Star Trek: Big in Japan!

If you haven't noticed, I have a passion for many things Japanese, including Japanese things related to Star Trek (or, as the original series was called over there, 宇宙大作戦 (Space Operation)). Probably a result of the years I spent immersed in kaiju eiga and tokusatsu fandom... that's a fancy way of saying Godzilla, Gamera and Ultraman, heh.

Thanks to Eric, my wonderful online friend and Trek RPG buddy in Tokyo, I got a fantastic care package last week. I'd already managed to get ahold of a few chirashi (mini-posters) for the film, but Eric really completed my collection with the official movie program, a keychain with a very small new Enterprise, a command badge and a press/PR document (all pictured left, click any of these to embiggenize).

I still have and treasure my original 1979 theatrical program from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It was probably one of the final programs of its type published. By the time TWOK came out in 1982, everything seemed to have switched to "Official Collector's Magazines". Just not the same.

But in Japan, a few very high-quality programs still manage to be released, and some theaters and movies have additional merchandise for sale at the concession stands. Some of the coolest and rarest Godzilla collectibles were "theater exclusives" that would only be available at the end of the year when what used to be the annual Godzilla film was being screened.

And so it was with the June premiere of JJ Abrams' Star Trek in Japanese theaters this month. Shochiku Goods has released Star Trek theater merchandise as part of its Froovie ("something from the movie") line of goods, which can be seen at the Froovie website. Unfortunately, most of it now appears to be sold out (and Eric told me the same), so it will be difficult for most Westerners to get ahold of it unless you know how to frequent outlets such as Yahoo Japan Auctions. In the meantime, here's some closeup images of what Eric managed to get to me.

I love the program, but I think this is my favorite: yet another new Enterprise keychain! This is much smaller than the US version I covered a few weeks ago, 1 3/4" (45mm). For starship miniature fans, that's about the same size as the small Romando Star Trek 1/7000 collection (my favored scale for gaming).

Here are some additional close-ups alongside a Galoob TOS 1701 Micro Machine, the US Basicfun keychain, and -- one of my favorite recent acquisitions -- a brilliant 1/7000 scale Klingon D7, erm, Sing-on Starship from Studio Bergstrom (do check out that website, his minis are better than the pictures and a GREAT VALUE!).

And here are some shots of the additional merchandise (click to enlarge):

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.....

Still More Trek Gaming Tidbits!

Just a few quick, fun finds of note tonight before dinner:

When it comes to miniatures, a good Klingon is hard to find. Or is it? Check out the new "Rim Alien" (left), and if you're interested in this and more, head over to Gary Mitchell's Shop. They're not the Big K's, of course, but they look close enough for gaming purposes. They'll be coming soon.

If you're like me, you dig schematics and deckplans. Need a good ship? Perhaps a station to visit? How about a nicely detailed Ground Base to infiltrate? Well, thanks to IceGiant in a thread over at TrekRPGNet, a site thought to be lost had turned back up: Publius' (John D. Lees?) Trek Role-Playing site, which includes maps of the Damaris Sector, some CODA house rules, and deckplans for the Nova-class, the USS Rhode Island variant, the Java-class, the Regula Station and more! Grab 'em while you can before a black hole opens up.

Owen Oulton has pointed out Samuel Kowal's lovely deckplans for the USS Raven on his deviantARt page. Samuel also has some cool original schematics (1701-F, G, H and I?) in his gallery. And Owen's added some new material to his Rising Sun campaign.

Designer John Eaves. Poor guy. His blog is about to get bombarded with Teh Angerz as he opens up the can of worms known as "How Big is the New Enterprise?"

I should have a picture this week of something that may be a perfect mini of the nuEnterprise! Though you can always bid against me on this (eBay). Hopefully this other option works. It'll be much more affordable!

Speaking of eBay, I'm too lazy, erm, busy to do Auction of the Week... so here's a bunch! Something for everyone!

• Set of LUG TNG and DS9 Core RPG books and Tech Manuals to go with them - $5!
• LUG TNG The Way of D'era Romulan Boxed Set - $40! (reduced to $32?!)
• Task Force Games Prime Directive (1) RPG Lot (and these are the 3 really good books, IMO) - $15!
• FASA Star Trek Miniature Starship Collection MIP (all but one) - $627 or Buy It Now for $1000! (if you can afford this, please adopt me)
• Heritage Tellerites... the Stocky Pig-Gaces Humanoids! - $4!
• Complete Decipher CODA Trek RPG Collection - $30!

Yah, I can't afford to be shopping either. I did just get (finally!) FASA module "Old Soldiers Never Die" and its very cool "The Romulan War" companion. "w00t!" as the kids say.


Like your Trek gaming Fast Furious and Fun? I'm pretty sure I mentioned Renny's Savage Worlds conversion in the big "homebrew" post months ago (still the most popular post, btw), and Bretbo has another underway. The Savage Worlds Conversion page has a newish entry from Mike Callahan called "Red Alert!" (a Word doc) that's a nice approach to ship-to-ship combat in SW. I have Pinnacle's Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. I have a deck of cards. I have Star Trek minis out my butt. And there's a Savage Worlds Online for Fantasy Grounds, a virtual tabletop I've been wanting to try for a long time. I should really make time (HA!) to dig into SW further.

Look's like VulcanStev may have another guest post coming on that very subject. In the meantime, as promised, he has posted his own thoughts on Gaming in the Universe of Star Trek.

So, Savage Worlds: any readers play it and can tell me "yay" or "nay"?

Better yet, don't! I have to finish those nuTrek schematics, playtest EZFudge Final Frontier (and you can too!), finish the PD1 article, check out Ad Astra's cool 3D starship combat game, Squadron Strike!, send an e-mail reply to the very gracious Grandfather of Star Trek RPGs, etc., etc..

But first: DINNER!

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.....

More Homebrew Updates and Tidbits

So many updates and tidbits to share, so little time to put it into a cohesive format. But I don't want to delay and today is a holiday, so I'll get them out here.

First, this (left) should put to rest the question "How big is the new Enterprise??". It's really the best photo reference yet in which we can compare scales. The new Enterprise is 23 meters long and 5 meters tall. Let that be the end of it.

The new movie has certainly kicked up interest in Trek role-playing, big time. Google Trends indicates searches have nearly tripled over the past few months (as has my own traffic here), activity related to Trek old and new has really increased over at TrekRPG.net, there seem to be at least 3 new threads a week at RPGnet about Trek, and bidding has been somewhat fierce over on eBay for a number of Trek games and supplements, especially FASA (I curse whoever it was that outbid me on the Romulan Ship Recognition Manual last night, lol). It's a shame that there's no new game to take advantage of it, but it seems to me that it just doesn't matter right now. Interest seems to be evenly split between FASA, CODA and homebrews, which is really wonderful.

Speaking of homebrews, that series of posts seems to have been one of the most popular here at Groknard. As it happens, there are some updates worth mentioning (in no particular order):

- Mike Berkey's brilliant Microlite20 Where No Man Has Gone Before has been updated a few times. It's in Version 2.0, but he continues to update it occasionally (including today!), so bets to bookmark it.

- Jerry Cornelius of the Triplanetary and Jetan blogs has a compelling Trek TAS adaptation for R. Talsorian's Mekton Zeta.

- I don't even remember how I found this (right), but I dig it! DT Butchino's To Boldly Go... A True Trek Sourcebook for Star Trek TOS (PDF via Sendspace) for Green Ronin's True20 system. Great layout, tons of fluff and crunch.

- Bob Portnell has put out a call to those who would eventually like to playtest his EZFudge adaptation of Final Frontier. Drop him a line at nvdaydreamer (at) gmail (dot) com. Details at his blog.

- Speaking of EZ, fans of Atomic Sock Monkey Press' PDQ (Prose Descriptive Qualities) System should check out a series of blog posts in which a group uses it for their Trek adventure. The posts cover character creation, character descriptions, and the three gameplay recaps. RPGNow offers the updated PDQ# (PDQ Sharp), the basis of ASM's Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies RPG, for free.

- Although Adamant Entertainment has cancelled plans for their Mongoose Traveller sourcebook, Final Frontier, an effort to do a Trek homebrew for MgT has kicked up over at TrekRPGnet. Please jump in if you'd like to assist in this effort.

- Also at TrekRPGnet, CODA stats for the crew of the new Star Trek film and a call for submissions for a CODA Klingon Sourcebook is underway.

- At RPGnet, an effort to map out Trek for Troll Lord Games' StarSIEGE: Event Horizon, itself adapted from their Castles & Crusades d20-like re-imagining of OD&D.

- Again at RPGnet, running a Star Trek game using Cubicle 7's FATE-based Starblazer Adventures.

- GURPS and GURPS PD fans take note: Steve Jackson Games recently released the latest PDF from David Pulver's excellent GURPS Spaceship series, GURPS Spaceships 3: Warships and Space Pirate, which includes the "Intrepid Class Frontier Cruiser" which seems an awful lot like the Enterprise, and the stealthy "Eclipse-Class Battle Cruiser" which could possibly pass for a Klingon D-7 K'tinga class cruiser. Just sayin'...

- Speaking of GURPS Prime Directive, two threads over at the SJG forums about adapting the new Trek film to GURPS PD.

- Not necessarily Trek related, but Jason of Elf Lair Games has mentioned on his new blog that he's planning a science fantasy/space opera game (a "settingless toolkit") called Twelve Parsecs™. I absolutely love Elf Lair's Spellcraft & Swordplay, and you know what I'll be thinking about doing with this when it's released. It's still some time away, but I wish ELG best of luck as they get started on all these great endeavors. An Old-School Renaissance Space Opera game... yippee!

- Again, how did I find this? Bridge Crew by James Mullen over at the 1KM1KT collection of free rpg games, which is described as "a simple, narrativist style RPG of cheesy space opera, very much in the mode of a certain well known, heavily franchised TV show". I usually run from anything that says "narrativist", but there are a few interesting ideas worth mining here.

- You already know about the supremely cool Star Trek Miniature Maker, don't you?

- Remember my translation for Tsukuda Hobby's Enterprise Star Trek RPG from 1983? I was told awhile back that it ended up online. No biggie, glad to know it's out there and I can't be held responsible for distributing it! Anyway, I ran across it over at Scribd. Thank you, Vina, whoever you are. It even got a comment in Japanese: "This is a good translation. Thank you." Phew! I even found a copy of my Mothra vs Godzilla boardgame translation at Scribd. What next? My grade school book reports?

- And speaking of my projects, I have actually decided to postpone my TOS adaptation for Thousand Suns. Instead I will be doing one based on the new film. Why? Two reasons. One, as these posts make clear, there are already tons of options for playing TOS. I'll get to it, but there's just no rush. Second, I want to play in this new sandbox, both as a writer and as a player. "I like this ship! It's exciting!" There's a lot of freedom there, whether it be in deck plans for the new Enterprise, the backstory of events leading up to and following the Kelvin incident, and mapping out what could happen next. Thousand Suns is still the perfect choice to do so, so that won't change.

- Following that, there will be two, possibly three projects. One (or two) is a Trek game based on a wholly original system I've been working on, one that takes an approach similar to my beloved The Fantasy Trip games like Melee (1977) and combines that with elements similar to the RPG portions of starship combat of the FASA system and the exploration themes in boardgames such as FGU's Star Explorer (1982) and West End Games' Star Trek The Adventure Game (1985). I've already started writing it, though I'm hashing out some high-level details about how many books and how to break it down. I think it's going to be pretty different from much of what's out there, and I wouldn't categorize it strictly as an RPG. It's much more of an "adventure game" that will either have broad appeal... or no appeal at all! Nevertheless, I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's going to be the Star Trek game I've always wanted. I'll keep readers updated and, as I said, I also plan on returning to TSFF. All of these projects will benefit from each other.

That's all for now!

EDIT 5/27: Adam reminds me below that Owen Oulton of Memory Icon has been busy posting updates to his Rising Sun Campaign for LUG's Star Trek RPG. Of special note are new additions such as a full-color map of the infamous Triangle boardering Federation, Romulan and Klingon space, and Starbase T-1. Be sure to check out the extensive deckplans for the SS Rising Sun itself!

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

Gone But Not Forgetting

I hope everyone will forgive what is probably my most extended absence yet. Besides real life work and distractions, I've dived into a new Trek RPG-related project over the past week, and here's the first glimpse.

Right now the plan is to do schematics for 4 or 5 starships that showed up in the Star Trek film, as well as the shuttles and Starbase One. These are just low-res thumbnails for now, but the pieces I'm working on are fairly large and should be suitable for printing.

The idea is to give Trek GMs some collateral to fire the imagination and help them run games in the new "alternate reality" should they so wish. I'll be using them for some of my projects, and I'll make the final versions available and generic enough that they can be adapted for most any system. I've already told new dad Patrick Goodman that he can have them for his CODA Star Trek RPG Support site, so maybe he'll turn them into an AU Fleet Technical Manual game reference once he wraps up his first one.

Anyway, I'll try to get back into the swing of things with new entries while chipping away at this project. As always, there's still so many games, supplements and miniatures to cover, and some interesting things are going on in the Land of Homebrews, so stay tuned!

Top: USS Enterprise with MSD
Left: USS Kelvin
Below: USS Hood

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

Star Trek (2009) - This One Goes to 11 (Review, Spoilers)

No spoilers above the cut though.

I gave it some thought throughout the day, and decided I really didn't feel like posting an extensive, well-written and considered review. I've read so many of those, they're all over the place. At this time, doing a big in-depth analysis would a) suck a little bit of the high I'm still feeling over this movie, and; b) probably be of no interest to anyone but Mom (hi, Mom! I really wish we'd seen this together!!).

Instead, maybe just a few more thoughts, with spoilers:

In Brief: It was a brilliant, exciting revival of Star Trek that I found breathtaking in its scope and its heart. It had a lot it needed to accomplish, and it cut some corners to do so. It was by no means perfect, but that didn't occur to me until after it was over. While I was in the theater, I had the time of my life, more fun than I've had watching a movie in decades. And probably more fun than I've ever had watching any other Star Trek film.

The Good:
- The cast and their performances were perfect, even down to the smallest role (and I don't mean Deep Roy as Keenser!)
- It never slowed down, and I've seen movies like that, but I didn't feel exhausted. Brilliant pacing.
- As a 43 year old TOS fan, I'm more than satisfied with the respect that was given to all that had come before. The approach to this reboot was genius and, for the most part, extremely well executed. Really, I didn't expect them to pull this off so well.
- I thought the cinematography was wonderful, whether it was the shots of Iowa, the inside of Nero's Nerada, or the flare-ridden handheld shots of the bridge. That last gets a lot of criticism, but to me it was not at all oppressive or distracting. It made it feel very modern, something new.
- I have really grown to love Ryan Church's new design for the exterior of the Enterprise. Regardless of how radical it seems, it really worked very well on the big screen. But it does not quite yet feel like a member of the family, Kirk's one true love. They need to work on that next time.
- This movie has so much heart and spirit. The opening scenes were fabulous. And the presence of Leonard Nimoy as Spock was so very welcome (especially at the end, I didn't expect to see him again!)
- Ben Cross was a wonderful Sarek. I wish I could say the same of Winona Ryder, but we just didn't see all that much of her. Bruce Greenwood as Pike was also just fantastic (I've really admired Greenwood so much since the TV show Nowhere Man; I hope he's long remembered for this role in Trek, and would be more than happy to see Pike in the next film).
- They blew up Vulcan! GOOD! Not that I have anything against Vulcan itself, but now we know: anything can happen in this new timeline, and these guys have the balls to do it.
- Karl Urban as Leonard McCoy. No wonder he didn't get more screentime. He was stealing the goddamn show! It was really the only case where it felt like someone was channeling an older performance, and it helped make it feel like home. It never felt cheap. DeForest Kelley would be proud.
- Speaking of, they were all so good, we really need more of that triumvirate next time, please. I hope the new triumvirate is not Kirk/Spock/Uhura.
- There were two or three times where some of Michael Giacchino's tracks were simply re-used. Not just cues, I mean entirely lifted and re-used in different scenes. That's lazy.

From the Not Quite Sure Department:
- S/U

The Bad:
- The entire story seemed built upon convenience and coincidence, everyone in the right place at the right time. As Spock (Prime) said, "How did you find me?" How, indeed!
- That everyone could so easily end up in their ultimate positions seemed, in retrospect, to stretch credibility. Uhura knew the Romulan language. I'm not exactly sure how it was justified that a 17 year old Chekov and a Sulu who, it seemed, had never left spacedock could end up at the helm of the new flagship. The Chief Medical Officer was killed, lucky for McCoy. By the time Scotty was on board, it seemed they just gave him his shirt and towel and made him Chief Engineer. It made the crew seem very small.
- Caterpillar will be happy to know that forklifts are still in demand in the 23rd century.
- Did we just see the Stardate system radically change? Is it now tied to the actual year?
- I can accept that Delta Vega in this move may not be the Delta Vega of "Where No Man Has Gone Before". But is this new one (an M-Class Planet according to the computer, not a moon) really so close to Vulcan that Spock Prime could see it destroyed?
- Regardless of Nero's ability to get past the Earth Defense Grid, would no one on the planet try to take out that drill before Spock arrived in the jellyfish?
- You'd think that after 25 years, Nero would have managed to confide in his henchmen what the plan was once Spock Prime arrived.
- I'm sure this (and others) can be explained by backstory in both the Countdown comic (I read it) and scenes that were cut, but a film should never have to rely on that. I can't wait to ask Mom (hi Mom!) if she understood the whole time-travel/Nero/Spock Prime premise. Would you have to be a fairly hardcore fan to get it?
- As much as I love the Enterprise, new design and all, I'm not sure I "get" where everything is. It seems the bridge now occupies more space and levels than it used to (the window shot). Was the transporter room down the hall? The ship looked big on the outside, but felt rather small and empty (or, rather, full of pipes) on the inside. I'm trying to figure out why it worked better in TMP. More sets? I don't know.
- Speaking of things seeming smaller, Warp 4 seems to get you places a lot faster than it used to.
- You may remember my complaint about "bad sci-fi" in Countdown. Same complaint here. A "supernova that threatened the galaxy", whose impact must have traveled light years to obliterate Romulus? Bob and Alex, I have some astronomy books I'd like you to borrow. Again, like the Enterprise and the warp drive, it made things feel small. Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is...

The Beautiful:
- The fade to black from the USS Kelvin scene, the music rising, and the reveal of the Star Trek logo. Chills, man. Chills.
- Seeing the Enterprise for the first time... and not taking another 10 minutes to land the shuttle!
- The Enterprise coming out of the clouds on Titan (auuggghhhhh!!!!!)
- Michael Giacchino's score had some really wonderful moments, especially as it carried that scene of Jim Kirk's birth and George Kirk's sacrifice.
- All of the special effects. Everything had weight and texture and lighting that looked more real than anything I've ever seen onscreen.
- The Kobayashi Maru. 'Nuff said.
- The end credits, with the original Star Trek theme, swooshing around the galaxy.
- Dedicated to Gene and Majel at the very end. Classy.

Well, that's it for now. I see I listed a lot of things under "The Bad", but honestly they didn't bother me one tiny bit during the film, and I'm not sure they bother me so much now. Actually, I think it says a great deal about the high points of Star Trek that they overshadow any weaknesses in the story. It just means that they'll have to work a little harder next time. And if they can keep what was good, and rid themselves of the bad, then I think we'll have a contender for best Star Trek film ever when 2011 rolls around!

Your thoughts? (or post a link to where you may already have written them, I'm dying to see what some of you guys thought)

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

Star Trek (2009) - Quick Thoughts, No Spoilers

I was absolutely blown away by Star Trek. I'm seeing it again tomorrow morning in IMAX.

I'm still gathering my thoughts on it. In some ways (many ways) it exceeded my expectations. I truly haven't had this much fun watching a movie since... since The Empire Strikes Back? There were a number of times when my eyes simply welled up with tears of joy, starting with the reveal of the logo, continuing with the appearance of Spock (prime), and up to the end. My mouth hurts from smiling so hard.

In other ways, I felt a different story with the same approach would have possibly imparted a bit more depth. Kirk got depth, Spock (with both taken as a whole) got a good amount, but I really wish that everyone else could have gotten more. Especially McCoy (you nailed it, Karl!). At the same time, they probably got no less than and sometimes more they did in the older films.

In the end, though, I probably wouldn't have had as much fun with that other story. And, frankly, it's been a loonnnggg time for me since Star Trek was fun rather than just fascinating. This time, I got both. And if the worst I can say is "I wanted more", that's not too shabby.

More tomorrow.

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.

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Star Trek Movie Tickets on Sale Today!

Today will be a day long remembered... it has seen my purchase of tickets for the early May 7th showing, and a ticket for the IMAX showing the very next morning, all in one swift stroke!

TOP THEATER CHAINS TO START SELLING “STAR TREK” EARLY SHOW TICKETS STARTING THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 17

May 7 Tickets Will Be Pre-Sold by AMC Theatres, National Amusements, Pacific/ArcLight, Regal & other theatre circuits

HOLLYWOOD, CA (April 16, 2009) –Starting Friday, April 17, many of the nation’s top theater chains will start offering early show tickets for Bad Robot’s production of J.J. Abrams' “Star Trek,” presented by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. The tickets are for May 7 evening performances of the film, which debuts worldwide on May 8, 2009. Participating chains include AMC Theatres, National Amusements, Pacific/ArcLight and the Regal Entertainment Group, among others. Additional theatre chains will offer advance tickets in the coming week.

Fandango
Fandango - The IMAX Experience
MovieTickets.com
Movietickets.com - The IMAX Experience

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Inspiration

I just came across a reference to the blog of John Eaves, a longtime production illustrator for many of the Trek series and films (including the latest). It's a remarkable blog in which he posts daily concept sketches for starships he's designed for Trek properties over the years, along with the occasional surprise (left, from 1964) of what inspires him.

I've always found the work of concept artists and production illustrators very inspiring myself. I got my own start in illustration (not my primary career) in 1977 by carefully studying and copying pre-production illustrations such as those of Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie for Star Wars, and the drawings of Franz Joseph for his Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual. My bookshelves are still loaded with The Art of __(insert your favorite blockbuster here)__ and names of futurists such as Syd Mead, Doug Chiang, John Berkey and Iain McCaig. In another life, I would have been one of them, but I'll have to be satisfied with deriving motivation from their works. The process of conceptualization and what didn't get used is often more fascinating than what ended up onscreen.

If you're ever searching for inspiration for that next starship encounter or some strange new worlds for your own game take a look at sites such as Eaves' Eavesdropping with Johnny and, another one of my favorites, the Concept Ships blog (warning, super image heavy) and let your imagination go.

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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.

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OT: Review of Star Trek Countdown TPB

As I mentioned a few days ago, I managed to hit the lottery and get my copy of the Star Trek: Countdown trade paperback (TPB) very early from Amazon, despite the fact that the final issue of the comic book (Issue #4) won't hit streets until next week, and the TPB won't be out until April 7th (or 29th, depending on who you ask). Personally I would have preferred to win a real lottery, but that's no reflection of my opinion of Countdown itself. I skipped the comics as I always do these days, preferring to wait for the collected versions to be released. It's often less expensive (as it was in this case) and sometimes you get extras (as you do here, I suspect).

This will be a spoiler-light review, as so few have even seen the concluding Issue #4 yet. As quick background to tell you where I'm coming from (I don't think I've ever spelled it out here before), I'm a fan of most things Star Trek. I love the Original Series, but love most of the new shows as well. I thought TNG was great, DS9 was brilliant, and I even enjoyed Enterprise. Voyager? Not so much. I didn't think it was bad, I just never found it engaging. I love most of the films; Wrath of Khan is my favorite, with Undiscovered Country a close second. Nemesis was an unforgiveable mess. As for the upcoming JJ Abrams film, I'm thrilled about it. The casting looks great, what I know of the storyline sounds fun and respectful of Trek, the trailers have made my heart leap, and I even like the new Enterprise design. I have a few concerns, but I'm really open-minded about it. I generally don't read Trek novels or comic books. It's been said I have an interest in Trek RPGs. So, with my creds out of the way, here's my review.

Star Trek: Countdown is a prequel of sorts to the upcoming film, but takes place completely in the post-Nemesis Next Gen timeframe (Stardate 64333.4, or 2387, 8 years after Nemesis). Countdown is really the story of a Romulan named Nero, a hardworking family man who captains a mining vessel. After barely avoiding a stellar catastrophe, he returns to Romulus with a warning of the pending doom that threatens the entire Romulan Empire. When his fears are rejected, he decides to take on a mission to save his world with the help of some unlikely (and familiar) allies from the Federation. But events will not go as planned, great losses will be incurred, and a villain intent on utter vengeance will rise from the ashes.

Short spoiler-free review: STC is a pleasant, fairly compelling story with wonderful art by David Messina. The TPB includes 5 pages of character sketches by the artist (example left) that may not be included in Issue #4, which alone may make it worth picking up the TPB. Despite being intended as a direct prequel to the film, STC stands very well on its own right up to the non-cliffhanger ending. The best aspect of it is the "passing of the torch" feel because of the inclusion of many well-loved characters, undoing some damage inflicted by Nemesis. I found the quality of both the character art and the space battles to be exceptional, the best I've ever seen in a Trek comic. I can't judge how well it succeeds as a prequel at this point, but the story and some specifics in it do raise some questions about some pre-conceptions fans (including myself) have about the movie storyline. The series is let down, however, but some plot-holes and grade school science fiction that I sincerely hope are not going to creep into the film itself.

Some light spoilers follow, so if you want to be surprised, stop reading now.

I've seen some criticisms leveled at Messina's character art, but I found it to be very good. I'd buy more Trek comics if the quality of the art and story were as good as this. His renderings of Spock, in particular, are just excellent. If I have any criticism about the art, it's that the few female characters in the book all seem to suffer from BBS (Big Boob Syndrome). It's bad enough that there is really only one female character of consequence in the story, but the rest are just eye candy for the boys. The character sketch section in the back and Giovanna Niro's cover are wonderful.

As I indicated above, I thought the story was better than average. Despite the number of cameos (Spock, Data, Picard, Geordi, Worf, Remans and even a bit of Kirk), they didn't feel forced. It's good to see how the characters have moved up over the years, though there's really no time for development of anyone except Nero himself and, to some extent, Spock. The quiet moments are the best. Unfortunately, I feel that the story and Nero's progression is really let down by the contrived cataclysm of the Hobus system supernova. It's never explained how the explosion could possibly endanger Romulus so quickly, let alone Vulcan and the Federation, let alone the whole damn galaxy. And when Spock tells the Vulcan council, "It threatens the entire Universe," without any further explanation, it just goes from bad science fiction to stupid. It's like the danger keeps being exaggerated every few pages, to the point where you expect someone to say, "Even God Himself will disappear from Existence." Hopefully this is the conceit of writers Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, because I'd hate to see Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who provided the story itself) put this kind of crap science fiction into Star Trek. I also have to wonder about what seemed to me to be a big plot hole, specifically that if the danger to Romulus was so immediate, why in the world would Nero have left his family there?

But those are the only big weaknesses that jumped out at me. The fourth part does contain a (near death?) surprise that is left a bit unresolved, but I was impressed by how self-contained the story was because of the conclusion. Countdown could lead directly into the movie, or standalone on its own. It does seem to raise some questions about what I thought I had gleaned from the trailers and bits of gossip that have been discussed over the past year. For example if, in fact, we did see a glimpse of Nero in chains with Klingon captors in one of the early trailers, it's hard to reconcile that with the events of the comic. It's also difficult for me to guess how some of the background elements (Nero's fall, the destruction of Romulus, the Borgified Nerada, decalithium and red matter) will be incorporated into the movie without depending on the backstory presented in the book. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Taken as a whole, however, and as a way to distract myself from my own personal countdown to the movie (as my mother said today, "May can't come fast enough!"), STC TPB is a great little read, well worth the price. I wouldn't be at all disappointed to see the same team do more projects of this kind, as long as they do a little reading about basic science and astronomy first.

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