Star Trek Discovery and Gaming Updates

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Welcome to Altered Geek. So I'm back from

vacation. And so yeah, in the process of taking

on this vacation, I went to the great up north

of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, and I had to

cross the Mackinac Bridge to get there. And the

interesting thing was, it was... Like a dead

zone for cell service. I had nothing They did

however have Wi -Fi which was a lifesaver in

a sense for when it was later at night In the

evenings or throughout the day when there was

nothing going on So I was able to connect my

phone to that there were certain parameters of

places I could stay and then I figured out Wi

-Fi calling I figured out how to do that that

that's quite a useful tool if the Wi -Fi signal

is strong enough So yeah had I known that I would

have brought my portable PC and hooked it up

to the television in the the cabin, but we stayed

with my wife's family and Her parents were there

her youngest brother and his wife and kid and

her oldest brother with his wife and five kids

and So there were eight kids total running around

and they had like a blob type thing you could

go in with a trampoline out in the middle of

the water slide for the kids. They had a pontoon

that you could just jump off of, pedal boats,

motor boats. So, I mean, it was a lot of stuff

to do. We kept pretty busy during the hot days.

Unfortunately, because it's Michigan and it's

the Upper Peninsula, we had predominantly rain

the last four days we were there. Some of the

days turned out nicer in the evening. However,

that being said, it was totally crap. the last

two days, weather -wise. So we mostly just sat

around and played games, played board games.

We played Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan.

Oregon Trail, which I didn't know it was a board

game, but they made it after the 1990s video

game that was on Windows 3 .1 or DOS. So I remember

the game when I was a kid. And playing it when

I got a little bit older because my mom played

the game a lot and you could die of just about

everything and the graphics were not very good

compared to today's standards obviously, but

It was entertainment for the time and there was

you know the storyline So we played it and the

first time we played it was with my wife's oldest

brother her his wife and then my wife and then

me and my wife died first round of snakebite

or dysentery the first game and then her brother

died like two rounds later of snakebite and then

I died of something else later and it was just

it was interesting to play anyway and so the

second game we played her brother didn't even

play my wife died like third round of snakebite

and her sister -in -law died of Or like yeah

died of something later on and then I went on

for like many many rounds and then I finally

died because I Didn't have any ox. So yeah, it

was it was fun to play and kind of reminisce

with that I also get to play the by the rights

game with My wife and her brother and his wife

and it It was very hilarious to play. The first

couple games, I had a hard time figuring out

how to put the storyline in there. I feel like

I would be more comfortable doing it here on

the air than I would actually be doing it with

a group environment of people. Which is a bit

ridiculous when you go to think about it, but

it's... It was a lot of fun to play like her

brother went in this whole tirade for like mind

you you should only take a couple minutes to

pitch this movie he would go into these like

ten minute tirades of his storyline and Mine

were relatively short. My wife kind of got into

it and my wife's sister my whatever Sister -in

-law or whatever guts Into it too, and then so

we played this game For about four rounds each

person got a turn at least once at being producer

and Some of them were rather hilarious her brother

came up with a few storylines but he because

you could add things to what it gave you because

you get like the genre the description the hero

the you know the point of the film and He ended

up Copying a couple of movies that we'd heard

or that I'd seen at least at some point like

speed or some other movies like that that that

kind of realm and I called them out on it and

so you you get to vote by paying people you know

The producer has to hand out 20 million so what

happened was he You got to hand out either 5,

10, or 20 million. Anyways, you had to hand out

a total of 20 million in order to take this whole

roll on. So, it was fun anyways. So, getting

on from that, I'm going to take a quick break

and come back with a little bit of... tech news

that I have saved up from before my vacation

with a little bit after. So we'll be right back.

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as well as AlteredGeek .com. And now, back to

the show. And we're back. So, first up on the

agenda for tech news is this comes from geek

.com. And it was from the end of June, like June

27th. I realize we're in the mid -July month

here, which that's just mind -boggling that we're

already almost through July, which... Funny enough

despite my best efforts and this is derailing

a little bit but despite my best efforts to hit

the podcast at the pre four -year mark I've managed

to do exactly that is hit it on the four -year

mark Because we're at episode 198 here and episode

200 which should air the first Week it should

have it should actually air on the fourth of

August which Probably will still hit about that

same time Because I I'm gonna introduce some

ideas in the next episode That I record of things

that I'd like to do for that monumental 200 episode

So Getting back to the the topic at hand of the

tech geek comm has an shown an artificial iris

that reacts to light like a human eye. This is

actually kind of cool because those that have

issues with their iris or their eyes, the fact

that they're making these monumental leaps in

science to get artificial eyes built, a la the

Geordi LeForge from First Contact. It's kind

of really cool Especially for this this new biomedicine

that's that's that's coming out So they're saying

that the you know if the iris is the tissue that

you know changing the pupil by the amount of

light It's saying that this autonomous iris can

independently adjust its shape and the size of

its aperture in response to the amount of incoming

light And then it's innovation in the field of

light deformable materials. Tut laboratory of

chemistry and bioengineering. They show this

image and it looks basically like an iris and

the outside of it kind of looks like it's got

some starry type stuff designed to it, which

is a little bit... little bit different, but

anyways their road roadmap is to make the iris

function in other environments as well, but Yeah,

they're definitely coming along in this. This

graphic doesn't really do the idea justice, but

It still reminds me of the the Geordi LaForge

concept from First Contact where they did away

with his visor in Star Trek and they they gave

him biomechanical implants. I think we're another

like 10 years before we actually have the first

working techno eyeball that's very much like

that that actually could be reinserted in the

spot of an old eyeball or that can be grafted

onto a dead eye to give the implant the necessary

information to transmit to the brains. So yeah,

I'm very interested in this technology. Panasonic

has a high -tech hanger that will de -stinker

clothes. Yes, I did say that. This picture of

the hanger, it looks like a normal hanger, then

it's got this little perforated edge thing, and

then a power button, and it looks very much like...

a hanger, except that it's expensive. You won't

get it for a bargain price of, you know, 18 -pack

for $18. They're saying that this, the Nano X,

sells for 10 times that much, so it'll probably

be well over $100, so... Unless your stinking

rancher had money to throw away, you won't be

able to get it. It says it gently showers your

garments with a stream of electrostatic atomized

water. It's not steam, Panasonic says, that the

particles produced by the nano are from 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 Venkman style. So they're saying that it

doesn't actually clean the clothes, but it does

put an end to the odiferous emanations. This

is it won't remove swelling or stains. They'll

still need to be washed the old -fashioned way.

but it will remove pollen from clothing which

is great when you're an allergy sufferer such

as myself at the moment where my nose is currently

just dripping down and I'm fighting the urge

to not sneeze while I'm on the air. So it's $180

so yeah take it for what it's worth but it uses

the same technology in hair dryers although it

does it a little bit differently for the clothes

so I would be curious to see if it takes off

cat hair along with the pollen because I have

an allergy plus my cats if I wear anything dark

I have to carry a lint roller which is a bit

annoying because you know if I'm going someplace

like church or you know like anywhere where I

have to dress up decent I have to lint roll my

clothes because the cat hair. I have two cats

and I have a dog. The dog sheds too, but not

nearly the way the cats do. That's why I have

all leather and non -stick stuff in my office

because they live in my office while the cat

stares at me while I say this, mocking them.

So speaking of more technological innovations

Avis and Hertz are Announcing a deal for Robo

cars. Yes autonomous driving There are two companies

that have signed on with various companies. Avis

announced a deal to take care of Waymo's fleet

of autonomous minivans in Phoenix, and Hertz

will reportedly play a role in keeping Apple's

robocars running. So yeah, old things becoming

new. Seeds of the future lie buried in the past.

So yeah, self -driving tech promises to fundamentally

change how people get around and shake up the

industries that exist. So they're going to use

the artificial intelligence in these supply chains

to be rebuilt and basically eliminate people's

jobs. Yay, innovation. I don't know if I trust

an autonomous vehicle. I mean, it's not... Yes,

they're heading in the direction of Star Trek

and the autonomous, you know, set -on autopilot

thing drives itself, you know, whatnot, but you

still need a driver. I'm a firm believer you

still need it even in Star Trek. They still needed

a driver Yes, they could tell it what to do and

they could just kind of leave it on a course

or set a course and then it's done, but I Don't

necessarily like the idea of some machine driving

me around that could kill me Although they claim

that Robo cars could add seven trillion to the

global economy. I'm still not Not all that Looking

forward to it and lift and uber are trying to

trying to do it so that You won't actually have

to drive you may not even rent cars, you know,

they're trying to make it so that the rental

business works You know that it essentially Does

its own thing? I'm not again, I don't Well, I

like innovation. Driverless cars are not something

I really want to see. People in general are terrible

drivers. I don't want to see a machine that's

programmed by a human be a terrible driver as

well. And then you could just end up with Skynet

and then it drives around and kills you for a

living. Demolition Derby with crash test dummies

that are human. So, no thank you. I'm going to

move away from this topic before it gets any

more morbid. So Apple has come up with this new

campus and it looks like a giant circle or hollow

circle. This is Apple's building in Serpentino.

Their new headquarters is the... Absolute best,

I guess. It's got precision milled aluminum rails

that attach to glass doors sliding and swinging

light with no visible bolts. They've got special

glass and roof curves scientifically to shed

rainwater. And, you know, it's California, so...

Yeah, this is... Not every Apple employee will

get to work in the new building, but 12 ,000

will. It only has 9 ,000 parking spots. See,

I've taken Apple shuttle to get to work. Everything

in the building is rounded. It looks like just

a giant ring. This building is $5 billion and

2 .8 million square feet. So, looking at this

building, it looks actually... pretty cool. It

looks very much like a sports dome on the outside

kind of like a baseball dome or football dome

or something like that with the big open interior

and they have you know like a park and woodland

forest type stuff on the inside. So it's a little

bit interesting and they've got these weird shutters

on the sides of the windows that let rain water

and the roof has solar panels up the wazoo. I

think it's a very interesting design, but if

you're gonna have something like that, I don't

know how good the architecture's gonna be for

the cities themselves. I don't know, I just thought

I would bring that up. The article's from Wired,

it says if you care about cities, Apple's new

campus sucks. But I think that the building's

actually... innovative. While it may not be totally

great for other companies to try, it definitely

fits that uniqueness that Apple has. And I know

that they were trying to do something with Lucas

Films or George Lucas Museum or something like

that in Chicago or somewhere in Illinois or something

like that. And they were like, no thank you,

because it was basically the same thing. But

still, this complicated -looking circle is interesting,

to say the least. I think getting more into this

doomsday AI, artificial intelligence, Alphabet,

aka Google, revealed its plans for its own AI

chip, the Tensor Processing Unit, TPU. At last

year's Google IO conference It has already been

deployed on a variety of applications search

results speech recognition data centers Nvidia

has Tesla GPUs for its cloud. That's just basically

the same thing So yeah, they're kind of racing

head -in -head in this AI everybody's fighting

to get AI all the while you have Who was Tesla's...

What's that guy's name? Cannot remember his name

right now. Elon Musk. That's right. How could

I forget that guy's name? Anyways, he's terrified

of artificial intelligence. He's so terrified

he's building his own rocket to Mars so that

he can get out of here. Which I can't really

blame the guy for being a little bit paranoid

about artificial intelligence because it's only

a matter of time before these things get so uniquely

intelligent that they don't need humans And why

I mean I get some artificial intelligence for

the sake of automation but for the sake of Going

in and completely wiping out people's jobs I

don't really care for the concept. And like I

said, I don't like the idea of, you know, of

automatic driving. You know, Tesla driver crash

into a into a marsh and eyes reports that autopilot

was engaged at the time of the accident. Like

it's, I don't know. I'm not a big proponent of

AI unless it's like Star Trek in the sense of

like the Starship, but not being able to take

over. Like, it'll answer your questions, it'll

do, you know, basically like it's a glorified

Siri, but it's not gonna actually, like, do anything

to harm or think for itself. So... Yeah. So going

on a little bit, uh, SunCloud, despite recent,

uh... conversations from various tech websites

which it was reported earlier in the month that

SoundCloud is laying off people to buy time so

they've laid off like 40 % of their workforce

which thankfully I've not invested too much of

my time in them and I know I reported on something

about this earlier a couple episodes ago or to

something to that effect. They had changed it

to in about 80 days they were going to do some

of the layoffs and it kind of floated around

a little bit and that they're doing this to buy

time and People are going elsewhere and they're

you know different subscription plans So people

are wondering you know what's going on with some

cloud because it's I've I mean I've that's probably

one of the longest ones I've noticed that I haven't

really partaken much in I still upload this show

to it occasionally More so just to have another

avenue that the site can or this podcast can

be distributed, but I I later did more research

and about a couple days later it says despite

recent struggles SoundCloud says it's here to

stay, which, you know, but internal reports depict

messy management and unhappy staff due to layoffs

and whatnot. It's hard to say whether they're

going to be around later this year. I'm almost

wondering what they're going to do to take care

of this problem. But they've put on their public

Twitter account air horn spread the word your

music isn't going anywhere neither are we But

if there's not any way to keep people there or

that they're struggling I just don't see how

that's gonna, you know gonna happen when the

general consensus that's that's SoundCloud employees

have been telling tech sites such as TechCrunch

that it's the morale is pretty crap or in the

toilet And in March, I guess they were forced

to borrow $70 million in order to keep running

when the layoffs were announced to reduce their

costs and continue their revenue growth. But

I don't, again, I don't know too much into this

whole detail of it, but it's a little disconcerting

for anyone that uses SoundCloud when you go to

look at this report. And then the Chinese have

managed to teleport a photon from the Gobi Desert

to a satellite orbiting 500 kilometers above

the Earth. So, yeah, they've done this through

quantum entanglement, which I'm not entirely

sure if I've covered this or not, and I'm sorry

if it's a repeat article. I don't believe so,

but it's still interesting that they've come

up with a way to teleport, even if it's particles,

something across... the planet or out of the

planet. So I'm definitely in favor of that if

it means we can do away with cars because I'm

not a fan of driving at all and I don't want

the AI. So if they can come up with a reliable

way of not atom smashing and killing the first

version and a duplicate spits out the other side,

I'm good with it. So I would much rather be transported

than Then have to drive somewhere or you could

make instantaneous travel across the planet.

That would just be spectacular Just saying so

I'll be right back after a quick break and we'll

come back with some gaming And we're back so

recently I had an issue with a particular game

and As much as I want to promote this game because

I like it and it's old It's Star Trek online

There's some good things and some bad things

with it some of the good stuff is they just added

a season 13 .5 where you actually get to fight

the sona and the Zenkethi and break out a legendary

Klingon general, I think it's Martok, who's called

the butcher in this because he's butchered so

many of the Zenkethi in the game. That little

add -on is pretty nice. I started another new

character, deleted my Romulan, just didn't care,

so I started playing as a Vulcan from the 23rd

century this time. I've got five characters.

I've got my original character I made, my secondary

character that I made after that from the 23rd

century. I made another character from the 23rd

century, different role. And then I made a Klingon.

or basically Orion character. So this one's a

Vulcan and I have been playing off and on when

I get free time at night, usually when everybody

else has passed out. So anyways, I've been playing

the game and this last week they've had three

maintenances on the game because of bad issues.

And... Well, I want to give them kudos and the

game is fun when there's stuff to do Unfortunately

because there's really nothing to do after you

hit level 60 and then they add these new missions

about every six months they put everything on

sale like the keys or the They come out with

new boxes when they do certain like every week

or every other week So when they do this the

the whole thing gets kind of thrown off a little

bit. So I've been watching the exchange and I

was watching it before I went on vacation and

then I watched it when it came back and unfortunately

I missed the time window to get my Kelvin Enterprise

or the Constitution refit because they've all

gone up in price on the exchange. So what I've

been doing is I've been saving up my dilithium

in game so that I can More or less Trade in all

the dilithium for Zen so I can trade it in for

a master key for the lock boxes selling those

to make what I need to get to that magical number

of 1 .5 billion or the 300 some odd million for

the Kelvin Enterprise. I'm only at like 75 million

right now. I've got a long way to go. But five

million per key is not going to take long if

I can get enough dilithium built up. So yeah,

I'm playing my fifth character now. Actually,

it's my sixth if you count the one I deleted.

And I've come to the conclusion that I'm not

dumping anymore into this game. I'm gonna make

it work for itself, if I'm gonna play it. Because

they've been pumping out these emergency maintenances

a lot lately, and they're like two to three hours

long every time. So it's, one, it takes out the

gameplay. Two, the storyline, when it ends, there's

nothing more to do. I mean, you can run missions

and grinds and all that kind of stuff, but it's

not really that fun anymore. And especially when

you play the game six times, there's not really

much you can do. Now unless they started a new

generation with the Cardassians or they started

something with some other race that isn't there,

I could see it being relevant and being kind

of fun again. But where it stands now, it's not.

I still play it because I enjoy the mechanics.

I enjoy the MMO ability of it. I enjoy the ships,

which is my favorite part. and the customization.

But unfortunately, a lot of my issue with the

game is they put all this effort into the lock

boxes and the gambling boxes or the promotion

R &D packs, which is what they were doing before

I went on vacation. And yet, they've let so many

issues go through the wayside that hinder the

game. Like, we don't get enough new stories,

we don't get... When I've tried contacting support

it took them days to get back to me Because I

sold a bunch of stuff on the exchange or I was

attempting to before I went on vacation I came

back and the mail thing is supposed to drop it

back in your inventory. Well, I lost about 30

infinity boxes and I lost about 1900 and a half

of lolunut favors, which you only get by doing

the Ryza event every year. And now that Ryza's

over, you can't get them anymore. So I was a

little ticked off when I went and I lost all

of that between two characters, and they gave

me five infinity boxes back and then all my lolunuts

because they want you to get the Sona box now.

Luckily, I saved up all my dilithium before I

went on vacation and I bought about 150 boxes

of the Infinity Box. So I'm waiting until they

go up a little bit higher in price because, and

the Sona Boxes have been selling pretty decent

too, so when I've been picking those up in game

I've been selling them. I'm waiting because I'm

kind of biding my time with those, and then the

Lolo Nut favors, I'm figuring because everything

I've done research on, it appears that next year,

right around the Ryza event, they skyrocket in

price. So I'll be ready for that when they come

around this time, and I'll be able to sell all

I have. I have actually well over about 2400

total. Lolo nut favors, so I'll be using those

at some point in the near future I probably would

have a lot more if I just had not used them or

I would have a lot more of the Lobby if I hadn't

used them for the Lolo nut favors Not really

understanding that I was gonna open so many R

&D boxes and get a lot of the Lobby where I probably

could have just got the USS Vengeance Intel Dreadnought

from the time Kelvin timeline Had I been patient

And had I not been stupid when I played the game

all the way from the beginning, when I started

back in February, I would have had probably enough

to buy the Kelvin Enterprise by now, and the

EC. But anyways, so yeah, they put all this effort

into trying to get you to pay for these boxes,

and the storyline kind of goes by the wayside,

and they put these stupid modes in there to try

and get you to play some of the levels again,

but... and they give you a bunch of EC and dilithium,

which is great if you want to grind through that.

I don't necessarily want to, but I kind of have

to in order to get what I need to get the ships

I want, because they make it physically impossible

and they don't tell the probability on these

R &D packs, promotion packs, or the lock boxes.

I have not once opened a lock box and won a ship.

Never once. And yes, the probability is supremely

low. You have a better chance of getting hit

by lightning than winning one of these. So they

say. I've seen some of the same names go across

the screen, though, within 30 minutes of each

other, or 10 minutes of each other at times,

and they'll win an Infinity Box ship, which could

mean just about any T6 ship in the game, including

the Enterprise. So I'll see those things just

pop up constantly. Or people just acquiring some

vessel which again, I've never won a vessel So

it kind of infuriates me a little bit to see

that I know I shouldn't be very envious of it,

but it just kind of drives me nuts when I watch

these people like just open boxes and then I've

opened probably well over a hundred and never

gotten a Ship and I've seen people open 20 and

get like three But I don't know what the stipulation

is, as well as the thing with the holographic

original series Enterprise crew. People have

been claiming that Perfect World has been emailing

them these codes for this stuff for whatever

reason. I don't know what's prompting it, but

they're getting these somehow. But again, my...

The main peeve with the game is mostly that they

put so much time into that, but they don't get

back to you when you contact them about anything.

I even tried to get a press contact with them

for the podcast, because I'd be interested in

discussing the game with them or just talking

about the fun parts and the mechanics of it.

They wanted samples and stuff, so I sent that.

They just never email me back and that's been

a couple weeks so it's I don't know it's just

it kind of grinds my gears and shows how much

they just really don't care about their their

fan base when they're just and I get it it's

about money for the for the whole Zen thing to

get you to spend money in game but It shows me

how much they really don't care about their fan

base for the game when they're sitting there

pushing out these half -baked updates and then

they're having to repatch them constantly. And

then there's nothing new coming to the game.

There's no new uniforms from the shows, no new

designs, no new opportunities for... the Constitution

enterprise, there's no new, there's no probability

to show what your chances of winning are, like

no responses and emails. It's very, very frustrating.

So I'll probably end up going back to either

Battlefield 1 or just not playing for a while

and see what happens. But on a lighter note,

In the UK, Nintendo has filed to a trademark

on the N64 controller again, so that may lead

to believe, because they've done it for the NES,

the SNES, and the N64, which means we could see,

after the SNES system comes out, a new... Nintendo

64 Preloaded Like classic box kind of like the

NES SNES. So I'd be very pumped to see that because

Granted there weren't that many games I played

on the N64 But that was the first time I ever

played Smash Brothers and so it's kind of stuck

with me and I enjoyed the controller for what

it is It's still like the GameCube the best Out

of all of Nintendo's consoles But yeah, it's

It's it's kind of kind of nice to see that so

I'm gonna take another quick break and Come back

with some Star Trek SDC stuff. And yes, I know

this is coming out around SDCC I know they'll

be possibly more the next episode is actually

pre -recorded I finished it with TFG one Mike

and that's episode 199 that we did this one's

198 And then episode 200, I'm going to do a live

show and I'm just going to be just kind of looking

for your guys' feedback, emails, questions, comments,

just whatever you guys want to send in. I'm definitely

looking forward to it. And if you'd like to drop

some iTunes reviews, that would be awesome as

well. So again, I'll be right back after this

quick break with some Star Trek discovery. And

we're back. So as everyone knows, STCC is going

on right now, and, well, Star Trek has a pretty

big role in it as well. Which is a little bit

different than most years, but, uh, yeah, I'm

a little, uh, a little excited to see kind of

what's been going on. So I'm gonna break down

all of the information that's been... submitted.

There's probably like, I don't know, 20 different

articles that I'm going to condense into this

one conversation piece just to kind of help and

avoid all of the multitudes of information out

there and having the problem of having to Track

it all down in the various locations. So Kurtzman

Released a video the the co -creator of the show

of discovery and executive producer Alex Kurtzman

says that The story we have for season one is

really interesting and special and pays tribute

to a lot of what truck has done and in many ways

is actually doing it in a new way to have Sonic

wha Martin green and Michelle Yeoh as captains

of our ship is really really exciting and different.

I love stories that are based around strong women

and we have some strong women on that show. So

he's saying that Sonequa is bringing you flavor

to the character which hasn't been seen in track

and is really exciting and it's unique and that

fans will appreciate and will cause debate is

what he states. He says as far as how this discovery

connects to the original track he says if you're

a fan of track You're gonna see a lot of things

which harken back to the original series and

elements of that series And he's not just talking

plot, but the spirit of the show was And they're

gonna be revisiting a couple of things on discovery

that are going to be familiar without It's spoiling

anything and says that they are adhering to a

timeline and sticking to the rules, but also

they're finding new areas and avenues that have

only been alluded to, but never fully explored,

which I'm fine with that, but again, I'm still

on the boat that it's a little bit unnecessary

for the show to be in this time span, being that...

We're essentially doing another prequel? It's

like doing a Han Solo movie or Rogue One. You

know the outcome. There's no point in telling

the previous story, but... Somebody found it

necessary and they're doing it anyway, so Yeah,

it's it's Frustrating to see it. Like I said,

I'm still I'm still gonna stick with that boat.

Even if the show's good I'm still gonna be clamoring

for something between Star Trek 7 the beginning

part and TNG because that's the big elephant

in the room of everything missing so He says

how Discovery is respecting Canon. They have

a room full of people with very different devoted

relationships to Trek in the writers room and

They carry a pretty proud tradition of Trek being

written by fans so He says you have to respect

Canon as it's being written you cannot say that

never happened. You can't say that he says You

know so they've got a whole checks and balances

system basically So, yeah, that's part one of

it. There's more in the... Let me get the other

article opened up here. They've changed the communicators.

Actually, all the tech. And they put a new spin

on it, on the classic truck design of the communicator.

It's got kind of an Abrams mix with the original

series mixed. And being that this takes place

ten years before the original series, and if

you take into consideration where No Man Has

Gone Before, which is technically the pilot of

the original series, even their tech in that

was less advanced, but looked more gung -ho,

militaristic than when they actually had the

regular episodes start. So, this design of the

communicator, I am a fan of. They added some

digital stuff for the middle part where it normally

had the swirly thing in the original series,

the sticker, but it gave it more of a reason

to function, which I'm perfectly fine with the

new ramped up communicator. The phaser, they

kept it very similar, only it's got three of

the spots where it would shoot. It looks like

if you mixed the the phaser from the cage, like

the front part of the phaser, the big bulky where

it's got the little clip with the three dots

sticking out of it instead of the singular one

they had later on. And you mixed it with the

classic original series full -on phaser. That's

what you get with the phaser. So I'm perfectly

fine with that as well. Then they showed off

the new look. There's a phaser rifle which looks

kind of TNG -ish. Again, I'm fine with it in

regards of how they did it. Then the new communicator,

of course, is interesting because they, or not

communicator, the new tri -quarter, that's what

I meant. It looks very original series -esque.

What I like about it is they're trying their

best to keep to the continuity. And I was having

a problem with the uniforms of the series at

first, and then I started thinking about it as

I was playing Star Trek Online and going through

the different costumes. Yes, in the original

series they all had the same cookie cutter uniforms,

but their com badges were all different. They

had different ways of denoting what ship they

were from. So I was looking at the com badges

for this, and they're very much like the original

series, although they're not shiny. None of the

stuff was shiny in that. But they gave the illusion

to it. These are like these new magnetic things,

but it has their rank on the com badge, which

is different. Not bad different, but just different.

And it looks like they're wearing jumpsuits,

kind of akin to Enterprise mixed with some TNG

in there, and maybe like the motion picture.

of the original series, which I knew that they

were drawing from that as well. And so Medical

has a white jumpsuit and the other ones have

the blue. They also have short sleeve versions

of the shirts. And I actually like the uniforms.

I like the white one better for the Medical more

than I do the command ones or the operations

one. Might actually pick up myself a com badge

for this eventually one of the magnetic ones

Just because it's got the rank in it and get

the captain one with the the command insignia

Just because I like it so much But uh Yeah, this

this the uniforms. I'm pretty down with and like

I said the comb edge is because The QMX Company

that does a lot of these quality pieces. They

have magnetic insignia badge for medical Science

which are two separate insignias here command

and Operations and these ones are just they're

1495 for sale. They're at SDCC right now debuting

And they don't have the rank in them, but I may

actually pick up that command badge I have the

the Voyager badge which it used to have a Magnet

on the back of it and it was it's it's cheaply

manufactured. It wasn't even by an official company.

I just bought it off of like Amazon or YouTube

or eBay and It really didn't know what I was

looking for at the time and had I waited I would

have found a quality version by this QMX company

I have a TNG one, which is a pin. It's not a

magnet But I'm much more a favor of the magnets

because if they're like a full magnet piece that

connects through I I'm more in in favor of that

So yeah this I'm looking at this and I'm definitely

down with the new comb badges and like I said

I was looking at Star Trek online and Remembering

that the original series they all had different

different con badges or insignias on their shirts

because of what ship they were on. So if it was

like the Exeter or the Constitution or the Constellation

or the Defiant or the Enterprise, they all had

different ones. So that I'm down with. The new

Klingons, I absolutely hate. I absolutely hate

the armor. They went for some like Chinese motif

in it and I hate their ships because it looks

very much like the If you mix the scimitar from

Nemesis with Nero's ship It looks like a weird

mix of that and then that they they have Klingon

head armor for the for the Klingons and their

their armor uniforms Like I said, I'm not a fan

at all of the Klingon changes. I think it's...

I don't know, it just looks tacky. I can't place

it. I'm not a fan of it, and I really hate the

blue face thing that they got going on. I mean,

I'm hoping that it's another faction of Klingons,

like a mutant faction or something that... like

a Klingon eugenics type of thing that was an

experiment or maybe this is the reason in Star

Trek Online that they needed Miriel Paris to

take some of her human Klingon blood maybe to

and that's how they got the the ones from the

original series without the ridges or had certain

ones have ridges I'm not entirely sure but I'm

looking forward to seeing it. I'm gonna watch

the show no matter how much I complain about

it. I'm gonna end up watching the show. It's

interesting. I can only complain on what I don't

know and wonder why it's the way it is. That's

about the extent of it. I know I'm going like

overkill on the the hate on it. I don't actually

hate it. I like a lot of it. I'm not the Klingons

I think is the biggest upset for me. At this

point, I was really upset with how shiny and

Abrams everything looked by comparison to the

original series being set 10 years before. I'm

not letting that bother me at this point. It'll

bother me if they start bringing in, like, the

Borg or other things that haven't actually been

encountered until the 24th century. But we'll

see. I hope they very much stay in canon. And

then of course they've got that QMX company,

they have all these 1 -6 scale articulated figures,

limited editions at SDCC. They have Spot, Khan,

Sulu, Bones, McCoy, Scotty. Then they've got

the Wrath of Khan, Khan. Captain Spock and Admiral

Kirk, which I would love to get my hands on that

Admiral Kirk. And then they have the TNG, Geordi,

Riker, Picard, Data, Worf. And they all look

spectacular. Look just like their show, these

figures. I'd love to have the Rathacon Kirk.

Favorite uniform and all. I'm gonna leave the

Klingon thing alone. That thing bothers me more

than... the rest of it. I'm hoping that that's

like a thing that gets wiped out. And then they

show some concept art of the Shenzhao exterior

and transporter room. The transporter room looks...

it looks a little bit like it fits in Voyager

and the original series. It's strange. I can't

really describe it too much. it's definitely

different and the ship reminds me of like an

evolved version of like an Akira's class or Akira

class ship or a Like the original NX01 kind of

if you crossed a 24th century ship with the NX01

that's what you get for the the Shenzhou and

then the Discovery it looks like it can do like

a saucer separation type thing Which I'm betting

that they'll end up employing at some point during

the series the one thing I'm hoping that they

do with this show is If they're going to do Because

I knew the ship was when I saw the original prototype

of this ship I knew it was a rejected ship from

the 1970s when they planned on relaunching Star

Trek so When I saw this I'm hoping that each

seasons different and focuses on different casts

or different adventures in Star Trek and maybe

jumps around through different time periods.

So like maybe this one, this first season takes

place in 10 years before the original series.

And then maybe, and then they could still keep

the title of Discovery and then maybe follow

like the next generation of that ship. Like whatever

the NCC is on this, A. and then B, C, D down

the line so that it takes place in the same universe

with a different generation. So like you can

have the Discovery A and then have a whole new

crew and cast and follow not the crew but the

ship instead of both like the other Star Trek

series have done. I don't know, it could be interesting

if they did kind of like the Swapping up how

they they do Star Trek instead of doing all one,

you know seven seasons of the same thing I could

definitely see it working especially if they're

not wanting to to they're not afraid of killing

characters off I could definitely see it going

in that route so They also showed off at SDCC's

more of the uniforms in their complete variations.

They showed off the duty uniforms with the boots

and the Like if they're science they have the

They have white or not white silver stripes across

the shoulders and Down the middle for the zipper

part and then along the sides of the uniform.

Whereas if they're command they have gold And

then if they're captain they have silver on top

the very top of the shoulders and then have gold

along the rest of it then they have the the the

command insignia on on the boots which the boots

actually look really cool with the costumes For

me a lot of the Star Trek stuff is aesthetics

for me. So like I really enjoy the costumes So

I really like the medical costume. I like the

command costume. I like the wrath of Khan I like

the the TNG movies I like all those aesthetics

that they put on them the the Starfleet uniform

of the The spacesuit I really like the spacesuit

for this one It looks very much like something

you would have in First contact when they had

the spacesuits and then they've got these like

almost brass knuckle things on the hands which

look pretty cool It looks like, but it looks

like the space suit goes over top of their duty

uniform in pieces. It attaches to certain segments

and covers up their hands and their shoulders

and their head and their neck and straps around

part of their legs and then there's another part

that goes over the boots and the shins. Again,

it looks different. Tricorder doesn't really

look much different than the original series,

like I said, and then it's still got the little

tube that comes off. The communicator is very

close to the original series. Phaser is very

close. I mean, they're more polished. I actually

like the phaser and the tricorder better in this

and their phaser rifle than I do the original

stuff. And then they've got Sarek's uniform,

Harry Mudd's... they were letting people sit

in the command chair of the Discovery and front

of a green screen and get your picture taken

in front of it and then they green screen you

into the the Star Trek Discovery ship with the

Star Trek Discovery logo over the top and CBS

all access original series at the bottom and

the command chair actually has buttons on it

Instead of the push buttons that Kirk had, these

are touch buttons, so like there's hail, all

decks is on there, answer, open channel, closed

channel, away team, shuttle, silent running,

record log, encrypted ship to ship, intercom,

two port phaser, rear port phaser, forward starboard

phaser, rear starboard phaser. You can, on the

other side, it has shields, battle stations.

Red alert, yellow alert, engineering, cancel

alert, general quarters, ready room, torpedo

bay, med bay, engineering, transporter room,

shuttle bay. It basically tells all the different

areas and it's got the same thing for the photon

torpedoes at the bottom. So it allows the captain

to have a lot more control from the seat, but

it also has a lot of the same stuff that the

original series had only it's labeled so you

can actually tell what it is instead of a random

colored button. So, yeah, I'm a little bit more

enthused with what's going on with it now than

I was when I first saw a lot of it. And they've

even gone as far as asking Zachary Quinto, who

plays Spock in the Kelvin timeline, if he might

cameo on Discovery, and he says it probably won't

happen, at least not by him. But he's not ruling

it out. I could see him playing it, because it

would be better to take from the movie cast,

albeit a little bit confusing as far as the movies

and the television series, but there's... there's

like a... opportunity where they could do this

and not have to like resurrect or try and find

footage of the original cast or digitally recreate

them and have it look terrible. But they're also

saying that if Quinto isn't up for reprising

the role on the series, Leonard Nimoy's son has

said that he's open to the idea of a CGI Spock

appearing on Star Trek in the future. Which again,

I could see it. playing out. I don't, you know,

they could always have Quinto do the voice unless

they found a voice actor to do it or had enough

canned footage of Nimoy to do it all together.

I don't know. I'd love to see the original series

cast interact, you know, at least like Scotty

or Kirk or McCoy, Spock. It'd just be interesting

to me. Yeah, so I mean that's That's really all

the Star Trek news. I mean there's a lot of Star

Wars stuff coming out I mean they had a new poster

they had You know new the last Jedi posters come

out And They look all right I'm not I'm not you

know knocking it. I can't wait for the movie

more so than anything else or another trailer

but um yeah they they they've hinted at the the

the gray jedi which basically is they're not

light or dark they're not sith they're not jedi

they're just gray jedi which would basically

be going back to like the the kind of understanding

of uh Back in the day type of thing before there

was Sith and Jedi so And we'll see how rebels

plays into it because I'm sure that at some point

that'll come in But yeah, so I mean that's that's

about it. I don't really have anything That's

Too pressing to add to this conversation. So

I think I'm gonna call this a day Other than

the fact that I am wrong as far as the armor

with the Starfleet uniforms I was called out

on it. I didn't I I'm sure I noticed it I just

don't pay attention to it as closely as I probably

should before opening my mouth and I welcome

the correction Well another Star Trek site came

out with it or comicbook .com came out with a

article about it as well Because of the backlash

and there were armored people that showed up,

you know security officers when Ilya was in the

motion picture They were full armor They wore

full armor again in the wrath of Khan as well

as spacesuits And then the search for Spock again,

there was there was armored people and then the

undiscovered country So again, I was wrong and

all those those fronts The next generation really

didn't have it Enterprise I think had it a couple

times original series really didn't Have them

So, I mean I was basing it off more so the TV

shows and the movies because I know the movies

kind of contradict the TV shows a little bit

in their kind of natural evolutions because of

more budget but yeah I mean I'm holding it on

a very tight leash when I start railing in it

but they are gonna be making this into a comic

series as well so I'll probably pick that up

just because I want to know what's going on it'll

be on CBS All Access in the US the Space Channel

in Canada and Netflix throughout the rest of

the world. Which means everybody else gets it

for not an additional cost. Because if you have

Netflix, you're just getting it with Netflix.

Whereas in the US, you get hosed. I'm so irritated

with that format. If it was on Netflix or Hulu,

I'd be game. I'd be like, sure. But... I just...

I don't want to spend the money. Not at all.

I don't know, what do you guys think on that?

And what do you guys want to see for the episode

200? Just send me your questions, comments, feedback

and leave it in the section below or send me

an email. So until next time, get altered, get

geeky with the Altered Geeks.