About Paramount TV shutting down

Hi Alex,

How are things on the island ? They certainly can't be worse they are in Hollywood. This place is burning down at warp speed. But this was not on my mind three days ago. I was just clicking through YouTube and ran into OverlordDVD's/Doomcock's channel. And what was the latest rumor buzzing around now ? (Which I took with a grain of salt, as these things are supposed to be.) That the Paramount/Skydance brass wanted to have an emergency meeting with Alex Kurtzman before Sunday (18 August). Yeah, right. File that under 'I'll believe it when I see it.'

But then, the day after, I saw a video by Call Me Chato about Paramount TV shutting down. And he told us denizens of the internet about the huge lights they use in TV studios and the huge power bill that comes with them. And then I had a light-bulb moment, which was fitting. Just don't ask if it was a bit fitting or a small one. (Okay, I'll stop making light-bulb puns now.) This is just me thinking out loud, but...

Ponder Me This

The mainstream media made it clear that Paramount/CBS is salvage Paramount TV's most popular shows by moving them over to CBS. But those shows are not enough to fill all of TV's sound stages. And with Paramount needing to cut costs, are they are going to pay the utility bills (power, gas, internet, etc) and staffing costs for a studio that is 90 percent just props gathering dust ?

Or do you move the surviving shows to a CBS lot ? If that's the plan, shutting down this week makes total sense, because it allows Paramount to give the utility companies notice to cut everything off on 1 September. And it gives you two weeks to do the move. And so we end up back at Doomcock's rumor.... (Just remember your salt, folks.)

My Theory

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is supposed to start filming on 2 September. Wee problem, in order to make a TV, you need sets. I wouldn't be surprised if construction of said sets was scheduled to start on Monday 19 August. But because of Operation Big Move, the sound stages that where those sets were supposed to be build are now essentially, well....reassigned-slash-gone. And they are going to have to break that news to Kurtzman. 

Now, I could be right, I could be wrong. This whole thing could be a giant nothing burger. But at least I got a blog entry out of it. 

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Wish list for Prodigy Season 3

In my last blog, I pondered how Prodigy could be used to clean-up the messy Trek time line. But there are plenty of other plots that I would love to see in Season 3. So, without further ado, my wish-list is....

Dal's History

Yeah, we know that Dal is an Augment. And that he was created by proteges of Dr. Arik Soong. But how does that work ? Remember, Arik was seen in the 2150's and Prodigy starts in 2383. There's a piece missing here....Plus, how did he end up with DaiMon Nandi ? And speaking of Nandi, I want our crew to go another round with her and give Nandi her comeuppance.

Another Borg Day

The Neurolytic Pathogen is spreading through the Borg Collective. We've seen shades of this in Let Sleeping Borgs Lie, but what about the folks from Unimatrix Zero ? Did Starfleet just abandon the Borg Resistance created by Captain Janeway and company to be cannibalized by the Queen ? I think the crew of the USS Prodigy would have something to say about that.

Vidiians and Ocampans

Since the Borg plot would see our crew going (back) to the Delta Quadrant, I'd love to know if the Think Tank (VOY "Think Tank.") actually did cure the Phage ? I hope they did, because that would allow to see how such a cure would affect the Quadrant as a whole. And to see what the Vidiians are like now / were like before the phage. And who hired the Tank to cure the Phage ? If it wasn't the Vidiians, that could spell major trouble.

And speaking of major trouble. The Caretaker gave the Ocampans five years worth of energy before he died. By the time of Prodigy, that energy has long since run out. Add to that, there's a whole lot of Kazon on the surface...

Love's Labor Found

Moving on....Starfleet has the bad habits of visiting worlds once and then forgetting about them. Let's not make the same mistake with the Enderprizians. Especially since they are a pre-warp race, which means that Garrovick's crash there opened up a whole can of worms. The Protostar crew did their best clean up said mess. But if they want to get it right, they need to keep an eye on the place.

Rev-12

What happened to the Unwanted ? Did they find a place to settle ? Or are they still travelling the Delta Quadrant ? Maybe helping people like an interstellar version of the A-Team ?

And Finally...

There is Ascenia. What happened to her after she got arrested ? Will the 98 liberate her to come back and cause more trouble for our crew ? And speaking of crew....

There are currently seven people aboard the USS Prodigy, but Zero says in the pilot that it takes at least 20 folks to operate a Protostar-class. While our heroes have been doing fine so far, if they are going up against the 98, they might want to do something about the massive hole in crew roster. And with Starfleet being short on people, our crew might have to get creative...

That's all I have,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

How to use ST: Prodigy to clean the timeline (Season 3 idea)

Before I get started....I was planning to send this letter to Robert Meyer Burnett by means of his website. Alas, GoDaddy is being a pain and blocking said site. So here we go...

Hello Rob,

With Prodigy Season 2 now out in the world and Skydance buying Paramount, the future of Trek in now flux. But one thing that remains constant are rumors that folks in the upper echelons think that Trek has gotten way to complicated. Messy timelines, multiple realities, etc. Since I don't trust Kurtzman to write a grocery list, I thought I would take stab at how to clean up the mess he's created. I figure that even people think my plan is stupid, it would get the conversation started. Spoiler warning, folks, here we go...

In Season 1 we learn that the USS Protostar went through a wormhole that send them from 2383 to 2435 in an alternate universe. The show's baddies, the Vau N'akat, weaponize the ship and plan to send it back to wipe out Starfleet. But Chakotay beats them to the punch and send the ship back on autopilot, wrecking their plan. So the baddies send a hundred ships to find it. Let put a pin in that. It's really important. 

Season 2 see our heroes trying to save Chakotay from 2435 Solum. Needless to say, it doesn't go according to plan. These leads to shenanigans as our heroes work to get the timeline back on track. In the end, they succeed and the Protostar ends up where she needs to be. Starfleet then makes peaceful first contact with Solum. Which brings us back to our pin...

The Protostar is not thing needed for the puzzle of Season 1 to work. Those one hundred ships still need to go after the Protostar in order for things to work out. Fortunately, because those one hundred ships are from an alternate universe, they are not affected by current day Solum getting its happy ever after. So how does this turn into a reset for the Trek universe ?

Because there are 98 Evil Vau N'akat (and their ships) out there that we haven't seen yet. They're scattered through time and space and affecting history all over the place. That's one whopping loose end that still needs to be dealt with. 

My season 3 would start with an alien called Dave attacking the USS Prodigy - the new ride our heroes got at the end of season 2 - because he thinks Gwyn is one of the 98. It's turns out some of the 98 did something that doomed his world. And now Dave wants revenge for his lost people. Which is cruelly ironic, since that is the same mission the 98 were on.

Our heroes now have to deal with Dave, the 98 and their influence on the timeline. This gives the writers a McGuffin which lets them decided what parts of canon they want to keep and which they want to dump. Because the 98 can be anywhere and affecting anything the plot requires them to. 

(Want to get rid of Discovery ? Have the 98 mess with Klingon history. Clean up the mess that was Picard season 1 and 2 ? Put one those Vau N'akat in the right time, place and job and you're off to the races.)

Even if you don't want to change things, maybe you can make the story better by world building and adding pieces. And yeah, I can hear people complaining "That makes it more Doctor Who then Star Trek". So ? Lean into it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Dave turned out to be alternate version of a certain wheelchair bound, Dalek creating, mad scientist. Stop being so crossover-phobic.

Anyway, Rob, that's all I have. Thoughts ?

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

Outer Worlds 2

Hi Alex,

I've been playing the Outer Worlds and it's a great game. Which is why it wasn't a surprise when The Outer Worlds 2 was announced in June 2021. I have no idea when it is coming out, but I do have a wish-list of things I'd to see in that game. So, without further ado...

Swimming

In the original game, you can walk through ankle-deep water. And on Monarch, you can walk through a waterfall or two. But that's where the interaction with water ends. 

The Unreliable...

One of the few things that is known about the story is that the setting won't be the Halcyon colony. The thing is...it wouldn't be the Outer Worlds without everybody favorite's rust-bucket. My workaround would be to take Skip Drive from Phineas Welles' ship aboard the Unreliable. (Welles' ship was totaled in the original game anyway.) The Unreliable would then be ready for a trip to new worlds...

...And Old Faces ?

...but with who onboard ? The flesh-and-blood crew all move on at the end of the game. (Presuming they survive that long.) But ADA and SAM are part of the Unreliable. So I am hoping that they will return in the next game. As for our hero....I hoping we get to pick between either creating a new one or importing our old character Mass Effect style.

Answers

We need to know what happened to Earth. And the Cornelius Vanderbilt which vanished while headed there. Which raises another question...there were TWO assault cruisers knocking around Halcyon. What is the name of the other cruiser and what happened to her ?

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Star Trek: Forgotten Frontier

The Road to Get Here...

A while back, I wrote a letter to Robert Meyer Burnett, which he was kind enough to read/reply to on his YouTube channel. Before then, I was part of two Play-by-E-mail RolePlaying Games...First Star Trek: Pathfinder and then Star Trek: Freedom. But by the time of writing that letter, I was seriously considering starting a game of my own.

 

So what was that letter about ? It was a short demonstration of how easy it was to write something better then the brain dead Drek that Kurtzman and Co have been putting out. The letter was a short entry featuring my RPG character, a lovely Romulan lady called Yenna Chor'dan. After his reply, I decided to throw caution to the wind and start that RPG. 

 

I was planning to write a follow-up letter, but something is up with PostGeekSingularity.com. Maybe it's me, maybe it's on their end, but I can't get onto the site. So I needed to creative, and here we are. Time to move on to...

 

Shameless Self-Promotion

 

Back when I started my RPG, I wrote a blog about it and send it out on Twitter. Along with an ad

made by my second-in-command, Benjamin. One wee problem, nobody pays attention to either my blog or Twitter. So the plan was to cross my fingers and hope that RMB wouldn't tear me a new one for trying to using his channel for (shameless self-)promotion. Alas, the site didn't work...

Which brings us full circle. Besides Benjamin making the ad, I also asked my brilliant friend Richard

Clogston to write us a theme song. The result is now up on YouTube. So, what was I doing while Ben and Rick were doing this ? I was whipping up a wiki to serve as the game's website. I know zip about about coding, so that is the best I could do. (Well, that and it's free.) So, what is Forgotten Frontier about ? Well...

Forgotten Frontier

Set in 2376, the game tells the story of the tramp freighter SS Nothing. Named after he home-port of Nothing, Arizona, she is a home for those who have no other place to go to. Traveling through the Sol System, she finds adventure in the places Starfleet has forgotten about. 

 

(The first story arc will be set inside the Sol system, but if our intrepid crew beats the odds and survive it, they will set out for other solar systems.)  

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka Captain Yenna Chor'dan)

NCIS and CBS' bonehead moves

Hi Alex,

Time to dust this sucker off. So, here we go....

Okay, the Paramount sale/merger has become a total mess. So, I'm not touching that one right now. Except that I figure that, somehow, Paramount/CBS will find SOME way to mess it up even further. That said, moving on to...

NCIS Mistakes

Okay, let's start with the obvious....NCIS: Origins....this show sounds the Enterprise of the NCIS franchise. It's the prequel that nobody wants. Especially since it's the reason NCIS: Hawaii and CSI: Vegas both got axed. Hawaii for the budget and Vegas for the studio space. 

The next mistake I predict CBS will make is the resolution of the Season 21 cliffhanger. Katrina Law's character Jessica Knight accepted leadership of a REACT team, leading to trouble between her and Brian Dietzen's Dr Jimmy Palmer. Looking at the top three of best-paid actors on the show....we have Sean Murray, then Dietzen and finally Rocky Carroll.

Writing out Sean Murray would anger the long-time fans and damage the franchise's ratings big time. So, how do they cut the budget ? Simple, Jess and Jimmy make up and both leave the show. This allows them to cut Dietzen's paycheck from the budget. It also leaves them with an opening to throw the Hawaii fans a bone...

Put Yasmine Al-Bustami's Lucy Tara on Parker's team. (Have her girlfriend Kate transfer to the Washington DC FBI office. Make her a mentioned/recurring character.) Why Lucy and not Tennant ? Simple, for Tara, this transfer would be a promotion, for Tennant it would be a demotion. And Vanessa Lachey was the lead of Hawaii, meaning you'd have to pay her lead money. Plus, it would be a way to score points with the LGBTQ community.

As for who would replace Dietzen....well, I don't think it was a coincidence that Season 3 hinted that Commander Chase was a student of Ducky Mallard. And since she is on the third year of her contract, Seana Kofoed will be a lot cheaper then Dietzen, who is up to year twelve...

And then there is NCIS: Tony and Ziva. Combined with upcoming firings and 500 million budget cuts, this whole thing smells of desperation. What does CBS need to do for the NCIS franchise to pull the wagon properly ? (Since Trek has totally gone down the drain.) Well, IMHO...

Vance

Oops....almost forgot, what WILL they do with Vanessa Lachey ? Well, number three on the list is Rocky Carroll / Leon Vance who has been around since Season 5. Even if you do pay her 'lead money', Vanessa Lachey is going to be a LOT cheaper then Rocky Carroll. 

So by bringing these three ladies over from Hawaii, they can cut NCIS' budget a lot, while spinning it as trying to mend fences with the Hawaii fans.

How to Fix NCIS

1. Cancel NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Tony and Ziva ASAP. Nobody wants the prequel and the premise for Tony and Ziva show doesn't sound like it's a set up for multiple season gig anyway. 
2. Rule 45...Clean up your messes....In this case, the leftover plot lines from Los Angeles and Hawaii. These need to be dealt with. So number three...
3. Bring back Linda Hunt. One of the things that ruined the later season of LA was the replacement of Hetty Lange by (retired) Admiral Filler Killjoy. Yes, I know that wasn't his real name, but that summarizes my feelings about the character. Which brings me to...
4. ...Other characters from cancelled shows. Right now, it's like these places - and all the people in them - go poof as soon as the last episode airs. Have folks from LA, New Orleans and Hawaii do appearances and cameos. And make sure that plenty of those cameos are on...
5. NCIS: Sydney. Right now, that show is getting a lot of hate. It needs cameos, more money and more episodes. Go all in on that show.
   

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Arc 6 (Mass Effect Next Theory)

Greetings Internet (and Mass Effect fans),

I know, I know, there are plenty of Mass Effect theories out there. But the more the merrier. So, here we go...

Arc 6

Let's start with the basics, what is an Arc ? It's a vessel meant to allow a group of people to survive / escape a (natural) disaster (of biblical proportions in most cases). For the Nexus and Arc 1 through 5, the disaster in question is the Reaper War. But in Mass Effect Next, the war is over. (Regardless of which ending you picked.) So, Arc 6 needs a new disaster. The question is....what is it ?

The Disaster

One of the teasers that BioWare has given us is "Anomalies detected all across space." I think that the anomalies are the disaster, and that we have already seen this disaster play out on a smaller scale. In Mass Effect 2, we have a radiation source in the form of star Dholen, that is render the planets around it uninhabitable for organic life.

My theory: Whoever the new big bad is, messed with Dholen as a test of Milky Way galaxy shield technology. They also messed with the blueprints of the Crucible. Their alterations caused the Crucible blast to interact with dark energy and create the anomalies. Anomalies that are now the radiation source with the affected area being the entire Milky Way. 

Who is on Arc 6?

My guess is that like Arc 5 (aka the Keelah), Arc 6 will be multi-species ship. If I was designing it, I would use it to make the list of evacuated species longer. So Raloi, Virtual Aliens, Geth, maybe a second load of Batarians (now that their old government is gone, I figure they are no longer the outcasts of the galaxy), some extra Quarians and so on.

Who do I think the Big Bad are?

Some folks on YouTube have pitched the idea that the Jardaan are the next big bad. And having heard their arguments, I think they are right. It is simply to perfect a way to tie Andromeda into the story. If Dholen was a shield test, we know that our Milky Way heroes don't have the shields needed to withstand the lethal radiation the Jardaan unleash on the galaxy. But...

The Jardaan created Remnant tech and Ryder and co have access to that. I think they used it to upgrade their shields (probably to protect themselves against the Scourge), accidentally giving them the only Jardaan radiation proof shields around, which brings me to...

My Guess About The Story

My crazy theory....Next is going to be a loop. Sounds nuts? Well, stay on the crazy train, please, people. In your first play-through, Arc 6 doesn't make it. Instead, Ryder and co find a buoy, which serves as McGuffin for them travelling back to the Milky Way. 

They return to find a galaxy with only the Jardaan in it. Everybody else is dead. The organics were killed by the radiation and the synthetics were wiped out by the Scourge. So what do Ryder and co do? They travel back in time to recruit Liara and change history. (By doing all sorts of missions in the Milky Way. Since it confirmed to be the main setting.)

Now comes the good part. You had to replay ME3 several times to finish leveling up and get all the best guns. But in Next, New Game+ becomes part of the story. In every cycle, based on the decisions you made in previous games and in Next...

1. The fate / condition of Arc 6 at the start of your next play-through changes, resulting in...
   
2. ....Unlocking extra mission
3. ...More Squad mates (You start with Liara and Shepard. With each cycle giving you one extra.)
4. Upgrades for your ship...

As for the end game. I think the counterpart of the Suicide Mission is Shepard and his team (including Ryder) boarding Arc 6 and getting it safely into Andromeda, breaking the loop and setting up the next game. 

DLCs

Oops...almost forgot that there are two Ryders. So, how does that work ? I'm thinking at if you played Andromeda, your player Ryder goes to the Milky Way, while NPC/other Ryder stays behind to take over as Pathfinder. If you didn't play Andromeda you get to pick your Ryder at the start of your first play-through.

I also think that the Tempest stays behind in Andromeda for the other Ryder to use. And that the Mudskipper is a special craft build for the trip back to the Milky Way (Trekkies: Like Voyager build the Delta Flyer.) As what the DLCs are about, I think they'll fill in the Andromeda side of the story. 

With the rescue of the Keelah / Arc 5 being at the top of (other) Ryders to-do list. And that is the end of my thinking out loud. Have a nice day and...

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302)