Tag Archives: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 coming to Paramount+ on February 16th.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 coming to Paramount+ on February 16th

It’s been over 3 years since I first published a blog post about Star Trek: Picard. Since then – we’ve gone through both Season 1 and Season 2. And in a little over 2 weeks from now, Season 3 kicks off on Feb. 16th on Paramount+. Season 3 will be the final season of the show and bring some form of closure to the character of Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek universe – a character that has been a hero of mine since childhood. It is also meant to give the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) a much better send off than they got with Star Trek: Nemesis 20 years ago.

Final post for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showcasing the cast of characters and hero starship the U.S.S. Titan-A.

While many fans did not like Star Trek: Nemesis, I enjoyed the movie however I felt it did fall extremely short in living up to its tag line of “A Generation’s Final Journey” coming away from the movie feeling very unfulfilled and unsatisfied. At the same time, this season is also supposed to also open the door for the “Next, Next Generation”. Star Trek: Picard Season 3 looks to be an epic 10-episode story that gives us closure on some characters while opening the door for the future with new characters to continue the adventures. I am absolutely beyond excited to see what happens. And today we got the final trailer for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 that aired during the NFL AFC Championship Game:

Here is the updated synopsis for Star Trek: Picard Season 3:

In the epic, thrilling conclusion of Star Trek: Picard, a desperate message from a long-lost friend draws Starfleet legend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard into the most daring mission of his life, forcing him to recruit allies spanning generations old and new. This final adventure sets him on a collision course with the legacy of his past and explosive, new revelations that will alter the fate of the Federation forever.

You can watch the original teaser for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 here, the Sneak Peek shown during Star Trek Day in September here, and the New York City Comic-Con teaser here as well.

I am planning to write a little summary of how to get ready for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 I hope to publish soon which explains how everything fits together within the broader Star Trek Universe – without any spoilers for Season 3 and minor spoilers for Season 1 and 2.  

Jonathan Frakes at a 1992 Star Trek convention in Portland, OR.

My very first Star Trek convention

As I continue to self-isolate and stay home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I was going through some old photos and found photo shown above from my very first Star Trek convention from 1992 and it had me reminiscing about my experience. I thought it would make for a good blog post.

Back in the early 90’s, at the peak of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s popularity, Creation Entertainment was regularly putting on Star Trek conventions around the U.S. where you could go and see the actors from the show. My mom signed up to be put on a “mailing list” at the time where we would get brochures in the mail advertising any conventions that would hit our area (I grew up outside Portland, OR) and how to get tickets for these upcoming conventions. I loved getting these brochures in the mail. These were also the days of Starlog Magazine and these conventions were advertised there too but I wasn’t getting issues of Starlog regularly.

I was always asking my parents if we could go to a convention whenever we received a new brochure in the mail. One day, we got a brochure in the mail that advertised Jonathan Frakes would be coming to a convention in Portland. Jonathan played Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. My parents decided this was the convention we should go to.

In 1992, I was a 9-year Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. I had a HUGE collection of Star Trek toys from Playmates. I also carried around my copy of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual everywhere. To be going to a Star Trek convention was a dream come true. Looking back, I think Jonathan Frakes was the perfect actor to see in person. He came on stage with some much energy and friendliness. He had such a big smile. He told stories about what it was like working with the rest of the cast of the show (and the pranks they all played on each other), what the sets were like, and insight to his approach to the character of Riker. He did one hell of a Patrick Stewart impression and told a lot of jokes that had the audience laughing. And he talked about how much he valued coming to conventions and interacting with Star Trek fans in person. Having this experience as a kid also reinforced that these were actors playing characters on a TV show and the actors are often not like their characters they play on the show. As I listened to Jonathan talk, I heard Jonathan – not Commander Riker. Then he shouted “Shields up! Red Alert!” and I heard Commander Riker. I will say that after seeing Jonathan speak in person – I had a new-found appreciation and love for the character of Commander Riker. One thing that stood out most about Riker was his undying loyalty to Captain Picard and the Enterprise. That sense of loyalty is something I chose to adapt in my own life with family, friends and colleagues.

While seeing Jonathan Frakes in person was the highlight of my first Star Trek convention – I also got to interact with fans. There was a gentleman who sat next to us in the audience who made his Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Starfleet uniform from a uniform pattern he purchased at a Star Trek convention many years prior. The uniform looked exactly like it did in the movie. I was so amazed. I wanted a real authentic looking Starfleet uniform so bad! My parents purchased the uniform pattern for the Season 1 TNG uniform and had uniforms for me and my brothers made (I’m saving this story for another blog post). Additionally, walking around the exhibit hall was complete nerd heaven. There were prop makers there who made props that looked exactly like they did on the show with lights and sound effects! I held what felt like a real working Tricorder.

I had a lot of fun looking back on my first Star Trek convention. Since then, I’ve attended several including one with Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) and most recently the 2019 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.

The Return of Captain Picard

It’s been nearly 18 years since we last saw Sir Patrick Stewart in the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. And later this year, he’s bringing Captain Picard back in a brand new Star Trek series for CBS All Access – appropriately called “Star Trek: Picard”. We were given a teaser trailer for this new Picard series last month and today CBS released the very first image for the show:

There is even an animated version of the image that was shared on Twitter:

We don’t know much about the show’s plot other than it takes place 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. We know Picard is no longer in Starfleet and has retired to his family’s vineyard in La Barre, France. We also know that the destruction of Romulus that was shown as happening in the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie will also play an important part in the show. As mentioned in the teaser trailer, Picard led one of the largest rescue armadas ever to Romulus. Something happened resulting in Picard retiring as an admiral. And something in this new series brings Picard out of retirement.

I am so excited for this show! We’ll find out more later this month and San Diego Comic-Con.

A letter of support for ANOVOS

UPDATE 2023: I was a naive little nerd when I wrote this blog post back in 2019. At the time, I loved the ANOVOS Starfleet uniforms I had purchased and received. I loved the quality and attention to detail. In my mind, I felt like I was owning production-quality uniforms from the various Star Trek shows and movies. I felt that waiting on the things I ordered was acceptable if it meant getting these really cool high-quality unforms. And I had thousands of dollars in pre-orders for more. I wanted to say thanks to the company for their work. They didn’t ask me to write this as I did so on my own. Then in September 2021, it seemed ANOVOS had completely disappeared with what appeared to be members from ANOVOS going on to form this other company called DENUO NOVO. TrekCore reported on the situation. Star Trek fans, including me, who had pre-orders waiting to be fulfilled from ANOVOS were told nothing with absolutely zero communication from ANOVOS about what had happened. It’s 2023 now and there has still not been any communication regarding the outstanding ANOVOS pre-orders. This has been a lesson for me in writing blog posts that seemingly endorse companies like I did here with ANOVOS and looking like a shill and then ended up looking even more stupid. Sadly, the new company DENUO NOVO has the Star Wars license. If you are a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend NOT buying anything from this new company, despite their insistence they have nothing to do with ANOVOS. Clearly, something shady happened with ANOVOS and DENUO NOVO and you should not trust ordering anything from them.

Yesterday, the co-founders of ANOVOS published an article on their website explaining what has been going on with regards to significant delays to many of their products pre-ordered by customers. The cause, they say, is due to “complex burden of accuracy”. The company is making some adjustments to be better at getting products out into the hands of customers. As a customer who has several products pre-ordered that has been delayed (some of which delayed quite a bit…), I wanted to write a letter of support for the company because their products are simply stunning and amazing when you get them and completely worth the wait.  

So, who is ANOVOS? ANOVOS is a small company that specializes in producing screen-accurate and highly detailed replica costumes and props from Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Marvel and a few others. Their products are very popular, especially with Star Wars and Star Trek fans with many fans wearing their product to conventions. Through their licensors like LucasFilm or CBS, they get access to the exact costumes and props used in the TV and movies to create their products allowing them to truly specialize in creating products that are incredibly accurate. And this is what attracted me to purchasing ANOVOS products: accuracy.

As a Star Trek fan – I’ve always wanted to own screen-accurate uniforms from the TV shows and movies. When it comes to Star Trek, I am extremely detailed orientated. DETAILS MATTER! A Star Trek uniform from Rubie’s isn’t going to cut it for me. I want to feel like what I’m wearing is exactly what they wore on the show. When ANOVOS came to the table with their uniforms for Star Trek – I was excited someone was finally doing this and specializing in accuracy. My very first ANOVOS purchase was the Captain Picard jacket as seen being worn by Captain Picard in the later seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And I was blown away by the quality and accuracy. I wore it around work like Captain Picard wore it around the Enterprise.  

The way ANOVOS works is they solicit a product and then open it up for pre-orders. Usually when they solicit the product, it’s in the prototype stage with development of the product on-going. The pre-orders are limited to a certain number or sometimes in waves. Filling that number ensures they can produce the product. Often, you’re in a waiting game on a product you pre-order as ANOVOS develops the product for manufacturing. I currently have several pre-orders – some of which I made nearly two years ago. What has caused delays in getting products to customers is the process of producing these products can ben immensely complex due to the focus on accuracy. ANOVOS hopes to make changes that avoids having to decrease their focus on accuracy but shrinks the time it takes to get products out to customers.

I completely support ANOVOS in their efforts. But I also don’t mind waiting. The products I’ve purchased from them have been amazing. I mean, simply incredible. I’m not upset I have pre-orders going back almost 2 years because I know what I’ll get will be stunning and reflect incredible quality. The main issue for me is simply lack of transparency on the ongoing development of the products I pre-ordered and resulting delays. I want to see ANOVOS do a better job communicating with customers because I think that will make a HUGE difference. When you order products from ANOVOS, you’re getting the best-of-the-best so its best to reset your expectations of having something be immediately available but know you’re getting something awesome.

I’m currently waiting on several products from ANOVOS I’m really excited about including:

I am so excited about these products and can’t wait to show them off! ANOVOS has my complete support and as long as they continue to make awesome costumes and props from Star Trek and Ghostbusters, they have my business.

REVIEW: McFarlane’s Captain Picard action-figure misses the mark

McFarlane Toys is kicking off a new series of 7-inch Star Trek action-figures starting with Captain Kirk and Captain Picard. These figures just hit stores and my figures arrived today. I collected all of Diamond Select’s Star Trek figures previously (and loved them) so I was naturally curious about what McFarlane’s versions would be like.

I’m going to cut to the chase: their Captain Kirk figure is amazing. So I’m not really going to talk about that figure much. But they really missed the ball on their Captain Picard figure. Details matter on figures I collect and they got a bunch of the details wrong which really disappointed me.

Close-up of McFarlane’s Picard figure.

You can see that they didn’t do a good job getting Picard’s eyes quite right. The rest of his face seems quite a match. It’s his eyes that bug me. But my biggest problem is with the uniform they used for their Picard figure. During the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, they transitioned away from using the form-fitting one-piece uniforms seen in Season 1 and 2 and went with a two piece uniform which consisted of pants and shirt that unzipped in the back for all the male cast members (and other male supporting characters like Lt. Barclay). But during that transition, Picard’s uniform was a bit off during the first few episodes of the third season. You had these two seams that ran down the middle of his uniform shirt.

Captain Picard as seen in the first episode of Season 3. Notice the two seams?

This weird uniform style for Picard was seen until the 6th episode of the third season called “Booby Trap”. In that episode – Picard has the uniform shirt that he will have for the remainder of the series.

Captain Picard as seen from the 6th episode of the third season called “Booby Trap”. Notice no seams?

So why did McFarlane Toys choose to model their Picard figure in a uniform style that was used in only 5 episodes of the third season rather than the more familiar uniform style he’s most recognizable in for the series?

Back of the Picard figure.

The other issue is the back of the Picard figure is also not right. It includes no zipper seam going down the middle and the lines are not right.

The quality of these figures is great but its the detail that is lacking and as a collector, details really matter to me. The next two figures in the new McFarlane Toys Star Trek 7-inch action-figures series is Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery and Spock from the Original Series. I’ll definitely be picking them up but I really do hope they pay special attention to getting the details right.

The “Way of the Warrior” Star Trek Mission Crate

UPDATED on 8/20 to include tweet from Loot Crate on their new Shipping Status page. 

Subscription boxes have become popular with different fandoms over the last few years led by Loot Crate and others like Funko. These subscription boxes usually come every 1 to 2 months with a bunch of nerdy exclusives and other goodies based on a theme. I had been a subscriber for Loot Crate’s main subscription boxes – or “crates” – but canceled my subscription because I was finding the contents and themes for the crates hit or miss. Then late last year, Loot Crate announced they would be doing Star Trek subscription boxes. As you can imagine, I jumped on board immediately and bought a subscription for their Star Trek Mission Crates. How could I turn down getting a subscription box filled with Star Trek exclusives in partnership with Quantum Mechanix every 2 months?

Their first Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box was “Wolf 359” themed. It shipped in January in a box that looked like a shuttlecraft from the Original Series. Inside, it came with an exclusive “Locutus” limited edition statue from QMx and some other goodies. I didn’t blog about it here but this post here does a really good review of the box. 

Today I received the second Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box which is “Way of the Warrior” themed. “Way of the Warrior” was the title of the 2 part episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that saw Michael Dorn join the cast as Worf after war breaks out with the Klingon Empire. (Despite taking the theme from DS9, I had a little giggle when I noticed the box was labeled as “The Next Generation”.)

Opening the box revealed all the goodies!
Klingon socks, badge, and sticker with Mirror Universe tribble and Worf!
Worf looks pretty badass!

The box included:

  • A Worf “Master Series” Limited Edition Statue from QMx.
  • A Mirror Universe Tribble from QMx. 
  • A pair of Klingon socks.
  • A Klingon emblem badge from QMx.
  • A Klingon sticker. 
  • A Star Trek: Discovery Lapel Pin. 

Everything is this subscription box was awesome. I believe the Discovery lapel pin was handed out at the 2018 Office Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas earlier this month and since I couldn’t attend – I was glad to score one through this way! I have no complaints about the box. This Star Trek fan is impressed.

However, I do have a general complaint about my overall experience with the Star Trek Mission Crate subscription. I feel like Loot Crate is struggling a bit to fulfill the promise of shipping these boxes every 2-months. The second Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box was supposed to arrive in March. And it was supposed to be “Dark Frontier” themed after the 2-part Star Trek: Voyager episode “Dark Frontier” and feature Seven of Nine in some fashion. In May, I received an email saying this box was delayed and was expected to ship mid-July. That’s the last thing I heard about that box. Then in early July, I received an email saying that the “Way of the Warrior” box was delayed until late July. No word on what happened with the “Dark Frontier” box. Then on July 31st, I got another email saying the “War of the Warrior” box was delayed again to mid-August. The box finally arrived but still no word on the “Dark Frontier” box. It has been almost 7 months between boxes. I really want to see Loot Crate be more transparent about what’s going on with these boxes, which boxes are supposed to ship when etc. 

Overall though, I’ve been very impressed with the 2 Star Trek Mission Crates I’ve received so far and really excited for more!

UPDATED: Loot Crate responded to my tweet about this blog post alerting me to their new Shipping Status page. It just launched.