This week, we Trek Out CBS CEO Joe Iannello’s take on ViacomCBS going forward. Then Michael Dorn talks about Star Trek: Worf, Something good FINALLY comes from “Omega Glory”, and “Galaxy Quest” gives US a Birthday Present
In Star Trek Online and gaming news, we look at Star Trek Online’s UI changes, in-game build testing, and Romulan ships for EVERYONE! In gaming news, another Scopely expands, and our favorite Star Trek ships go Crypto.
If that wasn't enough, Dr. Robert Hurt drops by to expand our brains in his newest Astrometrics Report!
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: With “Star Trek: Picard” set to air next year, how would you feel about another Next Gen spin-off, specifically “Star Trek: Worf”?
AND
CQ: What do you think of Star Trek Online opening up Romulan starships to the other factions?
Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!
TREK IT OUT
by Jake Morgan
CBS CEO Joe Ianniello Talks about the Future
Following last week’s news of a CBS-Viacom re-unification, CBS CEO Joe Ianniello sat down with the LA times to talk about his place in - and the direction of - the newly merged ViacomCBS.
LA Times Staff Writer Stephen Battaglio asked how the 51 year-old-Iannello was able to guide CBS through the tumultuous departure of former-CEO Les Moonves. Iannello’s response sounded very PIKE. “The most important thing is you have to listen and you have to be decisive in what moves you make. In the middle of all of this what I would say is, forget about what you think you know. Go around, meet the people and listen. Take a deep breath and go with your gut.”
In regards to the push-and-pull of exclusivity vs. distribution, Ianniello discussed ViacomCBS’ approach “I understand the tension between the two. But what I would say is we kind of have the best of both worlds where we’re able to redeploy licensing dollars into more content. We want to put enough content in there to make sure we’re driving subs. With “Star Trek” internationally we licensed the first series to Netflix and the second one to Amazon. CBS All Access will be the only place to get all of [the “Star Trek” series], so it does differentiate us among its competitors.”
Michael Dorn’s “Worf” Pitch Isn’t Dead and Buried
With excitement for “Star Trek:Picard” reaching fever pitch, it could be easy to forget about an older “Next Generation” spin-off pitch - Michael Dorn’s “Worf” series. But fear not, the Star Trek alum will NEVER let us forget.
Speaking at Keystone Comic Con in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dorn discussed his proposed addition to the Star Trek mythos “I wrote it in 2012-13, and it’s been going like this: a lot of interest, no interest, a lot of interest, no interest ... A guy who was a producer at this one place that I was pitching it came up to me before the meeting and [said], ‘I gotta tell you, your character meant so much to me' ... It fits so well into this new Star Trek universe. It just fits right in there. We’ll see.”
Fellow TNG co-star and long-time friend of Dorn - Marina Sirtis - added her thoughts, saying “I read [his pilot script] and I called him up and said, ‘How did you do that? He had all the action stuff minutely detailed … I was very impressed with my best friend.”
Prop Store To Auction Spock’s TOS Uniform
If you’re interested in television and movie props, or you’re just a trekkie with some money burning a hole in your pocket, then we’ve got a story for you!
Film and TV memorabilia company, Prop Store, will be hosting “one of Europe's largest and most exciting Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auctions across two days at the ODEON BFI IMAX in London, September 30th and October 1st 2019”. Nine-Hundred lots of iconic pieces of film and television memorabilia will include Michael Keaton’s Batsuit from Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman”, Jack Torannce’s “Hero Axe” from Stanley Kubrik’s “The Shining”, and Spock’s Screen-Matched Uniform from Star Trek: The Original Series!
The blue science uniform was screen-matched to Leonard Nimoy’s Spock costume in The Original Series season 2 episodes “The Omega Glory” and “The Ultimate Computer” - which first aired March 1st and March 8th of 1968, respectively. The uniform is estimated to rake in anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 pounds - or about 61,000 to 85,600 US dollars.
If you are in the area of Waterloo, London, England, you can check out the available lots at the BFI IMAX from 10:00am to 9:30pm, September 18th to October 1st.
Galaxy Quest’s 20th Anniversary Collector’s Steelbook!
On December 25th, 1999, movie-goers - and Star Trek fans - were given a wonderful gift. Galaxy Quest. In celebration of the iconic Sci-Fi-comedy-action-adventure-Star-Trek-homage, fans of the film will have the opportunity to purchase the Galaxy Quest Limited Collector's Edition Blu-ray Steelbook!
Arriving September 21st, 2019 - and listed as a $19.99 Pre-order on Bestbuy.com - the Blu-Ray will come encased in a beautiful blue Steelbook, and will feature a score of special features including a “Galactopedia”, Documentaries, deleted scenes, and the films theatrical trailer!
For a link to the features and Best Buy pre-order page, trek out the show notes.
Star Trek Online and Gaming News
by Shane Hoover
Upcoming Patrol User Interface
Last week, on the Ten Forward weekly community live stream, Ambassador Kael and UI Artist Jo Gianulis gave players an introduction to the forthcoming Patrol UI. The new Patrol UI will be presented as a new tab on the Operations UI alongside TFO, PvP, and Private operations. Players will be able to directly launch any Patrol mission directly from this UI, regardless of their Sector Space position, and will be returned to their starting position when the mission is completed. Patrols are designed for single player action, though they’ll support a full team, with no wait for queueing. Just click ‘Launch’ to immediately get into the mission. The new system will come with five brand new Beta Quadrant patrols and five pre-existing Delta Quadrant patrols. More of the many existing patrols will be added quickly post-launch. The new Beta patrols are tied to the new Awakening story line surrounding the Mycelial Network and Spore colonies. And for the completists among us, new Accolades will also be introduced with the new system.
Test Your Build on Tribble at Starbase 234
According to STO’s recent blog, “Starbase 234 has been rebuilt from the ground up to once again serve as a training ground for Alliance starships. This improved Starbase makes extensive use of holographic technology to allow captains to engage in simulated combat in a wide variety of situations.” What this news means for players is a built-in mission that allows them to choose their own combat challenge, specify desired difficulty, and get real-time feedback from STO’s own combat parsing functionality. At least for now, the entirely new system will be available only on Tribble via interaction with the Tribble Test Vendor on Drozana Station. Starbase 234 will offer no mission rewards, but presents a unique opportunity to test builds and measure combat effectiveness against a variety of enemies and situations.
New Romulus Command Decides to Share the Love
After teasing the change in a recent fiction blog, Cryptic announced last week that “[Romulan] leadership has decided it’s time to return the trust that has been shown to them, and allow their trusted allies the opportunity to test out their Singularity technology and specialized ship”. Nearly all Romulan ships that were exclusive to that faction will become available to Starfleet, KDF, and Dominion Vanguard captains. The captains need only have completed the Tutorial and, if applicable, advance to the 25th century. If you’ve been waiting years to put your Federation Captain in command of a Scimitar, well now’s your chance!
Event UI - Prelude
On Tuesday, August 27, the Star Trek Online team officially announced their newest UI update: The Event Rewards Tab.
In a post, written by UI artist Joanna Gianulis, it was stated that “The Events now live on their own tab in the Mission Journal. There can now be multiple types of events, each tailored to their own specific goal and rewards.[...] Progress will now work like earned XP where you simply gain it until you reach your goal and then you can claim your reward. [...] All progress for upcoming Events will also now be truly account-wide, allowing you to participate in any of the new activities on any of your characters without having to worry about who had how much progress toward which reward on your account.”
Information is still scarce, but we are monitoring the situation, and will likely have more to report next week!
OTHER GAMING NEWS
Scopely Expands Their Offices
Scopely, the developer behind the hugely successful mobile game Star Trek: Fleet Command has announced plans to expand its offices in Dublin, Ireland and Barcelona, Spain. The announcement comes on the back of reports that Fleet Command has grossed $100 million since November 2018, as well as further success in several of its other franchises. According to Scopely Co-CEO Javier Ferreira, “Our Dublin and Barcelona teams play a critical role in the Scopely journey, and we are actively hiring across both markets.” Scopely will also be doubling the size of its Los Angeles offices by 2020.
Star Trek Leaves Spacedock in CSC
Crypto Space Commander, CSC, launched for Early Access this summer, and now on August 29th, Star Trek will be crossing over into CSC’s Galactic Federation. We’ve introduced listeners to CSC before, a sandbox space MMO built on an Ethereum based player economy. When this event begins on August 29th, the game will sell off the original Enterprise NCC-1701, the first of its six new Star Trek starships, in a six day Dutch auction, starting at $200,000 going down to as low as $0. Yes, we said $200,000. Other new Star Trek ships will be auctioned in turn after that. Additionally, 10,000 Star Trek Supply Crates will go on sale for $25 each. Each crate will contain one Star Trek starship and four random Star Trek modules. In the Supply Crates, you’ll have a 90% chance of obtaining a Rio Grande Runabout-class starship, as seen in Deep Space Nine. The remaining 10% of crates will have one of these rarer starships: the Enterprise, Enterprise-D, Voyager, Defiant, or Rotarran. For full details, check the link in our show notes. To learn more about CSC, visit csc-game.com.
Astrometrics Report
NASA Gets a Rare Look at a Rocky Exoplanet's Surface
