So, beta is over, and I’ve made it to Commander level (not had much time to play). So far the game is pretty fun, but I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve hit endgame.
So meanwhile I’ll post my two favorite bugs from the beta:
Ground avatar in space instead of spaceship
and of course.. The eyes popping out while doing the dance emote
I’ve played around a bit in the closed beta, and so far I’m impressed, the space combat is fun and action packed, and the Ground combat is a bit like World of Warcraft, only more action, more interesting quests (no grinding, while waiting for drops) and the Fleet actions (Large open instances) were pretty awesome
I’ll miss my Andorian captain, who was wiped with all the other closed beta characters today:(
Seeing, that my last post about 24: Sci-fi actors in 24 season 6 was so popular, I decided to make another one for season 7 which I just started (only see 7 episodes so far).
Robert Carlyle (Redemption)
24: Carl Benton
Star Gate Universe: Dr. Nicholas Rush
Tony Todd 24: General Benjamin Juma
Star Gate SG-1: Lord Haikon
Andromeda: Captain Fehdman Metis
Star Trek Voyager: Unnamed Hirogen hunter
Star Trek DS9: Jake Sisko as adult in The Visitor
Star Trek TNG/DS9: Kurn
John Billingsley
24: Michael Latham
Star Trek Enterprise: Dr. Phlox
Kurtwood Smith 24: Senator Blaine Mayer
Star Trek Voyager: Annorax in Year of Hell
Jeffrey Nordling
24: Larry Moss
Star Trek DS9: Thana Los in Past Prologue
Mark Kiely
24: Edward Vossler
Star Trek Voyager: Lasca in Non Sequitur
Annie Wersching
24: Renee Walker (seriously hot FBI agent)
Star Trek Enterprise: Liana in Oasis
Colm Feore
24: Henry Tailor
Battlestar Galactica: President Adar (First episode only)
Bob Gunton
24: Ethan Kanin
Star Trek TNG: Capt. Benjamin Maxwell (in The Wounded)
Ryan Cutrona 24: Admiral John Smith
Babylon 5: Sgt. Major Plug in GROPOS
John Rosenfeld
24: Kevin Aldridge
Star Trek Enterprise: Mark Latrelle in Silent Enemy
It’s also worth noting that co-executive producers and writers of 24 Redemption and season 7 is none other than Brannon Braga and Manny Coto, noted writers/producers from Star Trek TNG / Voyager / Enterprise.
I’ve been watching lots of Babylon 5 lately, and just realized that a recurring part of Minbari philosophy could be seen as an homage to one of my greatest idols, Carl Sagan. And seeing it’s almost November 9th, which would have been his 75th birthday, I think a post is in order.
The Minbari in Babylon 5 believes all life are manifested as a way for the universe to examine every piece of itself. This reminds me of two quotes from Carl:
“We are a way for the universe to know itself”
“We are made of star stuff”
Here’s a great video about the origins of the universe
And why not throw in a few more great quotes (ok, I had a hard time selecting, so it became QUITE a few)
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
“Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret”
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it’s forever. “
“The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can’t all be correct”
“For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise.”
“We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both.”
“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”
“In the vastness of the Cosmos there must be other civilizations far older and more advanced than ours.”
“I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive”
After years of following the development, Star Trek Online is finally in closed beta, and the game is on track for a early 2010 release
The cryptic character creator will allow you to invent new species for the game, and I might go for something like this:
Or if that is not possible my character will be Andorian (assuming this fits well with a tactical/dps character). I’m in the “guild” called “12th fleet”, and we are now the second largest guild on the STO forum. So if you want to play with the pro’s, head over to http://www.12th-fleet.com
A couple of days ago a pilot for a proposed tv series called ‘Virtuality’ was aired. The guy behind it is no other than Ronald D. More best known for his work on Star Trek and being the genius behind the new Battlestar Galactica series.
The show is about mankinds first voyage outside the solar system to search for life on a distant planet (a 10 year trip). The ship called the phaeton is equipped with a complex virtual reality system, which should prevent the crew from going insane by being stuck 10 years in a metal tube
The pilot was very good, and I would LOVE to watch more, unfortunately Fox has not ordered any more episodes, but perhaps if enough people get interested, that will change.
Here are the very best episodes of Star Trek The Next Generations:
1×18 Home Soil
1×21 The Arsenal of Freedom
1×22 Symbiosis
1×26 The Neutral Zone
2×09 The Measure of a Man
2×13 Time Squared
2×16 Q WHo
2×21 Peak Performance
3×04 Who watches the watchers
3×10 The defector
3×13 Deja Q
3×14 A matter of perspective
3×18 Allegiance
3×26 The best of both worlds (part 1)
4×01 The best of both worlds (part 2)
4×03 Brothers
4×11 Data’s Day
4×14 Clues
4×15 First Contact
4×19 The Nth Degree
4×21 The Drumhead
4×22 Half a Life
5×07 Unification (part 1)
5×08 Unification (part 2)
5×18 Cause and effect
5×23 I Borg
5×24 The Next Phase
5×25 The Inner Light
6×04 Relics
6×09 The quality of Life
6×10 Chain Of command (part 1)
6×11 Chain Of command (part 2)
6×15 Tapestry
6×25 Timescape
7×04 Gambit (part 1)
7×05 Gambit (part 2)
7×11 Parallels
7×12 The Pegasus
7×19 Genesis
7×25 All Good Things
Last night I saw the new Star Trek movie, I’ve seen all the episodes of all the shows between 2-7 times each, so of course I need to watch this movie to..
Remembering how much Nemesis sucked, I was determined to have no expectations to the movie, just in case it turned out to be crap. But around 1 week ago I got to see like 25 minutes of the movie while at Fedcon, and then I got pretty exited, it looked really good and funny.
Unfortunately those 25 minutes contained everything that was good in the movie, and the rest 1.5 hours SUCKED.
I really hate the new Star Trek movie, it is by far the worst Star Trek movie (that includes such travesties as Star Trek 3, 5 and Nemesis).
The movie has NO Star Trek feeling over it what so ever.. The Movie is BORING and the plot is semi-retarded.
The movie is a Bland Cookie cutter action movie dressed up like Trek.
Note (I’m not a grumpy old guy who only likes TOS, and says there can be NO action in Star Trek).. I really LOVE TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT and First contact, Battlestar, Stargate, and those have lots of action (but not mindless action with poor plots)
Why the movie is a piece of shit
The score/theme song is by far the worst ever, and I felt embarrassed every time it played.
All the aliens have human personalities, the Vulcans, the Romulans, none of these act any different from humans.
Bad guys with tribal tattoos on their face is not cool.. Just ask Mike Tyson.
Even though being packed with action, it still manages to be boring as hell
Boring CGI, for example the ice planet monster was crappy, but the ships were OK (exterior)
The pitiful attempt to copy Battlestar Galacticas shaky camera for ship shots was really badly implemented
Most of the humor did not really seem at home in the movie
It is not Star Trek, it is just a mindless Hollywood action movie.
A simple and boring ending
The actors did NOT do a good job portraying the characters (Except for Mccoy which was excellent, and to some degree Kirk).
Bad guy with a grudge trying to kill the hero (Does ST:II or Nemesis ring a bell?)
Going back in time to destroy the federation? *cough* First Contact *cough*
Why would Nero destroy the federation? He wants the future Romulans to get wiped out by the Borg, the Dominion, Species 8472 or the Sphere builders?
A supernova that threatens the galaxy? That is like having a exploding car in London threatening people in New York..
Being that close to a black hole would tear the atoms the ships were made of apart.. Not sending them back trough time in one piece.
Spock setting Kirk out to probably die on a frozen moon, nice job portraying Spock and the enterprise crew.
Scotty killing admiral Archers dog? WTF?!
Scotty working with a Oompa-Loompa in a Ent costume?
Making Spock and Uhura make out just for no reason what so ever except pleasing the 16 year olds in the audience.
Why did the Federation suddenly loose sensor technology? They have great sensors in Enterprise/TOS.. In this movie they cant even see a second ahead while at warp (gigantic overpowered Romulan mining ships, allied Starfleet ships, debris or weapons fire)
Vulcan children making fun of each other and fighting..
Magical supernova that travels faster than light
Using a black hole to collapse a supernova makes no sense
Why is Nero so upset at Spock, it’s not like Spock caused that magical supernova, he just failed to help.
And since when was it the Federations job to safeguard the Romulan Star Empire from natural disasters anyhow?
When he got back in time, why not do something worth doing, like save those Romulans from being pwned by the supernova?
That scene with Simon Pegg in the water tubes was like something out of Spy Kids, totally lame.
The movie exists in a parallel reality to the established Star Trek universe.. So why would anyone give a rats ass about what happens in it? We all know Spocks mother was not killed, and that Vulcan is doing fine.
Starfleet ships are ships of exploration.. The new ones are ridiculously over armed compared to all other series.
Detonating warp cores between the ship would not move the ship since the matter antimatter explosion would produce only energy, no moving mass that could propel the ship.. The best they could hope for was to be fried with EM radiation. The ship also went to warp after ejecting it’s warp cores (Federation ships only have one).
Building a Starship the size of the Enterprise on Earth’s surface in gravity is just silly.
Even if you DID build Enterprise on the surface, a constitution class starship can not operate in a class-m planets lower atmosphere. So there would be no way to get the ship into space
PS
There are lots of other good reasons why the movie sucks in the comments to this post. I especially liked Ben’s comparison of the movie to The Wrath Of Khan