After conducting an extensive review of their inventory, 1:6-scale Star Trek action figure company EXO-6 is planning a flash restock of long-sold-out releases found in the depths of their warehouse.
Many of EXO-6’s Star Trek figures, dating back to initial releases in 2021, will come back online for immedate purchase this Friday, November 24 at 12PM ET / 9AM PT in extremely limited quantities. Some figures might be numbered in the 100-piece range, while some others may have as few as 5 pieces available when Friday’s restock goes live.
Also included will be the Star Trek: The Motion Picture versions of Admiral James T. Kirk and Science Officer Spock, both of which sold out extremely quickly when first put up for sale in 2022.
While this will kick off on Black Friday, this isn’t a sale — there are no discounts from the figures’ original retail pricing — but this is the last chance for collectors to nab these no-longer-produced characters.
If one of these is on your must-have list, head to the EXO-6 website and be ready to pounce when the restock items go live on Friday, November 24 at 12PM ET / 9AM PT.
Check back to TrekCore often for more Star Trek collectible news!
This week marks the release of the newest entry in the Star Trek character autobiography series — following books ‘written by’ James T. Kirk, Spock, Jean-Luc Picard, and Kathryn Janeway — as author Derek Tyler Attico brings to life the story of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine hero Benjamin Sisko.
WeeklyTrek had the opportunity to chat with Attico ahead of the debut of Titan Books’ The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko, and here are the highlights of our discussion. You can also listen to the full, extended conversation in the WeeklyTrek podcast feed wherever you subscribe, or through the audio player below.
TREKCORE: What’s your history with Star Trek? How did you come to be a Star Trek fan and how did you end up being the guy to write the Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko?
DEREK TYLER ATTICO: I’ve been a professional science fiction, and prose writer, since 2005. My first, I wrote a short story in 2005 for the Star Trek:Strange New Worlds VIII fan-fiction anthology project;the story was “Alpha and Omega” and that also took first place in that anthology and that was my first professional story.
Which is nuts, right? That’s crazy. A friend told me that there was this anthology for Star Trek, happening and I was like, “Well, let’s write a story.” I wrote what I thought was everything that I wanted to see in the story and it took first place. I was very fortunate.
I’ve always wanted to write, but I never really saw a path towards writing. When I was 16, I won an award for screenwriting. I knew I had an ability and potential, when I was going to go to college, I was accepted to NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, for, creative writing, but I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t go. I was like, “Well, it’s just one of those things wasn’t going to happen.” Writing came back around to me. It wouldn’t let go of me.
I submitted this story and that took first place. I was very thankful and honored that happened, but it also told me, it was like, “Well, hey, you still got something. You better do something with this thing.” I started a professional career, writing, and then after a series of short stories my second Star Trek work was published in the 50th anniversary Strange New Worlds anthology contest.
I wrote a Benny Russell story, “The Dream in a Dream.” Titan Publishing looked at that story and thought, “Oh, this guy might be a good fit for the autobiography. That’s how I got that.
A portrait of a young Benjamin Sisko by artist Russell Walks. (Titan Books)
TREKCORE: Do you think, given that this is the fifth book in the series, that Titan Publishing were looking for the right writer to take on this topic and take on this character?
ATTICO: Absolutely. Titan always had a plan to do a Sisko autobiography. But the thing they took the time on was deciding how to do it and when to do it. Because of the way the character’s story resolved in Deep Space Nine, they asked me in my first meeting for my take on how to tell the Sisko story.
Originally, the way Titan wanted to go was to tell the story through Sisko’s son, Jake. Because in canon on DS9, Jake is a writer, as we know. He writes this book and we found out in the future, he writes this book on Anslem, which was autobiographical of his life. The idea was we could also put in Ben’s life – and that’s a great idea! I think that book should be done.
But I thought that since Titan has done so well with the autobiographies of the captains, this should be Ben Sisko in his own words. Then I told them my idea of how we could accomplish that, and they liked the idea. We had a great conversation and I got the project and was off to the races, framing it in a way that allows Ben to speak, and to continue in many ways, the storyline of Deep Space Nine.
TREKCORE: An autobiography about Ben Sisko is in a slightly different situation than the others in the series in terms of his story in canon is one that has not been resolved on screen yet. How did you address that challenge in putting this book together?
ATTICO: Absolutely. Deep Space Nine and Sisko’s story has an ending, but not a resolution. I spent a lot of time, even before I knew I was going to get the autobiography, I was just like, “Well, how would I do it if I ever had the opportunity?” And I had a pretty good grasp of how I wanted to do it.
Without too many spoilers, in Greek mythology, there are many tales where the gods speak to humans on earth. The ideas I had weren’t much different from that. I realized that through the classics there was definitely a mechanism and a way to frame it where I can still keep the Ben Sisko storyline as it is, but still move it forward at the same time. Because there are things that I would like to see on screen, and I know in the comics they’ve brought him back and that’s great.
None of us know really, what’s actually going to happen on screen yet. I felt that my job was to take that ball, move it down the field a little bit further. If someone wanted to pick up a lot of the things that I’ve written in the book and put those things on screen, I would give them the materials to do that. The framing device allows for that.
TREKCORE: Did the fact that Star Trek is back on TV and we are seeing characters return influence the way that you went about writing this book, given some of the other books in the series have endings that have subsequently been contradicted by canon?
ATTICO: You’re exactly right. Before I started this project, I read all the other autobiographies because I didn’t want to copy any of the mechanisms used by David A. Goodman or Una McCormack. I was like, “Oh,” so I now have to not only think about Ben’s life and all of that, I also have to now familiarize myself with the other four because then somebody that is well-versed in those other four would be like, “Oh, well, that’s the same thing that was done in Kirk or Spock.”
In doing that, I realized that nothing that I had planned was done in those, which was great, but also just that you’re absolutely right. Because some of those were done before Star Trek returned to TV, they were ultimately impacted by those later creative choices. So as I was creating the outline, what I wanted was a book that could stand the test of time today and hopefully, another 30 years from now, in the 60th anniversary of Deep Space Nine, and if they ever do anything on screen. The book would still hold its own.
TREKCORE: How do you craft an authentic first-person narrative that keeps the character’s voice throughout the whole book? Is that difficult?
ATTICO: I’ve always been a very detailed writer. When it came to creating the voice of Ben Sisko, he’s a little tricky. I wrote him in my Strange New Worlds 2016 story, but I had to re-familiarize myself with him. The only episode I could really watch was “In the Pale Moonlight,” because that’s almost like a play. It’s a narration with Sisko’s authentic voice. That’s great to just hear his voice. It’s highly stylized.
Benjamin Sisko is very much the everyman. He’s not as eloquent as Picard, but he’s to the point. I am more eloquent when I write, so I had to pull back on that — because I’m not giving Derek, I’m giving Ben Sisko.
TREKCORE: As you built the character’s backstory, how did you deal with the challenge that Star Trek has never shown us much about what life on Earth is like?
ATTICO: That was always something that bothered me, and I’m sure bothered fans. When we watched the show, we would see the front of Sisko’s restaurant, but that was it. We wouldn’t know what’s on either side. It was great in giving a setting, but not enough. I think everyone wanted more. I wanted more. I presumed the readers would want more.
Then I thought a lot about Gene Roddenberry. I thought about a lot of the things that he set up, because what he says and what happens in the beginnings right before the Federation, World War III has to happen for us to get our act together, and then the Vulcan show up. These are all things that he says in the Original Series.
I thought a lot about that because if I’m going to figure out New Orleans, I have to figure out New Orleans in the 24th century. My job, again, is to bridge that gap from now to the 24th century and figure out how it happened, what happened. The Deep Space Nine writers, of course gave me a lot of material to work on the characters. I could reverse engineer a lot of what we knew about the characters and write that into the book and explain that in a meaningful way, so that characters like Joseph Sisko becomes a full character for the book, because he’s a full character in the show.
Also, before I wrote a word, I did a lot of research on New Orleans. I wanted it to be a character as well in the book. I wanted jazz to be a character in the book. It was a lot of work, even before writing, so that it feels completely authentic to the reader.
TREKCORE: Is it easier to write about the character’s early life, where you have more free rein to create the narrative, or describing and adding to the events of the television series?
ATTICO: It’s a challenge to make everything line up! It’s a lot of fun to create an origin story for a character like Benjamin Sisko, and of course, it’s an honor. In doing that, you have to create something that feels organic, and that when people read it, they think it makes sense.
That weighed heavily on me because I wanted to make decisions that when they were read, you could look at the show, and then you could see the direct lines from the book to the show. That wasn’t easy to figure out at first, but once I got into it, it just started to fly, because I had made my decisions, I knew my characters, and it just started to just come out of me onto the page.
TREKCORE: How do you choose which episodes of the show to focus on in telling a narrative like this?
ATTICO: I think some of that is definitely personal choice. And some of them are there because the story needs it. I think there’s a quote from Orson Welles. He says, “Give the fans or give the public what they want, but not necessarily the way they want it.” That’s always stuck with me, even as a kid when I first heard that. I’m a big fan of that, where I may deliver what you’re asking for, but not in the way you may think you’re going to get it.
I think this book definitely personifies that mindset, where you get what you’re asking for, and what you want, but maybe not in the way you expect.
TREKCORE: There are a set of images in the book that show moments we’ve never seen before in Ben Sisko’s life. How much input did you have in the creation of those?
ATTICO: That was great. Now I can’t speak to the other writers in the other biographies, but Russell Walks is the artist that has done some phenomenal work for these. I didn’t even know Russell until he tweeted out, “Oh, I just finished reading Attico’s manuscript for the autobiography. It’s really great.”
We connected and he was like, “Here’s a list of what I want to do. Give me a list of what you want to do.” Then we just started collaborating. His work is just phenomenal. We just started bouncing off of each other. He brought my words to life, literally.
TREKCORE: What are you hoping that readers will take away from this book?
ATTICO: I think first and foremost, as a writer, I feel that I make a contract with every reader. When they start the first page of something I’ve written, I’m telling them that they’re going to be entertained, they’re going to enjoy what they’re reading. Maybe along the way, they’ll learn something or find out something that they didn’t know. I’m hoping for those things.
I’ve had some people tell me that they’ve already read it, and they’ve come away with certain things from it. That is very personal to me, I put some parts of things that have happened to me in the book. The only reason I did that was because I realized it was timely for Ben’s life. It made sense that some of the events that have happened to me, I was like, “Oh, this will be great for Ben’s life.”
Maybe those things will speak to other people, because ultimately, regardless of where we come from, we’re all human beings. I think there are things in this book that everyone can identify with and relate to.
Derek Tyler Attico can be reached through hiswebsite, on Twitter, and through most other social media platforms with the same handle.
* * *
We’ve also got an exclusive excerpt from The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko, thanks to the fine folks at Titan Books.
In the pages below, learn how Ben Sisko is able to tell such a self-reflective tale after the events of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series finale, and read the first full chapter of the book — focused on Sisko’s early life on Earth.
Has there ever been a better time than now to be both a Star Trek fan and a board game fan? Hard to imagine, given there are so many great options these days, including a new offering from Gale Force Nine called Star Trek: Away Missions! In this game, two players direct their landing parties “to complete missions, conduct espionage, fight in glorious battle, or assimilate distinctiveness.”
The base game includes mission boards, dice, character cards, mission and support cards, a variety of tokens, and a set of miniatures to represent your group — you’ll play as Riker’s away team, or Locutus’ Borg Unimatrix — which is exploring a derelict ship in the aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359. There are also a number of Away Missions expansions, including teams led by Sela, Gowron, Captain Picard, and the Duras Sisters.
We were fortunately given an opportunity to get a look at each of these expansions.
Playing on the expansive game board. (Photo: Kelly Phillips for TrekCore.com)
The core mechanics of this skirmish game aren’t overly complicated, as some other simulationist peers in the space can be. It’s a good balance between feeling empowered to do something interesting every time you activate a character, and the challenge of managing your Support and Mission card supplies. With your two decks there is a constant tension between holding on to future scoring opportunities and potent events or equipment, versus the immediate payoff of discarding to allow re-rolling dice or powering up skills.
Finding the right composition for your decks will be a long-term source of entertainment, as the variables to consider are numerous. How aggressive can you be in pursuing skill-based or combat-based missions? Do you go for quantity, or burn cards on re-rolls trying to score fewer high-value goals?
How many actions can you afford to spend harrying your opponents, reducing their ability to earn their own points by weakening a character’s rolls — or even removing them from the board entirely? The latest two expansions will also open up a new area in the deckbuilding space, as you’ll have two sets of Federation and Klingon cards you can mix and match to find the right combination for your team.
And speaking of the team, you’ll also be able to swap out Specialist characters of matching affiliations as well!
The game board layout. (Gale Force Nine)
Storage for the expansions is one minus — as with the core set, the display window does a great job of showcasing the miniatures, but tucking the loose character cards into the box feels inelegant. There are more expansions on the horizon currently, though, so plan to budget plenty of shelf space as new teams join your collection.
The packaging is built to showcase the oversized miniatures for good reason, of course. My wife has enjoyed painting some of the commander characters already, and every character features a unique pose. That, plus the exaggerated, cartoony style they are sculpted with, makes it easy to differentiate every character at a glance when they might otherwise become lost in a visually busy play area.
The minis headline a set of solidly-built components, from character boards to point tokens, which will all hold up against regular wear. The only weak spot in this area are the health pips, which are small enough to be hard to manipulate and do not snap securely into the character cards.
While my playthroughs did find the rules for acting, moving, and scoring very intelligible from the get-go (and quite accessible with a handy quick start guide), it’s clear that this is a game that benefits from completing several sessions to really get comfortable with it. Each away team has a unique cadence to their gameplay, and brings a different balance to how you might deploy your cards and characters.
Commander Riker’s team. (Photo: Kelly Phillips for TrekCore.com)
You only have three rounds to accomplish your goals, so choosing which missions to pursue is a crucial decision — often limited by variable card draw that can set you off on the wrong foot, searching for more achievable options. I found it can feel frustrating as you cast about for just the right move to make, with a bevy of actions available but not all equally productive in acquiring final victory.
You may not know how to modify your decks until you’ve gotten a few games under your belt. Happily, the included extra cards for each away team present a wide range of customization once you have dialed in what your iteration of an away team is best geared toward.
Whether you find the learning curve steep or gentle, there’s no question that Trekkies will find something to smile at in the course of every game. The folks at Gale Force Nine have shown time and again that they truly understand Star Trek, and Away Missions uses its cards to display that loving familiarity.
You can deploy a Support card to have Chief O’Brien beam your officers to new locations. The House of Duras gets up to no good with more than one nefarious deed committed in Crew Quarters, an otherwise under-utilized room. Picard can use some Earl Grey Tea (with the ‘Hot’ keyword, naturally) to rejuvenate a damaged character.
Details of the Duras expansion set. (Photo: Kelly Phillips for TrekCore.com)
Can’t decide which commander you should send out to Wolf 359? Here is a breakdown of the affiliations from the base game and expansions – including the upcoming House of Duras and Picard sets, due to be released in December!
Commander Riker’s Federation away team is a well-balanced crew, with solid stats and particularly well-equipped to counter the Borg – their default opponent in the core set. You can’t go wrong with the basic hero party – and the upcoming Picard expansion presents the chance to swap LaForge in for Shelby (along with several compatible Mission & Support cards), which should make for an interesting new development.
The Borg are… everywhere. After a slower start, you’ll find them beaming in all over the ship and impeding your progress, adapting to learn how to corrupt Federation technology and assimilate your team members more rapidly to add to their already-impressive six-drone team. Locutus can also cause Borg characters to emit a menacing aura with the right cards, further eroding your chances at mission success.
The combat ability of drones is weak at first, but their ability to upgrade themselves and donate actions to other characters can quickly snowball with the right strategy.
Klingon and Romulan game components. (Photo: Kelly Phillips for TrekCore.com)
This fall, two more groups joined the potential roster for your away missions. (They lacked a suggested starter deck, but those lists are available on Gale Force Nine’s website for Gowronand Sela if you don’t want to puzzle out your own set right away.) Gowron’s honor guard will not leave anyone wondering who is playing offense.
The Klingons are here to neutralize their opposition early and often, gaining Honor (and points, of course) from glorious battle to take out the competition before they have the opportunity to build up their own score. In a skirmish game that can easily (and uncommonly for the genre) avoid combat in many sessions, a new team ready to get its d’k tahgs dirty is an exciting addition.
Sela’s infiltrators feature Tal Shiar intelligence specialists who attempt to steal Federation secrets and Borg technology from the derelict ship. The Romulan squad has many cards that allow the player to interrupt their opponent’s actions and reposition their characters quickly, meddling in your momentum and disappearing before you can react. They also offer the opportunity to score big missions – with the caveat that the other player may be able to oppose certain attempts, so it behooves the Romulan player to sequence their attempts very strategically.
Rounding out the currently-detailed expansions are two groups due to be released in time for the holiday season! The Duras sisters, Lursa and B’Etor, lead another new faction that provides a new twist on the Klingon ethos. These scheming siblings mix Treachery skills, assassins who cannot gain Honor, and Arms Deals (sacrificing equipment cards for points) in addition to traditional Klingon incentives for straightforward combat.
The four AWAY MISSIONS expansions. (Gale Force Nine)
Finally, a new Federation team led by Picard brings the rest of the beloved Enterprise-D crew into the mix, using diplomacy and empathy to slow enemies’ progress. This can come from forcing your opponent to make hard choices – granting you benefits if they want to claim a bonus for themselves, or discarding cards they might otherwise wish to keep in hand.
One of the core missions for Picard is to empty the Support decks for both teams through these machinations, spending the Federation’s resources to exhaust all of the other player’s options. This team also presents the opportunity for Picard to somehow face off against Locutus – perhaps this is all part of a holodeck therapy program, battling one’s inner demons?
You can pick up Star Trek: Away Missions at your local game store now, as well as parties led by Gowron and Sela. Picard and the Duras sisters will be hitting the shelves very soon to boldly go in new directions with your board game exploration.
Sela (center) and the Duras Sisters, after painting the base figures. (Photo: Kelly Phillips for TrekCore.com)
Future expansions promise even more away teams led by Kirk and Scotty from the Original Series, and organized play kits which can see none other than Q joining your crew.
You never know who is going to turn up when you beam down!
Star Trek: Away Missions is available online and in local game stores now.
For the third year in a row, Star Trek fans have the opportunity to hype up the holidays with a franchise-inspired calendar — following similar projects from Eaglemossand Numskull, this year it’s Insight Editions who carries the torch for fans of mini-gift countdown collections.
The 2023 Insight Editions advent calendar is modeled after the Next Generation-era Type 6 Starfleet shuttlecraft, specifically the Goddard shuttle (loaned to Montgomery Scott at the end of “Relics”). The box splits open lengthwise to reveal 12 compartments, each of which contain a small Trek collectible from one of nearly all the franchise television series.
In a cute touch, each small box contains a description hinting towards what might be inside each daily reveal — and the contents are a mix of novelty and useful items, from a USS Cerritos shot glass to a Deep Space Nine-inspired Christmas ornament.
Compared to last year’s build-the-Enterprise box from Numskull, the new Insight Editions calendar has some actually items you’ll actually use.
While I won’t give away all of the different gifts found in the 2023 release, the box contains some drinkwear items like liquid-filled metal Starfleet ice cubes and office-space collectibles like a shuttlepod-styled ‘trinket box’ for your desk.
Of the three big advent boxes released to date, Insight Editions’ calendar is the most successful in terms of the included products — but I’m sure that many will likely balk at the $150 price tag, which was the same price as Eaglemoss’s 24-box release from 2021.
Some of the items certainly may have had a higher manufacturing cost (and it’s no exaggeration to say that shipping costs are higher than ever), but it’s still more expensive than most collectors are likely to pay for less than two weeks’ of holiday surprises.
All that said, if you’d like to pick up one of these shuttle-inspired gift boxes for the Trek fan in your life, you can order directly from the Insight Editions website today to ensure delivery before the Christmas holiday season.
Check back to TrekCore often for more Star Trek merchandise and collectible coverage!
It’s another week without a new Star Trek episode, so let’s take the time to check out some of the new Star Trek merchandise that’s been announced in the last few weeks!
First up is the newest wave of 1:6-scale figures from EXO-6, who continues to expand deeper into the final frontier.
The Changeling security chief from the Bajor-based spin-off is of course modeled after Rene Auberjonois’ character, and includes not only his well-worn regeneration bucket, but also a solid transluscent version of the shapeshifter to represent his transition in form.
The young helm officer comes with not only typical Starfleet gear like a tricorder, phaser, and communicator, but also the high-collared landing party jacket from the 1982 film. An alternate ‘Kobayashi Maru Edition’ of the Saavik figure is also available as an option, without jacket or accessories, for a lower price.
EXO-6's 1:6-Scale Captain Pike Figure
1 of 4
Finally, Captain Christopher Pike has beamed down from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, kicking off EXO-6’s new line of figures from the Paramount+ series.
Along with his gold command uniform, the Anson Mount-based figure also includes era appropriate Starfleet accessories like his phaser and communicator, as well as a two-handed phaser rifle for those dangerous away missions.
Star Trek: Lower Decks has made the leap into the world of Funko POP! figurines, as the main characters from the animated series are the next additions to the massive vinyl figure product line.
Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford — plus Badgey! — are projected to arrive for collectors in January, and are available to preorder at a number of retailers including the official Star Trek store for $15.95 each.
Armin Shimerman and one of the custom poster designs. (Photo: FanFair Signatures)
Finally, for fans who can’t make it to in-person Star Trek conventions or other fan experiences, several Trek actors have partnered with company FanFair Signatures to offer their personalized, digital autographs on custom-printed posters.
The project, which began during the COVID-19 challenges in 2021, allows the Trek stars to sign with a stylus on a digital device — and their handwritten autograph and personalized comments are printed with FanFare-designed art prints, then shipped to each fan.
Jonathan Frakes signs through the digital capture app. (Photo: FanFair Signatures)
So far, Trek actors such as Kate Mulgrew (Janeway), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Nana Visitor (Kira), Andy Robinson (Garak), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Bob Picardo (The Doctor), Armin Shimerman (Garak), John de Lancie (Q), Robbie McNeill (Tom Paris), Casey Biggs (Damar), and Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) have joined the FanFair Signatures roster for this project.
In addition, stick around to hear Lee’s wish for Star Trek to dip its toes into the world of reality television, and Alex’s wish for a new Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 trailer (and release date)!
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
Announced during Netflix’s “Geeked Week” presentation, the streaming giant confirmed that all 20 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy’s story will arrive to the service on December 25. This will encompass all of the animated show’s Season 1 episodes, all previously released on Paramount+ and on DVD/Blu-ray.
There’s still no word on when the yet-unseen second season of Prodigy will join the Netflix catalog, but we expect that to follow sometime in mid-2024.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek: Prodigy news!
If you’ve missed it over the last few months, we’ve been working hard to bring you new entries to our ever-growing Star Trek Blu-ray screencap galleries (thanks to the hard work of our own Alex Perry!) throughout 2023.
STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (Paramount Pictures)
While we’ve recently added high-definition image captures from the recent Star Trek: (Very) Short Treks promotional spots, we’ve also debuted all of these additions since early summer:
We’re also in the process of rolling out caps from the last few episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season, we just launched the first episodic screencap galleries for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and we’re queued up to continue the new image expansions through the next few months.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 4 — “All In” (CBS Studios / Paramount)
And of course, these will all be followed by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 and Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 after those collections arrive on Blu-ray disc in December.
STAR TREK: PICARD Season 3 — “Vox” (CBS Studios / Paramount)
Beyond those additions, we’ve also been doing some housekeeping throughout our screencap galleries — both in an effort to tidy up our collections, but also to open up some storage space for all the new additions on the way.
We’re nearing a decade from the last release ofStar Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray, almost 15 years since the Original Series got its picture polished, and every motion picture has received a lovely restoration. So, except for where they’re necessary — like for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and the 2001 edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition — we’re beginning to remove DVD-based screencaps from our series image galleries.
Over time, we plan to revisit our existing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyagerscreencap collections. The original cap collections were generated nearly two decades ago from PAL (European) DVD sets, which resulted in some funky coloring in early-season episodes from both series.
Some episodes also simply have scenes missing, which isn’t great either!
STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES — “The Doomsday Machine,” “The Naked Time” (CBS Studios / Paramount)
Our Star Trek: The Original Series screencaps have also been tidied up, in two particular ways. First, the episodes are now organized in production order rather than airdate order. Second, we’ve made the decision to focus solely on captures from the Blu-ray presentation which contain only the original visual effects — and not the computer graphics added during the mid-2000s restoration.
The enhanced-VFX versions of the classic episodes can be found pretty much anywhere the show is available to stream, and have become the dominant way the series has been presented over the last 10-plus years. Since it’s extremely challenging to find the original 1960’s-era effects without owning the Blu-ray discs, we’ve decided to give that version of the show priority here at TrekCore.
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season 1 — “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” (CBS Studios / Paramount)
Lastly, we have a favor to ask: please don’t use software or other tools to mass-download screencaps from our site, which can really eat up our hosting bandwidth. We can only continue the screencap collections if access to the galleries isn’t abused in ways that impact the functionality of our site. So thanks in advance for being cool people!
Beyond all of this, we’ll still be bringing you any important Star Trek franchise news when it breaks, and book, product, and Blu-ray reviews along the way. Thanks for staying with TrekCore for all these many years, and for sticking around as we warp into 2024!
Star Trek: Lower Decks closes out its fourth season with a finale that sticks the landing and provides a solid 30 minutes of joyful Star Trek adventure. Building from last week’s significant character work,“Old Friends, New Planets” is all payoff from the season’s — and some of the series’ — overall arcs. These two episodes are a great Star Trek two-parter, and will be remembered as two of Lower Decks’ finest episodes.
Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), the disgraced Starfleet cadet who was expelled for causing the death of a fellow cadet is revealed as the season’s big bad. With a plan to create an independent fleet of ships crewed by “anyone who feels like an afterthought,” Locarno’s plans are quickly thwarted by Lieutenant Mariner (Tawny Newsome) who then requires rescue by the Cerritos before Locarno can find another way to make his plan a reality.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
Locarno is the perfect choice for a Lower Decks villain, and his arc from “The First Duty” through today is a fitting one. He’s the Lower Decker who has broken bad. In “The First Duty,” Locarno is a self-obsessed jerk who uses notions of duty, honor, and a higher calling to pressure his fellow members of Nova Squadron into covering up their activities and saving his career. In Lower Decks, Locarno is a self-obsessed jerk who is using notions of a higher calling to feed his own ego. It’s the right arc for Locarno, not least because the “Robert Duncan McNeil character who has made mistakes and evolves into a better person” is a space already occupied by one Tom Paris.
Locarno’s arc also contrasts well with Mariner, because the dark side of many of her personality traits could easily have set her on a Locarno-like path. Combined with last week’s revelations in “The Inner Fight,” it makes for poignant viewing. It’s not that Locarno is Mariner’s Khan — even though the episode has a lot of fun with homages to The Wrath of Khan — it’s more that Locarno is what happens if Mariner makes just a few more bad choices.
Locarno is just such a good choice all around for a Lower Decks villain, and I am so happy that Mike McMahan chose to revisit him.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
Honestly, this episode is excellent, but it’s totally worth it just for the opening teaser. Returning to Starfleet Academy in the mid-2360s to see Mariner interacting with her hero, Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill returning!), as she, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton returning!) and Josh Albert (who we meet for the first time!) discuss the idea of the Kolvood Starburst maneuver for the first time was so wonderful.
It was exactly the right way to bring back Sito, without stepping on the character’s eventual fate in TNG’s “Lower Decks” episode. And to finally get to meet Josh Albert, who is only talked about in “The First Duty” but never actually seen, was an extremely welcome addition to the Star Trek canon. The next time you watch “The First Duty,” you’ll now know that Mariner was just off screen the whole time.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
The action set pieces in this episode are so well done, and on par with the best of live action Star Trek. Mariner hiding from the Nova Fleet in an asteroid field, Locarno chasing her through an ion storm, the Cerritos crashing an Orion battlecruiser into the shield protecting the Detrion System… it’s exciting, it’s visually gorgeous, and it revels in the joy of Star Trek’s specific action tropes in the most fun way.
I had a big grin on my face this whole episode, just enjoying the hell out of it and everything that had been set up not just in “The Inner Fight,” but the whole season.
McMahan appears to have intentionally included callbacks to most of the previous episodes this season — even the Mark Twain gag I didn’t like at the time, but chuckled at here — to make Season 4 feel like more of a serialized story than the previous seasons of Lower Decks. While the finale creates a through-line of serialization to the season’s previous episodes, that does not do anything to diminish those episodes as great standalones stories.
The Lower Decks team struck a great balance for the season.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
But “Old Friends, New Planets” is not just a big episode for Mariner, it’s a big episode for Tendi (Noel Wells) as well, continuing to evolve the Mistress of the Winter Constellations story arc for her character as we return to Orion and her family (introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”).
The season ends on a question mark for Tendi, who bargained away her Starfleet career to save Mariner, requiring her to pledge her service to her sister back home. I am fascinated to see where Tendi’s story goes next season – what a tease!
Lastly, even though he didn’t get a big share of the focus, this was also a big episode for Boimler (Jack Quaid). His pivotal scene is the obvious one — commanding the Cerritos while the senior staff works to break down the Trynar Shield. The Boimler of the first three seasons would not have been in a position to take command like that, nor politely and firmly dismiss a Starfleet admiral. Boimler has grown a lot, become more confident in himself, and actually began to earn some of the things he has always said that he wanted for himself.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
TREK TROPE TRIBUTES
This episode continues one of my favorite tropes, that Lower Decks has kept to pretty slavishly: if characters are in San Francisco, or anywhere around Starfleet Academy or Starfleet Command, the Golden Gate Bridge must be visible in every single shot.
This episode uses a Trek Trope that was previously listed as a number one Trek Trope on the TrekRanks Top 5 Trek Tropes episode: when a higher-ranked officer orders our heroes to do nothing — and they disobey that order to rescue a friend — that usually gets the ranking officer to admit they were wrong for trying to stop them. (See Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek: Insurrection, or DS9’s “The Die is Cast” as examples.)
CANON CONNECTIONS
The opening moments flashing back to Starfleet Academy is set in the weeks prior to the events of TNG Season 5’s “The First Duty,” where Wesley Crusher and Nova Squadron face a tribunal following the accidental death of cadet Joshua Albert.
This episode marks the first in-canon appearance of Joshua Albert, who died off-screen prior to “The First Duty.”
Cadet Mariner wears a single rank pip (indicating her status as a first-year cadet) in the flashback scene, putting her a year behind Wesley Crusher (who wears two pips). If Mariner entered the Academy at age 18, this would put her date of birth in 2350 — making her 31 during the events of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 (set in 2381).
Starfleet Academy of the 2368 was lovingly re-created in animation, using the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant and its Japanese Gardens — where all the 90s era Star Treks filmed their Starfleet Command scenes — for inspiration. There’s even a tiny Boothby on the grounds in the big establishing shot of the Academy campus.
Mariner discusses learning about the Preservers(“The Paradise Syndrome”) and the Xindi(Enterprise season 3) in her Academy classes.
Boimler references the Maquis as being a prior independent fleet operating in the Alpha Quadrant, which is made funnier by the knowledge that the not-quite-Locarno character Tom Paris spent a short amount of time working for the Maquis.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
Goodgey from “A Few Badgeys More” briefly appears while Captain Freeman is addressing the Cerritos crew.
The ion storm in the Detrion System is level 7; Voyager’s “Once Upon a Time” established that level 8 or higher are the most dangerous kinds of ion storm.
A number of the shots of Mariner battling Locarno in the ion storm (as well as the accompanying musical score!) are direct homages to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As is the shot of the Genesis Device exploding a new planet being created as our hero ship escapes from it at warp. These shots looked gorgeous in animation.
Boimler’s adoration of Captain Riker is a recurring joke throughout the series (and in Strange New Worlds), so it appears to be no coincidence then that Boimler’s captain’s chair posture appears to mimic his favorite Starfleet officer.
The Cerritos captain’s yacht appears to be the same design as the captain’s yacht from Star Trek: Insurrection.
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
Jerry O’Connell voiced the “Previously on Star Trek: Lower Decks” at the episode’s opening, and even though it wasn’t the classic Majel Barrett Roddenberry introduction it was so welcome to get that voiceover (along with “And now, the conclusion”).
Continuing the precedent set by “wej Duj,” we see that ships of other races also have a “towel guy,” this time aboard the Tamarian ship.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
Shannon Fill reprises her role as Sito Jaxa, the Bajoran she portrayed in TNG’s “The First Duty” and “Lower Decks.” I am so curious to know how they found her and convinced the actor to return, as her last acting credit is dated 1995.
Wil Wheaton does a great job of emulating his 1990s era performance as Wesley Crusher, with a slightly exaggerated Lower Decks. This was a nice way to get Wil onto Lower Decks, something that McMahan has previously discussed.
I really liked the quick, but hilarious way the show nodded to the “Tom Paris and Nick Locarno are two similar characters played by the same actor” thing, with the Boimler/Rutherford conversation during Locarno’s transmission.
Detrion is a great name for a Star Trek star system. A similarly named system (the Detrian system) was the setting for TNG’s “Ship in a Bottle.”
The three Bynars don’t get any more character development this episode than they did in their debut a couple of episodes ago, but the indestructable Trynar Shield is absolutely their handiwork.
T’Lyn’s “I believe the only response in this situation is: Cerritos strong.” feels like a direct play on Spock’s “I believe if I were human my response would be: go to Hell” from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
The Steamrunner-class ship that Mariner steals from Nova Fleet is the USS Passaro (NCC-52670), named for digital artist Fabio Passaro who made a number of contributions to the Star Trek franchise — including to the line of now-defunct Eaglemoss starship models. Passaro passed away in 2022 at the age of 52, and the ship’s registry number is his birthday (May 26, 1970).
Mariner pilots the Passaro using the same manual joystick system used by Commander Ransom during the events of “First First Contact.”
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
Since Admiral Vassery says that no Federation ships were kidnapped into joining Nova Fleet, I wonder if the USS Passaro is a decommissioned Starfleet ship in use by independent contractors — perhaps Locarno obtained it legally? We have very recent precedence for this from Picard Season 3, as Beverly Crusher’s SS Eleos was a former Starfleet vessel.
Captain Freeman’s command code override is “06107.2.”
The Orion names from recent episodes — D’Erica and B’Eth — are hilarious to me.
We get two new additions to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition in this episode. Rule 91: “Your boss is only worth what he pays you,” and Rule 289: “Shoot first, count profits later.”
Migleemo’s down fluffing reminds me a lot of Dr. Phlox’s puffer-fish type instinctive defense from “Home.”
Love, hate, or confused by the Mark Twain gag, “Illogical tactics can sometimes lead to logical solutions” is a great Vulcan line.
There’s a lot of Paul F. Tompkins in this episode: he plays Migleemo of course, but also one of the Romulans and one of the Ferengi. He even shares a scene with himself when Locarno is communicating with the Nova Fleet.
The Ferengi putting a paywall on deactivating the Genesis Device is a delicious and hilarious bit of worldbuilding.
“Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)
“Old Friends, New Planets” is so great because it feels like an episode that would only have been possible at this point in the show; paying off four seasons of character development and delivering a giant episode of Lower Decks.
I am so invigorated for Season 5!
Star Trek: Lower Decks will return to Paramount+ for a fifth season in 2024.
Star Trek: Lower Decks rounds out its fourth season this Thursday, and today we’ve got new images from the upcoming season final for your review!
After the series revealed that long-forgotten Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) was behind the mysterious ship attacking alien vessels throughout Season 4, Lieutenant Mariner (Tawny Newsome) learns more about the former Starfleet cadet’s actions.
Here are just three images from this week’s episode:
L-R Jerry O’Connell as Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman and Noël Wells as Tendi in episode 10, season 4 of Lower Decks streaming on Paramount+, 2023. (Paramount+)
Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner in episode 10, season 4 of Lower Decks streaming on Paramount+, 2023. (Paramount+)L-R Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, Jerry O’Connell as Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Noël Wells as Tendi, Gabrielle Ruiz as T’Lynn, and Eugene Cordero as Rutherford in episode 10, season 4 of Lower Decks streaming on Paramount+, 2023. (Paramount+)
Beyond that, we’ve got little information about the final episode of the year — as like last week Paramount+ has withheld both the episode’s title, logline, and review screeners from press in an effort to keep spoilers to a minimum.
The streamer did, however, release a short clip from the finale to IGN, which is from the opening moments of this week’s episode.
We’ll have our review this Thursday — in the meantime, share your theories about Nick Locarno’s new mission in the comments below!
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 concludes Thursday, November 2 on Paramount+.
