Trekkie Dad and Super Sophie Episode 1 - USS Enterprise D Jumbo

My poor, poor neglected blog.

As most of you may already know, I love Star Trek and have been collecting the Star Trek Starships Collection models from Eaglemoss since 2013. 

Now, my daughter Sophie has really got interested in Star Trek recently and loves it when I have a delivery of new ships.  So much so that we both decided to do some box opening/reviews on YouTube of the collection.

So here's the first video of Sophie and I opening the Enterprise D Jumbo model.

A Dream Come True

Wow, it's been a few months since my last post.  Apologies for that.  While I think of something good to write about, here are a couple of pictures of me meeting William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk) and Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) at the Destination Star Trek Europe convention yesterday at the NEC in Birmingham.

 

A dream come true to say the least.

 

 The legend that is William Shatner.

 

The gorgeous Terry Farrell

 

Normal content will resume shortly :D

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 30 : Star Trek The Rebel Universe (Commodore 64)

Space...  The Final Frontier. 

 

Combining computer games with Star Trek (two of my favourite things) will always be a winner for me, but the first time I experienced this unique combination was back in 1988 (or maybe 1989 - it was so long ago!) with a little known game on my friend Steve's Atari ST….  Star Trek The Rebel Universe.

 

It was developed by Firebird Software which itself was a division of the UK’s main telecommunications company, British Telecom.  It was designed by the late Mike Singleton, renowned game designer and programmer who also created The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark’s Revenge, Midwinter, and many others. 

Nice title screen with a good SID rendition of Alexander Courages Star Trek TOS theme

 

Now, for reasons unknown (well, possibly due to poor sales), the game was only released for a small number of computers – The Atari ST being one of them, IBM PC, and….  The Commodore 64.  However, the game wasn’t easy to come by.

Nice hi-res graphics

 

Now it wasn’t until my birthday in 1990 when a trip into Basildon to spend some birthday money in Woolworths ended up with me coming out of the shop a very happy 13 year old with a copy of Star Trek The Rebel Universe.  It was cheap too, but that was because the shop couldn’t find the instruction book to go with it.  Hey, I didn’t need the book – I already knew how to play it from the Atari version.

The game consists of various styles of gameplay but is completely controlled via an intuitive icon driven system which was quite original at the time.

The story is this…  The USS Enterprise and its crew under the command of Captain James T. Kirk has been sent by Starfleet Command to investigate an area of space that has caused any previous Federation starships and crew to mutiny and turn against the Federation.   There are many ways to win the game (something I never did manage) but what made this game special was that it really made me feel like I was Captain Kirk.  Being able to select a star system and warping to it, then plotting an orbit around a life supporting planet before beaming down with all my favourite characters from the original series only to be recalled back to the Enterprise again because it was being attacked by a fleet of Klingon battle cruisers, Romulan Bird of Preys, or even rebel Federation Starships.  It was great, and it was only achievable on my Commodore 64.

As mentioned before, the game is icon driven, and the main screen is divided in to 8 sections – 7 of which are the digitised heads of the command crew of the Starship Enterprise, and then the main gameplay area.  Clicking on a digitised head takes you to that persons screen where you can control that persons responsibilities.

Mr Sulu - For navigation, plotting courses to star systems and orbits.
Mr Chekov – Weapons control.
Mr Scott – Checking the status of the Warp and Impulse engines.
Uhura – Communications.
Mr Spock – Ships status, and planet analysis.
Captain Kirk – Checking the ships inventory, and beaming down to life supporting planets.
Dr McCoy – Checking the health of all members of the command crew

 

We've arrived at a star system.  Course plotted for Xuram I

 

On arriving to a star system, the Enteprise can orbit any planet, but the crew can only beam down to ones that support life.  When beaming down, you can choose which characters you want as part of your landing team.  Once you have beamed down, you can search the planet, while facing some simple puzzles and obstacles which can be overcome by either a suggestion from a member of the team, or from an object picked up from a previous away mission.   Beaming down is depicted by using very basic line graphics, but it’s enough to make you feel like you’re on an alien planet.

 

This fantastic image appears once orbit is achieved.

 

Selecting your landing party.  Nothing against Uhura, but I've always left her on the ship!

 

The command crew of the USS Enteprise face their biggest challenge....  A door!

 

Another fun part of the game is the combat.  Occasionally you’ll be attacked by Klingons, Romulans or rebel Federation starships.  Selecting Chekov and choosing whether you want to fire the more powerful (but limited) Photon Torpedos, or using the lesser powerful (but rechargeable) phasers really makes you feel like you are on board the ship and in control during battle stations.  The combat is shown in wireframe vector graphics and although they look very simple on the Commodore 64, they move fairly quick, and it can get quite intense when locking on to an multiple enemy ships and firing.

 

Klingons on the starboard bow.  Great vector graphics.

 

Lock on to your target...

 

and FIRE! 

Modern Star Trek games are usually hit or miss.  I loved Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Deep Space Nine The Fallen, but none of them capture Star Trek the way The Rebel Universe did, and neither did they give the player the freedom to boldly go wherever they wanted.  The Rebel Universe allows players to explore star systems in a non-linear way,  and features some very impressive graphics (albeit a little blocky is places).

 

Travelling at warp speed for a long time will stress Mr Scott out!

 

Dr McCoy is busy caring for the command crew after a disastrous away mission - wait, who is running the ship?

 

Course plotted for the Dakiak star system.

 

I spent countless hours playing this game, and even though I never did find a way to win, I still go back to it every now and then.  Yes the Atari ST version is/was better with its improved graphics and digitised sound effects, but the Commodore 64 version showed what could be done to put a game designed for a 16-bit computer in to a single loader game on a computer with limited memory.

The box cover

 

Information sheet that comes with the Commodore 64 version

 

Information sheet that comes with the Commodore 64 version

 

A nice instruction manual with back story to the game.  A good read.

 

The tape

 

 

Star Trek The Official Starship Collection - Various Models

A couple more 'photoshopped' photographs of my Eaglemoss Star Trek Starships Collection models.  All taken with my new Canon EOS 600D with the following settings :-

f-stop - f/22
Exposure Time - 30 seconds
ISO Speed - 100
Focal Length 18mm

Cardassian Galor Class Battlecruiser

USS Defiant

USS Defiant

USS Enterprise (Star Trek 09')

USS Equinox

USS Equinox

Enterprise NX-01

 

Ferengi Marauder

USS Dauntless

 

 

Boldly going... YET again!

Another picture I've been working on to ease the boredom.  This time, it's a 'Photoshopped' photograph of my Art Asylum USS Enterprise NX-01 model, using my new Canon EOS camera.

Boldly going.... again

Oooooo...  Two posts in one day!  Go me.

I just wanted to post a picture that I've been working on to kill my boredom, and take my mind of having to return back to work tomorrow after having the past 2 weeks off.

Several years ago I purchased a USS Enterprise model made by Bandai.  The model is great, and even lights up.  Since I have just recently purchased a brand new DSLR camera (Canon EOS 600D), I thought I'd try doing some shots with it and super-imposing them on to some 'spacey' backgrounds.  I'm working on a few at the moment, but this is the first one, and I must say I'm quite pleased with the finished result.

What you can't see is how I managed the blue tint to the hull of the ship.  Since I don't have access to a studio or fancy lights, I managed to achieve this with me holding my mobile phone at the model, and using a torch lamp app to illuminate the ship!  Simple but effective.

Star Trek - The Official Starships Collection Issues 10 and 11 (Borg Sphere and USS Reliant)

 

 

This months models are the Borg Sphere, as seen in Star Trek : First Contact, and a number of episodes of Star Trek Voyager, and the Miranda class USS Reliant from Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan.

I'll start with the Borg Sphere.  When this issue was announced, I wasn't expecting much from it.  After all, the Borg Sphere is essentially..... a ball!  It's only when you hold the ship you can see the amount of detail that has gone in to it.  The problem is, when compared to the actual studio model of the Borg Sphere, it in fact does not look much like its film counterpart.  Green areas which are meant to be light emanating from within give a great effect.  It's quite heavy too and doesn't look like some cheap piece of plastic.  It looks 'Borg' though, and is still a good addition to the collection.

The next model in the collection is the USS Reliant, and all I can say is "Wow!".  Quite possibly the best model in the collection so far, I had high hopes on this one after the slightly disappointing USS Excelsior last month.  The ship is quite large, and has plenty of detail throughout, including a very slight (but effective) aztec texture on the hull - something which I wish was included on the issue 2 Enterprise refit.

I really hope Eaglemoss keep the quality of future models to the standard of the USS Reliant.  Next month....   An Akira Class Federation starship, and a Jem'hadar cruiser.

Star Trek - The Official Starships Collection Issue 8 and 9, and Specials Review (USS Excelsior, USS Defiant, Deep Space Nine and Future USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D)

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get these up...  I actually had these delivered several weeks ago, but have only got round to actually putting them on the Blog.

My latest delivery from the Eaglemoss Starship Collection was a big one, consisting of Issues 8 and 9 - The USS Excelsior as seen in Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country, the USS Defiant from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the Deep Space Nine station itself, and finally the future USS Enterprise D from the final episode of Star Trek : The Next Generation, All Good Things.

 

I'm going to start with the Excelsior model.  One of my favourite designs from the Star Trek movies, I was eagerly awaiting this release, but I regret to say I was not that impressed with this model.  Firstly, the model feels extremely delicate.  The design of the Excelsior means there is a lot of very thin sections, in particular the long warp nacelles.  When holding it, I'm afraid of it snapping in my hand!  A lack of details doesn't help it either due to the scale of the ship.  It's a shame really because this could have been a fantastic release.

 

 

 

I'm happy to say that the USS Defiant from Deep Space Nine is much better.  Due to the small size of the ship in the show, it means that additional detail can be put on to a model of this scale.  The biggest 'cock up' mind you is the duplication of one Starfleet insignia from one side of the ship to the other - the designers didn't flip the logo, meaning that one side of the ship has an incorrect logo.  It isn't that noticeable if you're just having it on display however. 

 

 

 

Deep Space Nine is the first over-sized special from the collection, and it is amazing!  (It should be at £18.99).  Quite possibly the best model of the collection so far, the detail is spot on, although lacking the Communications Array which is located on the top of the station, possibly due to the fact that it would be too fragile.  One thing to note is how heavy this model is - it's made mostly from metal, which makes it feel solid and not as delicate as some of the other ships in the collection.

 

 

Finally, the future Enterprise D from the final episode of the Next Generation.  The model is almost identical to issue 1 other than having a few additions, including a third warp nacelle.  I actually thought the design was a show of laziness from the designers who obviously thought sticking a few bits here and there would make the Enterprise D look 25 years older.  Personally, I thought it looked tacky, and unfortunately the model looks as if someone has modded the original D model with some badly-fitting parts.  I can't really complain though as this model was free to subscribers. 

 

All in all, a half decent delivery of two outstanding and two average models.  Still, a good addition to my ever growing collection.