

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST! Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff. Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show! Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week, we’re Trekking Out Picards newest cast members, and Michael Chabon’s Instagram reveal. Then we hear from Michelle Yeoh about Georgiou and her upcoming series, and Co-showrunners Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman dish about Star Trek: Discovery’s sophomore finale.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, there’s a new Command Dreadnought Cruiser available and it’s modeled after Captain Lorca’s USS Buran.

In our On Screen segment, we’re discussing the Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Finale, Episode 14 “Such Sweet Sorrow: Part 2”.

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

This week on Episode 491 of Priority One: We ‘Trek Out’ a couple of interviews with Star Trek’s Doug Jones and Sir Patrick Stewart. Chabon fleshes out some Troi-Riker backstory. Star Trek Gaming has been quiet over the Holidays but, Star Trek Adventures isn’t oblivious to how table-top gaming has been affected by COVID. Later, we review Star Trek: Discovery’s episode “There Is A Tide…”

This Week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: Has Saru earned the same level of reverence as Kirk, Picard, Sisko?

AND

CQ: If 2021 introduced a new Star Trek Game-- what would you hope it would play like? Or if STO made sweeping changes, what do you hope they would be?

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!

TREK IT OUT

Doug Jones Looks Back on Saru's Long, Strange Star Trek Journey

By Elio LLeo

On the heels of Star Trek: Discovery’s third season episode titled “Su’Kal” --- Doug Jones is granted the opportunity to perform without layers of makeup --- io9’s James Witbrook sad down with the actor to discuss his character’s journey and relationships aboard the Discovery. Though it’s a bit of a puff-piece interview, it definitely provides an opportunity to look at the character of Saru through Jones’s perspective.

For instance, when asked about being the first alien Captain of the title ship, Jones replied “Don’t think the gravity of that is lost on me. I know being the captain of a title starship in a Star Trek series—it’s a badge of honor. That’s huge, for me. But then also to be the first alien in that position is also...wow...there’s a little bit of TV history here. And to be a part of that is truly, truly a humbling honor”.

Which got me thinking… Are DISCOVERY viewers already immortalizing Saru in the same way we do Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko? Perhaps, what’s holding me back from elevating him to those standards is the choices that the writers have made with maturing his character.

The interview continued and, Interestingly, the follow-up dives into Jones’s preparation: Where some actors are given an option to explore a long arch with the writers, Jones’s prefers to explore the character much like we do -- episode by episode saying telling io9 // I’ve chosen to be...well, ‘give me some essentials I might need to prepare for, otherwise, episode-by-episode I’m fine.’ When I get a script, I’m like, ‘ooh! What’s this one?’ I have no idea what’s coming. So, when I first signed my first contract for the show—season one—I was Lieutenant Commander Saru, Science Officer on the Starship Shenzhou. I had no idea what was coming. 

Sir Patrick Gets Personal

By Elio LLeo

In another interview, NPR’s Sam Briger of FRESH AIR spoke with Sir. Patrick Stewart back in July about his reprisal of Jean Luc Picard in the new series, Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access. During the interview, Briger asked Sir Patrick if he had revisited some old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation to brush up on the character to which Sir Patrick replied “I'm going to watch "Encounter At Farpoint," which was our pilot episode of the series. And I never did. I ended up never watching a moment of "Next Generation" because - OK, I would have been reminded of some things that I'd forgotten. But that character was inside me.”

Given the plot fo S1 of Star Trek: Picard surrounding A.I., NPR’s Briger then played Picard’s monologue from TNG’s Measure of a Man. Despite not having heard himself deliver the speech in over 30 years, Sir Patrick had quite a bit to say about his own performance. But, that’s not the interesting part of his reply -- when reflecting upon the speech, he recalled a conversation with Whoopi Goldberg “And I don't know who was responsible for that speech, but I've got a feeling that there is one word in what we've just heard that actually didn't belong to one of the writers. I use the word slavery at one point, and that word was given me by Whoopi Goldberg. I remember when she and I - it might have been the same episode, "The Measure Of A Man" - I think it could have been - when Whoopi and I had a scene in the bar of Ten Forward. And in a break, Whoopi said to me, you know, what we're actually talking about here is slavery, and I think it wouldn't be a mistake to introduce that. And so I think that was why that word cropped up. And I was so thrilled that Whoopi had proposed it and so proud that everyone approved it and it went into the episode.”

The interview goes on to discuss Sir Patrick’s personal life -- including his youth and relationship with his father who likely suffered PTSD after serving in the war, his start in acting, and what’s different for him now as an 80 year old actor vs when he was 35. It’s a fascinating insight into the man, so be sure to listen to the entire interview over at NPR. Links - of course - will be in the show notes.

Chabon Talks Nepenthe

By Elio LLeo

Star Trek’s had more than hundreds of writers, over 50 years, to invent its worlds and try to flesh out their inhabitants. So color us impressed–and heartbroken––that Thaddeus Troi-Riker invented an entire planet before he could’ve gotten a 21st-century driver license. Picard’s season one showrunner Michael Chabon took to Medium to expand on Thad’s early life aboard the Titan, briefly mentioned in the episode “Nepenthe”, and his formative interactions with its diverse crew.  It’d be in that early life, where “home” began at Fore and ended at Aft, that the linguistic prodigy started building his own homeworld. And as a natural linguist, he started with its language, Kelu – based on the crew’s own native languages, and eventually adopted as the ship’s unofficial slang.

Before his early death, Thad would build his fictional world of Ardani based on this early exercise in, well, world-building. And when we say world, we’re not talking Ardani’s mere geography: its resident civilizations (six in total), their languages (six, plus the four spoken by non-humanoid “animal” species), and over 5,000 years of shared cultural and political history. The link will be in the show notes – there’s a Tolkeinesque-level of sociopolitical analysis to go through.

Now Elio, I remember you being unsatisfied by story content like this being put in novels and comics like Countdown, rather than on the actual shows. Nothing in Chabon’s post is important to understanding Picard. And we never even get to meet Thad in the show because of his terminal case of Plot Syndrome. But do we leave Ardani feeling enlightened by what we’ve learned about the show, or frustrated by what we couldn’t have in its 13-episode season?

Doohan Smuggled into Space

By Cat Hough

On December 19, Chris Doohan, son of James Doohan, tweeted that he had been keeping a secret for over 12 years. What was this big secret? Well, back in 2008, his father’s ashes were smuggled onto the International Space Station. His father, James Doohan, better known as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, died in 2005 at the age of 85, had always wanted to go to space, so his son Chris concocted a plan to get him there. 

He enlisted the help of Richard Garriott, who was one of the first private citizens to make it to the ISS. Garriott carried 3 laminated cards that included some of his ashes and a photo of Doohan. One of the cards  was brought back to give to Chris and is now framed in his California home, another card, Garriott let float off into space, the other was hidden in the space station’s Columbus module. Garriott stated, “James Doohan got his resting place among the stars.”

Notable Notes

• Voyager Documentary, crowdfunding campaign starts March 1 - here’s the video announcement
• Lower Decks - coming to Amazon Prime on January 22 - finally International folks can watch! 
• John De Lancie - Cameo announcement - there’s more of him to come! 

Star Trek Gaming News

by Thomas Reynolds & Shane Hoover

Is Today A Good Day For Dice?

By Thomas Reynolds

You’re stuck at home. You’ve gone through your bookshelf twice. And your goldfish don’t have any more good Netflix recommendations. Computer: set course for immersion.

If the pandemic has been a boon to anything, it has to be online gaming. But this crisis too shall pass, leaving tabletop RPG players wondering: is online play where it’ll be at from now on? Are the days of dead tree sourcebooks, clacky dice, and actual physical interactions behind us? Apologies to our vast Vulcan audience, but the answer’s a perfectly illogical yesno.

Michael Dismuke’s recent poll on the Star Trek Adventures TTRPG Facebook site posed a simple question: how many players would stay online for their STA experiences? The benefits are clear: recent explosive growth of online STA platform support, relatively easier scheduling, all in the pantsless comfort of your own home.

The poll results were mixed, yet somewhat symmetrical. Half of the respondents (52%, technically) said they’d return to mixed platform play, while 18% said they were never going back or had always played online. Finally, 4% said they’d either stay on their online platform of choice, or never had used them in the first place.

But what the community universally appreciates is STA’s unique roots in a hopeful message. As Dismuke notes, “While we sit amidst a bed of social unrest, Star Trek promises a better future where the problems of today have been solved in the ‘morrow….[h]aving players walk away feeling like their characters have made a positive contribution to society is a big plus. Not all RPGs are designed to do this. Thank goodness we have STA.  With respect to the dataset, we can conclude...meh. People will seek their own ways to the Final Frontier, we just want them to do it safely.”

This week on Episode 498 of Priority One: We Trek Out what Spiner has to say about a TNG reboot? A new book featuring Cristóbal Rios is on the horizon. And we’ve learned what the next event in Star Trek Online is slated to be.

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

This Week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: If there was a feature film reboot of the Next Generation, who would you cast as Data?

AND

CQ: What bridge officer traits do you rely on for your builds in Star Trek Online?

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

TREK IT OUT

Brent Spiner - Next Gen Reboot

Brent Spiner recently sat down with SYFY Wire to discuss a plethora of things from his upcoming book, “Fan Fiction: A Mem-noir: Inspired by True Events,” to what tips he would give to Patrick Stewart on portraying an android Jean-Luc for Picard season 2. Spoiler alert by the way. Amongst the many topics touched upon was one in particular which will undoubtedly provide some Trek trivia fodder. It turns out that before Spiner suggested that he play Dr. Noonian Soong, Data’s creator, a different actor had already been cast in the role. Keye Luke was set to play the part originally. Having a role in the TOS episode, Whom Gods Destroy, Luke is most well known as Master Po from the Kung Fu TV series in the 70’s and as the shop owner who cares for Gizmo in the Gremlins movies. Spiner was unaware that an actor had already been cast and tried to rescind his suggestion afterwards. But the creative team decided to have Spiner play the part and begin building the impressive list of characters and personalities that Spiner would ultimately play. And which of those characters is his favorite to play? ”I always liked playing Lore, because Lore is really more like me than any of the other characters I’ve ever played because I am evil.”  Spiner also credits Michael Westmore with helping him create the character of Noonian Soong. Talking about the Soong makeup, Spiner said, “When he put it on me and I looked in the mirror, I knew exactly how to play the part. I owe him a lot, because I think we collaborated on that.” Later on in the interview Spiner was asked about the future of Star Trek. In addition to enjoying the recent Star Trek movies, Spiner said, “I think that sooner or later, they’re going to do a reboot, a motion picture version of Next Generation, and cast some young guys in our parts.”

Star Trek: Picard: Rogue Elements

If you were a fan of Spanish Han Solo… I mean, Cristóbal Rios -- Captain of La Sirena… then you might want to mark your calendars for August 17th! New York Times Bestseller, John Jackson Miller is taking you on a spicy adventure featuring your favorite tall, dark, spanish drink of water. Based on events occurring PRIOR to meeting Picard and taking on the Synth Plot to rid the galaxy of all organic life, Miller’s book, “Rogue Elements” takes on adventures with ”exotic lovers and locales... as well as dangers galore -- and Rios learns the hard way that good crew members are hard to find”.

ASTROMETRICS REPORT

By Dr. Robert Hurt

For this week's Astrometrics Report, what else could I talk about other than the incredible feat of interplanetary gymnastics, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory once again sticking the landing by delivering the Perseverance rover to the surface of Mars? There were a lot of happy faces in Mission Control on February 18th, when the "all's well" signals came back from the Red Planet.

You may have a sense of déjà vu looking at this new rover since it bears a strong resemblance to its younger sibling, the highly-successful Curiosity rover. This is no accident: Perseverance is essentially built on the same chassis. When you have a flexible design that's been proven to work, it makes sense to leverage that technology moving forward.

Of course, Perseverance brings a lot of new technologies to bear. NASA's website explains that the mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself.

It also provides opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies to address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources like subsurface water, improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.

Personally I'm most excited over the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a technology testbed to pave the way for more flexible aerial explorations of our neighboring planet. Building a drone for Mars is not trivial: when the surface pressure is only 1% that of Earth at sea level, you have to crank out a lot more lift than your typical off-the-shelf drone. Everything we learn from Ingenuity's performance will help us design a new generation of flying laboratories that can be sent to Mars and other places in the Solar System.

But if you just want to watch something cool, another mission first includes actual video document of the descent and landing. This is the first time we can see the mind-numbing complexity of the landing sequence directly, instead of relying on visual effects simulations. Adding the diagnostic cameras did cut into the tightly-controlled weight budget for the mission, but it will give engineers lots of insight to how well the technologies are performing...in addition to giving us a great show.

Perseverance has already sent back an incredible panorama of its landing site within the Jezero Crater, and even recording what the surface of Mars sounds like. Scientists think that about 3.5 billion years ago, Jezero Crater was actually a lake before Mars lost most of its atmosphere and surface water. This was identified as an ideal place to look for any hints that Mars could have harbored life early in its history. There won't be any quick answers here, but the instruments on Perseverance are well-suited to study the geological clues in this exciting new locale.

Make sure to keep an eye on NASA's website in the coming months to see what Perseverance learns.

Star Trek Gaming News

by Thomas Reynolds, Shane Hoover & Anthony Cox

Extinction Events and Campaign Trails

By Thomas Reynolds

The 11th Anniversary celebrations are over, captains. So now it’s obviously time for another grind. As first seen in an unintended Ten Forward stream leak, the next STO event is a 3-week Voth Advance reprise, from February 25th-March 18th, probably following the daily-TFO-for-14-days format. Players can earn Molor’s Flaming Sword by completing either “The Breach” or “Storming the Spire” daily during the event. This round of the Voth Advance also starts off the third of STO’s popular Event Campaigns. But will it be worth the fatigue this time around? The grand prize for 2021 is either 1500 Lobi, a T6 Zen Store ship, or a Premium T6 Starship Choice. So I’d say yes, yes it is. Read more about the event in our shownotes.

Fair Trait Associations

By Thomas Reynolds

Bridge crew: even if they aren’t doing kick flips all the time, they’re an essential part of any Star Trek story. They tap consoles, tap each other, and help the audience tap into each show’s heart and history. And sometimes, we even learn their names! Although maybe it takes until Season 2 to get there.

In Star Trek Online, your bridge crew serves another purpose beyond away parties and eye candy. As your species, career, and lockbox luck give you stat-improving traits, boff traits improve your captainly effectiveness too. Some are useful in very, very specific situations. Nelen Exil --- HE gets knocked down, then he gets up again, so they’ll never keep him down. Might not sound useful to your phaser-basted corpse, but a team medic who isn’t one-and-done isn’t a bad idea.

However, the most highly-prized boffs offer traits for space combat and ground. Everyone–not just DPS chasers and PvPers–should look around their bridge and ask if they’re truly getting peak performance. Space traits won’t make-or-break builds, but don’t leave weapon crit bonuses and hull regen buffs on the ready room table. We asked...well, solicited…alright, pestered the P1 production crew to share space boff traits they prefer on their builds. We’ll discuss a few here for your listening pleasure, with the full list in the shownotes.

Star Trek Timelines Adds New “Crew Retrieval” System

By Anthony Cox

Over in the mobile world of Star Trek gaming, Star Trek Timelines has added a new feature to help players retrieve specific crew members for their collections. Timelines is a game where you collect crew members from all the various timelines and time periods of Star Trek, assemble them on a team, and battle against mission requirements. It’s pretty much Star Trek: Pokemon. There are several rarities of crew members and it can sometimes be frustrating trying to collect that one specific character you need to complete your collections. Well, Tilting Point, the relatively new owners of Star Trek Timelines, has released a helpful, yet somewhat complicated new system. The Crew Retrieval system. The scan feature, which is not new, is used to gain random items throughout the day. Scans were free every 3 hours. Now, scans cost a new currency called ISM or Interstellar Medium. And each scan result not only grants you a random item, but also gives you a chance to gain a constellation. Every time you scan without gaining a constellation the chance you’ll get one on the next scan increases. So, what do you do with constellations. Well, using more ISM you can open constellations which will grant you Polestars. What’s a Polestar you ask? A Polestar gives you the ability to narrow down a single variable to reduce the pool of crew members from which you’re trying to retrieve. These variables can be a skill, a trait, or a rarity. Once you’ve set up to 4 polestars you then spend credits and, you guessed it, a NEW type of currency called Quantum, to retrieve your crew member. If you’ve narrowed it down enough it might not be a random pull. For example, let’s say you’re looking for Grand Nagus Rom, he’s a 5 star rarity, has the traits Ferengi, Diplomat, Politician, and has the skills Command, Diplomacy, and Engineer. So you could use a Polestar for rarity 5-star, a Polestar for the Ferengi trait, one for the Politician trait, and one for the Engineer skill. That will hopefully narrow down the pool to just Grand Nagus Rom. Then spend your credits and quantums and see what you get. When a Polestar is pulled from a constellation it already has a specific attribute. Either a specific rarity, trait, or skill. So you’ll need to find the right ones if you’re looking to zone in on that specific crew member.
Star Trek Timelines is available in the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Steam, Facebook, and Windows App Store.

This week on Episode 518 of Priority One: Comic-Con@home brings us new trailers for Star Trek: Prodigy and Lower Decks, and Saru and Stamets look ahead to season four of Discovery.  In gaming news, we go back and forth on the Courage-class coming to Star Trek Online, and some new shiny textures for your favourite Romulan Captain.

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Comic-Con@home - Lower Decks

By Cat Hough

As we anxiously await the premiere of Season 2 of Lower Decks, we were treated to a brand new trailer last week during Comic-Con@home. Based on the trailer, Season 2  has all the things we loved in Season 1 plus so much more. How much more? The best villains! Including Cardassians, Pakleds, Ferengi, Nauciscans, some giant slime monster and the incomparable Jeffrey Combs makes an appearance as an evil computer. We also see a new Tamarian crew member who had this to say when welcomed to the bridge: “Rapungee - when he joined the Seven.”

Tom Paris also shows up in Season 2...in commemorative plate form, though. Also, an interesting side note in the news: Robert Duncan McNeill was invited to reprise Tom Paris for Season 1 of Picard but, due to scheduling conflicts. he was not able to make it work. So maybe we’ll see more Tom Paris at some point. Season 2 of Star Trek: Lower Decks starts August 12 on Paramount+.

Comic-Con@home - Prodigy

By Jake Morgan

But Lower Decks wasn’t the only Star Trek series to get some Comic-Con attention. We were also treated to our first look at Star Trek: Prodigy! In the 52 second trailer for Prodigy’s inaugural season, we’re introduced to the main cast: Dal, Gwyn, Zero, Rok-Tahk, Murf, and Jankom Pog, The main cast also features the stunning new-to-crew U.S.S. Protostar (which looks like a cross of the Intrepid- and Rhode Island-class) and the timeless Captain Katherine Janeway–who reminds us that ”we’ve only just begun.”

During the Comic-con@home panel, the creators, director, and cast–including Star Trek royalty Kate Mulgrew–joined the ever-entertaining Jerry O'Connell to discuss the newest Star Trek series. EP Kevin Hageman pointed out that this would be the first Star Trek series ”that’s actually going to be seen through the eyes of characters who are outside of Starfleet.”

In discussing Prodigy’s place in Star Trek mythos, the Hageman brothers recognized that this would be the “Little Brother or Little Sister” member of the franchise, but wanted to “punch up.” Kate Mulgrew reiterated the sentiment, saying “Children are very astute. You’ve grasped an essential component of the childlike imagination, which is extraordinary perception. They need to be grounded while taking flight at the same time. And this–you have achieved.” The trailer is a must watch, and the panel is super-entertaining and informative.

Stamets And Saru In Season 4

By Rosco McQueen

Everyone’s favorite Kelpien [the other white meat–Ed.] has been on the interview circuit in the past couple of weeks, with Doug Jones talking about the release of Discovery Season 3 on DVD.  In an interview with SYFY Wire, Jones spoke about Saru’s heartbreak at the revelation that a fellow Kelpien was responsible for the Burn. He also confirmed that filming on Season 4 continues in Toronto and, even though Saru’s left the command chair, he still has plenty to do.

"Damn, Starbase 80?!?" Image: Michael Gibson/CBS, via SYFY.

“After we got home to LA during hiatus last year, I called Michelle Paradise myself and said, 'Should I expect to go back for Season 4? Because, they left me on-camera teaching Su'Kal the ways of the Kelpians.’ She said, ‘Oh, no, you're back. You're back.’ But the question will remain that Starfleet does not strip you of your rank, so I am still a captain. Where do they plug me in? That's the question.”

In an interview with Screen Rant, Discovery actor Anthony Rapp spoke about the cast and their Dungeons & Dragons sessions, and rejected claims he'll become the series villain. You may suspect that’s where the relationship is going–at the end of Season 3 we saw Paul Stamets not being particularly friendly with the newly-minted Captain Michael Burnham.

When you find out you have to be the party healbot. Image: ViacomCBS, via ScreenRant

Rapp was quick to shut down the villain rumors. “No, no. He's like a consummate professional. He hated [Captain] Lorca but he still did his job. And he doesn't hate Michael. He was just hurt. It was a different situation. Ultimately, he's a smart person and understands [why Michael became Captain] but it still stung, the way that it happened.”

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• What is it like to host Jeopardy!? According to LeVar Burton, it’s scary.  But he said once he focused on making the most of his hosting chances and stopped trying to “be as smooth as Alex” that he was able to relax more and be his wonderful self. We hope you all have had a chance to Trek out his episodes. 
• Marina Sirtis spoke about the on-again off-again idea of a Captain Worf series, throwing her support behind it. She explained she would love to be a small part of it, and the potential of having a series focused on the Klingons.
• And at the recent Comic-Con@home event, the Stargate Atlantis reunion panel had some small Trek nuggets for aspiring sci-fi actors. Robert Picardo spoke about the fan crossover between Star Trek and Stargate, and how his previous acting roles meant he was better prepared for science fiction roles. His advice: get your feet wet in some other acting jobs before delving into the world of sci-fi.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Courage Of Your Promotions

By Cat Hough

Star Trek Online continues to look to the future–or at least continues to look to Discovery when picking new promo ships. This week, the 32nd century Courage-class Command Science Destroyer joins the list of ships available as a R&D and Duty Officer pack reward choice. This ship switches from Science Mode to Tactical Mode by reversing direction. In Tactical Mode, you get access to a Commander Tactical station, the Coherent Integrity Projector Experimental Weapon is enabled and you get a boost to hull capacity. It’s a Science ship–but it's also a Destroyer so it’s equipped with 4 front and 3 aft weapons [or is it 3 front and 4 aft?–Ed.]. The starship trait, Directional Bias, provides bonus Exotic Damage or Healing when using bridge officer abilities based on where you are attacked. Overall, this ship looks to provide a lot of build options for those lucky enough to win one.

Now does that make it any easier to parallel park, though. Image: Cryptic Studios.

Let Freedom BLAST

By Cat Hough

Starting today through August 2nd, the Freedom-class Exploration Frigate, otherwise known as the U.S.S. Franklin from Star Trek: Beyond will be available in the Lobi Store. Plus! Everything in the Lobi Store is 20% off. The ship’s unique console is the interesting VHF Disruptive Transmission. When activated, it will blast high frequency radio waves towards nearby foes, dealing significant electrical damage and boosts your turning radius while it’s active. And it can be equipped in any console slot, on any ship. 

D’deridex? Don’t Mind If I Do

By Cat Hough

Some breaking news for Romulan ship fans [we know you’re out there–Ed.]:  the D’deridex and Scimitar classes are freshly remastered starting today. Just when you were getting bored with those ships’ looks, they go and make them all shiny. Thanks to Donny "Viper" Versiga, a ship artist at Cryptic for posting some excellent before and after images–it’s so nice to see those ships get some love. 

It’s Canon: Donny Loves Connie

By Rosco McQueen

Speaking of Donny, he recently spoke with the folks at MassivelyOP about ship design. They covered off his favourite captain (Kirk) and his favorite starship (Connie refit) in short order, then went on to talk about the design process for Star Trek Online. Donny explains that fresh designs are from the incredibly talented Hector Ortiz, with as many as 20 designs put together as the team refines the looks of a particular ship. 3-D models are created, then once the final ship design is selected, that model is sent to the Ship Team to build.  

He also spoke about the updates to older Starship models, which has become a large part of the game. Donny explains that as PC/console hardware power has increased over the years, the amount of detail STO can provide per ship has increased, sometimes three times as much detail as was previously seen on starship models.  It’s a great look behind the scenes at the process.

This week, we’re talking about the casting of Ethan Peck as a young Spock in Star Trek: Discovery, CBS expands its subscription options for All Access on Amazon Prime Video channels, and WORF is watching you...from the International Space Station.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re catching up on all the latest that the gaming world has to offer...and later Jayce is here with another Trek Lit 101.

Finally, we’ve got a real treat for you: an interview with Doug Murray, show manager for Creation Entertainment, about his experiences managing the DeForest Kelley theatre, and what it’s like running a fan convention behind the scenes.

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

THIS WEEK'S COMMUNITY QUESTION

Do you or did you subscribe to CBS All Access? Will you subscribe again when new Trek content starts coming out?

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Trek It Out
  • Spockbound
  • CBS All-Access Commercial Subscription Available on Amazon Channels
  • WORF is Watching
• Star Trek Gaming News
  • New Destroyer Class Starships Now Available in STO
  • Star Trek Online Foundry Contest
  • Star Trek Adversaries Romulan Invasion Trailer
• Trek Lit 101
• Interview with Doug Murray, show manager for Creation Entertainment

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook: facebook.com/priorityonepodcast
• Twitter: twitter.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)
• Instagram: instagram.com/priorityonepod (@priorityonepod)

JOIN THE PRIORITY ONE ARMADA AND GAME WITH US!

• YouTube: Priority One Network
• Twitch: twitch.tv/priorityone
• Chat with us on Discord!

HELP WANTED

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. All of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few samples to incoming@priorityonepodcast.com.

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Priority One --- We trek out Comicbook.com’s interview with Jonathan Frakes, STLV 2020’s future, how “The Saint” might save Kirk, and Quarantine pastimes. In Star Trek Gaming, Herocollector opens Star Trek Online ships for pre-order, and La Sirena flies! Then we open hailing frequencies for 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: Will you be purchasing tickets for Star Trek Las Vegas 2020?

AND

CQ: Will you be purchasing “La Sirena” in Star Trek Online?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Jonathan Frakes Talks With ComicBook.com

These are trying times. It’s easy to feel lost and confused. Empty. But stay strong, this won’t last forever. Star Trek will RETURN! To help ease our no-new-Star-Trek-blues, ComicBook.com’s Jamie Lovett delivered a video interview with the iconic Jonathan Frakes.

Spoiler alert - if you haven’t seen Star Trek: Discovery or Picard, go watch them.  We’ll wait. Okay, good. Frakes and Lovett discussed the state of Star Trek and the tonal shift  Discovery will be experiencing in season 3. ’’At the end of season two, we flash-forwarded I think 930 years. Michael Burnham has found a new core, not to mention a new partner in crime. So again, there's a big tonal shift on that show, less driven by the pain and guilt of her past and more about the magical reunification of the Discovery crew and wherever she went off to.[...] So those two things coming back together is very much the theme, and how grateful everyone is and what's next. It's got a lot of action-adventure and not so much pain."

Frakes also talked about getting back in the center seat in Picard’s season 1 finale, 'Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2’ "That was a really different experience because I was alone. I was 'self-directing.' I was in a captain's chair. I had a spacesuit on. I had my beard trimmed, my Riker hair put back on, my bald spots covered up. It felt very familiar, and it was like a flashback. Because of how well 'Nepenthe' went, I was less nervous and, I got to say, thrilled to have been asked back, to be perfectly frank."

STLV Tickets On Sale, To The Surprise of Many

On April 17th, San Diego Comic Con announced that its 2020 convention - which was set to kick off July 23rd and run until July 26th - was cancelled. The news shook geekdom, but it was not terribly surprising, and most considered the move responsible. But what of the official Star Trek Las Vegas convention set to run just two weeks after the now-cancelled SDCC? Surely that would be cancelled too?  Right? Right?!? .

Wrong. For now,anyway. In an update posted to their web page and social media outlets, Creation released in part ”We hope you have been staying safe and healthy during this challenging time. While Creation has been social distancing as a team, we are still working hard to make the upcoming Official Star Trek Convention a grand celebration of Gene Roddenberry’s legacy for a hopeful future.  The event is set for August 5-9, 2020 at The Rio All-Suites Resort and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas[...]As something to look forward to this summer, we can’t wait to spend another truly intergalactic time in Vegas! Your devoted Trekker friends at Creation Entertainment”

The announcement was met with a wide variety of reactions, with most questioning the motives of the move. What do you think?

Chris Pine In Talks to Reboot “The Saint”

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed a possible Star Trek movie, and this story might be a reach, but it’s worth mentioning. On April 21st, Variety broke the story that Chris Pine - JJ’s Captain Kirk - was in negotiations to star in Paramount’s reboot of “The Saint”.

“The Saint” is a 1920’s book series, written by Leslie Charteris, featuring a Robin Hood-esq hero named Simon Templar. But the books, and their screen adaptations - starring Roger Moore and Val Kilmer - aren’t  the real story here. This is ”Paramount and Pine have had strong ties for many years. Their relationship goes back to 2009 when the studio hired him to play Captain Kirk in the latest “Star Trek” franchise, launching his career as a leading man in the process. While the fourth “Star Trek” film is still being developed, the studio saw “The Saint” as the perfect role for Pine as they wait for that script to be finished.”. Does this confirm that Noah Hawley’s Trek will star the Kelvin cast or is the reporter speculating? Only time will tell!

Star Trek Cast Talks Binging

You’ve watched every Star Trek series. Three times. All the way through. And quarantining is Driving. You. Bananas. So what do you do with your time? Star Trek alumni may have some suggestions for you!

IGN asked Star Trek’s Discovery and Picard casts what they’re binging during this era of social distancing. Sonequa Martin-Green, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, Isa Briones, and others talked about the movies,shows, books and games getting them through Covid-19. To find out who’s go-to show is “The Office”, or who ISN’T playing Star Trek Online - hint: it’s all of them - trek out the link in our show notes!

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

Hero Collector Opens STO Ships For Pre-Order

If you’ve been staying up-to-date on Star Trek merchandise and STO news this year, you’ll know that Hero Collector has announced seven Star Trek Online models joining their Eaglemoss collection. This week Hero Collector and Cryptic Studios officially announced pre-ordering for the first two ships in the collection. The Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser and the Chimera Heavy Destroyer can be pre-ordered now for $29.95 from Eaglemoss.com. The other five ships still to come are the Enterprise F, the Andromeda Exploration Cruiser, the Bortasqu War Cruiser, the Vastam Tactical Command Warbird, and the Pathfinder Long Range Science Vessel. 

La Sirena Warps Into STO

If you’ve been eagerly waiting for the ships of Star Trek: Picard to make an appearance in Star Trek Online, then the latest news from Cryptic should excite you. On Tuesday, March 28th, Ambassador Kael posted a blog announcing the release of the T6 “La Sirena” Heavy Raider. The ship reproduces in great detail Captain Cristóbal Rios’ La Sirena. However, Cryptic Lead Artist Thomas Marrone pointed out in a tweet that “The STO version is not the same exact type of ship as the original La Sirena. It's significantly bigger, about 30-40 meters longer, so that it can be considered a "capital ship" in STO. You'll notice we scaled the window down to illustrate this.”

There are a number of interesting points to the stats and capabilities of this new ship. For starters, the ship has only four Bridge Officer seats, but two of these are Commander seats.As a heavy raider, the ship has a 5 forward weapon  but, only a 1 aft weapon, with an Experimental Weapon slot and Improved Raider Flanking. The ship also boasts Pilot Maneuvers. It’s interesting to note that while the Bridge Officer layout of the ship appears limited, it seems the ship’s new Universal console and Starship Trait are designed to greatly improve Bridge Officer ability cooldowns. To see the full stats, Trek out the blog link in our show notes.

La Sirena will be another new Tier 6 ship joining the ever-growing T6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack, and as such is only available through Promotional Research and Development Duty Officer Packs. You can also purchase the ship on the in-game Exchange, though such Promotion ships are typically upwards of 1 Billion EC.

EVENTS

Next weekend, May 7th through May 11th, PC players will have a Research and Development Weekend. During the event, you’ll earn 50% more XP from R&D Schools, as well as bonuses to R&D materials packs obtained through the C-Store and in-game. Material harvest nodes in Ground and Space missions will also reward bonus R&D materials, Dilithium ore, and possibly an upgrade Catalyst.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

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

Epsilon Fleet - another Tier V upgrade almost ready to go on cooldown.

• Mirror Month!  
• Doctor Zeanto Soong’s Synth Creation

TOP TIP

As we rapidly approach the end of STO’s “Winter in Spring” special event, are you struggling to get your hands on enough Winter collectibles to claim the 200 Lobi event prize? If so, or you’re new to the STO Winter Event, we have a reminder for you. One of the fastest ways to earn the holiday items is through the Duty Officer assignment system. Just transwarp each of your game characters into the Winter Wonderland, and open the Duty Officer assignment system. From the “Current Map” tab, start all of the assignments available. The assignments vary in duration and amount of collectibles rewarded. But with just a few alt characters chipping in, you’ll be able to collect holiday items much faster than through event grinding alone.

Happy Holidays in April! And grab that 200 Lobi while you can!

OTHER GAMING NEWS

Star Trek Adventures Bundle

Chances are you’ve heard of digital storefront Humble Bundle. Where Humble Bundle typically deals in software bundles, similar storefront Bundle of Holding deals in tabletop RPG products. And right now is a great time to Trek them out, because they’re offering fourteen Star Trek Adventures products from Modiphius Entertainment. By contributing the minimum of $19.95, you’ll receive PDF downloads of seven game source materials, including the Core Rulebook. If you contribute beyond the $40.58 threshold price, you’ll be able to download a lovely family of space salamanders and their offspring. Wait, no, sorry, wrong threshold. What you’ll actually get is the “Gamemaster Collection”, including the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook, several game scenarios, and the Gamemaster Screen. The whole bundle at retail is priced at $155. All products are offered completely free of DRM, for ease of movement across your devices. Ten percent of every contribution to the bundle, after fees, will be donated to Vision Rescue, a charity chosen by Modiphius Entertainment.

This week, we’re Trekking Out advice from a golden wizard, and CBS’ response. Then we chat about what Picard’s old friends think about a reunion, #StarTrekantino’s progress, and the farewell tour for an Icon.

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re getting a new reputation track with Rise of Discovery, our weekly top tip returns, and you can now virtually battle Klingons while enjoying nachos and your favorite pale ale. Then, we’re joined by two members of the star trek tribute band - The Roddenberries - and they invite you all to join them for their second album release party coming up in June in Philadelphia.

This Weeks COMMUNITY QUESTIONS are:

What Merchandising Venue do YOU hope CBS most improves? Video Games, Toys, Interactive media, Podcasts, Conventions, events...Anything!

- And -

Are you excited about this new Discovery reputation in Star Trek Online? Do you think there are too many Reputations already in the game?

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

This week on Episode 466 of Priority One --- We ‘Trek Out’ Star Trek’s Emmy campaigning, more “Lower DeckS” news, and non-Simon Pegg movie news - sort of. In Star Trek gaming, Timelines releases it’s newest event, and fleet command takes to the air waves!

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 Question Is:

CQ:  If Star Trek’s Next Silver Screen Offering DOESN’T Feature The Kelvin-Crew, What Do You Want it to be About?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Sir Patrick Talks with Deadline

It’s campaign season again, but not Red Hats VS. Blue Waves or any other such nonsense. We’re talking about important stuff - campaigning for Entertainment industry awards. Okay, so campaigning for a trophy may NOT be as important as deciding who makes the policies that govern our lives, but it’s what we cover!

On Saturday June 20th, “Star Trek: Picard” Executive Producer and Star - Sir Patrick Stewart - sat down with Deadline’s Dominic Patten to discuss the series; and make a pitch for an Emmy on “Contender’s TV”.

Stewart, as has become custom, led with the tale of his initial rejection of a Picard revival. He did, however, refer to a project we often discuss on this program - Logan. I compared it to the last movie that Hugh Jackman and I did in the X-men franchise - Logan - which could not have been more different from every single moment in the films that have gone before. And I said,’if you can do something like that - not the same thing - you know -I don’t want to be driving around chanting nursery rhymes in a [EXPLETIVE] old wheel chair. But if you can find that transformation of the man and his spirit, then I’m up for it.

Stewart also talked about his excitement in reuniting with his former Next Gen co-stars before giving away a possible hint about season 2 It was a very desirable and a very emotional experience, to be reunited with Jonathan, with Marina Sirtis. And with Brent who, although he doesn’t appear that often, he has a very significant role in season one, and maybe he might again in season two. But I can say no more than that. Sorry to be so coy.

Hanelle Culpepper Talks with Variety

Patrick Stewart wasn’t alone on the campaign trail. This week, Star Trek director and trailblazer - Hannelle Culpepper - talked with Variety about directing Picard’s first three episodes.

Culpepper discussed her visual approach to the series, saying I wanted it to feel inspired by where Picard was on his emotional journey. He was living in a vineyard; he felt trapped. So I wanted to have a little bit more of a static frame, and then go handheld once his world is rocked [in the pilot]. We switch to handheld cameras pretty much as much as possible after that. It’s “Star Trek,” we have to get those big, cinematic shots with drones and cranes and stuff, but we always wanted to not forget that it’s really a character- driven series with Picard at the heart..

In regards to directing Sir Patrick Stewart, and the cohesion of the writers and actors, Culpepper said Because he was so involved with the writers, a lot of the things that he felt about his character were already incorporated into the script. So for me, it was just about creating the safe space where he could do the things he wanted to do. He was still collaborative with me. But ultimately, it was nice to be in a situation where the actor and the writers are all on the same page for who this character is.

“Lower Decks” Images, a Tease of Cameos

It seems the “Lower Decks”  hype train is leaving the station, which means the show can’t be far behind. This week, Entertainment Weekly discussed the animated Star Trek series with creator and showrunner Mike McMahon.

McMahon once again separated “Lower Decks” from his other hit cartoon comedy, “Rick and Morty”, telling EW ”The fun of Rick and Morty is that it breaks down sci-fi tropes and is told through Rick Sanchez, who has a very specific, chaotic, nihilistic lens,” he says. “Lower Decks treats mythological sci-fi things just as important as a regular Trek show, while finding new stories to tell — just from a different angle. It's not disassembling mythological sci-fi things. It's treating them as important for everybody on the starship as it would be in a regular star Trek show.”

McMahon confirmed the series takes place during “The Next Generation”’s  time period before teasing possible cameos, saying ”Next Gen is my favorite era. And as a huge Trek fan, I would definitely want to try to use some of them so that I could not only build out the world, but also work with some of my heroes. But I can't get more specific than that. You'll have to wait and see.”

Along with the story are a couple of new stills, one featuring a dirty and torn crew with TNG Type II Phasers pulled, and another with the Lower Decks gang enjoying - what looks to be - margaritas!

Zachary Quinto Done With Spock?

Now, let’s talk Star Trek movies for a second. Before you ask, this is NOT another interview with Simon Pegg, but don’t worry, he’s involved peripherally. 

This week, Kelvin-Spock actor Zachary Quinto was promoting the second season of his AMC series - NOS4A2 - with comicbook.com. The conversation turned to Star Trek, and Quinto was asked for his thoughts on - wait for it - SIMON PEGG’s comments about Star Trek being more suited for Television. Quinto responded ”It's already thriving in the television format with Discovery and Picard and the spinoffs," Quinto said. "I can't even keep track of how many new Star Trek stories are being told since our last film in 2016. All I know is that we, all of us, had an incredible experience making those films. If there is an appetite for more of those stories with us in them, I'm sure that we would all be thrilled to come back and do one more or whatever, but I'm not really attached to it anymore.”

Quinto elaborated on his comment,saying ”I stepped away from any expectation or any real certainty that it's ever going to happen again. I think that's the only real way to move through the world, right? If it happens, that'd be great, but I'm not going to sit around waiting for it to happen.[...] I have lifelong friendships from those films and working relationships and a lot of respect and fond memories, so if that's what it ends up being and I can look back on my life and say that's what it was, then that's incredible, and if we get to do more, that's also incredible.”

Does this mean that the Noah Hawley project won’t feature the Kelvin-timeline crew? No, not definitively. But it certainly doesn’t instill confidence that it will, either!

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Timelines Event: “Against the House”

June continues to be a big month for Star Trek Timelines players, as the “Before & After”-inspired Mega-Event’s third installment runs from June 25th to June 29th. Kes’s voyage through her people’s past continues with “Against the House,” a Galaxy Event for the Federation and Terran Empire factions. This event’s Ranked Reward is the new 5-star Krenim Guest Chakotay, along with new 5-star Dr. Van Gogh, 4-star Karyn Archer (as seen in the Enterprise episode “E²”), and returning 4-star Krenim officer Obrist as Event Crew. As always, players will receive a high bonus for the Event Crew and the Mega-Event’s recurring Featured 5-star crew Suspira; small bonuses will apply for any variant of the Doctor (EMH) or crew with the Warp Theorist or Caregiver traits.

Star Trek Fleet Command Launches a Podcast

Star Trek Fleet Command has published the first episode of their own official podcast called “Commander’s Hub”. The inaugural episode features a wide ranging interview with game designer Keenser, covering such topics as:

• The impact of COVID-19 on the game’s development
• How they prioritize bug fixing
• Adding a “Black Market” mechanic to the game
• Targeting new content to both low and high level players
• PC game client possibilities
• Game server merge needs and plans
• The lifecycle for Borg Event content

This week on Episode 526 of Priority One:  the Next Generation of tours is in full swing at Ticonderoga, set photos from Picard Season 3, Star Trek Online gets spoOoOoOoky in their first Halloween special, and we review the latest episode of Lower Decks: "wej Duj"!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Touring the Next Generation in Ticonderoga

By Elio Lleo

Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of attending some phenomenal Star Trek themed events and exhibits [or seething with jealousy at it–Ed.], but few are as spectacular as what you’ll find in the sleepy town of Ticonderoga, New York. You see, James Cawley–who grew to fame as an Elvis impersonator–is also a die-hard Trekkie. His passion was so great that he decided to rebuild the sets for The Original Series where an old retail store used to be. He didn’t just want to build the Enterprise…he wanted to recreate the old Desilu Set.

Closest we'll probably come to having a religious experience. Image: Star Trek Set Tours.

Now, after 4 years of being open to the public, Cawley is expanding! As they work to acquire an adjacent building, Cawley and his team have begun diligently recreating the sets from The Next Generation. Local news station WCAX got a sneak peak of their progress: when speaking to reporter Cat Viglienzoni, Cawley explains he has all the original blueprints as well as a direct line to Star Trek’s legendary creators Mike and Denise Okuda.

Star Trek: Picard Producer’s Sweet Sneak Peek Pics

By Cat Hough

If you’ve been following Star Trek: Picard executive producer and co-showrunner, Terry Matalas on Twitter, then you’ve seen the images he’s been sharing from the set of the show. If you are not following him, then you may want to. Since Season 2 has wrapped filming, the images he posted are likely sneak peaks from season three–either way, they are definitely interesting. 

The images are all from what appears to be a Starfleet vessel from the late 24th century: the first image features the helm console for the ship, with Matalas noting the LCARS interface introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Also of particular interest: the replicator display and table setting that includes a 24th-century Starfleet emblem and some new sci-fi cutlery. We still don’t know what the second season holds, but we have been told that the Q storyline will wrap up in Season 2. It’s also very likely that Jonathan Frakes will return to direct some episodes of Season 3. 

Episodic Season Habit (It Becomes Automatic)

By Cat Hough

Anson Mount recently spoke about Strange New Worlds, echoing Akiva Goldsman’s description of the show: “we wanted our show to be more or less a throwback in every way we could... which meant more of an episodic structure. And so every episode is a distinct story...but the star of the show is the ship and the big idea of the week.”

Bridge to Astrocartography, figure out why we keep getting lost in those eyes. Image: TrekMovie.com

As we’ve also discussed on prior episodes, filming for Strange New Worlds was done using Augmented Reality and Mount also spoke about that experience, saying, “It’s wild, man. Imagine an entire soundstage where the walls are all high-definition screens and there’s a ceiling projection...it’s really interesting to be in these environments because it’s a whole other level of filmmaking than I’ve ever seen before.” 

A release date for Strange New Worlds has not been announced, yet. A big thanks to TrekMovie for sharing this exclusive interview from their coverage of Star Trek Day.

Quick News Roundup

Here are a few headlines that we didn’t discuss but might interest you.

• In book news, the first novel in the Star Trek: Coda series has been released. This trilogy continues the adventures of characters from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. The three books in the trilogy are Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward, The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow, and Oblivion's Gate by David Mack. Moments Asunder is already available, with the two sequels following in October and November. The pre-order pages include synopses for the books, revealing a plot dealing in time travel.

• Plus, we got another glimpse at the upcoming Prodigy animated series. Nickelodeon recently tweeted a new trailer with the announcement that the show premieres on October 28.

• Finally, are you ready to take flight on a midlife crisis of cosmic proportions? Then you should definitely trek out the series idea from the creators of Saturday Night Live. This new show would be titled “Star Trek: Ego Quest,” following the voyages of the SS New Shepard and its crew of random weirdos. Its mission: to just...sort of fly around space goofing off in a ship that looks like a penis.

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

By the Spiking of My DPS, Something Wicked This Way Leaps

By Rosco McQueen

Replicate yourself a pumpkin spice raktajino and prepare to carve out a new experience in Star Trek Online:  the MMO announced this week it will hold its first ever Halloween event!  

“Captains will find themselves transported to an ancient castle on Pyris VII. The classic aliens from the Original Series episode ‘Catspaw’, the Old Ones, have returned once again to study humanity–but their plans have been disrupted by the Devidians!”

The three week event will be a single activity, where playing the event TFO “Cat's Tale!” every 20 hours rewards you with the usual one daily progress token. After 14 days of progress you unlock the event rewards: the Transmuter Wand Universal Kit Module, the Old One Vanity Pet, with the first character receiving 25,000 Dilithium Ore, and 3 Featured Episode Reward Boxes.

The Universal Kit Module - Transmuter Wand will transform your target into a sentient black cat, complete with Bad Luck Aura! The aura disables shields and most powers to nearby allies, who will flee in fear from the frightful feline.  

The event will be available on all platforms on October 13. An interesting note is that this will become a regular annual event, similar to First Contact Day. The article notes it begins with the one TFO, with plans to grow the event year-on-year with more content.

This week, we’re Trekking Out how the rumored Quentin Tarantino Star Trek film could be R-Rated, why Sir Patrick Stewart *might* consider coming back as Jean-Luc Picard, and how Christian Slater landed a role in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

In Star Trek Online news, Q’s Winter Wonderland is upon us, and we’ve got details of a new minigame, and some of the goodies you can snag. Jayce is here with another Trek Lit 101, and later, we have a real treat in On Screen, as DeyvID from TrekRadio - a Klingon expert - joins us to talk about the Klingons in Discovery.

And as always, before we wrap up the show, we'll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages.

• Trek It Out
  • Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek film could be R-Rated
  • Patrick Stewart would consider coming back as Jean-Luc Picard for Tarantino
  • Christian Slater’s mum got him the gig on Star Trek VI
• Star Trek Online News
  • Q’s Winter Wonderland 2017
  • Winter Wonderland 2017 Rewards
  • Tier 6 Breen Plesh Tral Heavy Raider
  • Wintry Recipes
  • Winters's Top Tip
    • Mission: Fastest Game on Ice
  • Events
    • Marks Weekend
• Trek Lit 101
• On Screen
  • Klingon Language Institute
  • boQwI' (Klingon Language Assistant, Android)
  • Learn Klingon Facebook Group
  • Klingon Assault Group
  • Contact DeyvID
    • Twitter @DeyvID_KDF
    • Facebook deyvid.holqin
    • Instagram @deyvidholqin
    • Twitch deyvid_mmo
• Feedback
  • Quentin Tarantino shares his Star Trek ideas, back in 2015

• Would you go to see an R-rated Star Trek film? Why or why not?
• Do the writers’ jobs for them: how would you work Captain Picard into the next, Tarantino-directed Kelvin-Timeline Star Trek film?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Episode 528 of Priority One: We delve into the whale-filled washup of the season finale of Lower Decks, Anson Mount discusses literally sitting in the captain’s chair, and is that a star on top of the Christmas tree or a Borg baby spray-painted gold? In gaming news, we take a closer look at Star Trek Online’s Halloween event, and roll for shield strength in a new release from Star Trek Adventures!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

What’s the Deal With All These Feels, McMahan?

By Elio Lleo

Mike McMahan, the creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks, isn’t resting on his laurels! Nope! After a (generally) well-received Season 2 of the Star Trek animated adventure, McMahan is making the rounds talking about the season–which wrapped last week on October 14th. Sam Stone of Comic Book Resource jumped right in and asked about its unusual villain: the Pakleds. McMahan’s explanation:

When we were writing the first season, we were in the thick of a pretty dark time across the world–the re-rise of fascism across multiple countries, obviously a lot of politics happening in this country and, not to put too fine a point to it, things that had seemed like a joke in the first place suddenly becoming much more dangerous because we weren't vigilant about it. The Pakleds seemed like a perfect opportunity for that…

[This sight gag doesn't work in a podcast app but I stand by it nonetheless–Ed.] Image: ViacomCBS, via Comic Book Resource.

Really Be Careful What You Wish For, Mariner

What about that incredible cliffhanger? Well according to McMahan, the goal of Season 2 was meant to show Mariner “grappling with themes of betrayal and being left.” Supposedly, Mariner’s got some past trauma that we haven’t been privy to yet. Nevertheless, McMahan explains that Mariner will start Season 3 struggling to deal with having her mother taken from her. [NOT JUST HER, MIKE–Ed.] When talking with StarTrek.com he explained, “...in the first season we were really creating a family, and in the second season we kind of tested them. And in the finale of the second season, we're dealing with the loss, the family breaking up.” 

What about our other characters? Well, there seems to be something deeper going on with Rutherford. Something more than just a faulty cybernetic implant. MacMahan tells CBR.com, “... it's about Rutherford. There's stuff about Rutherford that he doesn't even realize and this is his second implant.” They go on to discuss some of the other character dynamics–like the “will they/won’t they” tension between Rutherford and Tendi–along with some takeaways McMahan learned from the first two seasons.

Mainly that anyone you talk to could secretly be Jeffrey Combs. Anyone. Image: ViacomCBS, via Comic Book Resource.

Center Chair, Hot Seat, Call It What You Will

By Cat Hough

If you have not had a chance to see the new trailer for the upcoming History Channel docu-series The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, you should definitely trek it out. According to the press release, The Center Seat will be “the ultimate Star Trek documentary that everyone has always wanted, and now they’re getting.” Each episode of the series will focus on a different chapter in Star Trek history, starting with the inception of the original Star Trek series at Desilu. But even the trailer features some pretty saucy quotes from the cast and crew of the various shows and movies.

For example, we hear more from Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran about their less than ideal working circumstances and for Cirroc Lofton–we hear about his extreme dislike for having to wear the “onesie” uniform while also going through puberty. Nicolas Meyer, writer of The Undiscovered Country, speaks about how much William Shatner hated the script for the movie and the effect that had on, well, pretty much everyone else involved [yeah and you thought Final Frontier was a good idea, now sit down–Ed.]

Mmmm. Taste that grain. Image: ViacomCBS, via Deadline.

The show doesn’t cover any of the new Trek series, but definitely appears to be a comprehensive and detailed exploration of the Star Trek universe over the first 55 years of the show. Created by the Nacelle Company, who also produced Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us and The Toys That Made Us, the series is narrated by Dr. Beverly Crusher herself, Gates McFadden, and directed by Nacelle Company founder Brian Volk-Weiss. There’s not been an official release date given other than it should premiere sometime this fall.

Festivities Will Now Commence

By Rosco McQueen

It’s the most wonderful time of year; when the nanoprobes gently come to rest on ornaments hanging from the boughs of a tree, and assimilation tubules shine in the festive glow of twinkling lights.  Christmas is soon upon us, and you can count down to festive assimilation with the 2021 Borg Cube advent calendar. The calendar features 24 Trek gifts behind alcoves (or windows if you prefer) and includes gifts of socks, coasters, and an espresso cup commemorating the first warp speed flight in 2063.

It’s made by Eaglemoss, the same company who also made a TARDIS-shaped advent calendar for devout Whovians, and is available for purchase now. It could be just the thing to put you in the mood for Picard season 2, with the Borg Queen to feature as part of the time-travelling tale. And speaking of season 2…

I hope one of those is an apology to Icheb and Hugh. Image: Eaglemoss.

Soji’s Sojourn

By Rosco McQueen

In an interview with Trekmovie.com, Isa Briones spoke about where we find Soji in Picard season 2: a place where she can finally be herself, now that being an android is no longer outlawed.  

“We’re definitely seeing a new kind of level of her evolution as she’s coming into her own. She’s finally allowed to be who she is and be accepted by the universe, the galaxy, whatever you want to call it. So yeah, we get to see her in this new, more certain place of who she is. And that’s very exciting.”

The more certain place also has a pool? Jealous. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekMovie.com

The interview covered working under strict COVID conditions, as well as the broader strokes of season two and how it connects to the world we’re living in. “There’s a big emphasis, I think, on mental health, for sure. We’re seeing these characters going through some hard moments and really leaning on each other and prioritizing their own mental health in order to save everyone else. And I think that’s a very relatable storyline and a storyline that we need right now.”

Your classic Good Cop/Borg Cop dynamic. Image: ViacomCBS, via TrekMovie.com

We’re All Batty for Strange New Worlds

By Rosco McQueen

The hype train continues heading towards the station for Strange New Worlds–even Anson Mount starring as Batman in the new DC animated movie Injustice can’t stop interviewers from asking about the new series.  

Mount will play the role of the Dark Knight in the animated adaptation of the video game Injustice, where a traumatized Superman turns evil.  In an interview with SYFY Wire, Mount talks about the recording process, and not being the first Christopher Pike to take a turn at Batman. (If you’re playing along at home, Bruce Greenwood has voiced Batman a couple of times, and was also the Kelvin Universe’s version of one of Starfleet’s greatest captains). But when the discussion turned to Strange New Worlds, Mount reinforced the episodic nature of the show, as well as a moment that would give every Trek fan goosebumps.

“I was just there as Anson in my own clothes and I sat down in the chair and it was in that moment that I flashed back to playing Star Trek as my make-believe game when I was like eight years old. Something about it was just really strangely emotional for me, and I'm still doing that. I don't even know really how to articulate it, but it's surreal and it's weird... but it's something that I'm so grateful for.”

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

Fanatical Devotion to the Many

By Cat Hough

Star Trek Online tweeted earlier today that the recent partnership with Fanatical offering in-game bundles to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of America raised more than $77,000. Well done, everyone who donated!

Cat’s Tale of “Cat’s Tale”

By Cat Hough

Well, it’s been a week since the “Cat’s Tale” Halloween TFO was released, and while it took players a few days to get to know how to navigate the phases of the TFO, it seems that most people are enjoying the mission. As you and your team are first transported to the castle on Pyris VII (or is it Boreth?) the music and lighting definitely set the mood for battling skeletons, witches, skulls and Devidians. In a creepy surprise, you’re treated to some Bonnie-Kin voice-over as you make our way downstairs and through the hallways lighting candles–because it’s dark in this castle!

In the first phase, you are attacked by skeletons, but you can only kill them when they are standing within the circles of candlelight. Some equipment that we highly recommend is the Universal Kit Module - Gravity Containment Unit Mk XII. You can get this kit module as a Tier IV reward from the Discovery reputation; if you use it while you’re standing in the circles, then you can just pull those skeletons over to you. 

Oh don't worry. They'll find you either way. Image: Cryptic Studios/Bentus.

Chores and Cleaning Up

In the next phase, you enter a room to kill some witches who then transport you or you and a teammate to separate rooms. Now I’ve only ever been to the library, where you have to shelve books in the right place or you get attacked–but there’s also a cauldron room where you have to make potions and also a room with spiders–which I hope to avoid at all costs [(maniacal cackling)–Ed.].

Next, you go back and fight some more witches before you enter into the final phase where Devidians attack! While it is handy to have the Synchronic Proton Pack Distortion Prototype Assault Rifle, from the mission “Spin the Wheel” when fighting these Devidians any weapon will work. The thing to remember for the final battle is that if you are the one who has been phase-shifted, you need to stop attacking and locate the Devidian devices and deactivate them. You’re only phased for a short amount of time, so you need to be quick. 

All in all–this is a fun TFO to play!

Adventures in Star Trek Year Five

By Rosco McQueen

If tabletop gaming is more your style, then be sure to trek out the latest update from Modiphius.  The company behind Star Trek Adventures has worked hard to incorporate work from other Trek properties, like Star Trek Online and Hero Collector/Eaglemoss.  Their latest release comes directly from the pages of IDW’s Star Trek Year Five, the comic series chronicling the final year of the Enterprise under James T. Kirk.

Hey Cat, found your spiders. Image: Modiphius Entertainment.

The 26-page digital release is filled with content pulled directly from the pages of the Year Five series, adapted for use in Star Trek Adventures. There is information on two new factions, three new player character lifepath options (including the Tholians and I’Qosa), twelve non-player characters (including Harry Mudd and Gary Seven), and five starships to use as allies or adversaries.

Fred Love, STA Contributing Writer said in a blog post the series puts a new spin on some old characters, as well as delving into the world of Federation politics like never before. You don’t have to read the series to play, and the supplement is available for download now. 

ASTROMETRICS REPORT

By Dr. Robert Hurt

For this week's Astrometrics Report, I wanted to shift the focus from science to science fiction: namely, an incredible presentation of Star Trek memorabilia at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California. The exhibit is called "Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds," and to cut to the chase, this is pretty much a must-see for anyone in the Los Angeles area or planning on traveling through sometime in the next few months. A lot of the artifacts on display come from the Paul G. Allen family collection, and the exhibit itself is very similar to one that was featured at the Pop Culture Museum in Seattle a few years ago. But even if you saw that wonderful collection, it is certainly worth seeing again.

Walking through the doors, you can expect to find pretty much everything a real Star Trek fan would want to see at this kind of exhibition–starting with a selfie opportunity in a reproduction of Kirk's chair from The Original Series. However much of what's display goes beyond mere photo opportunities, and really is centered around a collection of screen-used artifacts ranging from costumes, props, and even visual effects models. As a ship person, the highlights for me were probably the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation in the form of the original six-foot filming model that Industrial Light & Magic built for "Encounter At Farpoint." Just having a chance to take in this incredible work of art–seeing the original pain job, and imagining how it was used in the filming of all of those iconic scenes–occupied me for at least ten or fifteen minutes.

Also on display was the incredible rework of the K't'inga-class battlecruiser as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Having just built one of these scale models myself in the past year, it was amazing to see the incredible detailing patterns and paint schemes used in this update from its original appearance in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Other ship highlights include the original filming model for the Romulan warbird (as designed by Andy Probert), and the Borg cube as seen in Star Trek: First Contact. But the ship memorabilia even includes some of The Original Series, with the filming model of the Klingon D-7, and a version of the Enterprise built from the AMT/Ertl model kit that was actually displayed in the window outside the office in "The Trouble With Tribbles" before the digital remastering.

Cosplayers will likely be drawn to the incredible collection of costumes, worn by the leading actors in all of the Star Trek franchises through Discovery. You can also find a delightful array of props from many of the Star Trek productions, with a particular emphasis on incredibly rare surviving Original Series screen-used props for phasers, and communicators, and medical instruments. I think TOS fans might be particularly thrilled to see the helm from the bridge of the original U.S.S. Enterprise. While this set piece was not stored as carefully as one might hope over the years, it was lovingly and painstakingly restored as much as possible while retaining the original wood and equipment.

Image: Robert Wedemeyer/Skirball Center, via The Hollywood Reporter.

You will also find another few photo opps including: a Jeffries tube you can crawl through, a Borg alcove that you can recharge in, and even a transporter (maybe slightly cheesy) that will do beam-in/beam-out effects...at least, on days the electronics are working, which sadly was not true when I was there. At least none of us were subject to a horrible, ugly transporter malfunction. Perhaps the single-most ambitious part of the exhibit is a Star Trek timeline, that attempts to put every single Star Trek series–from The Original Series through Picard–on a single string of dates (including multiple instances of time travel, and even a few parallel timeline splits here and there).

The exhibit will be running through February 22nd, so there's still time to plan your Star Trek getaway. I should also note the Skirball Center will only grant access to the facilities if you have proof of vaccination, or a recent negative COVID test. Advance reservations are required, and tickets are time-gated. I would note though, that the session I was at was fully sold out, but did not feel especially crowded.

Elijah is out this week but we’ve got a very special guest coming on the show to help us out: our science adviser Dr. Robert Hurt will be here with another Astrometrics report, and then he’s joining Kenna and Anthony to discuss “The Red Angel” in our On Screen segment.

But first, we’re Trekking Out Star Trek’s 2019 PaleyFest appearance in Los Angeles. The cast and crew talk Discovery season 2, season 3, Pike, and even drop more details about the untitled Picard Series!

And In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we’re discussing the new Upcoming Content Roadmap for Star Trek Online.

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

This week, we’re Trekking Out the Return of the USS Enterprise Bridge sets with Production designer Tamara Deverell, Rebecca Romijn and Anthony Rapp. Later we’re heading back to the Ready Room - this time with Michelle Paradise - and then maybe we’ll take a stroll down “Crosby Street”?

In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we now have details on the next Featured TFO, Operation Riposte and how you can earn a free Tier 6 starship from the Zen store.

Our science adviser Dr Robert Hurt is here talking about the newly-discovered black hole in his Astrometrics report, and in our On Screen segment, we’re discussing the Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, Episode 13 “Such Sweet Sorrow”.

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

This week, we’re Trekking Out whether Quentin Tarantino could write the next Star Trek film, there’s a new film out soon about a young Star Trek fan trying to get her screenplay read, and the Deep Space 9 documentary “What We Left Behind” has been delayed, but not for long.

Later, Jake and Cookie are here with some holiday gift ideas on The Promenade.

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

There’s no Star Trek Online news this week, which we can only apologize for... But we’ll be back next week with all the latest gaming news...and in the meantime, you can busy yourself in Q’s Winter Wonderland, which starts this weekend in Star Trek Online.

• Trek It Out
  • Tarantino & Abrams assemble writers for proposed new Star Trek film
  • Please Stand By
  • Deep Space 9 documentary "What We Left Behind" delayed
• The Promenade
  • Federation of Beer: Captain's Holiday 30th Anniversary Ale
  • Star Trek wall calendars from ThinkGeek
    • 2018 Star Trek Cats
    • 2018 Star Trek Ships of the Line
    • 2018 Star Trek Discovery
    • 2018 Star Trek Posters

• What are your thoughts about Quentin Tarantino joining the creative team of the Star Trek franchise?
• How has Star Trek influenced your life?

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to INCOMING@PRIORITYONEPODCAST.COM

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @PRIORITYONEPOD for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

Winters’s Top Tip is underscored by: Hero Down Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week on Priority One --- Season 1 of Star Trek Picard is over and now the post-season interviews are all over the net -- including interviews with the showrunners; in Star Trek Online, First Contact Day is around the corner and STO has started teasing event information -- we’re also joined by Star Trek Online’s Senior Content Designer, Ryon Levitt to chat about creating engaging missions for players… And of course -- in On Screen, we dive into the two-part finale of Star Trek Picard, Season 1.

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 be excited to see Brent Spiner return as a Soong?

AND

CQ: Will you be getting your hands on the D’Quarka?... the new T6 D’Kora Update.

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Goldsman and Chabon Talk Picard

“Star Trek: Picard” aired its final episode of season 1, “Et in Arcadia Ego: Part 2”, last week. We’ll get into what took place on Screen later in the show, but for now let’s have a look behind the scenes. The Hollywood Reporter chatted up Picard series one showrunner Michael Chabon and Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman to hear more from the men behind the curtain. Be warned, spoilers incoming.

The pair cleared up confusion about the original plan for the length of Picard’s run, with Chabon saying ”We didn't decide to do this to the character from a place of we didn't want to have future seasons or anything like that. From the original plan for the show, even though our original outline changed significantly to what you eventually saw, the plan — and Sir Patrick's plan from the beginning — was ‘let's tell more stories with Picard.’”

Chabon discussed the serialization of Picard, and how it is received by Star Trek fans, saying "You really have to ‘bingewatch' the whole thing in ten episodes. And it's a tricky thing because of the whole episodic versus serialized way we watch things, and how especially Star Trek audiences are sort of trained [to expect] more of that episodic, mission-of-the-week structure. And that's not what this show is."

Finally, Chabon touched on the challenges of writing Picard Season 2, saying "First, it's got to be good, right? It has to be focused on Picard but have room for all the other characters. It's never going to be just a show about the crew of a starship that's part of Starfleet and everyone's wearing uniforms and they're flying around, encountering alien life and weird planets. Those are the challenges we face going into season two, and I'm so excited about the story we've come up with."

Akiva Goldsman WAS there, we promise. To read some of what he had to say, as well as Chabon’s thoughts on bringing back Jeri Ryan, trek out the show notes.

He was there.

Variety Talks with Michael Chabon

While we promise there was a quote from Akiva Goldsman in the previous article, we guaranteed there isn’t any to follow. Chabon soloed with Variety and discussed Star Trek feedback, serialization, and the subtle inclusion of the LGBTQ community in Picard

Chabon told Variety that he read the conversations, critiques, and reviews of Star Trek - both new and old. He even went so far as to look up old Usenet boards focused on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and was surprised to learn that fan reaction wasn’t so dissimilar thirty years ago. There was a certain demographic Chabon didn’t mind upsetting //QUOTE//”To the extent that I was aware of the kind of toxic fandom, the anti-SJW, you know, sad little corner of fandom — you just disregard that. Sometimes you’re motivated to have things simply because it’s possibly going to piss off or provoke people who seem to have missed the memo about just what exactly “Star Trek” is and always has been all about.”//END QUOTE//

When considering fan discomfort in a darker Star Trek tone, and more broadly serialization, Chabon said //QUOTE//”It’s a little weird for me, too. [...] I can feel this deep wiring in my brain that wants “Star Trek” to be episodic. I can remember how odd it felt watching those serialized episodes of “Deep Space Nine.” I wasn’t entirely sure I liked it then, either. It was so far ahead of its time. [...] It felt appropriate, I respected it, and I understood it — and it made me uncomfortable as a “Star Trek” fan.”//END QUOTE//

Chabon also discussed a perceived lack of LGBTQ inclusion in Star Trek Picard, indicating it WAS there if you looked close enough //QUOTE//”We’re doing it in an organic way — what feels organic to me. [...] In Raffi’s scene where she calls into Starfleet to try to get access for them to the Artifact [...], the implication is there too in their relationship. But she doesn’t ever say, “I’m going to call this woman that I used to go out with,” and she doesn’t say, “Hey, remember me. I used to be your girlfriend.”//END QUOTE//

This article is LONG, and offers insight into Chabon’s least favorite social media outlet, what Picard looks like going into season 2, and how Chabon is handling the pandemic. Follow the link in our show notes to trek it out.

Patrick Stewart Recalls Uniform Mishaps

What’s Picard without Picard? The Hollywood Reporter sat down with the Picard portrayer and Executive Producer - Sir Patrick Stewart -  to talk Picard, uniforms, and Kirk?

In regards to filming the poignant final meeting of Picard and Data in “Et in Arcadia Ego: Part 2”, Stewart said "I was looking forward to it, not just because I get to work with my friend Brent (Spiner) again, but because the content of the scene was so serious, given that Picard — he knew this would probably be the last time he would ever see his friend."

The interview took a decidedly reminiscent tone when Stewart recalled being “Quite cross” when refused one of his uniform costumes following the filming of TNG’s “All Good Things”, but was later gifted the threads on a late night talk show appearance. Stewart jests "I often tease my wife that I will one day wake her up one morning wearing that uniform, since she grew up watching The Next Generation with her family"

Sir Patrick ends the interview recalling the filming of Kirk’s death scene in Star Trek: Generations "It was an extremely potent moment, I have to say. Working with Bill, and being present when Captain Kirk finally came to an end. It was a great privilege."

Spiner is done as Data

What would Picard be without Data...oh...right. Well - This week, TV Guide interviewed the 71-year old Spiner to talk his many roles in Star Trek

Spiner had glowing things to say about his last meeting with Sir Patrick’s Picard, telling TV Guide ”I think there's something really profound about what Michael [Chabon] wrote for Data to say about those things that are fleeting, that mortality is what makes us human, and those things that mean the most to us never last forever. [...] It felt very much like we were doing Next Generation. There was something very familiar about it and kind of natural that we should be sitting there having that conversation.”

Spiner, who has said on countless occasions that he would not reprise his role as Data, repeated that sentiment ”I wouldn't really entertain the idea of doing it again because I just don't think it would be realistic. So it seemed right to me to give him this more gentle sendoff, and it seemed right to me in the context of the entire season of Picard and what Picard himself had been experiencing because of the loss of Data. I think it allows him to feel okay about it too. So it seemed like the right thing to do.”

That doesn’t mean that Spiner is done with Star Trek though. When asked about possibly portraying Alton Soong again, Spiner said ”Absolutely. I love working with all of the people on the show. The new cast is fantastic. Obviously, to still be working with Patrick is a dream. Now there's a character that could conceivably go on and continue, so of course I'd love to.”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

First Contact Day: Now With More Borg!

Star Trek Online has posted the announcement for this year’s First Contact Day celebration event! The updated event, which runs from April 2nd through April 23rd, will include new mission content along with the annual Phoenix rocket launch contest. For the first time, players will have the opportunity to step back in time to April 4th, 2063, the day before the historic date when Zefram Cochrane took humanity’s first warp flight. Under the direction of temporal agent Daniels, we’ll team up with Seven of Nine to find and reverse changes to the timeline that The Borg have made…. All in an effort to finish what they attempted to do in the film -- Star Trek First Contact. By completing either the new mission or the Phoenix Rocket Launch contest for a total of 14 days, players will earn the usual First Contact Day event bundle and a brand new Universal Console, The Temporal Vortex Probe. 

This console provides passive bonuses to Exotic Damage and Temporal Operative Bridge Officer ability cooldowns, along with a turn rate bonus scaled by Auxiliary Power. When activated, the console launches a probe which opens a Temporal Vortex that travels toward a target’s location, inflicting damage and slowing enemy ships. 

The event also includes the new standard Zen buyout and Bonus Dilithium payout options. For each day of progress, players will also have their choice of 17 new uniform badges. The badges teased so far in Kael’s Twitter post included Trill, Ferengi, Liberated Borg, and IDIC among several others. Kael also noted a couple of quality of life updates to the event.

<~~ April 4th 2063 was also the exact day the Enterprise arrived at Earth in ST: First Contact. Will we see the Enterprise or any of her crew? Will there be any surprise cast appearances? Are these Borg timeline changes setting up STO to diverge from the Prime Timeline? ~~>

Quark’s Marauder

Star Trek Online has also just announced the addition of a new Tier 6 ship to the Infinity Lockbox.  Along with adding the Kelvin Divergence lockbox prizes into the Infinity box, they’ve added a brand new Tier 6 Ferengi Marauder named after Quark himself.  The T6 Quark Marauder is a welcome T6 update to the T5 Ferengi D’Kora, including Commander Engineering/Miracle Worker and Lieutenant Commander Science/Miracle Worker specialist seating. The ship carries a 5/3 weapons layout, a 9 degrees-per-second turn rate, and the extra Universal console slot common to Miracle worker ships. Naturally, like all Ferengi vessels, it also includes a built-in Dabo table, Bank terminal, and Exchange terminal. To see the full specs of the new ship, Trek out the blog link in our show notes!

EVENTS

Late last week, Star Trek Online announced an immediate 3 week event, from March 26th through April 16th. Acknowledging that /QUOTE/ we’re all feeling the crush of being at home right now /ENDQUOTE/, the special event will reward 50% bonuses to content that rewards Fleet or Reputation marks. So, while you’re looking for something to pass the time stuck at home, maybe now’s the chance to finish those Tier 6 Reputations you’ve been grinding away at.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

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

• Mirror Month!  

Other Gaming News

Timelines Hybrid Faction/Galaxy Event Re-Run

For our viewers who play Star Trek Timelines, this week sees the re-run of DS9’s baseball themed “The Galactic Series” as a hybrid faction/galaxy event. The event features special crew like Niners Ezri, Martian Quark, Nurse Garland and Niners Rom. Variants of these crew, along with crew possessing the Athlete trait, will receive bonuses during the event.

Donate now to Make-A-Wish America!

This week, we Trek Out the Priority One Away Mission to Ticonderoga, NY, where Jayce and Elijah take a tour of the Original Series set created by James Cawley… we also invite Nick Duguid from Star Trek Online on to talk about his experience working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation… and how you can join Priority One in helping us raise money for a worthy cause!