In popular culture, Star Trek has always been the thinking man’s sci-fi when compared to the more bombastic Star Wars. Obstacles in Trek are often overcome using logic and the inventive use of technology as opposed to the “shoot X to blow up Y” methods employed by Luke Skywalker and company. So it should not come as too much of a surprise that the Klingon war that has been the overarching plot thread of the Star Trek: Discovery season finale ends with a conversation rather than a battle. However, it’s hard not to feel disappointed. The series up until now has done a commendable job of combining the intellectual mind games of traditional Trek with the fast paced action of the more recent Abrams films. This more muted season finale feels strangely out of place, like a missing episode of the Next Generation.
The finale at times feels like it’s spinning its wheels with too little plot to fill its run time, much of it taking place in a Klingon market with quirky scenes demonstrating how the warrior race spends its free time gambling and frequenting strip clubs. Whilst this is a novel idea, highlighting that the Klingons are not morally black and white but instead various shades of grey just like the Federation, it feels out of place and takes away all the momentum established by the previous episode. It’s difficult to believe that Earth is in danger of imminent destruction when our heroes have time to enjoy kinky sex and hang out with space druggies.
Captain Georgio’s return also feels like a missed opportunity. Having such a ruthless wild card thrown into a war for survival should be a perfect recipe for drama, but instead the character is held back for what will be an inevitable season 2 appearance. It seemed as though the show had already played its best hand with the mid season reveal of Captain Lorca’s identity and has struggled to reach those heights again. Georgio had all the potential to surpass Lorca as the seasons most threatening antagonist but feels neutered by comparison.
Whilst its fitting that our main protagonist Burnham should find a peaceful solution to end the war which she initially caused, it does come across as rather easy and simplistic in execution. The Klingon war machine up until this point has been portrayed as unrelenting and cruel, so to have them so ready to stand down after a single (though potentially devastating) threat felt unearned. Despite this sudden turn around, its is still nice to see Burnham undergo genuine growth as a character and learn that there are sometimes alternatives to meeting aggression with aggression.
The main cast continues to shine, Sonequa Martin Green and Doug Jones’ evolution from comrades to wary opponents to close friends as Burnham and Suru has been a joy to watch over the course of the season, as has the developing maturity from Mary Wiseman as Cadet Tilly. It’s still a stretch to see Shazad Latif as the tough space marine that he is initially presented as but he consistently delivers whenever the scene requires him to show the mental trauma that Tyler has undergone.
The final scene of the Enterprise meeting the Discovery may feel hamfisted for some viewers but combined with the original series score it’s hard not to be nostalgic and excited for where Discovery can go from here. The season overall has been an entertaining ride with more highs than lows and hopefully can go from strength to strength next season, personally I cannot wait for season 2, I just hope the showrunners learn from season 1’s missteps and build upon its triumphs. The potential for a wider exploration of alternate realities or jumps in time provides the writers the opportunity to boldly go……oh, you know the rest.
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Star Trek Online’s Agents of Yesterday recently released and has been a callback to Star Trek’s origins on the year of Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary.
One of the big reasons I’ve been playing Star Trek Online for years has been for it’s excellent stories. The main reason that I still really enjoy playing video games *at all* is the stories. Fun game mechanics are nice, yes, and the exploration, puzzles, progression, and graphics are also a plus, but for me the story is where it’s at. If a game doesn’t have a decent or even passable story attached to it, you most likely won’t find me playing it. I’ll even forsake a lot of the other qualities just for a better story.
I’ve also been a fan of Star Trek since my father and I use to watch Next Generation together in the early 90’s. The way the episodes would flow, where in the course of 45 minutes the exploration of the deep grey area between good and evil, between right and wrong, was so thorough that it created such a lasting impression on me that I will forever be a ‘Trekkie’. Not all episodes were winners, but when Star Trek got it right, they really got it right.
With Star Trek Online’s latest release of ‘Agents of Yesterday’, the game’s storyline takes many cues and paths from the episodes, and many cues from the original series. Here is a list of the top Star Trek episodes to watch to get the most out of STO’s latest expansion, presented in the best order as they refer in-game.
Obviously, Spoilers Ahead, but I’ll try to keep them to a minimum.
The Galileo Seven – TOS, Season 1
A new character, created in the new 23rd century Federation faction, will find themselves soon after on the surface of Taurus II. This rocky, inhospitable planet was crash-landed on by Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and four other unlucky individuals. Soon after arrival a yellow-clad crewman (they weren’t always wearing red) takes a spear to the back thrown by a giant caveman-like creature.
Oh, there *will* be Gorn.
Arena – TOS, Season 1
Arena is one of the most famous of all the original series episodes, so having an original series themed expansion and not including a reference to the episode would’ve been sacrilege. The lizard-like Gorn first appeared during this episode which had a beat-up Kirk hunting the surface of a mineral-rich planet for ways to defeat the rubber-suited menace. In Star Trek Online, the Federation returns once more to study the planet’s bounty.
Cold Front – Enterprise, Season 1
We take a step backwards in time, but forward in the line of show production to Enterprise. Captain Archer is really excited to get to do what Starfleet wanted the Enterprise to do: Explore. A bolt of energy hits the ship, but disaster is stopped by a lucky junction having been disconnected. As it turns out, luck has nothing to do with it. The character known as Daniels is introduced, a time traveling agent from the far-distant future, who informs Archer of the most convoluted storyline in all of Trek, the Temporal Cold War.
Operation: Annihilate! – TOS, Season 1
There are only two episodes in all of Trek that feature an exclamation point in the title, and ‘Operation: Annihilate!’ is one of them. The Deneva Colony has seemed to be taken over by a bout of mass insanity. When they reach the planet, they find saucer-like single-celled organisms have attacked. In Star Trek Online, the player’s ship is called to investigate Deep Space K-13, where a bout of mass insanity has also taken hold.
By far not the best of episodes. It was still in the age of rubber creatures which, shockingly, audiences didn’t find that scary.
Journey to Babel – TOS, Season 2
Th Enterprise is tasked with transporting a group of Federation diplomats to the Babel Conference, a meeting to determine whether to admit the Coridan system into the Federation. In the first episode of ‘Agents of Yesterday’ which features real time travel shenanigans, the player is taken onto the Enterprise itself.
The Tholian Web – TOS, Season 3
In ‘The Tholian Web’ the crew of the Enterprise are sent to search for their sister-ship, the USS Defiant. They find the ship adrift, with all hands on board deceased. Once more, it appears a bout of madness has caused all aboard to turn on each other, but this time it isn’t due to single-celled frisbees. The episode introduces the xenophobic and crystal spider-like Tholians. In Star Trek Online, the crew of the player’s ship finds the Defiant with all crew still alive as they once more encounter the Tholians.
Captain’s Holiday – Next Generation, Season 3
The entire Star Trek Online story arc ‘Future Proof’ hinges on this one episode. In Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard finds himself so stressed out that not even a cup of hot Earl Grey can help. Picard takes a vacation to the pleasure planet Risa for some much needed R&R. There he encounters a Ferengi, two time traveling aliens, a treasure hunter, and their target: the Tox Uthat, a weapon capable of destroying stars.
Future Tense – Enterprise, Season 2
Captain Archer’s Enterprise comes across a ship very similar to the Doctor’s TARDIS, a ship from the far future that is bigger on the inside. Inside they find a long deceased body, one who’s genetic makeup contains many elements of many different races. None of those races are Time Lord, however. Right when things start getting strange, both the Suliban, a shape-changing race, and the Tholians show up to attempt to recover the ship for themselves.
The Changing Face of Evil – Deep Space Nine, Season 7
In one of the final episodes of Deep Space Nine, at the height of the Dominion War, the Breen, a cold-loving warlike race that has aligned themselves with the Dominion, succeed where many others have failed. They successfully launch an attack on Earth and damage Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco and, just for kicks, wreck the Golden Gate Bridge. It must’ve been for kicks because one would assume bridges have become antiques when flying shuttles and teleportation become the norm for transportation.
The NCC-1701-J. Yes, it’s canon.
Azati Prime – Enterprise, Season 3
Finally, in the midst of the Temporal Cold War arc of Enterprise, the crew of Archer’s ship finds themselves investigating the multi-species Xindi’s construction of a weapon capable of doing serious damage to Earth. Captain Archer decides to pilot a suicide mission to destroy the weapon, but is suddenly transported 400 years to the future by Temporal Agent Daniels to the final battle of the war against the Sphere Builders in the Temporal Cold War. They arrive on board the Enterprise-J, a much flatter ship than most of the Enterprises that have come before.
But That’s Not All
These ten episodes are far from the only ones referenced in the Agents of Yesterday expansion. More include TOS’s ‘Doomsday Machine’ and ‘Mirror, Mirror’, Next Generation’s ‘The Enemy’, Deep Space Nine’s ‘Once More Unto the Breach’, and Voyager’s ‘Year of Hell’. Also, the entire Temporal Cold War arc certainly wouldn’t hurt: Enterprise’s ‘Broken Bow’, ‘Cold Front’, ‘Detained’, ‘Two Days and Two Nights’, ‘Shockwave Pt 1 and 2’, ‘Future Tense’, ‘The Expanse’, ‘Carpenter Street’, ‘Azati Prime’, ‘Zero Hour’, ‘Storm Front Pt 1 and 2’, and ‘Harbinger’.
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Over the past week I’ve been hitting Star Trek Online pretty hard. Ever since the developers announced that they were creating regular content that resembled and was based on episodic Trek content and blessed by CBS, I’ve been a fan. It makes the stories created by Cryptic not exactly canon, but close enough for the inclined fan. Agents of Yesterday launched on July 6th, and is the latest batch of Trek added to Star Trek Online, based loosely on the Original Series. In the end, it ends up being an interesting romp through original Trek, the new Kelvin Timeline Trek, and all Trek in-between. Okay, maybe not the animated series, but, really, the animated series? C’mon.
The Federation once more visits Taurus II, with more red shirts than should probably be allowed.
An… Expansion?
A little, maybe obvious, warning: Some Mild Spoilers Ahead. Overall, although Star Trek Online is officially calling their new content an “expansion”, I’m not completely sure it lives up to that description. Agents of Yesterday overall added 10 new missions, a handful of new queues (multi-player “dungeons”), and a new early 23rd century “faction”, which is really just the Federation faction with a few added UI elements, some extra loot, some flavor text, and a new introduction. Half of the new missions can only be performed by starting a new character from this faction. So, as far as an overall content drop, it really doesn’t hold a candle to the other expansions Star Trek Online has offered over the years. Legacy of Romulus added a new zone, faction, and new missions for every faction. Delta Rising added a whole new space map, zone, and level cap for everybody. Agents of Yesterday an expansion? Not so much.
That’s not to say the missions themselves weren’t really enjoyable, though. The attention to detail given to the level of cheese the Original Series had is top notch. In all of the missions taking place in the 23rd century, a soft filter was added to the background of every mission to replicate that old TV rabbit-ear style. It was so effective that I saw some complaining that they thought something was wrong with their video cards.
Stalking the halls, hunting rubber flying saucers.
Time Travel? Again?
However, if anyone was expecting the expansion to be completely about the Original Series, as the name sort-of suggests, well, sorry. It only takes about 3 missions in before they start with the *real* meat of the expansion: time travel. Yeah, time travel is one of the oldest and misued tropes in fiction. Star Trek has used it time and time again, and the quality has stretched from the odd Mark Twain shenanigans during Next Generation to the excellent Trials and Tribble-ations of Deep Space Nine. Mostly one or two-off episode arcs.
The time travel used in Agents of Yesterday, though, focuses mostly on one of the most obscure and confusing time travel arcs in all of Star Trek, Enterprise‘s Temporal Cold War. A storyline not for the casual Trekkie, which makes it an odd combination, especially when one is expecting the schmooze of original Trek and the everyman of Kirk. It does conclude one of Star Trek Online‘s more obscure story arcs as well, Future Proof, which, sadly, didn’t quite have the same story punch as the recent Iconian War or Delta Rising.
Aboard the USS Yorktown in the Kelvin Timeline
The Kelvin Timeline Strikes Back
And finally, somewhere in there, they also include a relatively shoe-horned feeling mission in the Kelvin Timeline! The Kelvin Timeline, by the way, is now the official name that has recently been given to the universe shown in the series of movies created by J.J. Abrams and others, named for the fated ship, the USS Kelvin. The Kelvin was destroyed at the point of universe fracture, when the Romulan mining vessel, the Narada, entered the split-universe via black hole and attacked. The legitimacy of the universe within the Trek community has been rather contentious since the 2009 Star Trek movie released, but mostly the contention has been coming from the Trek purists who aren’t as big a fan of lens flare as Abrams thought they were.
That, and although the timelines are completely different, they destroyed Romulus! To say the Prime universe’s canon wasn’t hugely affected would be overlooking a major race’s entire home world. Plus, there’s already the Mirror Universe, which is very canon. Like it or not, the different timelines are inexorably intertwined. It’s been officially named, it’s been legitimized, and it’s here for good. If the new upcoming CBS Star Trek series doesn’t acknowledge Romulus’s destruction in the first few episodes, I’ll be shocked (but technically, citizens of the Prime universe shouldn’t know the *name*, like they do the Mirror Universe, as the Prime’s USS Kelvin wouldn’t have been a part of the incident… but that’s a minor detail).
The mission feels shoe-horned, though, because it’s a one-off mission that doesn’t even really give a good reason as to how your ship even gets to the Kelvin timeline or a big reason why, aside from the timey-whimey shenanigans of Trek’s local Time Lord, Daniels. I don’t blame the developers at all for trying to capitalize on the new movies, though. In fact I enjoy it when, say, Marvel Heroes brings in any of the fun stuff from the plethera of Marvel movies and comics out there. A bit of “trans-media synergy” adds that extra layer for fans, which isn’t bad. However, although it’s just one mission that was added, they also dropped a special themed Kelvin Lockbox to go along with it. It contains on its loot table a bevy of costumes, weapons, and abilities or even ships for the very lucky or wallet-heavy (0.33% chance of acquiring the movie Enterprise or any ship, last I checked. 0.33%, don’t overlook that decimal). The trade of one mission for one lockbox, when they could’ve really opened up a whole arc of Kelvin Timeline stories, seems a little underwhelming. Now that they’ve opened the can of worms, hopefully they add to it more in the future.
Those sexy ships, tho.
Right, But How Was It?
Overall, though, I’ve liked the expansion. Those first few missions in the Original Series timeline, though a little awkward in their use of sound bites, are really quite fun. The use of voice actors related to the series like Walter Koenig, the late Leonard Nemoy, Christopher Doohan, and Joseph Gatt is also not to be overlooked if you’re a fan. It may not have as much bulk or heft as previous expansions, or really offer anything truly game-changing, though, but it is still entertaining. Enough to convince me to start up a new character and replay all of Star Trek Online‘s already fantastic story, but with the bonus of figuring out what those pesky Na’Khul are up to.
So, if you’re a new player looking to get into Star Trek Online, Agents of Yesterday at least offers a new path to do so, one that tugs oh-so-affectionately at the nostalgia strings. And if you’re a current player, I highly suggest making a new 23rd century character, at least to try out the TOS missions.
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