454 – STO's Lead Artist Scot Boyd and Animator Weston Pierce | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One --- Picard is FREE, Star Trek delays due to Covid-19, and Star Trek cast and crew entertain us through the quarantine. In Gaming news, we get our second look at the Summer Event ship’s creation, discuss the changes to lower tier ships and DOFF packs and we have another round of interviews with the Star Trek Online Team. This Week, Lead Artist Scot Boyd and Animator Weston Pierce.

Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages

Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!

This Weeks Community Questions Are:

CQ: Did you have plans to attend Destination Star Trek Germany? Will you still be attending?

AND

CQ: Which STO Duty Officer is your Go-To officer for your favorite builds?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Picard FREE to Non-Paying Subscribers

Dig this. You’re kicking it at home with diddly-squat to do. You’ve heard about this rad show called Star Trek: Picard. Sounds groovy, but you don’t want to pony up the cabbage to peep it. Good news buck-a-roo, now you can watch it on the bubble!

Now that all of that outdated vernacular is out of the way, here’s what we’re trying to say - the entire first season of Star Trek: Picard is FREE! Entertainment Weekly reports Star Trek: Picard will still require that you sign-up for the free CBS streaming service, but you will gain access to Trek’s newest offering by entering the discount code “GIFT”.

Sir Patrick Stewart announced the giveaway on his Instagram account, saying “It's felt good to bring Picard back. Our #StarTrekPicard season finale is Thursday, and starting today until 4/23, you can watch for free on @CBSAllAccess in the US with the code: GIFT. Link in bio to sign up. I can't wait to reunite with our cast and crew for Season 2.”

Discovery Season 3 Delay

When is “Star Trek: Discovery” season 3 going to start? Well, it may not be as soon as we originally thought.

Back in January, Heather Kadin suggested to Trekcore that Discovery Season 3 could be released as early as May 2020, but amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it looks like the series is facing delays. The holdup was first hinted at during an Instagram live-chat with Discovery Star Wilson Cruz. According to comicbook.com, fellow Co-star Anthony Rapp noted in the comment section that the post-production work was being done from home - and the process was taking a bit more time than expected. On March 18th, Cruz seconded Rapp’s sentiments, tweeting ”I didn’t see @albinokid’s comment this morning on #InstagramLive... but see for yourself in regards to #startrekdiscovery season 3. It’s coming, but it may be a little longer than we thought... It’s coming though!”

You can rest assured, we’ll be keeping a close eye out for release dates, so stayed tuned!

Destination Star Trek Germany Delayed

Discovery season 3’s release date isn’t the only Star Trek being delayed due to Covid-19. One of Trek’s biggest conventions - Destination Star Trek Germany - is being pushed back as well. In a release, the Destination Star Trek Germany team said in part “Our main concern is the health, safety and wellbeing of our participants, guest stars and everyone who is part of the DST family. For this reason, we have decided to postpone the event until October 9th to 11th, 2020, we hope that the virus will not be a problem until then and that we can all beam into the world of Star Trek and celebrate together! :-)”

The convention, which was set to take place in early May, will remain at the same location. From the release “The venue in Dortmund is the same and all tickets already purchased remain valid for the new dates. If you are unable to attend the new dates, please contact us.”

Stewart and Shatner Spread Cheer

In times of great stress, we look to our leaders for guidance and direction; calmness and support...Thank goodness we have our heroic Captain’s - Kirk and Picard!

Captain Kirk did something very William Shatner, he TWEETED. Well, Shatner tweeted, but he tweeted in the form of a Captains log. Starting on March 18th, the logs began “Captain’s Log: Stardate 1 of self imposed isolation. After having arrived at Planet Home, I was warmly greeted by Emissaries Espresso & Macchiato. I look forward to my planned respite from my normal duties. Kirk out.”. Shatner has done a log everyday since, including a supplemental, and we hope he continues until his 14 day isolation is complete

Not to be outdone, Sir Patrick Stewart ALSO took to social media in an effort to distract and entertain. On March 21st, Sir Patrick tweeted a video of himself reciting Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. It was a beautiful performance, and received its due attention - which Stewart recognized. “I was delighted by the response to yesterday's posting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, and it has led me to undertake what follows…” What followed was Stewart reciting Sonnets 1 - and the next day Sonnet 2 - with the hashtag “ASonnetADay”. There was no post for Tuesday March 24th at the time of this writing, but we are hopeful and confident Sonnet 3 is on the way!

Picard Cast and Crew Entertain During Quarantine

Heading over to Instagram, Picard showrunner and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon appealed to audiences young and old by reciting something different - children’s books! Chabon started the Read-along with a book he authored - “The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man”. The videos continued with “Strega Nona Meets Her Match” by Tomie dePaola and have continued every day since! The delivery is gentle and excited, and a wonderful activity to share with your children - or even to watch by yourself!

Also on Instagram, fellow Picard-ian - Santiago Cabrera - posted a video in which he, and his Ukelele, perform a rendition of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”. It’s another beautiful offering from a Star Trek alum.  And his messages to us - “Not to worry...AND Stay inside” - are certainly worth taking to heart! Trek out our show notes for links.

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

Second Summer Ship Stream

This week on Twitch, Ambassador Kael hosted Christian Griffith, a Cryptic test analyst, drawing his interpretation of a Risian Science Vessel. This was the second of four weekly streams being presented by Cryptic in the design of the upcoming Summer Event prize ship. Christian worked with feedback from Lead Ship and UI Artist Thomas Marrone this week. Unlike last week’s stream featuring Nick Duguid at work on a 3-D model, Christian put pen to paper to sketch his concept. While hitting on some of the same nautically inspired ideas as Nick’s design, Christian took his drawing in a very different direction. After all four weeks of concept designs are completed, Cryptic will open up a voting contest to players. The winning design will be sent to Concept Artist Hector Ortiz for final drawing, and will then become the new Summer Event Ship for 2020. If you’d like to watch the recorded stream with Kael, Christian, and Thomas, Trek out the Twitch link in our show notes.

Duty Officer Pack Changes

Along with a 30% off sale and a Promotion Pack weekend recently, Cryptic announced a number of changes to Duty Officer packs for PC players. For starters, a new Duty Officer Pack Bundle has been added to the C-Store for 1000 Zen. The bundle includes one of each Duty Officer Pack: Fleet, Delta, Gamma and Romulan. The Reinforcement Duty Officer Pack has been retired, though its Tuffli Freighter reward has been moved to the Gamma Pack. Each of the four remaining packs will now include an additional Uncommon officer and an additional Rare officer. The 4x Fleet Ship Modules formerly available as a chance reward from the Delta Pack have been removed, and the odds of a bonus trait reward in that pack have increased. Individually, the four Duty Officer Packs will have a regular C-Store price of 300 Zen.

Purchase T1-T4 Ships with Dilithium!

Duty officers weren't the only adjustments made by the STO team. Cryptic announced Tuesday that Tier I, II, III, and IV ships will be purchasable for Dilithium. Those lower tier ships currently available to purchase via the ship vendor for dilithium will have prices significantly slashed, while Tier I through IV ships in the Zen store will be offered for Dilithium. For a closer look at the numbers, the current price of a Tier I T’Liss Light Warbird is currently 4,250 dilithium from the ship vendor. The new price? 1000 Dilithium. A Tier I T’Varo light Warbird is on the Z-store for 500 Zen. Converting that at the current rate of 404 Dilithium per zen, that’s 202 THOUSAND Dilithium. After the change drops later this week on PC, the new cost will be 15 THOUSAND Dilithium.

But it isn’t ALL good news. At the time of release, which is due out on console April 9th, the Tier I Prototype Light Cruiser Explorer will not be made available for dilithium - that’s the Shenzou for anyone keeping score. Also, any ship purchased via dilithium after the change will not be account unlock - it’s per character only.

EVENTS

Coming up for the weekend of April 9th through April 13th Star Trek Online will have a Bonus Dilithium Weekend. During that weekend, players will receive bonus 100% extra Dilithium Ore from mining and 50% extra from other content that rewards Dilithium Ore. It’s a great time to stock up on Dilithium for Phoenix boxes or the Zen Exchange. But if you’re looking to exchange Dilithium for Zen, you might want to keep an eye on the exchange rate. It’s usually not at its best return during these events.

PRIORITY ONE ARMADA NEWS

Join us for TFO Thursday - each Thursday we team up with other Armada members to earn marks and dilithium. 

Epsilon Fleet - working on its Tier V colony upgrades.

The House of Martok 3rd Tier V Colony is on cooldown. Well done.  Mirror Month!  

Other Gaming News

Fleet Command Raises Another $200 Million

Scopely, the studio behind Star Trek: Fleet Command, has announced via VentureBeat.com that they have secured another $200 Million in funding. The latest funding for Scopely brings their fourth round investment funding total to $400 Million. According to the article, Scopely says that they are committed to bringing people together around the world, particularly now that it’s so important to do so online. Besides Fleet Command, Scopely also develops hits like “Scrabble Go” and “Marvel: Strike Force”.