Owen J. North

Well, frankly, here's what I think of the only one's I've seen so far... Wrath of Khan - watchable... but not all that great. I didn't have one legitimate emotional reaction to the whole thing. I might have to Spock dying, if I didn't know he was coming back (thanks to his older self appearing in the new one, and the title of the next movie.) But with that twist spoiled, I just really didn't see anything all that hype-worthy. I find it strange that this is the only one I'd heard about enough to know the title. Search For Spock - Trek or not, this was just an awesome movie. The whole cell regeneration/advanced aging thing was simply genius, the whole idea of Klingons exploiting the machine as a weapon was just a brilliant plot twist... if only they'd slightly tweaked Kirk's way of getting himself and Spock up into the Klingon ship, this could borderline on being a perfect film... at least, in my mind. (Well, and maybe recast a couple roles to get slightly better actors). The Voyage Home - This one was good... but in a completely different way. Where the last one was like, a good actionish/semi thriller.... Voyage seems to be intended more as a comedy (I mean, come on, the conversations with Spock using "the hell" in everything? Lowering the plexiglass into a cloaked ship? And OF COURSE Chekov was the only one who could have possibly been caught in a nuclear powered ship during those days, lol). It was good, but hard to compare to the others because of it's deliberate campiness. First Contact - This is more what I expect from Trek. Still a good movie, but there's a certain unexpectedness to 'Search' that kinda pulls it up a little. I can't really decide which one I like more. This one has, in my mind, the better crew... obviously better effects, but I do like the story from 'Search' a bit more. ...Just finished the download on Generations, and The Motion Picture and Final Frontier are about half way.

In doing my research for these sims, I've started downloading and watching all the old original films. I'm not exactly doing them in order (since the first one won't seem to download, and I started with First Contact, because of specific info I wanted)... and I couldn't help but wonder why everybody says "Wrath of Khan" is the best of the TOS films. Honestly, I just don't get it. It wasn't BAD, per say... but I certainly didn't get the hype. I was particularly disappointed by the "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" scene, since I've heard so much about what a great moment it was, how memorable it was, seen it quoted so many times... I was waiting, and waiting and... then, like a balloon when you let go of the end, my hopes deflated. THAT WAS IT? REALLY!?!?! Now, I'm probably gonna spark a big debate here... and knowing my opinions, I'll probably stand alone in thinking so... but I really feel that following up this one with "The Search For Spock" just made it look even worse. I'm not a Trek expert, so I can't say much for how it handled the franchise... but, with a few glaring omissions (the Klingons WERE a tad on the lame side, and what the hell was their pet thing?) I found this to be an INFINITELY more enjoyable movie. The story was far more original (that's one "back from the dead" story I've never seen!), seeing them flying around space in leather jackets and the like was a nice break from convention (esp. since those new "everybody's red" uniforms were so terrible)... and truth be told, it was nice to see them use the main officers for everything FOR A REASON instead of going "we have a hundred or more people on this ship, but lets just send the ones who really matter", lol. I also, for the FIRST TIME had a legitimate sense of suspense from anything involving the TOS crew (wondering how Kirk was gonna get himself and Spock off the planet, though admittedly I wasn't a big fan of how they decided to do it. I had what I feel was a much better idea in mind). Especially with this film (currently tied with First Contact in my mind the most enjoyable of the old ones) following so soon after, I don't understand why ANYBODY makes such a big deal about "Wrath Of Khan". Now... dare I ask? Thoughts, anyone?

'Not available in your region'. Stupid American companies. First that SNL link somebody posted, now this. I miss out on everything, lol.

Hey Kilby. As the next to most recent noob (unless somebody else joined that I didn't notice), welcome... and trust me, I have never watched a single episode or movie or anything until this last weekend... so if I can do it, your "rusty knowledge" won't mean ######, lol. By the way, where did you find the online episodes? Been looking for a good resource... but all the youtube ones have chunks that have been removed due to copyright ######, and the few other sites I've found take 3 days to load an episode, lol.

Meh... everything's an opportunity. If you can find a way to RP a Janitor and keep things interesting, that's a true show of skills right there, lol.

Okay so, while watching a DS9 episode, an interesting question about chain of command came up in my mind. According to normal chain of command procedure, I understand that officers in any given department report to their chief, who reports to command, and vice versa... but let's say a member of another department sees something that requires the immediate attention of another department? Ex. AENG comes across a fight breaking out, and needs to notify security. Would he then have to report it to his own department head, and go through all the normal chanels (i.e. AENG to CENG to XO/CO, to CSEC, to ASEC?) or would is there some kind of exception made in the case of an emergency, allowing the AENG to directly contact security?

LMAO. I love a well placed Roberts reference. Thanks for the laugh, Will.

No, I wasn't referring to the characters being played, per say. It was more to do with a recognition and admiration of those who had come before. For example, in the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribbleations" Sisko mentions the enterprise in a meeting with Temporal Investigations, and there's an instant recognition. Temporal: "HIS ship. James T. Kirk." Sisko: "The one and only." I wasn't asking if canon characters were played as much... more if other characters in the canon had that same sort of name recognition and reverence, or just Kirk. Yeah, that makes sense in that regard, but again I think my intention was lost in the actual writing. Where my confusion came from was seeing on memory-alpha and other such sites that phasers were a Starfleet/Federation related invention, and I wasn't sure if they would be made available to the general public on earth, or kept within Starfleet.

Okay so, still flushing out the background from my character, and there are a few more questions I have regarding Trek canon and/or reasonable deduction... 1. It's obvious that phasers and weapons of the like are the preferred weapon in space, but what about for people who're still on earth? Are these things being used down there as well, or are they still using conventional projectile style weaponry, or what? 2. What are the generally accepted time lines for the academy? (As in, what age do most people enter, how long does it generally take to graduate, etc?) 3. I know that Kirk is known and praised throughout like, all of Starfleet... but how well known are the rest of the shows characters? Is there any sort of precedent of any of the others being known and talked about? Also, I've been doing a lot of reading around the site to prepare to take my first steps into this world, and there are a couple things I'd really like to know before I do... 4. Regarding logs, I understand the difference between a duty and personal log... but what I don't get is the formatting for logs done by minor characters. For example, on the shows, they would generally begin with "Captains log..." etc. Well, what if you're just a lowly, say, security officer? Is it then "Security Officer's Log"? Or something else entirely? On the same topic, what exactly does the log term "supplemental" signify? 5. Regarding stardates, I've done a bit of reading on memory-alpha and other sites, and it seems like the method of determines stardates is inconsistent at best, and borderlining on random at worst... and yet I see a number of people using stardates in their posts. Is there a system behind how they're determined here, or are people just making up numbers? (P.S. Sorry to be such a pain... but one thing you will all learn about me is I'm a perfectionist. I want to make sure I don't end up being "that guy who makes a million and one errors every time you see his name pop up".)

Atragon & V'Roy - I never said that my character was anti-Federation (infact, when that was insinuated, I flat out said that wasn't what I was going for)... I simply said that the presence of an Anti-Federation element is involved in my background story. All will be explained when I post my bio. V'Roy - Lol, well I was referring to a more personality-based loveliness... but technically, there IS a Sims pic on her personel profile, so she has a face... just not in that window, lol. Atragon - The reasoning behind that was that by the time it posted the thread, there had already been several posts to old threads befor then, and shoved it way down the page... and from the perspective of somebody with lots of experience watching how forums work, a lot of times people jump right into the higher threads and don't notice ones further down the page. (and honestly, what is it really wasting? It's not like there are a limited number of posts in a day that I'm eating up or anything... and if people didnt have time to notice it the first time,then really, where's the difference in time, either?)

Nah, that's not quite what I was going for... but I think I've more or less figured it out by talking to the lovely Ms. Kent, lol

Yes Sam, that's pretty much EXACTLY what I was looking for. I didn't think there was, nor did I WANT there to be evidence of a group exactly like that... because I like to consider myself an original thinker, I was simply looking for evidence that not everybody takes to the Federation and inter-species mingling with the same sense of "All's good in the universe" which I could use as a precident to create my character's background. As far as being less public and violent... that's exactly what I was going for. Basically imagine a group who feels the same way about space exploration and alien interaction that the Ahmish do about electricity and the like. No violent resistance, they just want no part of it.

Hmmm... alright, thanks Sorehl. What I'm thinking though is that, based on human nature, there must have been at least a small contingent of the human population who was against this, as humans have a tendency to fear even small changes, much less big ones like that. So, to those who feel they know the franchise well enough, the question I pose is: Would you consider it likely at all that a certain small group could have been so against the inter-mingling of species that they could have taken steps (i.e. moving to less populated parts of the planet, to avoid contact) to keep their way of life in tact?

Oh and for the record, anybody checking back here... I did have another question, but it's more regarding Trek knowledge than the game itself, so I posted it on the 'Community & Trek Discussion' board. If your Trek knowledge is good, please do me a favor and check it out.

Okay so, here's the deal. I know I don't need it until I get out of the academy, but I had what I feel is a really cool idea for a character background while discussing ideas with another member on msn, and I'm starting to write it out so that, when the time comes, I'm ready to go... but I need some help fleshing out a few facts (esp. considering memory alpha isn't being much help). I'm trying to discern how and when humans first made contact with an alien race. Who was the first race they encountered? How and when did it happen? What was the result? (Memory alpha has given me a bit of info on each of the first contacts: first contact with Vulcans, with Klingons, etc. but I can't seem to find any info regarding what happened first.) Also, it seems to me that in such a discovery there would be controversy - namely, people objecting to the process of inter-mingling with alien races and things like that... is there any canon information to confirm or deny such an idea?