What Destiny was and what could have been.

This is for people who want to know what Destiny's purpose was in my Stargate Universe continuation. But don't want to listen to the whole Stargate: Nova Roma audiobook series. I didn't go with what the canon show was planning for the ending. (Or what I think they were planning to do, because of stuff Joe Mallozzi posted on-line over the years.) I figured that not using their ending reduced my chances of getting sued. (I didn't think the chances of that happening were that big, but better safe then sorry.) 

Destiny's Goal

Our starting point is the folks that build the planet of Eden. These people are called the Zovaris by the local species. The name is a contraction of the words Zov - which translates are Mystery - and Aris, which translates are people. So literally Mystery People. 

The Zovaris existed in at least two universes. One version in the main Stargate universe and one live 42 universes away. For reasons lost to time, both versions of the Zovaris needed to construct extra habitable planets. And this is where we learn the difference between the two versions of the species. The main universe Zovaris were wise and patient

They started with a small asteroid and slowly worked their way up to the final product. The final product being Eden and its star. As we saw on the canon show, things worked out. The other guys were idiots. They went straight to trying to built Eden and its star. And it blew up in their faces, big time. 

Think of the multi-verse as a pile of glass panes. The idiot Zovaris created an unstable mass that shot through those plates like a bullet. Now, when you shoot a single bullet through a strong enough window, you get a single hole surrounded by these cracks radiating outward like frozen lightning. 

Fortunately, the Ancients of the universe the idiot Zovaris detected these cracks and built a ship to follow one of the cracks and mend it. That ship was called Destiny. But the only way to do its job, was to travel faster then light, but NOT through hyperspace. Eventually, this Destiny reaches the hole, which is a rift to the universe "underneath" her home universe. Let's call it Universe Two. 

They successfully close the rift and undone the damage. But it's such a violent event, that this Destiny ends up stranded at the start of Universe Two. The crew lowers the ship into a layer of hyperspace like a submarine diving under water. They then modify the FTL drive to freeze the ship in time and activate a transmitter, creating the signal in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. 

But what about the people aboard? They became the first ever to ascend. That done, they headed out into Universe Two. They made sure that the local Ancients not only found the signal, but also built a new version of Destiny. And thus, the cycle was created. 

Our hero ship is not the first Destiny. It is the 42nd incarnation. The story ends with our Destiny reaching the rift and finding the 41st incarnation. Using it as a power source, the crew dial home. The power draw causes a chain reaction that destroys Destiny 41. Our ship is last seen riding through the rift and closing it. Her crew made it back home and the job is done.

What Could Have Been

I figured I was pushing my legal luck as it was, so I didn't include this. But if I thought I could have, I would done so.

But what about our "Bullet"? For lack of a better term. That unstable mass that the idiot Zovaris created is still out there, punching from universe to universe. It is losing energy, but it is also travelling through space. Being exposed to energy fields, particles and dimensions, transmuting as it goes.

The first connect I would have made, starts with the fact that - because it is slowing down - the cracks keep getting shorter. Eventually, it only punches a hole and there are no major cracks at all. And thus was born the Rift at the Heart of the Medusa Cascade. Which the Doctor once closed. Where Davros attempted to detonate the Reality Bomb.

However, our he bullet kept going, until finally it reached a universe where it had just enough energy to punch in. But not enough to punch back out. So it became just another piece of space debris. Well, until it slammed into a place that humans would one day call Wakanda. And yes, I know the Mount impacted millions of years ago. But my explanation is that our bullet doesn't travel in a straight line. It's like a pinball, bouncing around through space and time until it crashes into Wakanda.

And that's it.

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka  Commander Nash) 

The Stargate Hot Potato Everybody Avoids

Prologue

Before I get started, I need to explain something. A while back, I read an excellent article about the cancellation of Martin Gero's #Stargate project and why that was a mistake. I figured that this article would interest Robert Meyer Burnett, so I send it the link to him. 

He read it on his YouTube and provided some excellent insights and commentary. To see his video, click the provided link.

RMB's thoughts on the cancellation of Stargate

This letter is a reply to that video. With that out of the way, here we go.

---- 

Hi Rob,

I hope that this letter finds you well. I'm glad that you liked the Stargate article I send you a while back. Your comments and the insights in the video you made about it were great. However, there is an angle about the cancellation of Stargate that nobody talks about. But to get to this angle, I need to do a bit of preamble. 

One of the strengths of the Stargate franchise is that tries to stay as close to "real world" as it can be. It feels like something that could happen or could BE happening while you are going to work, doing your groceries and just living your everyday life. 

Add to that a bunch of frustration for not getting a proper resolution to Stargate Universe, a show that ended on a cliffhanger. Which resulted in me deciding to write my own (fanfiction) continuation. And that landed me straight at the issue we need to talk about. 

Stargate is supposed to be "Close to real world" Science Fiction. But that leaves you stumbling straight into two landmines: Donald J. Trump and his giant ego. Or to put it another way? You've seen the mess he's made out of international politics. Would you trust him with interstellar politics? Or the Stargate Program?

I didn't. I wasn't happy about having to go more fictional, but I figured Trump would ruin everything. Goodbye, (international effort known as) Atlantis Expedition. Goodbye, mission to rescue Destiny's crew. He'd probably banish Teal'c and Vala as literal illegal aliens. So I created a fictional president to keep things on track. But here's the point...

I got away with that because I am one Dutch guy. I wasn't making money from this passion project, just fun. I don't have a giant studio, I don't have hundreds or thousands people on my payroll. People that depend on ME for their rent, their food and the money they need to send their children to school. I'm not even a blip on the Trump administration radar. And I don't live under it either. I don't have to be afraid of being arrested by ICE, losing my license or being kicked out of the country. 

For AmazonMGM, which has none of these advantages, and any canon Stargate continuation...well, navigating these two landmines is going to be a lot harder. Thoughts? 

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

PS: Quick idea: Max's answer to my Let's Get Physical letter was really insightful as well. I would bet folding money that if there was dedicated e-mail or electronic PO for people to write to, he would get more letters. Just a thought.

Are the Clouds the key to Mass Effect 5?

 

I was thinking about the end of Mass Effect 3 and then I realized something. When we see the effect of the Crucible affect the Mass Relay network, we see it travel the galaxy. But, here's the thing, we see it travel ONLY the galaxy. 

How is this news? After all, Mass Effect Andromeda made it clear that the Reapers were only a Milky Way problem. Because if we zoom out just a bit, we see that the Milky Way has several satellite dwarf galaxies.

There's the Sagittarius Dwarf Spherical Galaxy and two Magellanic Clouds, one big and one small. And the end of the Mass Effect 3 shows crystal clear that they are not affected by the crucible's energy.

Which raises the question: Why? The simplest answers....Because they don't have any Mass Relays. They are outside the network. Which also puts them outside the cycles and the Catalyst's experiment. And in the millions of years and thousands of cycles, nobody has figured it out? I'm having a hard time believing that.

This also raises questions about the Andromeda Initiative and the Benefactor. Why foot the bill for a mission to Andromeda when there are three safe zones on your doorstep in universe terms? What's in those dwarf galaxies that the Benefactor doesn't want the people of the Milky Way to see? Could be our old friends, the Jardaan? Could the Benefactor BE a Jardaan? Let's ponder that for a second...

We know that the Andromeda Initiative's secret goal was to ensure the survival of the Milky Way species. But what if the Benefactor already figured out that the Milky Way species coming out on top was only a matter of time? And because the Benefactor is a Jardaan, they also knew what would happen once they were gone...a Jardaan invasion and enslavement of the Milky Way. 

So funding the Andromeda Initiative isn't about the Milky Way species surviving the Reapers. It's about them surviving what the Benefactor knew was coming after they were gone. And if Jien Garson figured out that was why the Benefactor footed the bill....well, that would give them motive to have Garson killed.

And that's all I have,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (@Dantes74302) 

Don't Blame The Viewer

In my previous article, I said that writing is a lot like sport. If you want to read that dull piece of text, here's the link:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-i-post-what-ruben-hilbers-ljhwe/?trackingId=QX4Pu6s45jaLkbay%2FibBbA%3D%3D

And I want to keep that analogy going here. Writing stories and novels is individual sport, but making a TV-show is a team sport. Soccer, American football, Curling or Cricket, you pick one you like in your head. The writer's room is the team and the show-runner is the coach.

The reason this article come with a Federation flag as included pic, is because Team #StarTrek hasn't been doing well recently. In fact, their latest bout, #StarfleetAcademy has been getting bad reviews from the average audience. Which has led to fiery responses from actors - especially Robert Picardo - and accusations of review bombing. Especially since critics seem to love the show. However, I feel that somebody needs to come out and say the obvious.

TV critics are essentially sport commentators, whereas the actors are on the team payroll. Both groups are telling the team and more importantly, the team #sponsor - #ParamountSkydance - what they want to hear. It's called #survival. They can't afford to get sacked or locked out of the stadium, they have bills to pay.

A good demonstration of this is John Boyega, who didn't air his true opinion about how #Disney treated his #StarWars character Finn until he was no longer financially depended on them.

So, where does #YouTube and the audience fit into this model? Starting with #YouTube, reviewer there are like people who have a good camera and a friend who lives near the stadium with a balcony. They can see the sport being played, but they are not part of the traditional system. And because they are not dependent on the studios for their survival, they can be honest. Hence the brutal burning of #StarfleetAcademy.

And the audience. The audience just wants to see a good game. Good entertainment. And if your team sucks - which as an audience member I can tell you, #StarTrek has been since 2017 under #AlexKurtzman, #AkivaGoldsman and #SecretHideout - they call you out on it. #StarfleetAcademy is not being review bombed, it's just bad. Stop blaming the viewer, learn how to play the frakking game.

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

PS....In an ironic twist, the only parts of post-2017 #StarTrek that have been watchable have been the parts that neither Kurtzman or Goldsman have had anything to do with. Meaning Star Trek Prodigy and Picard Season 3. Talk about poisoning your own well.

Sorry, #Machinegames, but that's shitty writing...

So, I am a big fan of the #Wolfenstein games, but I have to be a bit critical of a scene they wrote in the New Colossus. After you liberate a cell in #NewYork, when you come back to your base, one of the new characters - SuperSpesh - freaks out at the sight of a working #toilet and quickly goes to use it.

Why is this such a big deal ? Well, the base in question is a nuclear SUBMARINE. And even a complete military nobody like me knows that the toilets aboard #submarines are special, pressurized and complicated gear. You can't just park a civy on the privy and hope it works out. It does in the game.

But, sorry #Machinegames, the most realistic outcome is that it would hit the van and everything and everybody else within a couple of meters. I know, eww !

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers

PS. The point of this article was to demonstrate then when you try to write a "hard" (meaning: following the rules of reality and physics) world, even missing the smallest detail(s) can break the immersion. This is true for all writing, but especially for computer game writing, since the player gets to walk around in your world and see it first (or third) person.

The Mass Effect spin-off of my dreams

BioWare Yep, I'm pitching again. So, enough preamble, let's get to it. Say hello to...

Mass Effect: C-Sec

One of the coolest - and most beloved - places in the Mass Effect Trilogy is the Citadel. A massive space-station that is the beating heart of galactic politics. There is just one problem with the Citadel....we get to see too little of it. Yes, we get snippets in all three games. (Which get smaller as the trilogy goes along.) But this place is MASSIVE, with so much potential for characters and adventures.

One of these characters is Owen Bailey. A Captain in Citadel Security when we first meet him in Mass Effect 2, he is promoted to Commander by Mass Effect 3. And it is this promotion that puts our character on a collision course with destiny. Because when Bailey is promoted, our (customizable) protagonist is promoted to take over his old post...

The Story

Our hero - let go with male and call him Mike - is promoted one week before the start of the Reaper War. Mike has barely read-up on all the files and gotten his new clearance level nailed down when all hell breaks loose. He now has to keep his people safe and do what he can to protect the innocent from the horrors of war. And then there's Cerberus...

The main story would end with the Crucible firing. It would be dependent upon which ending you picked in Mass Effect 3 and how much War Assets you had. But what if you didn't play ME3 ? Plan B is what I'm calling Citadel Readiness Points. You can gather these by completing side-missions. If you didn't import a ME3 save, the game would instead use the CRP's to decide the ending.

So if you did play ME3, the CRP's are useless ? Nope, because there are....

DLCs

The proposal is to do two DLCs. The first would be Aftermath. Which is exactly what it says on the tin. Aftermath picks up after the Crucible fires. In this DLC, you play as Mike's second-in-command. You have to find Mike and pick up the pieces aboard the station. If you had enough War Assets/CRP's, Mike is alive and you go back to playing as him.

If you have low CRP's, Mike is toast and you have to finish the DLC as the second-in-command. The CRP's and which side-missions you completed also decide who you have to help you and what resources you have to work with.

The second DLC would be Fuel Depot Alpha One. This is the fuel depot the closest to the Citadel when its in the Widow Nebula, One of big moments that didn't fit inside Mass Effect 3, was the Reapers taking over the Citadel and moving it to Earth. The main story will fill in this (major) blank from the INSIDE of the station.

FD Alpha will give us a glimpse of what this event looked like from on the OUTSIDE of the station. You will play the commander of FD Alpha as husks swarm the depot. Your job is to get everybody off the depot and somewhere safe.

How much of the Citadel would we see ?

The idea is took take all the sections of the Citadel already created and connect them to form the game world. I would also propose adding the pieces of the Citadel that previous games only let you visit once. A good example is the pre-fab factory where you confront Harkin in Mass Effect 2. In ME: C-Sec, this part of the Citadel would be converted into one giant refugee settlement.

Another example would be part of the Citadel that you visit for Thane's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2. In the original game, you can only access the upper level. C-Sec would add the full section. (Basically, all the loose parts created for ME2 and ME3 would be integrated into this Citadel 2.0.)

But wouldn't this make the Citadel where predictable if you played the trilogy ? After all, you would know where everything is already, wouldn't you ? Not necessarily. For example, the Volus Banker Barla Von moved offices between ME1 and ME3. So, who is using his old digs now ? And then there is the AI that committed suicide BEHIND his office.

So what is there now ? The Human embassy in ME3 is clearly NOT the same room where you sparred with Udina in ME1 and ME2. And the less said about the mess we made out of Chora's Den (which never reopened) the better.

There are more examples, but the point is that the Citadel has changed a lot during the trilogy. Which leaves plenty of room for new characters and stories.

A Short Announcement

Hello Reader(s),

So, I have something to confess. I haven't been taking very good care of this blog recently. Instead, I've been putting my time and energy into my YouTube Channels (Links below) and my LinkedIn profile. The thing is, my LinkedIn profile leads people...well, here. And if they do click the link and find a blog that has been gathering dust for months, that doesn't really score points.

It also doesn't help my efforts to recruit people to Star Trek: Forgotten Frontier one bit. So, I needed to do something about it. And then I realized that I posted a lot of my LinkedIn articles only on LinkedIn. (Shocker, I know.) Which left me with a way to kill two birds with one stone. Hence, the new From LinkedIn tag on this blog.

The plan is to (re)post my greatest hits from LinkedIn here, giving the blog a nice big influx of fresh content. Also, I'm going to (re)share those post with my X account in the hope of giving that a needed kick in the rear.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302)

Distant Stars

SSV Ain Jalut 

One word #StarTrek plan that could save the #franchise...

....but won't, because nobody dares to #risk anymore. Paramount Skydance Instead, they just hide behind #rules and #lawyers. Anyway, our #magic word is...

Rassilon

Mad and arrogant, #Rassilon is the former #president of a lovely planet called #Gallifrey. BBC Studios (Lawyers throwing a fit yet?) Long story short his people - the #TimeLords - realized just how much of a jerk he was and were fine with it when one of their heroes - the #doctor - exiled him. Unfortunately for him, when Razzie got boot, his universe was pretty close to dying of old age...

The Plot (How Rassilon could be used exercise Kurtzman Trek from history)

...So #Razzie decides to move to another universe. Which happens to be the #Trek universe. But there is one major hiccup. Time Lords get around in TARDIS'es. Which draw power from the universe they call home. Taking them to another universe. Well, it's like putting #gasoline in a #diesel engine. Fortunately for Razzie, he has access to every log of every #TARDIS, including our favorite #Type 40, belonging to the Doctor.

In the "Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel." Two-part (#DoctorWho) episode, the TARDIS crashes in an alternate universe. But it survives because of a tiny, crystalline power cell. Which Razzie plucks from the logs and decides to scale up to 12. How? He arrives in the distant past, where he messed with the geology of the planet #Boreth. Specifically, the planet's supply of dilithium crystal. Thus explaining how the Time Crystals that are key to Star Trek Discovery came about.

Crucial about these Time Crystals is that you need a SUPERNOVA to charge them. And the Time Lords have the means to cause these. A device called the Hand of Omega allows them to remotely mess with stars. It has even been seen causing a #supernova in the DW Serial "Remembrance of the #Daleks." (Unlimited rice pudding, etc, etc.) Rassilon causes the supernova that wiped out the Tkon Empire, charging his TARDIS with enough power to travel to the 32rd century.

This, however, brings him face-to-face with a new problem. Starfleet and their allies are guarding this part of the timeline. And Rassilon, wanting to be the supreme ruler of time, feels he needs to get rid of them. And he knows a thing or two about messing with genetics.

Back in the early days of Gallifrey, Rassilon created a gene (sequence) called the Rassilon Imprimatur. It binds a Time Lord to their TARDIS and keeps them from being torn apart on the molecular level when they activate the engines.

Using his knowledge of genetics and eugenics, Rassilon brings about The Burn. It's no longer some half-baked coincidence, it's a deliberate, well thought out plan by a supervillain. Except said supervillain didn't do his homework. The Romulans use black holes to power their ships and zero dilithium. He has now created a timeline where the Romulans reign supreme. And to make this worse, his TARDIS needs to recharge.

So he travels back to the 24th century, where he causes the #Romulan Supernova, killing two birds with one stone. He takes the Romulans out of the picture and recharges his ride. Now all he has to do, is whisper the right things into the right ears, causing the Time Wars. Being a survivor of the Last Great Time War, he can do this as easily as you and I put on #socks.

The major powers - including the Federation - then do exactly what he wants them to do. They outlaw time travel altogether. Leaving Rassilon free and clear to mess with the timeline at his leisure.

How to do the #Reset ?

The Doctor figures out what Razzie has done. Because his TARDIS doesn't function in the Trek , he has to join up with a Starfleet crew to stop the former president. They succeed in arresting Rassilon in the 32rd century. Thus starting the chain of events unraveling and the timeline going back to normal.

After a quick pit-stop in the 22nd century to sabotage the creation of Control AI program, our heroes travel to the ancient past. They restore Boreth's geology to normal, removing the time crystals from the timeline. No Red Angel suit, Micheal Burnham's parents aren't killed, so she never gets adopted....

The only thing they can't fix is the Tkon supernova, which turns out be a fixed point. When the timeline finishes correcting itself, 99.9 percent of the #SecretHideout era has been retconned out of existence. The remaining 0.1 percent being the ship that the Doctor has used throughout. So, which ship would I give the role?

The USS Prodigy. Her crew having experience with time travel and then some. And by using one of the animated ships, you don't have to build sets or make props. It's a way to do the whole thing on the cheap. Plus, her Protostar drive is a build-in McGuffin that the Doctor would have no problem modifying into a time drive to allow for the necessary time hopping.

(And could no doubt could be used as an explanation for my the Prodigy itself wasn't deleted when the timeline reset. Because if that happens, we wouldn't get a clean reset, but all sort of timey-wimey fluxing nonsense.)

The Doctor takes Razzie and goes back to his home universe, where the crazy president becomes another writer's room's headache.

And thus ends my pitch on how to clean up the mess that is Kurtzman Trek quickly, quietly and cleanly. Of course, it'll never happen because #lawyers.

For crying out loud, Ron, Sink the Frakking Moon already !

For crying out loud, Ron, Sink the Frakking Moon already !

Hi Rob (and the good people of PGS),

So a LONG time ago, Ronald D. Moore said that he would love to redo Space: 1999. But that the premise was simply too weird. And I will admit that Space: 1999 had issues with scientific accuracy. The Breakaway explosion in the pilot episode would have simply vaporized Moonbase Alpha or broken the moon completely. And that’s just for starters. The beauty of a rebooting of re-imagining shows, however, is that you can FIX stuff like that. 

So, let move on to how to do that. Well, it’s already in the title of this letter. Sink….the….frakking….moon ! In Deep Space Nine’s pilot “Emissary”, the crew has to figure out how to fly the titular space station from Bajor to the wormhole. So they create a subspace field around the station, which dials down gravity’s pull on the station and allows it’s thrusters to do the job. All you have to do, is dial that up to twelve. How ?

Come up with some (technobabble) backstory and BOOM !! Suddenly, the Breakaway explosion creates a particle surge, the surge creates a subspace rift and the moon sinks into subspace. And Tada ! Now, you can have the moon bounce between subspace and normal space whenever the plot requires it. Hell, you have a McGuffin that – properly written – will explain whatever you need it to. Alternate universes, time travel, horrible creatures from dark places, the list goes on. Especially if later seasons see the crew of Moonbase Alpha try to control this bounce. Sci-fi, after all, loves an experiment gone wrong.

So, Ron, sink the frakking moon already !

Thoughts, Rob ?

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

Bunnyburrow is doomed, not Zootopia

Hi Alex,

I recently saw a few Zootopia theory videos on YouTube and that got me thinking. At the end of Zootopia 2, a feather falls into Judy Hops apartment. This is seen as a portent of doom by several YouTube reviewers. And I agree with that. But the thing is, I disagree with WHERE that doom will strike first.

Zootopia City has weather walls, it has locations - buildings, cars, etc - that can be locked and secured to repel invaders and not one, but two disciplined, well trained forces that can resist. The Zootopia Police Department and Mister Big's Mafia. It might have a lot of people. But it is, from a tactical perspective, a HARD target.

However, in the first movie, Judy has to move to from Bunnyburrow to Zootopia to become a police officer. And everybody keeps pointing out how she is the first bunny police officer. If there was a Bunnyburrow PD, completely staffed by bunnies, there would have been nothing special about Judy becoming a cop. 

Nor would she have had to move to Zootopia. She could have just joined the Bunnyburrow PD. The first movie wouldn't have happened. Combined with the town's location in the fields and lack of other defenses, Bunnyburrow is a SOFT target. 

It is a lot easier to attack by a bunch of angry, hungry, predatory, bloodthirsty birds. On top of that, based on the town's population counter in the first movie, Bunnyburrow has a lot bigger population then Zootopia. 

There is also a darker long-term potential for danger. If I was a tactician with dark designs on Zootopia, I would first attack all the soft targets outside the city I could find. Not only would this provide my force with a large influx of food - as Napoleon said: An army marches (or in this case flies) on its stomach - it forces the ZPD to spread itself thin as they try to find out what is going on. And once that happens, leaving the defenses weakened, THEN I'd pounced on my final target: The city of Zootopia itself.

So, yes, Zootopia is doomed. Just not right away. And with even the smallest drop of realism, Zootopia 3 will not be a child friendly buddy cop movie....It'll be a dark, horrific, dystopian war flick, with people getting eaten left and right. 

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash) 

There is no such thing as the ninth Chevron

Hello fellow Gaters,

To begin with, some technical notes. I know, I know, they are boring, but I need to get them out of the way. So here we go...

As far as I can tell, Destiny has a Mark One Stargate, Earth has a Mark Two and Atlantis comes with a Mark Three. It takes seven Chevrons to dial a destination inside the galaxy and eight for galaxy-to-galaxy dialing. Carter compared it to dialing an area code. With the obvious stated, let's move on...

These days, the Milky Way Galaxy has a network of Mark Two gates. But when Destiny launched, the Mark Two had not been invented yet. Or they would have used it for the Destiny Research Mission. So back then, the Milky Way network was made out of Mark One gates. 

Which is the same model the Seed ships build and plant along Destiny's course. The same model that we've seen Young and company use. Which is strictly short-range. So no galaxy-to-galaxy travel yet. The Ancients had to INVENT it make the Destiny Research Mission work.

My pitch is that Destiny doesn't have an area code. It has the first area code ever. And because it's the prototype, it bigger and cruder. This was the first time they did this, so the Ancients hadn't figured out how to boil it down to one Chevron (yet).

That's why it's two Chevrons and having to properly calibrate the power. If it was a cell phone, the eight chevron is a modern smart phone. The ninth chevron is one of those ancient bricks from eighties that nobody could afford, took forever to charge and only gave you thirty minutes of call time even when fully charged.

But they are still the same thing. 

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

My opinion on MAGA

I am not a fan of Donald Trump. He claims that MAGA stands for Make American Great Again. Well, from what I've seen of his policies, it's Make American Goa'uld Again. 

Trump is a parasite, a Napoleonic Power Monger. He's all of America's worst traits collected under fake tan and a bad wig. Arrogance, bluster, stupidity and shortsightedness. He is still popular because he's figured out how to razzle-dazzle people with short-term gains. But long-term outlook is simple...he is driving the US of A over a cliff.

If he was a Star Trek character, he'd be either Nick Locarno (of Nova Squadron) or Tim Watters (aka the Captain of the USS Valiant who got his entire crew killed). He's William McKinley 2.0. Now if you want to block/un-follow me, you go right ahead. Stick your head in the sand, play ostrich. But don't come to me when your country falls apart into a dystopian dictatorship.

I'm a Count, not a Saint - Edmond Dantes  

Another Piece of Trek Kurtzman Ruined

Hi Alex,

With all this talk about Star Trek's television side, I have totally forgotten that there is another part of the Trek universe that Kurtzman and his hacks at Secret Hideout ruined. For decades, dozens of novelist have worked hard to continue the universe on the written page.

In 2021, because of Kurtzman and his dreck, a trilogy of novels called Star Trek: Coda did a hard reset on the novel-side of Star Trek. Everything set post Star Trek: First Contact (2373) has been given the Expanded Universe treatment. (If you don't know what that means, ask a Star Wars fan when happen to their novels when Disney took over and I'm sure they will explain it to you in detail.)

And yes, Peter David fans, that means all of Star Trek: New Frontier is now gone from the timeline. I'm not blaming David Mack, who wrote Coda. I'm blaming Kurtzman. 

It is his mismanagement of the franchise, his disregard for continuity and his utter lack of writing skill that caused this. Secret Hideout could not write the ingredient list to a box of cereal without losing the plot and having somebody burst out into tears at least three time before getting to the end.

They are complete and utter hacks !

Okay, rant over. Have a nice day,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

Ah, frak it ! A Star Trek Pitch

Hi Alex, 

Yesterday, I wrote a letter to Robert Meyer Burnett. It was a plan for resetting Star Trek for the post-Kurtzman era. And key to it was an antagonist/villain I called Captain Black. Long story short, Captain Black has been messing with the timeline. He is stopped and the timeline is fixed. If you want to read the long version, check out...

https://xanthi-rising.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-to-fix-star-trek-in-5-steps.html 

But Captain Black was only a placeholder name/character. So who could Captain Black really be ? Well, I made a top three. So let's get going...

1) Somebody New... This might be the easiest thing to do. Just create a new character for the reset. Somebody from some race we haven't heard of before. Or a member of some old foe cooking up a plan to take over the galaxy yet again.

2) Future Guy.... One of Enterprise's biggest loose ends. I know the novels answered this question. But IMHO that solution was a bit....meh. And Paramount has made it clear that the novels are not canon to the shows. So here's a chance to do it again.

3) The unhinged one and my favorite.....Rassilion

Wait ? That crazy president guy from Doctor Who ? The one played by Timothy Dalton for a bit ? Dude, that's not even the right franchise ! I know, I know, but hear me out....

The last time we saw Rassilion, the 12th Doctor exiled him from Gallifrey. At the time, Gallifrey was located near the end of its universe. There was a fair chance that there was nowhere for Rassilion to go. So it makes sense that he went to another universe. This also provides a nice McGuffin for why he survived The Master's shenanigans in the Timeless Child plot-line. I won't bother you with a recap of that plot, all you need to know is that the (most of) the Time Lords were wiped out AGAIN. 

But more importantly, the Time Lords have a piece of tech called the Hand of Omega. It allows them to remotely manipulate stars. The Hand is a perfect way to explain the Romulan Supernova, which is one of the stupidest things in NuTrek. Remember, the Romulans started out as Vulcans and colonized a new world. The idea that they would not check if all the nearby stars for supernova potential is TOO STUPID FOR WORDS. 

If any of the stars near Romulus were only a few thousand years from kicking the bucket, there would have signs. The colonists would have seen them and not settled the planet. But if it was Rassilion using the Hand to mess with the star, things start to make a lot more sense. Especially since the Romulans use black holes to power their warp drives. And don't use dilithium. 

This also stitches the absolute disaster of a plot that is the Burn a bit. Not only is it a little less far-fetched if there is a puppet master, it makes sense that Rassilion would take out the Romulans first. Since they are the only major power that would not be effected by the next phase of his plan. 

What is Rassilion's end game ? Well, I think he's the one who created the Time Wars. Having fought in the Last Great Time War, he would know exactly how to do it. Which strings to pull. And then the governments do exactly what he wants them to do. They totally outlaw time travel. Leaving him with a total monopoly on time travel and unshackled to play god.

And the beauty is that nobody is every going to suspect him, because everybody thinks he doesn't exist. He's 'just some character from some old TV show'.  

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

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.