525 - Star Trek Online's Stunning Steamrunner

This week on Episode 525 of Priority One: Jeffrey Combs speaks in evil robot about his appearance on Lower Decks, Prodigy showrunners drop some details about the series a month out from the premiere, and it’s confirmed - the TNG cast really are one big happy family.  In gaming news, a new T6 remaster of a classic workhorse starship comes to Star Trek Online, and finally we enter the holo-pod and look at the latest episode of Lower Decks “I, Excretus”.  

This week’s Community Question is:

 “Would you still play Star Trek Online if it wasn’t Star Trek?”

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

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Jake Morgan

Weyooops...Jeffery Combs With i09

By Jake Morgan

A great actor makes you feel. Whether joy, anger, love, hate - a truly gifted thespian makes you ache for their presence - be it revered or reviled. We Star Trek fans are graced with many such actors and characters. Nimoy’s Spock. Whoopie’s Guinan. Comb’s Weyoun. Comb’s Brunt. Comb’s Penk. Comb’s Shran. Comb’s...well, you get the picture. This week, i09 sat down with the prolific Star Trek trouper Jeffery Combs to talk about our latest favorite Comb’s role - the devious supercomputer Agimus!

Comb’s had glowing things to say about the writing staff of Star Trek: Lower Decks, explaining to James Whitbrook of i09 what drew him to the show. ”I liked the script a lot and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I find it—the show—just to be really... witty. Rapid-fire. The joke is past you before you go, “Wh-wh-wha?” A different tone from any other Star Trek I’ve ever done. And I kind of like that. It’s refreshing. It doesn’t take itself quite so seriously as some of the other iterations.”

While Combs was complimentary of Lower Decks, he wasn’t shy about his feelings towards the entertainment industry. When asked whether he’d return to a LIVE-Action version of the franchise, Comb’s said ”You have to be asked to dance. You have to be invited. It’s really not up to me. But I kind of feel I still have some gas in the tank. But you know, when it comes to commerce and entertainment it’s just like cereal: “New and improved!” [...]. So, I don’t really know what goes through decision-makers’ minds, but there always seems to be some sort of a disconnect between what the fans would enjoy and what they wind up doing. Not always. Not always.”

To find out how Comb’s felt about playing an antagonist, his thoughts on Voice Acting, and much more, be sure to follow the link in our show notes at priorityonepodcast.com!

One big happy TNG family

By Rosco McQueen

Some news that as Star Trek fans we’ve all known for a while, but is heartwarming to see it confirmed.  Yes, the cast of The Next Generation really do all like each other.  In fact, they’re all incredibly close.

In an interview with The Express in the UK, Marina Sirtis confirmed that the cast do indeed see themselves as a family.  They’ve been friends since the early days of the series… and the producers hated it.

"They hate when the cast like each other because they talk. Producers don't want you talking. They want us all hating each other and being competitive with each other, so that they can lie to you."

Sirtis explains how after the death of her husband, it was the crew who were there for her soon after. Lavar Burton, Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn all immediately visited with Sirtis on the day her husband, Michael Lamper, died. She also spoke about the support she received from Gates McFadden.

Akiva gets his Wish

By Cat Hough

Akiva Goldsman has been extremely busy of late, acting as executive producer and co-showrunner for both Star Trek: Picard and the upcoming series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If those two roles weren’t busy enough he also wrote and directed the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds. Goldsman told Trekmovie.com that it was really important to him to set the tone and style of the show, saying “I really wanted to make a show that would have appealed to the 12-year old me that went to that Star Trek convention in 1974. And it felt like the best way to do that would be to kind of help set the tone visually, and really more in storytelling.” 

He also notes that the audience will notice some changes in the uniforms and sets from how they appeared in Discovery, since he wanted it to look more in line with the Original Series.

As we have mentioned in previous episodes, Strange New Worlds will be episodic, and Goldsman expounds on that, saying “Our characters will carry with them what they suffer from, or what they learned, from episode to episode. But the stories are episodic.” 

In addition to the show being episodic, Goldsman says that the show is meant to be an ensemble piece - so it won’t just be ‘The Pike Show’ and while it won’t go into every character’s backstory each episode, there will be a “focus” on different characters as the show goes on. 

Starfleet snippets from Prodigy showrunners

By Rosco McQueen

Star Trek: Prodigy is a month away from its debut, and the showrunners are dropping some tiny trek nuggets in interviews.  In a chat with TrekMovie, Prodigy executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman and co-executive producer/director Ben Hibon reinforced the idea that this new series, specifically for kids, is an entry point to the franchise.  

Kevin Hagemen said “While these are kids in our show, they’re in the adult world of Trek. And they’re gonna slowly discover it, and have their falls, and their victories and stuff. It really is a show for people who have not experienced Trek before.”

The journey of the Prodigy crew starts in the Delta Quadrant, with many familiar races that Voyager came across. In the interview the producers mention there are very well thought out reasons why we will see so many Alpha species in the Delta Quadrant, but that no one has really got it yet. They also mention that the USS Protostar was launched after Voyager returned home, but then quickly halt the conversation around the prototype’s secret origins.  The show takes place in 2383, five years after Voyager returned home.

Quick News Roundup

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

• If you’ve been on the fence about adding a new streaming subscription plan, perhaps ViacomCBS’s latest promotion might incentivise you. For $9.99 with commercials or $12.99 without, you can have Paramount+ AND Showtime! This is a permanent price for you so long as you take advantage of it before the October 20th deadline. Also, be sure to use our affiliate links in our shownotes!
• The Orville Returns March 10, 2022

STAR TREK GAMING NEWS

Edited by Jake Morgan

Spoooooky teaser…

By Cat Hough

Well, it appears something spppoooooky is going to happen in Star Trek Online on October 13….we don’t know what - but there was a cryptic tweet made earlier this week telling us to ‘Remember the curse!’ In the video we see some type of coat rack or a hat stand, a black cat, inserted images of a possible raven with a creepy clock ticking in the background. What does it all mean??  

https://twitter.com/trekonlinegame/status/1442519570271584260?s=20

Steamrunner Bundle...because we must have more bundles…

By Cat Hough

The next installment of the ships of the line remastering and repackaging adventures: the Blockade Runner Bundle hits the Zen store on Friday, October 1 on PC. The price is 5,000 Zen, but you can get it for 35% off until  October 8!

The bundle also includes:

• 1 Ship Upgrade Token (T5-U)
• 2 Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens
• T1 Blockade Runner Escort
• T5 Blockade Runner Escort Retrofit
• **NEW** T6 Appalachia Blockade Runner Escort

But in what we hope is a new move for Zen store releases, the T6 Appalachia will also be available as a separate purchase in the Zen Store.

This ship features 4/3 weapons layout and a Lt. Commander Tactical / Command Bridge Officer specialist seat, and a Lieutenant Universal / Intel Bridge Officer specialist seat plus it can load dual cannons. 

And it comes equipped with Universal Console, the Tricobalt Tear Launcher plus an Experimental Weapon Slot, equipped with Hull Spike Battery. The Mastery trait is Piercing Projectiles, so when you activate a Torpedo or Mine firing mode Bridge Officer ability will grant a large Shield Penetration and Hull Penetration bonus for a short time.

https://youtu.be/myFX7I4CU-g

Combat Alert! Defense screens up! Arm the lasers!

By Shane Hoover

Prompted by a recent STO Reddit thread, website Massively OP dedicated their “Massively Overthinking” column on September 23rd to one question. “Would you play your favorite MMO without its IP?”

Many MMO’s were on the table for discussion, but there were some interesting opinions on Star Trek Online. 

Writer Andy McAdams pointed out “I started binging on Star Trek Discovery again and it made me want to play the game, so I downloaded it. But I know I don’t particularly enjoy the game and I’m only playing it for the IP. For me, I don’t think it would stand on its own.”Another writer, Tyler Edwards, says “I don’t think I’d ever have spent any significant amount of time on this game without the IP”.  But he hits an important note pointing out that “What makes the game work is the massive amount of love the people behind it clearly have for the Star Trek universe.”