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  • 08 Dec 2024
    It’ll take 6 weeks in dry dock just hammer out the dings
    She is finally done and ready for public enjoyment.I present: The Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75
  • 22 Oct 2024
    What do you hear?
    Something new is cooking.
  • 14 Oct 2024
    Not the Spanish Inquisition
    Calling this one done.Enjoy all 8700 pixels across. As per usual, an un-watermarked infinitely scalable version can be had for a donation
  • 08 Oct 2024
    This ain’t no Copy & Paste job!
    This one should be easy to get. My current WIP: Update 2: I think I have the hull shape and decks nailed. Update 3:
  • 04 Oct 2024
    G is for Good enough?
    I’m not a fan of the Neo Constition Class. The name sucks and the styling is 2290s. And knowing that all Blass did was take the Shangri-La class and clicked Edit > Scale > 300% and called it a day, irks me a lot. BUT, plenty have asked for it. So here you go. Have […]
Some Kind of Star Trek Latest Posts
  • 11 Feb 2025
    Update: Where You Been?

    It's been a fun ol' year to say the least and has resulted in a significant drop in content.

    Always good to be honest and there it is.

    So, what has happened?

    Well, if we go back to March 2023 I was part of a team that set up a new chapter of the UK's Starfleet International (SFI) Region 20 called the USS Mercia. Growing a lot faster than expected, we became quite an active chapter in our first year with regular online and in person meets in the Midlands and out as far as Market Rasen and down to Stafford.

    With a membership that covers both the UK and into Europe the team have been working super hard to ensure we offer the best. Some of our membership have even been involved with SFI at the regional and international level through different auxiliary units such as Sciences, Medical and Tactical.

    Personally I've also been running the regional magazine called The Runabout for the last two years, producing 8 editions containing news, reviews, fun articles and fiction from around the UK and Ireland. It's taken a lot of spare Trek time up but it's been amazingly rewarding resulting in the team winning two awards last year at the International Conference for Best Newsletter and also Best Cover - truly a fantastic accolade for a brilliant group who have worked tirelessly to produce a top quality read each quarter!

    The USS Mercia also won the International Shakedown Chapter of the Year award at the same conference which was a monumental result and reflected the efforts the team had put in over 2023/24 to go from a new group to fully commissioned.

    2024 saw the Mercia run an hour live broadcast in November raising £730 for Breast Cancer Now as well as being the host chapter for the SFI stand at Blackpool's Destination event in July. If you were there, hello! If you didn't find us or know we were there, I understand why!!!!!

    While I stepped back from The Runabout in November I decided to stand for the role of Regional Coordinator for Region 20 and was elected to the position on January 1st this year. It's an incredible opportunity and one I truly relish. Of course, lots of thoughts and ideas are spinning around at the moment and I will officially take on the role from March 1st this year.

    So this site might see a bit of an evolution. I'll still try and keep up with reviews and opinions but I'm also going to use it to document my journey as RC for Region 20 - who knows what's coming? Well, in fairness we know Destination is on the way in August and there will be a Regional Summit in May so there's two things I'll absolutely be covering!!!!

    For now, I hope you're all good and well out there and I look forward to updating you all very, very soon.

    LLAP

    Clive

  • 04 Feb 2025
    Into the Trek Universe: Section 31

    Where to start on this one.

    Firstly, it's not as bad as the slew of reviews have made fans believe. It's (and I've said this a few times today) not as great as it could have been but by no means is it absolutely horrific.

    Originally planned as a full series, Section 31 was retooled into a 95 minute made-for-streaming movie following COVID-19, the writers' strike and also Michelle Yeoh winning an Oscar.

    Major factors indeed which have led to the first Trek movie since Star Trek Beyond and the first to premiere outside of a cinema. The world has indeed changed since Beyond and this is definitely a sign of how Star Trek is attempting to fit into this new age and find, probably, a new audience.

    Let's be honest, Star Trek fans aren't the youngsters they once were. The franchise is on the cusp of its 60th birthday and the recent Prodigy proved to be a bigger hit with the existing fanbase than attracting a new and younger audience. Kurtzman and co are about to try again with their young adult show, Academy but I fear the same result again.

    But to Section 31 and to term it quickly, it's a fairly run of the mill action flick that is set in the Star Trek universe. Returning Michelle Yeoh as Terran Emperor Phillipa Georgiou, she is teamed with a group of Section 31 agents sent to track down a typically dangerous weapon.

    As it turns out, Georgiou is more than familiar with the weapon, named Godsend, since she ordered its creation in the Mirror Universe. How inconvenient to run into it again during Star Trek's Lost Era.

    Add in a bit of Georgiou backstory as to how she became Emperor and you have a fairly briskly paced and explosive hour and half to settle in for. But that's really about it. Section 31 is OK at best and disappointing at worst. It's not that its bland but something here just doesn't quite work. The movie is certainly an attempt to tell a story outside of the "norms" of Star Trek's Starfleet crew and starship combo but the nuances and subterfuge that made Section 31 so interesting in DS9 and Enterprise are long gone. Their activities are about as subtle as using a sledgehammer to open an envelope and we've diverged into areas of high tech and gunslinging rather than the shadowy manipulation and dealings that made Sloan such a great foil for the DS9 crew. Tailored more for the Fast and Furious audience, Section 31 is short and snappy with little to think about beyond the superficial action and pedestrian plot. Don't expect lengthy debates on the morality of the universe or one to ones that build on relationships because this is a very disposable cast.

    Comprising of an Augment, a mech-suited soldier, a badly accented Irish robot piloted by a nano-being, a Chameloid and a Deltan, it's the perfect mismatch team accompanied by Starfleet observer Lt Rachel Garrett. The potential is great but just when you feel like it's getting going or there's another chance for Michelle Yeoh to perform some of her trademark martial arts work, someone drops an attempt at a joke or there's a humorous twist on a moment which just rips the heart out of the story and believability. In respect to the characters themselves there's very little if any form of development for them and Garrett's turn from "stick up her ass" scientist to embracing chaos is limited and rushed in seconds when it happens.

    None of the characters are dislikeable but none of them are particularly memorable either, maybe with the exception of Garrett because we know the name. Indeed, if it wasn't for the fact that fans will know she becomes the captain of the ill-fated USS Enterprise-C, you'd never know what era of the Trek franchise this is set in. Garrett could be interchanged for any other Starfleet officer from any era and the story would still work. It's a terrible use of what should be an enthralling experience to see this time period but there's generic rock planet, space station with bar and dark ship interiors which give no real feel to the setting.

    That's really the problem here. It's just OK. The effects are OK, the ships are OK, the script is meh and the use of the Godsend is another "weapon-o-mass-destruction" that is a path so heavily trodden it's turned into a ditch. A shame in a big way and I did wonder how this would have played out over a full series as I can't imagine they wrote the whole thing off and started again. Maybe the characters would have received more time to flex their wings and allow us to care more about them and that's perhaps another fail here in that for the first time we have a brand new set of characters (bar two at a stretch) who are brought in for 95 minutes and that's it. Every Star Trek movie before this has utilised an existing set of characters and built on the audience's knowledge of them. Section 31 has not been afforded that luxury which means that you're only really invested in Georgiou to any degree but then Michelle Yeoh isn't given the greatest script to work with.

    The door is left open for a sequel as you would expect but I can't see it getting a green light. I'm not even sure if it justifies a rewatch for a considerable time if ever and that's not something I wanted to say. Kudos though to Kurtzman and al for their balls to try something different which has definitely been a hallmark of their journey from Discovery's first episode to this moment. Each show has been different, each iteration has offered a new perspective and stretched the Star Trek franchise in new ways that the Berman era of the '80's and '90's never really dared to. That's one thing to applaud as they've never shied away from being unique. But Section 31 just doesn't seem to fit in aside from a vehicle to bring Michelle Yeoh back and round of Georgiou's story bit more neatly than it was in Discovery. Maybe reaching too far outside the original vision of Star Trek has now been proven to be a move too much and that this isn't what fans signed up for.

    The counter problem to that is, TV and film have moved on a lot since 1966, 1987 and even 2009. Production is a machine turning out content at an alarming rate and Kurtzman's factory has produced more Star Trek variants since 2017 than were made between 1966 and 2005. That's a frightening amount of diversity if not equalling the number of episodes across those original four decades.

    As a diversion until Strange New Worlds' third season drops later this year, this will make do but I suspect it will be some time before another of these one-off movie projects drops given the reception to this entry to the franchise.

    How did it got for you? Is this the worst Trek ever or a sign of the franchise stretching its wings that little bit further into the universe rather than just Starfleet?

    Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

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  • 26 Nov 2024
    In Review: Channel Open: A Woman's Trek

    What was my expectation?

    Perhaps hugely masculine but I thought this was a book about the characters and their appearances in the franchise.

    I was very wrong and should be scolded for such an unusually closed opinion.

    Open a Channel is likely to be seen as one of the most ground-breaking books in Star Trek literary history and rightly so.

    Encompassing every generation from The Cage right up to Strange New Worlds, Nana Visitor has taken an incredible deep dive into the very foundations of not just the Star Trek franchise but the fabric of Hollywood across the last 60 years.

    Insightful, funny and at some points incredibly dark and personal, A Woman’s Trek never fails to be brutally honest. The personal experiences of Visitor herself are laid very starkly open at times as is the treatment of women in the industry right back to the first sparks of Star Trek’s existence.

    Including interviews with Gates McFadden, Denise Crosby, Terry Farrell, Alice Krige, Nicole De Boer, Christina Chong, Tawny Newsome, Jeri Ryan and many many more, Visitor manages not only to capture the journeys of main cast actors but also recurring stars who graced the Star Trek franchise. It does feel as though every stone has been turned to provide the most complete picture of a female perspective to Star Trek ever.

    While the interviews of original cast members such as Nichelle Nicholls and Grace Lee Whitney are gleaned from talks they gave before their passing, these are some of the more gut-wrenching sections of the book. Or at least you think so at the time.

    The further into this book you get, you realise that it’s not consigned to the past and was going on in many different ways both verbal and physical for decades. The thing is, it didn’t and it hasn’t. While the towards the end of the book and into the Kurtzman era it’s certainly not prevalent, the male/female equality of the industry still seems out of balance although a million trillion light years from where it was. The “casting couch” is a thing of the past as is the need to be “f**kable” as it’s termed several times. Visitor aso encounters (it seems) quite a bit of hostility and caution when interviewing indicating the hold around TV and film that continues to protect some of its more grimy secrets and views.

    This is also a pretty heavy book not just in content but in weight. More a coffee table volume than a paperback novel, A Woman’s Trek covers every aspect and angles, even taking the time to include Jennifer Lien’s Kes even though the actress has distanced herself from media due to ongoing personal challenges.

    Maybe the disappointment here is the choice by Marina Sirtis not to be involved with the project in any way. Is this an indication she is becoming tired of Star Trek or the industry as a whole? Perhaps it's not right to speculate but given the prominence of Deanna Troi in The Next Generation and how that character was sold in the first few years, it’s a voice that is distinctively missing from the book.

    Jeri Ryan’s insights are as close as we may get to Sirtis’ outlook with her playing two very different sides of Seven of Nine through Voyager and then Picard. While not devoid of the brains that Sirtis often notes happened before she regained a uniform, Ryan is more than aware of what her Voyager version of the character was doing for the series and how it came to move away from that necessity in later seasons.

    Discovery, Strange New Worlds and Picard have certainly not had to deal with that visual “requirement” rather focusing on strong, independent female roles that have been key to all those live action shows in different ways and been played as absolute equals among the ensemble.

    Interesting too is how some of the actors were almost pigeonholed into certain types of roles with Linda Park especially calling that out in terms of the underused Hoshi Sato or Roxann Dawson finding that she was being funnelled into Latin American roles that she had no desire to play. In that latter instance Torres gave her the opening which has seen her flourish into an in-demand director so Star Trek has certainly offered options even if it was a fight to get there as both she and Gates McFadden relay.

    It’s very easy to recommend this book to any fan. Certainly a reflection of the current times as well as the uneven, shoddy and downright horrible history that has dogged female representation in the TV and film industry. While this focuses absolutely on Star Trek it’s easy to transpose the opinions and experiences of those involved here to other shows and movies. Truly an inspiring read and a book that will without doubt alter your views on STar Trek’s importance to diversity, inclusion and equality.

    Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

    Like our page on Facebook
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Memory Alpha: Star Trek on this Day

15

Feb

1905 Harold Arlen is born.
1910 Reuben Timmins is born.
1917 Meg Wyllie is born.
1920 Harold Michelson is born.
1923 Keene Curtis is born.
1933 Hal Donahue is born.
1940 Faith Vecchio is born.
1942 Sherry Jackson is born.
1949 Michele Ameen Billy is born.
1951 Sonia McDancer is born.
1954 Robertson Dean is born.
1955 Paul Ambrose and Christopher McDonald are born.
1960 Kimberly L. Ryusaki is born.
1967 Second day of filming on TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!". Location scenes are filmed today at TRW Space and Defense Park. The upcoming purchase of Desilu by Gulf+Western is announced.
1968 Joel Harlow is born.
1969 The First UK Story Arc continues in Joe 90: Top Secret #5 with the fifth of six installments.
1979 Kaj-Erik Eriksen is born.
1985 Nicole Sarah Fellows is born.
1988 TNG: "When The Bough Breaks" airs.
1991 Eight and final day of filming on TNG: "Qpid".
1993 TNG: "Tapestry" airs. Eighth and final day of filming on DS9: "The Storyteller". CIC Video releases Next Generation volumes 59 & 60 on VHS in the UK. Ashley Sierra Hughes is born.
1994 Fourth day of filming on TNG: "Bloodlines".
1999 DS9: "Inquisition" airs on Sky One in the United Kingdom.
2000 Second day of filming on VOY: "Life Line".
2001 Third day of filming on VOY: "Natural Law". Roy Sickner dies.
2002 Forty-ninth day of filming on Star Trek Nemesis.
2005 First day of filming on ENT: "Terra Prime".
2007 Walker Edmiston dies.
2012 Twenty-fifth day of filming on Star Trek Into Darkness.
2014 Cliff Bole dies.
2016 Anthony Fredrickson dies.
2019 TRR: Saints of Imperfection" airs.
Unknown year Sharlene Royer and Michael Taylor are born.
Memory Alpha New Articles
Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Authority Latest Posts
  • 16 Nov 2024
    Special Photostudy: The $910,000 Star Trek: The Original Series Hero Type II Pistol Phaser from ...


    On November 9, 2024, an iconic piece of Star Trek history - the "hero" or working Type II Pistol Phaser prop which had been used for close-up photography in such memorable TOS episodes as "Court Martial" and "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and had been extensively pictured in the famous 1968 behind-the-scenes reference book "The Making of Star Trek" - sold at Julien's Bid Long & Prosper auction for a record shattering $910,000 (based on a hammer price of $700,000 plus a 30% buyers premium); making this phaser the most expensive piece of Star Trek memorabilia ever sold at auction. The emergence of this prop into the public consciousness was just a recent development; as it was privately held for nearly 50 years by it's consignors who inherited it from a relative in the Hollywood prop industry. The original pre-auction estimate for the phaser was $100,000 - $200,000; which was consistent with earlier, recent Star Trek memorabilia sales history. In the Heritage Greg Jein Collection auction on October 14, 2023, Lot #89139, the Jein TOS Hero Phaser prop that is virtually identical to this piece realized a final price of $187,500 including buyers premium - or approximately 1/5th of the price observed in the Julien's auction.

    The TOS “hero” phaser props were elaborately constructed based on the design created by Walter “Matt” Jefferies, the Art Director and Production Designer for TOS – who might be best known as the creator of the original U.S.S. Enterprise starship. The working phaser features:

    • A removable Hand Phaser unit (also called a Type I Phaser) that mounted into the Type II body and could be secured in place or released by depressing the bronze colored cylindrical button (or “Lock Release” ) projecting outwards from the left-side of the Type II body
    • A moving silver thumbwheel ( or “Force Setting Wheel”) on the top surface of the Hand Phaser that would, when rotated fully forward, raise a clear acrylic “sight” mechanism out of the top of the unit, lifting slightly the rear of the silver rectangular meshed plate or “Electron Aspirator Pile” and also causing the beam emitter at the very front of the Type II body to extend forward
    • Fully rotating the silver thumbwheel forward would also cause a tiny “grain of wheat” light bulb mounted into the beam emitter to illuminate. This would be useful for the graphic artists working on the post production “special effects” processing for the series to correctly add in the bright blue or red or white colored light beam seen projecting from the phaser when it was firing.

    • A rotating ring piece as part of the aluminum front nozzle section (or “Photon Accelerator”)
    • A machined aluminum rear “Deflector Shield” component with 4 fin-like projections incorporated in the design. (This detail was simply painted onto mid-grade level phaser props.)
    • A removable grip or handle which also served as a PowerPack for the Type II unit; as revealed in the episode “The Omega Glory”, where discarded powerpacks were found as evidence of extensive use of phaser weapons in a battle

    This historic piece with it’s intricate internal design mechanisms truly represents the pinnacle of 1960’s propmaking expertise.

    Presented below is the complete Julien's auction catalog description, with accompanying photos, for this iconic hero phaser, as well as several rare images that reveal the elaborate internal construction details of the prop.

    Special thanks to John Long, the renowned Star Trek prop expert and prop maker who masterfully performed the restoration and conservation activities on both this Hero Type II Phaser and the Hero TOS communicator prop also sold at the Julien's Bid Long & Prosper auction, for his very gracious permission to include his detailed photography of the phaser's interior within this article.

    Lot #7 Star Trek: The Original Series | William Shatner "Captain James T. Kirk" Hero Screen-Matched Phaser Prop

    An original screen-matched, hero, Phaser prop used by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in the television series Star Trek: The Original Series (Desilu Productions, 1966 - 1969).

    This iconic prop, created in 1966, is one of only four hero or “practical” versions of the Phaser used on the show which feature intricate details and moving parts that were unique to those few props, making it exceedingly rare. This Phaser is known in the collecting community as the "Finney" Phaser because it was seen on screen used by actor Richard Webb who portrayed the character "Finney" in the season one episode "Court Marshall." Held by its current owners for nearly fifty years, this Phaser was thought to be lost until now. The current owners inherited the Phaser from a close relative who was a Hollywood prop industry veteran that purportedly acquired it from a former Paramount Pictures employee that worked on early Star Trek productions.

    Construction
    Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wanted to avoid the sci-fi cliche “ray-gun” and preferred that his new weapons have details and features beyond just a static prop. To that end, the hero Phasers feature a removable top-mounted Phaser 1 that could be used by itself or in place within the larger body which, when combined, were collectively referred to as a Phaser 2. Both of these pieces are marvels of prop engineering with various electric switches, hidden linkages and moving parts that can only be seen when the pieces are opened to reveal their inner workings. The intricate interior details with both custom and off-the-shelf parts from the 1960s are specific matches to another acknowledged hero Phaser previously owned by prop maker and collector Greg Jein. The handle of the Phaser, which is also removable, is the battery compartment that powers the light in the emitter tip.

    In addition to the fact that this Phaser perfectly matches the materials and methods of construction seen on the Greg Jein Phaser, this Phaser was also showcased in The Making of Star Trek, a book published in 1968. The Making of Star Trek included a photo section featuring many key Star Trek props. The section on the Phaser included detailed photos, including interior images of the Phaser 1 section perfectly match this Phaser.

    Screen-Matching
    Thanks to the fact that Star Trek has been re-mastered from its original film to high-definition Blu-Ray, this Phaser can clearly be matched to specific scenes in multiple episodes which is a highly unusual and sought-after feature.

    This Phaser holds another distinction that sets it apart from its counterparts. It was apparently designated by the prop master as “The Beauty Phaser,” which is demonstrated by its excellent condition and its many close-ups throughout Star Trek’s three seasons, the only Phaser used in this way. We have been able to identify unique details, scratches and flaws on this Phaser to make positive identifications of this prop to a number of specific episodes. It can be seen in close-up in the episodes, ”Court Martial”, "The Cloud Minders", "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and “A Piece of the Action,” a singular honor.

    Restoration
    While the Phaser was already in exceptional condition, it nevertheless underwent restoration to stabilize inner working parts to allow gentle movement without risking damage. The interior battery compartment had corrosion fro a previous battery. The corrosion was removed and the compartment was stabilized to prevent further damage. During this process, an external power source was used to illuminate the original bulb still present in the nozzle tip. Although it is possible to use a battery to enable the lighting of this bulb, further work would be required to fully stabilize these connections for reliability. The original acrylic semicircular top meter cover was absent from the Phaser, a replacement has been created for display purposes and comes with this lot. This part was not affixed to the Phaser in any way, to maintain the integrity of the piece.

    Estimate: $100,000 - $200,000

    Some very special internal construction imagery courtesy of Star Trek TOS expert John Long ...

    A perfect match of the interior hand phaser compartment cover appearance with a 1968 photo published in The Making of Star Trek ...

    A closeup screen shot from the 2nd season episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion" ...

    A closeup screen shot from the 1st season episode "Court Martial" ...

    Some breathtaking modern day imagery of the hero phaser, illuminated again!, courtesy of John Long ...

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