EAS Today

Perhaps I should start a poll? It doesn't look utilitarian to me but I hold my judgment until the series goes on air.

What do you make of the design of the lead ship of Lower Decks? It reminds of the Oberth with the "How the heck do you get down there?" pod with the deflector dish.

The thought has just struck me is that Lower Decks might be a wonderful opportunity for getting us some TNG/DS9/VOY cast cameos (aging cast no longer have to worry about fitting into costume etc.)... as the Cerritos follows in the wake of the Enterprise-E or the Titan for instance on a mission...

Please be on Netflix... or Prime...

I think the sign may be an Easter Egg as well as visual gag - I saw somewhere, someone noting that production of PIC started 16 years after the release of Nemesis which may give that significance. Mind you, wasn't there also a Romulan version of the sign as well, so perhaps the English was a translation of that and we are dealing with Romulan standard days, especially as this was a Romulan facility?

Oh yes. I notice only now that it is in contradiction with the "5843 days without assimilation" unless these are not Earth days (which would raise the question why this sign would be in English).

The date 2385 is explicitly given in "Broken Pieces". I didn't make a note at first but only on a second watching.

Having finally caught up on the novel, Spock's involvement is very minimal (one subspace conversation with Picard about preparing to leave the doomed Romulus). Spock's intervention isn't mentioned at all :( Early in the novel, Spock is referred to as something of an outlier both from a Romulan and Federation perspective and neither party thinks his involvement with the evacuation efforts would be of any help at all.

I have an inkling that PIC season two might touch on some of this, given the gaps in the novel, and the hinted at return of La Forge (who was heading up the fleet construction efforts at Utopia Planitia).

[Edit] Depending how much of the background from the novel and comic get rolled into future canon, what they do show is the following;

The Romulans were trying to conceal the fact that the nova was going to happen from the universe at large until confronted by intercepted (by Raffi in Romulan Affairs no less) internal communications in 2381. The climatic changes due to the changing state of the Romulan primary were already causing issues to the infrastructure of Romulus itself, and hence the Empire as a whole. The initial 9.7 light year blast radius contained the most heavily populated planets of the Empire containing at least 900 million residents outside of Romulus who needed to be relocated within the next 6 years.

Federation experts later calculated a slightly larger, slightly shorter timescale for the event based on observations, but the Tal Shiar supressed this within the Empire and "reeducated" their scientist who came up with their initial findings when he came to the same conclusion himself. Consequently, the evacuation of Romulus was nowhere near complete (and Picard's fleet wasn't allowed to assist with that evacuation at all), even on the original schedule.

The synths (non sentient) at Utopia Planita are it. They are not ubiquitous in the Federation, and were built as a special project to increase the workforce to get the fleet production up to speed to help address the final thousands of ships that the evacuation fleet will need to move the Romulan population, set up colonies etc.

Whilst the dots are not connected, some are at least partially presented in regards 2009.

Spock is aware that Romulus cannot be evacuated completely on the existing schedule, but is able to evacuate himself and his followers. Federation support for any evacuation efforts crumbles with the attack on Mars, and Spock is not exactly in favour with the Federation and Starfleet because of his folly of reunification.

It makes perfect sense that Spock would try to find a way to save the remaining Romulan population (but he may have not been aware of the revised timescale that was being supressed/denied by the Romulans - this might explain his lateness to the party...)

2385 A group of Romulan women, all members of the Zhat Vash, venture to the planet Aia to experience the "Admonition". Most of them become insane and kill themselves just after the ceremony (PIC: "Broken Pieces").

Just a thought, but this has to occur narratively before the attack on Mars, and before the assimilation of the Shaenor by the Borg cube that becomes known as the Artefact.

Just finished reading "Star Trek Picard : The Last Best Hope" by Una McCormack and it's a nice bit of missing background and does inform a few things we saw in the show and neatly skirts around a few things as well.

Just in case, though not really spoilers as such...

The Synths at Utopia Planitia were pretty much unique, and non-sentient having been constructed to increase the workforce needed to produce the new ship parts for Picard's evacuation fleet. Maddox is (reluctantly) in charge of their construction (because not real androids) runs away after the "incident" because of all the fallout that was going to come his direction. Utopia Planitia is completely destroyed by the attack which knocks out Starfleet's primary ship building facilities. Because the Synths were being portrayed as one of the long term benefits of the diversion of resources to the evacuation effort being to some of the (border) members of the UFP who were threatening secession over that matter you can see why things fell the way they did.

Geordi is in charge at Utopia Planitia for the construction effort (but on his way home to Earth on the day of the attack) having transferred with Picard from the Enterprise-E now under the command of Captain Worf...

Various scientists looking at the Romulan star data conclude that it doesn't seem entirely natural with its transition to the super nova, but nothing is pinned down. The Romulan state also active supresses data that concludes the super nova will be bigger and sooner than they initially predicted and the implication is that Romulus is not evacuated fully by the time it happens (this might inform the back story of 2009). Romulus also suffers severe climatic upset due to the changes in their star meaning evacuation was required in any case...

Spock is still resident on Romulus during much of the lead up, but is not engaged by the Federation on this as his reunification drive is seen as a kooky outlier by both the Federation and the Romulans.

Nimbus III is within the 9.7 ly blast radius according to the original, optimistic projections, but no Federation worlds are (even within the slightly greater than 10 ly radius predicted by the more accurate figures). The instability of the Romulan star seems to also affect the next closest Romulan world to the home system (not really explained...).

Neatly missing is the actual supernova itself (and I presume any plot elements around it they might want to explore in PIC season 2...) and whether Spock's efforts mitigated it in any way, but we know Picard stepped back from involvement after the attack and his resignation from Starfleet so this might be a bit of discovery for him and Geordi (heavily hinted at making a season 2 comeback).

Also missing is mention of Laris and Zhaban (until the epilogue) though their story is covered in the comic "Star Trek Picard : Countdown" and this doesn't provide any contradiction to that. An incident of that type should have at least got a mention. I suspect that the outline provided to Una McCormack originally had the two most sympathetic Tal Shiar operatives in her work (Tajuth and Molula) destined to be Laris and Zhaban, which might have been changed once the comic was committed to.

Captain, later Admiral Fucking Clancy is in true sweary form :)

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Modelling by kjc, textures by me.

This is the bridge of the Enterprise-D, as it appeared in the final alternate universe visited in the episode 'Parallels'. This version of the bridge has several unique details to it, such as it's big glass (ahem, transparent aluminum) display at the back, the modified and uniquely positioned Captain's chair, and the platform in which said chair is placed.

For several additional renders, please visit my portfolio.

This bridge was done as a commission for SciFi-Meshes.com member JMP11.

3D model done in Blender, texture work and computer displays done in Inkscape
If you're interested in commissions, please visit this page

gameraboy1:

1967 Remco Star Trek Astrotank

If you like the Spock helmet, you will love this totally authentic toy!

Rick Sternbach and Lee Cole designed various pictograms for “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. Many of them appeared as stickers in the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Peel-Off Graphics Book. Our new article on Pictograms from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Peel-Off Graphics Book identifies the logos from the book in the TOS movies and later appearances on Star Trek. Research by Jörg Hillebrand. Logo reconstructions by Brad Wilder.

Two new book reviews by Daniel Tessier: the brand-new TOS tie-in The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett and the classic TNG novel Requiem by Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin Ryan.