David R. Deitrick Follow-up

The series is complete!

Here's my rough attempt to assemble the Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan series triptych of the special retailers' incentive version with art by David R. Deitrick, as covered here last month. Issue #3 was released July 1st, so if you want to get them, grab them soon (link to Things from Another World, or click the image above). This series with David's artwork and April's movie prequel Countdown have really made me take a closer look at the Trek comics coming out of IDW Publishing, and the John Byrne TOS April-era tale Crew (featuring "Number One"!) jumped out at me as well. But just as Crew #5 is coming out next week, #2 is already sold out. I tracked it down and paid extra, but that's the lesson for TWOK: if you want the Deitrick covers, best get them while you can.

Speaking of Mr. Deitrick, he came upon my original post and was nice enough to drop me a very gracious thank you note. It turns out that the TWOK covers were an entirely new commission, not an older unseen piece. If, like me, you'd like to see more of these, do what I did: drop IDW a note by snail mail or email and let them know you want more (I even hinted I'd like them to release a poster). In my ideal world, this gives David a chance to build up his Trek portfolio just in time for a new game publisher to come along, snatch up the RPG license, and hire him to do all of the art for the game!

A guy can dream, can't he? While I'm at it, I win the lottery big time, and I'm the one that gets the license and hires the rest of the best and the brightest. We all quit our day jobs and just create the best Trek RPG ever.

But for now, I'll just have to make do with these comics and work on the next best thing...

But wait! There's more.....

Star Trek Lives... at Origins 2009!

First off, if I'd had half a brain in my head these past few weeks, this should have been a post previewing the Origins Game Fair held last week (June 24-28) in my hometown of Columbus, OH at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. As it happens, it never occurred to me to even check the schedule until it was over, probably because I was bummed that I couldn't afford to go (and Gen Con still looks just as unlikely).

Post-con reports this week have been pretty much the same: attendance seemed slightly down compared to previous years, it didn't help that Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and Games Workshop didn't exhibit, but overall it was a great show for gaming. As someone who deals with tradeshows in the tech field, I have to tell you that shows this past year have been down at least a third, and I hear Origins didn't have anywhere near that kind of drop. Congratulations to the Game Manufacturers Association for that.

It looks like Origins 2009 was packed with fun for Trek gamers. First off, a big round of applause to Steve Cole and the folks at Amarillo Design Bureau for a great presence at the show, and for running Star Fleet Universe new player demos for all 5 days. Best way to introduce new players to the hobby. In fact, it sounds like it was a full plate for SFU players throughout the show with Federation & Empire (the strategic game of the SFU) games run upstairs, Federation Commander and Star Fleet Battles games and tournaments, and seminars and "The Sing-A-Long" (the company briefing). Here is a picture album that Bill Stec has posted to Photobucket.

And here are some tidbits from friend, Groknard reader and fellow Cardinal (Class of '86), Lee Hanna (thanks Lee!):

• F&E was rocking... 23 bodies at 4 tables, the room was definitely full
• Played in the "Errant Wind" game (General War delayed, Romulans and Klingons gang up on Federation; 4 turns played)
• Attended the Company briefing (aka the Sing-A-Long) and the F&E Seminar. Came away impressed with the continued openness by ADB's officers. Missed the SFB Tactics and FC seminars. A number of seminars were podcasted, so you can hear for yourself with more to come
• Little coverage and no play of the Prime Directive RPGs during the con :(
• ADB's sales were higher YOY in May 2009 than May 2008 and June's sales were double, perhaps due to the new Star Trek film?

(side note: great blog entry yesterday at Troll in the Corner regarding memories of the old Star Fleet Battles)

Also popular at Origins this year was the other venerable Star Trek wargame, FASA's Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. Chris Norton organized no less than four games of STSTCS in Hall D during the show based on Klingon vs IKS and Klingon vs Federation scenarios.

And here's one I wished I'd been in on: Ken Burnside's (Ad Astra Games) Squadron Strike with the scenario When Universes Collide - Babylon 5 vs Star Trek! I need to get me the SSDs for that and give the Star Trek universe a shot in a true 3D simulation game... In Valen's Name!

But it wasn't all miniatures and ConSims at Origins 2009. Prime Directive may have decided to skip the show (a shame, btw, considering that the new D20 Modern version rocks), but there was no lack (or variety!) of Star Trek role-playing games going on at the con. Tara Lydick of Blue Hen Gamers club, for instance, ran a LUG game called Which Came First? - "When the crew of the USS Blackhorse discover a new star system, can they successfully negotiate their way out of their strangest first?"

CODA games aplenty too! Patrick Goodman and I were talking on the phone the other day and he'd heard that his CODA Star Trek RPG Support Site came up in conversations during the show. Between the movie, a complete Trek game system for $35, and efforts like Patrick's, CODA has definitely proven itself to be the little Trek RPG that could. As for CODA games at Origins...

• Kevin Hake of Crimson Hand Gamers ran two games: Ports of Call, in which the USS Gryphon patrols the infamous Triangle, and Ports of Intrigue, where the crew goes undercover to investigate New Sahara... is it a black market or something more sinister?
• Kris Chester and Brandon Perdue also ran two CODA games: The Lost Colony, a TNG scenario, and The Treason Sharply, in which players could join the crew of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and gain honor in the hunt for a traitor to the Empire.

Last but not least was a FUDGE homebrew sponsored by Grey Ghost Press and organized by Gordon Cooper called The Monument. In this TOS-based scenario, a science vessel investigating the ruins of a lost civilization has disappeared... and there are reports of Klingon activity in the sector.

Not too shabby a showing for Trek at all. I'm definitely going to try to make it to next year's Origins (June 23-27, 2010) and I may have a couple of my own games to run as well (more on that later). In the meantime, Gen Con Indy 2009 is just 40 days away, and I see a few Trek games on deck. Hmmm... what is "Directive 7731"?

But wait! There's more.....

A Miniature Crew of Your Own

It was about 2 1/2 years ago that I "re-discovered" The Hobby. Actually, I hadn't forgotten it, but I'd stopped following it on the Internets back in '99 because I felt they were sucking the fun out of it. Anyway, the reason I "came home" was due in big part to Star Trek and its long legacy of gaming, much of which I'd missed during my exile.

One of the first things I started looking for was the miniatures I'd had and those I missed. I've been lucky enough to have saved (or recovered) and expanded my collection quite a bit with the Heritage, Citadel, FASA, LUG and Ultimo Avamposto officially-licensed releases. Of course, those aren't the only options.

It was around that time (early 2007) that I was on The Miniatures Page and saw a post about a fellow named Matakishi who was planning on designing and casting his own 28mm Starship Crew. By early this year, I'd given up hope that he would finish the project, but lo and behold! He says he's still working on perfecting the sculpts, but apparently is willing to share the fruits of his labors in return for a donation. See his site for details.

It was also on his site and others that I came across pictures of some other "not Trek" miniatures that came out a few years ago, and are no longer available. Here are some from OOP Eureka Miniatures (that I have since managed to get off eBay):



...and here are 1st Corps' 28mm "Away Team", also long gone (that I have not managed to find):


There are at least two other options for a miniature crew of your own. I'm particulary fond of MegaMiniatures 25mm "SF Explorers", available through their eBay store:



They may look a little goofy, but they're very nicely cast, very affordable and easily modified with a little skill. Take a look at what Scott over at the Star Trek Miniatures Yahoo Group managed to do with one:



And I think Adam or I mentioned them before, but Victory Force Miniatures has their outstanding line of 28mm "Spacefarers" that are perfect for Next Generation era Trek, Galactica, Babylon 5 or even Galaxy Quest! Here's the "Space Crew Explore Pack #2":

Be sure to scroll down the whole page, and you'll find perfect sources for men, women, aliens... and even redshirts!

But wait! There's more.....

The "Key" to New Starship Miniatures!

Fans of Star Trek and starship miniature gaming, rejoice!

As I hinted in my blog earlier this week, a new alternative for starship miniatures has come onto the market in an unlikely fashion: the new line of Star Trek Keychains from Basic Fun, Inc. The company has released a set of 5 new keychains, 4 from older Star Trek series and 1 from the new film. Based on the pictures, I decided to take a chance to see if these would be suitable for Trek miniature gaming, and similar to the Star Trek Micro Machines I already have in terms of quality and scale. The answer is: close enough!

The new line of keychains are made of the same soft plastic (PVC?) that most of Galoob's Micro Machines were made of. They are each about 3 inches (8cm) long, and consist of the following ships:

- TOS USS Enterprise NCC-1701
- TOS Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser
- TNG USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D

These are in identical "Original Trek" packaging (see right) with images of each on the back, including a TOS Communicator keychain, not covered in this post. Regardless of contents, the packages are all labeled with the same SKU and "Item# 1354".

The fourth starship is the new Enterprise from this year's film. It is in its own unique packaging, listed as Item# 1355, and makes no reference on the back to any of the other keychains.

As you can see to the left (you can click most pictures in this post to get the bigger versions), the ships are all the same length. Both of these Enterprise ships are nearl the exact same length as the Galoob Micro Machine USS Enterprise, as pictured at the very top of this post. At first glance one might even think that the two TOS Enterprises are from the same mold, but the quality and detail of the new "keychain" version exceeds the older one in subtle ways, such as the thickness of the saucer section.

The paint jobs and lettering on all of the new ships is excellent, and none of the ships I received were at all warped as MMs could be at times. I will certainly be clipping the chains from these ships and using a Dremel to drill small holes in the bottom for flight stands.

One really important thing to note for both the TOS and the new Enterprise is how the keychain itself is connected. Despite the images used on the packaging and in promotional photos for them, the connecting loop is more invasive than depicted. To the right, for instance, is a closeup of one of those images, definitely a prototype. Down below, however, you will see that the loop actually goes through two small holes on the rear of the saucer, and one through the neck. They're not sloppy holes and I can see why they chose to do that considering the material and their actual function as something to pull out of your pocket. But I'm sure there are some fans who would prefer to know this before they purchase them. This method is not used on the 1701D or the D-7.

It's not a deal killer for me, and I don't think I'm going to bother trying to fill the gaps. Although it would be easy enough to do with green stuff (epoxy modeling putty), it would probably be a pain (for me) to match the original paint. I'm sure others with be able to do it in such a way as to not even be noticeable!>



I only wish Basic Fun had released a Kelvin as well! I would have bought a boatload of those to kitbash and create the two other Federation starships (the "Quad" and the "Trike" as some call them). But even with just the 1701, there are some great custom kitbashing possibilities, like those found at the awesome Shipyard site of 3D artist MadMan.

Here are some more images of the other "Ships of the Line". First, the 1701-D and the D-7, side-by-side with their Micro Machine counterparts. As you can see, they're a good half-inch longer.



Next, some closeups of the beautiful detail found on the new 1701. Yes, that is actually an aztec pattern on the bottom of the saucer! Manufacturing has come a long way.





Next, some close-ups of the D-7 (or, as I'll call it when I pit it against the new Enterprise, the big "D-9 Klingon War Birds", even though the Klingon War Birds in the new film do have some stylistic differences). In the third pic, you can almost imagine that I know how to focus a camera in such a way that you can see the individual windows painted on.



Here's the 1701-D, and it's just beautiful. Very smooth, and windows and other detail are fantastic. The keychain connector simply unscrews, leaving a small knob that should come off with a sharp hobby knife.



Finally, the "NCC 1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D."



So, there you have it. At about $6 a pop, definitely a less expensive alternative for the new Enterprise than what's available through the secondary market right now, and some almost perfect alternatives to what came out through Micro Machines. You should be able to find these on eBay or the official Star Trek Store (beware obscenely priced and slow shipping and handling!), and I would think that they'll be showing up in all sorts of brick and mortar retail outlets as well.

Let the kitbashing and tabletop gaming begin!

But wait! There's more.....

The Trek Art of James Clyne

I think I've mentioned previously how big a fan I am of pre-production and concept art for film. One of my biggest disappointments this summer is the fact that there is no "Art of JJ Abrams' Star Trek" book to place on my shelf next to similar books for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and, of course, previous Star Trek productions. I think a lot of us in the Trek RPG hobby find this stuff inspiring and -- shall I say -- fascinating.

Ryan Church and his design for the new Enterprise have garnered much online attention the past few weeks. Now the portfolio of concept artist James Clyne (AI, War of the Worlds, Transformers) has been updated to include an extensive look at his work for the new Star Trek film. Lots of wonderful work showing the Narada (inside and out), Vulcan, the drill, and interiors for the USS Kelvin (then called the Iowa?). Check it out and enjoy!

But wait! There's more.....

RIP David F. Tepool

Some very sad news this evening from Guy McLimore, co-designer of Fantasimulations Associates' seminal Star Trek The Role Playing Game, that one his friends and partners in game design has passed away. David F. Tepool was credited as co-author of the FASA RPG and was the creator of the much-loved Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. From Guy's post on TrekRPGnet:

David had not been active in game design in a number of years, but he returned to the game industry a few years ago as the owner of Olde Rivertowne Miniatures, a mail-order minis firm based in his home town of Newburgh, IN.

David's work on Star Trek, particularly the creation of the ship combat game, was something of which he was very proud, and it always pleased him that so many people still play and enjoy the game, even though it is long, long out of print. If you are someone who visits here, you undoubtedly know his work. I am so very grateful for the years we spent working together -- some of the best of my creative life. Our trips on the road promoting the game and meeting the fans (and many of the Star Trek cast) were very special to all of us. Greg Poehlein and I tried many times to coax David into returning to design work. I'm sorry we never managed to talk him into it.

I hope those of you who have enjoyed his work will continue to play and have fun with it for years to come. Having you remember him in your thoughts when you do would mean a lot to him.

Guy McLimore

--

I certainly will remember him fondly. I still pull out the STTCS, and lurk on forums like Sub-Odeon's where the game lives and grows even now. To this day, no one has replicated the elegance and immersion of the Command & Control approach to starship combat in roleplaying, though many have tried. I just saw his Ship Construction Manual go for a crazy amount on eBay this week. That's staying power. And I still love his Dalek module for FASA's Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game.

I'm glad he knew how many hundreds of hours of fun and camaraderie he brought to so many of us over the past decades. We should all be so lucky to make that kind of contribution to this hobby we love, and we should all hope that if we do, that we know it.

RIP, David. We will remember you, and we thank you.

But wait! There's more.....

Review: Michael Giacchino's Star Trek Score

When I first heard in 2006 that J.J. Abrams was going to have Michael Giacchino do the score for his Star Trek film, I'll admit I was more than a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, I knew Giacchino was very talented and I enjoyed his scores for the television series Lost and the film The Incredibles a great deal.

"But c'mon," I thought. "Giacchino isn't Jerry Goldsmith."

I have a passion for film soundtracks. They make up a good 25% of my entire CD collection. And the musical legacy of Star Trek over the years is easily some of my favorite music. I even listen to the isolated music tracks of TOS DVDs just to hear the work of composers such as Alexander Courage, Sol Kaplan and Fred Steiner. I have all the CDs -- and even some vinyls! -- for the Trek films over the years, except for Leonard Rosenman's score for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the only thing I didn't like about that movie). James Horner's work for Star Trek II and III are so powerful, though in retrospect they sounded like nearly everything else he was doing at the time. I have Dennis McCarthy's soundtrack for Generations, but I probably only remember the first and last two minutes of it.

Fortunately, the master of Trek soundtracks -- Jerry Goldsmith -- would return for First Contact. Despite all the fine compositions for Star Trek films both good and bad, I'll always consider his score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture the masterpiece. His main theme was triumphant, "Ilia's Theme" is so beautiful, and I still get a little chill up my spine when I listen to "Klingon Battle". When I hear it, I'm 14 again seeing Klingon battlecruisers in 70mm Panavision for the first time. And, in a reversal of my feelings for Trek IV, Goldsmith's music is pretty much the only thing I love about Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I would go so far as to say that Jerry Goldsmith's Trek music was the music for the Star Trek series. Yes, TOS had Courage's immortal theme, but Goldsmith's music was bigger than that.

So, for me, Giacchino would have some pretty big shoes to fill and I didn't think he could pull it off. How wrong I was.

My perception of what Michael Giacchino could do completely changed when I saw Cloverfield in early 2008. That films single piece of music, "Roar! (Cloverfield Overture)", was the perfect distillation of master composers such as Akira Ifukube, Masaru Sato and Yuji Koseki and the outstanding work they had done over the decades for kaiju eiga (another of my passions) such as Godzilla, Mothra and other Toho classics. Would he take a similar approach to Star Trek?

The answer is an unqualified "Yes".

Michael Giacchino's score for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is not only a worthy successor to the work of Goldsmith but also captures the essence of the contributions of Horner, Courage, Kaplan and Fried, with a little Bernard Herrmann (The Twilight Zone, The Day the Earth Stood Still) thrown in for good measure. But, like "Roar!”, Giacchino makes it wholly his own and in the process continues the memorable legacy of Star Trek music.

I've not yet seen the film, so I can't yet say how well the score for Star Trek supports the movie itself. Like much of Goldsmith's work, Giacchino builds his score around a single recurring musical theme. It's not quite the leitmotif approach of composers such as John Williams in his Star Wars soundtracks, full of individual themes for characters and settings. Based on what I know of the story itself, the score focuses on Kirk and (I suspect) builds in variations along with the character throughout the course of the film. There seem to be identifiable melodies for the Enterprise, the villain Nero, and his vessel the Narada, but in most cases are used to intertwine with and modify the main Trek theme. Through the course of the score, Kirk's theme builds from soft and tentative ("Star Trek"), to contemplative ("Hella Bar Talk"), to brash ("Enterprising Young Men"), to mature and triumphant ("That New Car Smell"). It is, at times, as strong a theme as Goldsmith's "Leaving Drydock" in TMP.

Two of the finest moments in the soundtrack don't involve Kirk's theme at all. "Labor of Love" is an aching, building, beautiful melody that at times seems mournful and turning unexpectedly blissful. I suspect it accompanies the birth of Kirk in the midst of the tragedy of the USS Kelvin, and may have the audience holding back tears in the first 10 minutes of the movie. It has the same effect on me that Giacchino's "Life and Death" theme from Lost does. Another, "Nero Sighted", weaves moments of brass and moments of isolated percussion in such a way that it evokes Horner's track "Surprise Attack" from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It's one track that I'm sure will please fans of Horner's classic space combat music.

Another standout track is "Nice to Meld You". I won't identify what I suspect accompanies this track in the film, but it's dark, dramatic and ebbs in and out in such a way that I felt transported back to moments in The Original Series meshed with Herrmann's The Day the Earth Stood Still. I can't wait to have visuals to match with the music (one week!).

If anything feels out of place in this score, I'm afraid that it's Giacchino's take Alexander Courage's original Star Trek theme in "End Credits". It feels forced and unauthentic, like something off of the "Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra" album I've avoided for 25 years. I can appreciate its inclusion as a tribute, but I'm just not certain that a purely symphonic approach to something so well-known and originally accompanied by a soprano voice and electronics could do anything but jar this listener. Perhaps that's why it's been avoided by other composers up to this point. More effective is the use of the opening fanfare in "To Boldly Go", and a familiar melody in another track that will come as a pleasant surprise when you hear it.

I'm also disappointed that the CD contains only 45 minutes of music from the film. I realize that not every part of a score is suitable for release on a soundtrack CD, but 45 minutes out of a possible 70 minute CD for a 126 minute movie leaves me wondering how much has been left out.
But for me, the most important question was whether or not Giacchino's score would be worthy of its predecessors. Would I get another Star Trek IV (not Trek-like)? Would I get another Generations (unmemorable)? Was it beyond hope to get a score better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the best)?

While Giacchino's Star Trek doesn't quite reach the heights of Goldsmith's masterpiece. I'm not sure how much it will appeal to those whose tastes run darker, and more towards the work of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. But it is at least as superb as James Horner's Trek scores and most of Goldsmith's later work. It sounds both fresh and classic and -- most important -- it sounds like Star Trek. The legacy continues. I suspect that once we hear the music in the context of the film itself, it will be perfect and we'll hope that Giacchino will be back for the next Star Trek in 2011.

But wait! There's more.....

New Trek, RPGs - What's Hip and What's Geek

Just a random thought here.

Over the past few days, I've read a few articles about events and merchandise that seem to indicate that Paramount is putting some serious focus into "hipstering" up Star Trek (classic and new) as part of its marketing campaign for the upcoming film. TrekMovie had articles this week about NYC and LA "Star Trek Dance Parties" (click the Orion to the left for an LA Weekly Slideshow) and the "new pseudo retro" t-shirts from Junk Food. Harry over at Ain't It Cool News has a somewhat bizarre piece this morning about what's hip, what's geek, and what's geek that can be made hip.

This isn't anything new, of course, and it's all about money. Don't think for one second that the guiding principals of Star Trek are actually anything Paramount gives a crap about. There is not one tiny thought that governs their actions about doing this new Trek movie "for the fans". There is some distinction, I think, between Paramount and JJ Abrams & Co., as I've seen and read enough from the latter to feel some certainty that they have enough respect for both Trek and its fans. So I have some confidence that the movie will not only be good, but very good and satisfying as well.

So what does any of this have to do with role-playing games? Some have remarked that they can't believe that such a big franchise with a history of RPGs associated with it doesn't have an RPG right now, of all times. How could they possibly leave money on the table, it's argued.

If there's any truth to the rumor that parties recently inquired with CBS Consumer Products and Paramount about licensing Trek for a new RPG and were rebuffed, perhaps this (in part) explains why. To those guys, Trek is all about The Brand. And now they're trying to "hip up" The Brand to make sure as many of Teh Kidz see Star Trek and buy the t-shirts before heading to Teh Klubz because that's where the cheddar is. Yo.

And in order to control perception of a brand with so many associations, it's necessary to limit those licenses and marketing efforts. Cool fragrances? Hip. Spock ears? Geek. Hot Orion chicks at a dance party? Hip.

Role-playing game? Geek. And completely un-hippable. "Like Dungeons & Dragons... but with phasers!" probably doesn't fit the mission profile right now.

Like I said, though, it's all about money. Once they've pocketed their first $500 million by the end of summer, they'll be looking to keep that money rolling in for 2010. And by that time, your money and mine will be as green as an Orion slave girl at an LA dance party.

But wait! There's more.....

New Prime Directive RPG Releases from ADB

Looks like the folks over at Amarillo Design Bureau have been super busy lately, and there are a few upcoming releases of interest. I said early on that I probably wouldn't cover the Star Fleet Universe or its Prime Directive RPG much here, but I've changed my mind for a number of reasons.

Primarily, Stephen Cole and ADB have kept the flame burning for Trek tabletop gaming for a long time, 30 frakkin' years! That deserves nothing but respect. Some of the themes and tone of the SFU may differ from Star Trek, but it's properly licensed and the rest is technicality. If my blog is truly "A Retrospective of Star Trek RPGs", then it's incomplete without coverage of these efforts.

I'll also be covering SFU over on my new Tabletop Games column at Star Trek Games, as games such as Star Fleet Battles and Federation Commander have probably had a bigger impact in terms of Trek-themed tabletop gaming than anyone else.

Anyway, news!

Scheduled for 4/20/09: Prime Directive: Federation (d20 Modern), SKU 8702, $24.95 - This manual covers everything you could want to know about those do-gooders of the galaxy, the Federation. Extensive history of the Federation, history and culture a dozen member races, military organizations, medals, starships, politics, intelligence agencies, etc. This release is specifically for the d20 Modern rule system, and PD20M core rules and supplements for the Klingons and Romulans are already available. UPDATE: Thanks to Stephen Cole at ADB for sending me the cover images above and below!

Scheduled for 5/18/09: The long-anticipated GURPS Prime Directive: Federation, (GURPS 4E), SKU 8402, $24.95 - Similar to the above, but adapted to the Generic Universal Role Playing System by Steve Jackson Games. The Core PDGURPS book (200 pages, and includes a complete rules set for GURPS including character creation) and supplements for Klingons and Romulans have been available for awhile. Other supplements such as Tholians and Starships have been mentioned in the past, so hopefully the release of Federation is a sign that things are picking up steam.

Keep an eye out here for more on the past, present and future of Prime Directive.

But wait! There's more.....

New Star Trek Games... No RPG

TrekMovie.com today posted an article about the mass of licensed Trek junk merchandise about to be dumped upon the unsuspecting public in anticipation of JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie. Oh dear, it looks like The Phantom Menace all over again (hint: wait two years... folks on eBay won't be able to give it away!).

Not surprising is the sheer amount of licenses issued solely to Trek tabletop gaming: more Trek Monopoly, UNO, the Scene It DVD boardgame, a trivia game, Scrabble and -- of course -- Star Trek Magic 8 Ball (FTW?!?!). Okay, I guess that is surprising after all.

What else is surprising? No Star Trek Roleplaying Game, for either the classic series or the new movie universe. Decipher lost the license a little over a year ago and at the moment no one has the license. A little bird over on theRPGSite Forums says that inquiries have, in fact, recently been made but apparently CBS Consumer Products is not interested at this time.

Which is very sad, and makes Mr. Spock cry. It's no secret that Decipher and Last Unicorn Games faced two big problems when doing their respective versions of a Trek RPG. One, neither company was very good at running its business, regardless of the burdens of the Trek license. Two, both were releasing Trek RPGs at a time of "Trek Burnout". When even fans were turning their backs on the shows and films coming out of Paramount, it's hard to imagine the associated merchandise doing much better. Admittedly I've never seen the books of any of these companies, but I'd find it hard to imagine that FASA was able to do Trek for such a long time and with a wealth of material if they weren't doing so as a going concern.

Different times, of course, and there are some who question whether or not Star Trek is even suitable for tabletop roleplaying in this day and age. That seems to be a debate that comes up every once in awhile over on RPGnet and other places. My opinion: given the right timing, the right business approach and a well-developed game, there's no reason that a Star Trek RPG couldn't be a critical and popular success all over again.

In the meantime, we can always continue with what's already out there, and even "roll our own" for our favorite RPG system (see my 2MB preview version of Final Frontier, the Trek adaptation for the Thousand Suns RPG that I've been working on lately). I have to admit, though, that there would be nothing like strolling into my FLGS and finding a brand spanking new official "Star Trek RPG Core Rules" game on the shelf and a rack of minis right next to it.

There's always hope. And until then, there's Star Trek Magic 8 Ball.

But wait! There's more.....

OT: Playmates Star Trek Movie Toys Revealed

At TrekMovie.com, the first big look at Playmates' figures, toys and playsets for the upcoming Star Trek film. Very cool, if only for the best glimpse yet of the uniforms, the bridge, the communicator and so on.

After all, that picture up there is mini-me getting his Mego Star Trek Bridge Playset, circa 1975. Don't think I'll be collecting any of it this time around, though. Okay, maybe the ship.

But wait! There's more.....