Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of March 28th through April 3rd.
March 28 “Would you mind telling me who that is?” Roberta Lincoln “That, Miss Lincoln, is simply my cat.” Gary Seven- Assignment: Earth, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 29 Happy Birthday to Marina Sirtis. @Marina_Sirtis https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Marina_Sirtis #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekENT #StarTrekPicard #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“You can handle defeat in two ways: You can lose confidence, or you can learn from your mistakes.” Troi- Peak Performance, Stardate: 42923.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 30 “But we’re going to learn from those mistakes. That’s what being human is all about.” Archer, Shockwave Part II, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 31 “I think you Klingons embrace death too easily. You treat death like a lover. I think living is a lot more attractive.” Dax- Blood Oath, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Permission to come aboard?” Dr. McCoy “Permission granted, sir.” Rand- Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Stardate: 7412.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 2 “There are some very disturbing historical parallels here. Once more, they are being asked to leave their homes because of a… political decision that has been taken by a distant government.” Picard- Journey’s End, Stardate: 47751.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 3 “You told me, without problems to test the limits of your ability, you can never expand them.” Seven- Think Tank, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
Over the past week, Modiphius has released two new PDF products for their Star Trek Adventures RPG line. I picked up both of them on DriveThruRPG and decided to give them a review. As you may recall, I was very impressed with the IDW Star Trek Year Five Tie In that Modiphius released last October. And it is still my hope that there will be further official releases based off of the IDW Star Trek comics. Here is a BIG HINT of what I’d love to see next from Modiphius and IDW.
This book is written from the viewpoint of a Starfleet report in the 32nd century. In an effort to learn everything they can about the USS Discovery after it’s arrival, a report was made. At 22 pages this is the largest Player Characters supplement released by Modiphius. It contains artwork from the Star Trek Timelines game with a good layout that fits the 32nd century Starfleet. There is also a very good look at the dedication plaque for Discovery. As a Treknologist, this warmed my heart.
All of the main characters are presented from Captain Gabriel Lorca to Cadet Sylvia Tilly (one of my favorite characters). A few major NPCs, such as Emperor Philippa Georgiou and L’Rell, and several supporting characters are also detailed within the book. For those who wish to play characters from the Kelpien race, the stats are available in this publication. The starship stats for the Crossfield-Class USS Discovery is also officially set for use in Star Trek Adventures with this release. A new starship talent for the Spore Drive has been detailed for game masters. At $4.99, the Discovery Season One Crew Pack is a bargain for anyone wishing to set a series in the Discovery era.
One final thought about these Player Character guides, I love these. With past games based on popular franchises, you attract a lot of new players who are fans of the series first. I’ve seen examples where someone wants to describe their character as “tougher than Worf” or “almost as smart as Spock when it comes to computers.” With these different player character guides, it helps the GM assist the new players with reaching their desired character goals.
This week, Modiphius released the Mission Briefs 005 Starbase Adventures book. On DriveThruRPG this publication is listed as a “pay what you want” with a suggested price of $0.00. So you can pick up the PDF (and those of the earlier Mission Brief releases) for free. For those of you not familiar with the Mission Brief format, it is a series of adventure seeds that GMs can drop into their campaign. For this book, the subject is Starfleet Officers serving on a Starbase or other similar facility. The details for each brief is contained on a single page and geared towards a specific officer (i.e. Medical Officer, Engineering Officer, etc.). It is written by Tony Pi who has several good articles on the STA fan website: Continuing Mission. This Mission Briefs is primarily set in the TNG era, but with a little work most of them could be adjusted to other eras. There are ten briefs in total with the book coming in at sixteen pages. While you are picking up the Discovery Crew Pack, slip the Mission Briefs into your cart as well.
Hopefully soon we will see Player Character guides for Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard and other series that are available on Paramount+.
I get a lot of ideas in my head. I mean, a lot of ideas that I’d like to see come to fruition. They rattle around my head, and if I’m smart, I put them on paper so that I can remember them later. Role playing adventures, story ideas, blog posts, homebrew ideas and more. Being creative is a natural high for me. I also love seeing creativity in others. When I see what others have done, it encourages me to do more. Especially if I believe that I can improve upon an idea and share it with everyone.
Getting these ideas started is usually the first hurdle to overcome. Sometimes I’m over-thinking things. Do I have all of the pieces in place? Do I have the time to complete a project if I have other irons in the fire? Certain things can freeze me into place. So getting started is a big step.
Once I’m on the road, I need to stick with it until I’ve reached completion. Seeing half completed items on my plate only discourages me from completing or starting a project. Sometimes it feels like I’ve got them all hanging over my head. If I run into an issue, find away to resolve it. In the photo above, I am holding a 136 page fanzine that I’ve just completed for my Star Trek club, Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet. You don’t know how happy I am to have this done since this idea has been more than a year in the making.
This Seventh Fleet Annual is a fanzine that displays the “best of” art and articles from various Seventh Fleet chapter newsletters and blogs. There has been a lot of creativity within the fleet and I wanted to put it an outlet. Why do this with a fanzine instead of a fleet newsletter? I look at club newsletters as windows to the past. To borrow a line from Galaxy Quest, they are the historical documents. I’ve collected hard and soft copies of newsletters not only from Seventh Fleet chapters, but other fan clubs as well. This includes several newsletters from Star Trek fan clubs going all the way back to the 1970’s. Seeing things through the eyes of the fans that have come before me is very intriguing. What challenges they had to go through at the time. Not only to get a newsletter published, but to keep their fandom alive. I’ve seen how a chapter newsletter helps the chapter become stronger. Every time a new issue is released, it tells members and recruits that the chapter is thriving and growing. It makes the chapter stronger. So, creating a fleet newsletter could be a detriment to chapter newsletters, and in turn, the chapter itself. Members would be moved to submit items to the fleet newsletter instead of their own chapter publications. So I felt that having a competing newsletter would weaken the chapters, which in turn would weaken the parent organization. Instead, the fleet should be supporting the chapters. So the idea of a once-a-year annual highlighting some of the gems created by members would help the chapters, and in turn, the fleet.
Now I’ve edited newsletters for a variety of special interest groups that I’ve been involved with in the past. However at the most they have been up to 32 pages. A fanzine is much, much larger. When I discovered that I had the tools, but not the know how, I set out to learn some additional tools that the word processors provide. I am very grateful to the various instructors who have shared their knowledge in YouTube. Just watching someone do what I wanted to do on video, got the ball rolling for me. Since I had poured over decades of newsletters from various chapters, I already had a good idea on which submissions that I wanted to use. Once I had momentum, I didn’t want to let it stop. Within several days I had a rough draft that I could show to my wife who has always been a second pair of eyes for me.
I would also like to say that I love the cover. I commissioned it from my college kid studying art. She provided several preliminary sketches showing different interpretations of the cover idea. From this, I was able to narrow it down to the one that looked the best. Then she spent quite some time getting all of the details right. Seeing this process first hand gave me a better appreciation of how artists work when creating their artwork.
Once I had everything done, I sent over the document to a local printing company in my neighborhood. One I had used for several projects before. So when I gave them a heads up that this was coming through the pipeline, they were ready. Within a day I had the first prototype in my hands. Not only am I excited to see what my fellow members of my Star Trek family think of this fanzine, I’m also on an emotional high from completing a project. A burst of energy that I want to put into the next project. I’m typing up this blog post not only to re-affirm my thoughts now, but giving me an opportunity to re-read these thoughts again the future if I ever feel discouraged. Look what can be done. Look at what your efforts have produced.
Let’s see what can be created. Let’s see what can inspire others.
“A year ago, I stood alone. I believed that our survival was more important than our principles. I was wrong. Do we need a mutiny today to prove who we are?” Burnham- Will You Take My Hand?, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Death, destruction, disease, horror. That’s what war is all about. That’s what makes it a thing to be avoided.” Kirk- A Taste of Armageddon, Stardate: 3192.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 23 “My greed has to be a shining light to everyone, a testament to the rewards of avarice.” Quark- The Dogs of War, Stardate: 52861.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“I’m going, I’m going, get off my ass! … Sir. Get off my ass, sir.” Reno- Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2, Stardate: 1201.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Have you ever fought an idea, Picard? It has no weapon to destroy, no body to kill.” Gowron- Rightful Heir, Stardate: 46852.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Spock, in this case, do yourself a favor. Put aside logic. Do what feels right. Since my customary farewell would appear oddly self-serving, I shall simply say good luck.” Spock- Star Trek (2009) #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 27 “Tuvok tells me you’ve got a mean left jab.” Janeway “Never spar with a Vulcan.” Chakotay- The Fight, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“My job is just as important to me as your job is to you.” Yates- The Changing Face of Evil, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“It is the secret wish of every parent that our children make right the mistakes we ourselves have made.” Sarek- Such Sweet Sorrow, Stardate: 1050.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 15 “You have to measure your successes and your failures within, not by anything that I or anyone else might think.” Picard- Coming of Age, Stardate: 41461.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 16 “Space still contains infinite unknowns.” Spock- The Naked Time, Stardate: 1704.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 17 “Try it, and you’ll be saying Hail Marys till Saint Patrick’s Day.” The Doctor- Fair Haven, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“A sabre bear is most deadly when it is trapped with no hope of escape.” Martok- Blaze of Glory, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Challenge your preconceptions or they will challenge you.” Tucker- Strange New World, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 20 Happy Birthday to John de Lancie. @johndelancie https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/John_de_Lancie #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekLowerDecks #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“At which time you slaughtered millions in silly arguments about how to divide the resources of your little world and 400 years before that, you were murdering each other in quarrels over tribal god images.” Q- Encounter at Farpoint, Stardate: 41153.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC
A few days ago the independent TTRPG designer @TitanomachyRPG, asked on Twitter “Biggest turn-off when checking out a new #TTRPG?” While I gave a response to the post, I kept thinking about the question. I felt that it needed more than a quick jumble of words that fit into 240 characters. When I see a role playing game on the shelf at my favorite gaming store or online at DriveThruRPG, what makes me think that I should or should not pick it up?
Not only did I think about it, I pulled a few books down to find both good and bad examples. I collect the books, both in physical and PDF style. I love seeing the different styles and systems. When I open a role playing game, I see opportunity. Opportunity for creativity, adventure and an escape from this crappy world we live in. However since I have limited time, limited shelf space and limited funds, sometimes I have to stop myself from purchases. So when contemplating a purchase what am I considering? What turn-offs will make me not want to purchase a game?
First, am I currently playing (or plan to soon play) the game in question? Unfortunately, I am not playing a lot of role playing games right now. This is something I hope to remedy soon. Also am I planning to homebrew for the system? Right now I’m trying to homebrew for the various Star Trek RPGs so I’ve been trying to pick up the various Star Trek Adventures books and other Trek-based systems when the funds allow it. Yes, the cost of the game will make or break a purchase decision. There are several games that I’d like to pick up, but the price is a little beyond my reach. I’m also a bargain hunter, so finding an opportunity to save will help greatly in pulling the trigger. A lot of times the Bundle of Holding, Humble Bundle or DriveThruRPG Deal of the Day have offered me inexpensive options to pick up some titles in PDF version. Sales can often be found at game stores, conventions and online for the dead tree versions. Every once in a while, I can luck out and find a game at a thrift store. That is how I found the Holmes version of Dungeons and Dragons at a very good price. Now this doesn’t mean that I won’t pay full price for a book, but the higher the price, the more I’m putting it off (or using a gift card for it).
So now that the 800 lb gorilla is out of the way, let’s get down to the other items that I consider when thinking of making a game purchase. I will say that probably one of the biggest is how the game is explained in the rules. A publisher is asking me to pick up their game and play it. As RPGs are social games, I would need to explain the game in a nutshell to potential players how the game is played. So if a game takes a page or two and explains the basics of the game, I’m more inclined to buy it. I remember being at the game store and flipping through the pages of Modern Age. Right near the front the explained how the game system worked in simple terms. I ended up buying the game. When I used the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game by Cubicle 7 in the 2021 Character Creation Challenge, I spotted this.
I could show this to potential players and they would understand the concept quickly. The core concept was explained on a page or two with the extra details provided in the deeper parts of the book. This also helped me out when I was creating my first Doctor Who character in this system.
Speaking of character creation, one of the things that the Character Creation Challenge has taught me is that a book that clearly lays out the character creation system from start to finish is one that I’d be more inclined to pick up. Not just roll dice for your attributes, but step by step. This should include the equipment acquisition and a clear ending to the process. Too many times the character creation process would start, then suddenly go into the next chapter, then the next and then… well am I done? Give Step One and keep going until you give a clearly marked final step. As with the core rules, summarize then go into more details later.
Hopefully the RPG book will flow from beginning to end. When I’m flipping from one section back to another then to another just to understand how the rules work, it gets a little frustrating. So I’ll look for an index in the book. If there is one, that’s points in favor of a purchase. If the books in in PDF, is it bookmarked? Bookmark entries will also be points in favor of purchase.
We now have two methods of reading our games. Dead tree versions and soft copies (PDF primarily). While I’d prefer the dead tree version if I’m learning a game for the first time, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to learn from the PDF version. Publishers, please make sure that your books are readable in both formats. For example, here is one of the few things that I didn’t like about the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook.
I’m not a graphic designer. I don’t even play one on TV. But as a consumer, this was frustrating to me. The light fonts on a black background was very difficult to read. The over-use of the little side boxes also made it difficult to read. I’m trying to read the actual rules and these, for lack of a better term I’m going to call them pop up ads, side items would try to grab my attention. I already hate it when websites try to do this, but to see it in a book was just doubly frustrating. Yes the system was good, but as I was looking through the book, I kept wanting to re-write the chapters so it was just the rules. Luckily the publisher has received feedback on this because the PDF versions also come in a “printer friendly” option. While this doesn’t resolve the “pop up ad” items, it did make it easier on the eyes. Now Modiphius took this feedback and released the other books, like the Klingon Core Rulebook and Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, with a much better layout. It wasn’t so busy, it was easier to read. Thank you.
Speaking of graphic design, the art on the cover and in the book can add or subtract from the points towards purchase. Yes the old axiom is “Never judge a book by it’s cover”, but a good cover will help. I’ve had bad covers put me off on making the purchase. When looking at the interior art, I try to look at it more objectively now since I have a college aged kid studying this subject. I’ll ask her questions and show art examples to her to get her feedback. It’s really helped on some books. I was looking at one game that I picked up cheap on the DriveThruRPG Deal of the Day and some of the interior art, while good, didn’t fit the page it was on. You’re describing equipment, and you have the art of a character headshot that has nothing to do with the subject matter. It made me raise an eyebrow. For my final photo, I’m going to show a good cover and a not-so-good cover. The Operations Division Sourcebook for Star Trek Adventures and Technoir.
In my opinion, the cover for The Operations Division showed action and a clear image of what the book would be about. Starfleet officers in gold uniforms commonly worn by those in the Operations Division doing their jobs. The Technoir cover is, well noir-ish, but bland. It could have been a 1930’s detective cover or a futuristic style cover. Had I not been gifted the Technoir book, I don’t think I would have purchased it.
The last item that could move the needle towards or away from a purchase is the support the game has. Are there free “quickstart” versions of the game that will let me read some of the basic rules? (I have made purchases after reading the quickstarts) Is there an online community for the game? How does the vendor respond on social media? Can I grab some basic freebies from their website like character sheets, handouts, or other items?
Now stepping back into the personal realm, I do tend to gravitate towards games that are part of my general interests. Specific franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who and other popular shows will catch my attention. As will specific genres such as espionage, westerns, pulp-era/gangsters, science fiction and post-apocalyptic. For fantasy, I’m sticking with Dungeons and Dragons or a good clone for that itch. Retro-versions of past games can also be picked up by my radar. What fails to grab me are horror (I’m really particular about my horror tastes, plus how can I be scared in an RPG), romance, and super-heroes. While I love hero movies and shows, I’m just not drawn to the super-hero RPGs at this time.
So in conclusion, publishers please make your game easy to understand so I can explain it to others. Make your publication readable and easy to use and investing in some good artwork will really help. Hopefully this insight into one of your consumers will help you with future sales.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some more RPG books I’d like to read through.
“You probably can’t imagine what it is like to be so lost and frightened that you will listen to any voice which promises change.” Hugh- Descent, Part II, Stardate: 47025.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 8 “The face of war has never changed.” Surak- The Savage Curtain, Stardate: 5906.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 9 “You said there was an enemy for us to fight.” Brota “They are attempting to plant their fields before the sun sets. Time is their enemy. We should help them defeat it.” Worf- Children of Time, Stardate: 50814.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 10 “What did he ingest?” The Doctor “Just a cup of Neelix’s coffee.” Torres “It’s a miracle he’s still alive.” The Doctor- Threshold, Stardate: 49373.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Wait a minute, kid, how old are you?” Dr. McCoy, “Seventeen, sir.” Chekov, “Oh, oh good, he’s seventeen.” Dr. McCoy- Star Trek (2009) #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 12 “The replica was convincing?” Picard “Very convincing, but not perfect.” Riker “Not perfect in what way?” Picard “Well sir, I find it hard to believe that you’re that good a singer.” Riker- Allegiance, Stardate: 43714.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 13 “They don’t have movies where you come from, do they?” Cutler “We had something similar a few hundred years ago, but they lost their appeal when people discovered their real lives were more interesting.” Dr. Plox- Dear Doctor, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
As I’ve been getting more things organized (the goal that never seems to be completed) I come across more items that I want to talk about. I’ve posted scans of various FASA catalogs giving details and insight on their published products and products they wanted to release. I found the 1999 catalog for Last Unicorn Games. In the late 90’s LUG had the rights to the Star Trek and Dune RPGs. They were able to produce several products before the company was bought out.
When I was going through this catalog I noticed several things. There was a sticker on the back of the book that contained a different address (I found another 1999 catalog without the sticker and it had an address similar to the one printed in the books). They also had a description of roleplaying games and the different types of publications at the front of the catalog. With this covering a couple of popular IPs, they probably wanted to explain what their products were for.
Some of the books were already released. Several were going to be released soon that we did see out in the wilds but with different covers than were depicted in this book. But, like the FASA catalogs, there were several products that we never saw. These include:
The Klingon Empire Boxed Setting I understand a few pages were released on the internet as a sneak peak into the product. This was scheduled for release in November 1999.
Operation Stormbird: The Neutral Zone Campaign Volume 2 This would have been a sequel to A Fragile Peace. This was scheduled for release in January 2000.
Call of the Prophets: The Bajorans It would have been interesting to see how this sourcebook would have come out. This was scheduled for release in November 1999.
The Cardassian Union Boxed Setting Like the Klingon Boxed Setting and the Romulan Boxed Setting, it would have covered the history and background of the Cardassians. This was scheduled for release in October 1999.
Final Frontiers: The Star Trek Films Covering all of the original Star Trek films with details for the RPG. I would have loved to have seen this one as well. It was scheduled to come out in February 2000.
Through a Glass Darkly: The Mirror Universe There is something about mirror universe supplements. Decipher had a mirror universe supplement that they were able to release in PDF but not in print. It was scheduled to come out in December 1999.
Spacedock: The Starfleet Starship Construction Manual, Volume 1 With how much use I got out of the FASA Starship Construction Manual, I would have been all over this. It was scheduled to come out in December 1999.
Unfortunately I’ve never seen or collected any of the Dune RPG books by LUG. I do not know how many they were able to release or what system they used.
I don’t believe there were any other catalogs from Last Unicorn Games as the company wasn’t around for very long. If I do happen to come across another one, I’ll see if I can scan it and get it posted. Enjoy.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of February 28th through March 6th.
February 28 “We just need to have the courage to see this through the end.” Janeway- Scorpion, Stardate: 50984.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 1 “Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven’t been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints — just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive.” Sisko- The Maquis Part II #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“It’s the struggle that is important. That’s what helps us to define our place in the universe.” Dr. Crusher- The Quality of Life, Stardate: 46307.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
(just after beaming onto the Enterprise for the first time) “Sir, Ensign Spock, S 179-276 SP, reporting for duty.” Spock- Q&A, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekShortTreks #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“The keyboard. …How quaint.” Scott- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Stardate: 8390.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
March 4 “Our future is honor. Our present is serving this ship.” Klag- A Matter of Honor, Stardate: 42506.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
Today I had an opportunity to do something that I haven’t had a chance to do in a while. Mine an episode of Star Trek for trivia and quotes.
As most of my readers know, I am the Commander-in-Chief of a Star Trek parent organization in the form of a “Fleet”. Before I was asked to take a position in the admiralty, I was the Captain (chapter president) of a local chapter. Part of our job was to prepare the members to go up in rank as much as they wished. The higher the rank, the more they were willing to serve. In Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet, guidelines have been set for going up in rank from Crewman 3rd Class all the way to Captain. This is different from other organizations that I’ve observed as they leave the lower ranks up to the decision of the CO and only provide guidelines for the higher flag ranks. One of the items to accomplish for a rank advancement is passing off a merit sheet. This is a short 5-20 question document with trivia based on a wide variety of subjects (general trivia, specific trivia about an episode, race, ship, etc., Star Trek quotes or production history, real-life science, specific episodes or movies, etc.) Some examples of these merit sheets can be found on the websites of individual chapters. One of the things I noticed as a Captain is that some members didn’t know what merit sheet to take next. So I decided that I was going to make a merit sheet for each episode of Star Trek. This way I could ask the member, “what is your favorite Star Trek episode?” Once they responded, I would give them the merit sheet for that episode and suggest that they just sit down, watch their favorite episode and fill in the answers to the questions.
Yes that goal may seem daunting now with new episodes coming out all the time on Paramount+, but at the time Enterprise was the last series that had been released. So I started on the project and I got pretty far. I completed all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve been able to get through the first 4 1/2 seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and I’ve done a hand full of episodes from the other series. I would plop in a DVD on my computer, pull up Memory-Alpha, and watch an episode. If something that sounded like a trivia question would come up, I wrote it down. Eventually I’d come up with 20 questions and the merit sheet was ready to go for use.
I also “mined” the episode for quotes for use on the Daily Star Trek Quotes twitter account that I run. Sure, Memory-Alpha had some quotes listed in the episode entries. But there was a lot more that didn’t get posted to MA. Since I was watching the DVD with the closed caption turned on, I could easily rewind the episode and make sure I got a quote that sounded good written down for use. I would later add these quotes to a spreadsheet broken down by series, episode and who said it. So far I have over 7,500 quotes in this spreadsheet from The Cage to the latest episodes of Lower Decks. I’ve been able to post quotes for an actor’s birthday that has even impressed the online fan clubs of those actors.
I had a system down. I had to watch the episode alone because I was doing a lot of stopping and rewinding to make sure I had the details and quotes correct. A standard 45 minute episode could get mined for trivia and quotes in 60-75 minutes. Some days I could knock out an entire four episode DVD.
As with most fandom activities, real life got in the way. There were days that I wanted to focus on another relaxing event such as spending time with my family, reading, writing or gaming. I also decided to return to college to earn my bachelors degree. Something that I’m very glad that I did, but soaked up a lot of time. While I was able to get an episode or two down, I wasn’t on the roll that I had at my peak.
On Friday a weird moment came up where I had some free time so I decided to mine an episode for the first time in a while. However instead of using a DVD, I used my Paramount+ streaming service and watched the DS9 episode “Hard Time”. First, I have to commend Colm Meaney for his excellent acting in this episode. This was one of the “O’Brien suffers” episodes where O’Brien is dealing with the effects of PTSD. It reminded me why this was one of the episodes of the series that I enjoyed the most. It didn’t have a ton of action, but the character building was intense.
I will say that the rewind options on the streaming service were not that good. I really wish there was a “back 10 seconds” option like I’ve seen on other services. The closed captioning was also not up to par with what I was use to from the DVDs. It almost seemed like an after thought. I use the CC to make sure I’ve got spellings of the unusual names correct for the merit sheet. It was nice to have the episode at my fingertips. I may check the series on other streaming services that have DS9 to see if the tools and closed captions are better. I want to get as many of these merit sheets done as possible so that members of the Seventh Fleet have options to help them with their rank advancements. Plus it’s a little fun for me as well. Re-watching an episode is something I always enjoy.
I’m really glad that technology is assisting me with my fandom.
