How To Fix Star Trek in 5 steps

Hi Rob,

It's been a while since I've written in, so I hope this letter finds you well. I'm not going to beat around the bush and get straight to the point. Kurtzman Trek sucks !! It's either people crying in corridors or dumb, nonsensical set pieces. So, without further ado, here is my action plan to reset Trek and clear the deck for new, good post-Kurtzman shows...

Step 1:  Introduce a villain. Make the current mess of a timeline somebody's fault. An unseen puppet master has been deliberately messing up the timeline. Let's call him....Captain Black, after the Mysterion agent from Captain Scarlet. 

Step 2: Captain Seven and the crew of the Enterprise-G figure this out. One of the stupidest things about Picard Season 1 was that the Federation just let Mars burn. We learn that they did try to put out the fires, but Captain Black sabotaged the attempt. So the Enterprise-G goes back in time and puts a wrench in his plan. The good news is that the fires are extinguished, the bad news is that Captain Black escapes.

Step 3: You now have a major point of divergence in the timeline. And the further you go forward, the bigger the changes get. Like a tsunami as it approaches the coast. But first to address the elephant in the room....why do the incursion here ? Why not prevent the attack on Mars altogether ? 

Because IMHO the only good post-2005 Trek is the stuff Kurtzman didn't work on. Lower Decks was not my cup of tea, but it was well made. Together with Prodigy and Picard Season 3, its the baby we don't want to throw out with the bathwater. 

By doing this way, we're not messing with the Lower Decks and the end of Prodigy. But Mars can now be resettled, maybe even by Romulan refugees, which will influence the timeline and remove Discovery Season 3, 4 and 5. Along with Star Trek: 90210 aka Starfleet Academy. And now we are ready for....

Step 4:  Go over the Picard Season 3 scripts with a fine toothed comb.

People are saying 'but if we keep Picard season 3, we're also stuck with Seasons 1 and 2.' Are we ? Pay attention, what do the characters actually say ? The SPECIFIC you are stuck with, the IMPLIED you can jettison. 

For example, Jack says that Jean-Luc told him that Q was dead. People extrapolate from that this means that the whole Confederate/2024 trip is therefore stuck in canon. No, it doesn't. All this means, is that Picard was there when Q kicked the bucket. The circumstances, the time, the place...none of that is locked down by what Jack said.

Another example...we see Raffi aboard the La Sirena. But the "fact" that it used belong to Rios and then by Seven, is not referenced. So is that it's pre-season 3 history in this rewritten timeline ? For all we know, Rios never left Starfleet in this timeline. 

So, study the episodes, takes notes and then get to work... With research and clever writing, I think you can cut Picard Season 3 loose from Seasons 1 and 2.

Step 5:  Deal with Captain Black

So now we have dealt with the post-2385 mess. But what about Strange New Worlds and the first two season of Discovery ? Well, I'm thinking that with the timeline partially repaired, the USS Relativity could show up. 

Future Starfleet has detected the Enterprise-G's shenanigans. And since now-Captain Ducane has worked with Seven before, it made sense to send the Relativity to back the Enterprise-G up. Together, they hunt down Captain Black in the far distant past, where he has been messing with the geology of Boreth. 

That's how the time crystals from Discovery came about. And they are the roots case of Micheal Burnham's history. The two ships stop Captain Black and create a cascade effect that rewrites the 23rd century back to how it was before. Captain Black is thrown in the Relativity's brig and both ships go home. 

And we are left with a nice, clean slate of a future. While keeping the few nuggets of gold and getting rid of all of Kurtzman's dreck. Thoughts ?

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X)

Agents of Shield's Biggest Plothole

 Hi Alex, 

To pass some time on a bored Saturday evening, I decided to write you a letter about an old, but good one. What IMHO is the biggest plot-hole in Marvel's Agents of Shield. During Season 5, the team is zapped forward in time to a post-apocalyptic Earth. 

In the year 2091, most of humanity has been wiped out by some unknown disaster, the Kree are running the place and the environmental conditions are nasty. 

In the end, the Kree are defeated and the remains of humanity are liberated. It is also revealed that the Earth was quaked apart a few days after the team left. Coulson and co travel back to what for them is the present, while the 2091 set about rebuilding Earth. 

Except, here comes the plot-hole....The 2091 folks are frakked on matter what. 

Why ? Well, let's begin with Coulson and co. Now that they know that the disaster is coming, the Shield folks set about preventing the disaster that wrecked Earth. And they succeed. Which means that the version of 2091 they visited now no longer exists. They've been erased for existence.  

But let's say they somehow escape that fate. Through some multiversal shenanigans, their timeline is still out there. And they manage to re-assemble the Earth using Kree technology and Inhuman/Mutant powers. There are two things that will still doom them...

1) The Earth shattered is the Mother-of-all extinction events. The bulk of Earth's flora and fauna are gone forever. But....

2) ...A key piece of Earth's ecosystem isn't ON it. It's in orbit of it. When the Earth was quaked, the planet's gravity field was also shattered. And without that gravity, there is nothing to keep the moon in orbit...

...which means that 2091 Earth is still doomed. Don't believe me ? Go to YouTube and ask what would happen if the Moon disappeared. Long version short, it's not good.

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

An Unhinged Mass Effect Theory

This post is exactly what it says on the tin. So, let's dive right into it... 

 

Welcome to the Prothean Empire ! The Protheans are fighting the Metacon War and things are not going well. So they decide, lets send an expedition to the galaxy next door to enslave us some reinforcements. Here comes the plot twist... 

Andromeda is the modern (2180's) name for that galaxy. But what did the Protheans call it ? What if the Jardaan are called the Jardaan, because the Protheans called it the Jardaan Galaxy. And it was the Jardaan Expeditionary Force. So the people on the mission started calling themselves Jardaan and it stuck.

(For Stargate Atlantis fans....like the folks Stargate Command send to Atlantis became known as Lanteans to the folks in the Pegasus Galaxy.)  

Now, there is the little hiccup of the timeline. From what Javik said, the Metacon War was happening when the Reapers showed up to end everything. So this expedition would have been thousands of years ago, while things in Andromeda only went pear-shaped a couple of hundred years before Mass Effect: Andromeda.. (While the Andromeda Initiative was in transit.) But then I had an idea...

Even with Prothean technology, going from one galaxy to another takes a long time. And without Mass Relays, you need another way to go faster then light and compensate for the pesky thing called relatively. My idea is that whoever the Protheans were fighting found out about the Expedition and decided to commit a little old-fashioned sabotage. This resulted in a trip that should have taken several centuries stretching into thousands of years. (Possibly tens of thousands.)

Undeterred by this little...uh...delay...the Jardaan continued with their mission and happily enslaved the Kett. Except they botched explaining the plan to the Kett. Javik said that the plan was to bring all the organic sentient species together in the Empire. Of course, he was talking METAPHORICALLY. But the Kett took the plan LITERALLY. And thus Exaltation enters the picture....

And that's all I have. Have a nice day,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

Trumpvilles?

Hi Alex,

A while ago, I started my own Star Trek RPG. I need a place to start my story and for reasons, I picked the ghost town of Nothing, Arizona. The rest of the story doesn't matter for this letter. 

What does matter is that by the 24th century, Nothing is a shanty town made out of tents, converted shipping containers and all sorts of makeshift homes. There are even a few brick and mortar buildings.

Nothing is home to roughly 900 people who fell through the cracks of the United Federation of Planets. But the most important thing is that the people of Nothing are there voluntarily. 

And all of this was some harmless fun....until Trump called the National Guard into Washington, DC. Which made we wonder....

How long before life imitates art ? How long before Nothing, Arizona really is repopulated. Except this time, there will be nothing voluntary about it. This time, it will because people will be forced into these...Trumpvilles (or Tarkin Towns if you've seen Star Wars: Rebels)...at the barrel of a gun. While that...chimpanzee...in the White House sells it as....*does his best Trump voice*....his Big and Beauty final solution for homeless people. *end Trump voice*

After all, what better place to dump the homeless the a ghost town. No locals to complain, no votes to lose. *Trump voice* After all, it's not like these homeless people as allowed to vote. And if they are, I'll pass another Big, Beautiful law to end that. *End Trump voice.* 

I really think this is scenario is a distinct possibility. Alex, Americans....please, worry.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X)

PS. Alex is not a real person, it is my version of Hello, Kitty/Dear Sigmund.

My Pitch for Wolfenstein: Youngblood 1.5

Hi Alex,

There's an old saying that says that all good things come in threes. So far, I've pitched two game remakes. One for Mass Effect and one for Star Trek. To complete this trilogy, I thought I should do something different and leave the world of Sci-Fi games behind. 

Why Wolfenstein: Youngblood ?

Back in 2019, Youngblood was not as well received as its predecessors. And here in 2025, Machinegames has finished Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This means they now have the resources to start working on the final game in their Wolfenstein series...Wolfenstein 3.

The problem is that Wolfenstein 3 is probably years away from releasing. And because of Youngblood's reception, there is not that much buzz for it (yet). So my pitch is for a Youngblood DLC/Expansion that will hopefully do something about that game's reputation and give the series an injection of activity. Also, by going the DLC route, players won't have to wait as long as they would for a full game.

The Set-Up

In Youngblood, we learn that the @ssh@ts have just lost a major battle over the Strait of Gibraltar. Whoever they've been fighting in Africa is about to cross over and bring the fight to them. In this DLC, we learn that like in our timeline the Organization of African Unity was formed in 1963.

However, unlike the real OAU, this version has only one goal...to fight and kill the @ssh@ts. And for the past seventeen years, that is exactly what they have been doing. Pushing them out of one country after another. And now they invading Spain and Portugal. In this timeline, the @ssh@ts betrayed Franco and conquered the country. 

There is, however, one major barrier between the OAU and Berlin...the French-Spanish border. The enemy has fortified this border for just this scenario....

Cue the Blazkowicz's Sisters: ...which is where the sisters come in. Due to the Jess and Soph wiping out countless @ssh@ts in Paris, things are looking up for the Resistance in northern France. They've been able to steal supplies, re-establishing/reinforce cells in other cities...etc, etc. 

The plan is to drop the Sisters in the a southern city, so they can revive the Resistance there are well. Then the revived Resistance can start chipping away at the Border from the other side. Killing key officials, sabotaging supply routes, blowing up important factories, etc, etc.

The Setting

The @ssh@ts are kind of expecting this move, so they increase security in all major southern French cities. But the Resistance outsmarts them by sending the Sisters (and their ally Abby) to Monaco. 

In this timeline, Monaco is not a playground for the rich. It was invaded and all it's bank accounts were plundered by the Reich to pay for the fortifications on the border. Then they build a big uber-concrete wall around it and turned into a Ghetto. (The European counterpart to New Orleans from the New Colossus.) 

The Real-life reason is that Monaco is relatively small. You can map out a large chunk of it, maybe all of it (relatively) easy. And it is next to the sea, so you have a build-in perimeter for the map already. The wall on one side and the water on the other. And by making it a separate map, you don't have to mess with the pre-existing ones. Back to in-game...

...The Resistance also picked Monaco because it has a harbor. This allows for a supply line from the OAU. And once the Sisters help free the city, they can hijack the Wall's defenses and turn them against the @ssh@ts. 

The Secondary Plot-line

After liberating Monaco, the Jess and Soph go back to Paris. And here comes a chance to shake up the Status Quo if you've complete the main campaign already. Once you've done that, and completed all the side missions, there's not much reason to keep playing the game. Post-endgame, it just become a lot grinding to level up. 

The idea for a the secondary plot-line is to do a partial reset of the Paris maps to give players who have finished the campaign more Post-endgame content.

The Plot:  

While the Sisters were away, a new Uber-@ssh@t arrived in Paris. He ordered all the codes changed (the codes for the doors in the Brothers, the drone dispenser code, etc.) and had people going around placing new padlocks all over town. He also had all the entrances to underground maps sealed up. This is a major problem for the Resistance. So Abby comes up with a plan..

...which is to frame the Paris' chief @ssh@t locksmith. The current locksmith is loyal to the @ssh@ts, but his aide is a Resistance spy. She sends to Sisters on a couple of missions frame the locksmith and make the enemy think that its the other way around. Once the @ssh@ts execute the locksmith, the spy will be promoted to take his place.

That done, the Sisters must find a way to kill the new Uber-@ssh@t, so he doesn't catch on or cause more trouble. (Which is complicated by the fact that he moved into a heavily guarded apartment in New Berlin.) 

Once the new Uber-@ssh@at is dead and with the spy in place, the player can then proceed to find the new codes, destroy the padlocks and re-unlock all the underground areas. This is also where any potential expansions of the Paris map could be sneaked in. As sites for side-missions unlocked by this new key spy. (*Moans at that pun.*) 

And that's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

My Pitch For Star Trek: Elite Force - Legendary Edition

Hello World, 

So it's been a while since we've had a good Star Trek game. And the Trek franchise could use a win. Fortunately, there were two games back in the early 2000's.....Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (2001) and it's sequel Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003). There is also an expansion for the first game that adds a virtual USS Voyager that you can tour and do stuff in.  

Both First Person Shooters, these games tell the story of the Hazard Team and its leader Alex Munro. The Hazard Team is an elite force of security officers created by Tuvok to help the USS Voyager survive the dangers of the Delta Quadrant. 

Elite Force II sees Voyager return to the Alpha Quadrant and the Hazard Team disbanded. Fortunately, in 2380, Alex Munro has a chance meeting with Captain Picard and the team is reformed aboard the USS Enterprise-E...

Time to move on to my Board Room Pitch...

Phase One

These games are OLD and so are their graphics. Especially the first game is VERY blocky. So Phase One is overhauling what is already there. The Legendary Edition would include both games and an extra section. 

This extra section would have the virtual USS Voyager and several mini-games that you can unlock in Elite Force II. There would be no changes to the story, with one exception...

• The one flaw in Elite Force II's story is the lack of Geordi LaForge. No offense to Dwight Schultz, who did his best with Reginald Barclay (as Chief Engineer), but it wasn't the same without LaForge. So pay LeVar Burton to record lines, please...

Phase Two

These days, computer games are expensive. Nostalgia alone is not enough to get people to buy this game. And you have to give some extra for new players. So while I would not change anything (else) in the existing games, I would add a third section of story. This would start after the end of Elite Force II. Which brings me to...

The Setting:  USS Dallas

An Excelsior-class ship seen and wrecked during the events of Elite Force II. Her crew was rescued by the USS Enterprise-E and she was send to Starbase 12 for repairs. One of the main characters, Ensign Telsia Murphy was her Chief of Security while the team was disbanded. She ended up back on the Hazard Team after Enterprise came to Dallas aid.

The Set-up:

After Voyager came home, Captain Janeway recommended keeping the Hazard Team around. But she was ignored. At the end of Elite Force II, Captain Picard tells Munro that he is going to recommend establishing more Hazard Teams on exploratory vessels. 

In the new section, we learned that this is exactly what he did. Janeway has been promoted to Admiral and is able to influence Starfleet Command's reply this time around. So this time, the recommendation is taken. 

And because what happened to it during Elite Force II, the Dallas is picked as first ship to get a Hazard Team. Munro and Murphy are thus send to the Dallas to set up the new incarnation of the team. 

The Real-Life Reason:

The Dallas is already in Elite Force II. The map is going to get a graphic overhaul as part of Phase One anyway. This means that you don't have to create the map from scratch. You can simply modify it for the third piece of story.

Another reason is because there is only one voiced character other then Murphy of the Dallas crew that survives the events of Elite Force II, Chief Engineer Katarina Scott. And she can easily be written out. I'm thinking she's been reassigned to oversee construction of the Voyager-A, giving the game a nice Star Trek: Prodigy eastern egg. 

But more importantly, once she is written out the only voice actors you need to get back from the original cast are Munro's and Murphy's. Everybody else can be (relatively) cheap unknowns for this part of the game.

The Story: 

Starting six months after the end of Elite Force II, the new campaign opens with Munro and Murphy arriving aboard the Dallas. The ship, having been repaired and refit, now looks like the Enterprise-B version of Excelsior-class on the outside.

Dallas launches and heads towards Attrexian space to see how things are going there after the end of Elite Force II. (This is where the Dallas was wrecked.) However, before they arrive, the Dallas is intercepted by a small scout-ship belonging to race called the Paloric. 

The Palorician homeworld has been invaded by a hostile race called the Xavor. And the invasion is Munro's fault....Back in 2376, Munro destroyed a space station called the Forge. The Forge had trapped many spaceships, including a Xavor scout that was on it's way back to Xavor Prime to report that Paloric IV was worth conquering and plundering. 

Now the Munro and Murphy - with help of the Dallas crew and a new Hazard team - have to find a way to Paloric IV and clean up this mess...

And that's where my pitch ends.  

So why ?

Hi Alex, 

So I've recently kicked two posts out on my blog to tell what I would do if I had the keys to kingdom of Doctor Who. Long story short, I really mixed Doctor Who and the Marvel Cinematic Universe together using the freshly introduced character of Mephisto. 

But I feel I didn't go into the WHY enough. So here we are. Starting with...

Reheated Nachos ?

This is problem with the current Doctor Who era. There is a LOT of recycling ideas. This is called Reheated Nachos by some fans. The biggest example of this is Gallifrey being destroyed in the Time War, then being restored and then being destroyed AGAIN in the Timeless Child arc. This is just lazy writing and plain stupid. And has angered plenty of NuWho fans.

Also, in my opinion, the Timeless Child arc didn't develop Doctor Who lore. It flattened it, ruined it. The Master 'happened' to find Timeless Child ? Yeah, right. It's more lazy writing. By putting a Big Bad - Mephisto - behind it you are retro-actively removing the 'coincidence/laziness' from these two big plot points. 

What Did Disney Get for Their Money ?

So far, not much....a single one special appearance by one D-list villain (Meep the Beep) and declining ratings. While the people making Doctor Who are not really listening to Disney. Yeah, I'd pull the plug as well. 

Right now, the fact that it is Disney, specifically that is giving the BBC/Bad Wolf a bag of money, is not really adding anything. If it had been a Netflix bag of money, or an Amazon bag of money, nothing major would have been lost. (Meep the Beep is not that impressive.) 

Added to that, a lot of people have turned off from having to 'do homework' to understand to the MCU movies. My impression is that not a lot people watched IronHeart. Introducing Mephisto there was a bad move. 

By making Mephisto a big bad in Doctor Who, you are now properly weaving together Disney and BBC characters. By making it a detective story, you have an excuse for exposition. And thus - if properly written - you DON'T have to do any homework. The characters will fill you in, making it the perfect starting point. 

Really, dude, you want to re-introduce Phil Coulson to the MCU...

Good point. This is another reason why I want Yelena to be the one who hears the whispers of the Fob-watch in Avengers: Doomsday. When she joined the MCU, Coulson was long dead. They never met. Hence, she is the perfect audience stand-in. 

Because - like people who have never heard of Doctor Who (or chose not to watch it) - she has to learn/puzzle together what is going on. And the audience is learning with her. It's a detective story/sub-plot and we're going with the detective and putting it together. Again, no need for homework.

And that's all I have for today,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X)