'Victory is Life', Toxicity in Trek, Franchise Appeal, Star Trek Theme Parks

Hello and welcome to future imperfect. I'm your

host Admiral Phillips and joining me on the USS

future imperfect is Well, technically according

to the chapter. I'm lieutenant commander, but

I'm the captain of this boat though You're you

are in charge. I guess um, that's right. It's

Mike the Birdman Dodd from this week in geek

.net Yes, so it's been a while since we've recorded

an episode of future imperfect and There's been

quite a lot in the Star Trek world that has kind

of gone on Namely possibilities of a theme park

a couple of movie concepts discovery news and

Star Trek online getting its newest expansion

Among them all Yeah, I mean it's it's been a

like you said a busy little bit surprising little

bit So we'll have a little bit to definitely

talk about and discuss on this episode The theme

park is the most unexpected news to me But then

again, you want to compete against the juggernaut

that is Star Wars. You got to do something I

just don't I don't know how successful the theme

park would be. I wonder if maybe building A Vegas

attraction would have been maybe a smarter idea?

Kind of like how they did back in the day with

the Star Trek The Experience out of the Hilton?

Well, kind of the thing that's... The reason

why they're doing this, really, is the fact that

Universal Studios, as we know, used to hold the

rights for all the Marvel... theme parks before

Disney owned it and so it kind of makes it fitting

that we would end up with the possibility anyway

of getting a Star Trek theme park to replace

it and kind of battle the Star Wars land if it

were basically I mean It's not a set in stone

thing, but it's it's definitely something in

the cards for Universal Yeah, like like I said,

it'll be interesting to see how they pull this

off I'm more interested in seeing how they're

gonna market Star Trek towards children because

If you've been watching there's a series on Netflix

called the toys that made us where they featured

more about Star Wars and Star Trek Well, that's

the problem the Star Trek brand has never been

child -friendly when you really think about it's

always been marketed towards the adult towards

the collector and Adult theme parks. Yeah, they're

they're a thing and yeah, you can market towards

them It's just how do you keep people constantly

coming in coming in? I mean, yeah, Star Trek

has a dedicated fan base, but Star Wars tends

to attract a younger audience. I mean, there's

always something Star Wars going on, be it a

movie, a television show, or something with Star

Trek. We just got Discovery, and the last time

we had anything on TV was what, 2004? Outside

of the movies, which are, I don't know if I'd

call the Kelvin universe exactly child -friendly.

Definitely more wide appeal. Well, I would say

it's more wide appeal and I wouldn't say Star

Wars is all that child -friendly either. Rebels,

Clone Wars. Animated series, they are. True.

But when you look at the future films, they're

not. I think I could make a pretty strong case

for the original trilogy and episode one. Maybe

not so much episodes two and three as they are

very heavy war stories, but definitely not. Rogue

One was definitely not meant for kids. And same

with The Last Jedi. I haven't seen Solo yet,

so I really couldn't tell you. I've seen Solo.

I would kind of put it in the same boat. Yeah.

But I'd say Star Wars as a concept is a little

bit more bright, a little bit more appealing

because you have characters like R2 -D2 and C

-3PO, plus you've had Ewoks and droids as cartoons.

I would argue just the Star Wars brand is more

family friendly. As opposed to Star Trek is technically

guys, it's diplomats in space. Or it's a war

story in space, whereas with Star Trek, or Star

Wars rather, you can get a little bit more whimsical.

There are whimsical episodes in Star Trek, do

not get me wrong. But I think the marketeers

are going to have their jobs cut out for them,

especially when they start designing this theme

park. How are you going to make it appeal to

a mass audience that isn't, say, the dying fandom

of the original series? Because a lot of those

original fans, and I know this is going to be

controversial for saying this, they're getting

on in years. And even fans of the original series

and TNG, Star Trek's a fandom that I'd argue,

once again, Mike at This Week in Geek .net. Yes,

it's still there. It's still a fandom that's

still very passionate and very strong. But I'd

argue I wonder if it's dying. Because if it weren't

for these new movies, which we're going to talk

about a little bit later in the show, I wonder

what would happen with the brand. Because even

the brand's 50th anniversary felt like a fart

in the wind. When you compare it to all the stuff

that happens with Star Wars, I mean, Don't know

I mean the problem I would I would argue That

is the problem for The The Star Trek brand is

the fact that you have two companies that own

the rights to two different sections of it whereas

Star Wars is unified Yes, and I feel like if

CBS and Paramount if CBS owned all of the rights

I have a feeling we would see a lot more Because

they would want to milk it for all it's got Well,

see that's the question. That's that's the million

dollar question right there Dear Paramount and

CBS. Why don't you like making money? I like

making money Why don't you and it's gonna be

some bureaucratic bullshit or some obscure licensing

issue? It's got to be something really dumb that

somebody really old just doesn't want to solve

and it's its majority of it is to do with the

feature films, which is why you see the CBS handling

all the television properties, including the

old stuff and the current, and anything that

has to do with the original continuity of everything.

Because everything from Bridge Commander to Star

Trek Online is CBS controlled. And it's kind

of mind -boggling that they just don't wanna

put the effort into it, like they don't wanna

turn it into this giant celebration. I mean,

yeah, they have the yearly cruise, but that's

for the most part unobtainable by most people.

Yeah, exactly. And there's only so many times

you can hear them tell the same stories over

and over again. I can watch them on YouTube.

Yeah, I mean, I think the theme park's a fantastic

idea, but I wonder if it's heyday has already

come and gone. I think Trek has the possibility

to hit a resurgence, however, it depends on,

and we'll touch on this in Future Imperfect,

or in All Things Altered Geek. Too many shows

going on at once. But the fact that the fandoms

are so toxic, they're attacking each other, and

their own property that they should be supporting.

It's okay to disagree and dislike things, like

I... Dislike the Klingons and the lack of explanation

in discovery. However, I like how it is starting

to connect with the original series and make

sense So like I give it a pass and I still watch

it because it's track but I don't I don't give

it a hundred percent support, but I don't sit

there and hate on it either Someone said this

today on the internet and I think it's probably

the most wise thing I've seen The internet was

a horrible invention it has brought out some

of the worst toxicity in people in fandoms ever

and i know star wars and star trek people have

been at each other's throats since the very beginning

and it seems like it's only gotten worse and

i know the the old joke in the nineties used

to be you could Sit in your mom's basement and

bitch on Star Trek messaging boards on BBS's

if you remember those things or Here's something

that'll date me just how old I am on the old

use net groups, which doesn't exist anymore Yeah,

or Star Trek mailing lists. Yep stuff like that

Well, those were those were back in the days

when fan clubs actually were fan clubs Yeah nowadays

you pay your membership and well There's issues

with fan clubs, which I'm not going to talk about

right now But it's just I don't know I wonder

if the start the Star Trek band brand has experienced

a resurgence But if you need to keep that momentum

moving forward, you need young fresh blood at

the helm I don't know if discoveries the way

to go with it. It certainly got me interested

in Star Trek again, but it is not in Star Trek

Star Trek frankly does deserve the reboot that

it's gotten. It is not our parent track, but

it's not Star Trek either in terms of what it

wanted to accomplish. No. In terms of what the

original vision of Gene Roddenberry was. And

the Roddenberry estate does have a say in how

Star Trek properties are still portrayed in the

media. And I don't think the Kelvin Universe

or Star Trek Discovery are bad pieces of Star

Trek, but I wonder what Gene Roddenberry would

say. And his vision was focused out of something

that came out of the 1940s and 50s as he was,

like, he was a World War II bomber, I think.

He was a cop at one point. He'd seen all these

different things and had this vision of the future

that obviously we all fell in love with, and

that's the very genesis of this show. But a lot

of things have changed in that time as you saw

the writing on TNG evolved to express certain

social ideas and it seems to be now if you if

you Have certain social ideas you get labeled

in SJW and that's somehow a bad thing and the

liberal Agenda or something like I remember people

were bitching about the gay character on Discovery

him and his boyfriend the engineer and the doctor

I can't remember their names off the top of my

head but the franchise needs to evolve, and I

don't know if in this climate of toxicity, if

it can evolve the way that it should. And we'll

talk about this on Altered Geek very much so,

because I think community - I think this deserves

its own top in of itself. I really do think so,

yeah, because you have to look at the fandom

in Star Trek. Is it just as toxic as other communities?

Where will that goodwill or lack thereof take

the property? Will it be able to move past what

it's become and become something better? Or will

it become just another licensed property that

falls by the wayside in a couple of years? Yeah,

it's really hard to tell. But kind of, if we're

going to just kind of swing it back to the The

topic of the theme park I saw an article on geek

and sundry and normally don't really frequent

them, but I thought it was kind of a valid a

valid point and they They kind of mentioned how

there was this like Star Trek adventure, you

know a Universal Studios produced kind of themed

live -action performance attraction In the 80s

and early 90s and then they had it again in like

the early 90s to the mid 90s Kind of you know,

they they take you in in this kind of a bridge

version of the the enterprise kind of thing So

anyways, they were saying to to possibly set

up like bridge reconstructions of you know, the

original series set the the TNG set, you know

Voyager DS 9, you know have have basically the

ability to, you know, act out or kind of play

Starship on some of it. Have like a Kobayashi

Maru type of bridge crew, no -win scenario kind

of simulator where you get to kind of encounter

it. Alien encounters where you, you know, everybody's

dressed in various, you know, very much a la

Disney of people and character of different costumes.

Like quarks bar and in various things in that

that nature. So I mean like I definitely think

that that would be something interesting to do

If you were setting up like a Star Trek land

Yeah, and I think it's great building blocks.

I don't know if that would be enough But I do

think that that would be something cool that

they could they could possibly do I mean you

could turn like the the the tower dropping ride.

You could essentially turn that into like the

scene from the Kelvin universe where they're

like dropping from the shuttle down to the earth,

you know, kind of thing. And that would be something

kind of cool to theme it as but or have live

action shows of reenactments of different Star

Trek series or something. But I think that there's

the possibilities there if the companies can

get their head out of their rear. To not just

have it as this like money bag thing, but kind

of do it, right? Mm -hmm Completely agree with

you there. So I mean we've already seen what

they could do with like the bridge crew thing

So which is kind of interesting I know in and

of itself Because now we're getting the Enterprise

D and the uniforms on that new new avatar, you

know, you can be an Android, you could, you know,

fight against the Romulans and the Borg and various

roles in that. Like, I'm more interested in that

than playing the Kelvin universe. Yeah. And that's

how I think that's how you lure people in, but

you'll also alienate the newer, the wide appeal.

Yeah, you'll get people in with the classic universe

of Voyager Enterprise, DS9, et cetera, et cetera.

But a lot of moviegoers know the new stuff. They

want the millennials. They want the people that

grew up in the 90s and saw Star Trek in the 2000s.

That's where a lot of the disposable money is.

All the older people, sure, they'll spend their

money because it's Star Trek, but you want new

and fresh eyes on your property. Which, they

kind of get that when you consider Star Trek

Online, and I know it's a totally different style

of platform, but the thing is, they went free

to play years ago and have come up with multiple

expansions of the game. I think they're on season

15, technically now, if all things considered,

but it's... It's kind of at the same time educating

people on the entire, like you have to have some

kind of a knowledge of the original Star Trek

universe. And then you have to, it basically

creates new ties and new storylines within that

universe, but the way that it's written and the

way that it's done, it's very tastefully done.

So it's like a natural evolution or it's filling

gaps of previous timeline aspects. So you've

got a lot of timeline jumping. Between like archers

timeline to The 28th or 29th century and so you

get a lot of post Voyager you get to run into

Because they've cast a lot of the voice actors

from Voyager a lot of those were real easy to

get in there. You have nobody from Enterprise

There's there's select people from TNG like you've

got war if you've got Geordie and you've got

like Scylla and Tasha Yar but like other than

that there's really nobody else from TNG and

then you've got uh they just dumped the mother

load on the recent expansion which was DS9 which

I will argue by far is probably the best use

of these characters and the best um evolution

of because it's we've kind of gotten the the

natural evolution of all the other series you

know, or seen a possible timeline or seen the

timeline up to a certain point and you kind of

get this gist of, you know, you get how the rest

of their story is going. But DS9 was always the

one that I was like, okay, where's the rest of

it? And what happens to all these people after

DS9? And you get to see like Rom, Nag, Warf,

Quark, Bashir, Kira, Odo, Garrick. It was just

in a couple of other random Ferengi characters

and Weyoon and the founders and so I mean it's

very entertaining to play through plus it's continuing

very naturally. They even hinted at, and they

even give you like a list of episodes of DS9

you should watch before you play the expansion.

Just so you're kind of caught up storyline wise

of where they're gonna be touching upon Like

where they they had one of the guys from beige

or get stuck on a planet because of robotic nanites

and They couldn't cure it at the time and they

they managed to do that at this point because

Cura is the current Chi And so like you just

kind of get to see a lot of natural progression

of these characters and these actors just seem

like they've never fallen out of the roles Which

is even more enticing. I've played it three times

through with three different avatars or characters

of mine and It still doesn't get old and then

by the end of it like I think I played like six

episodes It's like to be continued and I'm like

no but they also let you now play as Dominion

characters they let you play as Cardassians they

let you play as pretty much everything so it's

it's it's a lot of fun they just bumped up the

episode or the the levels from 60 to 65 you get

a free like I just got the galaxy class starship

with the saucer separation which is pretty slick

especially when you've got the all good things

3 nacelle version that's pretty cool so like

i said there's a lot going on in the game a lot

of a lot of new stuff that they've added but

it's like you actually get to explore the gamma

quadrant which is something i've always been

like just kind of questioning and wanting to

know more about so One of the things you might

be interested into Steve is I know I've touched

upon it before speaking of Star Trek games the

Star Trek role -playing game by Modiphius just

released Their beta quadrant expansion and their

command section like two brand new source books

and it's officially licensed by CBS So a lot

of stuff you may not know about the beta quadrant

they flesh out Oh, nice. Which is kind of cool.

And like I said, we'd have to get you into a

Star Trek game at some point on terrible warriors

if we can somehow make the recording setup work.

That's one thing I will say. If CBS has done

anything right, licensing the property out to

the right licensees has been really smart, as

with the Star Trek online game. The role -playing

game has been treated really well. It's receiving

awards, as far as I know. I know on Terrible

Warriors, we're playing through the living campaign

right now. If you want to check that over on

terriblewarriors .com. I know we have an interview

with one of the Star Trek writers that Justin

did a little while ago. And there also is Star

Trek, like you said, Bridge Commander, which

now has the Enterprise DDLC, where you fight

the Borg. And allegedly you can play this thing

in non -VR now. Yep. Yep. Though I'm not sure

how that works. I'd be playing it on PlayStation

4, obviously. But I don't know how. Yeah, I'm

kind of curious how that works. I've thought

about it for the PC. But yeah, I don't know it's

it's definitely something I'd like to to check

out just because you get to pilot the Enterprise

D Which I think is cool I'm interested. I just

don't know if I'm $60 interested. Yeah, that's

that's the the meat the main point there for

me is I'm not really sure What's what's gonna

happen there? But or when they're going to have

like a possible discount like to me it's like

20 bucks like like for the non VR version like

I could see it for the VR version because it's

a lot of extra camera movement But yeah, I just

don't know it's it's Still too much for me to

want to to jump in especially when I can play

Star Trek online for free Like it literally costs

nothing to play like unless you really want to

Yeah, I mean, I'm actually kind of surprised

there was DLC for it in the first place, which

means the title obviously sold I'd be curious

to know what the player base is or something

like that because Ubisoft could very easily give

you those numbers since they said you have to

connect to online servers for it So but I guess

it sold well enough amongst us dorks Mm -hmm

to warrant that whether the game will get any

more DLC. I'd be very curious. I'm guessing In

no small part to do to discovery because of its

popularity on TV There's probably why there's

a renewed interest in Star Trek. So Yep, and

So and then and then kind of moving into since

we're kind of talking the various licensees or

issues with with CBS and Paramount It's been

mentioned multiple times that there's gonna be

two Star Trek films running concurrently. Yeah,

one which will be Star Trek IV but not written

by Simon Pegg and his writing partner. And then

there's talk of a Tarantino -esque Star Trek.

Which would basically be its own standalone.

Which I almost wonder if that would be better

if they just had random standalone Trek films

of just different eras. just as something fun

to do. Here's my issue with that. Look what happened

with Solo. And I think that'll be a big indication

is the movie going public, ready for something

like that. But the difference between Trek and

Star Wars is Star Wars, the fan base doesn't

have, I mean, yes, they have like 30 plus years

of history, whereas Star Trek has 50 plus years,

but Star Trek also had a lot of television series

to kind of cover. Yeah, but the last time one

was on in force was 2004. Plus, you have to look

at it from a marketing point of view. What's

a more marketable property? The billions of billions

of dollars that Star Wars brings in versus Star

Trek. Ask yourself this. If you walked into your

average Walmart, Target, or I was going to say

Toys R Us, but that doesn't matter anymore. Well,

it could be Toys. That'll be back. OK. Okay,

so yeah, you walk in your average toy store.

What's gonna be easier to find a Star Trek toy

or Star Wars toy to be fair? They haven't had

good Star Trek toys since art asylum since art

asylum. Yeah, I mean that that company that hands

down but They haven't had like official like

just in the store track toys since Voyager actually

you're wrong because playmates had nope playmates

held the license again for Star Trek when the

Kelvin Universe movies came out yeah but they

were so poorly marketed that I didn't even like

yeah now that you mentioned I remember those

but they were they didn't even look like the

actors I think there was a fair likeness for

most of them there was but when you look they

were small act figures compared The first contact

figures looked exactly like their actor. Like,

they weren't art asylum great, but they were

much better than the Kelvin universe. I think

the problem is, once again, it's how you market

a property like Star Trek to kids, and that's

what's always gonna drive it. I mean, as much

as we want it to be able to high ideals of a

future where we want society to work for each

other, It's all comes down the dollars and cents

now and it's how can I slap it on a plastic lunchbox

and Marketing ultimately determines the fate

of these things now having a standalone movie

would be cool But you're not getting that in

theaters. No friggin way now if you did it on

say Kickstarter and said, hey, we're pitching

this Netflix. Hell, you can put this on Netflix

or CBS Access. Then yes, then you've got a possibility

of something happening on a much smaller scale.

Because look what they did with Star Trek Renegades.

They made that for well under a feature film

budget. So if you're willing to do a smaller

scale Star Trek story, then yeah, you could definitely

get something if it's officially. Given the seal

of approval by CBS then sure, but you will not

see a standalone movie in theaters No way know

how the franchise is not that profitable Mm -hmm,

and I'm sorry to say that but that's the that's

the problem with Star Trek. It's on life support

It got a jolt in the arm with discovery but once

again you ask A kid, what's more exciting, phasers

or lightsabers? I can tell you what the answer's

gonna be, nine out of every 10 times. And it

sucks to say that, because I know I've been pretty

hardcore Star Wars on this episode, but I'm a

Star Trek fan, too. See, I think where the difference

lies is I think that the uniforms, technology,

and the ships are more memorable in Trek. Although

lightsaber is definitely like way up there But

look out this way Star Trek tells political and

moral stories Star Wars is swashbuckling It's

the difference between mr. Smith goes to Washington

and Say Robin Hood Both are excellent movies

But for different reasons And that's the thing,

it's hard to get kids interested in something

political. In Star Wars, you can dress it up

with monsters, the Sith, and all this other crap.

And it just, it doesn't work. But, and I kinda

lost where I was going with this train of thought.

Sorry. But no, I mean, I get it. I'm just saying,

like, I think I think what they've done with

Discovery, like granted, it's not what I would

do in some stretch of the means. I don't think

that they should have gone back in time. I think

that they either A, should have completely rebooted

the universe and started from scratch and said,

you know, that was 50 years of canon. And we're

just you know, we're gonna leave it alone We're

not gonna touch it and we're gonna just start

over and then start off with brand new characters

brand new everything and then just kind of reinvent

it much in the vein of how they did, you know

lost in space like literally the only thing that

kind of Existed was some of the naming and some

of the you know aspects. They redid practically

everything else And I think that that would have

been more beneficial to Trek at this point whereas

Star Wars just had gotten a shot in the arm from

Disney and unfortunately like it's starting to

even kind of fizzle a little bit because again

they're traversing into the past instead of creating

new and even that's having problems too because

the audience reaction on The Last Jedi either

loved it or you hated it because it touched on

original character continuity That's true. And

that's a part of the big problem. And that's

that's the thing is, I think with Colin Trevorrow

or whoever it is that's doing the the new trilogy

that they're working on, that's going to be completely

standalone. And then you've got John Favreau,

who's doing the television series. I think that

although his is going to take place after episode

six, so it kind of leaves. a little gray area

on that, depending on what direction they go

in it. But I guess it's supposed to follow the

fall of the Empire and the beginning of the First

Order and kind of in that realm. But either way,

I think that those are more beneficial because

there's area to tell things in instead of doing,

you know, oh, let's do a character origin story

or, you know, let's go back and let's go, you

know, 10 years before Kirk. Because they'd already

gotten, like Trek had gotten... beaten with a

shovel when the Enterprise came out because it

was made like 40 years, like 30 some odd years,

40 years after the original series and it took

place 100 years before Kirk and some of the things

were just as advanced or if not more and people

were beating it with a shovel then and then you

look at Discovery and it's almost worse whereas

I think if they would have pushed it beyond 30

to 50 years beyond Voyager, half the technology

they've got in there would have been more believable.

Oh yeah, I mean that's, when you go digging in

the past, you're gonna come up with so many problems,

and Star Trek nerds are the worst for this. Although

Star Trek fans are getting just as bad. Yeah,

because you look at the technology from episode

one to episode four and you're like, wait a minute

Yeah, I completely agree knobs and switches from

holograms like Tony Stark not so much. Yeah So

so yeah, it's it's definitely It's definitely

out there with some of it. It's it's very difficult

to kind of gauge on How well they could do with

it? It because like even even recently like a

week and a half ago. They released a image of

the Enterprise bridge From discovery Like what

it looks like and it doesn't look like what we're

used to like yeah It's got the little rings that

go around the command chair. You've got the consumer

looks Pretty make the original series command

chair like that's like one of the main iconic

features but all of the Screens all of the like

everything is like Shiner it's all like digital

compared to the original series where it was

all like weird things that just swirled and had

nothing on them Which which that I kind of understand

like at the time they didn't have that stuff

so I kind of get updating some of that but in

some of the colors are brighter on the corridors

and some of the other stuff but It'll be interesting

to see what it looks like when it's fully lit

because it's kind of a dark image I don't know.

I'm Skeptical, but we'll see what happens. I

did like discovery I think crossing enterprise

into it is a big friggin risk well especially

on nostalgia really when they don't want to touch

Leonard Nimoy's character of Spock and They're

kind of putting putting themselves in this odd

predicament because this is supposed to be after

the cage With Captain Pike like they're gonna

have Captain Pike in this obviously because he's

one of the actors from the inhumans But he's

he's going to be you know playing the captain

of the enterprise you're gonna see probably somebody

playing number one The female you know major

Barrett's original character, and then you'll

probably see Some other people because like at

the time they they didn't have I think they they

were close to having like Sulu or Scotty or somebody

on there but you know Spock's definitely there

so It kind of leaves this weird place for them

to kind of touch on with it. So And then of course,

there's all these rumors swirling like somebody

tried to kind of trip question Patrick Stewart

into I'd be okay if they had to bring him in,

you know what I mean? Or if they had to bring

Picard and Troy and Frakes back. It was a time

travel thing. I'd be okay with that It would

be interesting because they're not touching the

sport drive anymore They don't give it they mothball

it I don't think they'll touch it I Think there'll

be some other McGuffin, but I think that they

won't touch the the sport drive And there is

like there's there's no casting rumors. He's

not even you know Not even technically listed

anymore as far as that stuff's concerned. So

Which sucks cuz he was such a cool character.

Mm -hmm. It was such a different like I almost

got a Cisco vibe Yeah, he was willing to kill

and he needed to do what he had to do and that's

what I appreciated about him Yeah, cuz I mean

I just watched an episode of DS 9 recently where

Cisco's on the Defiant with all of the DS9 crew

and he's hunting the McKee and the McKee did

bomb some planet, sabotaged the Defiant, sabotaged

another vessel with a fleet admiral on it and

Cisco made it a personal vendetta and then just

laced quantum torpedoes with tri -lithium and

then dumped it on the McKee planets to purposely

evacuate them. just to get back at this one guy

like and everybody was just Just going nuts over

it, you know, and he's just like alright bomb

another one and they're like, no, no, no, no

I'll give myself up and all of our weapons I'm

like, yeah Cisco doesn't play around so now Lorca

is very much like that So yeah, I don't know.

I'm I'm kind of wondering where they're gonna

go with it I I did see an interesting theory

though about the Klingons And you might like

this concept too. Somebody posted, you know,

what if those really were the clay guns, you

know, the designs. Are you familiar with the

race, the Afrosians? I most certainly am not.

Okay. Well, the Afrosians are... Do you remember

the character from... Either Star Trek 3 or Star

Trek 6 with the the white goatee and the white

hair that went to the back Vaguely, they basically

look like a Klingon without forehead and nose

ridges Okay. Yeah, yeah somebody made this crazy

thought that maybe There there was an afrosion

and a Klingon hybrid and that's how we got all

of the uh the the Klingons that became uh more

established in the later series like it's a it's

a convoluted way of thinking about it but it

almost kind of more makes sense than you know

hey we got these Klingons and none of them match

anything we've ever seen in in track i have no

response to that sorry sorry But I just I liked

the concept Anyways, and then I saw something

else somebody posted they redid the the original

series Enterprise Bridge They took a screenshot

of it and then remapped it They're you know with

all the dials and everything else and then they

completely re remapped all of the screens and

the link and Everything else and kind of gave

it a more of a discovery type style look to it

but it still looks a vibe yeah it still looks

true to the original series but it kind of took

some of the kelvin and the discovery elements

and and turned what we're used to in the original

series into the the new but it was a nice meld

of the two so i'm a crazy person i look at all

these things i think they're cool Yeah, you're

kind of a dork, but that's okay. Anything else

you want to touch on in this episode? Off the

top of my head, no. I'm looking forward to seeing

what will happen if the Tarantino Star Trek ever

takes off. I'll be very surprised. Which Freaks

doesn't seem to think so. Yeah, I don't think

so either. I think he's a popular director who

has an interest. We'll see what happens. If he

really wants it to happen, pitch it to Netflix

or CBS All Access. Ask for a much smaller budget.

And if you want to make a Star Trek, maybe they'll

give you an episode of Discovery. Or hey, here's

a three -part arc with Quentin Tarantino directing.

Or something like that. That's what I suspect

will happen if he can't get his movie made. If

he really loves the property, he'll do something

with it. Outside of that, no. I'm interested

to see if Star Trek Bridge Commander will get

more DLC in it. I'm not super optimistic because

TNG seems to be where most of the love affair

ends unless you're a hardcore fan that it's DS9.

Although it wouldn't surprise me if they get

something for Star Trek Discovery. I wouldn't

surprise they don't because that would be logical.

but that's also a lot of money to a game development

studio. So I can see why not, but we'll have

to wait and see. So that's what a lot of my feelings

are on Star Trek right now. You're going to have

to wait and see. I mean, I'm happy with the role

-play products. I'm happy with the licensing,

how it's been mostly handled. The theme park,

I think the idea is going to fizzle. but I wouldn't

be opposed to a new Vegas experience that was

a little bit more expansive. If you're gonna

strike, strike while the iron's hot. Yep, I completely

agree. They need to hit it now rather than later

because it's hard to tell what people will get

into anymore. Exactly, you can't bank on fans

because fans are fickle. And they're a -holes

too. Yeah, and it comes down to can you get little

Timmy little Tina interested So we'll wait and

see what happens. Yep. So until next time I've

been Captain Phillips or Admiral Phillips. I've

been captain Michael the bird man died. Wow.

I called myself Michael. That's weird Anyway,

until next time I know it's friggin strange.

So anyway guys until next time live long and

prosper Welcome to the replicator. I am captain

Mike the bird man Dodd and today on the replicator

We're taking a look at something kind of cool

coming to us from Fame tech. We are looking at

Star Trek the next generation Bluetooth speaker

which happens to look like the USS Enterprise

NCC 1701 -D that's right Captain Picard's good

old enterprise from starts up the next generation

fame and this is a Bluetooth speaker that is

actually kind of cool. Obviously being officially

licensed, which means it has all the detail you

come to expect. More highly detailed than say

the Playmates 1994 toy of the Enterprise, but

not exactly studio scale. This thing is probably

a little less than 12 inches across. Fairly small

scale. I mean if you go to think geek .com it's

a think geek .com exclusive over there You can

see just how big this thing is, but it sits pretty

nice. It displays relatively well So what this

thing includes it gives you sound clips of the

warp drive an engine hum torpedo Auto -destruct

incoming transmission now. It's also a bluetooth

Phone or a bluetooth speaker rather it means

it can connect to your phone your tablet or even

your PC One of the neat things about this is

it's actually a white noise generator as well.

So if you have trouble sleeping like me, you

can fall asleep to the sound of the engine hum.

If you go on YouTube, there's people that have

done a similar thing where they just have main

engineering as the sound. But if you can fall

asleep to the engine hum from the enterprise,

that's just as comforting and a little piece

of sci -fi future here. And now, now the cool

thing is this thing also lights up and this thing

is bright. The warpness cells light up, the main

deflector dish lights up. It's cool. Now if you

press the bridge, the bridge itself on top of

the enterprise, it'll actually make sounds. Which

you can do that in kind of demo mode and whatnot.

Now I did have two problems with this thing.

I did have trouble syncing it up the first time

to... my iPad because I had to have it put into

Bluetooth detection mode. So after fiddling with

the power settings for a couple of minutes, basically

holding it down, pressing it a couple of times,

eventually I was just able to fiddle with it

and it happened. It'll show up on your Bluetooth

capable device as NCC 10701 -D. It shows up as

the enterprise basically and it'll connect. Now

this thing has a built -in USB rechargeable battery.

with a purported eight hour life. I've been testing

this thing for a little over two weeks now, and

I would argue I get between four and six hours.

So I don't know whether I'm not charging it long

enough or whether my particular unit just won't

last that long. I mean, either way, if you pull

this thing out as a white noise generator, the

white noise only lasts for 60 minutes anyway.

Or if you're listening to music in your room.

you're probably not gonna be listening it for

a full eight hours, give or take. Though they

do recommend not having this thing plugged in

at the same time and using it. So please advise

that little bit of caution. I was able to get

fairly decent range out of this thing. I was

able to go right across my apartment with my

iPad and not lose Bluetooth connectivity as I

was listening to the streaming app. for WMMR,

which is a radio station out of Philadelphia.

And I never once lost connectivity. So this thing

retails for about $80 USD on thinkgeek .com.

And you're asking, is that worth it? Well, you're

getting a fairly decent quality Bluetooth speaker.

It's loud, it's crystal clear, and it's a licensed

Star Trek collectible. So you're paying probably

about $60 for the speaker itself and $20 for

the license. And it is a pretty cool piece of

memorabilia to have in your office. And the fact

that it can be a covert speaker, which means

this thing can sit on a shelf above your desk,

above your computer, and you can just connect

it to Spotify or any streaming app or whatever,

and it works beautifully. So that is my review

of the Star Trek The Next Generation Enterprise

D Bluetooth Speaker coming to us from FameTech.

You should probably check it out. Now throwing

things back to Admiral Stephen Phillips right

here on Future Imperfect.